8 men found dead in Ontario village, biker gangs suspected

American organized crime groups included traditional groups such as La Cosa Nostra & the Italian Mafia to modern groups such as Black Mafia Family. Discuss the most organized criminal groups in the United States including gangs in Canada.
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8 men found dead in Ontario village, biker gangs suspected

Unread post by RealTO » April 8th, 2006, 10:42 pm

Eight men dead in mass murder in Ontario village known for biker activity

April 9, 2006 - 0:45
By: GREGORY BONNELL

SHEDDEN, Ont. (CP) - Eight men were found dead Saturday inside four vehicles left on a tract of farmland now believed to be the site of Ontario's worst mass murder.

The quiet village of 800 about 30 kilometres southwest of London near St. Thomas is known as Ontario's rhubarb capital, but also has a history of biker activity, raising speculation among some that the grisly scene had links to the underworld.

Shocked residents were in search of answers, although police were not disclosing many details about the bizarre crime scene.

They refused to make any link to organized crime or confirm reports that each of the men had been shot to death.

"We're not in a position to reveal how they were murdered," Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Dave Rektor told a news conference about eight hours after the bodies were found by the property owner at about 8:30 a.m.

"I won't confirm at this point what the persons were killed by."

An aerial view showed the vehicles parked within 200 metres of each other. The bodies were still inside. One man's body, curled in the trunk of a car, his wrists pinned in front of him, was in clear view from above.

A minivan was discovered in a field about 20 metres off a dirt road. About 100 metres away, a tow truck was found parked on the shoulder with a small silver car hooked to the back. The tow truck was marked with the logo "Superior Towing." The owner of a firm by that name in the Toronto area denied that the truck was one of his.

A fourth car was parked in a clearing about 100 metres along the dirt road. The hatch was wide open.

Mary and Russell Steele, who own the property around which the cars were parked, said that the vehicles weren't there when they took the road home the night before at around 8:30 p.m.

They said they called police Saturday morning after looking inside one of the vehicles and not being able to see anything because of a blanket covering the back window.

"We didn't see anybody in them, so we just phoned the cops with the licence plate numbers," Russell Steele said.

"The police opened opened the back and I could see forms," his wife said. "I couldn't tell, but immediately in my mind I thought, 'these are bodies.'�"

Surrounding Elgin County has a history of biker activity. Several motorcycle clubs have been known to populate the area including the Loners, the Bandidos and the Hells Angels.

In separate incidents in 1994 and 1998, the bodies of a man and a woman were found dumped in county fields.

Both had been beaten to death and neither of the murders were ever solved.

In October 1999, there was a shootout on Highway 401, apparently the result of a rift inside one of the gangs.

"Whether or not it's connected to anything we're not sure," Rektor said.

Residents whose homes border the crime scene said they were unaware of any biker activity.

But most found it too unbelievable that such a large-scale murder could have been at the hands of anyone they knew. Their backyard had been made a dumping ground by an underworld from elsewhere, they said.

"I assume it has nothing to do with anyone local," said Ronald Baxter, 71, who lives about half a kilometre away from where the bodies were found.

"I suspect it has nothing to do with this area and that simply some chance random selection was made as to where these vehicles were going to be dropped off."

"There's nothing that goes on here in Shedden. You've got Rosy Rhubarb Days, that's the big event."

Mayor James McIntyre said police had assured the village's 800 residents they were not in any danger.

"The investigators basically said that there was no concerns of anybody being at risk in the community," said McIntyre.

Stan Lidster, the 60-year-old deputy mayor, said the murders had the markings of organized crime.

"At least, myself, I'm astounded eight bodies were found in Southold Township," Lidster said. "It's got to be an organized crime."

A local councillor said whoever was responsible for the murders had targeted Shedden because it is secluded.

"I think it's just one of those things where they picked an area that they thought might have been quiet for something," said Robert Monteith.

Darlene Deslandes, who has lived in the area all her life and had a full view of the vehicles from her back window, called the murder scene scary and wildly out of character.

"It's quiet and calm, nothing ever happens here," Deslandes said.

"If they are from around this area, it would be scarier than if it's someone from far away."

Brett Potter, 43, who has lived in the village for a decade, said he was looking for answers.

"It's not something we're used to in this neighbourhood. It's a quiet area," Potter said.

"It would be nice to know what happened, what brought it about."

Another man whose property borders the dirt road said he was frustrated by the lack of information provided by authorities.

"I've heard more from a friend in Calgary whose daughter was on the Internet than I've heard from around here," he said.

Neither Ontario's coroner nor the Attorney General's office would comment.

Police, whose cruisers blocked both ends of Stafford Line well into the evening, would not answer questions but were stopping cars to ask drivers what they had seen.

A covered transport truck removed at least one of the vehicles - bodies in tow - under the cloak of darkness late Saturday, with the remaining vehicles to be removed overnight and taken to a central location in London before being transported to Toronto, police said.

No more details were to be provided until a 10 a.m. news conference on Sunday.

Some high-profile cases of mass or multiple murders in Canada:

-Three hundred and twenty-nine people, including 278 Canadians, killed when bomb explodes on an Air India jet flying from Toronto to Bombay in June 1985. Two British Columbia men were tried for murder but were found not guilty.

-Fourteen women killed by anti-feminist Marc Lepine at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in December 1989. Lepine wounded another nine women and four men and fatally shot himself.

-Thirteen people died after being herded into a storage room in Montreal's Gargantua nightclub in 1975. Some were shot but most suffocated when the building was set on fire in what was believed to be an underworld contract hit.

-Nine people gunned down by Mark Chahal, a spurned son-in-law in Vernon, B.C., who killed his estranged wife, her bride-to-be-sister and seven other relatives before killing himself in April 1996.

-Nine people slain in 1967 in Shell Lake, Sask., by Robert Hoffman, who was later sent to an Ontario mental institution.

-Nine miners killed by deliberately set blast in Yellowknife's Giant Mine in September 1992. Roger Warren, a striking miner, sentenced to life in prison for setting the bomb during a bitter strike-lockout.

-The bodies of eight adult males are found in a farmer's field near Shedden, in southwestern Ontario.

-Seven people, including six children, murdered in 1965 by Leonard Hogue, a former Vancouver police constable, who then killed himself.

-Bodies of six campers found in burned-out car in Wells Gray Provincial Park north of Kamloops, B.C., in 1982. David Shearing of Clearwater, B.C., confesses.

-Bodies of four adults and a baby associated with the doomsday cult Order of the Solar Temple found in the burned-out remains of a chalet in Morin Heights, Que., in 1994. The couple believed responsible fled to Switzerland where they were among 53 cultists who were killed or committed suicide.

-Five people found dead on a farm in Abbotsford, B.C., in September 1996. Police believed the killings were related to the drug trade.

-Four employees killed at OC Transpo transit garage in Ottawa by co-worker Pierre Lebrun in April 1999. Lebrun, who had complained of ongoing harassment in the workplace, then killed himself.

-Four members of engineering faculty at Concordia University in Montreal gunned down in 1992 by Valery Fabricant, a disgruntled colleague sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years.

-Three people killed by wild machine-gun fire in 1984 when Canadian Forces Cpl. Denis Lortie invades Quebec legislature. Lortie freed on day parole in 1995.

-Three people killed and a fourth injured after a botched robbery at a McDonald's restaurant in Sydney River, N.S. in 1992. Three men handed life sentences for the triple-slaying.

-Three shot to death in 1992 at Ontario Glove, a plant in Waterloo, Ont., by co-worker Patrick Dombroskie. He then drove to nearby Cambridge and surrendered to police.

http://www.680news.com/news/national/ar ... t=n040902A

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Unread post by RealTO » April 10th, 2006, 3:48 am

Massacre points to Toronto biker war
Three gang members reported missing after eight bodies found in farmer's field


JOE FRIESEN AND TIMOTHY APPLEBY

From Monday's Globe and Mail

SHEDDEN, ONT. and TORONTO — A long-simmering rivalry between criminal biker gangs appears to have exploded in the largest gangland slaying in Ontario history.

