On the evening of March 21, 1978, the violent turf war raging between rival motorcycle clubs in Quebec claimed another life in a brazen and brutal attack. Gilles Cadorette, a male who was the president of the Montreal chapter of the Outlaws motorcycle club, was killed when a bomb planted in his car detonated. The explosion occurred around 8 p.m. on Bordeaux Street, directly in front of a bar that served as a local hangout.
Cadorette was killed instantly in the blast, which also injured others nearby with flying debris.
The murder of Gilles Cadorette was not an isolated incident but a pivotal event in what became known as the First Biker War. This conflict, which raged from 1977 to 1984, was a bloody struggle for control of the lucrative drug trade in Montreal and the surrounding province. The primary combatants were the American-based Outlaws, who had established a foothold in Quebec by "patching over" local gangs, and their entrenched rivals, the Hells Angels. The violence had been escalating for months, with shootings and beatings becoming commonplace. Cadorette's assassination marked a significant escalation, demonstrating the Hells Angels' determination to eliminate their competition through methodical and ruthless means.
The man responsible for the bombing was Yves Trudeau, a notorious and feared member of the Hells Angels. Known by the nicknames "Apache" and "The Mad Bomber," Trudeau was the club's most prolific assassin, a man who had learned to build explosive devices and used this skill with deadly efficiency. The hit on Cadorette was just one of 18 murders of Outlaws members that Trudeau would commit during the biker war. His campaign of terror was instrumental in the Hells Angels' eventual victory, which saw the Outlaws pushed back to their bases in Ontario. For his lethal services to the club, Trudeau became the first Canadian Hells Angel to earn the "Filthy Few" patch, an internal award for members who have killed for the gang.
For years, the murder of Gilles Cadorette, along with dozens of other gang-related killings, remained officially unsolved. The breakthrough came in 1985 when Yves Trudeau, fearing for his own life after a bloody internal purge within the Hells Angels known as the Lennoxville massacre, decided to become a police informant. In exchange for a shockingly lenient sentence, Trudeau confessed to killing 43 people between 1973 and 1985, including Gilles Cadorette. His preferred methods were varied, including shootings, beatings, and strangulation, but he was particularly infamous for his use of car bombs.
Trudeau pleaded guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter, a charge that suggested he had not intentionally killed his victims. This legal arrangement, part of his deal for turning Crown witness, resulted in a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after just seven years. The deal was met with public and media outrage, as one of Canada's most prolific serial killers was given a path back to freedom. Trudeau's testimony helped police clear numerous cold cases and led to the arrests of other gang members, though his effectiveness as a witness in court was often questioned.
Yves Trudeau was granted parole in 1994 and given a new identity. His freedom was short-lived; in 2004, he was arrested again, this time for the sexual assault of a young boy, which resulted in a four-year prison sentence. While incarcerated, he was diagnosed with cancer and died in a medical facility in July 2008. With his death, the final chapter closed on the man who murdered Gilles Cadorette and dozens of others, leaving a long and bloody trail in his wake and forever marking a violent era in Montreal's history.
