The Quebec Biker War ripped through Canada in the 1990s and early 2000s, claiming more than 100 bodies when the Hells Angels MC and the Rock Machine MC clashed in a battle for drug, gambling, prostitution and extortion turf in Montreal and beyond. The Hells Angels, the gold-standard for biker crews in America, landed in Montreal in 1977. The Canadian Godfather of the Hells Angels was Maurice (Mom) Boucher, an enigmatic and bloodthirsty mobster who gained folk legend status in Quebec at the peak of his volatile reign.
The Rock Machine was founded in 1985 by Sam Cazzetta, a one-time friend and ally of Boucher’s. When Cazzetta got locked up in 1994, the war erupted. It didn’t end for another eight years, racking up a catastrophic 125 gangland slayings and 80 bombings.
QUEBEC BIKER WAR (1994-2002):
October 19, 1994 – Montreal drug dealer Maurice Lavoi who changed allegiances from the Rock Machine to the Hells Angels is gunned down behind the wheel of his car.
October 28, 1994 – Sylvain Pelletier, the boss of a French-Canadian mob and drug crew aligned with the Rock Machine, is slain.
November 1994 – Hells Angels member Daniel (Danny Boy) Kane becomes an informant. Kane is the driver and bodyguard for Canadian Hells Angels powerhouse David (The Wolf) Carroll, boss of the Halifax chapter and becomes the Royal Canadian Police’s top source for insider intelligence on the war for the next six years.
May 6, 1995 — Hells Angels Montreal chapter leader Denis (Unreliable D) Houle survives an assassination attempt from Rock Machine gunmen in a car shooting at him inside a prison yard.
June 24, 1995 – Hells Angels Montreal boss Maurice (Mom) Boucher announces at a “church” meeting the creation of a subunit of the club to be called “The Nomads,” an elite faction of killers qualifying for special privileges within the club and awarded a “Filthy Few” patch.
August 9, 1995 – Montreal drug dealer and Hells Angels affiliate Mark Dube is blown up in a car bomb outside the Hells Angels headquarters.
August 9, 1995 – Daniel Desrochers, an innocent 11-year old bystander, is killed by the shrapnel from the bomb used to kill Dube.
September 15, 1995 – Hells Angel member Richard (The Crow) Edmond is gunned down in the parking lot of a Montreal restaurant. He is the first “full patch” Hells Angels to fall in the war.
October 19, 1995 – Royal Canadian Mounted Police hold a press conference on the one-year anniversary of the start of the war (the Maurice Lavoi hit) and claim the power struggle has already racked up 30 bodies.
October 21, 1995 – Montreal drug gang leader Harrold Pelletier, Sylvain’s brother and successor, turns himself into the RCMP and cuts a deal, admitting to his role in 17 murders and clueing the cops in on some of the inner-workings of the raging biker war.
May 14, 1996 – Los Bravos MC boss David Boyko is killed by Hells Angels enforcer Donald (Bam Bam) Magnussen in a fight at a Hells Angels party hosted by the Halifax chapter. The Los Bravos club was based in Winnipeg, an area of the country the Hells Angels were eager to assert its dominance, and was in talks about patching over.
March 28, 1997 – Rock Machine member Jean-Marc Caissy is gunned down as he enters a Montreal ice arena to play in a beer league hockey game. The murder was ordered by Gregory (Picasso) Wooley, a Haitian gangster and founder of the Crack Down Posse Gang (CDP) who was also one of Mom Boucher’s protégés, coming up through the underworld as Boucher’s bodyguard. Wooley was tapped by Boucher to lead The Rockers, a Hells Angel-controlled “support club.”
June 1997 – A convoy of Rock Machine brass, led by Freddy Faucher and Johnny Plescio, travel to Sweden to consult with a European wing of The Banditos, a major American MC with chapters around the world. The Rock Machine contingent is kicked out of the country within 48 hours.
June 26, 1997 – Prison guard Diane Lavigne is killed in a drive-by shooting on orders of Mom Boucher.
September 8, 1997 – Prison guard Pierre Rondeau is killed by Hells Angels assassins opening fire with assault rifles on the prison van shuttling prisoners to court.
October 28, 1997 – Banditos boss George Wegers travels from the club’s homebase in Houston, Texas to meet with Freddy Faucher and Johnny Plescio, but is detained by RCMP while dining with the Rock Machine skippers at an upscale Montreal restaurant and placed on a plane back to the U.S.