Three members of the Bandidos motorcycle club, long-time rivals of the Hells Angels, were reported missing Friday and may be among the eight bodies discovered Saturday morning.

One of the missing men is believed to be associated with Superior Towing, the Toronto-based company whose truck was found abandoned on a side road south of London, Ont., not far from the home of a well-known biker-gang leader.

Police sources told The Globe and Mail that the men, three of the dozen members of the Bandidos' lone Canadian chapter, based in Toronto, were reported missing by relatives.

Sources say Bandido members George Jessof and Frank Salerno are among the missing.

For many years most notably in Scandinavia, the Hells Angels and Bandidos have battled for control of the drug trade, resulting in many deaths.

The Ontario Provincial Police said they have some understanding of who the victims are, and are convinced they all knew each other, but they did not release any names pending formal identification.

The eight bodies, all men from the Greater Toronto Area, were discovered by a farmer in rural Elgin County. They were found in and around three cars and a tow truck that had one of the cars attached to it. But police would not say how the men died. The discovery shocked the sleepy farming community just south of Highway 401.

"It's horrible," said Carl, who lives next to the crime scene but didn't give his last name. "This isn't something from around here. I can the see the 401 from here. I think somebody just thought this was a good place to dispose of someone."

The OPP investigation yesterday included scrutiny of the home of a known biker who lives a few kilometres from the crime scene. A spokesman would not reveal any details, citing operational security, but neighbours said several cruisers could be seen around the home of Wayne Kellestine, the former leader of the St. Thomas Annihilators and St. Thomas Loners biker gangs.

It's not known whether Mr. Kellestine, who survived an assassination attempt in 1999, has any active links to biker gangs.

But former Bandidos member Edward Winterhalder told The Canadian Press yesterday that Mr. Kellestine had connections to the Bandidos.

"I can tell you that it's Bandidos that got killed," added Mr. Winterhalder, who left the gang in 2003 and wrote Out in Bad Standings, a book about his time inside the gang.

The killings could have ramifications in biker-gang battles across North America, he said.

"We're watching this with eyes wide open," he said from his home in Oklahoma.

With about 600 members worldwide, the Bandidos number roughly one-quarter the Hells Angels' global strength. In Canada, the disparity is greater still, with no more than a few dozen full-patch Bandidos -- many of whom are in jail -- balanced against an estimated 500 Hells Angels or close associates.

At a press conference near the crime scene yesterday, the OPP declined to discuss possible motives for the mass slaying.

In the early hours yesterday, police removed the eight bodies and four vehicles from the scene. The bodies were at the coroner's office in downtown Toronto last night awaiting post-mortem examination. The names of most of the deceased are expected to be released today.

The vehicles -- a green Chevy Silverado tow truck with the Superior Towing logo, a silver Volkswagen Golf that was attached to it, a grey Pontiac Grand Prix and a silver Infinity SUV -- have been taken to the OPP lab for forensic tests.

Aerial photographs taken Saturday showed a crime scene that stretched across 200 metres. The Infinity SUV was 20 metres off the road in a cornfield. Its back hatch was open and the body of a large man could be seen lying curled up on his side. The Pontiac, which published reports indicate is a rental car, was 50 metres up the road from the tow truck and the Golf.

Danny Creatura, owner of Superior Towing & Storage Ltd. in Toronto, said in an interview that he last saw the usual driver of the green tow truck on Friday afternoon.

"So far, I haven't been contacted by the police so I can't even say if the person who was driving one of my trucks is one of my drivers," Mr. Creatura said, adding that he did not believe any property belonging to his company has been stolen.

OPP Detective Superintendent Ross Bingley, who heads the investigation, said detectives are gathering evidence and won't be releasing any further information until forensic examinations are complete. He refused to discuss the possibility that the Hells Angels or other biker gangs might be connected to the killings.

"The Hells are present in Ontario. Everybody knows that. But as far as me discussing the Hells or anybody else, we're working on a murder case and we're not talking about the Hells."

Police said they would keep the area sealed off for as long as necessary.

"The last thing we want is some member of the public to find something that we should've found. So we're going to be very thorough and do it properly," said OPP Constable Doug Graham.

Moulds of tire tracks left in the dirt road are among the details that will be gathered by forensics investigators.

At the Hells Angels' downtown Toronto clubhouse, which resembles a fortress with surveillance cameras and thick concrete walls, a man who answered the door declined all comment about the killing.

"Sorry, can't talk to you," he said.

On the bikers' website, a message said: "The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, or any of its members, are not involved in this crime in any way shape or form. Newspaper reports and speculation to the contrary, will be proved completely wrong in the coming days."

The Hells Angels have suffered a series of setbacks in recent months.

In a landmark decision last July, involving a case of extortion, a Superior Court judge in Barrie, Ont., ruled under laws designed to combat organized crime that the Hells Angels are a criminal organization.

In January, an OPP agent infiltrated the Thunder Bay Hells Angels chapter, which led to the arrest of five full-patch members and -- according to police -- the disruption of the cocaine trade in Northern Ontario.

And last week, news reports surfaced of a possible deal that would see North Toronto full-patch member, Paris Christoforou, plead guilty in connection to the 2004 shooting that left Toronto mother Louise Russo paralyzed.

With reports from Jeffery Hawkins, Hayley Mick and Canadian Press

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ional/home

Biker gangs' feuds leave bloody trail
Turf wars between rivals have killed club members and innocent bystanders


HAYLEY MICK AND TU THANH HA

TORONTO AND MONTREAL -- In the aftermath of the discovery of eight bodies in rural Ontario this weekend, police sources have pointed to outlaw biker gangs, a criminal element with a bloody history in Canada.

During the 1990s, about 160 people died during the decade-long turf war in Quebec between the Hells Angels and a smaller biker club called the Rock Machine.

The Hells Angels wanted absolute control over the distribution of illegal drugs in the Montreal area. From 1994 to 2001, the Rock Machine fought furiously to keep its share of the market, and scores died as hostilities spread through Quebec.

When the turf war peaked during the mid-1990s, it was being won by the Hells Angels, who had greater resources and systematically killed off their rivals one by one.

The largest mass killing occurred in September, 1995, when the Rock Machine tried to plant a bomb at the clubhouse of a Hells Angels-affiliated gang. They were spotted and their bomb went off, killing three Rock Machine supporters.

While most casualties of the biker war were criminals, they also included two prison guards and an 11-year-old boy who was hit by shrapnel from a car bomb in August, 1995. The death of young Daniel Desrochers and the outrage that followed prompted Bill C-95, legislation that stiffened penalties for convicted offenders who are shown to be members of established criminal organizations.

Then, in the fall of 2000, facing public outrage over the growing death toll and the shooting of reporter Michel Auger, the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine announced a ceasefire in their war.

It was short-lived.

Within weeks, the Rock Machine obtained probationary membership in a major gang, the Bandidos -- historical rivals of the Hells.

The Rock Machine had just started three chapters in Ontario, and the merger handed the Bandidos a toehold in the one major province still eluding the Angels.

The Hells Angels responded by offering other Ontario biker gangs a one-time-only proposal, which included immediate membership and no probation phase. By early 2001, they were a powerhouse in Ontario.

Today, the province's roughly 250 Hells Angels and associates insist they are a motorcycle club, not a criminal organization. The Bandidos, while considered the world's second most powerful outlaw motorcycle gang, have only one tiny toehold left in Canada -- their Toronto chapter.

While biker violence has a long history, it has only rarely flared up into mass murder like the most notorious gangland settling of accounts, the Lennoxville Massacre.

In the mid-1980s, the Hells Angels in Quebec decided that one chapter, located in the suburb of Laval, north of Montreal, had become too rowdy and unreliable because of members' drug and financial problems.

