The largest motorcycle gang in Ontario in the 1960s-1970s were the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club founded in 1965. In 1973, the Ontario government decided to put all the outlaw biker clubs out of business, and had the Intelligence Branch of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) set up a Special Squad with the unfortunate acronym of the SS dedicated entirely to pursuing outlaw bikers.[1] The Special Squad was later renamed the Anti-Biker Unit. Orders were given to the Special Squad that "legal niceties" could be disregarded as the politicians demanded convictions to show the public that action was being taken.[2] Corporal Terry Hall, the chief of the Special Squad called the campaign against Satan's Choice "reverse intimidation" as the Special Squad sought to intimidate bikers via the same means used by the bikers themselves.[2] The American journalist Mick Lowe wrote that, starting in 1973, Hall "had inhabited a strange nether region on the fringes of Canadian law enforcement" as he went after bikers via very ruthless and sometimes illegal methods, making him into a "black legend among Canadian bikers" who feared him as a policeman who did not follow the law.[3] Even Hall's appearance with his long hair and beard and a generally disheveled look made him appear more like an outlaw biker than a policeman.[3]
The Golden Hawk Riders of Port Hope were a small biker gang of seven members, and were considering "patching over" to join the Outlaws.[6] In the aftermath of the split of 1977, relations between the Outlaws and Satan's Choice were very unfriendly.[7] Several members of Satan' Choice warned the Golden Hawk Riders, including their sergeant-at-arms, William "Heavy" Matiyek, who had a reputation as a hothead, not to go through with the planned "patch over", a demand that Matiyek rejected.[8] Port Hope is a small town close to Oshawa, and an Outlaw chapter in Port Hope would threaten the profits from the drug trade enjoyed by the Satan's Choice Oshawa chapter. With Port Hope less than a half an hour away by automobile from Oshawa, an Outlaw chapter in Port Hope would effectively be the same as an Outlaw chapter in Oshawa.[9]
Matiyek was known as the "town bully" in Port Hope.[10] Standing 6'3, weighting 300 pounds, and extremely irascible, Matiyek was greatly disliked in Port Hope owing to his rage issues and a tendency to threaten people with violence.[11] The American journalist Mick Lowe described Matiyek as a "walking, talking one-man arsenal" as he usually had with him a sawed-off .410 shotgun along with a .32 pistol.[12] Though both weapons were illegal, Matiyek often pulled out his guns and threatened to shoot people on the spot if they did not give in to his demands.[13] People in Port Hope were too terrified of Matiyek to ever call the police, which encouraged Matiyek to continue with his aggressive, bullying behavior.[13] Matiyek still lived at home with his parents at the age of 23, and believed that joining the Outlaws would make him into a more successful drug dealer who would finally be able to live on his own.[12] Lowe wrote that Matiyek lived in "utter terror of Satan's Choice", and despite his bluster, he was constantly on the look-out for members for Satan's Choice whom he greatly feared.[14] In 1976, at a party at the clubhouse of the Golden Hawk Riders, Matiyek had been beaten up by Lorne Campbell of Satan's Choice, a humiliation that deeply rankled with him.[15] Campbell had also stolen Matiyek's bikers' vest with his Golden Hawk Rider patch during the same brawl, a great humiliation in the world of outlaw bikers who are expected to never lose their biker patches.[15] In an incident in July 1977, Matiyek had lumbered by the house of a Satan's Choice biker living in Port Hope, Richard Sauvé, to shoot up the house with his shotgun, forcing Sauvé's wife, Sharon, and his daughter, Angela, to take cover in their living room.[16] After emptying his shotgun, Matiyek waddled off, clearly happy that blasted away the front window of Sauvé's house along with his mailbox.[16] Sauvé stayed faithful to the outlaw biker code and did not report the incident. Instead, Sauvé went to confront Matiyek with a baseball bat and warned him not to endanger the lives of his wife and child again or else he would kill him.[16] Sauvé discovered much to his own surprise that Matiyek was an abject coward who apologized for the incident as he maintained that he was very drunk and high on drugs when he shot up the Sauvé house, and that he was unwilling to take up the challenge of a brawl out of the fear that Sauvé would hurt him.[16] The Queen's Hotel in Port Hope had once been one of the most luxurious hotels in Ontario, but by the 1970s had been reduced down to a seedy, disreputable place with the bar-room featuring strippers of both sexes in an attempt to attract customers.[17] The Queen's Hotel was Matiyek's favorite place to drink and he usually could be found there in the evenings.[17]
The Killing of Matiyek
Brian Brideau, a petty criminal and an associate of Satan's Choice, was in the bar-room of the Queen's Hotel on the night of 18 October 1978 when he encountered Matiyek drinking with two Outlaws.[18] Brideau was a drug addict who annoyed many with his incessant begging for money and Matiyek, who greatly disliked him, proceeded to beat him up and throw him out of the Queen's Hotel.[18] Brideau sought revenge by calling Satan's Choice's Peterborough chapter from the phone booth outside the Queen's Hotel.[18] A member of the Peterborough chapter, Richard Sauvé, took the phone call from Brideau, who said that Matiyek was drinking with two Outlaws, Fred Jones and Sonny Bronson, at the Queen's Hotel and wanted to see an officer of the Peterborough chapter that night.[19] Sauvé choose to accept the challenge as he did not wish to be appear cowardly by staying at home, but unwilling to face Matiyek with only Merv "Indian" Blaker of the Peterborough chapter as an ally, Sauvé called the other chapters for help.[20] Sauvé knew that Matiyek was a coward when sober, but tended to be violent when drunk, especially when he wanted to impress others. Blaker, who owned his moniker to the fact that he was an Ojibwe, was felt to be too easy-going for a possible bar fight.[20] At 9:19 pm, Sauvé phoned the Satan's Choice clubhouse in Toronto to ask for help, but Gary Comeau of the Toronto chapter told him that he rather watch a hockey game.[21]At 9:30 pm, Sauvé phoned again and this time Comeau promised to go to Port Hope to assist his biker "brother".[22] While Sauvé and Blaker drove west to Port Hope, several members of the Toronto chapter abandoned drinking and watching a hockey game at their clubhouse to head east to Port Hope.[23] The members from Toronto who went to Port Hope that night were Garry "Nutty" Comeau, Jeff "Boom Boom" McLeod, Larry "Beaver" Hurren, Lorne Campbell and Armand "In the Trunk" Sanguigni.[24] Lowe wrote that most "scariest" of the Satan's Choice bikers who went to the Queen's Hotel was Sanguigni, a man with close links to the Mafia who worked as a hitman subcontractor for the mob, being the prime suspect in several murders.[25]
