Maurice "Les Fesses" Villeneuve
West End Gang
   Maurice Villeneuve  was very  close to  the  Matticks  brothers - Gerald, Robert, Richard, and Fred - working  as  an  armed  robber  and  hijacker in their crew  in  the 1960s, long  before  the  Matticks  and  West  End  Gang became house hold names in Montreal.

     On one  occasion, Villeneuve, Richard, Gerald, and  Fred  Matticks, Jean Jutras, Claude Lapointe, and  Jean-Claude Thiffault broke into a business on Wellington street in Montreal  and  made off  with $55,000 worth of stereos and televisions.

     Another  time, the  gang  broke  into  a  jewellery  store, disactivated  the alarm, and made off with nearly $224,000 worth of jewellery.

     Villeneuve was extremely  active  and he would later  admit that between 1965  and 1970, he  participated  in  over 25  armed  robberies, including 16 bank heists.

     On  April 11, 1974, Villeneuve  and two  associates robbed the  Banque Impériale de Commerce on Décarie street  and made off with $2,372. The getaway car, which had been stolen before the robbery, was later found by police in the parking lot of a shopping mall.

     Over  a year later, on May 15, 1975, Villeneuve  and two  associates kidnapped the manager of  the Caisse  Populaire Viauville  de  Montréal, his wife, and their young daughter. The  next  morning, the manager was  escorted  to his bank, where  he  handed the  kidnappers $200,000. The man's wife and daughter were released a few hours after that.

     Villeneuve met with Peter "Dunie" Ryan at a shopping mall shortly  after the kidnapping and handed him $180,000 of  the  ransom  money. For  a 10% fee, or $18,000, Ryan  agreed to  launder  the  illicit earnings. 

     The extortion  did not go  as smoothly  as Villeneuve had planned  however. He  was  arrested  and convicted of kidnapping and extortion. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

     On May 15, 1978, Villeneuve contacted detective Jean-Jacques Adam of the MUC police and asked for  a meeting. The  next day, Villeneuve decided to spill the beans on the West End Gang. Apparently, his associates had refused to Villeneuve's family out financially while he was in prison. In return for his information, Villeneuve only wanted his family to be protected  and for him to be transferred to  a safer location to serve the rest of his sentence.

     Villeneuve  admitted to committing  numerous crimes  in Montreal, Trois-Rivieres, and Quebec. He appeared  before  the  Commission d'Énquete sur le Crime Organisé (CECO) and  implicated  about 30 members of the West End Gang.

     He  wasn't the  only  West End Gang  informant  the CECO could count  on  either. Edmond Saint-Germain, another hijacker in the Matticks crew, also turned  rat. He provided police with details on the three hijackings and one warehouse robbery he participated in.

     Another gang member, that police identified only as "Mr. D," also flipped but committed suicide the night before he was set to testify at the CECO.

     Villeneuve's testimony helped  authorities lay 158 charges  against 11 West End Gang members. He returned to prison to serve the rest of his sentence and died in 1988.