Rock Machine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the French electronic music label, see Rock Machine Records.
For the sampler albums issued by CBS Records in the UK in 1968, see The Rock Machine Turns You On and Rock Machine - I Love You.
For the former Yugoslav hard rock band, see Rok Mašina.

The Rock Machine was a drug dealing organization that evolved into a motorcycle gang primarily based in Quebec, Canada.[1] The group was initially formed as the result of an affiliation (the Alliance) between Montreal crime families such as the Pelletier Clan and other independent dealers who wished to resist the Hells Angels' attempts to establish a monopoly on street-level drug trade in the city.[2][3] A violent turf war ensued with the Hells Angels.[4] It was this turf war that prompted the Rock Machine to become a motorcycle club and align itself with the Bandidos motorcycle club from Texas. Initially most Rock Machine members did not even own motorcycles.[5][6]

The members of the Rock Machine chose not to wear leather vests like other motorcycle gangs that could easily identify members, but rather wore rings with the insignia of an eagle.[7]

Well-known former members of the Rock Machine included Peter Paradis (who later testified for the Crown at the trials of other members), Richard "Bam-Bam" Lagacé (deceased), Johnny Plescio (deceased), Tony Plescio (deceased), Renaud Jomphe (deceased), Frederic Faucher, Alain Brunette, and Paul Porter.[8]

In 2000, the Rock Machine was absorbed into the Bandidos in a patch-over ceremony. Many Rock Machine members joined their former arch-enemy the Hells Angels when the Bandidos refused to immediately grant full-patch status to many of the more junior patched members of the Rock Machine. Some high profile members to defect to the Angels included Paul Porter and Nelson Fernandes. Both joined the Nomads chapter of the Quebec Hells Angels. However, Fernandes died of cancer within months of becoming a Hells Angel.[9]

A complete history of the Rock Machine becoming Bandidos Canada can be found in the books "Out In Bad Standings: Inside The Bandidos Motorcycle Club; The Making Of A Worldwide Dynasty" by Edward Winterhalder, published in 2005 by Blockhead City Press Owasso Oklahoma, and "The Assimilation: Rock Machine Become Bandidos - Bikers United Against The Hells Angels by Edward Winterhalder and Wil De Clercq, published in 2008 by ECW Press Toronto Ontario Canada. Winterhalder was the high ranking member of the Bandidos that was responsible for the assimilation of the Rock Machine in Canada into the Bandidos, according to a June 2006 newspaper articlefrom the London Free Press in London, Ontario.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sher, Julian and Marsden, William Angels of Death; Inside the Bikers' Global Crime Empire, Knopf Canada, 2006 (ISBN 0676977308)
  2. ^ Winterhalder, Edward and De Clercq, Wil The Assimilation: Bikers United Against The Hells Angels, ECW Press, 2008 (ISBN 1-5502-2824-2)
  3. ^ Winterhalder, Edward Out In Bad Standings; Inside The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, Blockhead City Press, 2005/Seven Locks Press, 2007 (ISBN 0-9771-7470-0)
  4. ^ Langton, Jerry Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick in the Canadian Hells Angels, John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd. (ISBN 0-470-83710-1)
  5. ^ Sher, Julian and Marsden, William The Road to Hell : How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada, Random House, 2004 (ISBN 0676975992)
  6. ^ Sanger, Daniel Hell's Witness, Viking Canada, 2005 (ISBN 067004430X)
  7. ^ Martineau, Pierre I Was a Killer for the Hells Angels, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2003 (ISBN 0771054920)
  8. ^ Wise Guy Wally's website
  9. ^ Cherry, Paul The Biker Trials: Bringing Down the Hells Angels, ECW Press, 2005 (ISBN 155022638X)

[edit] External links

[edit] See Also:


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