First Biker War
From 1977 to 1984, the Hells Angels and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club fought what came to be known in Canada as the First Biker War. The Angels emerged victorious. As the Outlaws retreated into their Ontario stronghold, the Angels began consolidating their activities and expanding, moving into port cities Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, British Columbia. The conflict is known in Canada as the "First Biker War", but the first large conflict between bikers in Canada, was the Satan's Choice-Popeyes War which occurred from 1974 to 1976.
Prelude to war
The Outlaws allied themselves with the largest motorcycle club in Canada, Satan's Choice, in 1974. This pact led to a situation where the Outlaws challenged the supremacy of the Hells Angels influence in Quebec through access to the Montreal chapter of Satan's Choice. This led the Montreal chapter and their Outlaw allies into open conflict with the Hells Angels-backed Popeye Moto Club, resulting in a number of casualties on both sides in what would come to be known as the Satan's Choice-Popeyes War. Both clubs sought to expand into Canada, with the Outlaws arriving a few months before the Hell's Angels in 1977.1977
In 1976, the leader of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club, Bernie Guindon, was sent to prison for narcotics charges. In 1977, the Outlaws expanded into Canada and the arrest of Guindon led to the fracturing of Satan's Choice. On 1 July 1977, the Ottawa, St. Catharines, Windsor, and Montreal chapters left Satan's Choice in favour of the Outlaws. Garnet McEwen called a secret meeting on 1 July 1977 with most of the chapter presidents being present where he called for "patching over" to the Outlaws, arguing that being members of an American-based club would add to their power, saying that the St. Catherine's and Windsor chapters had already decided to join the Outlaws. The chapter presidents known to be loyal to Guindon were not invited to the meeting.The Hells Angels would also expand into Canada in 1977, when in December they patched-over the second largest motorcycle club in Canada, the Popeye Moto Club, which they had been scouting for years as it was known as the most notorious and violent motorcycle club in Canada. Tensions between the two groups in Ontario and Quebec began almost immediately, with small scuffles and incidents at the end of 1977.
1978
In February 1978, a chapter of the Montreal Rockers MC became the second Quebec chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. In the same month on February 15, Hells Angels member Yves "Apache" Trudeau shot and killed a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, Robert Côté and wounded another at the Joey brewery in Montreal Quebec; this was the beginning of the war between the Angels and the Outlaws in the province.On March 21, 1978, a bomb placed under the car of Gilles Cadorette, the Outlaws MC Montreal chapter president, exploded in front of a bar on Bordeaux Street in Montreal. Cadorette was killed instantly and several others were injured by debris from the explosion. On 25 April 1978, Denis "Le Cure" Kennedy and another Hells Angel entered the Outlaw clubhouse at 144 Rue Saint-Ferdinand and went on a shooting rampage. Although no-one was killed, a number of Outlaws were wounded. On April 26 of the same year, Athanase "Tom Thumb" Markopoulos, a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, was murdered by 2 members of the Hells Angels. On 27 April 1978, Kennedy shot and badly wounded an Outlaw, François Poliseno, and his girlfriend, Suzanne Harvey, while the two were drinking at the Industrial Brasserie bar. Witnesses described the gunman who shot Poliseno and Harvey as leaving in a green car, which the police found parked outside of the Angels' clubhouse. Ballistic tests showed that the bullets fired in the Industrial Brasserie shooting were from the same handgun used in the attack at the Outlaws' clubhouse. As a result, Buteau changed the rules, ordering that henceforward Angels were to leave their guns at the scene of the crime in order to reduce the chances of the police being able to tie together crimes.
On 12 May 1978, the Outlaws struck back when a Hells Angel, René "Canisse" Hébert was wounded, his arm being grazed in a drive-by shooting outside the Angels Montreal clubhouse. On May 26, 1978, Jean Gonthier, an associate of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, was beaten to death by Paul Ringuette, an associate of the Hells Angels. They were both arrested and sent to the penitentiary of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Laval when the murder occurred. In October Walter Stadnick, then President of the Wild Ones MC in Hamilton, Ontario, travelled to Montreal to make contact with Yves Buteau, the national president of Hells Angels Canada, to discuss having the Wild Ones "patch over" to become the first Hells Angels chapter in Ontario. On October 12, 1978, the members of the Hells Angels, Georges Mousseau and Jean Brochu, as well as Guy "Gator" Davies, a member of the Wild Ones, were assassinated at the Tourbillon café on Rue Beaubien, in Montreal, when the Outlaws MC attacked the meeting. Hells Angels members Louis "Ti-Oui" Lapierre and Bruno Coulombe were also injured during the Le Tourbillon massacre.
