[138] Satan's Choice ambushed three Loners in Woodbridge, shooting three of them, who all survived their wounds. Did Mike Dube kill Alex Stretenovich? [194] Isnor had "Ed" arrested and thrown into the "Barrie Bucket" jail in Barrie. [21] One of the first reports in the media about Satan's Choice was a story in the Toronto Star on 29 August 1966, reporting "Five arrested in motorcycle rumble". [99] In the summer of 1978, at a general meeting, Satan's Choice debated about whatever to move into selling heroin. [21] Police raids in the 1960s discovered that Satan's Choice members possessed guns, brass knuckles and marijuana, the latter which were as much for their own use as to sell. [83] At a party at the clubhouse of the Montreal chapter, Lorne Campbell of the Oshawa chapter was startled to hear David Sguin of the Windsor chapter declare: "If I broke down on the 401, I wouldn't phone anyone from Oshawa. [160] By late 1989, both Guindon and Campbell were growing dissatisfied with the low quality of incoming recruits into Satan's Choice, feeling that the new members were of abysmally low intelligence and were too "soft". [100], The only consolation for Guindon was that McEwen as the first national president of the Canadian Outlaws proved to be a total failure as the American Outlaws expelled him after he was caught embezzling some $30,000 he was supposed to pay to them. [199], Guindon had been a professional boxer in addition to being an outlaw biker and by the late 1990s, he was beginning to suffer from brain damage caused by his boxing career. [156] On 16 January 1987, Beaucage during a visit to London was shot by an Outlaw with .45 calibre handgun, taking a bullet to the heart, but again survived the shooting. [7], Former Phantom Riders president Guindon became the president of this newer, larger version of Satan's Choice, and later their national president as the group expanded. [95] The shooting caused the First Biker War that was to last until 1984. Stool pigeon motherfucker". [122] Comeau and Sauv were convicted of first-degree murder while the other four were convicted of second-degree murder. [35] Arrested together with Guindon at the barn were his second wife Barbara Ann and his right-hand man Howard Berry. [23] MacLeod wanted to form the first Satan's Choice chapter in la belle province. [166], Throughout the 1990s, Satan's Choice was the subject of unsolicited offers of a friendly take-over by the Hells Angels. [85] In March 1977, McEwen arranged for the Windsor and St. Catherine's chapters to secretly join the Outlaws. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2013. , ISBN-10 [177], The mayor of Toronto, Barbara Hall, unaware that the war was over, attempted to ban all outlaw bikers from Toronto. The writing is bland and meanders off story about facts and figures about places or people that are irrelevant and just filling in pages. [50] Ken Rae, the Crown Attorney (prosecutor) in Kitchener stated in 1977: "At one time Kitchener had all the (Satans) Choice in jail. Especially at him [McEwen]. [194] The cellmate turned out to be Gordie Cunningham of Satan's Choice Hamilton chapter, who had been arrested for drug possession in Barrie. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. [60] The Devils' Disciples and the Montreal chapter of Satan's Choice were engaged in the manufacturing and smuggling of chemical drugs, a market that the Popeyes decided to violently enter in 1974, leading to the biker war. [182] Increasingly, Andre Wattel, the president of the Choice's Kitchener chapter, began to exercise leadership and Wattel, unlike Guindon, was much more open to joining the Hells Angels. [60] The Popeyes, who acted as "muscle" for the Dubois brothers, killed 15 members of the Devil's Disciples between 1974 and 1976, causing the latter gang to disband themselves in January 1976. Well worth the read! [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. [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. [1] [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. [124] The Port Hope case is routinely taught in Canadian law schools as a textbook example of a miscarriage of justice. [217] Wattel was a locally prominent businessman who owned The Barking Fish Caf restaurant in Cambridge. [212] Lorne Campbell also joined the Hell Angels in 2000, and served as the president of the Hells Angels' Sudbury chapter. [41] As all 400 members rode in, the Wild Ones were so intimidated that they abandoned the field. [171], Croitoru was very close to Dub and often visited Sudbury to see him. Stay tuned for Unsolved Sudbury II When he talks about people having parts, he's got all kinds of parts". Through the majority of Satan's Choice members favored an alliance with the Hells Angels, Guindon made the decision that individual members of Satan's Choice were free to do business with the Hells Angels, but there would be no official alliance nor a "patch over" to the Angels. [79] He won only about 1,000 votes, coming last in the election. [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. There was a problem loading your book clubs. Once one of Ontario 's strongest English speaking motorcycle gangs, the Satan's Choice MC became part of the Hells Angels ' 2000-2001 expansion into Ontario, Canada (although some members had defected into the Hells Angels rivals' the Outlaws MC ). [6] In the outlaw biker subculture, using the name and patch of a former club without permission is seen as very disrespectful. [72], Fugitives from both