The Lennoxville massacre, or Lennoxville purge, was a mass murder which took place at the Hells Angels clubhouse in Lennoxville, Quebec on March 24, 1985. The killings were used to liquidate the Hells Angels North Chapter, founded by Yves "Apache" Trudeau. This event divided rival outlaw motorcycle gangs in Quebec causing the formation of the Rock Machine club, a rival to the Hells in the 1990s.[1]
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Other Hells Angels felt that the North Chapter bikers were too wild and uncontrollable. They often used drugs they were supposed to sell and were suspected of skimming drug profits that were meant for other Hells Angels chapters.
North Chapter members were invited to a meeting at the Sherbrooke Chapter's Lennoxville clubhouse on March 24, 1985. The president of the North Chapter, Laurent "L'Anglais" Viau, and four of its members: Jean-Guy "Brutus" Geoffrion, Jean-Pierre "Matt le Crosseur" Mathieu, Michel "Willie" Mayrand, and Guy-Louis "Chop" Adam attended. When the five Laval members arrived, they were ambushed and murdered. Two months later, at the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, divers located the decomposing bodies of the victims wrapped in sleeping bags and tied to weightlifting plates.[1]
Several members of the Hells Angels were present and played a role in the slaughter, but only four - Robert "Tiny" Richard, Jacques Pelletier, Luc "Sam" Michaud, and Réjean "Zig-Zag" Lessard - were convicted of first-degree murder. The others were convicted of lesser related crimes.
Pelletier, Michaud, and Lessard were given life sentences for the murders. Richard was eventually acquitted of all charges and died of a heart attack at his home in 1996.
Michaud was released on full parole in June 2005. Lessard and Pelletier were granted day parole in October 2008.[2]
The event was considered extreme even for the criminal underworld, and it gave the Quebec's Hells Angels a notorious reputation. Salvatore Cazzetta, found the event an unforgivable breach of the outlaw code and rather than joining the Hells, he formed his own, smaller gang with his brother Giovanni, the Rock Machine, in 1986.[1]
Maurice Boucher, future Quebec chapter president, did not share Cazzetta's concerns and after finishing a 40-month sentence for armed sexual assault on a 9 year old girl later that year he joined the Hells and began to rise through the ranks. For years, the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine co-existed peacefully. Police officials believe this was due to Boucher's respect for the Cazzetta, who had connections to the Quebec Mafia, the only organized-crime group the bikers were unwilling to attack. In 1994, Cazzetta was arrested at a pit-bull farm for attempting to import eleven tons of cocaine. The recently promoted Hells Montreal president Boucher began to increase pressure on the Rock Machine shortly after the arrest initiating the Quebec Biker war.[1]
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