Gary Comeau

Comeau was born in Scarborough (modern Toronto) into a working class Roman Catholic family who was raised by his mother Betty King and his stepfather Eugene King in a house on Hexham Avenue.[1] He was educated at the Precious Blood Catholic school where he was a poor student who was often in trouble with the nuns who served as his teachers.[2] A typical report by one of his nun-teachers, Sister Bertha, stated "Gary has a tendency to bully the other children".[2] When he was 12, he broke into the Precious Blood school at night and set fire to a wrestling mat, resulting in his expulsion and transfer to the Holy Annunciation school.[3] In 1967, he dropped out of Porter Collegiate in grade 9 as he had no interest in learning.[4]

In 1968, he started to work as a nut-mixer at the Poppycock candy factory, which led to his nickname of "Nutty".[5] He was fired for throwing nuts at a female co-worker.[5] In 1968, he attended a party hosted by the Satan's Choice at the Blue Bird Inn in Richmond Hill, which he described as a scene out of "Sodom and Gomorrah" which his Catholic education had not prepared him for.[5] Alcohol and marijuana were provided in generous quantities while hundreds of young people were dancing with many of the many young women dancing topless which fascinated Comeau endlessly.[5] Comeau decided he wanted to join Satan's Choice that night as he decided that the life of an outlaw biker was much better than his existence as a high school drop-out working menial jobs.[5] The police raided the party and Comeau was arrested for marijuana possession, which allowed him to get know several Satan's Choice bikers who were also arrested in the police paddy wagon.[6] In March 1970, Comeau joined Satan's Choice at the age of 18 and became a "full patch" member in May 1970.[7]

Comeau was described as a hyperactive, talkative man bubbling over with energy who was forever scheming and in trouble.[8] He was first convicted of hashish possession, followed by convictions for drunk driving and "acknowledging bail" as he signed out of the police station after his arrest for impaired driving under a false name.[9] His most serious conviction yet was for indecent assault for the rape of an young woman at the Toronto clubhouse where his lawyer worked out a plea bargain under which he pledged guilty to indecent assault and served six months in prison.[10] Comeau insists that he was innocent and claims that the woman had fabricated the claim of rape after someone had stolen her money at a party.[10] In 1978, he supported himself via welfare fraud and as a pimp.[10]

On the evening 18 October 1978, Comeau was drinking and watching a hockey game at the Toronto clubhouse.[8] At about 9:15 pm, he took a phone call from Richard Sauvé of the Peterborough chapter to say that he wanted some other bikers to be with him as he just been invited to a meeting with William "Heavy" Matieyk of the rival Golden Hawk Riders at the Queen's Hotel in Port Hope.[8] When Sauvé called again at 9:30 to say that he could not contact any members of the Peterborough chapter, Comeau arrived to drive out to Port Hope to assist Sauvé.[10] When Comeau arrived at the Queen's Hotel shortly before 11 pm, there was an atmosphere of fear and tension in the bar-room as everyone expected some sort of confrontation.[11] Comeau ordered a drink and sat down with a woman drinking at the bar where he introduced himself as a member of Satan's Choice.[12] Sauvé sat down at the same table with Matiyek and was joined by Comeau.[13] Both bikers discovered much to their discomfort that Matiyek had a gun and was talking about shooting them.[13] Lorne Edgar Campbell came to their aid and shot Matiyek, firing three shots, one of which struck Comeau in the arm.[14]

Bleeding, Comeau fled from the Queen's Hotel with a bullet struck in his arm in the same car as Sauvé and Merv Blaker.[15] They drove first to Toronto, and then to Kitchener to see David Hoffman, the treasurer of the Kitchener chapter whom it was believed would be able to extract the bullet.[15] The wound was treated in Hoffman's kitchen, and he assure them that he had a friend in Windsor who would be able to remove the bullet.[16] The man in Windsor turned out to be a crank whose attempts at extracting the bullet only caused Comeau more pain.[17] Instead, Comeau was smuggled over the border to Detroit to be treated by a doctor as gunshot wounds were common in Detroit.[18] The wound was treated by an American doctor who told Comeau that there was no bullet in his arm.[19] Comeau returned to Canada.[20] During the investigation of Matiyek's murder, the Ontario Provincial Police constable Donald Denis showed witnesses to the murder photographs of Satan's Choice bikers in attempt to identify the killer.[21] On the photographs of Comeau, Denis placed red dots on the corners, which gave the impression to the witnesses that Comeau was guilty.[22] Several of the witnesses named Comeau as the killer.[23]

On 5 December 1978, Comeau was arrested at the Toronto clubhouse on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.[24] During the raid, the police seized Comeau'a biker jacket with the bullet hole in it and Inspector Colin Cousens expressed much interest in the wound in Comeau's arm.[25] At a bail hearing at Osgoode Hall on 8 December 1978, Comeau was denied bail and was held in the Coburg County jail.[26] At the preliminary hearing, sevearl witnesses to the shooting testified that it was Comeau who killed Matiyek.[27] Comeau was defended by Howard Kerbel.[28]

