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West End Gang
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West End Gang
The West End Gang (French: Gang de l'ouest) is a Canadian organized crime group in Montreal, Quebec. An Irish mob group originating from the Irish-Canadian ethnic enclave of Pointe-Saint-Charles in the 1950s, the majority of the gang's earnings were initially derived from truck hijackings, home invasions, kidnapping, protection rackets, extortion, and armed robbery, with its criminal activities focused on, but not restricted to, the west side of Montreal. The West End Gang came to prominence via a series of high-profile bank robberies between the 1950s and the 1970s, a period when Montreal was known as "Bank Robbery capital of North America". Due to the gang's control of illegal activity at the Port of Montreal, it moved into drug trafficking and became one of the most influential criminal organizations in Canada.
Over the years many members have been murdered or convicted of murder, most notably the 1984 assassination of one time West End Gang boss Frank "Dunie" Ryan. Subsequent revenge killings weeks later are believed to have been organized by replacement leader Allan "The Weasel" Ross. Under Ross' leadership, the West End Gang formed a partnership with the Cali Cartel, transporting large quantitites of cocaine into Canada from the United States. After Ross was convicted in 1992, leadership of the West End Gang was assumed by Gerald "Big Gerry" Matticks.
The West End Gang originated as a network of loosely affiliated Irish-Canadian gangsters in Montreal. The gang, which emerged in the 1950s, was known at first as the Irish Gang, and the name West End Gang seems to have been adopted in the late 1970s. A disproportionate number of the gang's members come from the predominantly Irish working-class Pointe-Saint-Charles district of Montreal. Other West End Gang members are from the Goose Village and Griffintown neighbourhoods. Additionally, bars and motels in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district have served as headquarters and meeting places for members of the gang.
Describing the origins of the West End Gang and how it differs from the other prominent crime groups in Montreal, the journalist Julian Sher said: "The thing about the Hells Angels and the Mafia is those are global organizations... The West End Gang could only be born and thrive in this city and in a particular neighbourhood of this city. They had no desire to take over Toronto or even the north of the city. This was such an English-Montreal product. It's like Fairmount Bagels". On the significance of the gang's ethnic makeup and the location from which it merged, Julian explained: "One of the reasons the West End Gang was able to thrive is that they were able to some degree to fly under the radar, in a largely French city with a largely French police force. The West End Gang came out of a community that was doubly marginalized. They're an English minority in a French city, but they're also poor and they're Irish in English Montreal. They're poor in a largely middle-class anglophone community. The Lachine Canal and the Ville-Marie Expressway could've been a fortress wall".
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Montreal was known as the "Bank Robbery capital of North America" as Montreal had more bank robberies than any other city in North America. The journalist D'Arcy O'Connor used as an example that in the six months between January-June 1969, Montreal had 51 bank robberies with only a quarter with the thieves being arrested, while the city of Los Angeles had 36 bank robberies in the period January-June 1969 with 60% of the thieves being arrested. The West End Gang were some of the most successful bank robbers in Montreal in this period. Montreal's status as the "Bank Robbery capital of North America" was largely due to the light sentences handed by Quebec courts, which normally gave only 5 years in prison for convicted thieves as compared to the 20 years in prison normally handed down by American courts, which allowed the gangs of Montreal to build up a cadre of experienced thieves. The largest bank robbery ever in Canadian history adjusted for inflation, namely the theft of some $20,000 in cash from the vault of the Brockville Trust & Saving Company in Brockville on 4 May 1958 was a joint operation of the West End Gang and the Cotroni family. Commander André Bouchard of the Montreal police stated about the West End Gang that they: "...weren't thugs selling drugs on the street like the French and the Italians...They had the best safecrackers and the best hijackers. Some of those guys were sixteen years old and today they're still at it".
