Gregory Woolley

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Gregory Woolley
Born1972 (1972)
Tabarre, Haiti
Died (aged 51)
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada
NationalityCanadian

Gregory Woolley (1972 – 17 November 2023) was a Haitian-born Canadian criminal associated with the Hells Angels motorcycle club.[1][2] Woolley was the protégé and bodyguard of Maurice Boucher, a controversial senior Hells Angels leader who led his chapter in a long and extremely violent gang war against the Rock Machine, in Quebec, from 1994 to 2002.[3]

Associated chapters[edit]

Master B[edit]

Woolley was the leader of a street gang known as Master B., which purchased drugs from the Hells Angels.[4] Boucher had once belonged to a white supremacist biker gang known as the SS that existed to beat up non-white immigrants while his son, Francis Boucher, was an avowed Nazi who had started the Aryan Fest musical festival in 1992 which existed to glorify Nazism.[4] Despite this background, Woolley was very close to Maurice Boucher and served as a bodyguard.[4] The Hells Angels are a whites-only group, and Boucher made Woolley the president of the Rockers puppet gang.[4] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote: "He [Boucher] appears to have been right about Woolley, who became a very big earner (he became wealthier, in fact, than many Hells Angels and several Nomads) an enthusiastic intimidator, and a loyal member who never informed on anyone".[5] The Rockers were not like the Hells Angels puppet gangs like the Evil Ones and the Condors which merely performed the same work as the Hells Angels.[4] The Rockers were the enforcement arm of the Hells Angels divided into a "baseball team" which committed assaults and the "football team" which committed murders.[4]

The Rockers[edit]

Woolley served as the bodyguard for Boucher and was the best assassin working for the Angels.[6] Woolley was known as "Picasso" in the Montreal underworld because it was said that he is such an artist when it came to killing, having first killed at the age of 17 when he killed another Haitian immigrant and gang member.[7] Woolley was said to have done such an "exquisite" job at carving up his rival that he earned the nickname "Picasso", and he was ultimately made the president of the Rockers by Boucher, becoming the first black man to ever head an outlaw biker club in Canada.[7] Besides for the Hells Angels, Woolley's closest allies were members of the "Young Turk" faction of the Rizzuto family such as Francesco Arcadi, Lorenzo Giordano, and Francesco Del Balso.[8]

On 20 December 1996, Woolley murdered a Rock Machine biker, Pierre Beauchamp, whom he shot and killed when he was using his pager inside of his truck, which was parked on the street.[9] Woolley fled in an automobile with stolen license plates, which he later abandoned to take the metro.[9] Afterwards, Woolley went to a bar to tell several other Rockers that he had just "gotten one" for the Hells Angels.[10] Woolley told another Rocker, Stéphane Sirois who later turned Crown's evidence that the orders to kill Beauchamp had come from Boucher, who told him not to take any money from Beauchamp as Boucher did not Montrealers to think that the murder was a drug deal gone bad.[10] On 28 March 1997, the Rocker hitman Aimé Simard acting under Woolley's orders murdered a Rock Machine biker Jean-Marc Caissy as he entered a Montreal arena to play hockey with his friends.[6] After Simard was arrested in April 1997, he turned Crown's evidence named Woolley as the man who gave him the orders to kill Caissy.[6] Woolley was charged with first degree murder, but Simard proved to be a poor witness on the stand, and Woolley was acquitted.[6]

The Crack Down Posse[edit]

When Woolley left the Master B. gang to join the Rockers, his old gang fell apart.[11] Another Haitian immigrant who once belonged to Master B., Beauvoir Jean, founded a new gang, the Bo-Gars (which is Haitian French slang for "handsome boys").[11] Woolley founded another gang, the Syndicate, likewise made of young men of a Haitian background to oppose the Bo-Gars.[11] The Bo-Gars waged a propaganda campaign against Woolley that depicted him as an "Uncle Tom" figure serving the "clearly racist Hells Angels".[12] Langton wrote the claims of the Bo-Gars were "true", but "ridiculous" as the Bo-Gars worked for the Rizzuto family and "if either of the groups was more under the thumb of a largely racist white organization, it was the Bo-Gars".[13]