As the Choice members entered the Queen's Hotel at about 10:50 pm, Gayle Thompson, the head waitresses present who recognized Blaker and Sauvé as she had served them before, reminded the owner of the Queen's Hotel, Leo Powell, that Satan's Choice's members were banned from the hotel owing to past unruly behavior.[26] Thompson advised calling the police, but Powell decided to let them stay as the bar was almost empty that night and he felt he needed their money.[26] One of the waitresses present, Cathy Cotgrave, told Blaker and Sauvé that Satan's Choice bikers were banned from the Queen's Hotel and that they would not be served.[27] A confrontation, with Golden Hawk Rider Matiyek and the two Outlaws on one side and the Satan's Choice members on the other, began in the bar-room soon after.[28] Sanguigni was arguing with Jones in the pinball room, accusing him of being a "traitor" for leaving Satan's Choice for the Outlaws, and Jones was described as being "hysterical" as he argued with the Mafia hitman Sanguigni.[27] Sauvé sat down with Matiyek and quickly learned that he did not want to see him as he instead flashed his handgun and said he had "nine friends", which was interpreted to mean that he had nine bullets in his gun.[8] Comeau joined Sauvé at the table and was likewise threatened.[29]
Matiyek, who was drunk and high on marijuana and amphetamines, was talking about shooting the Satan's Choice members in the Queen's Hotel bar-room, causing Lorne Campbell of the Choice's Toronto chapter to come to their aid.[30] Campbell had heard that Matiyek had a gun and he brought along a gun to the Queen's Hotel.[30] The confrontation in the bar-room ended with guns being drawn and Campbell shooting and killing Matiyek at about 10:55 pm.[30] Campbell claims that Matiyek had reached for his gun first, leading him to open fire.[30] Campbell shot Matiyek three times.[31] The first bullet went through Matiyek's neck, the second through his skull and the third likewise, thought Matiyek was already dead as the second bullet had cut a deadly path though his brain.[31] Campbell states that he shot Matiyek in self-defense, saying:
"As soon as I said: 'How are you doing?" he went for it...I totally wish he hadn't gone for it. I've had to live with it. It hasn't been easy. But he went for it and I happened to be faster...It happened so fast that I just reacted. When you see somebody going for a gun and you've got one, with the upbringing I've had, you'll be fast. I'm glad I had a gun...I never questioned my decision. Not once. Not for a second".[30]
The bullets all entered Matiyek's body from the left and one struck Comeau who was sitting to the right of Matiyek.[32] The women present, namely the waitresses Gayle Thompson and Cathy Cotgrave along with the bar patrons Sue Foote and Jamie Hanna all fled into the woman's washroom, and all left the Queen's Hotel in tears over horror over the shooting they just seen.[33] McLeod fled the John Street entrance and left in Sanguigni's car.[34] Likewise, Blaker and Sauvé fled via the John Street entrance and left via Blaker's car.[35] Sauvé was stunned by what he had seen and kept saying "holy fuck man, what happened?"[35] Constables Kenneth Wilson and David MacDonald of the Port Hope police arrived at the Queen's Hotel at 11: 08 pm and reported that the corpse of Matiyek was lying in a pool of his own blood.[36]
Several of the Satan's Choice members who fled the Queen's Hotel such as Comeau, Blaker and Sauvé drove to Kitchener to contact David "Tee Hee" Hoffmann of the Kitchener chapter because he was considered intelligent and was felt to be capable of treating Comeau's wound.[35] Public opinion in Port Hope was outraged that a murder had taken place in their small town. The Port Hope Evening Guide in an editorial on 19 October 1978 stated: "Terrifying cold-blooded premeditated murder has destroyed the security of this tranquil community, smashing forever the misconception that violence and homicide exists only in the big cities. Will it ever be safe to walk the streets of Port Hope at night again?"[17] In the aftermath of Matiyek's murder, the president of the Golden Hawk Riders, Lawrence Leon, was so demoralized that he disbanded his club, now down to six members, and the Golden Hawk Riders did not join the Outlaws.[37]
The Investigation
On the night of the murder, Sergeant Samuel McReelis of the Port Hope police arrived at the Queen's Hotel as the lead investigator.[38] McReelis was known in Port Hope as "Shotgun Sam" for an incident that he pointed a shotgun at a group of unruly teenagers, one of whom happened to be the daughter of a wealthy family, was considered to be a hard-working if overzealous policeman.[39] Murders rarely occurred in Port Hope, and McReelis despite having served with the Port Hope police since 1967 was inexperienced with murder investigations.[40] The Port Hope police service was a small force of 11 officers that was so underfunded in the 1960s-1970s that its officers wore no uniforms and had paper badges.[41] Because of the presence of Sauvé and Blaker, it was assumed by McReelis right from the start that the other men with them were Satan's Choice.[40] In a 2003 interview, McReelis stated that small towns such as Port Hope were being "terrorized" by outlaw biker gangs.[41] Much of the police investigation was slapdash with the detectives taking no fingerprints from the crime scene while interviewing the witnesses as a group instead of individually.[42][43] Had McReelis had the barroom dusted for fingerprints, he could have identified the other Satan's Choice bikers present from their fingerprints on the pints of beer, which could have been matched with their fingerprints in the police files, and his decision not to do so has been widely criticized as an example of his incompetence.[44] The day after the murder, Inspector Colin Cousens of the Ontario Provincial Police arrived to take over the investigation while McReelis was demoted down to his deputy.[45] Corporal Terry Hall of the OPP's Special Squad, who took charge of the investigation on 27 October 1978 seems to have decided to use Matiyek's death as a chance to cripple Satan's Choice by convicting as many bikers as possible of his murder.[46] Hall's investigative methods were heterodox and contrary to accepted standards, but what mattered to him was to obtain as many convictions as possible.[47] Despite his demotion, McReelis remained a key member of the investigation team as he knew Port Hope better than any of the detectives from elsewhere.[45]