In March, 1985, five members of the chapter were lured to a meeting at a clubhouse in Lennoxville, Que., where they were machine-gunned. Another was murdered later.

The following month, the police raided the Lennoxville clubhouse and looked in vain for the bodies of the six missing bikers. Eventually, during a ghoulish 10-day period in June, bloated bodies surfaced from the St. Lawrence River. They had been wrapped in sleeping bags, chained to concrete blocks and dumped in the water.

Five Hells Angels were eventually sentenced to life for the Lennoxville murders. Nine others pleaded guilty to reduced charges of being accessories after the fact.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... 10/TPStory

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Unread post by RealTO » April 10th, 2006, 7:19 pm

Five arrested in mass murder
Eight slain men were associated with the notorious Bandidos motorcycle gang


Apr. 10, 2006. 08:08 PM
CANADIAN PRESS

LONDON, Ont. — A prominent member of the Bandidos biker gang was one of five people charged with first-degree murder Monday after eight of its members were killed in a violent “internal cleansingâ€

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Unread post by Christina Marie » April 10th, 2006, 9:31 pm

Crazy.

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Unread post by RealTO » April 11th, 2006, 5:20 am

Characters in a mass murder
Dead all belonged to Bandidos chapter Most accused had no known gang ties



Apr. 11, 2006. 01:00 AM

In what police say is an act of internecine warfare, a Bandidos motorcycle club member and four others with no known biker gang affiliations have been charged in the slaying of eight men who were either "full-patch" Bandidos members or associates.

THE DEAD

Francesco Salerno, 43, of Oakville. A full patch member of the Toronto chapter of the Bandidos. Salerno was a founder of the chapter and reportedly a past president. He worked as a Toronto tow truck driver, according to sources.

George Jesso, 52, full-patch member of the Bandidos. Thought to be a lesser player, the tow-truck driver had cruised Toronto highways for the past several decades looking for accidents. "He lived on the Gardiner Expressway, picking up fish," said one towing source. The Newfoundland native had been with Superior Towing for 10 years and was living in a truck. "The guy's been working the highway all his life," said a source. "He's a good worker, wouldn't harm a fly, but he would show up at accident and ... play tough. Try to intimidate."

Jamie Flanz, 37, of Keswick, a Bandidos prospect. A friend says Flanz became mixed up with the wrong people, and was tight with patched member Paul Sinopoli. The friend last saw him at 5:30 p.m. Friday leaving home in his Infiniti FX3 wagon. The friend later recognized the vehicle in media reports from the scene, and recognized the man in the open rear hatch of the wagon as Sinopoli. Flanz, who once worked as a bouncer in a strip club, was investigated by Durham police in December, after the body of another friend was found in a wooded area of Pickering.

Paul "Big Paulie" Sinopoli, 30, of Sutton, Ont., full patch member of the Bandidos. His body was discovered lying in the open hatch of Flanz's Infiniti.

Luis Manny Raposo, 41, of Toronto, full patch member. Raposo had been in trouble with the law in both Quebec and Ontario. He is referred to in court documents as a low-level member of the Bandidos, and may have been an enforcer.

He is listed as the administrator of the chapter's website. His father says he left the house Friday night, saying he would be out for a couple of hours. He was separated, living at home, unemployed and had recently worked as a truck driver. His Volkswagen was found at the scene.

Michael Trotta, 31, of Milton, associate of the Bandidos. Little is known about his past.

George "The Greek" Kriarakis, 28, of Toronto, a full patch member of the Bandidos. According to sources, he was a tow truck driver, too.

John "Boxer" Muscedere, 48, of Chatham, full patch Bandidos member.

Believed to be the Canadian president. He's been riding since he was 16 and was a former member of the Loners Motorcycle Club. In 1999, when the local chapter's new clubhouse was causing a stir, he told a Chatham reporter: "We're Loners. We get along with everybody." He said he joined for the camaraderie and that his father was helping to fortify the clubhouse. Wayne Kellestine, then president of the Loners chapter near Dover, was also facing weapons and murder conspiracy charges.

"Nothing's been proven," Muscedere told the reporter.

THE ACCUSED

Wayne "Weiner" Kellestine, 56, of Dutton-Dunwich, full patch Bandidos member.

Former leader of the Annihilators and the St. Thomas chapter of the Loners, he has a long criminal record and has been the subject of biker assassination plots. The bodies of eight fellow Bandidos members and associates were found Saturday 22 kilometres west of his farmhouse.

Eric Niessen, 25, Monkton, Ont., near Stratford. No known gang affiliation.

Kerry Morris, 56, also of Monkton. No known gang affiliation

Frank Mather, 32, of Dutton-Dunwich. No known gang affiliation.

Brett Gardiner, 21, of no fixed address. No known gang affiliation.

Reporting by Jim Rankin, Peter Edwards, John Duncanson, Dale Brazao, jim wilkes and Dale Anne Freed. Research by Star librarians.

Source


'No Surrender Crew' aptly named
Members of Bandidos group that resisted rival Angels are dead


Adrian Humphreys and Mary Vallis
National Post

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

TORONTO - It seems the "No Surrender Crew" may have been true to their nickname until the end.

The small core of Bandidos Motorcycle Club members in Ontario who stood their ground in the face of overwhelming opposition from the Hells Angels earned -- and revelled in -- their nickname for their loyalty. When others quit their gang, they stayed. When others joined their domineering rivals, they remained steadfast.

And now six members, a prospective member and an associate of the Bandidos No Surrender Crew are dead, shot and dumped in a farm field, as part of "internal cleansing" within the gang, the Ontario Provincial Police said.

The origins of the purge might well lie in their obstinacy and a larger deal on the world stage between the two largest outlaw biker gangs.

Police investigators say the Bandidos headquarters in the United States recently ordered their counterparts in Canada to close down their shop.

The order was apparently part of a deal that would give the Hells Angels control north of the border.

In exchange, the Angels would agree not to expand into Bandidos territory elsewhere.

The eight Bandidos may have been killed because they were not complying from the order on high fast enough. That they refused to surrender.

"There are bigger concerns, global concerns, for these guys to worry about. They are not going to let a half dozen guys in Ontario -- territory they have already lost to the Angels -- get in the way, take away their comfort zone, in their core centres," said an organized crime investigator who has probed biker gangs.

"If the deal had been made -- that the Hells get Canada and they get something in return -- then that's that. Game over."

The massacre marks the end of the last organized resistance to the supremacy of the Hells Angels in Ontario, underworld observers said.

The dead men, whose bodies were discovered in an isolated wooded area near Shedden, Ont., on Saturday, were among the handful of surviving members of the Bandidos, a biker gang with an international presence and one of the few that still offers any challenge to the dominance of the Hells Angels in several other countries.

There has long been tension over the presence of both gangs in Ontario, Canada's most lucrative drug territory.

The Texas-based Bandidos came to Ontario during the tenuous truce that ended the Quebec biker war and drew its Canadian members from the remnants of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club, the gang that fought the Hells Angels in Quebec for dominance of the drug trade.

The eight dead bikers were originally members of The Loners, a gang scattered across southern Ontario. Half of their members "patched over" -- or defected -- to the Hells Angels in late 2000, which was part of a mass defection across Ontario led by Ottawa-based Hells Angel Paul "Sasquatch" Porter.

But not everyone wished to join the Hells Angels. Instead, they were courted to the Bandidos, a long-held dream of one of the key Rock Machine members. The patchover to the Bandidos was hatched in a Toronto coffee shop.

The Bandidos' move into Ontario was considered an affront by the Hells Angels, who had no official chapters but plenty of allies in the province.

To counter the Bandidos' incursion into southern Ontario, the Hells Angels arranged a mass "patch-over" of members from small, independent biker gangs who covered their own club badges with the emblem of the Hells Angels.

The bad blood was only enhanced when many members of the old Rock Machine and Bandidos then defected to join the more powerful Angels, reducing the Bandidos' presence in Ontario to a handful of members.