the Outlaws and Satan's Choice were found to be in hiding in each other's nations. [104] Matiyek, who was drunk and high on marijuana and amphetamines, was talking about shooting the Satan's Choice members in the Queen's Hotel bar-room, causing Lorne Campbell of the Choice's Toronto chapter to come to their aid. [167], In November 1993, in what appeared to be an attempt to undermine Guindon's leadership of Satan's Choice, Stadnick met in Thunder Bay with several Satan's Choice chapter presidents, most notably Andre Wattel of the Kitchener chapter. [52], Kirby concluded that Satan's Choice "had the upper hand in Toronto because we had the best intelligence network around. [33] The police arrested 55 bikers plus 9 women who also attending the party. [192] In May 1997, Isnor came into contact with a drug dealer known as "Ed" due to a court order who was behind in his payments to the Sherbrooke chapter of the Hells Angels and wanted to turn informer. Unlike other organized groups such as the Mafia, the outlaw biker subculture was perceived by public by 1973 as especially dangerous. [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. [176] On 25 August 1995, Lenti was badly wounded by a bomb planted in his car. [30] Berry once fought Howard "Baldy" Chard, the chief enforcer for the gangster Johnny Papalia, which added to his legend. [75], In May 1976, the club's leader Bernie Guindon was incarcerated on drug charges relating to the Oba Lake drug bust. : That's what I liked about him". [23] Outlaw biker clubs tended to shun non-white applicants, and Guindon was highly unusual in allowing a black man to lead a chapter. (Nathan Denette/CP) The. [170] The president of the new Hamilton chapter was the professional wrestler Ion Croitoru. Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. [99] In October 1982, the Toronto clubhouse was burned down in a case of arson. [193] "Ed" ended up obtaining an impression of Isnor's American Express credit card and went on a lengthy spending spree before Isnor had him arrested. [101] In 1980, McEwen abandoned biking to become a dishwasher, which was felt to be sufficient punishment by Satan's Choice. [2] To mark the change, a ceremony was performed at Crystal Beach where the Satan's Choice chapter presidents burned their jackets with the Satan's Choice patches while putting on new jackets with the Outlaw patch. Project Dismantle and the Sudbury police station bombing, Alliance and merger with the Hells Angels, the first major outlaw biker conflict in Canadian history, "Meet the godfather of Canada's outlaw biker club, Satan's Choice", "When Satan's Choice Drew a Line; Former president of outlaw gang chronicles early days when bikers were bad, not villainous", "Prisoner's Rights activist tells tales of injustice", "Ex-Cop Gets the Right to Sue Two Judges", "A confederation of Angels: One man's dream come true", "Judge cites OPP wrongdoing in freeing Satan's Choice bikers", "20th anniversary of Sudbury police station bombing", "Infamous Sudbury biker murdered Alex Sretenovic, informant said in 2002", "Ex-wife chases Hells Angel biker for child support", "Opportunity arrived on a Harley for biker How a snitch infiltrated the Hells Angels", "New Satan's Choice Motorcycle club considering shutting down after harsh Facebook criticism", "Back to the future: Satan's Choice biker club reappears on Ontario roads", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Satan%27s_Choice_Motorcycle_Club&oldid=1129270147, Pages using infobox criminal organization with rivals parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Drug trafficking, prostitution, theft, assault, murder, This page was last edited on 24 December 2022, at 11:57. [130] Hoffman was the treasurer of the Choice chapter in Kitchener and had known Hall since 1974, having very unfriendly relations with him. If you look at the sample pages of both books, you will notice that the chapter titles and text are identical. Home; Members; News; Results; Events; About us; Links; Media; Contact; 27 Nov 2020 [18] In the documentary, Guindon and the rest of his club claimed to be rejecting what they called the mindless conformity of Canadian society. [108] While Sauv and Blaker drove west to Port Hope, several members of the Toronto chapter abandoned drinking and watching a hockey game at their clubhouse to head east to Port Hope. However, the rest of the group's chapters met and ended the war, making peace with the two rival groups and disciplining the leaders of the Toronto chapter. [204] A total of 168 bikers "patched over" on that day. [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. [5] This club would disband in 1962, but went on to serve as the namesake for a group of four other motorcycle clubs which came together as the new Satan's Choice in 1965, namely the Phantom Riders of Oshawa, the Canadian Lancers of Scarborough (modern Toronto), the Throttle Twisters of Preston (modern Cambridge), and the Wild Ones of Port Credit (modern Mississauga). Satan's Choice grew to more than 400 members by 1970, making it the second largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world, behind only the Hells Angels. [181], In 1996, Guindon retired as Satan's Choice national president, although he remained a member of the club. [87] McEwen brought over a number of American Outlaws from their Detroit chapter to provide intimidation at the Crystal Beach meeting. [62] Kirby recalled in a 2015 interview: "If there was trouble anywhere, they'd sent Howard