Donald Stockford

Last updated

Donald Stockford
Born (1962-05-06) 6 May 1962 (age 61)
Other names"Pup"
Occupation(s) Outlaw biker, stuntman
Allegiance Hells Angels MC (1993–)
Conviction(s) Conspiracy to traffic in narcotics (2004) [1]
Conspiracy to commit murder (2004) [1]
Gangsterism (2004) [1]
Criminal penalty20 years in prison

Donald Stockford (born 6 May 1962) is a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and stuntman.

Contents

Hells Angel

Stockford works as a stuntman for films and owned a house in Ancaster, an affluent suburb of Hamilton. [2] He is a friend of the actor and biker Chuck Zito, who served as the president of the New York City chapter of the Hells Angels. [3] In 1989, Stockford married Christine Yanke, by whom he had three children. [4] Yanke stated that her husband always intended to join the Hells Angels from his teenage years onward, and he spent much time in Montreal associating with the Hells Angels. [4] In 1992, Stockford left Ancaster to live in Montreal for a year as a Hells Angel "prospect" (the second level in an outlaw biker club). [4]

On 26 May 1993, Stockford joined the Hells Angels Montreal chapter as a "full patch" member. [5] He was a close associate of the Hells Angels national president Walter Stadnick. [6] Like Stadnick, Stockford continued to live in Ontario and made trips to Montreal to attend meetings of his chapter. [6] Also like Stadnick, he does not speak French and required the services of translators to speak to the fellow members of his chapter. [6] Stockford together with Stadnick frequently visited Montreal during the Quebec biker war to meet Maurice Boucher and other Hells Angels leaders in la belle province. [6] Stockford was able to support Yanke as a housewife and stay-at-home mother while also owning a house in the middle-class town of Ancaster. [4] Yanke stated she never asked any questions about his work for the Hells Angels and that he would frequently leave for extended periods of time for Hells Angels-related work. [4]

On 25 June 1995, Stockford became a founding member of the Angels' elite Nomad chapter. [7] Besides Stockford, the other members of the Nomad chapter were Stadnick, Boucher, Scott Steinert, David "Wolf" Carroll, Gilles "Trooper" Mathieu, Richard "Bert" Mayrand, Luc Bordeleau, Pierre Laurin, Louis "Mélou" Roy, Richard "Rick" Vallée, André Chouinard, Michel Rose, Denis "Pas Fiable" Houle, Normand Robitaille, Normand "Biff" Hamel, and René "Balloune" Charlebois. [7] Stockford alongside Stadnick and Carroll were the only English-Canadians in the otherwise all French-Canadian Nomad chapter. [8] Stockford served as the vice-president of the Nomad chapter while Boucher served as the chapter president. [2]

Stockford also owned a strippers' agency. [9] Quebec has long been a net exporter of strippers, and Stockford along with Steinert were very aggressive in sending French-Canadian strippers to work in northern Ontario. [9] The strippers he supplied to various bars in northern Ontario served as spies for the Hells Angels who identified the local criminal element. [9] Once identified, Stockford sent out a representative to contact the individual and to see if they were willing to buy drugs from the Hells Angels. [9]

The police informer Dany Kane reported to his handlers that on 20 February 1996 Stockford and Carroll had a meeting in Saint-Sauveur to discuss plans to ship narcotics from Montreal to the greater Toronto area. [10] Kane reported: "Their goal was to take a big part of the Toronto drug market". [10] On 3 May 1996, Kane reported that Stockford had sent a drug courier from Montreal to Toronto with one kilogram of cocaine; about 1,000 ecstasy pills; and four kilograms of hashish. [10] Kane further stated the courier had to page a number and press 1 for a pick-up at the Holiday Inn or 2 for a pick-up at the Ramada Inn. [10] Kane reported that afterwards the courier was to go to Tim Horton's coffee shop on Bronte Road, dial another number and press 17 to arrange for a cousin of Stockford to arrive to pick up the drugs. [10] On 29 November 1996, Kane wrote in a report that Stockford had sent 300 kilograms of hashish to Hamilton, and in another report in January 1997 stated that he had sent four kilograms of cocaine to Oshawa. [10]

