Shedden massacre
Details
Sources
Shedden massacre
Introduction
The Shedden massacre involved the gang-related killing of eight men, whose bodies were found in a field five kilometres north of Shedden, a small village in the Canadian province of Ontario, on April 8, 2006. Four vehicles, with the bodies inside, were first discovered by a farmer. The day after the bodies were discovered, five people, including one member of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, were arrested for the murders, and three more people were arrested in June 2006. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said the killings were an isolated event and there were no fears for the safety of local residents. The killings took place at a farm outside of Iona Station and Shedden was the hamlet closest to where the bodies were discovered in a farmer's field.
Background
Annihilators Motorcycle Club
 | It has been suggested that this article be split into a new article titled Annihilators Motorcycle Club. (Discuss) (December 2021) |
| Founded | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada |
| Years active | 1970s–1999 |
| Territory | Ontario - (At least 3 chapters Richmond Hill, London and Chatham) |
| Membership | Estimated to have 40 members at peak |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, extortion, armed robbery, murder, assault, kidnapping |
| Allies | Loners Motorcycle Club, Holocaust Motorcycle Club |
| Rivals | Hells Angels |
The Annihilators Motorcycle Club was founded in Richmond Hill, Ontario Canada in 1974, their Mother chapter managed to keep themselves out of the headlines by operating rather covertly, this cannot be said for their other chapters. Wayne "Weiner" Kellestine was the president of the Annihilators Motorcycle Club St. Thomas chapter, having at first founded a gang called the Holocaust Motorcycle Club before being given permission to create a chapter for the Annihilators MC.
In 1997, Giovanni "Boxer" Muscedere joined the Annihilators. Muscedere was born in Windsor in 1959, the son of Italian immigrants, moving to Chatham at the age of 12. Muscedere grew up in an Italian-speaking household and he always spoke with an Italian accent, which he tried to hide by mumbling. As a child, he was often bullied for being a "wop" and a "dogan" (derogatory Canadian slang for a Roman Catholic), and fought back, acquiring a great reputation as a fighter, which led him to take up boxing as his hobby. Muscedere's friends and family believed the childhood bullying had scarred him, making him adopt a tough persona to hide any weaknesses, which explained his love of boxing and later motorcycles. One who knew him stated: "He didn't really want to be somebody anybody could look down on. He wanted respect". Muscedere enjoyed some success as an amateur boxer, but his early marriage and his first child's birth prevented him from becoming a professional boxer as he would have liked, forcing him to take a job in order to support his family. Muscedere worked at a factory making automobile brakes in Chatham from 1979 until his murder, a job he hated as he found it very dull, but it gave him a good salary. After his first and second wives divorced him and were awarded custody of their children, Muscedere took up riding motorcycles, finding in the world of outlaw biking a surrogate family for those he had lost with his divorces. Muscedere had a strong sense of masculinity informed by traditional Italian values, for instance always paying the child support payments to both his ex-wives on time and in full on the grounds it was dishonourable for a father to let down his children.
Muscedere deeply believed in biker "brotherhood", being known as a man who was utterly loyal to his friends. One who knew him said: "He was all or nothing. If he liked you, he liked you, and if he didn't like you, you knew". Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent with The Toronto Star stated about "Boxer" Muscedere: "Boxer's fatal flaw was that he didn't discriminate between false and real brotherhood. If someone played the brotherhood card, he was vulnerable. Pretty good way to manipulate him; some things were sacred, and brotherhood was. It's funny, some of these guys do have moral codes. Maybe not like ours. But to (Boxer), brotherhood and family trumped everything." Muscedere was very loyal to his biker "brother" Kellestine, often donating money to help Kellestine pay the mortgage on his farm from his own salary, despite the fact that his other friends had warned him that Kellestine was just using him. Muscedere did not share Kellestine's views about non-whites, Jews or homosexuals, but Kellestine was the man who let him join the Annihilators, which made him his biker "brother". Having been bullied for being his ethnic background as a child, Muscedere didn't understand why Kellestine always referred to black people as "niggers", First Nations people as "redskins", gays as "faggots", East Asians as "gooks" and Jews as "kikes". When asked if he shared Kellestine's racial views, Muscedere often said that: "They all have a mother. People are who they are. They just have to be given respect. Look at how people look at us". In late 1999 the Annihilator Motorcycle Club would patch over to the Loners Motorcycle Club; this move was made in an attempt to gain manpower to face the incoming threat of the Hell's Angels.
"Patching over": consolidation in the outlaw biker world
Ever since entering Canada in 1977 when a Montreal biker gang, the Popeyes Motorcycle Club, "patched over" to become the first Hells Angels' chapter in Canada, it had been a long-standing aim of the Hells Angels to enter Ontario. The 1990s were a period of consolidation in the world of Canadian bikers, most notably in Quebec, where the Quebec Biker War saw the Hells Angels battle the Rock Machine for control of various organized crime rackets across the province. During the same period, the Texas-based Bandidos outlaw biker club had expanded internationally. In November 1983, the Bandidos first went abroad when they opened a chapter in Sydney, Australia that gained much attention with the Milperra massacre on 2 September 1984. In 1989, the Bandidos entered Europe when the MC Club de Clichy in Marseilles "patched over" to become a Bandidos chapter, and the Bandidos become one of the strongest outlaw biker clubs in Europe.
Throughout the 1990s, the Hells Angels Canadian president Wolodumir "Walter or Nurget" Stadnick cultivated various Ontario biker leaders such as Frank "Cisco" Lenti of the Loners and Bernie "the Frog" Guindon of Satan's Choice in attempts to persuade them to "patch over" to the Hells Angels. Across the Atlantic, the Nordic Biker War for the control of organized crime in Scandinavia took place between 1994 and 1997. Many of the Canadian bikers not with the Hells Angels were impressed at the way that the Bandidos' Scandinavian chapters held their own against the Scandinavian branches of the Hells Angels. In October 1997, the president of Bandidos USA, George Wegers, visited Quebec City to have dinner with Faucher of the Rock Machine at one of Quebec City's more expensive restaurants. The dinner ended in a fiasco, when police arrived to announce that since Wegers had a criminal record, he was unwanted in Canada and they had arrived to escort him to the airport at once to put him on the first flight back to the United States.
On 7 April 1998, Jeffrey LaBrash and Jody Hart, two leaders of the Outlaws biker gang, were gunned down leaving a strip club by two men associated with the Hells Angels in London, Ontario. LaBrash was the president of the Outlaws' London chapter. The significance of the two men's murders was that for first time, people associated with the Hells Angels had killed within Ontario, showing the Hells Angels were serious about their plans to expand from Quebec into Ontario. A bikers' "rodeo" held by the shores of Lake Simcoe in August 1998, hosted by the Loners gang and attended by members of the Satan's Choice, Red Devils, Vagabonds, Last Chance and Para-Dice Riders gangs was interrupted when the Hells Angels' elite Nomads chapter led by Stadnick rode in unannounced from Montreal. The Hells Angels favoured some of the bikers at the "rodeo" with their company while snubbing others. It was clear within the Ontario outlaw biker scene that henceforward one could be either for or against the Hells Angels.
On 2 June 1999, Kellestine's Annihilators Motorcycle Club, based in St. Thomas, joined the Loners club in Richmond Hill led by Gennaro "Jimmy" Raso. In face of the challenge coming from the Hells Angels, Kellestine decided he needed allies, and with the Outlaws being unwilling to accept him, he had decided to merge with the Loners instead. Kellestine, the Annihilators president, became the new president of the Chatham chapter of the Loners at the time of the merger in 1999. Following Kellestine into the Loners was another Annihilator, Giovanni Muscedere. For Kellestine and Muscedere, joining the Loners was a step up in the outlaw biker world, while the Loners – a disproportionate number of whom were Italian-Canadians from middle-class families – could barely hide their disdain for the Annihilators, whom they viewed as rustic bumpkins from south-western Ontario. The Loners had accepted the Annihilators because of the need to increase their numbers in face of the challenge from the Hells Angels.
In a sort of reverse take-over, Frédéric "Fred" Faucher, the president of the Rock Machine, arranged to have his club absorbed into the Bandidos in a bid to "internationalize" the Quebec Biker War, and to prevent the Hells Angels from attacking the Rock Machine, by raising the possibility of causing a biker war in the United States. The American leadership of the Bandidos were not keen on Faucher's attempt to involve them in the Quebec Biker War, and the Rock Machine were sponsored into the Bandidos by the French and Swedish branches of the club, not the American one. A British policeman told the journalist Patrick Lejtenyi that European outlaw bikers greatly respect American and Canadian outlaw bikers as being more violent than themselves, and are always happy when North American outlaw bikers pay them attention. The Quebec Biker War, which killed 162 people between 1994 and 2002, making it easily the bloodiest biker war of all time, had given Canadian outlaw bikers a "cool" reputation with European outlaw bikers that made them the equals of American bikers. At the same time, the Loners had aligned themselves with the Rock Machine, holding a party in Toronto in June 2000 that was attended by dozens of "machinists", as the Rock Machine are known in outlaw biker circles. In the summer of 2000, Stadnick made an offer to most of the Ontario biker gangs that was too sweet for them to refuse; namely they could join the Hells Angels as "full patch" members without having to go through the "hang-around" and "prospect" stages, provided they did so by the end of the year. On 1 December 2000, the Rock Machine joined the Bandidos, with the Loners providing security at the ceremony in Vaughan where the Ontario Rock Machine bikers formally took on the Bandidos patches. Unlike the Hells Angels, those bikers joining the Bandidos had to enter as "prospect" members regardless of what their membership had been in the Rock Machine, which was considered very off-putting. Shortly afterwards, Faucher was arrested on charges of importing cocaine into Canada and Bandidos Canada's new president became Alain "Red Tomato" Brunette.
On 22 December 2000, the Los Bravos biker gang in Winnipeg "patched over" to become Hells Angels, making them the dominant players in organized crime on the Prairies. On 29 December 2000, most of the Ontario biker gangs such as Satan's Choice, the Vagabonds, the Lobos, the Last Chance, the Para-Dice Riders and some of the Loners travelled to Montreal to join the Hells Angels, making them at one stroke the dominant biker club in Ontario. As a result of the mass "patch-over" in Montreal, with 168 bikers becoming Hells Angels, the greater Toronto area went from having no Hells Angels chapters to having the highest concentration of Hells Angels' chapters in the world. Shortly afterwards in early 2001, the Hells Angels were reported to have issued an ultimatum to the prospect and hang-around Outlaws operating in Ontario to either retire or join the Hells Angels.
Pointedly, the Chatham chapter of the Loners were not invited to join the Hells Angels, through many of the Vaughan chapter of the Loners did join the Hells Angels. On 12 April 2001, the Hells Angels opened a chapter in London and promptly informed the Loners that they wouldn't be allowed to use Ontario on their patch, as the Loners were only a "regional" club. Unable to stand on their own, the Chatham Loners joined the Bandidos on 22 May 2001 as probationary members, becoming full members on 1 December 2001. A complicating factor was that the Loners had been sponsored into the Bandidos by the Danish branch of the club, a move that was not sanctioned by the world headquarters of the Bandidos in Houston, Texas, making their extract status within the club somewhat problematic. However, it was agreed that even though the Danish branch of the Bandidos were responsible for the Canadian branch as their sponsors, the American branch would supervise the Canadian Bandidos.