The Bo-Gars decided to rebrand themselves as the Bloods while the Syndicate along with their allies, the Crack Down Posse, rebranded themselves as the Crips.[13] Neither the Bloods nor the Crips of Los Angeles had copyrighted their symbols and the two gangs had no connection with the American Bloods and Crips gangs.[13] Langton wrote: "The LA Crips and Bloods were not asked or consulted. In all likelihood, they had no idea that there were Crips and Bloods in Montreal, if they even knew where Montreal was".[13] Woolley, who had often worn red and white clothing (red and white are the colors of the Hells Angels), was now forbidden to wear red (the color of the Bloods) and had to wear a blue baseball cap (the color of the Crips).[13] Langton described Woolley as "too smart" to engage in "alleyway beatings".[13] Woolley had the Crack Down Posse serve as a puppet gang for the Montreal Crips.[14] The relationship between the Montreal Crips and the Crack Down Posse was analogous to the relationship between the Hells Angels and the Rockers.[15] The Crack Down Posse operated in the St. Michel neighborhood engaged in robbing déplanneurs (convenience stores) and protection rackets.[16] In 1998, Woolly merged the Crack Down Posse and the Rockers together to form the Syndicate.[16]

In August 1999, a bizarre incident occurred on the streets of Montreal when Woolley was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle while wearing his Rocker patch on his vest and was pulled over for speeding.[17] The constable who pulled over Wooley, Michel Bureau, claimed he was frightened when he noticed that Woolley had something under his vest, saying that knew Woolley was an especially violent man as he was the only black outlaw biker in Montreal.[18] Constable Bureau offered to drop the speeding fine if Woolley would show him what was under his vest.[18] When Woolley refused, Constable Bureau said it didn't matter if Wooley was carrying drugs, he was willing to drop the charges just as long as Woolley showed him what was under his vest.[18] When Woolley informed Bureau that he was not under arrest, and that it was none of his business what he had under his vest, Bureau called for back-up to and thus it took five officers to arrest Woolley for speeding.[18] No guns or drugs were found on Woolley, though a handgun was found lying on the streets close to the arrest scene, which Woolley's lawyers claimed was planted by the police.[18] Later, the judge threw out all of the charges, ruling that this was not a routine pull-over, and suggested it was an unusually clumsy attempt on the part of the police to entrap Woolley.[18] During his time in jail while awaiting the charges, Woolley was involved in three different fights with the other inmates and an attempt to smuggle PCP into the jail, before finally being separated from the other inmates on the grounds he was too violent.[6]

On 5 April 2000, Woolley was arrested while boarding a flight to Port-au-Prince when airport security discovered he was taking a handgun to Haiti.[17] Following his conviction, he was sent to prison, where he was attacked by another prisoner on 31 January 2001.[19] Prison officials stated it was a "suicidal" gesture on the part of the man who had attacked him.[17]

Operation Springtime[edit]

On 30 March 2001, the police launched Operation Springtime, that saw all of the members of the Rockers arrested, including Woolley.[20] Woolley was suspected of several murders on behalf of the Hells Angels.[18] Commander André Bouchard of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal thought that the first one arrested to make a deal with the Crown would be Woolley, the Rockers president who, as a black man, was not allowed to join the Hells Angels proper.[20] Bouchard said of Woolley: "We've got him cold and his lawyer knew it. We've got DNA. I mean, he was dead. What more do you need?...Son of a bitch. He was the only one really who never said a word."[20] Woolley was charged with conspiracy to traffic in narcotics and with first degree murder for the slaying of Rock Machine biker Pierre Beauchamp on 20 December 1996.[16]

A psychological evaluation done after his arrest found that Woolley's main issue was his uncontrollable rage as the psychologist ruled that Woolley was an extremely violent man prone to excessive anger and murderous tendencies.[6] The psychologist also found that Woolley had poor judgement and low self-esteem, which led him to seek the approval of the Hells Angels despite or rather because of their racist views towards black people.[6] In April 2001, Woolley refused any more psychologist evaluations, which he believed would help the Crown with convicting him.[6] Woolley was tried twice for Beauchamp's murder and was acquitted both times as the defense lawyers argued that the DNA evidence that the Crown had introduced was planted.[21] In 2005, he was convicted and sent to serve his sentence at Kingston Penitentiary.[16] On 27 June 2005 in a plea bargain, Woolley pledged to conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to traffic in narcotics, and gangsterism.[22] In 2007, he was released on parole as the judge deducted the time he spent in jail before and during his trial from his prison sentence.[22]

Later years[edit]

In November 2015, Woolley and 47 suspected underworld leaders were arrested in a sweep.[23] Police claim the sweep revealed Woolley was part of a conspiracy to murder another underworld figure, Raynald Desjardins.[24][25]

Although the Hells Angels official policies are not racist, experts say many Hells Angels members are racist and it is rare for individuals of African ethnic heritage to join Hells Angels chapters.[1][3] Woolley, whose ethnic background is Haitian, is described as a rare instance of an individual with African ethnic heritage to rise to a senior position in the Hells Angels. Prior to joining the Hells Angels Woolley's mentor was in a smaller motorcycle gang called the "SS", which had an explicit white supremacist ideology.

