Author of the article: Paul Cherry • Montreal Gazette Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the reputed head of the Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels in Quebec, flashes a peace sign at photographers outside a Montreal funeral home holding a wake for Norman “Biff” Hamel on Friday, April 21, 2000. Photo by John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette Archives

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Maurice (Mom) Boucher, the former Hells Angel who was the mastermind behind Quebec’s deadliest organized crime standoff, has died of cancer inside a federal penitentiary.

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Sources confirmed that Boucher, who turned 69 last month, died Sunday at the Archambault Institute in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, a federal penitentiary located 40 kilometers north of Montreal. Two sources told the Montreal Gazette that Bowser had been suffering from cancer for a while and was refusing treatment. “The one thing I can say today is that it closes another chapter for the Hell’s Angels in Quebec,” said Guy Ouellette, the MNA for Chomedey and a former Sûreté du Québec investigator who was part of the combined police force that helped in bringing down Boucher and the vast criminal network he built after 1994, the start of the conflict between organized crime groups lasted eight years. More than 160 people lost their lives during what became known as Quebec’s biker gang war.

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“My first thought was Diane Lavigne, the prison guard who ordered her murder (on June 26, 1997). I’ve been thinking about her recently because it was the 25th anniversary of her death,” Ouellette said, noting that, until a few years ago, Boucher could soon be paroled in full with his life sentence for manslaughter. In 2005, after retiring from the police, Ouellette published Mom, a book about the notorious criminal. It was already scheduled to relaunch in a few weeks, Ouellette said. In 1997, Boucher was under intense pressure from police who were certain to be the Hells Angels shooter in Quebec as they battled other criminal organizations for control of drug trafficking in the province. In an attempt to intimidate the justice system, Boucher told people under him to kill people associated with it.

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The people taking orders from Boucher decided to target the prison guards and killed Lavigne as she was returning home from work at the Montreal Detention Center. Then, on September 8, 1997, they killed Pierre Rondeau and wounded Robert Corriveau by firing several shots at the bus the guards were on as it headed to the Rivière des Prairies detention center. Stéphane (Godasse) Gagné, a Hells Angels underling who participated in both murders, turned informant and helped convict Boucher of the murders. Many people predicted at the time that, because of his reputation, Bowser would likely never see the outside of a federal penitentiary again. Lavigne’s death marked a major turning point in the biker gang war, and Ouellette said she was using the date as a reminder that Boucher would be eligible for full parole this year. But as Ouellette noted, Boucher’s parole period was extended in 2018. An investigation into the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels revealed that Boucher was behind a plot to kill Mob leader Raynald Desjardins. Boucher was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to kill Desjardins, and the investigation revealed that he remains influential in Quebec organized crime circles. This article will be updated. [email protected]

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