Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau sought to be the modern-day Mesrine, trying to imitate the legendary bandit who terrorized Quebec before being shot down in Paris.
He explained this goal in one of the thousands of text messages he sent out to his girlfriend while in prison.
Hudon-Barbeau was a good looking guy with some talents in karate and he was able to persuade many people to like him.
His father Michel, an ex-con, once wrote an entire book proclaiming his son's innocence.
And Hudon-Barbeau later persuaded fellow criminal Ryan Wolfson to shoot people dead for him.
Hudon-Barbeau came to public attention on Nov. 5, 2010 he was ordered to serve 12 years in connection to a double murder at the Upper Club on October 24, 2006.
But on January 20, 2012, the main prosecution witness recanted and the sentence was overturned on appeal.
See: The Upperclub double murder and its dramatic spinoffs
Two months after his release, Hudon-Barbeau visited witness Dannick Lessard, who was then working as doorman at the Garage nightclub in Mirabel.
He explained this goal in one of the thousands of text messages he sent out to his girlfriend while in prison.
Hudon-Barbeau was a good looking guy with some talents in karate and he was able to persuade many people to like him.His father Michel, an ex-con, once wrote an entire book proclaiming his son's innocence.
And Hudon-Barbeau later persuaded fellow criminal Ryan Wolfson to shoot people dead for him.
Hudon-Barbeau came to public attention on Nov. 5, 2010 he was ordered to serve 12 years in connection to a double murder at the Upper Club on October 24, 2006.
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| Luanna Larose |
See: The Upperclub double murder and its dramatic spinoffs
Two months after his release, Hudon-Barbeau visited witness Dannick Lessard, who was then working as doorman at the Garage nightclub in Mirabel.
Hudon-Barbeau came with about 10 others late on a quiet night.
Hudon-Barbeau had some bad feelings about Lessard's court testimony.
"Look, I'm a hood, I have nothing to lose, you know me, I lost everything. My ex, she stole from me, I can't sleep. I can't eat."
"Before that, I had respect for you, I have no more respect for you. All you deserve is a bullet between your eyes."
On October 28, 2012, 13 days after the accused's visit, Hudon-Barbeau's henchman Ryan Wolfson shot Lessard when he left the bar at 4:05 am
Wolfson asked Lessard for help, as his ride hadn't shown up. He then shot at Lessard 14 times, hitting him nine times, switching from a Glock to a Colt after one jammed.
Lessard somehow survived and later launched a lawsuit against federal authorities seeking $3.2 million for failing to keep an eye on Wolfson, a known, dangerous criminal.
The Glock and Colt Wolfson used were also employed to shoot others.
**
Hudon-Barbeau ended up back in prison in connection with another misdeed following the Upper Club affair.
Hudon-Barbeau, then 36, organized a prison escape in a kidnapped helicopter on March 17, 2013 with the help of two of his half brothers, Sam and Vincent.
He told his girlfriend Luanna Larose, then 33, the single mother of a 15-year-old, that he was inspired by the French bandit Mesrine who eventually ended up in a hail of bullets.
**
Hudon-Barbeau befriended Wolfson who agreed to carry out murders for him.
Hudon-Barbeau presumably believed that having someone else kill on his behalf would give him a greater chance of staying free.
That calculation proved incorrect as Hudon-Barbeau was eventually sentenced to 35 years in prison without possibility of parole after being found guilty of killing Pierre-Paul Fortier on October 18, 2012 and Vincent Pietrantonio on the same day, along with a pair of attempted murders.
Indeed he earned those 35 years all between September 29 and October 18, 2012, a busy three week period.
Hudon-Barbeau's trial was a marathon affair, starting June 28, 2017, with jury showing up September 18 and ended with Justice France Charonnbeau's ruling finally being handed down February 28, 2018.
Ryan Wolfson had struck up a friendship with the ambitious onetime Hells Angel prospect in prison.
Wolfson, once released, spent time with a man whose name was not divulged in court and we will call Ace. (It doesn't take much to figure out his real name). Wolfson and Ace robbed houses together all summer and went drinking at night.
Hudon-Barbeau rented a house from Vincent Pietrantonio, who was closely linked to Ace.
Hudon-Barbeau had some bad feelings about Lessard's court testimony.
"Look, I'm a hood, I have nothing to lose, you know me, I lost everything. My ex, she stole from me, I can't sleep. I can't eat."
"Before that, I had respect for you, I have no more respect for you. All you deserve is a bullet between your eyes."
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| Lessard |
Wolfson asked Lessard for help, as his ride hadn't shown up. He then shot at Lessard 14 times, hitting him nine times, switching from a Glock to a Colt after one jammed.
Lessard somehow survived and later launched a lawsuit against federal authorities seeking $3.2 million for failing to keep an eye on Wolfson, a known, dangerous criminal.
The Glock and Colt Wolfson used were also employed to shoot others.
**
Hudon-Barbeau ended up back in prison in connection with another misdeed following the Upper Club affair.