Death[edit]

Woolley was killed in a shooting in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, on 17 November 2023, aged 51.[26]

Books[edit]

  • Cédilot, André; Noël, André (2011). Mafia Inc. The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan. Toronto: Random House of Canada. ISBN 9780307360410.
  • Cherry, Paul (2005). The Biker Trials: Bringing Down the Hells Angels. Toronto: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-638-6.
  • Langton, Jerry (2015). Cold War How Organized Crime Works in Canada and Why It's About to Get More Violent. Toronto: HarperColllins. ISBN 978-1-4434-3255-9.
  • O'Connor, D'Arcy (2011). Montreal's Irish Mafia: The True Story of the Infamous West End Gang. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Sher, Julian; Marsden, William (2003). The Road to Hell: How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada. A.A. Knopf Canada. ISBN 9780676975987.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Eric Thibault (2012-08-16). "Sun News : Dead gang leader rebuffed top biker prior to assassination: Source". Montreal: Sunnewsnetwork.ca. Archived from the original on 2013-01-07. Retrieved 2013-06-18. The summit meeting was organized by Gregory Wooley, a protégé of jailed Hells boss Maurice "Mom" Boucher. Wooley, one of the few Hells Angels of African descent, is the reputed leader of the Syndicates, a street gang formed by the Hells at the height of its bloody 1990s biker war with the Rock Machine.
  2. ^ "A who's who of the Montreal underworld: The mafiosi, bikers and gangsters swept up in police raids". National Post. 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2020-07-18. Once a protégé of Hells Angels kingpin Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the Haitian-born Woolley founded the Syndicate gang in 1998.
  3. ^ a b RJ Parker (2015). Peter Vronsky (ed.). Hell's Angels Biker Wars: The Rock Machine Massacres. Rj Parker Publishing, Inc. ISBN 9781517198718. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Langton 2015, p. 138.
  5. ^ Langton 2015, p. 138-139.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Cherry 2005, p. 45.
  7. ^ a b Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 251.
  8. ^ Cédilot & Noël 2011, p. 332.
  9. ^ a b Cherry 2005, p. 118-119.
  10. ^ a b Cherry 2005, p. 119.
  11. ^ a b c Langton 2015, p. 288.
  12. ^ Langton 2015, p. 288-289.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Langton 2015, p. 289.
  14. ^ Langton 2015, p. 289-290.
  15. ^ Langton 2015, p. 290.
  16. ^ a b c d O'Connor 2011, p. 242.
  17. ^ a b c Cherry 2005, p. 43.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Cherry 2005, p. 44.
  19. ^ Cherry 2005, p. 42.
  20. ^ a b c Sher & Marsden 2003, p. 256.
  21. ^ Cherry 2005, p. 120-121.
  22. ^ a b Cherry 2005, p. 121.
  23. ^ Andy Riga (2016-11-05). "Montreal Mafia: After brief lull, blood is being spilled again". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2020-07-18. In a major operation, police arrest the alleged heads of Montreal's most powerful criminal organizations and declare the Mafia, the Hells Angels and street gangs were working together. Among the 48 people arrested are Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito, described as the heads of the Montreal Mafia. Others charged included: Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the former Hells Angels leader currently serving a life sentence; Salvatore Cazzetta, alleged leader of the Hells Angels; and street-gang leaders Dany Cadet Sprinces and Grégory Woolley.
  24. ^ Paul Cherry (2015-11-20). "The alleged crimes behind the Montreal underworld raids". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2020-07-18. According to the indictment filed in connection with the murder plot, Boucher used his pregnant daughter, Alexandra Mongeau, 25, to relay messages Gregory Woolley, 43, a former underling in the Hells Angels who acted as Boucher's bodyguard during the 1990s. Woolley is alleged to have since risen among organized crime circles to the point where he was the key man in the alliance of organized crime groups uncovered by Project Magot and Mastiff. The alleged conspiracy to murder Desjardins began in July and ended on Nov. 9.
  25. ^ Paul Cherry (2015-11-20). "Mafia busts: Sweeping raids, 48 arrests, and a murder plot". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2020-07-18. Boucher, 62, is alleged to have used his daughter, Alexandra Mongeau, 25, to relay messages to his former bodyguard, Gregory Woolley, 43, as part of a plan to kill Raynald Desjardins, a former right-hand man of Vito Rizzuto, who is currently awaiting his sentence for his role in the murder of a Mafioso.
  26. ^ Morris, Erika (17 November 2023). "Organized crime figure Gregory Woolley killed in shooting south of Montreal". CBC News. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
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