On a cold winter day in Quebec, February 11, 1980, a brutal triple murder silenced a family and marked another chapter in the bloody history of one of Canada’s most notorious killers. Andre Desjardins, a man with past ties to the Hells Angels motorcycle club, was killed alongside his girlfriend, Berthe Desjardins, and his own mother, Jeanne Desjardins.
The man responsible was Yves “Apache” Trudeau, a prolific contract killer for the Hells Angels, who would later admit to a staggering 43 murders committed between 1973 and 1985.
The violence that day was merciless. Trudeau first targeted Andre's mother, Jeanne. She was a grandmother whose only crime was trying to help her son. For this, Trudeau beat her to death. He then turned his attention to Andre and his girlfriend, Berthe. After killing the couple, Trudeau disposed of their bodies by dumping them into the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River. For years, their exact fate remained hidden beneath the river's surface.
The case remained unsolved for half a decade, part of a long list of violent acts committed during Quebec's brutal biker wars. The breakthrough came in 1985, following an internal Hells Angels conflict known as the Lennoxville Massacre, where five of his fellow gang members were executed. Fearing he was next on the hit list and with a $50,000 contract on his head, Trudeau made a deal with the authorities. He became a police informant, a stunning betrayal in the outlaw biker world.
In exchange for a lenient sentence, Trudeau confessed to his long and violent career as an assassin, providing police with information that would solve dozens of murders. His methods were varied and brutal, including shootings, strangulation, beatings, and his specialty, bombings. Among his detailed confessions was the account of the Desjardins family murders. Trudeau's cooperation led investigators to the St. Lawrence River, where police divers finally recovered the remains of his victims. In June 1985, while searching for the bodies of the Lennoxville victims, divers discovered the skeleton of Berthe Desjardins.
The legal outcome for Yves Trudeau sparked significant public outrage. In a controversial deal with the Crown, he pleaded guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter, not murder. This arrangement meant that the law viewed his 43 killings as unintentional. He was sentenced to life in prison but, per his agreement, became eligible for parole after only seven years. For providing testimony against his former biker brethren, which led to numerous convictions, the government also provided him with financial support.
Trudeau was eventually granted parole in 1994 and given a new identity. However, his freedom was short-lived. In 2004, he was arrested again, this time for the sexual assault of a young boy. A judge, noting that Trudeau had killed more people than the Canadian military did during the Gulf War, sentenced him to an additional four years in prison. Trudeau, who had to be kept in isolation for his own protection as both an informant and a child molester, was diagnosed with cancer while incarcerated. He was granted parole to be transferred to a medical facility, where he died in July 2008.
