She was untameable. He was madly in love with her.
Guindon’s daughter SHANAN describes the mother of his son, Harley Davidson Guindon
Angel was drop-dead gorgeous in an edgy, troubling way that was impossible for Guindon to ignore. The blue-eyed, teenaged stripper was also impossible to understand. She giggled often and said little. She was extremely public and painfully private all at the same time, dancing naked in front of strangers but painting the windows of her home black. Even her best friends didn’t know her last name. And very few of them knew that her real name was Lorraine, or that her father was a big deal in amateur boxing circles, who had split from his wife for reasons that weren’t quite clear.
Angel was less than half Guindon’s age and younger than some of his daughters. It seemed hopeless from the start that he could rescue her from herself, but Guindon revelled in lost causes. “He pretty much took her right off the stage and into a fur coat,” Shanan said.
Angel was small, but like her newfound lover, she radiated power and charisma. She also shared his mania for freedom. She would disappear and reappear and never explain where she’d been, then disappear again. She was also fearless, not letting his love or anger or authority control her. “She was untameable,” Shanan said. “He was madly in love with her.” Upon emerging from prison, Guindon had resumed leadership of the Satan’s Choice, and Angel liked the power that came with being known around Oshawa as the old lady of Canada’s most powerful outlaw biker.
She was still a teenager when she became pregnant. She appeared to be utterly devoid of maternal instinct, and thoughts of becoming a young mother overwhelmed her. “She was more of a big sister to me than anything,” Shanan said. “Angel at the time was the link to my dad.” Complicating Angel’s pregnancy was the fact she had only one good kidney, which worried her further.
There were rumblings that the relationship between Guindon and Angel could crash even before their child was born. To take the pressure off their relationship, the pair reached an agreement: If they separated in the future and the baby was a boy, he would go with Guindon. If the baby was a girl, she would go with Angel.
Their baby was born on October 15, 1985, in Oshawa. Finally, at age forty-two, Guindon had a son he could raise from birth. In Teresa’s eyes, her father was like some medieval monarch who finally had a male heir to continue his reign. So liberally had Guindon been procreating that three weeks later he would have another daughter when Sarah was born to a girlfriend. “My dad impregnated so many women because he wanted a son,” Teresa said. “The only reason he wanted a son was because he wanted him to carry on the name.”
On the subject of names, there was a rumour that Harley-Davidson might give a free motorcycle to anyone who named their child after its famous brand. The rumour turned out to be false, but Guindon joked that the name was still a good choice for his son since he could never forget it.
“He stepped down from the throne,” Teresa said of her father, and of the ascent of his newborn heir, Harley Davidson Guindon.
Harley represented possibilities for his father. The boy was Guindon’s chance to finally get parenting right. He was a perfectionist, though his track record as a parent didn’t yet reflect that. “He was my dad’s do-over baby,” Shanan said. “He was the first child that my dad had on the street and got to raise on the street. I think he tried really hard to make up for a lot of things.”
Guindon quickly learned that he wouldn’t be able to count on Angel. Though the young mother remained in the family’s circle for years to come, Harley has gently described his birth mother as “unmotivated, not ready for child-bearing,” which was probably reasonable for a teenaged street kid.
From the beginning, Guindon expected his son to grow up tough. When Harley was still a toddler in diapers, he fell over and hit his head on a coffee table. He started to cry and Teresa tried to comfort him, but Guindon jumped in.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “He’s got to be a man. He’s got to toughen up.”
Teresa sensed things were going bad fast. She asked if she could become Harley’s legal guardian. Guindon wouldn’t hear of it. For better or worse, Harley Davidson Guindon was his father’s son.