The holdouts aggravated their former comrades by touting themselves as being tough and brave enough to turn their backs on the Hells Angels and stay true to their "colours," what the bikers call the patches on their backs that declare their gang affiliation.

The Ontario remnants, most of whom were among the eight men murdered this weekend, responded with their tagline -- used on their Web site, in online messages and internal communications -- "No Surrender Crew."

"In watching this stuff for 32 years, this is one of the more shocking incidents. It's a very messy way of doing house cleaning," said James Dubro, author of several books on organized crime.

"This is probably the end of the Bandidos in Ontario but it will also mean incredible pressure against the Hells Angels. It is bad news for all bikers as there will be a huge crackdown now by police, as there should be," Mr. Dubro said.

The killings, even if not the workings of a grander plan, will not lead to a repeat of the kind of violent biker war that rocked Quebec in the 1990s, because there is no gang capable of challenging the Angels.

"There won't be another biker war because there's nobody left to fight," says Jerry Langton, author of Fallen Angel, a new book about the Hells Angels. "Basically, there is now no opposition to the Hells Angels in Ontario."

The Hells Angels not only proclaimed their innocence in the massacre but are now publicly declaring that members of the Bandidos are not their enemies.

"The Hells Angels have no involvement whatsoever," said Donny Petersen, a motorcycle shop owner, Hells Angels member and sometime spokesman for the Hells Angels in Ontario.

"If it is true that some or all of the victims are members of the Bandidos, I could clarify our relationship with the Bandidos. We are not enemies and have very little contact, social or otherwise with them."

"We move in different circles. They are never wherever we are."

The bikers' desire to distance themselves from the killings is not surprising: Such murders are sure to be bad for business.

And Daniel Sanger, author of Hell's Witness, a book about an informant who infiltrated the Hells Angels, said that for the Angels, business comes first.

"Everything we've always thought about the gang in Ontario is that business came before everything else," Mr. Sanger said.

He said the 1985 murders of five members of the Hells Angels in Lennoxville, Que., led to crackdowns on the bikers that hurt their trade in drugs and prostitution for years. "It messed up the Hells Angels in Quebec for quite awhile."

This massacre could spell similar problems for bikers in Ontario.

"[The police] are going to pursue it until its end and they are going to come down very, very heavily on whomever is responsible," he said.

"It will mess up business for quite awhile," Mr. Sanger said.
© National Post 2006

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Unread post by North Face » April 11th, 2006, 8:12 pm

this is a conspiracy, cops were involved.

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Unread post by EmperorPenguin » April 12th, 2006, 2:36 am

Looks like the HA just took over Ontario, and they didn't have to do a thing.

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Unread post by RealTO » April 12th, 2006, 6:11 am

Updates: A few different versions of the movtive



Biker killings spawn conflicting theories
As search for clues continues at scene, some police doubt Texas connection


TIMOTHY APPLEBY

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

A carefully planned mass slaying? Or an angry confrontation that spiralled into a bloodbath? As police probe last weekend's unprecedented slaughter in Southwestern Ontario, signs point toward the latter.

Gangland murders are as familiar as outlaw biker organizations themselves.

When Texas biker Anthony Benesh was shot dead in an ambush outside an Austin pizza restaurant last month, suspicion immediately fell on the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang and its long-time rivalry with the Hells Angels.

Mr. Benesh, 44, had been sporting the Hells Angels insignia and was planning to set up a local chapter in the heart of Bandidos country, according to an Austin police search warrant. He had been warned by members of the Bandidos in cellphone and text messages that he was playing with fire.

So after eight Ontario Bandidos and associates were found shot dead in an Elgin County farmer's field, one of the theories to surface was that a wholesale "patch-over" to Canada's Hells Angels was in the works and that Bandidos headquarters in Texas ordered the killings to prevent it.

With just one 12-member chapter in Toronto and a smaller, junior chapter in Winnipeg, the Canadian Bandidos were being steadily steamrollered by the Hells Angels, which now boasts more than 30 chapters nationwide and a combined 500 members and associates.

An alternative theory is that the Canadian Bandidos had disobeyed instructions from the U.S. parent organization and were murdered in retribution.

Police sources on both sides of the border, however, believe neither of those scenarios is plausible.

Investigators continued their search for clues yesterday, both at the rural home of Bandido Wayne (Wiener) Kellestine, 56 -- one of five people arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killings -- and along a stretch of Ontario's Highway 401.

Forensic detectives in white suits picked their way around Mr. Kellestine's property while colleagues combed the median and ditches along the busy highway.

So what might have led to the mass murder, which police believe did not directly involve the Hells Angels or any other non-Bandidos bikers?

The consensus among well-placed police sources and biker experts seems to be that, given Mr. Kellestine's track record of erratic, violent behaviour, and his documented love of weapons, and given that the killings occurred so close to his home, the massacre last Friday and Saturday was not ordered by anyone.

Instead, a confrontation -- perhaps fuelled by drugs and sparked by a shift of allegiance toward the Hells Angels, by far the most dominant outlaw biker gang in Ontario and the rest of Canada -- may have simply got wildly out of hand.

"If you want to kill someone, you don't invite them to your place," said biker expert and former RCMP officer Guy Ouellette.

"Having so many Bandidos at the same place, it was probably for a party or a church [membership] meeting."

Mr. Kellestine hated the Hells Angels, not least because two of their associates once tried to kill him.

And conceivably, some of the dead men may have told him they were planning to defect, as many other Bandidos have done.

Alternatively, but less likely, it could be that for all his animosity toward the Hells Angels, Mr. Kellestine had intended to switch sides, like London Hells Angels chapter president Billy Miller, a former Bandido.

"Did six say we're going [to the Hells Angels], six say we're not, and there was a gunfight? It could be," said a police source who has spent years tracking outlaw bikers.

Or, perhaps, the violence stemmed from something as uncomplicated as a drug theft.

As to the scope of the massacre, it may be that some of the victims were killed simply because they were witnesses to violence that began on a much smaller scale.

But so far there is no evidence the clumsy mass killings near St. Thomas, with bodies and vehicles abandoned in plain view, were orchestrated from Bandidos headquarters in Galveston.

Ontario Provincial Police Detective Inspector Don Bell, who heads the Biker Enforcement Unit, said on Monday he does not believe tensions between the U.S. and Canadian Bandidos have any bearing on events.

And in Texas yesterday, a police officer who tracks the Bandidos closely said the same.

"We know nothing that says that [the U.S. organization] knew," he said. "We have nothing that shows us they did it. I don't think they had any knowledge it was going to happen."

The killer or killers would have had to receive sanction from Bandidos headquarters, the officer said.

"And he didn't."

With a report by Julian Sher

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ional/home


Massacre a drug ripoff
The night started with the transfer of $400,000 worth of cocaine to Wayne Kellestine's farmhouse and it ended with Ontario's largest mass murder


Apr. 12, 2006. 07:52 AM
JOHN DUNCANSON, DALE BRAZAO AND PETER EDWARDS
STAFF REPORTERS

Hours before Ontario's largest mass murder, Durham Region police officers followed three of eight Bandidos from the Toronto area to a southwestern Ontario farmhouse belonging to the man now charged with killing them, sources have told the Toronto Star.

Suspecting a major drug deal could be in the works, investigators tailed the trio west along Highway 401. But they were unaware the men were transporting a cargo of 200 kilograms of cocaine that night to fellow Bandido Wayne (Weiner) Kellestine's London-area farm, law enforcement sources say.

After watching the three men enter the farmhouse, the officers left, assuming the bikers were there for a party, the source said.

What transpired was a deadly drug ripoff that left the three Bandidos shot dead, their bodies stuffed into cars that were driven into a field. It's believed five other Bandidos arrived separately later that night, only to be systematically killed and their bodies similarly disposed of.

