I realize this has nothing to do with the Vancouver gang war or the Hells Angels but I read something recently that was so outrageous it needs a response. I came across it while reading about Hells Angels hit man Yves "Apache" Trudeau.
Seemingly, Trudeau (You can't help but wonder if he was a relation to PM Trudeau) was hired by Frank Peter Ryan, an Irish mobster in Montreal to kill one of his own gang, Hughie McGurnaghan, who apparently screwed him out of drug money.
Ryan led a West End Gang and set up a drug network that extended into the Maritimes and Ontario. Other mobsters became concerned that he controlled too much of the drug trade and wouldn't share it. When warned that a gang member had offended the mafia in Florida, Ryan replied: "Mafia, pafia. If there's a war, we've got the IRA."
Hold the door... a drug dealer boasting that he has the support of the IRA? Now I'm really gonna lose it. The IRA started off as a group of freedom fighters following the example of the founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence. They established their own eloquent declaration in the Irish Proclamation which was submitted to the world at the Easter Uprising in 1916.
Bobby Sands, James Connolly and Micheal Collins did not give up their lives so some punk ass bitch could sell drugs.
Back in the day the IRA had two factions, the Provos and the Sticks. The Provisional IRA or PIRA were Republican followers of the American Dream. The Sticks or INLA were Communists who saw Russia as Big Brother. I always found it amusing to see so many Russian airplanes flying into the Shannon airport back in the late /80's. The IRA was getting support from Russia and America at the same time.
That was a long time ago. Now we have peace processes and disarmament heading towards equal representation in Parliament. With the new concessions granted Sinn Fein finally has agreed to sit in parliament with the Brits in positions they were elected to. Before then, they would be elected by the people but refused to recognize the British Parliament. Democracy is a good thing, equal representation is a good thing, peace is a good thing.
Now we have something called the Real IRA which isn't the Real IRA at all. They're just another splinter group that want division and violence. Anyways, my point is that the IRA started off as a good thing. They were freedom fighters fighting for self rule. Unfortunately in time corruption entered both the IRA and the UDA tainting the original cause.
I was in Dublin when the IRA had kidnapped a dentist and sent his fingers to his family with a ransom note. That was a deranged criminal act and had nothing to do with fighting for freedom. The end does not justify the means.
I was in Northern Ireland shortly after a reporter I believe named John McMahon was blown up for airing a documentary about how the IRA and the UDA had become mere extortion rackets demanding protection money threatening construction sites with accidents if they didn't pay.
The documentary claimed that alcohol stolen by the IRA from a hijacked truck was being served in Protestant UDA bars. Shortly after the documentary aired, the reporter was blown up. I'm told that not long after that, the crack plague hit Belfast and you guessed it, the IRA and the UDA took it over.
That was not the original plan. The Irish Proclamation declares: "We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called."
"We pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine." Dishonoured by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine. All three are the same. Selling crack and cutting off a dentist's fingers for ransom dishonours the cause with inhumanity and rapine. Lest we forget.
Did you know that Randy Mersereau VP and Laughie MacDonald president of the Halifax chapter of the HA's both believed that the Montreal HA's had Frank "Dunie" Ryan murdered by one of his own West End Gang members (Paul April), with the promise of a large drug territory and a patch down the road and then excepted the hit by Allen "The Weasel" Ross to eliminate him. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak. How do you think that Apache Trudeau easily got access to the apartment where Paul April was hold up so easily. You would think that noone would get near that place until things really cooled off. Mersereau was closer to Dunie Ryan then to the wingnuts in Quebec and with good reason, after Dunie was murdered, he trusted none of the idiots from Quebec. When the members from the Halifax chapter were called to a meeting at the Lennoxville clubhouse none of them knew what was about to happen, and the rest as they say is history. Mersereau left the HA's after doing time in a quebec jail for "living off the avails". Other members of the Halifax chapter were to chicken-shit to walk away and soon after where under the leadership of Mike McCrea who was appointed president by Wolf Carroll to keep Halifax under his control. After Wolf left the country to hide away in the Carribean, McCrea and the rest of the chapter new they had the opportunity to get out from under the control of the wingnuts from Quebec and they all decided to retire. They didn't to much like the time they had served in jail for drugs and none of them liked their new member Jeffrey Lynds because they thought he and members of his family were a little on the stupid and uninformed side. Turned out they were right not to trust him because I am sure he will be telling whoever will listen to his stories more about his dealings in NS before he left for the nomads in Ont. To bad! for the HA's of NS., looks to me like more of them will be doing time down the road in the near future.
ReplyDeleteNo I didn’t know that but I do find it very interesting. I also find it within the realm of believability since that is how they did business. Kinda like how they took over the Death Riders. They murder the leader and find some low life wannabe dirt bag within the group who wants to be leader to take over as long as they pay tax to the Hells Angels.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a good point about how Trudeau got access to the apartment so easily. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. In the Vancouver Christmas of /95 the Hells Angels wanted Bobby Moyes to murder his co accused after they murdered the informants just because.
If the Hells Angels were to fuck with the IRA, I’d really like to see that payback. No doubt if they did fuck with the IRA they would lie and deny it. So where was David Giles during all this?
So you claim Randy didn’t know about the Lennoxville massacre until after it happened. I find that entirely believable because the Hells Angels only reveal things to their own on a need to know basis. The whole concept of inviting them to a party to kill them is rat like. I’m not so sure David Carroll didn’t know about it in advance and we know Vancouver knew about if after the fact since they were given their stolen property to shut them up about it.
ReplyDeleteNo not even Wolf knew what was about to happen in Lennoxville until they arrived at the clubhouse. HA's were told it was a regional meeting of the east chapters to sort out some problems between each chapter. But from what associates in NS soon were led to believe was that Wolf was not offended or upset in any way by the hit on the Laval HA's, nor were other Halifax members. It added to the intimidation factor the HA's had over their dealers and associates here in NS. I heard all the chapters in the east and west received bounty taken from the Laval clubhouse after the murders in Lennoxville. Yes, a keep your mouth shut payoff as it were by Montreal HA's. That was proven in court documents during the trial.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a good point. Even if Carol didn’t know about the Lennoxville massacre before hand, he clearly accepted it and didn’t have a problem with it just as Mom Boucher. Salvatore Cazzetta had a problem with it, Mom didn’t. That tells you a lot about what kind of people they were.
ReplyDeleteYa gotta wonder what kind of a guy Normand "Biff" Hamel was. He was a prospect in that chapter. He was present when they executed his sponsors. Yet he had no problem with it and seized the opportunity to join the club. In fact it would appear he repeated the pattern of betrayal in the assassination of the leader of the Death Riders where he and Boucher got their colours.
Anyone who doesn’t have a problem with the Lennoxville massacre and embraced it to forward their own position within the club simply are not trustworthy which, as you say, would implicate any chapter that knew about it and received bounty to shut them up.