There are dark corners in the otherwise-sparkling and wealthy Montreal suburb of Westmount and one such place was at the Weredale House boys' home at the Souteastern corner of the city, which closed in 1977.
That's where troubled boys were sent and that's where twisted and tragic Mike French, born in 1950, emerged.
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Mike French, according to the many legends, grew up at the boy's home because his family was poor.
Poor parents would sometimes cast off boys into places and keep their girls, who tended to be much less trouble and better help around the house.
French attended a small school in lower Westmount where he befriended Brian Chu, who is of Chinese heritage. The two would later become close friends and join the Satan's Choice biker together in St. Henri. Chu still lives in NDG around Sherbrooke and Melrose.
Satan's Choice was a powerful force whose notoriety became known here in 1969 when 12 to 23 gang members raped a 15-year-old, while another woman was forced to beat on her in Ottawa.
Soon those who knew French developed misgivings about hanging around with him.
An old friend of his tells me that once on a night out he returned to see somebody innocently sitting on his motorcycle on Crescent St. He pounced on the guy and proceeded to hurt him in a way that his friends found incredibly gratuitous and shocking.
Another time French took four hits of LSD and didn't seem to be affected at all by the massive quantity of acid in his system.
French, whose photo I have yet to find, was tall, thin and ungainly with buck teeth.
"He had a Nazi look to him. Germanic. Over 6ft. Fair hair, clean cut. He looked in very good physical shape," said another.
Another woman who knew French told Coolopolis that he became far more cruel after his four year old daughter died but details of that story remain unclear.
French was eventually found murdered in November 1982 and his body was found in Kahnawake. Local legend has it that he boasted about killing young Sharron Prior seven years earlier in Point St. Charles.
That murder has never been solved. Police named West End Gang hitman Jackie McLaughlin as a suspect in French murder.
He supposedly killed French upon hearing that news of Prior's murder, as a sort of community service.
According to an anonymous source who has posted about French on the internet, French during his time with Satan's Choice killed several Popeyes and thoroughly enjoyed attacking and torturing others for minor perceived slights. Apparently he quarreled with someone named Michel Cardinal and stepped on his neck and pulled his shoulder out of the poor man's socket.
The Popeyes became the Hells Angels and supposedly 38 Satan's Choice members were killed (seems a bit doubtful) except French survived.
Who killed Mike French? Well according to that 2006 version, it was neither McLaughlin or the Hells, but rather people still "operating in the West End." This version suggests that French was killed as punishment for raping the daughter of a Mafia boss.
That's where troubled boys were sent and that's where twisted and tragic Mike French, born in 1950, emerged.
Poor parents would sometimes cast off boys into places and keep their girls, who tended to be much less trouble and better help around the house.
French attended a small school in lower Westmount where he befriended Brian Chu, who is of Chinese heritage. The two would later become close friends and join the Satan's Choice biker together in St. Henri. Chu still lives in NDG around Sherbrooke and Melrose.
Satan's Choice was a powerful force whose notoriety became known here in 1969 when 12 to 23 gang members raped a 15-year-old, while another woman was forced to beat on her in Ottawa.
Soon those who knew French developed misgivings about hanging around with him.
An old friend of his tells me that once on a night out he returned to see somebody innocently sitting on his motorcycle on Crescent St. He pounced on the guy and proceeded to hurt him in a way that his friends found incredibly gratuitous and shocking.
Another time French took four hits of LSD and didn't seem to be affected at all by the massive quantity of acid in his system.
French, whose photo I have yet to find, was tall, thin and ungainly with buck teeth.
"He had a Nazi look to him. Germanic. Over 6ft. Fair hair, clean cut. He looked in very good physical shape," said another.
Another woman who knew French told Coolopolis that he became far more cruel after his four year old daughter died but details of that story remain unclear.
French was eventually found murdered in November 1982 and his body was found in Kahnawake. Local legend has it that he boasted about killing young Sharron Prior seven years earlier in Point St. Charles.
That murder has never been solved. Police named West End Gang hitman Jackie McLaughlin as a suspect in French murder.
He supposedly killed French upon hearing that news of Prior's murder, as a sort of community service.
According to an anonymous source who has posted about French on the internet, French during his time with Satan's Choice killed several Popeyes and thoroughly enjoyed attacking and torturing others for minor perceived slights. Apparently he quarreled with someone named Michel Cardinal and stepped on his neck and pulled his shoulder out of the poor man's socket.
The Popeyes became the Hells Angels and supposedly 38 Satan's Choice members were killed (seems a bit doubtful) except French survived.
Who killed Mike French? Well according to that 2006 version, it was neither McLaughlin or the Hells, but rather people still "operating in the West End." This version suggests that French was killed as punishment for raping the daughter of a Mafia boss.