Yves Trudeau “Apache” – Hells Angels
Yves Trudeau was a former member of the Hells Angels MC based in Canada.
He is widely regarded as being the most prolific hitman in club history, with an admitted 43 murders to his name, which gives him a place on our list of the most famous Hells Angels.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Early Life / Personal Life
Yves Trudeau was born in 1946 in Canada (note: some sources including the book “Montreal’s Irish Mafia” list his date of birth as 1944, however his 2004 arrest records indicate that he was 58 years old at the time of arrest, ruling out the possibility of a 1944 birth year).
He was not a large man, coming in at 5 foot 6 inches and weighing only 135 pounds.
In the early 1960s, while still a teenager, he held a job at Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) where he learned how to work with explosives. This training would later come in handy as he orchestrated several bombings.
There were two nicknames which he went by over the years, “Apache” and “The Mad Bumper”. The “Bumper” likely referring to his ability to “bump off”, or kill, people. Some other reports state that the nickname was actually “The Mad Bomber”, in relation to his knowledge of bomb making.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Popeyes MC
Towards the end of the 1960s he joined the Popeyes Motorcycle Club, who were the largest outlaw motorcycle club in Quebec and the overall the second largest outlaw motorcycle club in Canada.
Other prominent members of the club were Yves Buteau and Michel Langlois, both would go on to play senior roles in the Canadian based Hells Angels.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Hells Angels MC
On 5 December, 1977 the Popeyes were patched over by the Hells Angels MC, making them the first Canadian chapter for the Hells Angels, based in Montreal. As part of the patching over process a number of the Popeyes members came across too, including Yves Trudeau, Yves Buteau and Michel Langlois.
A number of the members of the Montreal based Hells Angels, including Trudeau, left the chapter in September of 1979 and formed the Laval chapter. Laval is located in Southwestern Quebec, north of Montreal. This chapter would go on to become known as the “North” chapter of the Canadian Hells Angels.
Trudeau was allegedly the first of the Canadian Hells Angels members to earn the “Filthy Few” patch, for carrying out murders on behalf of the club.
On 24 March, 1985 he was in a rehab facility, which ended up being very lucky timing as five of the Hells Angels North chapter were killed as the result of Hells Angels in-fighting in the event that would become known as the Lennoxville Massacre. It is possible that if Trudeau were not in rehab he would have also been murdered, as he was meant to be at the meeting. While in the Oka, Quebec rehab facility he is visited by a member of the Montreal chapter and is advised that he has been expelled from the club and is to remove his Hells Angels tattoos immediately. The club take his motorcycle and request that he murder Jean-Marc Deniger and another man. He succeeds in the killing of Deniger and the club return his motorcycle.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Crime
Trudeau is widely noted as the most prolific murderer in Hells Angels history, with an admitted 43 murders being carried out between September 1973 and July 1985. The tally of 43 murders consisted of 29 with guns, 10 with bombs, 3 by beating and one via strangulation.
The northern part of the Saint Lawrence River would be unofficially known as the “Hells Angels Graveyard”, for the number of bodies which were dumped over the years.
1970 – Trudeau shoots and kills Jean-Marie Viel in Trois-Rivières, a town located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence Rivers in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec. Jean-Marie Viel was alleged to have stolen a motorcycle from the club.
1978 – 17 February, 1978. Trudeau shoots and kills Robert Côté at the corner of Saint-Hubert and Castelneau Streets at the Joey Brewery. This event then kicks off the war between the Hells Angels MC and the Outlaws MC.
1978 – 12 October, 1978. Trudeau tracks down Brian Powers, the former Outlaws MC President and finds him at his house. Apache Trudeau knocks on the door and when Powers answers he is shot nine times in the head with a .45 pistol.
1978 – 8 December, 1978. William Weichold is mistakenly identified as an Outlaws MC member by Yves Trudeau and he is killed.
1979 – 29 March, 1979. Trudeau bombs the car of Roland Dutemple, an Outlaws MC member. Dutemple was identified as being involved the 12 October, 1978 murder of multiple Hells Angels members in Montreal at the Tourbillon Café on Beaubien Street.
1979 – 3 April, 1979. Trudeau kills Robert Labelle at his home in Laval. Robert Labelle was a clothing importer, drug dealer and also a member of the Outlaws MC.
1979 – 9 May, 1979. Trudeau working along with Yves Buteau and Jean-Pierre Mathieu attach a bomb to the motorcycle of Donald McLean, a member of the Outlaws MC, while they are in the town of Verdun. The 30 year old McLean along with his girlfriend Carmen Piche prepare to leave the on the bike when the bomb is detonated, killing both.
