Trial of 8 members of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club in 1979
The Port Hope 8 case refers to the trial of eight members of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club in 1979 for the murder of William John Matiyek on 18 October 1978 at the Queen's Hotel in Port Hope, Ontario. Of the accused, six were convicted, and the case is widely considered to be a miscarriage of justice. Of the "Port Hope 8", Gary Comeau and Richard Sauvé were convicted of first degree murder; Jeff McLeod, David Hoffman, Merv Blaker and Larry Hurren were convicted of second degree murder; and Armand Sanguigni and Gordon van Haarlem were acquitted.
Background.
The largest motorcycle gang in Ontario in the 1960s-1970s were the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club founded in 1965. In 1973, the Ontario government decided to put all the outlaw biker clubs out of business, and had the Intelligence Branch of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) set up a Special Squad with the unfortunate acronym of the SS dedicated entirely to pursuing outlaw bikers. The Special Squad was later renamed the Anti-Biker Unit. Orders were given to the Special Squad that "legal niceties" could be disregarded as the politicians demanded convictions to show the public that action was being taken. Corporal Terry Hall, the chief of the Special Squad called the campaign against Satan's Choice "reverse intimidation" as the Special Squad sought to intimidate bikers via the same means used by the bikers themselves. The American journalist Mick Lowe wrote that, starting in 1973, Hall "had inhabited a strange nether region on the fringes of Canadian law enforcement" as he went after bikers via very ruthless and sometimes illegal methods, making him into a "black legend among Canadian bikers" who feared him as a policeman who did not follow the law. Even Hall's appearance with his long hair and beard and a generally disheveled look made him appear more like an outlaw biker than a policeman.
On 1 July 1977, Satan's Choice was split when led by its interim national president, Garnet McEwen, the Satan's Choice chapters in Windsor, St. Catharines, London, Montreal, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Hamilton, and Kingston all joined the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. By contrast, the Satan's Choice chapters in Toronto, Kitchener, Oshawa, Thunder Bay and Peterbourgh remained loyal to the imprisoned national president, Bernie Guindon. The "Big Split" as the break-up was known caused much ill-will and anguish with many Satan's Choice members feeling that it was like a family being divided after a divorce as members either opted to join the Outlaws or remain with Satan's Choice.
The Golden Hawk Riders of Port Hope were a small biker gang of seven members, and were considering "patching over" to join the Outlaws. In the aftermath of the split of 1977, relations between the Outlaws and Satan's Choice were very unfriendly. Several members of Satan' Choice warned the Golden Hawk Riders, including their sergeant-at-arms, William "Heavy" Matiyek, who had a reputation as a hothead, not to go through with the planned "patch over", a demand that Matiyek rejected. Port Hope is a small town close to Oshawa, and an Outlaw chapter in Port Hope would threaten the profits from the drug trade enjoyed by the Satan's Choice Oshawa chapter. With Port Hope less than a half an hour away by automobile from Oshawa, an Outlaw chapter in Port Hope would effectively be the same as an Outlaw chapter in Oshawa. Lowe described the outlaw biker scene in Port Hope in the 1970s as "semi-organized crime" as he admitted that the bikers sold drugs, but stated that many of the bikers were more outcasts from society rather than career criminals. Some of the Port Hope Eight such as David Hoffman, Richard Sauvé, and Merv Blaker held legitimate jobs and had no major criminal records while others such Armand Sanguigni, Gary Comeau, and Jeff McLeod had no jobs and were engaged in various criminal enterprises.
Matiyek was known as the "town bully" in Port Hope. Standing 6'3, weighing 300 pounds, and extremely irascible, Matiyek was greatly disliked in Port Hope owing to his rage issues and a tendency to threaten people with violence. The American journalist Mick Lowe described Matiyek as a "walking, talking one-man arsenal" as he usually had with him a sawed-off .410 shotgun along with a .32 pistol. Though both weapons were illegal, Matiyek often pulled out his guns and threatened to shoot people on the spot if they did not give in to his demands. People in Port Hope were too terrified of Matiyek to ever call the police, which encouraged Matiyek to continue with his aggressive, bullying behavior. Matiyek still lived at home with his parents at the age of 23, and believed that joining the Outlaws would make him into a more successful drug dealer who would finally be able to live on his own. Lowe wrote that Matiyek lived in "utter terror of Satan's Choice", and despite his bluster, he was constantly on the look-out for members for Satan's Choice whom he greatly feared. In 1976, at a party at the clubhouse of the Golden Hawk Riders, Matiyek had been beaten up by Lorne Campbell of Satan's Choice, a humiliation that deeply rankled with him. Campbell had also stolen Matiyek's bikers' vest with his Golden Hawk Rider patch during the same brawl, a great humiliation in the world of outlaw bikers who are expected to never lose their biker patches. In an incident in July 1977, Matiyek had lumbered by the house of a Satan's Choice biker living in Port Hope, Richard Sauvé, to shoot up the house with his shotgun, forcing Sauvé's wife, Sharon, and his daughter, Angela, to take cover in their living room. After emptying his shotgun, Matiyek waddled off, clearly happy that blasted away the front window of Sauvé's house along with his mailbox. Sauvé stayed faithful to the outlaw biker code and did not report the incident. Instead, Sauvé went to confront Matiyek with a baseball bat and warned him not to endanger the lives of his wife and child again or else he would kill him. Sauvé discovered much to his own surprise that Matiyek was an abject coward who apologized for the incident as he maintained that he was very drunk and high on drugs when he shot up the Sauvé house, and that he was unwilling to take up the challenge of a brawl out of the fear that Sauvé would hurt him. The Queen's Hotel in Port Hope had once been one of the most luxurious hotels in Ontario, but by the 1970s had been reduced down to a seedy, disreputable place with the bar-room featuring strippers of both sexes in an attempt to attract customers. The Queen's Hotel was Matiyek's favourite place to drink and he usually could be found there in the evenings.