Both Sauvé and Blaker had frequently drank at the Queen's Hotel in the past and the waitresses of the hotel present at the time of the shooting, Gayle Thompson and Kathy Cotgrave, identified both men by name as being present when Matiyek was killed.[48] Thompson and Cotgrave stated that they both frequently served Sauvé and Blaker, and both men admitted being present when Matiyek was killed.[48] However, the other members of Satan's Choice's Toronto chapter present were not known to the either the patrons and staff of the Queen's Hotel.[48] The Queen's Hotel had no security cameras and as result the police had to depend upon the memories of the witnesses. The witnesses did not know the members of the Toronto chapter and were further handicapped by the fact that the bar-room of the Queen's Hotel was dimly lit and was filled with cigarette smoke.[48] Joining Hall was Constable Donald Denis, a 15-year veteran of the OPP who had joined the Special Squad in January 1978 and whose specialty was in photographing outlaw bikers at their events.[49] Constable Denis showed the witnesses photographs of various Satan's Choice members in attempts to identify those present when Matiyek was killed.[48] Denis had no experience with showing photographs to witnesses and allowed group viewings of the photographs of various Satan's Choice bikers as he was unaware at the time that this was a violation of accepted investigation techniques, which called for witnesses to be interviewed as individuals.[50] Denis placed red dots on the photographs of Comeau, which gave the impression to witnesses that he was a man being singled out by the investigation.[51] Lowe noted that interviewing witnessing as a group is contrary to police procedures as the other witnesses felt pressure to identify one of the men whose photographs were being shown as being present at the Queen's Hotel when one of the witnesses insisted that man was present.[52] The witnesses were never shown Campbell's photograph.[53] Many aspects of the case were puzzling to the police such as the missing third bullet. The witnesses all stated that three shots had been fired and there were three bullet holes in Matiyek's corpse, but the police found only two bullets at the crime scene with one resting in Matiyek's skull and another in the wall of the Queen's Hotel.[54]
Thompson and Cotgrave stated after seeing Comeau's photograph that he was present at the murder and thought he may have been the man who killed Matiyek, though neither waitress were entirely certain on that point.[48] The red dots placed on Comeau's photographs increased the pressure on Thompson and Cotgrave to name him as the killer.[55] On 28 October 1978, Thompson and Cotgrave were first allowed to view the photographs of Satan's Choice members together, a breach of accepted rules that was later justified by Denis at the trial under the grounds that both women were having much difficulty in identifying members of Satan's Choice and needed each other's help to jog their memories.[56] On 28 October, Cotgrave identified out of the photo array Hurren, Sanguigni, Hoffman, McLeod and along with two Satan's Choice bikers in prison at the time, Michael Gallaway and Randy Gobo as present when Matiyek was killed.[56] As for Comeau, she stated "could be the trigger man" on her viewing and "thought to be the trigger man" on the second viewing.[56] During the same session, Thompson named Comeau as the killer and identified Sauvé, Hurren, Hoffman, Blaker and another Satan's Choice biker in prison, Michael Everett as being present at the murder.[56] By November 1978, besides for Comeau, Cotgrave and Thompson named Sauvé, Blaker, Hurren and Hoffman as being present at the murder.[48] On 5 December 1978, a warrant was issued for the arrests of Blaker, Sauvé, McLeod, Sanguigni, Hurren and Hoffman on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.[54] The Toronto police smashed their way into the clubhouse of the Toronto chapter, using a truck with a boom to rip out the steel door.[57] Arrested at the clubhouse were Comeau, Hurren, and McLeod.[44] Hoffan was arrested in Kitchener the same day.[44] Two of the men picked out the photo array and charged with Matiyek's murder, David Hoffman and Gordon van Haarlem, were not present at the Queen's Hotel on the night of 18 October 1978.[58] McLeod was to claim to a private detective in an interview on 6 February 1992 that it was common knowledge that van Haarlem "was screwing McReelis's wife" and that was the reason why van Haarlem was charged.[59]
On 10 January 1979, a group of policemen led by McReelis raided the house of Comeau's mother, Betty King, to seize Comeau's jacket with the bullet hole.[60] On 15 January 1979, the Crown Attorney in charge of the case, Christ Meinhardt, increased the charges for the Port Hope 8 from conspiracy to commit murder to first degree murder.[61] On 19 February 1979, a preliminary hearing opened in Port Hope to see there was enough evidence to bring the accused to trial.[62] On 23 February 1979, a preliminary hearing concluded that there was enough evidence to try eight members of Satan's Choice for Matiyek's murder with Campbell being conspicuously absent.[63][64] To spare his biker "brothers" from going to prison for a crime he had committed, Campbell confessed to killing Matiyek.[65] In August 1979, the Crown offered a plea bargain under which Campbell would plead guilty to second-degree murder and spent the next 10 years in prison while the rest of the "Port Hope 8" would plead guilty to being accessories to murder and spend the next 4 years in prison.[65] Campbell was willing to accept the Crown's deal, but several of the "Port Hope 8" such as David "Tee Hee" Hoffman and Gordon "Dog Map" Van Haarlem objected under the grounds that they were not at the Queen's Hotel on the night of 18 October 1978, and should not have to do any prison time.[66]
The Trial of the "Port Hope 8"
