| Jacques McSween |
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| Jacques McSween would make waves in Montreal’s underworld as the leader of a gang who waged war for control of the rackets in Montreal’s south-west. The group, known as the McSween Gang, was primarily active in loansharking, extortion and armed robberies. McSween and his brother Pierre reportedly joined the Dubois Gang in the 1950s, after Pierre allegedly meeting one of the Dubois brothers in a reform school, where Pierre was serving a two year sentence for theft. The McSween brothers, Pierre McSween would later tell police, worked as truck hijackers, selling the stolen goods to the Dubois Gang. The latter would also allegedly supply the McSweens with the weapons and stolen cars needed for the heists. |
| McSween and his bunch became unhappy with their shares from the hijackings and formed their own gang. Jacques became the undisputed leader of the group, with other members including his brothers Pierre and André, Roger “Le Moineau” Létourneau, Gilles Roy, and Paul-Émile Lapointe. In the 1970s, a turf war broke out between the McSween Gang and the much largert Dubois Clan. The gangs shot at each other at every opportunity, with casualties piling on both sides. In mid-August, 1974, Jacques McSween, his brothers Pierre and André, Roger Létourneau, and several others allegedly surrounded Roger “Fon Fon” Fontaine, who ran the Dubois Gang’s operations in the area, and beat him severely. In early October, a Montreal daily newspaper received an anonymous letter accusing Jacques McSween and several others in his gang of being responsible for the murder of Raymond “Chapeau” Gagné, a reputed associate of Roger "Fon Fon" Fontaine, had been killed on September 30 in a Point-Saint-Charles bar. Jacques McSween’s days came to an end on October 5, 1974. He was ambushed by masked gunmen in front of his Longueuil home and riddled with bullets. Shortly after the murder, Jacques McSween’s brothers Pierre and André left the rackets. When approached by police about the slaying, Pierre allegedly accused the officers of being responsible for the incident. “It’s you who killed my brother!” he reportedly shouted. Two of the notorious Dubois brothers from St. Henri – Adrien and Jean-Guy – would be charged with Jacques McSween’s killing. Donald Lavoie, an admitted underworld hitman, would testify that he was the driver of the getaway van used in the slaying. The two men would be acquitted of all charges. |