Typical of the West End Gang members were William "Billy" Morgan who was born in poverty to Irish-Canadian parents in Montreal in 1935 and grew up in a broken home, leading him to boast in a 2008 interview: "I was a thief by the age of seven". Being placed "in care" in various foster homes, Morgan joined the West End Gang as a teenager and boasted: "Back then, I could open any lock or crack any safe and I did a lot of that. I had a knack for it".
In the 1960s, West End Gang hitman Richard Blass was involved in minor fights with many Mafiosi, particularly those related to Frank Cotroni and brothers Joe and Vincenzo Di Maulo, all of whom received death threats from Blass.
Several of the West End Gang robberies led to deaths. In an attempted robbery of a branch of the Bank of Montreal on the Beaver Hall Hill on 3 May 1971 led to a shoot-out with Raymond Lynch of the West End Gang being shot dead by the bank security guards together with an innocent by-stander Corrado Festa who was killed when he was caught in the cross-fire. On 12 September 1973, a group of West End Gang thieves led by William "Billy" MacAllister attempted to rob a Brinks armored car that again led to a shoot-out that led one of the Brinks guards, Claude Vienneau being shot and bleeding to death on the street as the robbers fled with some $278,000 in cash from the armored car. The most successful robbery committed by the West End Gang in Montreal was the theft of some $2,275,884 in cash together with golden Olympic coins worth $5,000 from a Brinks armored car took on 30 March 1976. In April 1976, the Montreal police formed a special squad known as the "Rubber Duck Squad" led by detective André Savard whose sole task was to hunt down those involved in the Brinks robbery of 30 March 1976. On 14 May 1976, a West End Gang member involved in the Brinks robbery, John Slawvey, was killed in a shoot-out with Savard who was attempting to arrest him on charges of robbery. On the night after Slawvey's killing, Savard was phoned by the lawyer Sidney Leithman who told him: "There's a lot of talk going and I think you should be careful, André. There's a lot of people not happy and you can push only so much...call this a warning if you want, but be careful and take care". Savard heard rumors that the West End Gang leader Frank Ryan had placed a $50,000 contract on his life, which caused to live under armed guard for some time afterwards.
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West End Gang
The West End Gang (French: Gang de l'ouest) is a Canadian organized crime group in Montreal, Quebec. An Irish mob group originating from the Irish-Canadian ethnic enclave of Pointe-Saint-Charles in the 1950s, the majority of the gang's earnings were initially derived from truck hijackings, home invasions, kidnapping, protection rackets, extortion, and armed robbery, with its criminal activities focused on, but not restricted to, the west side of Montreal. The West End Gang came to prominence via a series of high-profile bank robberies between the 1950s and the 1970s, a period when Montreal was known as "Bank Robbery capital of North America". Due to the gang's control of illegal activity at the Port of Montreal, it moved into drug trafficking and became one of the most influential criminal organizations in Canada.
Over the years many members have been murdered or convicted of murder, most notably the 1984 assassination of one time West End Gang boss Frank "Dunie" Ryan. Subsequent revenge killings weeks later are believed to have been organized by replacement leader Allan "The Weasel" Ross. Under Ross' leadership, the West End Gang formed a partnership with the Cali Cartel, transporting large quantitites of cocaine into Canada from the United States. After Ross was convicted in 1992, leadership of the West End Gang was assumed by Gerald "Big Gerry" Matticks.
The West End Gang originated as a network of loosely affiliated Irish-Canadian gangsters in Montreal. The gang, which emerged in the 1950s, was known at first as the Irish Gang, and the name West End Gang seems to have been adopted in the late 1970s. A disproportionate number of the gang's members come from the predominantly Irish working-class Pointe-Saint-Charles district of Montreal. Other West End Gang members are from the Goose Village and Griffintown neighbourhoods. Additionally, bars and motels in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district have served as headquarters and meeting places for members of the gang.
