, ISBN-10 [167] The party was seen as "an audition of sorts" to join the Hells Angels, and the guest of honor was Frank Lenti, the president of the Loners. [199] Dub was also the main suspect in the 1996 murder of Alexander Sretenovic aka "Alex Atso". [53] Corporal Terry Hall of the Special Squad called the campaign against Satan's Choice "reverse intimidation" as the Special Squad sought to intimidate bikers via the same means used by the bikers themselves. [25], Guindon recruited a university drop-out turned chef, Howard Doyle Berry, aka "Pigpen", of Peterborough into Satan's Choice, who became his principle lieutenant. [13] The outlaw biker subculture came to be seen as a symbol of rebellion and freedom with many of the younger people having a very romantic and idealized image of the bikers, who were admired for their "authenticity". You are pretenders". [126] Several witnesses mentioned that the man who killed Matiyek was a tall man with long blonde hair, described as a "big, blonde, bearded guy". [45] The "Canadian Blue" methamphetamine produced in Ontario sold for $8,000 Canadian dollars per pound, but in the United States was sold for $12,000 U.S. dollars per pound. I just wanted to see where his balls were. [50] Guindon later stated: "Drugs were the ruin of many a good club member and many a good club". [99] In the summer of 1978, at a general meeting, Satan's Choice debated about whatever to move into selling heroin. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. [194] The manager gave "Ed" Isnor's American Express number from the registry, which allowed "Ed" to use the number to spend thousands of dollars at Isnor's expense. [49] When a group of bikers dropped their pants and underwear with the aim of shocking a script girl, "Pigpen" Berry felt overshadowed, which inspired him to bite off the head of a live snake to shock her even more. [50] Ken Rae, the Crown Attorney (prosecutor) in Kitchener stated in 1977: "At one time Kitchener had all the (Satans) Choice in jail. [37] By the end of the 1960s, Guindon had emerged as something of a folk hero in Toronto while Satan's Choice had become the most best known and largest outlaw biker club in Canada. [129], The lawyers for one of the Satan's Choice members convicted of Matiyek's murder, David "Tee Hee" Hoffmann, were able in 1981 to prove on the basis of police intercepts of Hoffmann's telephone calls that he was making phone calls in Kitchener on the night of 18 October 1978 and thus was not in Port Hope as the prosecution had claimed at the trial. [57] In June 1975, Guindon forged an alliance with the Outlaws club, which is very active in the American Midwest. Satan's Choice MC. [18]That Guindon and his followers were rigidly conforming to the code of outlaw biker subculture that originated in California in the late 1940s apparently escaped them. [16] The unwillingness of outlaw bikers to testify against one another in court following their code made it difficult for the authorities to prosecute them for their frequent street fights, which contributed to their "cool" image as men who successfully broke the law. [43] While they were involved in a number of criminal activities that were typical for biker gangs, such as robbery, theft, assault, and running prostitution rings, they were notably deeply involved in drug production and trafficking. [21] Satan's Choice members were the suspects in the murder of a Vancouver businessman, believed to have been a case of murder for hire.[21]. [150] On 18 January 2010, Hawkins won the right to sue the two Crown Attorneys at his trial, Brian Trafford and William Wolski, alleging malicious prosecution. Satan's Choice bombed the police headquarters in Sudbury on 15 December 1996. [87] McEwen joined the Chosen Few biker gang and was again caught stealing, causing the other members of the Chosen Few to be almost beat him to death with his artificial leg. [190], The bombing occurred at 2 am just after a Christmas party on 15 December 1996, and only one police dispatcher was wounded by the blast. [195] After Cunningham was arrested, he promptly turned Crown's evidence in exchange for immunity. [113] Campbell claims that Matiyek had reached for his gun first, leading him to open fire. [204], Satan's Choice, under their new club president Andre Wattel, decided to join the Hells Angels and abandon their own club's identity and autonomy because it would mutually benefit their criminal enterprises. [65], Reflecting the new alliance, Berry started to work for the Outlaws in Florida, where his willingness to perform any task together with his anonymity made him useful as an enforcer. Even though they had a reputation for being dangerous, there was no confrontation. [2] The meeting was not held at the usual meeting place of Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay, instead held at Crystal Beach on Lake Erie close to the American border. [130] The