"Being big, muscular and handsome are generally assets for a teen" starts a story in Montreal's Photo Journal - a recent searchable addition to the BANQ site - on 7 Oct 1956.
The article tells us that the 15-year-old from LaSalle first made his name provoking mayhem at the Maurice "Rocket" Richard riot but was cleared in juvenile court.
Morin was inherently fascinating, as he was the combination of three rare and interesting things -a giant, a strongman and a criminal - and a teenager to boot.
By age 17 Morin weighed 240 pounds and was known to carry a hefty wad of bills in his pocket at all times taken from other kids he'd bully.
Morin began as a bouncer at the Riviera Club in Kahnawake, a truckers hangout. That ended when two men got up to fight and Andre screamed, "I'm the only one allowed to fight here."
Morin smashed the place up and was fired.
He duplicated that feat in a similar role at the Boulevard Hotel in La Prairie and was dismissed again. The owner hired two big men to prevent his entry but he beat them and carved his name and that of his girlfriend on their arms with a knife.
Young Morin and his partner Claude Murphy, 24, perpetrated 18 breaking and entries from 1955 to 1956, targeting commercial outlets mainly. Andre would smash off protective grilles and then lift cash registers and smash them on the sidewalk to break the locks, later disposing of them off of bridges. A dozen cash registers were later recovered.
Police and merchants were shocked, as they believed nobody was strong enough to do that.
Morin and Murphy then attacked a woman in Lachine. Andre tossed her against the wall but she "bounced back like a rubber ball and landed on the bed," according to the Photo Journal report. The husband shot a gun in the air and Andre fled. The duo were arrested but Andre was given a suspended sentence in hopes that he'd find a path to rehabilitation.
While waiting at juvenile court Andre ate more than his 12 fellow inmates. He asked for a snack during the questioning and swallowed back a baguette, a pound of cold cuts and a quarter pound of butter, as well as a 36 ounce soft drink.Andre went out with teen friends to a club on Lake St. Louis but panicked when he realized he faced five years in prison if he returned home after 11 p.m. He angrily demanded his friends return him home, in a display which led a beer bottle to hit a bystander at the next table. He ran to a police station to asked for a lift home but the police, meanwhile, received a report about a mugging. Andre was arrested again.
Andre dabbled as a mechanic but his others urged him to join the construction crew building a road in LaSalle because he could wield a 16-pound hammer with ease and the $1.10/hour was a good wage.
But on his 17th birthday on 23 September he celebrated too vigorously and smashed up the Hotel Pointe Claire, and six police were required to calm him down, leading police to charge him with disturbing police and assaulting officers. He was finally sentenced to three years in prison.
Morin, to no great surprise, continued in a life of crime.
Celebrated local raconteur Mike McManus tells of how Morin was given a solid beat down at the Olympic Tavern on Wellington in around 1985.
McManus later became friendly with Morin. Morin later died of a sudden heart attack.