It's unclear whether the ripoff of $400,000 worth of cocaine was planned. It's believed the killings were going to be justified to fellow bikers as punishment for refusing to participate in a national "run," an outlaw motorcycle tradition involving members riding in formation according to club hierarchy.

Four others, including a woman, were each charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. They were to appear in a St. Thomas courtroom today.

More details, meanwhile, are emerging about Kellestine, who relished playing the role of a dangerous man.

The 56-year-old loved to pose in front of his collection of Nazi memorabilia in his rundown farmhouse, near Dutton, about a 20-minute drive from where police discovered the bodies of eight Toronto-area members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang on the weekend.

"His reputation is being an absolute renegade," said someone from the area who knows him well. "A dangerous, dangerous guy. He's always had that reputation."

Michael Simmons, who worked undercover for the Mounties and the OPP against motorcycle gangs 15 years ago, said he purchased cocaine and guns from Kellestine on several occasions and that his work helped put away 18 bikers, including his own brother, Andrew "Teach" Simmons — onetime president of the Outlaws.

"I witnessed him shoot his girlfriend in the back with an air pistol just for a joke," said Simmons of Kellestine, who entered the witness protection program in 1992. "He pointed a .45-calibre at my big toe and asked me if I could blow it off, when I was trying to buy some cocaine off him."

On another occasion, Simmons said he witnessed Kellestine "come flying down the stairs" in a combat arctic suit, armed with an Uzi, after a motion detector was set off on his rural property during a party.

"There was a big party and he freaked out, went upstairs, and he was down and ready for full combat, and that scared the s--- out of me," Simmons recalled.

Before Kellestine was sentenced to two years in prison in 2000 for weapons offences and running a marijuana operation, the court was shown photos of him posing with his personal arsenal, which included machine guns and Luger pistols like those the Nazis used.

"He always had lots and lots and lots of guns," the person who knows him well said. "He had quite an arsenal of guns."

Kellestine loved to dress the part of a dirty biker, with lots of leather. But in court, he tried to dress like former New York City mobster John (the Dapper Don) Gotti.

"He always wore a three-piece suit to court," said the person who knows him well. "When he came to court, he presented himself as a professional gangster."

Kellestine was president of his own local bike gang, the Annihilators, which evolved into the Loners and was affiliated with Toronto-area Loners.

That group eventually evolved into the Bandidos, and Kellestine remained a member.

While considered a dangerous force in southwestern Ontario, he wasn't on the level of those in bigger bike gangs such as the Outlaws and Hells Angels, the person who knows him well said.

"He was never in with them," the person said. "He stuck with his own crowd. ... He's always been a renegade kind of guy."

Billy Miller, who was once part of the Loners with Kellestine, went on to become president of the London Hells Angels.

Kellestine's houseguest, Frank Mather, 32, is a far different man. He has a lengthy criminal record that includes eight break-and-enters but no violence. He served a three-year term in prison in his native New Brunswick and was on parole for possession of break-and-enter tools when arrested while trying to steal a truck.

He has never been a biker, and his consistent record of arrest suggests he would be a liability to any organized-crime group.

"He'd be a follower, not a leader," said someone from the area who knows him.

He did land a six-month sentence in 2002 for growing marijuana near London, and was convicted again in 2005 for possession of break-and-enter tools.

The person who knows Mather's criminal activity well said he can't see him taking the lead in any kind of organized-crime hit.

"It's not his play," the person said. "Frank Mather is no biker."

Guy Ouellette, a retired Quebec Provincial Police biker expert, said the Bandidos were irritating for the Hells Angels in southwestern Ontario.

He said it's too easy to pronounce the Bandidos dead, even though they have only a dozen members in Toronto — who meet in a Parkdale social club — and five members in Manitoba with a puppet club called Los Montoneros.

Source:



April 12, 2006

Tables turned in murder plot?

Ex-Bandido says 8 slain bikers were planning to oust or kill one of accused


By ALAN CAIRNS, JACK BOLAND, IAN ROBERTSON, TOM GODFREY, ROB LAMBERTI

Eight Bandidos were slain after Wayne Kellestine was tipped off about separate plots to either take his life or take away his biker's patch, sources say.

Kellestine, 56, whose Iona Station farm is now under the forensic microscope as a suspected human slaughterhouse, had become such an embarrassment to the Bandidos that he was to be eliminated -- one way or the other, sources say.

HIT SQUAD DISPATCHED

Some police and biker sources say the massacre at Kellestine's farm came just as a four-man Bandidos hit squad were about to leave Chicago and enter Canada.

And an ex-Bandidos biker said the eight men were taken out when they visited Kellestine to "kick him out of the club."

"The guys went down to pick up (Kellestine's) patch and his bike," the former member said.

"He wasn't getting hit," he said. "People say we're murderous ... but that's not the way it is."

Kellestine, the ex-biker says, was tipped off about the impending demand for his patch by a former member of the St. Thomas-based Annihalators -- the gang he belonged to before he joined the Loners and after that the Bandidos.

If Kellestine was not under a Bandidos death threat before, then he will be now, the biker said.

The loose-lipped tipster -- one of three Bandidos who have not been seen since the murders -- is also in peril.

The plots against Kellestine were apparently hatched only months after the Texas-based Bandidos organization told their disorganized Canadian arm that their club charter was being "pulled. Effective immediately."

American leaders are angry at a void in Canada's leadership.

DIED ON THEIR KNEES

The Canadians -- frustrated at demands that they still visit America despite being turned back at the border five times -- asked European clubs for support.

"As a whole, we still wholeheartedly believe, as the No Surrender Crew, that it is better to die on our feet than live on our knees," they said.

The eight Bandidos may well have died on their knees in Kellestine's farmhouse.

The test for first-degree murder requires either planning or forcible confinement.

Eric "Ratkiller" Nadeau, a Quebec police informant whose evidence in Project Amigo led to charges being laid against 62 Bandidos four years ago, said the massacre is bizarre because most of the slaying victims were "the ones who wanted the Bandidos to stay alive in Toronto."

This morning -- four days after the eight butchered Bandidos were found with three cars and a tow truck on a gravel road about 20 km away from Kellestine's farm -- OPP forensic experts and Ontario coroner officials were still trying to put together the pieces in the worst killing spree in memory.

Among the dead are Bandidos stalwarts John "Boxer" Muscedere, 48, Frank "Bam Bam" Salerno, 43, Luis Manny "Porkchop" Raposo, 41, and George (Gus) "Crash" Kriarakis, 28.

Less high-profile members Paul Sinopoli, 30, and George "Pony" Jessop, 52, were also killed, along with prospect Jamie Flanz, 37, and Michael Trotta, 31.

All but Muscedere lived in the Toronto area.

Charged with first-degree murder along with Kellestine are Eric Niessen, 45, Brett Gardner, 21, Frank Mather, 32, and Kerry Morris, 56, a woman.

Niessen, Gardner, Mather and Morris will appear again in St. Thomas court tomorrow. Kellestine will not appear again until next week.

OPP also expanded their search yesterday to a 7-km stretch of Hwy. 401.

Nadeau -- who rubbed shoulders with most of the dead Bandidos for eight months -- said the murders are "bizarre."

It does not make sense that Kellestine killed "his own people," nor that he would dump the bodies so close to his farm.

"Everybody would know it was him ... so it wouldn't make any sense. The cops would figure it out right away. It's incomprehensible," Nadeau said.

Sources say that Kellestine -- who had risen high in the biker ranks because of his drug connections -- was also known to have close contacts with some of Ontario's largest crystal meth suppliers.

Nadeau said "crystal meth" and a gun are "dangerous."

One ex-Bandido, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Sun that police claims of "internal cleansing" are "an insult."

He said Kellestine's string of failed bank stickups, tacky gunpoint ripoffs, home invasions and a pile of biker debts had annoyed the Bandidos organization.

And, in a more basic sin, Kellestine "wasn't paying his dues."