Kane reported that the local Outlaws chapter in Hamilton under the leadership of Mario Parente was furious with losing market share to the Hells Angels Stadnick and Stockford. [10] Kane stated that Stockford had told him that he received a knock on his door at his Ancaster house from a pizza deliveryman despite not having ordered any pizza. [10] Stockford told Kane that he believed this was a murder attempt by the Outlaws and that, if he had answered the door, someone would have tried to kill him. [10]

The financial records of the Nomad chapter that were later seized by the police showed that between 30 March 1999 and 19 December 2000, Stockford and Stadnick spent $10 million to buy 265 kilograms of cocaine and 173 kilograms of hashish from the Rizzuto family and the West End Gang. [11] On 16 December 2000, the police observed Stockford talking with leaders of Satan's Choice and the Para-Dice Riders biker gangs. [12] Later that same month, on 29 December 2000, the Satan's Choice, Para-Dice Riders, Lobos and Last Chance gangs all joined the Hells Angels, making them at one stroke the dominant biker gang in Ontario. [12]

Operation Springtime

On 28 March 2001, as part of Operation Springtime, Stockford was arrested at his house in Ancaster. [13] Found inside of Stockford's house were hundreds of plastic cards with the names of all Hells Angels members in Canada together with pager numbers for the fellow members of the Nomad chapter and all other chapter presidents in Canada. [13] Finally, the police found a tax return for the year 2000 for Nomads Quebec, Inc that listed Maurice Boucher as the Nomad chapter president and Stockford as vice-president. [13]

At his trial in Montreal in 2003 and 2004, Stockford was defended by Edward Greenspan and Alan B. Gold, two of Canada's best-known lawyers. [10] Stockford and Stadnick chose to exercise their constitutional right for a trial in English, which presented major problems as there was a shortage in Quebec of Anglo Crown Attorneys to prosecute the accused together with Anglo judges. [14] Another member of the Nomad chapter, Michel Rose, as part of the same trial, insisted on having his trial in English even though Rose could just barely speak English. [14] The judge selected for the trial was Justice Jerry Zigman, who was one of the last Anglo (English-speaking) judges left in Quebec. [14] The Crown Attorney selected for a trial was Randall Richmond, a native of Hamilton who had settled in Montreal. [14] The case against Rose was later severed when Zigman ruled that Rose did not know enough English to understand what was being said in the courtroom. [14] The major evidence presented by the Crown were the financial records of the Nomad chapter which Kane had stolen shortly before his suicide. [15] The records showed that the Nomad chapter had handled $111,503,361 in purchasing drugs over an eight-month period in 1999 and 2000 and that $10 million had gone to Stadnick and Stockford. [16]

In April 2004, the Crown's case against Stadnick and Stockford was badly weakened when the Crown's star witness, the hitman Stéphane "Godasse" Gagné, testified. [17] Gagné had worked as a hitman for the Hells Angels before turning Crown's evidence after his arrest in December 1997. Instead of testifying against Stadnick and Stockford, Gagné went on an extended rant about how the Crown had not in his opinion honored its agreement with him when he agreed to turn Crown's evidence in 1997, complaining he felt cheated. [17] The attempts by Richmond to have Gagné to testify about the matter at hand were completely unsuccessful. Gagné's lengthy rant on the stand about how badly he felt treated by the Crown and his unwillingness to testify in support of the Crown's thesis that he committed his murders on the orders of Stadnick and Stockford effectively derailed the Crown's case on the first-degree murder charges. [17]

The trial ended in June 2004 with Stockford being acquitted of all 13 first-degree murder charges, [18] [19] but he and Stadnick were convicted on charges of conspiracy to traffic in narcotics. [16] Stockford was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and gangsterism. [1] Prior to his convictions, Stockford had no criminal record, and Stadnick had been convicted of trafficking narcotics and carrying a concealed weapon. [1] [20] In sentencing Stadnick and Stockford, Justice Jerry Zigman stated: "They are hardened criminals who show little or no hope of being able to straighten out their lives and cease participating in criminal activities. They are violent people who are a danger to society. They have expressed no remorse for their acts." [21] After his conviction, Stockford was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $100,000. [11] Zigman also factored time served in jail prior to the conviction, which reduced the number of years that Stockford was to serve in prison. [11]