1980 – 11 February, 1980. Apache Trudeau beats to death Jeanne Desjardins, the mother of ex-Hells Angels member Andre Desjardins who was attempting to help her son. He then went on to murder Andre Desjardins and his girlfriend, Berthe Desjardins, disposing of the bodies of Andre and his girlfriend in the Saint Lawrence River.
1981 – 14 March, 1981. Yves “Apache” Trudeau places a bomb in the vehicle of Robert Morin, the explosion kills him.
1981 – 9 May, 1981. Trudeau kills Donat Lemieux and his girlfriend, Lucie Vallières, at their home in Rosemont.
1981 – 27 October, 1981. West End gangster Hugh McCurnagan is murdered by Apache Trudeau. The killing is carried out with a bomb planted in the victim’s Mercedes Benz vehicle. The motive is believed to have been retaliation ordered by Peter Frank “Dunie” Ryan, a West End Gang leader who had been defrauded by McCurnagan.
1982 – January, 1982. Trudeau kills Hells Angels North chapter member Charlie Hachez. Allegedly he had a heavy drug habit, was always high and owed $150,000 to West End Gang leader Dunie Ryan, as well as having conspired to kidnap Dunie Ryan’s children.
1983 – 7 May, 1983. Trudeau kills Andre Forget.
1983 – 7 July, 1983. Trudeau kills Ronald Bernard in North Montreal.
1983 – 15 July, 1983. Trudeau kills Michel Desormiers at his home located in the town of Deux-Montagnes. Desormiers was the brother-in-law of mob boss Frank Cotroni.
1983 – 10 October, 1983. Trudeau kills Raymond Filion at his home in Laval.
1984 – 24 November, 1984. Trudeau on 13 November had received an order to kill the murderers of West End Gang leader Dunie Ryan. On 24 November together with Michael Blass he places a time-delayed bomb on a television set which is delivered to apartment 917 at 1645 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West. The explosion kills Dunie Ryan’s murderers, Paul April and Robert Lelièvre, and also kills Louis Charles Paquette and Gilles Paquette, who were also inside the building at the time of the explosion.
1985 – 1 May, 1985. Trudeau kills Jean-Marc Deniger aka “La Grande Maw”, who was a drug dealer acquaintance of the Hells Angels North chapter.
1985 – 7 July, 1985. Trudeau is caught with illegal weapons and sentenced to one year in prison. It is at this point that he becomes a police informant. See the “Police Informant” section below.
2004 – 17 March, 2004. Trudeau is arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a minor. See “Prison Release & Child Sex Offences” below.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Police Informant & Prison
After turning police informant during his one year sentence for illegal weapons charges he becomes a very valuable asset to law enforcement. There is allegedly a $50,000 out on his head by the Hells Angels and he decides to turn informant.
In 1986 he makes a deal to plead guilty to 43 counts of involuntary manslaughter, even though many of the murders that he was involved in were highly planned and carried out by himself. As part of the plea deal he is sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 7 years.
In the deal he names 95 murders, 34 of whom were dead at the time of the statement. His statements lead to 13 members of the Hells Angels being convicted of crimes.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Prison Release & Child Sex Offences
In 1994 Trudeau receives an early release from prison and as part of his parole deal receives a new identify, going by the name of Denis Côté.
Upon release from prison he begins work at a series of odd jobs including working at an elderly care facility and driving a bus for mentally disabled people. In 2000 he finds himself out of work and begins a downwards slide, living off of welfare and unemployment insurance payments.
It is at this point that he once again begins his drug habit and sexually assaults a boy under the age of 14, which sees him convicted in 2004 and sent back to prison for 4 years. It is believed that the sexual assaults had been from September 2000 until February 2004. He pleads 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 he is diagnosed with bone-marrow cancer and in 2008 granted an early parole with release to an outside medical facility.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Death
Yves Apache Trudeau died in 2008, aged 62.
Yves Trudeau Hells Angels – Media
Book – Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada by Stephen Schneider. Covers the rise of the Hells Angels in Canada, covering the patching over of the Popeyes and many of the crimes of Trudeau. View this book on Amazon.
Book – Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick and the Canadian Hells Angels by Jerry Langton
While the book focusses on the life of Walter Stadnick, who went on to lead the Hells Angels in Canada during a critical time for the club, the connections with Yves Trudeau and the Popeyes Motorcycle Club is also discussed. Find out more on Amazon (link opens in a new tab).
Book – Montreal’s Irish Mafia by Darcy O’Connor. The book has a focus on the Mafia families that operated within Montreal, including “King of Coke” Dunie Ryan, who worked closely with Apache Trudeau and is mentioned multiple times throughout the book. Find out more on Amazon (link opens in a new tab).
Read More:
- List of One Percenters Motorcycle Clubs
- Outlaw Motorcycle Club Books
- Hells Angels MC
- Famous Hells Angels Members
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