The ex-Bandido said any de-patching would have to be "sanctioned" by the international arm.

FACT-FINDING MISSION

Failure to seek permission would bring retaliation.

The ex-biker said four Bandidos from Australia and two from Germany have arrived in Canada on a fact-finding mission and to comfort the dead men's families.

In another development in the case, sources say drug cops from a local force had three of the gang members under surveillance for weeks and followed their targets to Kellestine's farm on the weekend.

The clandestine team, however, called off the surveillance when they realized the bikers were at Kellestine's house for what they thought would be a party.

The Sun has also learned that five of the eight victims were under active police investigation for a variety of crimes.

Three of the dead bikers were also being looked at for the murder of a crack addict whose body was found in a Pickering woodlot in December.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2 ... 2-sun.html


April 12, 2006
Accused linked to big meth maker
By LISA LISLE, TORONTO SUN

One of the men accused in Ontario's worst mass murder is believed to have been hooked up with one of the province's biggest Methedrine manufacturers.

Sources believe Eric Niessen, 45, began dabbling in Perth County's booming drug manufacturing industry after returning from Durham Region a couple of years ago.

Before leaving for Durham Region, the father of two was a Kinsman and a Little League coach. He and his girlfriend, Kerry Morris, 56, who drives a taxi in Mitchell, were among the five people charged with first-degree murder in last weekend's slaying of eight bikers.

Although he has never been charged with any drug-related offences, Niessen's name has come up in several major drug investigations, including a joint-forces operation that resulted in 38 arrests.

BROUGHT IN RECIPE

Most recently police have linked him to Dan McCool, who has been credited with bringing the meth recipe to Ontario from Texas, and Eddie Thompson of Stratford, who was arrested three times in a year, accused of making Meth.

McCool, who is under house arrest while he awaits trial on his most recent charges, denied knowing Niessen.

"He's hooked up with the Bandidos," said McCool, who has been convicted of making Meth. He said he has been approached by the Bandidos.

"I said, 'Dude, you can't do nothing for me that I can't do for myself,' " he said.

Sgt. Doug Culver, the RCMP's national co-ordinator for synthetic drug operations, said it's not unusual for someone with no gang affiliation to produce and deal for bikers.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2 ... 5-sun.html


April 12, 2006

T.O. gang was full of misfits
Ex Bandido says some victims were 'undisciplined'


By JACK BOLAND, TORONTO SUN

The Toronto Bandidos chapter that was largely wiped out on the weekend was full of misfits headed for disaster, said a Quebec informant who helped police bust 60 members of the gang in 2002.

Eric "Ratkiller" Nadeau, once "El Secretario" for the now-defunct Montreal chapter of the Bandidos, said he was saddened to hear of the deaths of the eight bikers killed near London, "especially for their (surviving) families and their children."

Nadeau started his life in biker circles as an underling with the Montreal Rockers -- a puppet gang of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter. He was later recruited by their arch-rivals, the Rock Machine, then gained full-patch status with the Montreal Bandidos chapter.

Nadeau said he first met some of the murder victims at the Loners clubhouse that once housed Leo the Lion, the club's pet and mascot.

"My first impression was some of the members were undisciplined," he said. "They weren't like the military style of the Hells Angels."

Members like Peter Barillo, who is still alive, knew the game and were "very serious about the Bandidos," he said.

But some of the murder victims like Louis "Porkchop" Raposo and Frank "Bam Bam" Salerno were "party animals" who loved being part of the club but enjoyed booze and drugs just as much.

At one point, Nadeau said, Salerno --whom he called a "zombie" for his constant cocaine use -- owed $55,000 in drug debts to the Montreal chapter. They were never repaid.

Victim John "Boxer" Muscedere was described as a reserved guy who did a lot to recruit new members and was "a real believer in the Bandidos Canada."

George "Crash" Kriarakis -- one of the youngest members of the Toronto club -- held the position of "El Secretario" and was responsible for sending $100 in dues per month for each club member to Montreal for their lawyers and defence fund. He would also send information on the club's events to chapters in the United States, Europe and Australia.

"He was happy to be a biker. And did a good job for the club," Nadeau said, adding the 28-year-old was proud to wear his colours. "He loved being a Bandidos. Though he didn't have the mentality as a warrior."

'INTIMIDATION'

The gang's main source of revenue was ripoffs -- drug thefts, stolen weapons, vehicles or whatever they could get their hands on, Nadeau said.

When asked what he thought about the alleged mastermind of the extermination -- Wayne "Weiner" Kellestine, a full-patch Bandido -- Nadeau said he met him once at a party in Kingston.

"Many talked about him and respected him -- because of his intimidation (factor)," Nadeau said.

At the close of his interview with the Sun, Nadeau showed he still bleeds some Bandidos red and gold, saying to the best of his knowledge "that all the guys that were killed wanted the chapter to stay alive."

There are about 10 surviving full-patch members of the Toronto chapter, plus a support club in Winnipeg called Los Montoneros.

One member is James Fullarger of Toronto, who isn't worried that he's next in line for forced retirement from the biker gang, his former sister-in-law said.

"He's not hiding," said the woman, who didn't give her name. "I wasn't worried. Jimmy could always take care of himself."

Fullarger, known as Troll or Old Ripper, hasn't taken much part in gang business since he was diagnosed with cancer a year ago.

He's been getting treatment and is not well, she said.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoA ... 31216.html

RealTO
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Unread post by RealTO » April 14th, 2006, 10:10 am

Father urges biker to hide
David Weiche, son of a London neo-Nazi, is called Wayne Kellestine's 'right-hand man.'


By PATRICK MALONEY, FREE PRESS REPORTER

A local Bandidos associate who recently moved to Winnipeg should "disappear" for a while following last week's massacre, his worried, white-supremacist father says.

David Weiche, described by one London biker as "the right-hand man" of Bandidos massacre murder suspect Wayne Kellestine, should keep a low profile, his father Martin Weiche, a noted London neo-Nazi, warned.

"If I was David . . . I'd go and hide," Martin Weiche told The Free Press, adding his son moved to Winnipeg about three months ago.

"I would quickly disappear for a few weeks. The murderers are still out there."

Kellestine's link to Weiche has been strengthened by their work in the group Bikers Against Pedophiles (BAP). According to its website, Weiche founded the group and a widely published photo of Kellestine shows him wearing a BAP T-shirt.

Kellestine, known to keep Nazi collectibles in his farmhouse, also has a strong white supremacist streak.

He's appeared as a protester at a Gay Pride parade in London, waving a Confederate flag.

The Weiche connection marks the first time other London bikers have been linked to Kellestine, who, sources say, was trying to create a Southwestern Ontario chapter.

It also adds two new layers to the mystery surrounding the murders of eight Bandidos bikers and associates near Shedden last weekend:

- First, were the killers somehow linked to Winnipeg?

- Second, one of the slain men, Jamie Flanz, grew up Jewish and had a Jewish funeral -- begging questions about how he got along with Kellestine, a man with a swastika mown into his lawn.

Los Montoneros, a puppet club of the Bandidos, first popped up on the Winnipeg media's radar this month after a police bust, suggesting the group could be a new entity.

A theory has since emerged that Bandido bosses in the U.S. might have ordered Los Montoneros -- which means "the wolf pack" -- to take down the eight Ontario Bandidos.

Five burly men from Winnipeg were in this area with Kellestine days before the massacre.

David Weiche moved to Winnipeg "about three months ago" because he couldn't find work in the "cement business," his father says. Free Press attempts to find him were unsuccessful.

There's no evidence David Weiche is linked to Los Montoneros.

Winnipeg police refused to discuss Weiche yesterday.

To one expert, the hard-core parts of the biker and white-supremacist cultures tend to have a lot of overlapping members. That, he added, is no coincidence.

"(There's an) element of violence and intimidation that I think brings the two organizations together," said Helmut-Harry Loewen, a University of Winnipeg sociologist. "That makes (white supremacists) a potential recruitment pool for the biker culture."

