| Maurice "Mom" Boucher |
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| Maurice Boucher, known to his criminal cohorts as "Mom", was born on June 21, 1953. He was raised in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve section of Montreal and, at a very young age, became fascinated with the criminals in his neighborhood. He admired the thick wads of cash they carried and the respect they received. Boucher first got in trouble with the law in 1973, at the age of 19. He was arrested for stealing $200 but managed to avoid jail time. He wasn't so fortunate in 1976 though when he received a 40 month jail sentence for armed robbery. He would serve 23 more months in 1984 for armed sexual aggression. |
Boucher and Salvatore Cazzetta were members of the SS motorcycle gang until their dissolve in 1984. Cazzetta, along with his younger brother Giovanni, went on to form the formidable Rock Machine biker club. Boucher, on the other hand, approached the world's most renown motorcycle gang, the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels bestowed Boucher his colors on May 1, 1987, days after the Death Riders president, Martin Huneault, was shot to death in a Laval bar. The murder allowed the Hells Angels to control drug-trafficking in Laval and the lower Laurentians. It also paved Boucher's way to the top of Quebec's deadly biker underworld. Boucher avoided the spotlight and, by the early 1990s, had risen to become the president of the Hells Angels Montreal chapter. He also now ran the Montreal-based Rockers motorcycle gang and received $500 for every kilo of cocaine sold in the French Canadian city. But that still wasn't enough for the monopolistic Boucher. He also wanted a piece of the Rock Machine's downtown Montreal drug profits. The Rock Machine refused and anonslaught, that still continues to haunt Montreal, commenced. Boucher was on his way to Sherbrooke on March 24, 1995 when police officers stopped him on suspicion of having hashish. An unregistered 9-mm pistol was found tucked in his belt. "Mom" pleaded guilty to two firearm charges and was sentenced to six months in prision. He was released after serving almost four months of his sentence. Boucher, along with eight other influential members, formed the Hells Angels Nomads chapter on June 24, 1995. The new faction, with Boucher as it's undisputed leader, had one principal goal before them: taking over Ontario's lucrative drug market. While still on parole for firearm possession, Boucher was overheard on a wiretapped telephone advising Hells Angels sympathizer Steven Bertrand to assault someone with a baseball bat. Police issued an arrest warrant for his arrest and Boucher turned himself in at 5:30 p.m. on October 25, 1995. The judge ruled that the prosecutor had not proved that Boucher was a threat to society and "Mom" was liberated. |
But police knew Boucher was key to the Hells Angels Quebec operations and arrested him again on December 18, 1997. He was charged with ordering the murders of two prison guards. Diane Lavigne was gunned down in her automobile, as she drove home after her shift at Montreal's Bordeaux prison and Pierre Rondeau was murdered while at the wheel of a prison transport bus. Security was severe in the courtroom and everyone entering was examined and videotaped. Stephane Gagne, who admitted to participating in the murders on Boucher's orders, testified against the feared Hells Angels leader. But the defence hammered away at his credibility to such an extent that the jury ruled that Gagne had none. The world was stunned on November 27, 1998 when the jury pronounced Boucher innocent of all charges. Friends applauded as he swaggered out of the courtroom. Boucher, accompanied by bodyguards, spent his first night of freedom at Montreal's Molson Centre, where he watched boxer Davey Hilton defeat Stephane Ouellet in a surprising upset. The 18,000 fight fans in the building welcomed Boucher and gave him a standing ovation. |
Boucher met with Rock Machine leader Fredéric "Fred" Faucher at the Bleu Marin restaurant in Montreal on October 8, 2000 to negotiate a peace agreement between the two organizations. A reporter from the French magazine Allo Police was invited to the dinner and took a picture of the two men shaking hands. But the peace didn't even last two months and, when the Rock Machine became probationary Bandidos on December 1, 2000, the killings picked up once more. The Hells Angels leader's legal problems continued to plague him. He was arrested again on October 10, 2000, after Quebec's Court of Appeal dismissed Boucher's 1998 acquittal of killing two prison guards and agreed to a new trail. Boucher was apprehended by police while leaving a restaurant. Boucher was placed in an isolated cell at Tanguay's Women Prison. Contact with the general population was prohibited, much like the imprisoned Gambino family boss John Gotti. The unit contained two televisions, a radio, a walkman, a Nintendo entertainment system, a washer and a dryer. On March 28, 2001, as part of Opération: Printemps 2001, Boucher learned from his jail cell that he would be charged with 13 additional murders as well as drug trafficking and gangsterism accusations. The testimony in Boucher's second trial of ordering the murders of prison guards Diane Lavigne and Pierre Rondeau began on March 25, 2002. He was also charged with the attempted murder of Robert Corriveau, a guard who was injured in the same attack that killed Rondeau. The prosecution's main witness was once again Stéphane "Godasse" Gagné. He testified that he along, with bikers Paul "Fon Fon" Fontaine and André "Toots" Tousignant, were ordered to murder the guards by Boucher himself. Defence lawyer tried to undermind Gagné's credibility by describing him as a "hitman" and a "liar." The jury began its deliberation on April 25, 2002. Many followed closely, awaiting the group's decision. 11 nail-biting days later, they had reached a verdict: guilty. Boucher was sentenced to life in a federal penitentiary without the possibility of parole for 25 years the next morning. The decision was shocking, as many had long seen the Hells Angels as untouchable to prosecution. |