People in Port Hope were so outraged by Matiyek's murder that it was deemed impossible to find an impartial jury in that town, so the trial was held in London, Ontario.[67] The jury was made up of seven men and five women.[68] The jurors were all white, middle class and middle-aged.[68] The defense lawyers would have preferred that the trial be held in Toronto, but the Crown insisted on holding the trial in London, Ontario despite the fears of the defense lawyers that a jury from Middlesex County would not be sympatric towards outlaw bikers.[68] The trial began on 4 September 1979 as part of the Fall Assizes.[69] The Crown Attorney at the trial, Chris Meinhardt, presented the case as a first-degree murder, calling it "a foul, horrible, planned execution."[70] Meinhardt argued that there was a conspiracy to kill Matiyek with various Satan's Choice members blocking the exit points to the bar-room of the Queen's Hotel so that Matiyek could not escape while Comeau was the killer.[63][71] Meinhardt argued that those who blocked the exits to the barroom of the Queen's Hotel were just as guilty of first degree murder as Comeau..[63] Meinhardt showed photographs of the accused, all of whom except for Sanguigni were men with long hair and long beards in an attempt to invoke fear and disgust from the jury towards the accused..[63]
The journalist Jerry Langton wrote that the trial was "comical" as some of the witnesses for the Crown "changed their testimony three or even four times...Much of the Crown's evidence contradicted itself".[31] Matiyek had a .32 semi-automatic pistol with him when he died, but that gun had only eight bullets instead of nine, which Meinarhdt used to dismiss the testimony about Matiyek speaking about having "9 friends".[63] Several of the accused were to later maintain that a policeman had removed one of the bullets from Matiyek's gun..[63] The fact that none of the accused present at the Queen's Hotel took the stand did not help their case as juries tend to be very suspicious of defendants who excised their right not to testify.[72] Of the Port Hope 8, only Hoffman and van Haarlem took the stand to testify in their defense. The two principle journalists who covered the trial were Mac Haig, the crime correspondent of the London Free Press, and Douglas Glaister, a free-lance reporter, and most of what Canadians knew about the trial came from the pens of Haig and Glaister.[73] Haig supported the prosecution and his coverage essentially took the guilt of the accused for granted while Glaister was more sympathetic towards the defense.[74] Glaister noted that Hall was always present in the courtroom in the visitor's benches, and he took a dislike of Hall as he looked more like a thuggish outlaw biker than the accused.[74] Glaister came to suspect that there was something wrong about the Crown's case and that Hall had played a sinister role in the investigation.[75]
On 11 September 1979, Constable Denis was called to the stand as an expert witness by Meinhardt.[76] On 12 September, Denis was cross-examined by the defense lawyer Bruce Affleck.[77] Under oath, Denis admitted that the Port Hope 8 case was his murder investigation; that he did not know much about murder investigations; and that he had made a few mistakes owing to his inexperience.[77] Denis admitted that he had allowed group viewings of the photographs and that the red dots he placed on photographs of Comeau might had influenced the witnesses to name him as the killer, but insisted that he conducted an impartial and objective investigation.[78][79] Denis conceded that it had been a mistake to allow group viewing of the photographs, and used ignorance as his defense, saying he did not know better at the time.[79]
On 24 September 1979, the Crown presented as a surprise witness, Lawrence Leon, the president of the now disbanded Golden Hawk Riders.[80] Leon testified that in sometime in March or April 1978 that he been drinking at the Queen's Hotel with Matiyek when a group of Satan's Choice bikers led by Sauvé and Blaker arrived to threaten their lives.[81] Leon testified that either Sauvé or Blaker (he was not certain which one) had warned him that if the Golden Hawk Riders did cease their plans to join the Outlaws then none of the Golden Hawk Riders would live to see 1979.[81] Under cross-examination from the defense lawyer Bruce Affleck, Leon admitted that his memory was poor and that the incident he described so vividly had happened in February 1978.[81] Leon also changed his testimony as he now insisted without a doubt that the man who had threatened him was Sauvé.[82] Leon admitted that he was in violation of the outlaw biker code to never testify against another biker even if the crime was committed against himself, but had done so because he was in fear of his life.[82] Randy Koehler, a bouncer at the Queen's Hotel testified to an incident in December 1977 that saw Matiyek brawl with seven Satan's Choice bikers in the men's washroom.[83] However, under cross examination, Koehler admitted that Matiyek was the aggressor and the other Satan's Choice members had merely come to the aid of one of their own after Matiyek had punched him in the face.[83] The incident where Matiyek shot up Sauvé's house and endangered the lives of his wife and daughter was not mentioned at the trial by either the Crown or the defense.[84]
Sauvé's best friend and the best man at his wedding, Roger Davey, testified for a witness for the Crown that on the night of 18 October 1978, Sauvé had phoned him to tell his wife, Sharon Sauvé, that he would not be in Port Hope for the next few days and he could hear in the background a party going on to celebrate Matiyek's murder.[85] Davey later admitted in 1985 that his testimony was perjury and that he did not speak with Sauvé on the night of the murder.[86] Another witness for the Crown, William Goodwin-who was friend of Sauvé's-testified that Sauvé had told him several times in July 1978 that he was going to murder Matiyek in the near-future.[87] The way that Goodwin appeared as a surprise witness for the Crown with Sauvé lawyer, Jack Grossman, only being informed the night before that Meinhardt was going to call him as a witness left the defense with no time to prepare.[87] Grossman argued that Goodwin's testimony was hearsay as he had no evidence to collaborate his testimony and that Goodwin never contacted the police about Sauvé's alleged plans to kill Matiyek anytime before Matiyek's murder despite his claims to be appalled at the supposed murder plot.[87]
Another witness for the Crown, David Gillispie, testified that he had heard overheard at the Queen's Hotel Comeau saying to Sauvé and Blaker "Are we going to do it to this fat fucker now or what?" just minutes before Matiyek was killed.[88] Gillispie further stated Sauvé and Blaker very much wanted to kill Matiyek as he recalled seeing the murderous looks on their faces while both men had told Comeau to kill Matiyek now.[88] In response, the defense noted that in Gillispie's prior statements to the police made on 19 October 1978, 28 November 1978 and 29 December 1978 were contradictory as information in Gillispie's statements changed on a number of points in each statement.[89] Gillispie admitted that his testimony at the trial in 1979 differed quite "substantially" from his previous statements in 1978, but he claimed that his changing statements were to the fact that he was very drunk on the night of 18 October 1978 and that his memory of that night was hazy and clouded by alcohol.[90] In Gillispie's first statement to the police on 19 October 1978, Comeau's "fat fucker" remark to Sauvé and Blaker concerned who was going to speak to Matiyek first, not who was to kill him.[90] Gillispie claimed his first statement was wrong as he could not "remember" correctly what had happened due to his intoxicated state the previous night, but that he finally "remembered" what Comeau had really said to Sauvé and Blaker nearly a year later 1979.[90] When asked why Comeau had discussed the plan to kill Matiyek in front of him, Gillispie could give no explanation.[88]