Why, then, was Kellestine, his front lawn adorned with the most recognizable Nazi symbol, friendly with Flanz?

The funeral pictures left Loewen scratching his head.

"I found that very curious," he said, noting white supremacists don't consider Jews white.

"It's odd and I can't account for it yet."

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/ ... 1-sun.html



April 14, 2006
Woman charged in biker murders
By GREGORY BONNELL

ST. THOMAS, Ont. (CP) - The only woman among five people charged in the bizarre shooting deaths of eight bikers was a "nice girl" in the "wrong place, wrong time" with the "wrong guy," her former employer said Thursday.

"She was a good girl. She had a lot of cats. She had a heart of gold," said Lori Cooper, who employed Kerry Morris as a taxi driver in Mitchell, Ont., for almost two years.

"Customers requested her. Everyone thought she was a very nice girl, up to this."

Last Sunday, Morris was among five people led by police from the southwestern Ontario farmhouse of known Bandidos biker gang member Wayne Kellestine - just one day after the corpses of eight other Bandidos were found stuffed in four separate vehicles some 10 kilometres away.

All five were arrested following a search of the farm, located about 30 kilometres southwest of London, Ont., and charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.

On Thursday, Morris, 46, made a brief court appearance via video in St. Thomas, Ont., along with boyfriend and co-accused Eric Niessen, 44, and both were ordered to appear again on April 20.

Two other accused, Frank Mather, 32, of Dutton-Dunwich Township, and Brett Gardiner, 21, of no fixed address, had their cases put over until April 24 - when Kellestine is also due to appear.

"When you looked at him, you knew he had been into some kind of trouble in the past," Cooper said of Niessen.

"I think Kerry just kind of got caught up in what was going on. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong guy."

The couple moved several times over the past few years and was always struggling for money, said Cooper, who added Niessen often bragged he had connections with drug dealers and bikers.

Niessen, who has a long handlebar moustache and greasy brown hair that reaches his shoulder, has never been charged with any drug-related offences - but media reports say his name has come up in several major drug investigations.

Police have refused to speculate on what sparked the mass slaying, saying only that the eight Bandidos were the victims of an "internal cleansing."

Kellestine's farmhouse remained a closed crime scene Thursday as investigators continued to scour the property for evidence.

The country road where the bodies were found Saturday morning had, meanwhile, been re-opened, complete with a police notice warning media from questioning the landowner who found the vehicles about the "criminal investigation now underway."

In Toronto, the coroner's office had released all but one of the eight bodies, having completed the autopsies on Wednesday.

"We still have one body here because final funeral arrangements have not been made," said deputy coroner Dr. Jim Cairns. "Once they've made final funeral arrangements, then that body will be going also."

The funeral for John Muscedere, the leader of the notorious biker gang's Canadian chapter, was to be held Monday in Chatham, Ont.

Jamie Flanz, who police describe as a Bandidos prospect , was remembered as a charming rogue at his Montreal funeral on Wednesday.

Details were not immediately available on funeral services for the other six victims.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2006/04 ... 38-cp.html

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Unread post by RealTO » April 20th, 2006, 4:43 am

SPECIAL REPORT -- WAYNE KELLESTINE: PORTRAIT OF A BIKER: Where quiet charm meets crazy cunning

Randy Richmond
The London Free Press
April 15, 2006

Not long after the London biker heard the notorious Wayne Kellestine was after him, the biker wrote a suicide letter to his son.

There are things going on that are not good for me and I don't want anything to happen to you or anyone else . . .

"So I cannot stay here. I am going to leave and go away for awhile."

I love you very much, Dad."

The London biker had turned police informant.

In a colossal law enforcement mistake, the biker's phone number with the word 'informant' beside it had been disclosed to defence lawyers and their clients in one of the many cases swirling around the 1999 shooting of Kellestine.

The biker heard from someone who had done time with Kellestine on the range at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.

"Wayne said, 'If I ever see this guy, he . . . ratted me out . . . If you see him out there, I want to hear from him.' "

Word got out there was a $10,000 price on his head.

The biker spoke to The Free Press five years ago about his problems. His story was backed by his lawyer, police sources and other bikers.

Death by his own hands seemed his only choice.

"There is no way out of it. They've already labelled me the rat," he said.

A few months later, though, Kellestine appeared in court and gave the biker's lawyer a sign all was OK. He tapped his heart and gave a thumbs up. The London biker lived and faded into ordinary life.

His experience says much about Kellestine, who faces murder charges in the deaths of eight fellow Bandidos.

The reputation of the 57-year-old Iona Station resident is well-established: He's deadly, volatile and to be feared.

The reality: Kellestine's personality and life are much more complicated.

For every former girlfriend who said, "I can't a say a word. I could be killed," there's another woman -- his current girlfriend -- who said, "He gave me the power to stop being scared."

For every criminal associate who said, "He is an intelligent man," there is one who said, "The guy is just an idiot."

In and around Iona Station, Kellestine is known as a biker, but also a quiet and pleasant person.

"He just seems like a quiet, middle-aged man who goes about the community and doesn't bother anyone," says neighbour Tony Gosnell.

Mind you, Gosnell was in his fields one day in January 1992 and watched six police cruisers rush to the field next to his.

Buried in that field was one David O'Neil, 34, of RR 1, Putnam, a man who killed a police officer and was known to move in the same circles as Kellestine.

It's accepted knowledge in the community that Kellestine offered up the body to police to get some charges dropped and to take the heat off his criminal associates.

It's clear one has to dig below the surface to understand Wayne Kellestine.

The Free Press interviewed several former associates, including members of Kellestine's various biker gangs, to get a look into the life he led in the rambling country home north of Iona Station.

The house itself is a study in contrasts.

"The main floor was decorated in biker chic," recalled one frequent visitor with a laugh. White supremacist paraphernalia, biker flags and slogans decorated the kitchen and dining room to the left as one entered the house, and the pool room to the right.

The second floor, though, was like a quaint country home, "with quilts on the beds . . . It is a fairly nice house," said the woman, who went to several of Kellestine's annual pig roasts.

The pig roasts were a popular affair, she recalled.

Once the bikes were put safely in the barn, the bar was set up nearby.

"It was a cash bar, but the drinks were cheap. The money went to the jail fund and the costs of the roast."

Kellestine played the charming host well, she said.

"Wayne has the charm of a Jim Jones, a pied piper. It astonished me.

"Guys would follow him anywhere."

Women sometimes found Kellestine's house less inviting.

One biker's girlfriend offered insight into the Sopranos-like world of bikers, where ordinary life could quickly turn to violence.

She and her boyfriend, a full-patch (full-fledged) member of the Loners, had been arguing at one of the pig roasts.

"I was in the kitchen doing a salad when all these biker chicks came in and said, 'You've got to go now.' "

The bikers marched her out of the house.

The other bikers threatened to kill her.

"One guy came out of the tent and said to my boyfriend, 'I'll help you dig the hole.' "

Why the trouble? She had dared to swear at her boyfriend, a full-patch member.

"Their women, when they say you can speak, you can speak."

She got to spend the night, though. No one was sober enough to drive her home and risk getting caught by all the police cruisers that had the party under surveillance.

The pig roasts and the good times lasted a long time.

"When we were just with the Annihilators, not getting into the one percenter (full-fledged gang members) club, just being us guys, we were having fun, just partying and riding," recalled the biker who would later be an informant.

That changed when the Annihilators became a chapter of the Loners, an Ontario gang. A rift over joining Hells Angels in 1999 led to violence between gang members.

About the same time, the wire taps on the informant's phone led to jail time for several bikers.

Kellestine's reputation in the biker world began to suffer. The wildness and craziness began to grate, especially in the new world dominated by the more businesslike Hells Angels.

His paranoia became a target of ridicule.

