Biker Trials, The Read Free Page B

Stadnick in a local strip bar, partying with members of the Satan’s Choice, a gang from Ontario, the next province on the Hells Angels’ wishlist. Although they resided in Ontario, Stadnick and fellow Hells Angel Donald (Pup) Stockford were frequently in Montreal during the biker gang war. The police initially assumed that they and David (Wolf) Carroll, the only other anglophone in the Nomads chapter, ultimately planned to set up their own chapter in Ontario.
    Despite being ten years apart in age, Stadnick and Stockford appeared to be good friends according to underlings who would later turn informant. They were rarely seen apart when in Quebec. Sirois later testified that Stadnick and Stockford often slept at the Rockers’ fortified bunker in Montreal on Gilford Street as a security measure during the biker war. The Ontario pair faithfully attended the Hells Angels’ monthly meetings in Montreal even though they did not speak French. After they were arrested in Operation Springtime 2001, the Ontario pair asked for a separate trial in English. They asked that 500,000 documents the Crown had as evidence against the Hells Angels be translated into English, a process estimated to cost $23 million. Their request was turned down by a judge who said they would have to be content with a summary of the evidence in English.
    The request was a further sign that, despite being longtime members of the Hells Angels in Quebec, neither Stadnick nor Stockford had made a serious effort to learn French. Wiretap evidence gathered during Project Rush revealed that the francophone members of the group had to switch to English when talking on the phone to Stadnick or Stockford. One informant, who would testify at their trial, said the pair required a translater, a Hells Angels’ prospect, when he explained to them how to cut down the PCP he had supplied to them. Although they lived outside the boundaries of the biker war, Stadnick and Stockford were on high alert. In 1995, Kane told the RCMP that both men had complained of strange visits from people claiming to deliver pizzas they had not ordered. Kane also said Stadnick talked of nearly being abducted in Hamilton while he was out riding his Harley-Davidson.Kane said Stadnick believed members of the Outlaws, a long-established Ontario gang, were behind the incident. He told Kane that a pickup truck pulled up beside him at a red light and someone tried to grab him. He managed to fight off the would-be abductor and sped off on his motorcycle. At the time, Stadnick was under investigation for what appeared to be preparations for a drug pipeline between Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
    As early as December of 1994, with the war only five months old, Kane was able to tell RCMP officer Verdon that it looked like Boucher was giving the orders behind the attacks on the Rock Machine, a gang partially composed of men Boucher had been friends with before. As well, the Hells Angels had put out an ultimatum to street-level drug dealers in Montreal’s east end. They had to buy their drugs exclusively from the Hells Angels, or else.
    Long before the war began, the Rock Machine was formed by Salvatore and Giovanni Cazzetta, brothers who had gained influence in Montreal’s drug trafficking circles. That influence quickly made them targets for the police. But as the Cazzetta brothers would point out later, they were behind bars for almost the duration of the war.
    Despite using the same hierarchy system as the Hells Angels, the Rock Machine was actually not a biker gang until it officially constituted itself as one in June 1999, as its members prepared to join with the Bandidos. But when the war started, the Rock Machine was just a part of a group of criminal organizations called the Alliance whose members refused to back down before the Hells Angels. Its members were issued rings with an A surrounded by a circle of diamonds. Because it resembled the Hells Angels in many