top
Some time around 10:50 P.M. on October 18, 1978, the soon-to-be-deceased William
(Bill) Matiyek sat at a small table in a bar gesturing one of his two loaded guns at
a local kid named Richard Sauve while a hood from Toronto named Gary Comeau sat
along side trying to talk Matiyek out of blowing them both away. As the three sat
there in the bar/lounge of the Queen's Hotel in Port Hope, Ontario, others
watched intently.
Matiyek was drunk and stoned on pot and amphetamine drugs. He was also
fuming from a long day of getting himself hopped up on hot conversation with
the locals plus some heavy duty talk with visiting members of the Outlaw
Motorcycle Club. His head was swollen.
Owing to happenstance and the mischief of a certain Brian Brideau -- a local
yuk Matiyek had pissed-off earlier in the day with his abusiveness -- these
three characters sat together at The Queen's Hotel in Port Hope, Ontario.
There was nothing inevitable about it: a tragic fluke. Matiyek, hot under the
collar; Sauve scared; and Comeau a little more subdued than his usual
bull-in-a-china-shop self.
Matiyek had been in the bar all day, Comeau and Sauve had arrived along with associates
from their motorcycle club (the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club) which at one
time in previous history, rivaled the club Matiyek claimed he belonged to, the
Golden Hawks. (Most people at the time regarded the Golden Hawks as being
disbanded. Regardless, none of these boys were very "golden".)
There
was a history of bad blood between them. Matiyek knew he was going to get
hurt. He had confided to a gal pal (Helen Mitchell) earlier that day that he
knew some of his recent rivalous actions had brought this on. He was plenty
paranoid as many 'speed' abusers are. Very much pumped up.
Meanwhile, in a
series of lies, exaggerations, incompetence and mischief, the word that Sauve,
Comeau and a dozen or so pals had got was that a huge ambush awaited them at
the Queen's Hotel. The Queen's Hotel was always filled with Satan's Choice
rivals. That was nothing new. But the story was that a) members of the hated
Outlaws Motorcycle Club had joined forces with the (theretofore disbanded)
Golden Hawks, b) they were present at the bar in hordes, and C) were about to
set upon the homes and lives of local area Satan's Choice members, then and
forever after. It was something along those lines.
Sauve, a junior recruit
of the Port Hope area Satan's Choice club got wind of all this from Brideau
who gave the story some fairly illustrious twists. Sauve, now burdened with
this allegedly red hot intelligence needed to unburden himself. He was just a
junior guy and would be knee-deep if he didn't get this thing right. From his
home, he called anybody and everybody he could get hold of.
The sometimes
gregarious Gary Comeau got wind of the alleged Outlaw/Hawk conspiracy while
watching some TV at the Toronto clubhouse. Again happenstance, there was a
large gaggle of club members present. So after a hard time getting anyone
interested, Gary Comeau finally convinced enough people and gathered up a
posse and headed for Port Hope. Tragically, Comeau must have been bored that
night.
Some of the Toronto group met Sauve at his home. Others proceeded to
the bar. A few caucused at Sauve's place and then headed for the bar where
they found no hordes of Outlaws but instead a fat, drunken Bill Matiyek and a
couple of bewildered Outlaws doing their own thing.
After paying courtesies
to each other, and once the company at Matiyek's' table left, Sauve approached
Matiyek joined him at a lone, small, round table to find out just what these
'messages' were all about. Matiyek got into it fast and did a shade more than
tell Sauve he had a gun and was prepared to use it.
Next, Comeau came bouncing
along to see how the talks were progressing. It got worse from there.
Well,
that's how it came to pass that these folks with opposing interests, armed
with gross misinformation, arrived at the Queen's Hotel that night.
Not
just Sauve and Comeau, but a certain Mr. Lorne Campbell, friend of Comeau and
Sauve, also in the bar, knew Matiyek was armed. As a matter of foresight or
malice, who knows, Campbell had already taken possession of a .38 calibre hand gun.
(Holding 9mm re-loads done by a certain Bill Lavoie, the hand gun was the property of
Gordon Van Harlem, a boarder at Sauve's place who was off gallivanting around
Peterborough at the time he was unknowingly relieved by his landlord of his
junky firearm. The gun, never found by police, is not far from the
investigation scene where Campbell tossed it that night.)
top
Comeau
had wanted to carry the piece but Campbell reluctantly stepped in and said
"no". A few others had insisted "no" to Comeau, a guy
known to be a hot head. The job defaulted to Campbell who was the level-headed
one and would be cool if things got out of hand. Cool enough to use lethal
force if needed and avoid it if not needed. They were going to thump Matiyek
and run the Outlaws out of Satan's Choice territory if that was needed. That
was all.