Susan Foote, a compute operator at the Ganaraska Credit Union who described herself as a "regular" at the Queen's Hotel testified that she was drinking alcohol and was watching the 1963 John Wayne film McClintock on the Queen's Hotel's TV when she saw Matiyek killed.[91] Foote identified Sauvé, Blaker, Hoffman, McLeod, Comeau and Hurren as the Satan's Choice bikers present at the murder and stated that Sauvé was sitting to the left of Matiyek when he was shot.[91] Affleck made much of the fact that in testimony at the preliminary hearing Foote stated she may had known who McLeod was who was vs her testimony at the trial when she stated she already knew McLeod.[92] Under cross-examination, she admitted that she did not know McLeod's name at the time of the murder as had first claimed, and only learned McLeod's name in December 1978 when she saw his photograph in the newspapers.[92] Foote was the roommate of Cotgrave and at the preliminary hearing she testified she had discussed the murder extensively with Cotgrave, but at the trial she testified she had "barely" talked about the murder with her.[93] Helen Ann Mitchell testified for the prosecution that she had seen Comeau kill Matiyek and she identified Sauvé, Hurren, Hoffman and van Haarlem as being present at the murder.[93] Mitchell was the only witness at the trial who identified van Haarlem as being present at the murder.[93] The defense lawyers questioned whatever Mitchell was even present at the Queen's Hotel as her friend Foote testified she could not remember seeing her at the Queen's Hotel on 18 October and none of the police officers interviewed her at the crime scene.[93] Mitchell was highly nervous as a witness and much of her testimony was vague.[93] Mitchell only came forward to the police on Christmas Day 1978 with her claim to have seen the murder, and she was confused about many about details.[94]
Gayle Thompson, the chief waitress at the Queen's Hotel, testified for the Crown that it was Comeau who had killed Matiyek.[95] She testified that shortly before 11 pm on 18 October 1978, she saw a group of Satan's Choice bikers arrive at the Queen's Hotel, none of whom she knew except for Sauvé and Blaker whom she recognized on sight.[96] She admitted during the investigation that she had at first said that Comeau "could" have been the gunman and only identified Comeau as the gunman at the preliminary hearing, but now insisted that her memory was clear.[97] Under cross-examination by the defense lawyer Howard Kerbel, Thompson testified: "He [the killer] had on a green parka coat with a hood that he wasn't wearing. It had fur around the hood and either a black or navy blue-coloured, I think woolen or knitted type of toque".[98] When Kerbel asked Thompson if she could see the killer's hair under the toque, she testified "of course not!", which contradicted her earlier testimony that she saw that the killer had blonde hair like Comeau.[99] Thompson was most adamant in her testimony that the killer had opened fire on Matiyek with the gun in his left hand.[100]
Cotgrave testified for the prosecution and stated she saw Comeau kill Matiyek, saying "there was no doubt in my mind at all" that Comeau was the killer.[101] She testified that the killer opened fire with the gun in his left hand.[102] However, when asked to point out Comeau in the courtroom she pointed to McLeod as she maintained that he was Comeau and her description of the killer as a man with thinning red hair matched McLeod, not Comeau.[101] Cotgrave admitted she was high on marijuana at the time of the murder, but maintained stubbornly her memory of the murder was accurate.[103] Cotgrave was the only witness who had named Sanguigni as being present at the murder as she testified that she saw him in the pinball room arguing with the Outlaw Fred Jones, and Sanguigni's lawyer Bernard Cugelman hammered her during his cross-examination as he maintained that her marijuana use had affected her memory.[104] Cotgrave broke down in tears during the cross-examination, and the sight of a 19-year-old woman being badgered by Cugelman earned her the jury's sympathy.[105] On 9 October 1979, Matiyek's girlfriend, Jamie Hanna, testified that Sauvé had ordered her away from Matiyek's table shortly before he was shot.[106] She testified that the killer was a tall man with long blonde hair and a blonde moustache.[106] All of the witnesses had placed Sauvé at Matiyek's table at the time of the murder, but in different places.[106] Thompson had testified that Sauvé was sitting to the right of Matiyek at the time of the shooting; Cotgrave and Foote had Sauvé sitting to the left of Matiyek and Hanna had Sauvé standing to the left of Matiyek.[106] Sauvé himself has stated he was sitting opposite of Matiyek when he was killed.[106] Lawyers and psychologists have the concept of "the inherent fragility of eyewitness identification" to describe the way that people who witness the same event will have broadly the same memories of it, but will differ in important details, and Lowe wrote that the Port Hope 8 trial was an excellent example of "the inherent fragility of eyewitness identification" as the eyewitnesses all differed in their recollections of the murder.[107]
Another witness for the Crown was Rod Stewart, a member of the Port Hope town council, described how Matiyek in the last moments of his life seemed frightened and had said to him as he walking back from the pay phone booth to his table that "it feels very lonely here".[108] Unlike the other witnesses, Stewart described the Satan's Choice bikers acting together in co-ordination as he described as forming a "horseshoe" formation around Matiyek's time, which was followed by his murder.[109] Stewart stated he could identify Hoffman from amongst the accused.[110] Stewart was the only witness who described the "horseshoe" formation, which Thompson, Cotgrave, Hanna and Foote denied having seen.[110] It was revealed that Stewart from where he stated he was sitting at the bar could not had easily seen Matiyek's table as there was a large pole in the way and the chairs did not swirl, leading to a lengthy debate about what Stewart had possibly seen from his vantage point.[111]
