Yves 'Apache' Trudeau

Yves "Apache" Trudeau (1946–2008) was a former member of the Hells Angels North Chapter in Laval, Quebec. During the early 1960’s, Trudeau worked with explosives at CIL, which later proved valuable. He was often hailed as the “mad bomber.” Trudeau began Quebec’s first biker gang, the Popeyes, which became the first Canadian chapter of the Hells Angels in 1977. Trudeau was also the first Canadian to receive the Hells Angels’ “Filthy Few” patch, which is reserved for those who kill for the club. In 1979 Trudeau founded the Laval chapter.

Trudeau started what became known as the Hells Angels’ graveyard, a part of the St. Lawrence River that became a dumping site for corpses.

On March 24, 1985, the eight highest-ranking members of the Laval chapter were ordered to meet with Hells Angels officials in Sherbrooke, Lennoxville. Trudeau was unable to attend the meeting, as he was in a Montreal detox center for his cocaine abuse. Of the eight Laval members who attended the Lennoxville meeting, five were immediately shot dead and dumped into the St. Lawrence River. Hearing there was a $50,000 contract on his life, Trudeau turned to the cops. “I was as good as dead already. I was supposed to be dumped in the river” so Trudeau became the first full patch Hells Angel to become a police informer. In exchange for his testimony, which could not be used against him, he received an informant contract and lenient sentence. He confessed to being associated with 43 murders.

Throughout his 15-year career as a hitman, Trudeau admitted to doing half of the murders himself (29 with guns, 10 with bombs, three with baseball bats, and one using strangulation), and the other half he claimed only to be an accomplice. Trudeau was sentenced to life, for which he offered a guilty plea of 43 counts of manslaughter, but because of his contract, he was allowed parole after only seven years. Trudeau provided information on over 100 murders and helped implicate at least 80 individuals.

In 1994, Trudeau was released under the new identity of Denis Cote. He led a secret life doing odd jobs like driving a bus for the handicapped until being arrested in March 16th of 2004 for sexual assault. In April of that year, Trudeau pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual exploitation, sexual interference, and invitation to sexual touching of a male victim under the age of 14. In 2006 Trudeau was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. On July 15, 2008 he was released by the National Parole Board who deemed him a low risk to reoffend, having months to live. He died in 2008, age 62.