28 Facts About Gerald Matticks

Gerald Matticks's father worked as a driver of a wagon for the city of Montreal while his mother was a housewife.

Gerald Matticks was married at the age of 17 and had fathered four children by the time he was 21.

In 1971, Gerald Matticks was charged with the attempted murder of a Montreal dockworker who had complained to the police that he and his brothers were stealing from the Port of Montreal.

At his trial, Gerald Matticks was acquitted on 17 January 1972 when three witnesses gave him an alibi, saying they were drinking with him at a local pub.

In 1977, Gerald Matticks was found by the police to have some stolen jewelry worth $5,000 in his house, but was acquitted when the Crown was unable to establish that he had stolen the jewelry.

In 1979, the Commission d'Enquete sur le Crime Organise accused Gerry, Richard and Frederick Gerald Matticks of being the most aggressive and prolific truck hijackers in Montreal between 1972 and 1979.

In 1981, Gerald Matticks was again acquitted of charges of hijacking a truck in 1973.

In 1984, Gerald Matticks became president of the Cooper and Checkers' Union at the port of Montreal.

Increasingly prosperous, Gerald Matticks began investing in legitimate businesses and became the owner of a trucking firm, a cattle farm and a beef wholesaling company.

Gerald Matticks relocated with his family to a rural nine-building estate outside of the city near La Prairie.

In southwestern Montreal, Gerald Matticks became celebrated for dressing up as Santa Claus every Christmas to hand out free food to the poor.

At the annual St Patrick's Day parade, Gerald Matticks would ride in a float and throw out dollars to the crowds, adding to his popularity with the people of Montreal.

Father Mignault argues that Gerald Matticks was a fundamentally decent and good man.

Gerald Matticks had never attended school, spoke English as his first language, was illiterate, and was quite incapable of writing anything in either French or English.

The scandal, known as L'Affaire Gerald Matticks, did much damage to the reputation of the Surete du Quebec.

Donald Gerald Matticks later testified that during his time as a "checker" that his real job was to ensure that the containers holding drugs were never inspected.

Gerald Matticks once served as the president of the Coopers and Checkers Union for the port, which allowed him to place his followers into key positions at the port.

Gerald Matticks had West End Gang members working in all four of the port's terminals, but the Termont terminal on Notre-Dame Boulevard was described as his "power base".

Gerald Matticks was friendly with Boucher and served as the guarantor on the mortgage on Boucher's estate in Contrecoeur.

On 28 March 2001, Gerald Matticks was arrested as part of Operation Springtime, a crackdown aimed at the Hells Angels, but which embraced him.

Lekkes signed a statement for the Crown stating that Gerald Matticks, who controlled the longshoreman's union at the Port of Montreal, had made profits of $22 million from smuggling drugs into the city and had sold the Angels at least 700 kilos of cocaine in the last two years.

On 6 August 2001, Gerald Matticks pleaded guilty to the drug charges in exchange for a lesser sentence.

Lekkes testified that the frozen chickens and turkeys that Gerald Matticks was so generous in donating to Catholic charities at Thanksgiving and Christmas times were stolen from container ships meant to export the chickens to grocery stores in Europe.

Lekkes received a 7-year prison sentence with the promise that he would receive a new identity and police protection for the rest of his life when he was released, and as a result Donald Gerald Matticks pleaded guilty in December 2002 rather than face extradition to the United States, where he was wanted on charges of smuggling cocaine.

Donald Gerald Matticks was accused of importing some $2.1 billion worth of drugs, consisting of 44 tons of hashish and 265 kilograms of cocaine in the years 1999 and 2000.

Gerald Matticks served as a mentor for Wolfe, recounting his youth in a working-class Montreal neighborhood and recalled how the West End Gang fought off the attempts by the Mafia to take over the port of Montreal.

In Montreal, Gerald Matticks is widely considered to be a folk hero, seen as the champion of the working class, and his conviction led to a campaign to have him released early.

One of his parole conditions was Gerald Matticks was forbidden to have contact with people with criminal records and not to the enter the Port of Montreal until his sentence was completed in 2014, after which he was free to enter the port and resume his associations.