During the trial, it emerged that one of the accused, Gordon van Haarlem, had a solid alibi for where he was at the time of the murder as van Haarlem had been drinking at the King George Hotel in Peterbourgh from about 8:30 pm to 1:30 am on 18 October 1978.[112] Numerous witnesses testified that van Haarlem had been at the King George Hotel, which was supported by the security camera footage.[113] The principle evidence that Meinhardt was able to present in support of the Crown's thesis that van Haarlem was one of the killers was that Mitchell had picked his photograph out of the photo arrays shown by Constable Denis and van Haarlem had a lengthy criminal record including convictions for assault, mischief, possession of an unregistered gun, theft, possession of narcotic, and possession of narcotics with the intention of trafficking.[114]
On 25 October 1979, Campbell testified for the defense that he had killed Matiyek and the eight accused were innocent.[115] Under the Canada Evidence Act, Campbell enjoyed a limited immunity as he could not be charged with murder on the basis of his statements made on the stand, but could be charged if other evidence emerged to incriminate him..[116][117] Cambpell testified: "I pulled out my gun and shot him for my own protection. I didn't want to get shot".[116] In support of his testimony, Campbell showed that he owned a green parka coat that matched the description given by the witnesses of the green parka coat worn by the killer.[116][118] Campbell had been convicted of perjury once and as a result, the jury distrusted him.[72] Campbell strongly disliked Meinhardt whom he considered to be "pompous" and had much difficulty controlling his rage as Meinhardt brought up Campbell's perjury conviction as a way to discredit him to the jury.[119] Meinhardt asked Campbell: "Aand so not only did you go into the box and tell a lie, you have somebody else go in for you to tell a lie?", which Campbell confirmed.[119] Meinhardt further asked "And this was for a driving offense?", which Campbell again confirmed.[119] Under the advice of Affleck, Campbell had taken a number of Valium pills before he testified to calm his nerves, and as a result Campbell spoke on the stand in a flat, emotionless tone that made it appear he was reading a script.[120] In a remark to the jury, Justice Counter Osborne accused Campbell of perjury as he stated he "kept waiting for the cue cards to appear" during Campbell's testimony.[70] By contrast to Campbell's testimony, Meinhardt named Comeau as the man who fired the three shots that killed Matiyek.[121] Several witnesses mentioned that the man who killed Matiyek was a tall man with long blonde hair, described as a "big, blonde, bearded guy".[70] Meinhardt noted that Comeau had long blonde hair while Campbell had long brown hair, which led him to argue that Campbell was guilty of perjury again.[70] The witnesses all stated that the man who killed Matiyek was left-handed; Campbell was left-handed while all of the "Port Hope 8" were right-handed.[122]
Some of the evidence that emerged during the trial, such as the fact that the same bullet that killed Matiyek was found lodged inside of the body of one of the accused, Comeau, supported the defense.[121] The police had found two bullets at the crime scene, but the first bullet that went though Matiyek's neck was still missing.[121] On 31 October 1979, Comeau visited the Victoria hospital in London to have the bullet that had struck him on 18 October 1978 removed from his body, which was then handed over for a ballistic test, which confirmed that bullet was fired from the same gun as the two other bullets that had killed Matiyek found at the crime scene.[121] Found alongside the bullet inside Comeau's arm was a piece of threading from the coat Matiyek was wearing when he was killed.[17] For Comeau to be the killer as Meinhardt had claimed would have required the bullet to perform an impossible feat, namely go though Matiyek's neck and then boomerang in mid-air to come back and strike Comeau.[70]
The defense lawyers argued that Comeau could not have possibly fired the same bullet that went through Matiyek's neck that also ended in his side, leading the prosecution to change its thesis midway through the trial to now claim that there had been two gunmen instead of one as first claimed and despite the fact that all of the witnesses stated there had been only one gunman.[121] Comeau's jacket that he was wearing on the night of the murder could have supported his story of being shot in the upper left arm as it had a bullet hole, but his jacket had been seized by the police after his arrest and mysteriously vanished with the police saying that they had lost the jacket.[123] Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star stated about the Crown's theory of two gunmen: "Rubbish. How does Gary Comeau end up getting a bullet in him with Bill’s clothing on it? I can’t begin to believe that. There wasn’t any second guy at all. The police work was horrible. You have to remember this was the pre-DNA era, and we didn’t have that security blanket of forensic testing. The Gary Comeau conviction (for Matiyek’s murder) in today’s terms is just beyond laughable. That’s like a bad Perry Mason story."[17]
On 24 November 1979, the jury announced its verdict.[124] Sauvé and Comeau were convicted of first degree murder while Blaker, McLeod, Hurren and Hoffman were convicted of second degree murder.[125] Two of the accused, Armand Sanguigni and Gordon van Haarlem, were acquitted.[126] The conviction of six of the eight accused of Matiyek's murder despite Campbell's testimony on the witness stand that he had killed him was highly controversial in 1979 and remains so.[126] At the time, a journalist, Douglas Glasiter, wrote "Who actually fired the gun was never established..." at the trial.[70] Comeau and Sauvé were convicted of first-degree murder while the other four were convicted of second-degree murder.[70] Two of the convicted, Sauvé and Blaker, came from the Choice's Peterborough chapter. At the same time, another four members of the Choice's Peterborough chapter were also convicted of separate charges relating to a gang-rape.[127] The Peterborough chapter, which was already the weakest chapter, was effectively destroyed as a result of losing six members to the prisons, being reduced down to a shadowy existence.[127] The Queen's Hotel was renamed the Walton Hotel to avoid the associations with the murder.[128] The Walton Hotel has since been converted into a condo and is now known as the Walton Residence.