At around 11:00 P.M. that night, the armed Campbell was tipped off that things
had gone seriously awry. A buddy told him a face-off was happening at
the tense table in the dingy bar. His mates were being held at gun point he was
told. Rick Sauve was about to lose his life to the angry, drunken Matiyek.
Campbell says he believes one or both Sauve and Comeau were about to be killed by
Matiyek. Campbell sent someone, or maybe that someone independently went over
to the table to check it out. That person we spoke with confirmed that Matiyek
was holding a gun on Sauve and Comeau. Someone else was again sent to the table
to attempt to subdue the situation.
Michael Everett was capable of using substantial physical force, but upon
walking to the table and surveying the situation he made an abort decision and
turned, swing to his left and without much fuss, indicated to Campbell he couldn't win. Campbell made a
move. It was a cold autumn night. He pulled his toque over much of his face, straightened
his coat as if about to leave, then marched directly toward the door he had
entered by, passing the threesome sitting at the table.
Campbell was at least the third person to come toward the table. A spooked Matiyek began to withdraw his weapon from its semi-concealed position in his left hand jacket pocket.
He raised his arm, elbow even with his shoulder. His gun was tangled, snagged
in the upper left lower breast jack-shirt pocket. He never fired a shot. From a position close to Matiyek and close to the exit door, Campbell, in an independent and spontaneous
action shot three times toward Matiyek's head and quickly proceeded past the table and out the
side door of the bar.
Comeau was wounded in the chest-shoulder area
from behind by the first shot which grazed Matiyek's raised arm and neck;
Matiyek, who couldn't get his gun into position fast enough, was killed
instantly by the second shot which pierced his skull and ricochet one inch back
from the other side of his cranium. Meanwhile the kid Sauve was stunned and scared out of his mind.
The
place emptied save for a gaggle of Matiyek's local allies, foes and
opportunists. Matiyek had been carrying hordes of dope. That was gathered up.
So were his two firearms.
A rough plan of action was formed by these
witnesses who then hustled off to the home of the bar's head drink slinger and
social centrepiece, Dave Hills.
Next the local cops came on scene and from
there the buffoonery of that night got worse. The crime scene was not secured
and by the time the evidence man was called in, the place was a total forensic
disaster.
We learned that the body of the deceased was not accompanied by a police officer, nor was proper security provided for this evidence from the time the body of the deceased was transported by ambulance from The Queen's Hotel at 11:14 P.M. on October 18, 1978, to the time of an autopsy done in Peterborough by Dr. John Whiteside on October 19, 1978 at or about 10:00
A.M. The body was accessed by civilians, (not the least of which were Rod Stewart - a local big-mouth; Gilispie, Peart and Metro Matiyek who recovered the keys to his son's truck enabling him to proceed to the Walton and recover the vehicle from the rear parking lot around 2:30 A.M.) for the removal of pills, dope and
guns, keys, and later surreptitiously accessed by certain police to replace one of the guns.
Read on.
No effort such as road blocks or other means were done on the night of October 18, 1978 to apprehend the
killer.
The Port Hope Police Department refused to notify proper authorities, namely the Criminal Investigation Branch of the Ontario Provincial Police, until the late morning of October 19, 1978, after an autopsy had begun, even though a certain police officer, namely O.P.P. Corporal Dennis Moore
(who had been called in by a baffled local evidence man named Bill Wakely who
was cursed with this forensic disaster from the start) advised Samuel McReelis (who headed the Port Hope Police Department's investigation) that he should
make this notification.
The investigation was poorly done. Every copper we spoke to asked us who
killed Matiyek. After the conviction in November of 1979, police officers still did not know who
shot Matiyek and a certain police officer, O.P.P. Corporal Terry Hall asked
accused Larry Hurren what in fact had really happened at The Queen's Hotel on October 18,
1978. If Hurren would tell, Hall promised a reduced sentence. Hall was an
experienced O.P.P. investigator. He must have realized that the thing was
botched from the start, partly his doing.