During his time in prison, Stockford remained faithful to the Hells Angels. [22] In September 2014, the National Parole Board ruled Stockford had to live in a half-way house while on parole, stating, "You clearly decided to adopt criminality as your lifestyle and you took cold-blooded decisions to achieve your goals and there is nothing in your file to suggest that you have changed". [22] In 2020, Stockford joined the Sherbrooke chapter of the Hells Angels. [23]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock Machine Motorcycle Club</span> Outlaw motorcycle club

The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the United States and eleven chapters in Australia, with chapters also located in 24 other countries worldwide. It was formed in 1986, by Salvatore Cazzetta and his brother Giovanni Cazzetta. The Rock Machine competed with the Hells Angels for control of the street-level narcotics trade in Quebec. The Quebec Biker War saw the Rock Machine form an alliance with a number of other organizations to face the Hells Angels. The conflict occurred between 1994 and 2002 and resulted in over 160 deaths and over 300 injured. An additional 100+ have been imprisoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Boucher</span> Canadian outlaw biker and gangster (1953–2022)

Maurice Boucher was a Canadian gangster, convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker—once president of the Quebec Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Boucher led Montreal's Hells Angels against the rival Rock Machine biker gang during the Quebec Biker War of 1994 through 2002 in Quebec, Canada. In 2002, Boucher was convicted of ordering the murders of two Quebec prison officers in an effort to destabilize the Quebec Justice system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quebec Biker War</span> Gang war in Quebec between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels

The Quebec Biker War was a turf war in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, lasting from 1994 to 2002, between the Quebec branch of the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine. The war left 162 people dead, including civilians. There were also 84 bombings, and 130 cases of arson. In March 2002, American journalist Julian Rubinstein wrote about the biker war: "Considering how little attention the story has attracted outside Canada, the toll is staggering: 162 dead, scores wounded. The victims include an 11-year-old boy killed by shrapnel from one of the more than 80 bombs bikers planted around the province. Even the New York Mafia in its heyday never produced such carnage, or so terrorized civilians."

Dany "Dany Boy" Kane was a Canadian criminal who was a compliant police informant at the same time. Kane worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as an informant inside the Hells Angels for many years, and provided information to the police on the Hells Angels. Kane was found dead of an apparent suicide in the garage of his suburban Montreal home in the summer of 2000.

Wolodumir "Walter" Stadnick, also known as "Nurget", is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who was the third national president of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada. Stadnick is generally credited with turning the Hells Angels into the dominant outlaw biker club in Canada. The journalists Michel Auger and Peter Edwards wrote that much about Stadnick is mysterious, ranging from what is the meaning of his sobriquet "Nurget", to how a unilingual Anglo Canadian from Hamilton became the leader of the then largely French-Canadian Hells Angels. In 2004, the journalist Tu Thanh Ha wrote that Stadnick is "a secretive man little known to the public", but "he is one of Canada's most pivotal organized-crime figures."

France Charbonneau is a Canadian judge sitting on the Quebec Superior Court. She was appointed on 4 October 2004.

Gregory Woolley was a Haitian-born Canadian criminal associated with the Hells Angels motorcycle club. Woolley was the protégé and bodyguard of Maurice Boucher, a controversial senior Hells Angels leader who led his chapter in a long and extremely violent gang war against the Rock Machine, in Quebec, from 1994 to 2002. Woolley was known in Montreal as the "parrain des gangs de rue".

From 1977 to 1984, the Hells Angels and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club fought what came to be known in Canada as the First Biker War. The Angels emerged victorious. As the Outlaws retreated into their Ontario stronghold, the Angels began consolidating their activities and expanding, moving into port cities Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, British Columbia. The conflict is known in Canada as the "First Biker War", but the first large conflict between bikers in Canada, was the Satan's Choice-Popeyes War which occurred from 1974 to 1976.

Michel "Sky" Langlois is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who served as the second national president of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada. A founding member of the Popeyes biker gang, which amalgamated with the Hells Angels in 1977, Langlois was convicted as an accessory to murder in the club's internal Lennoxville massacre of 1985, and later of conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the 1994–2002 Quebec Biker War.

Gerald "Skinny" Ward is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who served as president of the Niagara County chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and as one of the co-leaders of the Hells Angels in Canada.