The cause célèbre
The lawyers for one of the Satan's Choice members convicted of Matiyek's murder, David "Tee Hee" Hoffmann, were able in 1981 to prove on the basis of police intercepts of Hoffmann's telephone calls that he was making phone calls in Kitchener on the night of 18 October 1978 and thus was not in Port Hope as the prosecution had claimed at the trial.[129] The fact that the police had these intercepts all along was controversial and Lowe feels that Hoffmann should never have been charged with Matiyek's murder, let alone convicted.[129] Hoffman was the treasurer of the Choice chapter in Kitchener and had known Hall since 1974, having very unfriendly relations with him.[130] Hoffmann was indicted for murder as a way to pressure him to turn Crown's evidence and testify against his club. In 1983, Hoffmann was acquitted on an appeal, with a judge ruling that the Crown had acted badly by not disclosing to Hoffman's lawyer that it had the audio tapes proving he was in Kitchener the night of the murder.[131]
Terry O'Hara, the lawyer for Blaker noted that he lived in Port Hope at the time of Matiyek's murder and was well known to both the patrons and staff of the Queen's Hotel, where he often drank.[132] O'Hara argued that the Crown's thesis that Matiyek's murder was a case of first-degree murder was illogical as Blaker was well known to the staff of Queen's Hotel who had no difficulty in identifying him to the police as one of the Satan's Choice members present when Matiyek was killed.[132] O'Hara wrote that if the Crown's thesis of a premediated killing was correct, then Satan's Choice would not have assigned someone very well known at the Queen's Hotel for such a task, and instead assigned someone who was unknown at the Queen's Hotel. For all these reasons, O'Hare asked for a review of Blaker's conviction in 1985, which was refused.[133] In 1986, a petition in Port Hope asking for a review of Blaker's conviction for second-degree murder was signed by 232 people in Port Hope who stated that Blaker was an easy-going member of Satan's Choice not known for being violent.[134]
The Port Hope case became the subject of a best-selling 1988 book, A Conspiracy of Brothers by the American journalist Mick Lowe, and the 1990 protest song Justice in Ontario by the American singer Steve Earle.[135] The "Port Hope 8" case became a cause célèbre in the 1980s–1990s, attracting even international attention.[136] Lowe charged that there was a police conspiracy to frame the accused, noting that exculpatory evidence, such as Comeau's jacket that would have supported his story that he had been shot, mysteriously disappeared after the police seized it.[137] In 1988, the Oshawa chapter president Campbell served as a guest lecturer at the University of Ottawa law school class, where he spoke about the Port Hope case as a miscarriage of justice, becoming the first and only Satan's Choice chapter president to ever give a university lecture.[138] A committee led by Comeau's sister Carol Crosby and mother Betty King campaigned to free the wrongly convicted "Port Hope 8" bikers, publishing a newsletter that had subscribers in Canada, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan.[136] The supporters of the six imprisoned bikers in both Canada and abroad were overwhelmingly women with the majority being younger women.[136] The issue was debated on the floor of the House of Commons as the NDP MP Svend Robinson and the Liberal MPs Warren Allmand and Christine Stewart all charged that the case was a miscarriage of justice.[136] In 1990, the Justice Minister, Kim Campbell, appointed a commission under Donald Avison to reexamine the Port Hope 8 case.[136] The Avison commission reported in December 1990 that all of the accused were indeed guilty and there was no miscarriage of justice.[139] The Avison report concluded that Comeau killed Matiyek and explained away the contradiction of the "boomerang bullet" by concluding one of the bullets that Comeau was alleged to have fired went though Matiyek's neck and somehow turned around in mid-air to come back to strike Comeau in the arm.[139] In response, Lorne Campbell in an interview with the journalist Timothy Appleby of the Globe & Mail made later in December 1990 once again confessed that he had killed Matiyek and begged the Crown to charge him with Matiyek's murder.[140] Unlike his statements on the stand during the trial in 1979, Campbell was not protected by the Canada Evidence Act and he could have had been charged with murder on the basis of his interview with Appleby that was published on the front page of the Globe & Mail.[140] In his biography, Unrepentant by Peter Edwards published in May 2013, Campbell once again confessed to killing Matieyk and stated that he was willing to be charged with murder on the basis of his statements.[140] The song Justice in Ontario which compared the Port Hope 8 case to the Black Donnelly massacre of 1880 and it's picture of Canada as a cruel, unjust society caused much controversy in 1990-1991..[141] Earle was warned not to perform Justice in Ontario in Canada, but he did so anywhere in a tour of Canada in 1991.[142] On 30 June 1991, Earle played Justice In Ontario at a high profile Ottawa concert.[142] Earle told the audience: "These guys have been locked pushing thirteen years, and I truly believe that they're innocent. The thing that irritates me is not the matter of someone else's different opinion, it's their complete and total indifference to the situation".[143]
A number of other wrongly convicted people such as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Donald Marshall Jr., and David Milgaard were all active in speaking at rallies for the "Port Hope 8" in the 1990s.[144] At one such rally in 1995 in Toronto, Campbell confessed in a speech to killing Matiyek, and received much applause.[145] The last of the "Port Hope 8" to be released was Comeau, who was freed on 8 September 2000.[72] The Port Hope case is routinely taught in Canadian law schools as a textbook example of a miscarriage of justice.[146] In a 2003 interview, McReelis still insisted upon the guilt of the Port Hope 8 and said of Lowe's book: "I've read the book and I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I don't happen to agree with his opinions...I feel justice was served but I still feel sorry for the victim's family. They lost a son".[41] Lowe stated in a 2013 interview: “I think I have become more convinced than ever that this is arguably the most egregious case of wrongful conviction in the annals of Canadian justice. And if the public loses faith in its own Canadian justice system, the entire system starts to rot from within. It’s like rust, it’s truly corrosive. And most people who become acquainted with the Port Hope Eight story are incredulous that such a thing could happen".[17]
Books
Auger, Michel; Edwards, Peter (2012). The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN978-0771030499.
