Acknowledgments

This book owes much to my ability to access the files and source-support of the RCMP (especially their Quebec “Division C”), the Montreal Police Service, and the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec Provincial Police). It also relies heavily on access to and documents obtained from the Palais de justice de Montréal (the Courthouse), Cour du Québec (the Court of Quebec), Cour d'appel du Québec (Quebec Court of Appeal), Cour Supérieure du Québec (Quebec Superior Court), Bibliothéque et Archives nationales du Québec, the Canadian National Parole Board, the McGill University Law Library, and the Concordia University Library. Many individuals in those organizations were helpful in providing information, as well as guiding me through the labyrinth of voluminous files that had anything to do with the West End Gang.

More importantly, there are the cons and ex-cons, cops and ex-cops, various Irish gang hang-arounds and know-abouts, bar owners, bar tenders and barflies, hookers, pimps and drug-dealers, plus others who allowed me to interview them (either on or off the record), and helped me get a handle on the fascinating history of Montreal's so-called “Irish mafia.”

But the most helpful of all were my chief researcher, Miranda O'Connor, as well as John Westlake, André Savard, John Phillips, André Potvin, William Morgan, André Bouchard and Paul Cherry, without whom I'd still be lost trying to figure out all the various connections between the “bad guys” and those who pursued them. There were also many others who granted me interviews in my quest for details about growing up in Irish neighborhoods, as well as the machinations of the West End Gang.

Finally, there are the various “munchkins,” especially Julie Lewis, who did most of the tedious work of translating from French to English the hundreds of court documents, police files, crime commission and coroner reports, National Parole Board hearings, and francophone media articles. And it was mostly Miranda who transcribed dozens of audio-taped interviews onto paper. Any factual errors that may appear in the book are entirely my responsibility, and not theirs.

As for getting the book finally written and finished, I could not have done it without the enduring patience and support of my editors Don Loney and Pauline Ricablanca at John Wiley & Sons.