Giovanni "Johnny" Cazzetta is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who, along with his brother Salvatore Cazzetta, was a co-founder of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club in Montreal. He was the club's second in command, and also had considerable connections with Quebec's Mafia figures.

Paul Porter is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. A founding member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club, Porter played a major role in the Quebec Biker War (1994–2002). During this period, he expanded the club into Ontario, becoming the president of the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter. Disillusioned with the Rock Machine's decision to merge with the Bandidos, Porter led a mass defection to the Hells Angels in late 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Carroll (biker)</span> Canadian outlaw biker and gangster

David MacDonald Carroll, better known as "Wolf", is a Canadian outlaw biker and reputed gangster who was a member of the elite Nomad chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Quebec. He disappeared in March 2001 after being indicted on 13 counts of first-degree murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Roy</span> Canadian outlaw biker and gangster (1959-2000)

Louis Roy, better known as "Mélou", was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster, said to have been the richest Hells Angel in Quebec.

Scott Steinert was an American outlaw biker and gangster who was a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is generally regarded as the man behind the 9 August 1995 car bomb which accidentally killed 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers during the Hells Angels' war against the Rock Machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Normand Hamel</span> Canadian gangster (1956–2000)

Normand Hamel, better known as "Biff", was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. A senior member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Montreal, Hamel was the right-hand man of Hells Angels leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher and became one of Quebec's top drug traffickers before he was shot dead in 2000. A member of the rival Rock Machine gang, Tony Duguay, was convicted of Hamel's murder in 2006 but was acquitted of the killing in 2016 after a witness in the case admitted that he lied while on the witness stand.

Gilles Mathieu, better known as "Trooper", is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who served as the secretary to the elite Nomad chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Quebec from 1995 to his arrest in 2001.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, an international outlaw biker gang, has been involved in multiple crimes, alleged crimes, and violent incidents in Canada. The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) has designated the Hells Angels an outlaw motorcycle gang. Hells Angels MC have been linked with drug trafficking and production, as well as many violent crimes including murder, in Canada.

Stéphane Gagné is a Canadian former gangster, outlaw biker and contract killer who was a hitman for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club during the Quebec Biker War. Charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Gagné turned Crown witness against the Hells Angels in 1997 in exchange for one murder charge against him being dismissed. He was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment. Gagné's testimony resulted in Hells Angels leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher being imprisoned for murder in 2002.

Steven Lindsay, better known as "Tiger" Lindsay, is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster involved in an important legal case to the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club declared a criminal organization in Canada.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Edwards, Peter (18 September 2014). "Former Hells Angels boss Donald (Pup) Stockford paroled from Quebec prison". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 170.
  3. ↑ Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 171.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Russell, Rhiannon (August 2022). "How One Woman Went from stay-at-home mom to Garbage Truck Driver to Yoga Instructor". Canadian Living. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  5. ↑ Cherry 2006, p. 403.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Cherry 2006, p. 12.
  7. 1 2 Langton 2010, p. 103.
  8. ↑ Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 162.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Langton 2010, p. 96.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 174.
  11. 1 2 3 Schneider 2009, p. 426.
  12. 1 2 Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 270.
  13. 1 2 3 Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 259.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Langton 2010, p. 136.
  15. ↑ Langton 2010, pp. 136–137.
  16. 1 2 Langton 2010, p. 137.
  17. 1 2 3 , Auger & Edwards2012, p. 11.
  18. ↑ Ha, Tu Thanh (21 June 2004). "The legal twist in crime-bosses case". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  19. ↑ "Notorious Hells Angels lose appeal bid". The Hamilton Spectator. 19 January 2010. ISSN   1189-9417 . Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  20. ↑ "Hells Angels leaders lose appeals". thestar.com. 13 August 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  21. ↑ Marowits, Ross (14 September 2004). "Two biker bosses get 20-year sentences". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  22. 1 2 Cherry, Paul (28 December 2014). "'Mom' Boucher's boys: Where are the Nomads now?". The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  23. ↑ Séguin, Felix; Thibault, Éric (27 March 2021). "Un ex-Nomads de retour parmi l'élite". Le Journal de Montreal. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.