Maurice Boucher

Maurice Boucher
Born (1953-06-21) 21 June 1953
Causapscal, Quebec, Canada
Other names Mom
Occupation Former President of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter
Criminal charge Attempted murder and two counts of first-degree murder
Criminal penalty Life sentence, with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years
Criminal status Imprisoned
Children 2
Conviction(s) Guilty

Maurice "Mom" Boucher (born June 21, 1953) is a Canadian convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker—the former President of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter.[1] Boucher led Montreal's Hells Angels against the rival Rock Machine biker gang during the Quebec Biker War (French: Guerre des motards) of 1994 through 2002 in Quebec, Canada. In 2002, Boucher was convicted of ordering the murders of two Quebec prison officers (as an effort to destabilize the Quebec Justice system), and is currently serving three life sentences in a Canadian prison. He has one known daughter Moragh Boucher and a son Francis Boucher.[2][3]

Early life

Born in Causapscal, Quebec, Canada, he was raised in poverty in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve section of inner-city Montreal, where his family moved when he was two years old. Boucher dropped out of school in grade 9 to work odd jobs. Unhappy with his income and desperate to support his drug habit, he turned to crime. He was arrested for three break & entries in the fall of 1974 and served nearly six months in detention. In November 1975, Boucher performed an armed robbery, but was caught and sentenced to 40 months in prison.[4]

Around 1982, Boucher was a member of a white-supremacist motorcycle gang named the SS, who were based in Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal. A fellow member of the SS was Salvatore Cazzetta; the two became friends. As leaders of the gang they became candidates to join the Hells Angels when that gang decided to expand its operations into the rest of Canada.[5][6]

In March, 1985, a Lennoxville, Quebec, chapter of the Hells Angels suspected the Laval chapter of wasting drug profits by using too much of the product themselves and ripping off the Nova Scotia chapter of $96,000. The Laval chapter was invited to a Lennoxville chapter party. When the five Laval members arrived, they were ambushed and murdered. Two months later, divers located the decomposing bodies of the victims wrapped in sleeping bags and tied to weightlifting plates at the bottom of the St. Lawrence River.[5] What became known as the Lennoxville massacre was considered extreme even for the criminal underworld, and it gave Quebec's Hells Angels a notorious reputation. Cazzetta found the ambush—essentially, biker "brothers" killing their own—to be an unforgivable breach of the outlaw code. He refused Boucher's offer to join him at the top of the Quebec Hell's Angels, and instead formed his own smaller gang—the Rock Machine—with his brother Giovanni in 1986.[5]

Hells Angels

By late 1987, soon after finishing a 40-month sentence for the armed sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl, Boucher joined the Hells Angels motorcycle club in Montreal, and quickly rose through its ranks. By the early 1990s, he was considered one of the most powerful bikers in the province, and was involved in numerous lucrative criminal activities such as cocaine trafficking and loan sharking.[7]

In 1994, following the arrest of Salvatore Cazzetta on charges of conspiring to import 200 kilos (440Lb) of cocaine, the Rock Machine was rendered temporarily leaderless. Boucher, by now president of the Montreal chapter of the Hells Angels, decided to make his move against the Rock Machine and other independent dealers. His ultimate aim was to establish a Hells Angels monopoly over street-level, biker gang drug-dealing in the Montreal area—and eventually, all of Quebec.[8][9]

Boucher organized to persuade Rock Machine controlled bars and their resident drug dealers to surrender their illegal drug business. Rock Machine resistance led to bloodshed. On July 14, 1994, two members of the Hells Angels' top puppet club entered downtown motorcycle shop and shot down a Rock Machine associate. This would be the spark that would set off the Quebec Biker war.[5]

That August, a Jeep wired with a remote-controlled bomb exploded killing an 11-year-old boy, Daniel Desrochers, who was playing in a nearby schoolyard. A month later, the first full Hells Angels member was shot to death entering his car at a shopping mall. Nine bombs went off around the province during his funeral."[5]

In 1995, Boucher decided to start a new Hells Angels chapter which he would lead. The Hells Angels Nomads chapter was a group made up of the most powerful Hells Angels in Quebec and not bound by geographical locations like other Hells Angels chapters.[4]

During the intense war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine, he ordered the murders of Quebec correctional officers Diane Lavigne and Pierre Rondeau in 1997. Both officers had been chosen at random. Besides the blow to the judicial system in Quebec, Boucher wanted crimes committed by bikers that would be so serious that prosecutors would not want to make deals to turn bikers into informants.[10][11]

In 1998, a jury acquitted Boucher of having ordered those murders. He was then closely followed by the police. In 2000, an appeals court dismissed the earlier acquittal, and he was arrested again. He was convicted for the murders with the help of a police informer in May 2002. The key witness for the prosecution was Stéphane Gagné, nicknamed Godasse, who was involved in both murders. He testified that Boucher ordered him to carry out the killings and was later congratulated by Boucher himself. After 11 days of deliberation by the jury, Boucher was found guilty of attempted murder and two counts of first-degree murder. Boucher received an automatic life sentence, with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years.[12]

He is currently detained in the only Canadian Super-Maximum security penitentiary, located in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, north of Montreal.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 The Gazette: "Me and my pal Mom Boucher"
  2. ↑ montreal.ctv.ca "Maurice Boucher reportedly stabbed in prison"
  3. ↑ Pigeon, Marc, "Former biker says sorry, is denied parole", Toronto Sun, retrieved 2011-02-13
  4. 1 2 Cherry, Paul (2005). The Biker Trials: Bringing Down the Hells Angels. Ecw Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-638-6.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 http://www.julianrubinstein.com/hell.html
  6. ↑ Langton, Jerry (2006). Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick in the Canadian Hells Angels. John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd. ISBN 0-470-83710-1.
  7. ↑ McGill Tribune, Bikers, Bill C-95, Drugs and Mom Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Winterhalder, Edward; De Clercq, Wil. The Assimilation: Bikers United Against The Hells Angels. ECW Press. ISBN 1-55022-824-2.
  9. ↑ Winterhalder, Edward (2005). Out In Bad Standings; Inside The Bandidos Motorcycle Club. Blockhead City Press. ISBN 0-9771747-0-0.
  10. ↑ Organized Crime in Canada: A Quarterly Summary April to June 2002
  11. ↑ CBC News: Mom Boucher Guilty of Murder - May 6, 2002
  12. ↑ Montreal Gazette: "Inside Hell's Angels" - January 14, 2006
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