Describing the origins of the West End Gang and how it differs from the other prominent crime groups in Montreal, the journalist Julian Sher said: "The thing about the Hells Angels and the Mafia is those are global organizations... The West End Gang could only be born and thrive in this city and in a particular neighbourhood of this city. They had no desire to take over Toronto or even the north of the city. This was such an English-Montreal product. It's like Fairmount Bagels". On the significance of the gang's ethnic makeup and the location from which it merged, Julian explained: "One of the reasons the West End Gang was able to thrive is that they were able to some degree to fly under the radar, in a largely French city with a largely French police force. The West End Gang came out of a community that was doubly marginalized. They're an English minority in a French city, but they're also poor and they're Irish in English Montreal. They're poor in a largely middle-class anglophone community. The Lachine Canal and the Ville-Marie Expressway could've been a fortress wall".
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Montreal was known as the "Bank Robbery capital of North America" as Montreal had more bank robberies than any other city in North America. The journalist D'Arcy O'Connor used as an example that in the six months between January-June 1969, Montreal had 51 bank robberies with only a quarter with the thieves being arrested, while the city of Los Angeles had 36 bank robberies in the period January-June 1969 with 60% of the thieves being arrested. The West End Gang were some of the most successful bank robbers in Montreal in this period. Montreal's status as the "Bank Robbery capital of North America" was largely due to the light sentences handed by Quebec courts, which normally gave only 5 years in prison for convicted thieves as compared to the 20 years in prison normally handed down by American courts, which allowed the gangs of Montreal to build up a cadre of experienced thieves. The largest bank robbery ever in Canadian history adjusted for inflation, namely the theft of some $20,000 in cash from the vault of the Brockville Trust & Saving Company in Brockville on 4 May 1958 was a joint operation of the West End Gang and the Cotroni family. Commander André Bouchard of the Montreal police stated about the West End Gang that they: "...weren't thugs selling drugs on the street like the French and the Italians...They had the best safecrackers and the best hijackers. Some of those guys were sixteen years old and today they're still at it".
Typical of the West End Gang members were William "Billy" Morgan who was born in poverty to Irish-Canadian parents in Montreal in 1935 and grew up in a broken home, leading him to boast in a 2008 interview: "I was a thief by the age of seven". Being placed "in care" in various foster homes, Morgan joined the West End Gang as a teenager and boasted: "Back then, I could open any lock or crack any safe and I did a lot of that. I had a knack for it".
In the 1960s, West End Gang hitman Richard Blass was involved in minor fights with many Mafiosi, particularly those related to Frank Cotroni and brothers Joe and Vincenzo Di Maulo, all of whom received death threats from Blass.
Several of the West End Gang robberies led to deaths. In an attempted robbery of a branch of the Bank of Montreal on the Beaver Hall Hill on 3 May 1971 led to a shoot-out with Raymond Lynch of the West End Gang being shot dead by the bank security guards together with an innocent by-stander Corrado Festa who was killed when he was caught in the cross-fire. On 12 September 1973, a group of West End Gang thieves led by William "Billy" MacAllister attempted to rob a Brinks armored car that again led to a shoot-out that led one of the Brinks guards, Claude Vienneau being shot and bleeding to death on the street as the robbers fled with some $278,000 in cash from the armored car. The most successful robbery committed by the West End Gang in Montreal was the theft of some $2,275,884 in cash together with golden Olympic coins worth $5,000 from a Brinks armored car took on 30 March 1976. In April 1976, the Montreal police formed a special squad known as the "Rubber Duck Squad" led by detective André Savard whose sole task was to hunt down those involved in the Brinks robbery of 30 March 1976. On 14 May 1976, a West End Gang member involved in the Brinks robbery, John Slawvey, was killed in a shoot-out with Savard who was attempting to arrest him on charges of robbery. On the night after Slawvey's killing, Savard was phoned by the lawyer Sidney Leithman who told him: "There's a lot of talk going and I think you should be careful, André. There's a lot of people not happy and you can push only so much...call this a warning if you want, but be careful and take care". Savard heard rumors that the West End Gang leader Frank Ryan had placed a $50,000 contract on his life, which caused to live under armed guard for some time afterwards.