| Richard "Ritchie" Matticks |
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| Richard Matticks was born on April 7, 1936 and reportedly lived with his parents and thirteen brothers and sisters in an eight-room apartment in Goose Village, near the Griffintown neighbourhood of Montreal. The Matticks brothers would often make newspaper headlines over the next decades.
Matticks accumulated a lengthy criminal record through out the 1960s. In 1960, he was found guilty of theft and received two years in prison. In 1966, he received one day in jail and a $500 fine for uttering a threat. Three years later, he go three months in prison for assault on a police officer. That same year, he received one day in jail and a $500 fine for breaking-and-entering. In the 1970s, Maurice Villeneuve, who said he was a member of the West End Gang, became a government witness after he was convicted of kidnapping and extortion, and sentenced to 14 years in prison. |
Maurice Villeneuve testified before the Quebec Police Commission’s inquiry into organized crime. He identified about 30 people as members of the West End Gang and implicated them in a variety of crimes. As a result of information given by Villeneuve, Richard Matticks and brothers Gerald, Robert, and Frederick were summoned to appear before the Quebec Police Commission. During his appearance before the commission, Richard Matticks listed his occupation as doorman at the St. Hubert Bar Salon, where brother Gerald was manager. Before his job as a doorman, Matticks said he had worked as a "cooper" - a repairman - on the Montreal waterfront. Matticks acknowledged knowing numerous people who were reputedly linked to the West End Gang, including Peter "Dunie" Ryan, André "Sappy" Martin, and Fred Griffith. He also admitted to knowing Maurice Villeneuve, but described him as "a little bit of a nut." Asked to explain, Matticks responded that "any guy that starts to butt out cigarettes on a girl’s chest is nuts." The commission questioned Matticks about a series hijackings and robberies that Villeneuve claimed he carried out with the Matticks brothers and others. Matticks meticulously denied participating in any of the crimes. After the Quebec Police Commission’s inquiry, criminal charges were laid against Richard Matticks, brothers Gerald and Frederick, and three others. They were acquitted in 1981, just a few days before Christmas. However, one of the accused, Frederick Matticks, Richard’s older brother, died of natural causes during the trial. In June 1992, Richard and his brother Gerald pleaded guilty to stealing a tractor-trailer loaded with suitcases in 1988. The truck and its merchandise was worth approximately $150,000. The brothers were sentenced to serve 90 days in prison on weekends and fined $10,000 each. Two years later, in May 1994, Richard and Gerald Matticks, along with five others, were again arrested, this time after police seized over 26 tonnes of hashish, worth an estimated $360 million on the streets, at the Port of Montreal. The seven men were accused of conspiring to import 40 tonnes of hash through the port from Mozambique and Uganda. Police described the bust as a "major blow to the West End Gang." All charges against the accused were stayed the following year, when Quebec Court Justice Micheline Corbeil-Laramée ruled that evidence had been deliberately planted. Four bills of lading that Surete du Quebec investigators claimed they seized at the maritime company of accused William Hodges had actually been faxed to the police from Customs Canada. The whole ordeal, known in the media as the "Matticks Affair," led to four police officers being charged with fabricating evidence and obstructing justice. They were later acquitted. A public inquiry into the Surete du Quebec was also carried out. In May 1997, police swooped down and arrested Richard Matticks, reputed associates Frank Bonneville and Donald Waite, as well as Rock Machine biker gang chieftain Giovanni Cazzetta, on charges of drug trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in drugs. A month after the bust, Matticks, Bonneville, and Waite each pleaded guilty to one charge of drug trafficking. Matticks was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $50,000. Bonneville and Waite received four and two year prison terms, respectively. Gerald Matticks, Richard’s younger brother, was present at the hearing and very upset with the sentencing. "The only coke my brother touches is Diet Coke," the Montreal Gazette quoted him as saying. "He shouldn’t have gotten nothing, no time in prison." The guilty pleas followed a successful infiltration operation conducted by an undercover agent. The agent, posing as a Calgary businessman, allegedly approached Cazzetta about acquiring 15 kilograms of cocaine. Cazzetta supposedly did not have the quantity needed, so he set up a meeting with Richard Matticks. The three men met at a restaurant, where Matticks allegedly agreed to sell the undercover agent 12 kilograms of cocaine at $39,000 a kilo. A few days later, Bonneville and Waite reportedly delivered the drugs to a Saint-Urbain apartment, where police had hidden a cameras and microphones to record the deal. They were arrested on the spot. Richard Matticks and Giovanni Cazzetta were picked up a short time later. Matticks went up for parole in August 1998, but objected the presence of La Presse journalist André Cédilot at the hearing. When the National Parole Board refused to expulse Cédilot, Matticks decided he did not want to proceed in the journalist’s presence. The Board decided to examine the case anyways and arrived at the conclusion to deny Matticks both day parole and full parole. The Board described Matticks as a "dominant figure in organized crime in Montreal (the Matticks Clan) over a period of many years" and ruled that there was no credible information that Matticks had "severed [his] ties with organized crime." Matticks has since finished serving his sentence and been released from prison. |