fact that the police had these intercepts all along was controversial and Lowe feels that Hoffmann should never have been charged with Matiyek's murder, let alone convicted. [112] Sauv sat down with Matiyek and quickly learned that he did not want to see him as he instead flashed his gun and said he had "nine friends", which was interpreted to mean that he had nine bullets in his gun. [171] However, Croitoru's career in professional wrestling made him a local celebrity in Hamilton and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Ontario. [182] Making matters worse, Satan's Choice the same year was targeted by a major police operation dubbed Project Dismantle, which involved almost 300 officers from the OPP, as well as the municipal police forces of Halton, Durham, HamiltonWentworth, Waterloo, Sudbury, and Metropolitan Toronto. [49] The scriptwriter and assistant director, Chester Stocki, told a journalist, Paul King, that he felt "scared, scared, scared. [152] As Hawkins was deeply in debt owing to the costs associated with his divorce, the police allege that he began to sell information to Morin. [11] Prior to the 1960s, Toronto had a very staid image of "Toronto the Good", a city whose people were mostly hard-working, conservative God-fearing Protestants of British descent, a bastion of Victorian values that was prosperous, safe and well run, but also rather boring and conventional. [45] Also at the lodge were a group of undercover detectives from the OPP posing as American tourists looking for a "good time" in Canada. [151] Detective John Harris of the Hamilton police stated about the murder: "At first we thought it was a drug deal gone bad. [10]Charismatic and handsome, Guindon was the "star" of the documentary. [164] On the same night, he was beheaded in his bed by a member of the Loners gang, Frank Passarelli, with his body not found until the next day, being partially devoured by the dogs belonging to another boarder. [125] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote that the trial was "comical" as some of the witnesses for the Crown "changed their testimony three or even four times Much of the Crown's evidence contradicted itself". [25] Lorne Campbell, a founding member of Satan's Choice and one of Guindon's principle lieutenants remembered: "There wasn't machine guns or knives back then, but there were pretty serious fights". [71] McEwen believed that he would not be a truly important person in the biker scene until he had become a member of an American outlaw biker club. [194] "Ed" was staying at a motel in Orilla and managed to convince the manager that Isnor was his brother who had left with his wallet, making him unable to pay for a pizza he had just ordered. Satan's Choice: Directed by Donald Shebib. Satan's Choice members were not serious criminals, if they committed any crimes at all. The . [222] Len Isnor of the OPP's Anti-Biker Enforcement Unit stated: "Its a bit shocking. Unlike other organized groups such as the Mafia, the outlaw biker subculture was perceived by public by 1973 as especially dangerous. [62] The same underworld struggle drew in the Irish West End Gang on the side of Satan's Choice while the Dubois Brothers gang backed the Popeyes. [73] Like Starrett, Edson had escaped from prison in Florida and with the help of his fellow Outlaws had made his way to Canada, where he settled in Kitchener. [113] Campbell had heard that Matiyek had a gun and he brought along a gun to the Queen's Hotel. [82], During McEwen's presidency, in-fighting between the chapters became common and in 1977, McEwen tried to expel the entire Kitchener chapter after some of its members talked too frankly to two journalists from the Kitchener Record. [9] In 1965, a documentary film about the newly founded club, directed by Donald Shebib and titled Satan's Choice, appeared, making the club famous in Toronto. [99] On 19 November 1984, Guindon was released on parole for good behavior and despite his parole conditions, resumed his association with his club. [160] Campbell gave as an example one member who, in August 1989, hid an M1 assault rifle in the branches of a tree in the backyard of the Oshawa clubhouse. [134] The issue was debated on the floor of the House of Commons as the NDP MP Svend Robinson and the Liberal MPs Warren Allmand and Christine Stewart all charged that the case was a miscarriage of justice. [140] As Gilbert, Buteau and another Hells Angel, Ren Lamoureaux, were leaving the restaurant, they were ambushed in the parking lot by an Outlaw, Gino Goudreau, who gunned down all three men. [172], On 18 July 1995, a Diablo threw a homemade bomb at a tow truck owned by a Loner. [109] The members from Toronto who went to Port Hope that night were Garry "Nutty" Comeau, Jeff McLeod, Larry Hurren, Lorne Campbell and Armand Sanguigni. At the same time, another four members of the Choice's Peterborough chapter were also