Grim Reapers MC
Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club, Alberta colours
Founded1967
Founding locationAlberta, Canada
Years active1967–1997
TerritoryWestern Canada
Criminal activitiesdrug trafficking, murder, assault, extortion
AlliesHells Angels
RivalsKings Crew, Rebels, Outcasts, Warlords, RCMP

The Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club was an outlaw motorcycle club, founded in 1967[1][2] in Calgary, Alberta, that was active during the sixties and seventies, and grew to become a dominant club in the region during the eighties and nineties.[3]

They were apparently independent of a US-based motorcycle club of the same name that was founded in 1965 in Louisville, Kentucky.[4] Along with the Rebels, the Warlords, and King's Crew,[5] they were one of the four dominant outlaw motorcycle clubs operating in Alberta prior to 1997. In 1997, the club became part of the Hells Angels in a patch-over ceremony held in Red Deer, Alberta.[6]

In 1970, 11 members and 2 associates were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ronald Hartley, president of the Outcasts Motorcycle Club. After an appeal several members were released and others had their sentences reduced. Two members were eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder.[7]

The Grim Reapers were listed as an "Outlaw Motorcycle Gang" by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.[8] In 1997, primarily because of public outcry due to escalating violence in eastern Canada between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels' Quebec chapters, the Canadian government passed Bill C-95 which amended the Criminal Code (and other legislation) to give Canadian law enforcement organizations powers similar to those provided to their American counterparts via RICO.[9]

Several former members of the Reapers, later to become members of the Hells Angels' Western Canadian chapters, were eventually successful in their challenge of charges brought against them under the new legislation as a result of events that occurred in relation to their patch-over gathering in Red Deer. In 2005, the bikers in Alberta won a major court victory when a judge ruled that police violated their constitutional rights during a roadside check in 1997.[10]

References

  1. ^ "The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher, by Peter Edwards and Michel Auger, McLelland & Stewart Ltd., 2004, p. 87". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  2. ^ Wolf, Daniel R. (January 1991). The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers, by Daniel R. Wolf, University of Toronto Press, 1991, p. 322. ISBN 9780802073631. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  3. ^ Wolf, Daniel R. (January 1991). The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers, by Daniel R. Wolf, University of Toronto Press, 1991, p. 322. ISBN 9780802073631. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  4. ^ Mallory, Stephen L. (July 2006). Understanding Organized Crime, by Stephen L. Mallory, Jones & Bartlett, 2007, p. 161. ISBN 9780763741082. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  5. ^ The History of Kings Crew MC from One Percenter Bikers.
  6. ^ Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick in the Canadian Hells Angels, by Jerry Langton, John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd, 2006, pp 180-184 Archived 2011-02-01 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Supreme Court of Canada: Emkeit v. R., [1974] S.C.R. 133 Archived 2010-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, date: 1972-01-25. (Internet Archive)
  8. ^ Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) Report, 2000
  9. ^ CBC News In Depth: Biker Gangs in Canada, CBC News On-line, April 5, 2007
  10. ^ Canada's Anti-gang Law, CBC News On-line, April 10, 2006

Further reading

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