Edwards, Peter (2013). Unrepentant The Strange and (Sometimes) Terrible Life of Lorne Campbell, Satan's Choice and Hells Angels Biker. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN9780307362575.
Edwards, Peter (2017). Hard Road: Bernie Guindon and the Reign of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club. Toronto: Random House. ISBN978-0345816108.
Langton, Jerry (2010). Showdown: How the Outlaws, Hells Angels and Cops Fought for Control of the Streets. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN978-0470678787.
Lowe, Mick (2013). A Conspiracy of Brothers: A True Story of Bikers, Murder and the Law. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN978-0345813169.
Collins Bay Institution is a multilevel correctional facility in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and falls under the supervision of Correctional Services of Canada. The facility was opened in 1930, and is now the oldest operational federal penitentiary in Ontario. The main prison is medium security, with a minimum security facility residing on the same property. A 96-bed maximum security unit is also operational.
Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club (SCMC) was a Canadian outlaw motorcycle club that was once the dominant outlaw club in Ontario, with twelve chapters based in the province, and another in Montreal, Quebec, at its peak strength in 1977. Satan's Choice grew to more than 400 members by 1970, making it the second largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world, behind only the Hells Angels.
Bernard Dieudonné Guindon, better known as "Bernie the Frog", is a Canadian former outlaw biker, gangster and boxer, best known as the founder and national president of Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club from 1965 to 2000. He was later a member of the Hells Angels until his retirement in 2006.
Francesco "Cisco" Lenti is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster, best known as the co-founder of the Loners Motorcycle Club.
Cecil Kirby is a Canadian former outlaw biker, gangster and hitman for the Commisso 'ndrina, turned police informant.
Steven Gault is a Canadian outlaw biker and police informer who played a key role in the Ontario Provincial Police's (OPP) Project Tandem operation against the Hells Angels between 2005 and 2006.
David Atwell is a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and police informer who played a key role in the Ontario Provincial Police's Project Develop operation against the Hells Angels between 2005 and 2007.
The Satan's Choice–Popeyes War was the first major outlaw motorcycle club conflict in Canada's history, involving the country's two largest Motorcycle Clubs; the Satan's Choice from Ontario, and the Popeyes from Quebec. The conflict lasted from 1974 until 1976 and saw the two motorcycle clubs battle for dominance in the country. The conflict misleadingly known in Canada as the "First Biker War" would begin a year later in 1977.
Lorne Edgar Campbell is a Canadian former outlaw biker and gangster. One of the earliest members of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club, which he joined in 1965 at the age of 17, Campbell remained a life-long member of the club, staying on until Satan's Choice joined the Hells Angels in 2000. Campbell served as the president of Satan's Choice Oshawa chapter from 1985 to 1997, and of the Hells Angels' Sudbury chapter from 2001 to 2006, amassing a number of convictions.
Garnet Douglas McEwen, nicknamed "Mother", was a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and police informer, most notable as a longtime member of Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club before serving as the first national president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Canada.
Michel Alexandre Dubé was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. Member of the Sudbury, Ontario chapter of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club, Dubé committed suicide in jail after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder and the bombing of a police station.
The Annihilators Motorcycle Club was a Canadian outlaw biker club and organized crime group of the 1980s and 1990s.
Richard Michael Anthony Sauvé is a former Canadian outlaw biker, wrongly convicted of first degree murder in the Port Hope 8 case of 1979, turned social activist.
Murray Lloyd "Merv" Blaker is a Canadian outlaw biker, convicted in the Port Hope 8 case, turned social activist.
Gary Joseph Comeau is a Canadian outlaw biker and one of the Port Hope 8 whose conviction for first degree murder in 1979 is widely considered a miscarriage of justice.
David George Hoffman is a Canadian man wrongly convicted of murder, for which he served four years in prison for before he was acquitted on an appeal.
Jeffery McLeod is a Canadian biker who was of the Port Hope 8. McLeod's conviction for second degree murder is controversial.
Lawrence James Hurren was a Canadian outlaw biker and one of the Port Hope 8.
Armand Sanguigni was a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster, and hitman for the Cotroni family who was one of the accused in the Port Hope 8 case.
Gordon John van Haarlem is a Canadian outlaw biker who was one of the "Port Hope 8" tried in one of the most controversial trials in Canadian history.
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.