The Killing of Matiyek.
Brian Brideau, a petty criminal and an associate of Satan's Choice, was in the bar-room of the Queen's Hotel on the night of 18 October 1978 when he encountered Matiyek drinking with two Outlaws. Brideau was a drug addict who annoyed many with his incessant begging for money and Matiyek, who greatly disliked him, proceeded to beat him up and throw him out of the Queen's Hotel. Brideau sought revenge by calling Satan's Choice's Peterborough chapter from the phone booth outside the Queen's Hotel. A member of the Peterborough chapter, Richard Sauvé, took the phone call from Brideau, who said that Matiyek was drinking with two Outlaws, Fred Jones and Sonny Bronson, at the Queen's Hotel and wanted to see an officer of the Peterborough chapter that night. Sauvé choose to accept the challenge as he did not wish to be appear cowardly by staying at home, but unwilling to face Matiyek with only Merv "Indian" Blaker of the Peterborough chapter as an ally, Sauvé called the other chapters for help. Sauvé knew that Matiyek was a coward when sober, but tended to be violent when drunk, especially when he wanted to impress others. Blaker, who owned his moniker to the fact that he was an Ojibwe, was felt to be too easy-going for a possible bar fight. At 9:19 pm, Sauvé phoned the Satan's Choice clubhouse in Toronto to ask for help, but Gary Comeau of the Toronto chapter told him that he rather watch a hockey game. At 9:30 pm, Sauvé phoned again and this time Comeau promised to go to Port Hope to assist his biker "brother". While Sauvé and Blaker drove west to Port Hope, several members of the Toronto chapter abandoned drinking and watching a hockey game at their clubhouse to head east to Port Hope. The members from Toronto who went to Port Hope that night were Garry "Nutty" Comeau, Jeff "Boom Boom" McLeod, Larry "Beaver" Hurren, Lorne Campbell and Armand "In the Trunk" Sanguigni. Lowe wrote that most "scariest" of the Satan's Choice bikers who went to the Queen's Hotel was Sanguigni, a man with close links to the Mafia who worked as a hitman subcontractor for the mob, being the prime suspect in several murders. Of all the Satan's Choice bikers who went to the Queen's Hotel, the one who stood out the most in the memories of those present was Comeau, a tall man with long blonde hair.
As the Choice members entered the Queen's Hotel at about 10:50 pm, Gayle Thompson, the head waitresses present who recognized Blaker and Sauvé as she had served them before, reminded the owner of the Queen's Hotel, Leo Powell, that Satan's Choice's members were banned from the hotel owing to past unruly behavior. Thompson advised calling the police, but Powell decided to let them stay as the bar was almost empty that night and he felt he needed their money. One of the waitresses present, Cathy Cotgrave, told Blaker and Sauvé that Satan's Choice bikers were banned from the Queen's Hotel and that they would not be served. A confrontation, with Golden Hawk Rider Matiyek and the two Outlaws on one side and the Satan's Choice members on the other, began in the bar-room soon after. Sanguigni was arguing with Jones in the pinball room, accusing him of being a "traitor" for leaving Satan's Choice for the Outlaws, and Jones was described as being "hysterical" as he argued with the Mafia hitman Sanguigni. Sauvé sat down with Matiyek and quickly learned that he did not want to see him as he instead flashed his handgun and said he had "nine friends", which was interpreted to mean that he had nine bullets in his gun. Comeau joined Sauvé at the table and was likewise threatened.
Matiyek, who was drunk and high on marijuana and amphetamines, was talking about shooting the Satan's Choice members in the Queen's Hotel bar-room, causing Lorne Campbell of the Choice's Toronto chapter to come to their aid. Campbell had heard that Matiyek had a gun and he brought along a gun to the Queen's Hotel. The confrontation in the bar-room ended with guns being drawn and Campbell shooting and killing Matiyek at about 10:55 pm. Campbell claims that Matiyek had reached for his gun first, leading him to open fire. Campbell shot Matiyek three times. The first bullet went through Matiyek's neck, the second through his skull and the third likewise, thought Matiyek was already dead as the second bullet had cut a deadly path though his brain. Campbell states that he shot Matiyek in self-defence, saying: "As soon as I said: 'How are you doing?" he went for it...I totally wish he hadn't gone for it. I've had to live with it. It hasn't been easy. But he went for it and I happened to be faster...It happened so fast that I just reacted. When you see somebody going for a gun and you've got one, with the upbringing I've had, you'll be fast. I'm glad I had a gun...I never questioned my decision. Not once. Not for a second". The bullets all entered Matiyek's body from the left and one struck Comeau who was sitting to the right of Matiyek. The women present, namely the waitresses Gayle Thompson and Cathy Cotgrave along with the bar patrons Sue Foote and Jamie Hanna all fled into the woman's washroom, and all left the Queen's Hotel in tears over horror over the shooting they just