Le Tourbillon massacre
The Outlaws saw the possibility of a Hells Angel chapter being established in Ontario by way of the Wild Ones as a threat. On October 12, 1978, two American Outlaws, one from Miami and the other from Detroit, entered Le Tourbillon after following the Angels. One Angel, Louis "Ti-Oui" Lapierre, rose to confront the two American Outlaws, only to be gunned down when one of the Outlaws pulled out his handgun while the other Outlaw pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and opened fire on the party in the booth. One of the Angels, Jean Brochu, was killed, while Lapierre and another Angel, Bruno Coulombe, were badly wounded. The Wild Ones also suffered losses, with George "Chico" Mousseau and Gary "Gator" Davies killed. Stadnick survived by hiding under the table. Buteau learned that the man who hired the two American Outlaws was Roland "Roxy" Dutemple of the Outlaw Montreal chapter, and sent ace assassin Yves "Apache" Trudeau to kill him. However, it wouldn't be until March 29, 1979 that the deed would be complete, with Dutemple being killed by a car bomb.Conflict leaks into Ontario
These events would cause the conflict to spread into the province of Ontario. Detective John Gordon Harris of the Hamilton police told the journalist Jerry Langton: "As soon as the Wild Ones began to associate with the Hells Angels, the Outlaws told them they shouldn't do that. And they probably shouldn't have, as it led to several deaths". The Hamilton chapter of the Outlaws for their contribution to the conflict, started killing the Wild Ones, which led to the disbanding of the Wild Ones after five members were killed. Denis Stewart of the Wild Ones was killed by a bomb planted in his car. Danny Powell of the Wild Ones was likewise the victim of a bomb, through he only lost his entire right leg instead of his life. The store of the Wild One Alvin Patterson was shot up in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him. John "Cataract Jack" Pluim of the Wild Ones also survived narrowly survived a murder attempt when his strippers agency was shot up. When Stadnick returned from Montreal, he found his gang had voted themselves out of existence, but Stadnick chose to continue as a Hells Angel, operating in Montreal and alone in Hamilton.On November 10, Yves "Apache" Trudeau shot Brian Powers, former president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, at his home in West Montreal. On November 25, 1978, Montreal Police killed Jean-Marc Patenaude, a member of the Outlaws, who was guarding the body of "Ziggy" Wiseman, at the "King of massage parlors'. In December, Yves Trudeau gunned down the biker William Weichold, whom he accidentally mistook for an Outlaw.
1979
On March 29, 1979, Yves "Apache" Trudeau destroyed the car of Roland Dutemple, an Outlaws informant, with explosives in Longueuil, Quebec. On April 3 of the same year Yves Trudeau kills Robert Labelle, a clothing importer, narcotics trafficker and the former president of the Huns motorcycle club, who had "patched-over" to the Outlaws, at his home in Fabreville, Quebec.On May 9, 1978, three members of the Hells Angels, Yves "Le Boss" Buteau, Jean-Pierre Mathieu and Yves "Apache" Trudeau, murdered Donald McLean, a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, as well as his girlfriend, Carmen Piché. They were killed by an explosive that was attached to McLean's motorcycle.
In September 1979, Trudeau and others gained permission from the Montreal chapter to form the Montreal North chapter, which was based in Laval, and was most commonly referred to as the Laval chapter. The group would become known for its violent, reckless behaviour and excessive drug use. The North chapter were mostly former Popeyes, and still retained Popeye attitudes. This was in marked contrast to the Montreal South chapter, which was headed by Réjean "Zig Zag" Lessard, which consisted of men who joined the Angels after 1977 and were more disciplined. This notorious behavior would come to cause problems for the Montreal North chapter, leading to an event that would be known as the Lennoxville massacre.