convicted of separate charges relating to a gang-rape. [18] In the documentary, Guindon and the rest of his club claimed to be rejecting what they called the mindless conformity of Canadian society. [59] This led the Montreal chapter and their Outlaw allies into open conflict with the Hells Angels-backed Popeyes, resulting in a number of casualties on both sides. [99] In October 1982, the Toronto clubhouse was burned down in a case of arson. The Satan's Choice MC had branches in Keswick, Kitchener, Oshawa, Sudbury, Simcoe County, Thunder Bay and Toronto but nothing outside the province. [64] Yves Trudeau, the ace assassin for the Popeyes, first rose to prominence during this struggle. Lorne Campbell was an officer and enforcer for the outlaw biker club Satan's Choice for over thirty years, before patching over to the Hells Angels. He killed a rival biker to save his brothers and has been imprisoned for assault and drug trafficking. [211] Guindon joined the Hells Angels at the "patch over" in 2000, and remained a member of the Angels' Oshawa chapter until April 2006, when he retired out of the belief that Gault was an informer who setting him up to be arrested. It wasn't organized crime as it became. [84] McEwen called a secret meeting attended by William "King" O'Reilly, the president of the Windsor chapter; John "Doctor John" Arksey, the president of the Ottawa chapter; and Joseph "Sonny" Lacombe, the president of the Montreal chapter. The Satan's Choice has always been an all-Canadian club. [1][3], The Canadian scholar Graeme Melcher wrote: "In a culture where violence, toughness, and assertive masculinity were so highly prized, Guindon succeeded as a leader because he was tougher and smarter than the next guy". [143] Guindon went to Windsor to beat up Bill Hulko, the former president of the Choice Windsor chapter who had gone over to the Outlaws in 1977. [184] The club's rules required that a new member be sponsored by a member who had known him for at least five years; Gault's sponsor William Lavoie had only known him for five months and had been bribed in the form of $20,000 by Gault to say otherwise. [48] The decision to use Satan's Choice members in the film had been approved by "Big" Jack Olliffe, who had replaced McEwen as the interim president. A rare "inside" view of a motorcycle club in Toronto, one of the network of such fraternal groups in the large centers across North America. [70] Lowe described McEwen as suffering from "the classic Canadian-American love-hate relationship, a distinctly Canadian malady, since Americans never thought enough about Canada to either love or hate their northern cousins one way or the other". [188] After Martin was arrested due to the evidence provided by "Ed", he in turn turned informer for the OPP's Anti-Biker Enforcement Unit. [63] In an interview, Berry stated that he was hired to kill people, but never actually succeeded in doing so. [1] [48] The gourmadising inflated the film's production costs by $2, 000 dollars per day, which ensured that The Proud Rider was doomed to lose money at the box office owning to its bloated production costs. [79] He won only about 1,000 votes, coming last in the election. [74] James "Blue" Starrett of the Outlaws was found to be living in St. Catherine's on 22 July 1976 under the name Charlie Brown, where he ran a painting business and was a member of the local Satan's Choice chapter. [120] People in Port Hope were so outraged by Mayiyek's murder that it was deemed impossible to find an impartial jury in that town, so the trial was held in London, Ontario. Movies. [197] The national leadership had the Hamilton chapter disbanded, while Croitoru was expelled as a "loose cannon". [172] Satan's Choice agreed to sell drugs to the Diablos and offered the possibility of joining Satan's Choice, which angered the Loners, who were buying their drugs from the Hells Angels. [86], Satan's Choice lost the chapters in Montreal, Hamilton, St. Catherine's, Sault Ste. , Dimensions TV Shows. [181], In 1996, Guindon retired as Satan's Choice national president, although he remained a member of the club. [1] [55], In 1975, Satan's Choice began an alliance with the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, one of the largest international outlaw biker clubs. The Kitchener chapter was generally considered to be the strongest Satan's Choice chapter that had a firm arm-lock on organized crime in the "Tri Cities" of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo from the early 1970s onward. [93], On 5 December 1977, the Popeyes of Montreal "patched over" to become the first Hells Angel chapter in Canada. [138] The purpose of Project Dismantle was to convict every member, associate and girlfriend of Satan's Choice, to which end about 250,000 phone conversations were recorded while seizing some $3 million in cash and property. 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