Years ago, he cut down all the trees on his property and chained dogs up and down the driveway, says the partner of a local biker leader.

"He didn't want anybody to sneak up on him."

In 1999, after the attempt on his life, a Free Press reporter and photographer visited the farm. They were followed up Kellestine's lane by a black car and when they left, escorted out.

Police also began to disparage Kellestine. One RCMP officer told The Free Press Kellestine just couldn't keep out of trouble.

"If he was talking to us now, at the same time he'd be stealing a newspaper out of this box."

Still, life was not all bad. Six years ago, his second daughter was born. Kellestine had met his common-law wife, Tina Fitzgerald, at a strip club, says one source.

"She followed him home and never left."

Besides their daughter, Kellestine has another, about 20, living out West.

"Wayne loves children," the source said.

He worshipped his mother and his mother "loved him to death," another source said.

His mother, Edna, was beloved by bikers of all stripes. Kellestine was crushed when she died, but he was not allowed out of prison to attend the funeral, a source said.

At the time, Kellestine was serving a two-year penitentiary sentence on weapons charges.

When he was sentenced on those charges in 2002, Kellestine, then 53, his salt-and-pepper hair pulled back into a ponytail, said he was done with the biker life.

He disappeared from public view, but in the past year had been trying to build a Bandidos chapter.

One friend suggested he had no choice. Kellestine had fought all his life against Hells Angels and by the time he got out of jail, that club had consolidated its hold in the area.

He may have needed the power of a club because of his personality, too, suggested a former acquaintance.

"He started throwing his weight around in St. Thomas."

Scraps in bars, confronting other bikers -- Kellestine did not embrace retirement as a country gentleman.

He hooked up with a woman he had met nine years ago.

The woman told The Free Press that nine years ago, Kellestine had helped her family get away from a "notorious" London criminal.

The two became friends, then lovers.

When he got out of prison, the woman was having trouble with an ex-partner over her son.

Kellestine encouraged her to fight back, not with weapons, but through the courts.

"Don't let them beat you up like this," he told her. "Stand up for yourself.

Kellestine had announced he was going to retire, she said.

When she heard about the eight dead bikers on the weekend near Iona Station, she called the house.

"I thought for sure he was dead."

Kellestine sounded close to tears when he wondered during the phone call if some of the eight were friends of his, the woman said.

The woman said she can't believe Kellestine has been charged with murder.

In fact, if there's a common thread among lovers, enemies, acquaintances and friends about Kellestine, it's disbelief he could plan and carry out the contract murder of eight bikers.

He's too nice, said both his current girlfriend and a former lover.

He's too smart, said a biker friend.

He's too stupid, said another biker.

One former associate said he's too lazy.

"I can't even believe he pushed the lawnmower to make the swastika (in his backyard)," she said with a laugh.

The possibility there was a shootout, or an attack on Kellestine, changes many opinions.

Trapped in a corner, Kellestine's charm disappears and is replaced by a crazy cunning, said many friends and associates.

"You have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch him off guard," said a longtime friend.

The man is as hard to pin down as his reputation, the friend said.

"If you want Kellestine, you had better be sharp."

For more than 20 years, Wayne Kellestine has spread violence and courted danger.

* During a 1982 trial of another man, he was accused of fatally shooting John DeFilippo, 31, and wounding the man's father-in-law, Vito Fortunato, then 53, in a North York home invasion in 1978. Kellestine was never charged in the killing due to a lack of evidence.

* In 1984, Kellestine was sentenced to six days in jail or a $700 fine for punching a London bouncer as the bouncer grappled with another man in a bar.

* In 1985, police seized LSD and cocaine worth about $325,000 and a semi-automatic handgun at Kellestine's farm.

* In December 1991, Kellestine was charged in the shooting of Thomas Harmsworth in June of that year. Harmsworth took five bullets in the stomach, then four men in a black jeep dropped him off at St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital. Charges against Kellestine were dropped in January 1992 because Harmsworth refused to talk about it. Several other charges, including possession of stolen property were dropped.

* In January 1992, police found the body of suspected cop killer David O'Neil, 34, of RR 1, Putnam, in a shallow grave near Kellestine's house. O'Neil met a gangland-style death, taking three bullets to the head from a .38-calibre revolver. Kellestine was never considered the killer, but it's accepted knowledge among criminals and police sources he got some charges dropped because he told police where to find O'Neil's body. He also got a lot of heat off his criminal associates.

* In March 1992, in a police sweep ironically called Project Bandito, Kellestine and 14 others were charged with dozens of drug and weapons offences. After a seven-month probe, 100 officers raided the Outlaws clubhouse in London and the Loners clubhouse in St. Thomas. Kellestine pleaded guilty and got six years. Not long after he got out, someone tried to put Kellestine out of action for good. By then, his club was a chapter of the Loners, an Ontario biker gang. The Hells Angels wanted a foothold in Ontario and started courting Loners. Kellestine didn't want to join. One of the Hells Angels supporters was pistol-whipped and assaulted. In retaliation, the Hells Angels fired a shotgun at a vehicle supposedly carrying Kellestine, blowing out one window. But it was the wrong car.

* In July 2002, Kellestine pleaded guilty to 22 weapons charges and was sentenced to two years behind bars. He told a London judge he no longer ran with bikers.

http://lfpress.ca/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?p ... &s=societe


Other bikers linked to case
Sources say five charged in Bandido killings were helped by Winnipeg bikers.


By RANDY RICHMOND, FREE PRESS REPORTER

Some of the five people accused of killing Bandidos gang members insist other bikers were involved, a source close to the accused told The Free Press yesterday.

Those other bikers had links to Winnipeg, the source said.

The source indicated the accused have repeatedly told him there were more people at the scene of the massacre than those arrested or those killed.

The source cannot be identified but said he's in frequent contact with some of the accused.

His information supports a tip from a police source who told Sun Media this week more arrests are coming in the deaths of eight bikers whose bodies were found stuffed in vehicles in a remote area near Shedden on April 8.

The information also adds another layer to the mystery of a Winnipeg connection to the slaying.

The Free Press reported last week Winnipeg bikers had visited Wayne Kellestine, one of the accused, as recently as a week before the slayings.

And a man identified by a London biker as Kellestine's "right-hand man" moved to Winnipeg three months ago, his father confirmed last week.

Kellestine is a Bandido, the eight victims were either Bandidos or linked to the outlaw motorcycle gang, and Winnipeg has both Bandidos and a Bandidos puppet club called Los Montoneros.

Winnipeg police have declined comment on the Ontario investigation.

Ontario Provincial Police would neither confirm nor deny yesterday they're looking for more suspects in the murders of the eight bikers.

"We are continuing our investigation. We're letting the investigation take us where it takes us," said OPP Det. Insp. Paul Beesley.

Ontario police also remained tight-lipped about the investigation or biker activity in general yesterday.

"I'm not comfortable talking about anything," said Insp. Don Bell, head of Ontario's Biker Enforcement Unit.

"It is too significant a matter."

Bell did say police have noted a "minimal biker presence" at the funerals of those killed in the massacre.

"That does not surprise me," Bell said, but refused to say why.

Charged with eight counts of murder each are Kellestine, 56, Eric Niessen, 45, and Kerry Morris, 46, from the Mitchell area in Perth County, Frank Mather, 32, from Dutton-Dunwich in Elgin County and Brett Gardiner, 21, of no fixed address.

The eight men killed in the massacre included six identified by police as full-fledged members of the Bandidos: George Jesso, 52, of Toronto, George Kriarakis, 28, of Toronto, John Muscedere, 48, of Chatham, Luis Manny Raposo, 41, of Toronto, Francesco Salerno, 43, of Etobicoke, and Paul Sinopoli, 30, of Sutton, in York region.

Also killed were Bandidos prospect Jamie Flanz, 37, of Keswick, and Bandidos associate Michael Trotta, 31, of Mississauga.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegi ... 0-sun.html

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