The trial for the Port Hope 8 began in London, Ontario on 4 September 1979.[29] The Crown Attorney at the trial, Chris Meinhardt, presented the case as a first-degree murder, calling it "a foul, horrible, planned execution."[30] Meinhardt named Comeau as the man who killed Matiyek. One of the witnesses for the Crown, the waitress Gayle Thompson, identified Comeau as the killer as she stated about the killer "his hair was light, his beard was light".[31] However under cross-examination from Kerbel, Thompson stated the killer was wearing a toque.[31] When Kerbel asked if she see the hair of the killer under the toque, she answered "of course not!"[32] On 31 October 1979, Comeau was taken to the Victoria hospital where the bullet in his arm was extracted and a ballistic test showed that bullet was fired from the same gun that killed Comeau.[33] Furthermore, pieces of threading from the coat that Matiyek was wearing at the time he was killed were found wrapped around the bullet in Comeau's arm.[33] For Comeau to be the killer as the Crown had claimed would required the bullet to do the impossible, namely enter Matiyek's neck, exit his body, turn around in mid-air, and come to strike Comeau in the arm.[30] Meinhardt was forced to change his thesis mid-way through the trial to now change there were two gunmen instead of one to explain away the "boomerang bullet".[30] Furthermore, Comeau's mother testified that her son had always been right-handed while the witnesses all stated that the killer was left-handed.[34] Comeau's biker's jacket with the bullet hole mysteriously vanished after the police seized it.[35]

On 24 November 1979, Comeau was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.[36] Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star stated about the Crown's theory of two gunmen: "Rubbish. How does Gary Comeau end up getting a bullet in him with Bill’s clothing on it? I can’t begin to believe that. There wasn’t any second guy at all. The police work was horrible. You have to remember this was the pre-DNA era, and we didn’t have that security blanket of forensic testing. The Gary Comeau conviction (for Matiyek’s murder) in today’s terms is just beyond laughable. That’s like a bad Perry Mason story."[37]

Comeau was first held at Kingston Penitentiary where he was noted for "adamantly" insisting he was innocent.[38] Comeau came to be obsessed with establishing his innocence and read the entire trial transcript, which amounted to 17 volumes, which weighted 35 pounds, in attempt to find flaws in the Crown's case.[39] In 1980, Comeau was transferred to the Millhaven Institution maximum security prison.[40] Comeau described Millhaven as "the dead zone", a prison where stabbings were common and one either kept busy or went insane.[41] Comeau played for the Satan's Choice prison hockey team, the Millhaven Bulldogs.[40] When Comeau's appeal of the guilty verdict was rejected by the Ontario Court of Appeal, he became deeply depressed at the thought of spending the rest of his life in Millhaven.[42]

On 13 April 1984, he was transferred to Collins Bay Institution medium security prison for good conduct.[43] Comeau along with Blaker's lawyer Terry O'Hara continued to pursue his case and on 20 November 1984 received a letter from one of the witnesses for the Crown at his trial, Roger Davey, who stated that his testimony was perjury made under pressure.[44] In 1985, he wrote to the social activist Claire Culhane who took up his case in the courtroom and in the media.[45] Comeau became something of an amateur lawyer during his imprisonment.[46] In February 1987 following a brawl in the prison yard between Satan's Choice and Outlaws bikers, Comeau who was not involved in the brawl was temporarily sent back to Millhaven during which he was held in solitary confinement .[47] The Port Hope 8 case became a cause célèbre in the 1980s-1990s with many using the implausibility of the "boomerang bullet" to argue for Comeau's innocence.[48] Comeau was the last of the "Port Hope 8" to be freed, being released on 8 September 2000.[49] Comeau worked as a courier and is active in the Association In Defense of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC).[50] In December 2008, he suffered a heart attack, which required him to wear a pacemaker.[51] Comeau is at present seeking a review of his case for a full exoneration and for an apology from the Ontario government, which still maintains that Comeau killed Matiyek..[50]

• Auger, Michel; Edwards, Peter (2012). The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0771030499.
• Edwards, Peter (2013). Unrepentant The Strange and (Sometimes) Terrible Life of Lorne Campbell, Satan's Choice and Hells Angels Biker. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN 9780307362575.
• Edwards, Peter (2017). Hard Road: Bernie Guindon and the Reign of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club. Toronto: Random House. ISBN 978-0345816108.
• Langton, Jerry (2010). Showdown: How the Outlaws, Hells Angels and Cops Fought for Control of the Streets. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470678787.
• Lowe, Mick (2013). A Conspiracy of Brothers: A True Story of Bikers, Murder and the Law. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN 978-0345813169.