Synopses & Reviews
Control of Ontario's underworld wasn't decided in a day, a year, or any single event. It was a series of skirmishes, bloodbaths and blunders.When the old-school Mafia in Hamilton fell apart following the death of Johnny "Pops" Papalia, a frenzy ensued for who would supply, sell and control Ontario's drug and vice traffic. Vestiges of the old Italian outfits maintained a loose hand in drug trafficking until a series of murders and screw-ups did what no other organization had been able to do - unseated the Mafia from the hub of Ontario's vice pipeline. The leader of the Hells Angels, Walter Stadnick, had had his eye on Canada's most lucrative drug market for years, but had been kept out largely due to the mafia syndicate that only reluctantly employed bikers of any stripe for their dirty work, and Papalia's refusal to work the Hells Angels.
A war to fill the power vacuum in Hamilton, and Ontario, was to begin, and would hinge on the broadly supported Hells Angels under the leadership of Stadnick, a handful of smaller clubs too proud or too useless to join them, and Mario "The Wop" Parente's Outlaws, the top motorcycle club in Ontario since the 70s and the main barrier to the Hells Angels' takeover. Other challengers would emerge from the ever-shifting allegiances of the biker world, including the Bandidos from south of the border, whose presence in the province would end in a bloodbath now known as the Shedden Massacre.
Against all of these competing interests stood the various law enforcement agencies responsible for keeping the general peace and shutting down as much of their operations as they could. By building on interviews with Parente, members of the police and a variety of sources and informants in the underworld, Jerry Langton weaves together the violent tapestry that connects them all, laying open the world of organized crime in Ontario as never before.
Synopsis
The 1970s. Two ambitious bikers come out of the same tough neighborhood of Hamilton, Ontario. Two biker gangs want to exploit the lucrative drug, prostitution, and vice rackets in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe. This is the improbable story of Mario the Wop Parente and Walter Stadnick who respectively become the national presidents of the Outlaws and Hells Angels--and sworn enemies.
The Outlaws are an American biker gang who assume power when Satan's Choice falls into disarray. They take a headlock on the distribution of drugs, the supply of prostitutes to strip clubs, and extortion and graft. Their leader is a big, violent man named Mario Parente.
Hells Angels have expanded into Quebec and are rapidly exterminating rival biker gangs. They wage a war against the Rock Machine and open up another front in Ontario against the Outlaws. The incursion is the work of 5-foot 4-inch Walter Stadnick, the Angels strategist, who envisions the Hells Angels doing business across Canada. Stadnick will have his hands full with a biker from his hometown, Mario Parente, who is gearing up to protect the Southwest Ontario turf he has fought so hard to acquire by rebuilding Satan's Choice and a partnership with the Para-dice Riders, and be establishing a puppet club, the Black Pistons.
The police and the public have no stomach for an all-out biker war. The Hamilton cops, OPP and Surete de Quebec combine forces to launch Project Retire and bring down the Outlaws, a sweep that has unintended outcomes for the balance of biker power in Ontario.
Synopsis
The inside story of the street war between Canada's most violent biker gangs-the Outlaws and the Hell's AngelsOnce bikers who road together, Mario Parente and Walter Stadnick, are now mortal enemies, chiefs, respectively, of the Outlaws and Hell's Angels, embroiled in a bloody turf war over control of the lucrative drug, prostitution, and vice markets in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe. Written with the cooperation of Mario Parente, Showdown describes the biker gang equivalent of the Godfather, the violent power shifts as Satan's Choice, a rival gang falls into disarray, and as Parente gears up to protect Southwest Ontario from Stadnick's vision of making the Hell's Angels the largest criminal biker gang in Canada.
- A gang's-eye look at the 2006 Shedden Massacre, where eight men were slaughtered
- An account that lets Mario Parente go on the record with his story of the biker wars
With frightening and compelling detail, Showdown lets readers experience firsthand the personalities and day-to-day workings behind the brutal and deadly rivalries that mark one piece of Canada's criminal underworld.
About the Author
Jerry Langton wrote for The Hamilton Spectator and Maclean's and was an editor for The Daily News in New York. Currently Langton is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star and the National Post. He is the author of Fallen Angel, Rage and Biker.
Table of Contents
Introduction.
Chapter 1 Death of a Godfather.
Chapter 2 The Reincarnation of Satan's Choice.
Chapter 3 "God Forgives, Outlaws Don't".
Chapter 4 Mayhem in Montreal.
Chapter 5 Where Jimmy Lewis Died.
Chapter 6 Open Season on Hamilton Bikers.
Chapter 7 The Choice-Angels Alliance.
Chapter 8 The Rock Machine Targets Ontario.
Chapter 9 The US Bandidos Make Their Move.
Chapter 10 Project Retire Clubs the Outlaws.
Chapter 11 Victory for Mario "The Wop" Parente.
Chapter 12 Trouble on the Horizon.
Chapter 13 Bloodbath at 32196 Aberdeen Line.
Chapter 14 Mongols, Mexicans and B.C. Bud.
Chapter 15 "I did not have anything to do with the murder …."
Chapter 16 Dead, in Prison or On the Run.
Acknowledgments.
Index.