November 4, 1997 – Hells Angels renegades Scotty Steinert and “Bam Bam” Magnussen are found dead floating in the St. Lawrence River. They were last seen on their way to a sit down with Mom Boucher and were viciously beaten to death, dumped into the river bound and badly battered.
December 5, 1997 – Hells Angels enforcer Stephane (Old Shoe) Gagne is arrested and flips. Gagne was on the Lavigne and Rondeau hit teams.
December 7, 1997 – Hells Angels enforcer Andre (Toots) Tousignant is killed. Tousignant was the triggerman in the Diane Lavigne slaying and last seen on his way to meet Mom Boucher. His body was found on February 27, 1998 – he had been shot at point-blank range in the back of the head twice.
December 18, 1997 – Mom Boucher is indicted for the murders of the two prison guards.
Maurice “Mom” Boucher
August 23, 1998 – Montreal Italian mobster Paolo Cotroni is killed in a drive-by shooting by Rock Machine gunmen in his driveway.
September 8, 1998 – Rock Machine co-founder Johnny Plescio is machine gunned to death inside his living room watching television by shooters standing on his back porch.
September 25, 1998 – Jean Rose, a member of the Dark Circle, a group of businessmen and professionals secretly funding the war for the Rock Machine, is shot to death behind the wheel of his car in his driveway.
October 22, 1998 – Dark Circle member Pierre Bastien is shot to death in his driveway in front of his 8-year old daughter.
November 27, 1998 – Mom Boucher is acquitted at trial for ordering the murder of prison guards Diane Lavigne and Pierre Rondeau.
August 26, 1999 – Car rental agency employee Serge Hervieux is killed in a case of mistaken identity, as Hells Angels-sent gunmen thought he was Dark Circle leader Serge Brunneau.
October 1, 1999 – Rock Machine leader Tony Plescio is gunned down in a Montreal McDonald’s parking lot. Tony Plescio was Johnny Plescio’s younger brother.
April 2000 – Salvatore Gervasi, the son of Italian mob figure Paolo Gervasi, is shot to death and his body is left in a car parked in his dad’s driveway. Paolo Gervasi had thrown his support behind the Rock Machine and it angered the Rizzuto crime family, longtime allies of the Hells Angels. The elder Gervasi survived an assassination attempt shortly after his son was slain. He was eventually killed in the epic Montreal Mob War 14 years later.
April 17, 2000 – Hells Angels leader and Nomad “captain” Normand (Biff) Hamel is shot to death in the parking lot of a doctor’s office while taking his son to an appointment for a check-up. Hamel was the highest-ranking Hells Angel killed to date.
April 27, 2000 – Andre (Dede) Desjardins, a powerful racketeer and construction union boss aligned with Mom Boucher and the Hells Angels, is shot to death in the parking lot of Shawn’s, a popular Montreal restaurant.
May 1, 2000 – Drug dealer and Rock Machine loyalist Patrick Turcotte is shot dead leaving an adult bookstore by Hells Angels assassins.
July 7, 2000 – Loan shark Bobby Savard, a business partner of Mom Boucher’s, is slain inside a Montreal eatery.
August 6, 2000 – “Danny Boy” Kane, the RCMP’s inside man and a driver and bodyguard for many Hells Angels administrators, commits suicide.
August 29, 2000 – Drug wholesaler Raymond Craig, the Hells Angels point man with the Colombian cocaine cartels is killed in the resort town of St. Adele on a family vacation.
September 13, 2000 – Journalist Michel Auger, who had been chronicling the biker war for a Montreal newspaper, was shot five times by the Hells Angels. The attack served as a tipping point in the conflict, enraging the public and press and laying the groundwork for a truce.
September 26, 2000 & October 8, 2000 – Montreal mafia boss Vito Rizzuto mediates a pair of peace conference for leaders from both the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine and a truce is brokered. It doesn’t last more than a month.
October 21, 2000 – Mom Boucher is indicted again for ordering the murder of the two prison guards, prosecutors claiming he fixed his first trial three years earlier.
January 6, 2001 – The Rock Machine officially patches over to The Banditos in a formal ceremony held in Kingston, Ontario.
March 28, 2001 – Almost 200 bikers on both sides of the war are indicted for racketeering and murder. Mom Bouche’s second-in-command during the war David (The Wolf) Carroll fled and has avoided arrest ever since. He’s currently one of the world’s most-wanted criminals.
May 6, 2002 – Mom Boucher is found guilty of ordering the murder of prison guards Diane Lavigne and Pierre Rondeau.
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