At the time that Muscedere joined the Loners, he became close to another Loner and fellow Italian-Canadian, Frank "Bammer" Salerno, who to a certain extent displayed Kellestine as his best friend. In October 2001, Joey Morin, president of the Edmonton chapter of the Rebels outlaw biker club, first contacted the Bandidos with the aim of "patching over". At a party at Kellestine's farm, Morin and the other Rebels were not impressed with Kellestine's eccentric behavior, seeing the Bandido treasurer Luis "Chopper" Raposo get high on various drugs and a "coked out" Muscedere lose his temper and beat up one of his "brothers" over a trivial matter. On 10 March 2002, near Morrisburg, the OPP pulled over a car carrying Daniel Lamer and Marc Bouffard, both members of the Rockers, the Hells Angels' puppet club in Montreal, for speeding on the 401 highway. Lamer opened fire on OPP constable Dan Brisson, who returned fire, killing him. Found inside the car were four handguns, a silencer and pictures of Brunette together with various other Ontario Bandidos, which suggested the two Rockers from Montreal had been sent to kill them.
In June 2002, after a series of police raids led to the arrest of several Bandidos in Ontario and Quebec, Muscedere became the group's new president. During Project Amigo raids launched on 5 June 2002, a joint operation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Sûreté du Québec, every single Bandido in Quebec was arrested as well as most of the Ontario members. "Project Amigo" was the end of the Bandidos in Quebec, finally ending the Quebec Biker War. As Project Amigo was originally started as an investigation of the Rock Machine, the former Loners in the Bandidos largely escaped charges, but Project Amigo crippled the Bandidos in Canada.
After Project Amigo, the Canadian Bandidos consisted of 15 members in Ontario spread over three chapters who were consolidated into a single chapter based in Toronto, although its members were actually scattered across southern Ontario. Brunette was charged with conspiracy to import drugs, and Muscedere became president, as the only senior Bandido not in prison or facing charges. However, Wegers preferred to deal with Atkinson, and Jason Addison, the president of Bandidos Australia, sent Atkinson a box of Bandido T-shirts to hand out to followers, instead of Muscedere. In July 2002, Kellestine was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of 22 counts of violating the laws governing guns, after the police discovered various illegal firearms at his farm in 1999. Unlike the Hells Angels who had clubhouses with security cameras, steel doors, and computers in Toronto, the Toronto Bandidos had no clubhouse after June 2002.
Reflecting their embattled status within the world of outlaw biking, Atkinson suggested the name "no surrender crew" for the Toronto chapter, which was adopted. Boosting the profile of the Bandidos somewhat was the decision of Lenti in the fall of 2002 to join the Bandidos; he was a more experienced outlaw biker than Muscedere. The Hells Angels had offered Lenti a chance to "patch over" several times in 1993 and 1994 when was the president of the Loners, but he declined, instead offering Stadnick a chance to join the Loners. Another experienced outlaw biker who joined the Bandidos was James "Ripper" Fullager, who had been active in outlaw biking since the 1960s and whose home in Toronto was a favourite hangout for the Bandidos, where Fullager recounted his past adventures and gave them advice. Atkinson later stated that he left the Bandidos because of Muscedere's leadership, saying Muscedere was addicted to cocaine, his judgement was poor, he lacked political savvy and was not connected to reality, preferring to focus on promoting so-called biker "brotherhood" by devoting much time to the design of Christmas cards to his fellow Bandidos instead of making difficult decisions. Muscedere was incapable of managing finances -both his own and that of his club- and his moods were volatile. However, Muscedere was regarded as loyal to his friends and he often said he did everything "top left", which his way of saying "from the heart". Moreover, Edwards wrote that Muscedere was regarded as far preferable than Kellestine with his "... mercurial mood swings and stream-of-consciousness rantings, in which he somehow equated the Confederacy, the American Revolution and Nazism with goodness and Canada. Boxer Muscedere could barely read and write and didn't play historian, but he was straightforward, honest, fearless and loyal to a fault, which just fine with them".
In January 2003, Joe "Crazy Horse" Morin of the Edmonton Rebels outlaw biker club visited Toronto to discuss "patching over". Despite his misgivings about the Bandidos, Morin felt in face of the challenge from the Hells Angels that joining the Bandidos was the best way to ensure the survival of his chapter, and agreed that the Edmonton chapter of the Rebels be granted "hang-around" status with the Bandidos. The Victoria Day weekend in May is the normal start of the riding season for outlaw bikers in Canada. For Victoria Day in 2003, it turned out that only Muscedere, Lenti, Atkinson and George "Crash" Kriarakis actually owned working Harley-Davidison motorcycles, which humiliated Lenti, who complained about "bikers without bikes". In June 2003, the Hells Angels threatened to put "jailhouse contracts" on the lives of the imprisoned Quebec Bandidos if they did not agree to retire from organized crime forever. Muscedere submitted to the ultimatum, and stated that henceforward the Bandidos would expand into western Canada with Muscedere talking about a drive to the Pacific. In June 2003, Kriarakis was eating in a restaurant in Vaughan where he was surrounded by a dozen Hells Angels and was ordered to go out to the parking lot to be beaten, as Vaughan was considered to be "their" territory. One of Kriarakis's friends called Lenti on his cellphone, who promptly raced off in his tow truck to help Kriarakis, while Kriarakis was badly beaten up in the parking lot. Upon arriving, Lenti was furious to see that Kriarakis had called the police to report the assault, telling him that outlaw bikers never report to the police a crime committed by other outlaw bikers, even against themselves. At a meeting of Fullager's house, Kriarakis was taken to task for his violation of the outlaw biker code, which publicly humiliated the Toronto Bandido chapter. Morin, who was considering "patching over" to join the Bandidos, expressed much doubt after the Kriarakis incident, saying the only members of the Toronto chapter who impressed him were Atkinson and Lenti. On 30 January 2004, Morin was murdered together with his friend, Robert Simpson, in the parking lot of an Edmonton strip club, Saint Pete's, possibly by the Hells Angels. Muscedere was greatly offended that the men from the new chapter in Winnipeg that was trying to establish at the same time as a chapter in Edmonton did not show up for Morin's funeral while he and other Toronto chapter members attended.
The new chapter
In July 2004, Muscedere opened a new Bandido chapter in Winnipeg, whose members were only probationary members. The Los Montoneros biker gang, whom Stadnick had declared to be unfit to be Hells Angels, were the new Bandido chapter in Winnipeg. The gang incorrectly believed their name meant "the wolf pack" in Spanish, with the actual Spanish translation being "the workers". The leader of Los Montoneros was Michael "Taz" Sandham, an ambitious former policeman who resigned rather than be fired for associating with outlaw bikers, and who worked hard to keep his past as a policeman secret. Sandham, a former theology student, soldier and policeman was described by the journalist Jane Sims as "a control freak driven by bizarre ambition" to take over the outlaw biker scene in Manitoba. A short man, Sandham appeared to have a Napoleon complex as a way of compensation. Edwards described Sandham variously as a "habitual liar" and "the George Costanza of the outlaw biker world". In a 2010 interview, Edwards stated: "...Sandham, he was more laughable than anything. In the trial, more than one person used the nickname "George Costanza" for him. If they made a movie of this, Jason Alexander would be the only choice to play Sandham. Total bungling idiot, but dangerous —the level that he'll scheme to."
In August 2004, after being released from prison following his conviction on gun and drug charges, Kellestine become the sargento de armas of the Canadian Bandidos, and was displeased at the way his former protegee Muscedere now overshadowed him. Edwards wrote that outlaw biker clubs claim that they are all about freedom, but in reality outlaw biker clubs are rigid, rule-bound organizations run in a quasi-militaristic fashion with a strict hierarchy and rules governing every aspect of the members' existence. Within that context, making Kellestine the sergeant-at-arms responsible to president Muscedere, a man whom Kellestine had given orders to when he was the Annihilators' president was the source of great resentment to him. One of Muscedere's neighbours in Chatham remarked to Edwards: that "the puppet has cut his strings". During the Taste of the Danforth festival in Toronto in August 2004, Glenn "Wrongway" Atkinson met another Bandido, George "Crash" Kriarakis, to tell him he was planning on leaving the Bandidos, saying that Muscedere had lost contact with reality, being short-sighted and ill-tempered; Kellestine was dangerous, and Sandham seemed like a shady character. Atkinson wanted Kriarakis to follow him into the Outlaws, and when the latter refused, Atkinson remarked: "These guys are going to get you killed one day".
When Sandham indicated he wanted to join the Bandidos, one of the Bandido leaders, Frank "Cisco" Lenti, was highly suspicious of him, saying he kept hearing rumors that Sandham used to be a policeman and that he had been rejected by the Outlaws for that reason, and assigned Kellestine to investigate him. Lenti further noted that Sandham had no tattoos, which was unusual as almost all outlaw bikers have many tattoos on their bodies, his demeanor was like that of a policeman doing a very clumsy impression of an outlaw biker, and Lenti said Sandham seemed like the sort of man who would had "sucked up" to the high school bully rather than stand up for himself. However, Kellestine reported that the rumors were not true, and Sandham had never been a policeman.
In October 2004, Atkinson, the Bandido secretary who was well regarded by Houston, resigned from the Bandidos to join the Outlaws. When Atkinson arrived at Kellestine's farm to hand in his Bandido patch, Muscedere and Kellestine beat him bloody with the latter ramming a handgun into his mouth and threatened to kill him if ever saw him again. In November 2004, Lenti quit the Bandidos, saying that Muscedere was addicted to cocaine and Kellestine was insane, and he was tired of dealing with both of them. Unlike Atkinson, Lenti was not beaten as he had a fearsome reputation as a fighter who was known for his habit of gouging out the eyes of his enemies. Lenti was a living legend within Ontario outlaw biker circles and his resignation was a great blow to the already waning prestige of the club. At the Bandido Christmas party in 2004, Kellestine became annoyed when the DJ kept playing rap music. He walked over to the DJ and pulled out his gun, saying: "Stop playing this nigger stuff. Play Lynyrd Skynyrd or something better than this shit or I'll blow your foot off". After that incident, the fiancée of Kriarakis started pressing him to leave the club. In a sign of the Toronto chapter's general poverty, in June 2005 the shared cellphone plan the chapter had with Telus ended with them being cut off because of arrears. Muscedere owned $140.67, Sinopoli $191.23, Trotta $88.77, Jessome $136.66 and Kellestine $88.33. That month George Wegers of Bandidos USA was arrested by the FBI. He was replaced as president by Jeff Pike, who was critical of the Canadian Bandidos.
On 25 June 2005, Sandham visited Kellestine's farm to complain about the unwillingness of the Toronto chapter to make the Winnipeg chapters full members, asking for his support. Edwards told the BBC in 2009: "There was a chapter based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who came under the auspices of Toronto. But Winnipeg were not granted full patches by Toronto. They effectively had no job security and they grew really frustrated." The principal reason why the Winnipeg chapter were not granted full patches was that the treasurer of the Toronto Bandidos, Luis "Chopper" Raposo, accused Sandham of not paying the monthly membership dues that were owed to Toronto, with Sandham insisting that he had paid the dues. Relations between Raposo and Sandham were stormy with both men accusing each other to their faces of embezzlement. At a meeting between Sandham and Raposo at Fullager's house on 9 September 2005, the Winnipeg Bandido known as M.H. remembered: "You could hear them yelling through the door".
Sandham had an authoritarian leadership style giving all members a rulebook listing a set of rules which forbade "lying to a brother" and "coming between two brothers" under the pain of expulsion. Sandham's rulebook also stated: "We have a chain of command in our Chapter. USE IT! NO SIDE STEPPING." Sandham had brought in this rule after the vice-president of the Winnipeg chapter, Jeff Korn, tried to appeal to Muscedere to mediate his disputes with Sandham. In response, Sandham had abolished the post of vice-president and then had Korn expelled for being a cocaine addict. Edwards wrote that Sandham had "a talent for ruthless politicking and manipulation" as his goal was to take over the entire outlaw biker scene in all of Canada. Sandham had behaved in a very sycophantic manner towards Muscedere, Raposo and Salerno when he wanted to join the Bandidos in 2004, but turned on them when they stood in his ambitions' way. Despite his own rules about respecting the chain of command, Sandham began writing emails to the Bandidos' "mother chapter" in Houston denouncing Muscedere's leadership and accusing Raposo of embezzlement. In September 2005, Kellestine told Sandham that if he wanted to wear Bandido patches (which he had never been supplied with from Houston), he should just make his own, even though Bandido rules stated that anyone who wore a patch not supplied by Houston would be expelled. Edwards described Kellestine and Sandham as displaying narcissistic behavior and a contempt for the rules, which allowed them to justify doing anything they wanted.
Rift in the Bandidos: Houston vs. the "No Surrender Crew"
On 6 December 2005, Keswick drug dealer Shawn Douse was murdered. He had last been seen alive visiting the apartment of Bandido Jamie "Goldberg" Flanz, at his home in Keswick on the evening of 6 December 2005. Four Bandidos were charged with his murder. A Bandido, Cameron Acorn, was unhappy with Douse and decided to kill him, for selling cocaine to Acorn's girlfriend's sister despite orders to stop and possibly sleeping with her. Douse was a worker at the Chrysler factory in Bramalea, a drug dealer and father of two. Flanz was only a "prospect" with the Bandidos. He agreed to let the full patch Bandidos use his apartment in hope that he might become a full patch Bandido. Bandido Robert Quinn had his girlfriend call Douse from her cell phone, saying that she was at a party at Flanz's apartment and wanted to buy some cocaine right away. The all-white Bandidos hated Douse, who was of Black Jamaican descent, and Quinn's girlfriend later testified in court Douse was often described as a "nigger". Outlaw bikers are often white supremacists, and in some circles it is considered honourable for them to slay non-whites.
Douse arrived at Flanz's apartment by taxi. Acorn and his fellow Bandidos Pierre Aragon, Rudolph Brown, Paul Sinopoli, and Robert Quinn fell on Douse, stuffed a gag into his mouth and beat him to death. Douse screamed repeatedly as he was beaten to death in Flanz's basement, saying "I'm sorry", but no mercy was granted as he considered to be just a "nigger" by the Bandidos. Later that night, Flanz came home from work as a bouncer at a bar. He was shocked to discover that his fellow Bandidos had killed Douse in his apartment, saying this was extremely "stupid" as Douse had arrived via taxi, meaning the police would connect the murder to him. However, Flanz was desperate to be promoted and become a "full patch" Bandido, refusing to report the murder and helped clean up the crime scene. On 8 December 2005, Douse's burnt body was found. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) suspected Flanz had been involved in the murder and tapped his phone. As part of the investigation into Douse's death, the OPP ultimately brought not only Flanz, but also the rest of the Toronto Bandido chapter under surveillance and tapped all of their phones.
On 28 December 2005, the American leadership of the Bandidos, who had grown increasingly unhappy with Muscedere's leadership, expelled him and his followers, charging that they were failing to make money, not paying their monthly membership dues because they did not have the money, and were going about business in a "sloppy" manner, leaving them wide open to prosecution. An officer with the Texas Department of Public Safety told the journalist Julien Sher of The Globe and Mail in 2006: "Because their numbers were so low in Canada, the U.S. Bandidos had tried to separate themselves from Canada. When you get to the point when you're not even breaking even – on drugs, like any other trade – you decide to close the business. If you're not bringing anything into the pot, you're a liability instead of an asset". Moreover, since the American leadership of the Bandidos all had criminal records, it was impossible for them to legally visit Canada. This led to the Canadian branch of the Bandidos being widely seen as a badly functioning rogue operation who refused to communicate properly. In defence of Muscedere, Salerno emailed to Carleton "Pervert" Bare, the secretary of Bandidos USA, that the national president had tried 5 times to visit Houston, but was "turned down everytime and the last time detained until he was deemed an undesirable and escorted back to Canadian soil. The next time he is caught trying to enter he will face criminal charges". The rules of the "Bandido Nation" required the leadership in Houston be consulted before the Toronto chapter could open any new chapters in Canada. The leaders in Houston were stunned to learn via Sandham that there was a Bandido chapter in Winnipeg. Sandham had written emails to Houston denouncing Muscedere for refusing to grant "full patches" to the Winnipeg chapter, which was the first time Houston had discovered there was a Bandido chapter in Winnipeg.
One American Bandido, William "Bandido Bill" Sartelle, the treasurer of Bandidos USA, in an email to Raposo complained: "You can't come here, we can't come there, but you do not want to answer any questions. There are issues that need to be resolved. I have made attempts to get these answers, but have not gotten fuck all". Muscedere took the expulsions, together with loss of their right to wear the Bandido patches, very badly. An email to an American Bandido Keinard "Hawaiian Ken" Post, which read:
my brother ken you will always be my brother there is no reason too [to] take something the canadian brothers value more than there [their] own lives when a brother is down you reach out your hand too [to] help them not kick them down I feel like a knife has been driven into my heart would you beleave [believe] it my own brother has done what my enemys [enemies] could never do with my own death.
After being ordered to return their Bandido patches and property, Muscedere sent out an email to Bandidos chapters around the world calling for a vote to allow him and his followers to stay. Jeff Pike, the world leader of the Bandidos, emailed Muscedere back that "Bandidos don't vote, they do what the fuck they're told".
Muscedere and his followers took to calling themselves the "no surrender crew", after an ultra-violent fraction in the Irish Republican Army opposed to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, because they refused the orders from Houston to surrender their patches, saying they were going to stay on as Bandidos despite Pike's decision to expel them. Outlaw bikers attach enormous symbolic importance to their patches, which show which club they belong to and what their position is. The patches belong to the club, not to the men wearing them, and must be returned at once if a member is expelled or resigns. It is considered extremely offensive for someone to wear the patch of a club that they do not belong to, which often results in violence against anyone who does so. Donald Chambers, who had founded the Bandidos in 1966, liked the cartoon character of fictional Mexican bandit Frito Bandito who was used in a series of 1960s TV ads to promote Frito-Lay chips. Following complaints that the Frito Bandido was promoting negative stereotypes of Mexicans, the ads were dropped, but Chambers had adopted a version of the Frito Bandido character, whom he called "the Fat Mexican", as the patch for his club as a way of insulting Latinos.
Pike was greatly displeased by the refusal of the "no surrender crew" to return their patches, together with Muscedere's call for a vote to allow the Toronto chapter to stay, bluntly announcing the "Bandido Nation" was not a democracy. At the same time, Sandham was writing emails to Houston disavowing Muscedere and the rest of the "no surrender crew", proclaiming in highly obsequious language that he was with Houston against the "no surrender crew". Sandham had also told Kellestine at this time that the "no surrender crew" were planning to "patch over" to join the Outlaws without him. Kellestine believed what Sandham had told him, and this bit of misinformation turned Kellestine against the "no surrender crew". For Kellestine, outlaw biking was his life, and to be left alone without belonging to any club would be a sort of death for him. A reprieve of sorts was won for the "no surrender crew" when George "Crash" Kriarakis, who had no criminal record, was able to visit Houston and made a good impression. Kriarakis was appointed president of Bandidos Canada, but an unassertive man, he surrendered the title back to Muscedere. The status of the "no surrender crew" was somewhat ambiguous afterwards, perhaps because it would be humiliating for Houston to have "no surrender crew" wear their Bandido patches without Houston being able to do anything about it.
For their part, the Winnipeg chapter believed that Muscedere was an incompetent leader whose poor relations with Houston had prevented them from being granted full patches. Kellestine had been ordered by Houston to "pull the patches" on the "no surrender crew" or be expelled himself. In March 2006, Kellestine asked the Winnipeg chapter for help. Kellestine, who frequently consumed the drugs he was supposed to sell and who was deeply in debt with the bank frequently threatening to foreclose on his farm he bought in 1982, had discovered that selling methamphetamine was a lucrative business, and was greatly annoyed when Muscedere had ordered him to stop selling methamphetamine, on the grounds that it was wrong. Muscedere was addicted to cocaine, but felt that selling methamphetamine was wrong and forbade all Bandidos from selling "crystal meth". Stratford, Ontario is regarded as the "meth-making capital" of Canada, as methamphetamine is usually manufactured in rural areas since it emits an unpleasant smell and needs anhydrous ammonia as an ingredient, a fertilizer commonly sold in rural stores. There was a huge demand for methamphetamine in Winnipeg. Kellestine believed an alliance would make him rich, as Sandham held contacts many of the methamphetamine makers in the countryside around Stratford. The indebted Kellestine frequently complained that the other members were more interested having the chapter serve as a social club rather than as a money-making concern, which echoed the feelings of the American leadership of the Bandidos. Kellestine was behind in paying property taxes to Dutton/Dunwich township in Elgin county, owing the township some $10,303.30 in unpaid taxes, and frequently resorted to selling bootleg whiskey and smuggled cigarettes to pay his bills. The crime journalist Yves Lavigne told The London Free Press: "On a scale of one to 10, this group of Bandidos rated somewhere between one and zero".
The Canadian Bandidos biker gang was divided into factions, the "No Surrender crew" associated with Toronto and a rival faction based in Winnipeg. The "no surrender crew" could not afford their own clubhouse and instead held their meetings in the basement in a Greek restaurant in Toronto. Kellestine was disliked by the "no surrender crew", who considered him to be erratic and obnoxious, charging that he used methamphetamine too much for his own good. This led him to align with the Winnipeg fraction. Sandham in his turn, saw the "no surrender crew" as the only thing that was preventing him and the Winnipeg chapter from being granted full patches, and often pressed Kellestine to act against the Toronto chapter.
The "no surrender crew" were not impressive as outlaw bikers or criminals. Paul "Big Paulie" Sinopoli was an Argentine immigrant. He lived in his parents' basement as he could not afford to move out and suffered from low self-esteem because of his obesity. Sinopoli worked as a drug dealer, albeit not a very successful one. He only seems to have joined the club out of a desire to feel powerful and to be liked. Even though Sinopoli was obese, had no job, and still lived with his parents at the age of 30, he was considered attractive by many women because he wore the Bandido patch, and Atkinson remembered in an interview with Edwards: "How many guys that weigh four hundred pounds get laid that often?". Despite his "teddy bear" image, at the trial of Douse's killers in 2008, Sinopoli was identified as one of the Bandidos who had beaten Douse to death at Flanz's apartment. Sinopoli wanted to quit the Bandidos to focus on losing weight, but did not out of loyalty to his "brothers". George "Pony" Jessome was a tow trucker who lived in a trailer at his employer's yard. He had a terminal case of cancer and only joined the Bandidos to provide him with friends in his last days. George "Crash" Kriarakis was also a tow truck driver who married his wife in 2005. Kriarakis appeared to only act the part of an outlaw biker as he had no criminal record and refused to commit any crimes with a special abhorrence of violence, making many wonder why he had even joined the Bandidos in the first place. Kriarakis's wife Diane often pressed him to quit the Bandidos, and he himself talked frequently of his desire to leave the club, but he stayed out of loyalty to his biker "brothers".
Frank "Bammer" Salerno was an ex-Loner with a long criminal record for fraud, theft, and drug possession. He once caused the Loners' clubhouse in Richmond Hill to burn down, when he fell asleep while he was supposed to be watching a fire. Salerno, the son of a Toronto car dealer, had a heroin problem, and had more than 30 criminal convictions. Salerno's wife, Stephanie, had just given birth to a son, Mario, and like Diane Kriarakis, she often pressed her husband to leave the Bandidos. Salerno assured his wife that he wanted to quit the Bandidos, saying the outlaw biker lifestyle was not for him, but kept procrastinating about when he was going to resign. Salerno, the president of the Toronto chapter once told a friend: "I'm not Mr. Workaholic, bringing home a lot of money. But I'm not a womanizer. I don't cheat on her [Stephanie]. I also don't abuse her. I do my best, within my abilities". Michael "Little Mikey" Trotta was happily married with a daughter. He had a good job working as a manager at a trailer-rental company in Mississauga. After being promoted to manager, Trotta often talked about quitting the Bandidos.
Jamie "Goldberg" Flanz came from Montreal, where his father, Leonard, was a successful lawyer specializing in bankruptcy cases, and he had been raised in an upper-middle class household. Flanz ran a successful computer consulting business in Keswick, working part-time as a bouncer in a local bar, and he joined the Bandidos when he became lonely after his divorce. Flanz served as a sort of bank for his fellow Bandidos, as the well-off Flanz was always lending money to his fellow Bandidos. Flanz cruised Internet chat rooms looking for female companionship under the name BigDaddyRogue. He was fascinated with the outlaw biker lifestyle, as he believed that being a "bad ass" outlaw biker would make him attractive to women. Luis "Chopper" Raposo was a former Loner who at the age of 41 still lived with his parents in the Kensington Market area of Toronto. Raposo who always seemed to be giving anyone who took a photograph of him the finger, felt the club standards were collapsing under Muscedere's leadership, complaining it had taken him much time to become a full patch Loner in the 1990s and that Muscedere was letting in just anybody. As a hang-around and then as a prospect with the Loners in the 1990s, Raposo had been repeatedly called out by Fullager for not having matches and toothpicks on him at all times for the benefit of the full patch members, a test he now applied to the others, who usually failed it.
The "farm crew" assembles
On 4 March 2006, Sandham sent out an email under the bland pseudonym "John Smith" to all Winnipeg chapter members to announce chapter president Sandham had just been promoted to a full patch Bandido (by whom he did not say). Edwards wrote that this promotion by Sandham of himself was just as spurious as his martial art of "Sando". Sandham went on to write: "Things are going good. Do not answer Toronto at all!! W[einer] is coming out here to speak as well as to the States. U.S is behind us 100% as well as Germany...Much Love, Loyalty and Respect...Bandidos Fuckn Canada!!!". On 7 March 2006, Sandham, Kellestine and the younger Weiche travelled to British Columbia to visit the Peace Arch Park on the American-Canadian border. American bikers generally cannot enter Canada, as most of them have criminal records and vice versa. The Peace Arch Park, where it is possible to hold a conversation without crossing the border, is a popular meeting place for Canadian and American bikers. An American Bandido, Peter "Mongo" Price, told Sandham and Kellestine that Houston was furious that the "no surrender crew" were still wearing Bandido patches despite being expelled in December 2005. Price was the national sergeant-at-arms of Bandidos USA, making him in charge of discipline, and accompanying him were Keinard "Hawaiian Ken" Post and Brian Bentley of the Washington state Bandidos. The fact that Price had flown from Houston to meet Kellestine and Sandham in the Peace Arch Park suggested he had something especially important to say, that he could not say on the phone or write in an email.
Price further informed Kellestine that he would become the new Canadian Bandido president if he succeeded in "pulling the patches" of the "no surrender crew", while the Winnipeg chapter would be granted "full patches", making them into full members. Price concluded by stating that both Kellestine and Sandham would be expelled as well if they failed with removing the patches being worn by the rogue Toronto chapter. At his trial in 2009, Sandham testified that Price who was representing Pike had told him that Muscedere and the rest of the "no surrender crew" were to be killed with Kellestine to become the new leader of the Canadian Bandidos as the reward. After the meeting in the Peace Arch Park, Weiche chose to remain in Vancouver, though he regularly exchanged phone calls with Sandham. In his emails to his enemy Raposo after the meeting in the Peace Arch Park, Sandham adopted a mocking, condescending tone of superiority, as he was secure in the knowledge that Houston was on his side. Between 20 and 22 March, Sandham again went to Vancouver to meet with American Bandidos in the Peace Arch Park. The Winnipeg crew claimed that Sandham received a phone call from an American Bandido, Keinard "Hawaiian Ken" Post, asking why the "no surrender crew" were still wearing Bandido patches five months after being expelled and accused them all of incompetence in allowing this situation to persist.
On 25 March 2006, Sandham announced to his followers that he had received orders from Houston to act against the "no surrender crew" and they were departing for Kellestine's farm without telling him that they were coming. Sandham assured his followers that Kellestine had plenty of guns at his farm, but he brought along a bullet-proof vest and a box of surgical gloves, saying he needed them to leave no fingerprints on the guns that Kellestine would provide. While stopping in Dryden in northern Ontario, Sandham received a phone call from his common-law wife Kathleen saying that Pierre "Carlitto" Aragon had arrived in Winnipeg and was looking for him. Aragon had apparently been dispatched by Muscedere and Salerno to kill Sandham, who was seen as the source of their problems with Houston. When Sandham arrived at Kellestine's farm, he lied to him by claiming not to know why he had been sent there, and told Kellestine that he would receive further orders from Houston. Kellestine was surprised by Sandham's visit, but he quickly took charge of his guests and provided them with weapons from his hidden cache of arms he kept at his farm. Despite two lifetime bans on possessing weapons, the self-proclaimed "gun nut" Kellestine continued to collect guns and had a large collection of guns and ammunition at his farm. Kellestine also produced what he called his "wet work kit" for cleaning up after murders of hydrochloric acid and rubber gloves, saying he always used his "wet work kit" after he killed somebody.
Arriving to help Kellestine with "pulling the patches" were Sandham together with three other Winnipeg Bandidos, namely Dwight "Big Dee" Mushey, a kick-boxer and boxer who owned and managed a strip club; Marcello "Fat Ass" Aravena, a tae kwon do enthusiast and a bouncer in Mushey's strip club; a former iron-worker from Calgary named Brett "Bull" Gardiner, whom Mushey had recruited into the Bandidos; and another man known only as M.H. Unlike Sandham, the 6'3 tall Mushey actually had a second-degree black belt in taekwondo, liked to wear expensive Italian clothing, dressing like the character "Sonny" Crockett from Miami Vice, and was an experienced criminal, believed to have worked as a hitman for the Mafia in Montreal and New York before coming to Winnipeg. Sandham liked to boast about committing large amounts of murders, but Edwards wrote that these claims are almost certainly fabrications; however Mushey's tales of working as an assassin for the Rizzuto family of Montreal "...had a chilling ring of authenticity". Mushey had worked for the Rizzuto family, but as an Asian-Canadian (Mushey's father was Filipino and his mother was Iranian), he could never hope to become a "made man" in the Mafia. Like the rest of the Winnipeg Bandidos, Mushey had a barely veiled contempt for Sandham, whom he liked to call "Little Beaker" instead of "Taz". Aravena also worked as a boxer and a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, usually losing his matches held across the Prairies, but was felt to be useful as "muscle". A Chilean immigrant, Aravena billed himself in the ring as El Condor, but he was known on the MMA circuit on the Prairies as "The Great White Chilean Ape" and to his fellow Bandidos as "Beaker Two" as he was very loyal to Sandham, aka "Little Beaker". Sandham spoke with a high pitched voice and was called "Little Beaker" by his men after the Beaker character on The Muppet Show. M.H., the sergeant-at-arms of the Winnipeg chapter was a drug dealer who lived on welfare, receiving $1, 000/per month from the province of Manitoba in welfare, while making about $3, 000/per day selling cocaine. M.H. had dropped out of school in grade 10 and could only read at a grade 5 level.
Joining them was a man that Kellestine had recruited, a career criminal from New Brunswick with a long record for home invasions, Frank Mather, who was serving as his bodyguard. Kellestine had met Mather in prison and provided him with a home for himself and his pregnant girlfriend, Stefanie. Mather was a Bandidos supporter and hoped that Kellestine would sponsor him into the club. Mather was on parole after being convicted of attempting to steal a truck, and after being kicked out of a London motel for not paying the bills, Mather had arrived at Kellestine's farm. During the trial in 2009, the Crown Attorney prosecuting the case, Kevin Gowdey, took to referring to the men gathered at Kellestine's farm as the "farm crew" and it is by that name that they are known. Kellestine treated the junior Bandidos like Aravena and Gardiner like slaves, expecting them to do all of his housework for them. Gardiner was a man of very limited intelligence, whom Kellestine had once asked to supply him with pickles from a "pickle tree" growing on his farm, which led him to spend hours looking for the elusive "pickle tree" before telling Kellestine that he couldn't find it. Sandham and the other Bandidos later described Kellestine as an odd and eccentric character who liked to eat animal excrement to prove how tough he was as an outlaw biker, and that he always laughed madly as the others looked on with disgust as he devoured whatever excrement he found lying on the ground. Aravena recalled that Kellestine would smile and say "mm-mm good" before eating excrement, which led him to the conclusion that Kellestine was a "little bit of a weirdo". While staying at the Kellestine farm, M.H. went to the closest pay phone at a gas station to call Constable Timothy Diack of the Winnipeg police to leave a message on his voice mail saying the charter of the Toronto Bandidos was going to "be pulled"; M.H had been working as a part-time police informer for several years and Diack was his contact.
At the beginning of April 2006, Kellestine accused one of the "no surrender crew", Flanz, of being a police informer. As Flanz was Jewish and the rabidly anti-Semitic Kellestine hated him for that, Muscedere did not take the allegation seriously, but to settle the matter, it was agreed that the "no surrender crew" would visit Kellestine's farm to discuss his claims. Most of the "no surrender crew" lived in the Toronto area, but Kellestine insisted that the meeting be held at his farm, and Muscedere agreed. Kellestine also stated that Sandham and some other members of the Winnipeg chapter were staying with him, which was intended as a "bait" as knew that relations between Muscedere and Sandham were very poor. Muscedere and the "no surrender crew" were planning to "pull the patch" on Kellestine, whose racist paranoia had become too much for them. One of the bikers invited to the meeting, Paul "Big Paulie" Sinopoli, in the week preceding the meeting was overheard by the OPP listening in on his phone conversations repeatedly trying to find an excuse not to visit Kellestine's farm, saying he was feeling unwell. Salerno told Sinopoli that if he failed to attend the meeting and bring some $550 he owed in arrears to the club he would be expelled. Kellestine also phoned Sinopoli to tell him: "Uh, I haven't heard from you for a while. What's up, buds? You don't love me no more?" Kellestine then began to sing the 1960 Elvis Presley song It's Now or Never, saying he wanted Sinopoli to prove he loved his biker "brothers" by coming to the meeting.
In a phone call recorded by police, on 5 April, Kellestine phoned the mother of another Bandido, Cameron Acorn, to tell her she should tell her son: "Fire in the hold!" In a phone call to Acorn himself on 6 April, one of the principal suspects in the murder of Douse, who was in the Penetanguishene prison, Kellestine stated:
The people in the States are super, super, super fuckin' choked [biker slang for being angry]...And don't say a word, just...uh...just leave it at that...For some strange reason, they [the American leadership] seem to...oh fuck...anyways, there's going to be some major changes, man...I'm telling you right now you protect yourself...it's not my doing. I want no part of this, but I'm gonna trying to salvage as many guys as possible.
When Acorn realized that the "changes" that Kellestine was referring to was killing the "no surrender crew", he told him "That's fuckin' bullshit" while Kellestine told him "Love you buddy" before hanging up. Edwards argued that despite Kellestine's protestations that he was being forced to act that he appeared to be "gloating" in his call to Acorn. Kellestine had decided to "pull the patches" on the "no surrender crew", revoking their claim to call themselves Bandidos and then chosen to liquidate the "no surrender crew" when he realized that they would not take kindly to losing their prized Bandidos patches.
On the night before the massacre, Kellestine had his common-law wife, Tina Fitzgerald, and his daughter together with Mather's girlfriend leave his farm, saying no women could be present at the "church" meeting (in outlaw biker slang a "church" meeting is a mandatory meeting for the chapter). Despite the rules forbidding bringing guns to "church" meetings, Raposo brought a sawed-off shotgun with him to the meeting as he knew that his enemy Sandham was going to be present. Muscedere believed that nothing would happen to him at the "church" meeting, seeing his enemy only as Sandham and believed that his "brother" Kellestine would never betray him. Unknown to the "no surrender crew", a team of detectives investigating Douse's murder followed them down the 401 highway as they went to meet Kellestine at his farm at 32196 Aberdeen Line. During the trip to Kellestine's farm, Acorn called Raposo on his cell phone from the prison phone, to tell him "I love you bro" over and over again, and did not mention his call with Kellestine. During his call, Acorn also spoke with Muscedere and Edwards wrote: "Faced with the chance to alert Boxer and Chopper as they drove to Kellestine's farm, Acorn said nothing, betraying his president with his silence on the night of his murder". The policemen following the "no surrender crew" had no warrant to enter Kellestine's farm, and as he had chopped down most of the trees on the flat land around his farm to provide a wide open view in all directions, the police decided not to compromise the operation by getting too close, parking their cars several miles away in a wooded country lane.
The massacre
 | This section is too long to read comfortably, and needs subsections. (December 2021) |
On the night of 7 April 2006, a meeting at Kellestine's farm attended by the two factions began at about 10:30 PM, when the "no surrender crew" entered his barn. The barn was full of rusting machinery, old furniture, and children's toys while its walls were decorated with pornographic photographs of buxom young women sitting atop Harley-Davidson motorcycles or half-dressed as construction workers together with "Kellestine's usual Nazi propaganda". Kellestine instructed his guests to stay in the middle where he had cleared out some space. Sandham was standing in the rafters with a rifle while Mushey, Mather, Aravena and lI MH were patrolling outside armed with rifles and shotguns, and Gardiner listened to the police scanners inside Kellestine's house. According to one version of the events, upon entering the barn, Luis "Chopper" Raposo saw Sandham with his rifle, and realizing that he been betrayed fired at him with his sawed-off shotgun. Sandham was only slightly injured as he was wearing a bullet-proof vest, returned fire and killed Raposo. However, Raposo's favourite gesture was to "give the finger", and the autopsy revealed at the time of his death, Raposo had raised his middle finger while the rest of his fingers clinched into his fist and that Sandham's bullet had gone through Raposo's raised finger, shattering it completely. The forensic evidence does not support's Sandham's claim that Raposo had fired at him, and moreover Sandham is a "well known pathological liar" not known for his willingness to take responsibility for his actions. It is not entirely clear what happened other than Raposo was giving Sandham the finger at the time when Sandham used his skills as a marksman to put a bullet through it. Two of the "no surrender crew", Paul "Big Paulie" Sinopoli and George "Crash" Kriarakis attempted to flee, but were shot down and wounded by Kellestine who was armed with a handgun. Kellestine shouted: "Everybody get on the floor! Nobody move! I'm here to pull your patches. This is being done by the orders of the States [the U.S leadership of the Bandidos]".
Over the next two hours, Kellestine frequently changed his mind about whether he was going to "pull the patches" or execute the "no surrender crew", and at one point allowed Muscedere to call his girlfriend, Nina Lee, on his cell phone provided he "didn't say anything fucking stupid". Muscedere told Lee: "How's the baby? I'll see you in a couple hours. I love you." The macho Muscedere opted to be faithful to the outlaw biker's code of never asking for help, and did not alert Lee to his predicament, instead asking about how their daughter Angelina was doing. Kellestine drank heavily over the course of the night and ranted to his prisoners about his grievances with them. Kellestine pistol-whipped Flanz several times and told him: "I'm saving you for last, you fucking Jew!" Kriarakis, who was wounded in the thigh, prayed to God and asked that his captors to spare him as his family would miss him and he had a wife he loved back at home, but was told to shut up. As Kriarakis prayed in Greek while Sinopoli cried, saying he never wanted to come to Kellestine's farm, which led to both men being told by another prisoner, Francesco "Bammer" Salerno: "We're bikers. We're not the fucking Boy Scouts, so stop your whining". Several times, Kellestine asked Muscedere to join him despite the way he was attempting to depose him as national president, but he firmly declined, instead asking for an ambulance be called for Sinopoli and Kriarakis, who were bleeding to death. Muscedere also defended Flanz from charges of being disloyal; Kellestine was an admirer of Nazi Germany and had issues with the Jewish Flanz. Finally, Kellestine decided to execute the "No Surrender crew" and they were all taken out one by one and shot execution-style, in what the Ontario Court of Appeal described as "an execution assembly line". At about midnight, Constable Perry Graham of the OPP doing his nightly patrol around the countryside in his cruiser, ran into the surveillance team, sitting in the wooded lane in the dark, to ask them what they were doing, and learned that they were investigating the murder of Douse. At about 12:30 am, the surveillance team went home, having noticed nothing.
As the men were marched out and shot, Kellestine, who was drinking very heavily that night, danced a jig while singing Das Deutschlandlied. Between dancing his jig while singing the anthem and executing his prisoners, Kellestine would go over to torment Flanz. Realizing he was doomed, Muscedere stated: "Do me. Do me first. I want to go out like a man." A police wiretap recorded that Mushey told Aravena about Muscedere's execution: "This guy, he went out like a man...He laughed. Went like a man." Kellestine personally executed Muscedere, who had once been his friend. Muscedere was marched out of the barn, forced to sit in his car, and then shot in the head at point-blank range, followed by another shot to his chest. The next to be killed was Kriarakis, who prayed in Greek, as he went out and was shot. Mushey speaking to M.H some weeks later and unaware that the latter was wearing a wire, said he was surprised by how much Kriarakis cried as he was marched out to be shot, saying he expected a fellow outlaw biker to be tougher. George "Pony" Jessome, a 52-year-old tow truck driver dying of cancer who only joined the Bandidos because he wanted some friends, went out next, not saying a word. Sinopoli was taken to be shot, crying and screaming hysterically, saying that he had really wished that he not attended this meeting as he had wanted to. Sinopoli was shot but survived while Kellestine's gun jammed. Aravena then had to fetch Kellestine another gun, which he then used to finish off Sinopoli who had been left bleeding and in great pain in the interval. Flanz and another of the "no surrender crew", Michael "Little Mickey" Trotta were ordered to clean up the blood on the ground, using bleach. At this point, Kellestine began to rant about how he was such a hard worker who was doing such a great job killing the "no surrender crew", who were not thankful for his hard work, as if he expected them to appreciate his work in killing them. As Kellestine went in and out of his barn with prisoners to kill, none of his colleagues, the majority of whom had guns made any effort to free the prisoners or to shoot Kellestine, though they were all to claim at the trial that they wanted to stop Kellestine. Even those who did not have guns like Gardiner could have called the police as all of the "farm crew" had cell phones with them or access to a phone, but none did. Gardiner had a telephone right next to him as he listened to the police scanners, but he never called the police as he wanted to be a full patch Bandido.
One of the killers who later turned Crown's evidence, known as only as "MH", stated one of the victims, Frank "Bammer" Salerno, tried to shake his hand with MH testifying in 2009: "Bammer went to shake my hand. I didn't do it. Dwight did." Salerno also tried to shake Aravena's hand, but he declined, saying: "I'm not shaking your hand". As Salerno was marched out to be shot, his last words to his killers were to think of his newly born son, Mario. Flanz was shot last in order to ensure that he would suffer the most because he was Jewish, and he talked much about his children as he waited for his time to die. Trotta was taken out to be shot, not saying a word, and finally Flanz was killed. Gardiner removed the children's toys from the back of Trotta's Grand Prix to make room for Flanz while M.H, Aravena, Mushey, and Mather watched. By this point, Kellestine was too drunk to kill Flanz, and instead Sandham shot him in the head. Sandham was too nervous to aim properly despite shooting at point-blank range, and Flanz was still alive after Sandham had shot him. As Flanz looked up with a sad expression, as if begging with his eyes to save his life, Sandham could not bring himself to kill him, claiming his gun was jammed. Finally, Mushey, who was a more experienced killer than Sandham, took his gun and proved it was not jammed by finishing off Flanz with another shot to the head.
Afterwards, Kellestine ordered the bodies be placed into their vehicles. Nobody wanted to drive Muscedere's car with his body in the driver's seat and the entire front seats soaked in blood, so his car was attached to Jessome's tow truck. Sinopoli's obese corpse did not fit properly into the trunk of the SUV that it was packed into with the other corpses, and nearly rolled out several times during the trip up the 401 highway. Mushey who drove Trotta's Pontiac Grand Prix, complained his car was full of toys belonging to his daughter, which had to be cleared away to make room for the corpses. Kellestine had planned to take the bodies up the 401 and dump them in Kitchener, which was known as a stronghold of the Hells Angels, out of the belief the police would blame them, but he did not buy enough gas for the trip, forcing the killers to abort the trip to Kitchener, with the bodies dumped in a farmer's field chosen at random only because they couldn't go any further up the 401. Mather who was driving Flanz's Infiniti reported the vehicle was almost out of gas, and turned into a farmer's field where the Stafford Line met the 401 highway. The bodies and vehicles dumped in the farmer's field were not burned because the killers were "too cheap to buy enough gasoline" to set them afire. Kellestine who remained at his farm was surprised when the "farm crew" returned after about half an hour, asking: "How fucking far did you guys go? I thought I told you to take them all the way to Kitchener". Afterwards, the "farm crew" went to work destroying the evidence, burning some of the items that belonged to the victims while keeping some for themselves. Edwards stated: "I don't think Kellestine would've been that dangerous that night if it wasn't for Sandham, the cop. They needed Sandham's ambition, and Kellestine's craziness."
Investigation
| This section is too long to read comfortably, and needs subsections. (December 2021) |
At about 7:45 am on 8 April 2006, a farmer, Russell Steele and his wife Mary, received a phone call from another farmer, Forbes Oldham, saying that there were vehicles parked in their cornfield. The Steeles went to investigate and upon seeing the corpses, called the police. Muscedere's girlfriend, Nina Lee, called Kellestine at about 8:00 am to ask where her boyfriend was, and he told her that he had just left. Both Aravena and Gardiner were promoted up the Bandido ranks, and Gardiner chose to stay with Kellestine at his farm. Sandham and the rest of the Winnipeg Bandidos left Kellestine's farm later that morning. The road trip back to Winnipeg was unhappy one with Mushey calling Sandham a "pussy" for being unable to finish off Flanz, Aravena kept seeking assurances from Mushey that he would not kill him, Sandham being more pompous and conceited than ever and M.H. already considering turning Crown's evidence. The security cameras at a Walmart in Barrie showed that between 10:21-10:53 am, the Winnipeg Bandidos were in the store with M.H. later testifying that Mushey told the other Bandidos that they should buy some Head and Shoulders shampoo, which he assured them was the best shampoo for removing gunpowder residue. The balance of power within the Winnipeg Bandido chapter had shifted from Sandham, whose tough guy act had been exposed as mere braggadocio, to Mushey, who remained calm and collected, saying he had often done this sort of thing before. In Raposo's car, the police found copies of the unfriendly email exchanges he had with Sandham the previous month, which Raposo was planning to produce at the "church" meeting, and which led the police to tag Sandham as a suspect. As the victims had last been seen alive entering Kellestine's farm and the bodies were found close to his farm, he was considered to be a prime suspect right from the start. The same day the bodies were found, Detective Inspector Paul Beesley of the OPP, who was in charge of the investigation, had asked a judge for a search warrant for Kellestine's farm. At about 3:05 pm, two of Kellestine's friends, Kerry Morris and Eric Niessen, arrived at his farm to help him destroy the evidence and to discuss the alibi they were planning on giving him. The alibi was that Niessen and Morris had spent the night of 7 April drinking beer with Kellestine at his farmhouse and that was all that happened there that night. The police had stationed cars on the Aberdeen Line and observed Morris and Niessen helping Kellestine clean his barn.
The discovery of the bodies caused a media frenzy and the Toronto media blamed the Hells Angels at once. Edwards stated: "Right after the killings, I phoned a Hells Angel member and said 'Don't you guys have anything to do with this?' and he said 'What could we take from them? They don't have two nickels to rub together.' And it turned out that was true; they really didn't have anything to steal, and so there was no point to that. I talked to another Hells Angel and he said 'It's a great day when you wake up and your enemies have killed each other.'" Around the world, the massacre attracted attention, making the front pages of The Times of London, The Sydney Morning Herald of Sydney, The Irish Examiner of Cork, and The People's Daily of Beijing while both CNN and Fox News sent news teams to Shedden to cover what the media took to referring to as the "Shedden massacre". The phrase "Shedden massacre" caused much chagrin to the residents of Shedden who complained their hamlet had nothing to do with the massacre. On the Bandidos website in Houston, no message of condolence was posted and messages of condolences that were left by visitors were promptly deleted. Upon returning to Winnipeg, Sandham, who as ambitious as ever, started sending emails to Houston denigrating Kellestine as a loose cannon, and demanded he be made Bandido national president instead. In a typical email, full of gushing praise for the "Bandido way", Sandham wrote: "This Brotherhood means everything to me and to wear the best colours is [in] the world is a great honour for me". In the meantime, Kellestine was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on the evening of 9 April 2006. Because Niessen and Morris gave Kellestine an alibi, saying they were at his farm on the night of killings, they were also charged with first-degree murder, much to their own shock as they never expected that lying to the police would have such consequences. When the couple were arrested for murder, Morris screamed "What!" over and over again. Mather and Gardiner was also arrested with Kellestine and charged with first degree murder. Searching Kellestine's farm, the police found evidence that guns had recently been cut down at a vise in his workshop, but no murder weapons, which caused Beesley much concern.
The Winnipeg police started following Sandham after his return, and on the afternoon of 10 April 2006, Constable Grant Goulet observed Sandham taking his Blazer to a car wash to have the interior of his vehicle cleaned. On 14 April 2006, M.H. met with Constable Timothy Diack, who told him the police knew he was involved in the massacre and he could either turn Crown's evidence or go to prison for the rest of his life. On 15 April, Sandham was observed having the tires of his vehicle removed with Sandham dumping his old tires on the side of a remote country road. An examination revealed the tires that Sandham had just abandoned in the countryside matched the tire prints found on Kellestine's farm. The next day, M.H. met with Diack, where he demanded $750,000 and immunity for testifying against the others. Eventually, it was agreed that M.H would receive total immunity, $1,300/per month for the rest of his life, and free rent in exchange for which he would wear a wire and turn Crown's evidence. M.H. wore a wire starting from early May 2006 at his meetings with Mushey and Aravena, the latter greatly pleased at becoming a Bandido prospect, which allowed him to wear the Bandido patch. However, the "Fat Mexican" that Aravena wore had been sewed by his mother rather than supplied by Houston. Shortly after the massacre, James "Ripper" Fullager, the mentor to the "no surrender crew", died of cancer and on his deathbed complained that the Canadian outlaw biking scene had gone downhill since his youth in the 1960s, as now most "bikers" didn't know how to ride motorcycles and the outlaw biker code no longer counted with biker "brothers" killing each other. Meeting with Atkinson on his deathbed, Fullager commented it was clear that Kellestine had committed the massacre as the bodies were found close to Kellestine's farm in south-western Ontario, all of the victims except Muscedere came from the greater Toronto area, and Kellestine was still alive. Fullager noted that if the Hells Angels had massacred the Bandidos in south-western Ontario close to Kellestine's farm, they would have killed Kellestine as well.
A massive forensic investigation had begun on the Kellestine farm, and by May the police had found in the fireplace the charred keys to the houses and apartments of the "Shedden Eight" murder victims, and a partially burned business card reading ONICO, the name of Flanz's computer company. On 24 May 2006, Constable Al Dubro discovered under Kellestine's micro-wave a secret doorway, where the police found Kellestine's gun cache. Dubro called Beesley, who found 18 guns in Kellestine's gun cache. Ballistic tests showed some of the guns found in Kellestine's cache were the murder weapons. On one of the handguns, a Mossberg, was found microscopic traces of blood, which DNA testing showed came from Flanz, Kriarakis, Sinopoli, Jessome and Salerno while on another handgun, a Hi-Point .380, had microscopic blood traces from Trotta and Sinopoli. The floor of Kellestine's barn was found to be soaked in hydrochloric acid from Kellestine's "wet work kit". Inside Kellestine's farmhouse, the police found a ring that had skin flakes embedded in it; DNA testing showed that the skin came from Flanz. The police also found a baseball cap in the farmhouse that had a hair in it and which DNA testing revealed to be from Kriarakis. As an undercover agent, M.H. began to speak with Mushey and Aravena about the massacre while wearing a wire, and found it easy to get Mushey to start talking by telling him that Sandham was boasting about killing 3 of the 8 men in underworld circles, which led Mushey to say that Sandham had killed only Raposo and botched the killing of Flanz.
The journalist Bruce Owen wrote about Sandham after the massacre: "Those close to him began to see through his bravado for the pipsqueak he was. One gets the feeling if he hadn't been arrested on the eight murders he easily could have been killed by his own gang." The wire that M.H. wore recorded that Sandham's authority was breaking down with the other Winnipeg Bandidos increasingly deferring to Mushey, who was the most intelligent man in the chapter, and he started to talk like he was now the chapter president. Sandham's efforts to have Houston appoint him national president of Bandidos Canada began to go off course when the secretary of Bandidos USA, Carleton "Pervert" Bare sent him an email complaining that most of the Canadian Bandidos were "idiots" who did not know how to ride motorcycles, writing: "I have dealt with a few people from Canada in the past and I have never gotten the CORRECT story ever. I never understand why this is". At the same time, one of the Toronto Bandidos who did not go to Kellestine's farm, Pierre "Carlitto" Aragon, started to demand he be made national president in his emails to Bare, and in an attempt to strengthen his hand he wrote emails to the president of Bandidos Australia, Jason Addison, denouncing both Sandham and Bare. Aragon and Sandham spent all of May 2006 and the first half of June writing emails to Houston denouncing each other and demanding that Houston support their claim to be the president of Bandidos Canada. By end of June, both Aragon and Sandham had been expelled from the Bandidos and both had been arrested on charges of murder.
In a phone call to Aragon that the police listened into, Bare stated that Canadian Bandidos were expected to obey Houston's orders, saying: "You guys are directly under the United States, under North America...Not Jason [Addison]...You’re not independent". On 23 May 2006, Sandham in an email to Bare first revealed that Aragon did not own a motorcycle, let alone a Harley-Davidson, nor did he know how to ride one, and said he could not be in the presence of his biker "brother" Aragon out of the fear that Aragon might murder him. Because Aragon did not own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle nor did he know how to ride a motorcycle, this ultimately led to Aragon being expelled by Houston under the grounds that one cannot be an outlaw biker if one does not know how to ride a motorcycle. Further complicating matters, on 24 May 2006, Frank "Ciso" Lenti rejoined the Bandidos and started to push aside both Sandham and Aragon. On 26 May, Sandham wrote an email to Addison saying the Winnipeg Bandidos were now full patch Bandidos and he was the national president of Bandidos Canada. When Addison passed along this email to Houston, Sandham was ordered to go to Houston to personally explain himself as Pike stated in an email that he did not remember appointing Sandham the president of Bandidos Canada or making him a full patch Bandido. Sandham asked that Mushey and M.H. follow him to Houston, but they both declined, saying that Sandham liked to boast about how he was such a "tough guy" and that he could handle Pike himself.
The Canadian authorities alerted the American authorities about Sandham's impending visit to Houston, and the U.S customs allowed Sandham to cross the border to see what might happen. Sandham was watched by law enforcement during his trip to Texas. Sandham arrived in Houston on 30 May and was treated by Pike and the rest of the American leaders with contempt while Sandham behaved in a very sycophantic manner towards his masters, constantly stressing his willingness to obey all orders and praising them at all times. Sandham made a great point of denouncing Kellestine to Pike, saying that Kellestine was a "crazy motherfucker" whom Pike should definitely expel. When Sandham mentioned to Pike his belief that Aragon had been sent to Winnipeg in March by Muscedere to kill him, Pike casually pointed to Sartelle and said: "Well, orders are orders. If I order him [Sartelle] to go take a piss in that corner, he'd better be getting up and taking a piss in that corner". With Sandham standing next to him, Bare phoned Aragon in Toronto to tell him: "You don't run Canada. That's a fact...We are sick and tired of the fucking gangster mentality in Canada...All it was, was 'Fuck the Hells Angels, fuck the Hells Angels, fuck the Hells Angels'. Down here, we don't have that...We don't want Canada to get any bigger because of all the bullshit...Canada has not done what all of the other countries have done to be Bandidos". In response, Aragon in an email to Houston first revealed to the American Bandido leaders that Sandham had once been a policeman in Winnipeg (outlaw bikers did not accept current or former policemen into their ranks). On 3 June 2006, Bare asked Sandham if it was true that he was a former policeman, which Sandham vehemently denied, but Sandham took the first flight to Winnipeg later the same day, believing he might be murdered by his hosts if he stayed any longer in Texas. Despite his frenetic efforts to prove he was not a former policeman, Houston had become increasingly suspicious of Sandham and expelled him on 6 June 2006. On 6 June 2006, Bare in a telephone call to Aragon complained about the dismal state of the Canadian Bandidos: "I tell you ten times not to bring in new guys and you do it right away...Fuck, that was horrible...Everybody up there is so fucked...The name is fucked. The reputation is fucked". In the same telephone call, Bare stated that all of the Canadian Bandidos were now suspended until further notice, and Sandham had been expelled for being a former policeman.
In an attempt to stay in the good graces of Houston, Sandham hacked into Mushey's email account to write under Mushey's name long, fulsome emails to Houston praising his leadership skills and saying that Sandham was such a "hardcore" outlaw biker that there was absolutely no possibility of him being a former cop. In a typical email to Bare, Sandham writing as Mushey declared: "Taz is not a cop nor was he ever a real one, VERY FAR FROM IT". Sandham also sent an email to Aragon as Mushey saying: "Things are really fucked up. For one thing, Taz is not a cop nor has he ever been a real one". Sandham was desperate to stay in the Bandidos, and Edwards wrote that after he was expelled that Sandham appeared to be "losing his mind". Lenti had one of his associates send Sandham an email saying it was time for the Canadian Bandidos "to stop looking like assholes in front of the USA and get along", meaning that Sandham should step aside to allow Lenti to run the Canadian Bandidos. Sandham sent back an email saying "You are asking me to throw down my patch. Over bullshit!!". However, Lenti was a living legend within Canadian outlaw biker circles with close links to the Mafia and a habit of gouging out the eyes of his enemies, and Sandham was so utterly terrified of him that he agreed to stop calling himself president of Bandidos Canada, and allow Lenti that honour. Sandham liked to act the tough guy, but Edwards wrote: "As it turned out, all anyone really had to do was tell him to get lost in an unfriendly tone of voice, and he would have disappeared.". At the same time, "Mary Thompson" who was full of guilt by not doing anything to save Douse's life, told the OPP that the truth about the murder of Douse, and Brown, Quinn, Acorn, and Aragon were all arrested for his murder in June 2006. Acorn was in the Penetanguishene prison and Brown was in the Lindsay jail awaiting charges for other offences at the time of their arrests, Aragon was arrested on the streets on Kipling Avenue in Toronto on 21 June and Quinn was arrested on 26 June in Nelson, British Columbia.
After Sandham's arrest, the media confirmed that he was indeed a former policeman, which led Houston to expel the entire Winnipeg chapter. In an email sent to all Bandidos chapters across the world, Pike wrote: "As it turns out, Taz is or was a police officer in Winnipeg when asked about it, he said everybody in Toronto knew about it and didn't have a problem with it. WE DO NOT HAVE OR NEVER WILL HAD COPS OR EX-COPS IN OUR CLUB!!!". The American leadership of the Bandidos were reportedly humiliated when it emerged from media reports that the Winnipeg chapter were "bikers without bikes" as almost none of them knew how to ride a motorcycle, and none owned a Harley-Davidson, which are the normal prerequisites for being an outlaw biker. The American biker expert Thomas Baker wrote that the American Bandido leadership were gravely embarrassed by the ineptitude of the Canadian Bandidos, which finally led them to pull out of Canada in October 2007, and the story of the Bandidos in Canada is one they all rather prefer to forget.
Legal proceedings
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Eric Niessen, 45, and his common-law wife Kerry Morris, 47, both from Monkton, Ontario, were initially charged with first degree murder, but police dropped those charges on May 6, and they were instead charged with eight counts of being accessories after the fact. Facing first-degree murder charges, Niessen and Morris abandoned the alibi they had given Kellestine, stating that they were not present at his farm on the night of the murders as they had no desire to go to prison for the rest of their lives. Both Niessen and Morris pled guilty to obstructing justice on 15 October 2007, admitting they had given Kellestine a false alibi and helped him destroy evidence, being sentenced to two years in prison. Morris complained afterwards to the media: "It's been horrible, Absolutely horrible. My life's been destroyed...Friends, they've just turned their backs". Kellestine is a full member of the Bandidos; he and the other four suspects were all arrested at his residence, which is only a few kilometres from the crime scene. A male minor was also questioned, with no credible evidence supporting involvement in the murders. The surrounding Elgin County has a history of biker gang activity, though not of major crime.
On June 16, 2006, police in Winnipeg arrested three additional men, all from that city, in connection with the killings:
- Dwight Mushey, 36
- Marcello Aravena, 30
- Michael Sandham, 36
Police said that Sandham and Mushey were full members of the club, and Aravena was a prospective member. Sandham, who was also believed to be the leader of the Winnipeg Bandidos chapter, is a former police officer. In 2002, he was suspended from the force in the Winnipeg-area community of East St. Paul and then resigned. Sources told CBC News that Members of the RCMP provided his force with photos of him attending a Bandidos function while on leave from work.
The three were delivered into OPP custody and transported to St. Thomas, Ontario for a court appearance that afternoon. All were charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. A woman, whom police refused to identify, was also arrested but was not charged. Police also seized an SUV for forensic testing in Ontario. After his arrest, Sandham denied 223 times to OPP Sergeant Mick Bickerton who was questioning him that he was involved in the massacre, claiming he was not even in Ontario at the time of the killings, instead maintaining that he was raking leaves in front of his Winnipeg home on the weekend of the massacre, despite the fact there are no trees on the street that Sandham lived on. Sandham also denied to Bickerton that he was a member of the Bandidos, saying he had left the club in 2005.
Before the trial started, Sandham had tried to cut a deal with the Crown, where in exchange for total immunity he would testify against the others, but the Crown refused. Sandham who had prided himself in his emails to Houston on his commitment to the "Bandido way" had just violated one of the rules of the outlaw biker code by attempting to turn Crown's evidence. Former policemen are not popular in prisons, and Sandham was terrified about the possibility of going to prison. Sandham was denied bail, and while awaiting trial had to be held apart from the other inmates, who wanted to abuse a former policeman. The Bandido Winnipeg chapter's sergeant-at-arms, a man known only as MH had already cut a deal with the Crown, where in exchange for total immunity he would testify against the others, and the Crown was not inclined to make another deal for Sandham's testimony. Baker wrote that with trials, the first of the accused to make a deal with the Crown usually gets the best deal, and those of the accused who tried to plea-bargain later do not fare as well; a rule about trials that the former policeman Sandham seemed to be curiously unaware of. Furthermore, Sandham is a well known "pathological liar" whose long and well-documented record of telling lies reduced his value as a witness for the Crown.
On January 9, 2007, a preliminary hearing for all six suspects began in a court in London, Ontario, under extremely tight security. On the first day of the proceeding, Kellestine gave reporters the finger and swore at a courtroom artist. A gag order was issued prohibiting media reports on the evidence presented in the hearing. The hearing was expected to take about three months, but did not conclude until June 21, 2007, at which time Justice Ross Webster ruled that all six defendants would stand trial on all charges. At the time, defence lawyers for at least two of the suspects said that the evidence presented warranted a reduction in charges for their clients. The lawyers were considering asking for a review of Webster's ruling by a higher court, which could delay the case by several months.
On 3 July 2007, the preliminary inquiry into Douse's death began with "Mary Thompson" testifying that the accused had beaten Douse to death in Flanz's apartment on 6 December 2005. The accused took to laughing and snickering when "Mary Thompson" mentioned that their favourite term for Douse was "nigger", which clearly pained Douse's parents and sister who also attending the preliminary inquiry. Edwards who attended the preliminary hearing noted that the accused clearly relished their role as "racist thugs". Edwards wrote: "Boxer Muscedere and Ripper Fullager would been mortified by how the accused men were representing their club. For all of their faults, Boxer and Ripper weren't racists, nor were they bullies towards women". After the preliminary inquiry ended with the judge ruling the case would go to trial, "Mary Thompson" apologized in person to the Douse family for not stepping forward and for her own use of the term "nigger" for Shawn Douse. Shawn Douse's father, John Douse, told "Mary Thompson": "Why are you sorry? You helped us. You are the star witness. Without you, there would be no case". The charges relating to Douse's death ended on 7 January 2008 with the four Bandidos charged all pleading guilty. Robert Quinn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, Rudolph Brown and Cameron Acorn to manslaughter and Pierre Aragon to aggravated assault. Justice Edwin Minden called the killing of Douse "a vicious, senseless, callous and cowardly killing", saying the defendants should count themselves lucky for receiving such light sentences.
The murder trial for Aravena, Gardiner, Kellestine, Mather, Mushey and Sandham commenced on March 31, 2009, in London, Ontario, with all six of the accused entering pleas of not guilty. The senior Crown Attorney (prosecutor) on the case was Kevin Gowdey assisted by junior Crown Attorneys Fraser Kelly, Tim Zuber, David D'Iorio and Meredith Gardiner. Kellestine was defended by Clay Powell, a Toronto lawyer best known for defending Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones after he was arrested for heroin possession in Toronto in 1977; Sandham was defended by Don Crawford, a lawyer used to defending "ambitious dimwits"; and Aravena was defended by Tony Bryant, well known in Ontario for his dogged defence of the serial killer Paul Bernardo at his 1995 trial. Assisting Crawford was Gordon Cudmore and assisting Powell was Ken McMillian.
During the trial, Powell and McMillian portrayed Sandham as a cold-blooded, ruthless schemer who manipulated Kellestine into committing the murders; Crawford and Cudmore portrayed Kellestine as a bloodthirsty, deranged psychopath who pressured Sandham into committing the massacre; and the lawyers for the rest blamed both Sandham and Kellestine for their actions of their clients. Greg Leslie, the lawyer for Mather argued to the jury: "Frank Mather made a mistake. He became friends with Wayne Kellestine. That's it". Gardiner's lawyer, Christopher Hicks, used his lengthy search for the "pickle tree" alleged to be growing on Kellestine's farm as evidence that his client had a very low IQ and was easily manipulated by those around him as his main defence argument. Edwards wrote the lawyer for each men competed to "...prove their clients were dumber, weaker and crazier than their old Bandidos brothers".
At one point, Hicks claimed his client was not even a member of the Bandidos, which led the Crown to introduce as evidence a poem Gardiner had written for his girlfriend, Love Not Lost, that was signed in his handwriting "Prospect Bandido Bull Manitoba". Hicks claimed the poem was forged by persons unknown, but Gowdey noted it seemed unlikely that anyone would want to break into Kellestine's farmhouse just to plant a poem to frame Gardiner. Like the rest of the accused, Gardiner expressed much anger that he was charged with murder. He used the trial to make sexual advances at the courtroom sketch artist Karlene Ryan (cameras are not allowed in Canadian courtrooms). When Stephanie Salerno testified about her late husband: "He became a much better man towards the end. He was a wonderful man...He was a terrific father", which caused Ryan to break down in tears. Gardiner's "callous" response to Salerno's testimony was to pass a note to Ryan reading "Why aren't you smiling?", going on to suggest that they should be dating. Kellestine sent a note to the journalist Jane Sims of The London Free Press, asking for a free subscription since he was doing so much to help sell her newspaper. Kellestine shared the same cell block at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre with the child killer Michael Thomas Rafferty, charged with killing 8 year old Victoria Stafford, which led Kellestine to complain to the media about being forced to share the same cell block with him, saying that either Rafferty should be moved to another cell block or placed in the same cell with him so he could murder him.
Only two of the defendants took the stand to testify in their defence. Sandham, who liked to present himself as a tough guy when he was an outlaw biker, spent most of his time on the stand crying out his eyes, whining that it was "unfair" that he should be charged with first-degree murder for his part in the massacre. Sandham delivered what Edwards called "a lie-filled fusion of self-pity and selfless heroism" starting on 9 September 2009. Sandham began with the statement he been a good student at Bible school and was married with two children, "but technically I have four". Sandham stated that he had always been a hero, and testified that he had served in the Canadian Airborne Regiment and fought in the Bosnian war, performing classified missions that he could not talk about. Sandham also claimed on the stand that during his time in the military to have served as a bodyguard to prime ministers, presidents and royalty. When Sandham mentioned he had served as a bodyguard to Princess Patricia, Mushey's lawyer Michael Moon challenged him on that point, noting that Sandham was born in 1970 and Princess Patricia died in 1974, and so Sandham could not have possibly been a bodyguard to Princess Patricia. In response, Sandham looked very confused and stunned for a moment before saying it was not the Princess Patricia of the House of Windsor that he had protected, but rather another Princess Patricia from another country whose name he could not remember at the moment whom he had been the bodyguard to.
On the stand, Sandham claimed he had "infiltrated" the Bandidos on his own initiative with the aim of exposing their criminal activities to the police, but was unable to explain to the Crown attorneys why he had repeatedly denied to the police after his arrest on 16 June 2006 that he had been present at Kellestine's farm on the night of 7 April 2006. Nor was Sandham able to explain why he did not contact the police after the massacre, given his stated aim was to expose the Bandidos. Sandham did testify that he had supposedly ensured that the vehicles carrying the corpses away did not have enough gas, forcing their abandonment near Shedden as a clever ploy to reveal Kellestine was the killer. Gowdey replied that it would have been simpler for Sandham to just call the police, especially since he was the alleged "infiltrator" out to stop the Bandidos. Sandham testified that he did not want to be Winnipeg chapter president and had been forced against his will by Weiche to play that role, saying that Weiche had threatened to kill him if he did not become Winnipeg chapter president. Sobbing, Sandham testified that during his stay at Kellestine's farmhouse, the latter had wanted to kill a rabbit, but Sandham had stopped him as the thought of killing an innocent rabbit broke his heart, saying he was a man very opposed to violence. Sandham stated that "pulling the patches" on outlaw bikers was a peaceful progress and no violence was planned; when led by the Crown attorney Gowdey to ask him if that was the case, why did he wear a bullet-proof vest and have a rifle with him on the night of 7 April? Sandham replied that his bulletproof vest was "ratty". Amid his tears, Sandham testified Raposo had fired at him, but he was so opposed to violence that he did not choose to shoot back, and instead his gun just went off, killing his archenemy Raposo by accident.
Sandham testified that despite his claims to be a brave "infiltrator", that he was too terrified to stop the massacre, mentioning that Kellestine liked to eat animal excrement as evidence of Kellestine's "crazy" behavior that scared him so much. Sandham testified he wanted to shoot Kellestine, but he was afraid that Kellestine would kill his family if he missed. As Sandham continued to cry, saying it was only concern for his family that had allegedly prevented him from stopping the massacre, Kriarakis's father shouted out to him: "You didn't think about mine!". When Gowdey accused Sandham of lying, stating that the fact that Sandham did not report the massacre and had his Blazer cleaned to destroy evidence proved he was a willing killer, Sandham replied that was not the case at all as: "Imagine four large men going on a long trip and back. The car needed to be cleaned. There was mayo on the seats!". Midway through the trial, Sandham changed his story, now testifying that the massacre had been ordered by Pike, and in May 2006 he paid a visit to Houston where Pike had allegedly personally congratulated him for the killings. As Sandham continued to cry continuously, he presented himself as a victim and a hero, saying: "I wanted to make sure everyone paid for what they did…It is important that everyone in the case came to justice" while stating he was not one of those who should have been indicted. At the same time, Sandham complained amidst his tears that it was "unfair" that he should be charged with first degree murder, saying he was the heroic "infiltrator" who had gone undercover to stop the Bandidos, but he was unable to name a single police officer he been in contact with. Baker wrote that Sandham is a "pathological liar", a deeply dishonest and cowardly man who routinely told the most absurd lies in a vain bid to avoid going to prison for the rest of his life, and nothing he said on the stand can be believed.
After Sandham's testimony on the stand, widely viewed as a "train-wreck" that did himself much damage, Aravena took the stand on 22 September 2009. As Bryant had a reputation for being aggressive, it was junior defence counsel Kathryn Wells who questioned him on the stand. Aravena began with describing how in Chile, his father had abandoned his mother when he was a toddler, and how he came to Canada as a child looking for a better life. Aravena testified his IQ was very low as he failed grades 7, 8, and 9 before dropping out of school in grade 10, saying he just could not handle learning, and that his principal accomplishment in life was losing MMA fights. In the summer of 2005, Aravena's cousin, roommate and best friend was murdered in a bar fight, and afterwards, suffering from cocaine addiction, he moved in with his employer Mushey, paying $100 in rent in exchange for being allowed to live in his basement. Aravena testified that on the night of the massacre, he wanted desperately to stop the killings, but was afraid that Kellestine, Sandham, M.H, and Mushey would kill him if he tried. Aravena stated he wanted to call the police but: "I knew there was no way out no. After what I just witnessed, I was glad I was friends with these guys…Because we got of there alive, I was really happy not to be dead".
The next day, Crown attorney Kelly began his cross-examination of Aravena. Kelly noted that Aravena, who stood 6'2, weighed 280 pounds and was very muscular, did not try to help Flanz despite the way that Kellestine kept pistol-whipping and insulting him for being Jewish. The boxer and MMA fighter Aravena replied: "So I can get smacked around?", causing the courtroom to laugh at him. When Kelly produced a photograph taken in early April 2006 of a topless Kellestine-who was born in 1949 and had a scrawny build-leading him to ask: "How many of your opponents looked like that?" Aravena replied: "One was old, but he wasn't that old". When Kelly pointed out the contradiction between Aravena's statement that he believed the "no surrender crew" were going home after their patches had been "pulled" vs. his statement he was afraid for his life, Aravena looked very confused for some time, before answering that he had never thought about that before. About Aravena's statement he was too afraid to stop the massacre, Kelly noted that Aravena was doing guard duty outside of Kellestine's barn and that: "In the dark, is not twenty yards like twenty miles?" Aravena replied "Yeah", which led Kelly to ask why Aravena did not flee into the darkness to seek help. Aravena answered that he didn't know, saying he was a very stupid man who had much trouble when it came to thinking.
The star witness known as "MH" testified to a bungled and 'cheap' plot, led by an indecisive Kellestine. MH, one of the killers agreed to turn Crown's evidence in exchange for being granted immunity. MH summed up the state of the Canadian Bandidos to the court:
They were at the very bottom rung of biker gangs. Some were in their 40s but still lived with their parents. They were not making any money, many of them had been rejected by the Hells Angels and half of them didn't even own a motorbike.
Baker wrote that MH was by his own admission a drug dealer and a killer who knew about the plans for the massacre beforehand and did nothing, and he only cut a deal with the Crown to avoid going to prison, making him into the most unsavoury of witnesses for the Crown.
On 21 October 2009, Mushey and Gardiner fired their lawyers and stated to Justice Thomas Heeny they were content not to have legal counsel for the rest of the trial. Under the outlaw biker code, bikers never "rat" on their colleagues with for example both Frank Lenti and Mario Parente both serving long prison sentences rather than accept offers of immunity from the Crown in exchange for testifying against other outlaw bikers. Both Hicks and Moon had blamed the murders on Kellestine and Sandham, which was viewed as "ratting" in the outlaw biking world, and Mushey and Gardiner seemed to have been trying to avoid that impression. Bryant read out a touching letter full of pathos entitled "Dear Dad" and said to have been written by Aravena to the jury in his final address, portraying him as a sad lost soul caught up in events beyond his control. Powell demanded a mistrial under the grounds that the virtually illiterate Aravena could not have written the "Dear Dad" letter, but Justice Heeney ruled that through it was highly unlikely that Aravena had written the letter, this was not grounds for a mistrial. In his final address to the jury, Gowdey admitted that M.H was far from being a model citizen, but that the forensic evidence supported his testimony. Gowdey argued though Mather, Aravena, and Gardiner had not killed anyone, they were still guilty of first degree murder as there had been a plan to murder the "no surrender crew", which they were a part of, and that by guarding the prisoners, Mather, Aravena and Gardiner had facilitated the killings, making them just as guilty as Kellestine, Sandham and Mushey. Gowdey stated: "People who intentionally help or encourage others to kill are as guilty as those who pull the trigger". Gowdey argued that a first degree murder conviction was warranted as there was premeditation to the killings, noting the killers had armed themselves beforehand, were wearing rubber gloves and in the case of Sandham was wearing his "ratty" bullet proof vest, saying: "It this wasn't a plan, this is amazing luck...It has plan and ambush written all over it".
On October 29, 2009, the jury returned 44 guilty verdicts for first degree murder and four for manslaughter, believed to be the largest number of murder convictions ever produced from a single criminal proceeding in Canada.
Wayne Kellestine, Michael Sandham and Dwight Mushey were each found guilty of eight counts of first-degree murder. Frank Mather and Marcelo Aravena were both found guilty of seven counts of first degree murder and one count of manslaughter. Brett Gardiner was found guilty of six counts of first degree murder and two counts of manslaughter. Aravena took the verdict badly, shouting at the jury: "Fucking goofs! You're pieces of fucking shit" while giving them the finger. When Bryant tried to calm down his client, saying this behavior would not help his appeal, Aravena shouted "Fuck you, Tony! Fuck you!" and tried to assault his lawyer. Aravena was marched out of the courtroom while screaming he was going to kill the judge, the jury, the Crown attorneys and his former lawyer Bryant, and his behavior was later used by the Crown at his appeals to prove he was indeed a violent outlaw biker.
Addressing the court, Kriarakis's mother Vickie Kriarakis stated: "I miss George...I wake up in the middle of the night and I feel the terror in his eyes". Muscedere's daughter, Teresa, told the court she missed her father intensely and her daughter would never know her grandfather. Teresa Muscedere further noted her father had helped Kellestine with paying his mortgage because he wanted to help his friend, and was rewarded with being murdered by him. Salerno's mother, Marilyn Salerno, told the court: "During the evidence of the wire-tap conversations I continually heard the expression 'Love, loyalty and respect', apparently a mantra of the Bandidos club. Each time I heard those words I cringed. Where was the love, loyalty and respect...when our loved ones were ambushed and murdered by their so-called brothers?"
Aravena, Gardiner, Kellestine, Mather, Mushey and Sandham appealed their convictions; but Sandham ultimately abandoned his appeal. On April 16, 2015, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the remaining appeals.
Gardiner, Mather and Aravena then sought leave to make their final appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada. On April 7, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed their applications for leave to appeal.
Legacy
In 2009, the journalist Timothy Appleby described Kellestine's farm at Aberdeen Line as a "spooky place" that: "From a few hundred metres away, the crime scene looks like any other Ontario rural property on a late fall afternoon: Rolling fields, a clutch of buildings, cows grazing in the distance. But up close...it feels decidedly more sinister". Edwards stated in a 2010 interview:
What struck me as bizarre was that most of the people who were murdered actually wanted out of the club, like these were murders for nothing. They couldn't bring themselves to quit, too afraid to quit. Such a bizarre contradiction, between what some may think is a power struggle when in fact (the victims) wanted out...There were differences individually. But they were all drawn to a symbol, and a pretty absurd symbol – (the Bandido was) a cartoon character stolen from a potato chip company. Like, you have a murder over that symbol? It's just bizarre. Nothing more to it, no money changed hands in the murders, nobody made a penny. To have that level of violence fought for absolutely nothing, except being in the pecking order of people who wear a cartoon character on their back. Just bizarre...Some of (the victims) were pretty nice guys, and my feeling is that if they hadn't gone to the farm that night, within five years they would have just wandered out of it again. I think most of the victims weren't real bikers, and would have gone on to regular lives.
Referring to the massacre, Yves Lavigne, an expert on outlaw bikers in Canada, told The London Free Press in 2016 that: "Bikers are not the smartest people. Or wannabes...It's like the NHL. They expanded too fast and too much. Now they're just recruiting anyone. How can they call themselves a "motorcycle club" when some recruits don't even know how to ride a motorbike? You don't romanticize these people ... These guys [the killers and the victims] were all rejects from other gangs. These guys were the class dummies. So the lesson in Shedden is: Don't try to be something you're not". Lavigne concluded that the Shedden massacre were amateurish killings of men of low intelligence perpetuated by men of low intelligence. The former Bandido Edward Winterhalder told Edwards in 2016: "It's meth logic. That's all that was. It was logical in (Kellestine's) mind because he was whacked out on methamphetamine." As the result of the massacre with the Toronto chapter of the Bandidos all killed and the Winnipeg chapter all imprisoned was the end of the Bandidos in Canada, leaving the Hell's Angels as the dominant outlaw biker gang in Canada. Edwards stated: "In Ontario, you had the Hells Angels and the people the Hells Angels let exist. They either worked with you or they didn't care about you".