Berry out to take care of it. [157] In December 1986, the Kitchener chapter ran a full-page Christmas advertisement in the Kitchener Record reading: "Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in the Waterloo Region a very Merry Christmas and let you know that we are still here and will always be here. [89] Lorne Campbell stated: "The split never would have gone down if Bernie was still out. [179] The controversy is believed to have been a factor in Hall's defeat in her 1997 reelection bid as the media took to calling Hall "Biker Barb". It went uncollected". When they got out in 1971, they decided that running around alleys with shotguns wasnt profitable so they reorganized and got into more profitable things like drugs. [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. [73] In Kitchener, Edson was given the false name Denis Lupo, together with a fake Ontario driver's license, and he joined the local Satan's Choice chapter. [113] The confrontation in the bar-room ended with guns being drawn and Campbell shooting and killing Matiyek at about 10:55 pm. [180] By 1995, Satan's Choice were again the largest biker gang in Ontario with 118 members in 7 chapters compared with the Para-Dice Riders that had 61 members in 2 chapters; the Vagabonds that had 70 members in 1 chapter; the Outlaws that had 68 members in 7 chapters; the Loners with 62 members in 2 chapters and the Last Chance that had 20 members in 1 chapter. [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. [45][51] Found on the island on Oba Lake were 9 pounds of PCP ready to sell and 236 pounds of PCP waiting to be completed. [113] Several of the Satan's Choice members who fled the Queen's Hotel such as Comeau, Blaker and Sauv drove to Kitchener to contact David "Tee Hee" Hoffmann of the Kitchener chapter because he was considered intelligent and was felt to be capable of treating Comeau's wound. [169] One policeman stated: "Oh, they hated Parente. [131] Hoffmann was indicted for murder as a way to pressure him to turn Crown's evidence and testify against his club. [110], As the Choice members entered the Queen's Hotel at about 10:00 pm, Gayle Thompson, one of the waitresses present who recognized some of the bikers as she had served them before, reminded the owner of the Queen's Hotel, Leo Powell, that Satan's Choice's members were banned from the hotel owing to past unruly behavior. [174] Later the same night at 3: 35 am, Satan's Choice tossed a bomb through the window of Pluto's Place tattoo parlor owned by a Loner on Lake Shore Boulevard, setting off a fire that caused $50, 000 in damage. [51] As part of the campaign against Satan's Choice, Hall orchestrated a media campaign, leaking information to journalists that portrayed Satan's Choice as public enemy number one, sparking a moral panic against the club. [50] It was understood by members of the Special SqRuad that "legal niceties" need not be upheld as the politicians demanded convictions to show the public that action was being taken. [146] In 1985, a second version of Satan's Choice Hamilton chapter opened up on St. Matthew's Avenue which was very close to the Outlaws' Hamilton clubhouse at 402 Birch Avenue. On 15 December 2009, the OPP launched Project Manchester against the Hells Angels, and Watteel was charged with one count of gangsterism, 28 counts of narcotics trafficking and 27 counts of the possession of the proceeds of crime. [165], Campbell, after his release from prison in March 1993, recalled that Satan's Choice was "making money hand over fist". [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. [63] In an interview, Berry stated that he was hired to kill people, but never actually succeeded in doing so. [191] Seeking revenge, Croitoru had a member of the Hamilton chapter, Jure "Jerry" Juretta build a bomb. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. [163] Although no promises were given about joining the Angels, it was made clear that the Angels wanted an alliance. Login . [158] A report by the police Organized Crime Committee from 1989 stated that Satan's Choice, the Vagabonds and the Lobos were working closely to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine. [195] "Ed" was able to obtain evidence that Cunningham was involved in drug dealing. One of the very best true accounts of a man who must be seen as a true biker, loyalty and respectful. He killed a rival biker to save his brothers and has been imprisoned for assault and drug trafficking. [1] During this time period, Satan's Choice had grown rapidly, reaching a peak strength of more than 400 by 1970. [183] The police forces also seized a variety of firearms, including twelve handguns, five non-restricted rifles, and seven restricted weapons such as automatic pistols, sawed-off shotguns, and even machine guns such as a World War II-era Bren gun and tripod. [4] As a member of the Hells Angels Sudbury chapter, Boudreault was a favorite of the chapter president Lorne Campbell, whom the Hells Angels appointed to that position in 2001. Satan's Choice Title and statement of responsibility area Title proper Satan's Choice General material designation Graphic material Level of description File Reference code SCA98-GA68-1969-69-1304 Dates of creation area Date (s) June 25, 1969 (Creation) Creator Kitchener-Waterloo Record Physical description area Physical description b&w ; 35 mm [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. In 1962, the Satan's Choice club led by Don Norris was forced to disband following attacks from the rival Black Diamond Riders, who humiliated them by beating them up in street fights and stealing their patches. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. They folded briefly in the early 1960s and then re-emerged under former international boxer Bernie Guindon of Oshawa. [171] However, Croitoru's career in professional wrestling made him a local celebrity in Hamilton and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Ontario. [86] McEwen's house in St. Catherine's was shot up by the Satan's Choice in a failed assassination attempt. [160] In October 1989, when the leaves were falling, a policeman arrested the member for the possession of a banned weapon. [88] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote that Satan's Choice "seemed to be the logical partners for the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels had for decades been prevented from expanding from Quebec into Ontario by the Outlaws. [188] The bomb was handed over by Croitoru and Juretta to Dub and vice-president Brian Davies of the Sudbury chapter at a Tim Horton's where Highway 69 and Notre Dame Avenue intersected in the Lockerby district of South Sudbury. [221] The Satan's Choice of 2017 had chapters in Durham and Ottawa, with 48 full-patch members and two prospects. [90] When Guindon was released early from prison for good behavior in 1984, all Satan's Choice had left were the chapters in Thunder Bay, Kitchener, Oshawa, Toronto and Richmond Hill. [172] Under pressure from the Hells Angels, the Loners came into conflict with the Diablos in the summer of 1995, who called upon Satan's Choice for help. [189] It was apparently Croitoru's intention to blow up the Solid Gold strip club because he and Dub had been refused admittance earlier that year, but Dub diverted the plan into blowing up the police station instead. [1] Boudreault became very close to Campbell, referring to him as "Dad". He was a stand-up guy. [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". [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. [138] In 1981, Satan's Choice made an alliance with the Lobos and the Chosen Few gangs to improve their bargaining power against their rivals, the Outlaws. [91] In 1977, Guindon was described in media reports as being furious with McEwen, the man he appointed as interim national president for having engineered the "patch over". [221] Lorne Campbell stated that it was "insult" for the new club to use the name and patch of the former Satan's Choice and predicted violence. [133] The "Port Hope 8" case became a cause clbre in the 1980s1990s, attracting even international attention. [46] Guindon saw violence as a legitimate way to achieve his aims, in general, but he was against biker wars, arguing that the Canadian public was willing to accept street fights, but not murder, and that excessive violence would lead to a police crackdown. [148] In 1986, the Nanaimo chapter of the Hells Angels put on an "Angels Acres" party on Vancouver Island that was attended by 2,500 people. [191] In the parking lot of the Solid Gold strip club, Croitoru was surprised to see the members of the Sudbury chapter take off their colors and put them into their cars. [28] Through Guindon found Berry repulsive, his willingness to do anything made him useful and he came to serve as his principal enforcer. [2] The campaign waged by Hall and other Special Squad members failed in its purpose as the number of outlaw bikers in Ontario went from about 500 in 1973 to about 800 in 1978 as the profits from organized crime led more men to join outlaw biker clubs. "[51] The stories about Satan's Choice started to change from that of a hedonist types who liked to party hard to darker stories such as the case of a Kitchener man beaten to death in a back ally brawl and that of a Markham woman who tried to break up with her Choice boyfriend, only to be found lying semi-conscious and naked outside with serious vaginal bleeding caused by rape. [160] The arrested member expressed much bafflement that a policeman was able to find the assault rifle, leading Campbell to tell him that "He just looked up", which astonished the man. The club operated a number of drug labs out of remote cabins in northern Ontario, with production focusing especially on PCP and methamphetamines, better known in the area as "Canadian Blue". [69], In August 1975, Guindon went to a hunting lodge at Oba Lake in northern Ontario owned by Alain Templain, the president of the Oshawa chapter of Satan' Choice. [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. [141] Another set of raids in 1984 seized two small-caliber handguns, marijuana and marijuana oil, and a small amount of cocaine from four private residences in Scarborough. Furthermore, the Outlaws gained a way to challenge the supremacy of the Hells Angels in Quebec through access to the Montreal chapter of Satan's Choice. [152] Morin is alleged to have paid him $5,000 in cash at their first meeting and promised another $10,000 in cash if his information proved to be useful. [70] McEwen wanted Guindon out of the way in order to pursue his plans for "Yankeeization". According to his associate, Todd Petahtegoose, Dbe murdred a 13-year old boy in 1986, which he was able to pass off as a suicide. You are pretenders". [190] The evidence provided by Davies led to Dub and Croitoru being charged as Isnor gave orders to arrest both men. In 2005, he was arrested for the murder of lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred.