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| Gilles Bienvenue |
Canadian crime observers all know the tale of Richard Blass, whose reckless campaign against his enemies in the Italian mob led him to kill many, and escape prison repeatedly before getting shot dead by cops.
However few folks are aware that Blass had a whole team of likeminded allies who also authored many jaw-dropping chapters in the same feud, which largely took place in that very murderous year of 1968.
On 4 May 1968 Gilles Bienvenue and Albert Ouimet - associated with Blass' anti-Italian faction - were quarelling with an unidentified pair of guys inside the Petit Baril bar.
Vince "Jimmy" De Maulo, brother of Rizzuto-pal Joe Di Maulo, owned the place, which sat in a building later known as the Sexe Tuple strip club on the east side of St. Lawrence just south of Bernard..
All four were booted from the establishment and the duo of Bienvenue and Ouimet were soon shot dead in an adjacent parking lot. The killer, or killers, were not apprehended.
The dead duo were hauled to the funeral parlor at 6520 St. Denis, which remains a funeral parlor to this day.
Some mourners vowed to get their revenge against the Italians. Three gang members, Roger Lepage, Maurice Lussier and Frank Margoliese broke into the funeral home after hours, supposedly to empty the same coffins so they could place some dead Italian rivals inside.
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Robert Allard
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The trio were caught and tried. They attempted to persuade authorities that they were drunk and grief stricken and only wanted to see their pals one last time.
Blass, the kingpin of the anti-Italian faction, was behind bars for an armed robbery in Sherbrooke throughout this period. The Italians had already tried to kill him at least four times, coming very close to wiping him out on several occasions.
Blass' madman pal Robert Allard, aged just 23, picked up the slack in the war on the Italians.
Allard shot bar bouncer Roger Larue dead in front of 30 witnesses on 7 May 1968 in a bar on Salaberry Street. He had just come from visiting pals at the Petit Baril.
Allard then thought it wise to then randomly shoot Giuseppe DeMarco, 23, while he was sitting in his car at Belanger and Des Erables.
De Marco's crime was that he looked Italian. The victim was leaving a dancehall and had no connection to crime.
The five bullets Allard shot left DeMarco paralyzed from the neck down.
Allard had been constantly calling the home of Jimmy DiMaulo for over a year throughout this time, threatening to kill him, his wife, his kids, toss acid in their faces and so forth.
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| Armeni |
On one occasion Allard, who lived at
6425 Clark Street, took out a gun at the Maurice Richard Tavern on St. Lawrence and boldly announced to 50 fellow drinkers that he would shoot any Italian he came across.
Allard was out of prison during this period only because the justice system had failed to keep him inside for various other offences. In one case, Allard had won his freedom due to a mistrial.
Prosecutors charged Allard with the DeMarco shooting but his pleaded innocence. Allard's alibi was that he was too drunk to kill on that day.,
He claimed that he was at a wedding and then a bar on St. Lawrence and then another on St. Zotique, which refused to allow him inside because he was too drunk.
As you surely guessed, Allard did not live to a ripe old age.
Police were staking him out at the time and watched on after 7 a.m., as Jimmy DiMaulo, 35, located Allard's parked car and punctured a tire with a screwdriver.
Allard eventually came out and noticed that his car had a flat. He walked to a nearby service station to deal with the issue.
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| Leo Nicolas |
Gunmen Joe Armeni, 30, and Leo Nicola, 25, then approached Allard and pumped bullets into his body until his heart stop beating and lungs stopped breathing and he was dead as he is now.
Police, including Det. Sgt. Jacques Boisjoly, were still however about nearby.
They ordered two gunmen to drop their weapons.
One officer shot Nicola with a machine gun, hitting him in the hand, causing him to lose three fingers.
Wheelman Jimmy DiMaulo attempted to flee in his car but smashed into a police vehicle.
He then fled on foot but was quickly captured.
In the day following the incident police leaked word that the assassins included one guy nicknamed Killer.
Police told reporters that Killer had claimed least 14, victims, starting a decade earlier with Kenneth "China Boy" Winford.
It's unclear whether they were referring to DiMaulo or Armeni but it's likely DiMaulo.
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Jimmy DiMaulo, seen
at the age of 62 in 2000 |
DiMaulo was later sentenced to life in prison and returned several times again in later years for a variety of misdeeds. One elderly criminal friend of Coolopolis recently reported that DiMaulo has always a super good guy, for whatever that's worth.
With Allard dead and DiMaulo behind bars, the nasty war ended for a while after that but reignited through the sheer determination of Richard Blass, who was eventually killed by cops on 24 January 1975.
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Murder victim Roger
Larue |