Hudon-Barbeau, then 36, organized a prison escape in a kidnapped helicopter on March 17, 2013 with the help of two of his half brothers, Sam and Vincent.
He told his girlfriend Luanna Larose, then 33, the single mother of a 15-year-old, that he was inspired by the French bandit Mesrine who eventually ended up in a hail of bullets.
 |
| Sam Barbeau |
Hudon-Barbeau befriended Wolfson who agreed to carry out murders for him.
Hudon-Barbeau presumably believed that having someone else kill on his behalf would give him a greater chance of staying free.
That calculation proved incorrect as Hudon-Barbeau was eventually sentenced to 35 years in prison without possibility of parole after being found guilty of killing Pierre-Paul Fortier on October 18, 2012 and Vincent Pietrantonio on the same day, along with a pair of attempted murders.
Indeed he earned those 35 years all between September 29 and October 18, 2012, a busy three week period.
Hudon-Barbeau's trial was a marathon affair, starting June 28, 2017, with jury showing up September 18 and ended with Justice France Charonnbeau's ruling finally being handed down February 28, 2018.
Ryan Wolfson had struck up a friendship with the ambitious onetime Hells Angel prospect in prison.
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| Vincent Barbeau |
Hudon-Barbeau rented a house from Vincent Pietrantonio, who was closely linked to Ace.
But Pietrantonio soon had a problem when Ace started stealing booze and other items from Hudon-Barbeau.
Hudon-Barbeau blamed his landlord Pietrantonio and refused to pay his electricity bill, which eventually rose to $2,000.
This irritated landlord Vincent Pietrantonio, who was staying in Switzerland. He demanded Hudon-Barbeau give him around $150,000 plus another $10,000 he had paid in bail to spring Hudon-Barbeau from a weapons charge in Ontario.
Ace joined in the chorus to pressure Hudon-Barbeau to pay the electricity bill.
Pietrantonio wrote Hudon-Barbeau on Facebook.
slang in the Quebecois urban dictionary.
In spite of the attack, Pietrantonio's ally Ace was still partying in bars with Hudon-Barbeau's ally, Wolfson.
Hudon-Barbeau offered to meet Ace to settle the electricity bill.
Ace was so thrilled that he dropped his grocery shopping and rushed to meet Hudon-Barbeau, who - to his surprise - was with Wolfson.
Ace had been instructed to meet at a restaurant, which turned out to be closed. He spotted Hudon-Barbeau's car backed into a parking spot, as if ready to drive off in haste. Soon Wolfson was shooting at Ace.
Ace was hit but ran into a nearby garage and then a depanneur and called for help. He ended up in hospital for two weeks.
Hudon-Barbeau called him at the hospital the next day pretending not to know what had happened.
Ballistics experts determined the bullets came from a an automatic .45 caliber Para-Ordnance, which police seized from a Mercedes SUV parked in a laneway next to Wanda's strip club.
Wolfson had appeared in photos holding the same weapon.
Hudon-Barbeau denied any plot to shoot Ace. He said that the call he made to Ace on the day of the shooting was a simple request to deal with the place he was renting.
Hudon-Barbeau said that Wolfson and Ace had their own little spat and he also denied writing the angry texts to Vincent Pietrantonio.
The courtroom noted that Wolfson, unlike the accused, had no motive to kill Ace, as the two had been good pals.
Hudon-Barbeau told the court that he would never organize a hit against Ace, because he was like his "little brother" and Pietrantonio was like "his father."
Ace barely survived the three bullets and was forced to undergo a colostomy.
***
Vincent Pietrantonio was understandably nervous after Ace was shot, so when he returned from Switzerland, he had asked his friend Frederic Murdock to sleep at his home to help protect him.
The witness B, noted in court that Hudon-Barbeau was revved up and told Wolfson to get inside Pietrantonio's home. "He was getting impatient. He was eager for it to happen."
Pierre Paul Fortier dealt drugs with his brother Marc-André Fortier and the duo earned up to $100,000 per month dealing one or two kilos of cocaine north of Montreal.
One again ballistics linked Wolfson with the five bullets from a .45 Colt that killed Pierre Paul.
Hudon-Barbeau blamed his landlord Pietrantonio and refused to pay his electricity bill, which eventually rose to $2,000.
This irritated landlord Vincent Pietrantonio, who was staying in Switzerland. He demanded Hudon-Barbeau give him around $150,000 plus another $10,000 he had paid in bail to spring Hudon-Barbeau from a weapons charge in Ontario.
Ace joined in the chorus to pressure Hudon-Barbeau to pay the electricity bill.
Pietrantonio wrote Hudon-Barbeau on Facebook.
You're not answering your phone tabarnak !!! If someone does something to my home I'll break his fingers quietly while sodomizing him violently. I'm totally serious my tabarnak.Hudon-Barbeau typed a reply on his phone with equal vigor, using every bit of vulgar Quebecois
slang in the Quebecois urban dictionary.
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| Wolfson |
Hudon-Barbeau offered to meet Ace to settle the electricity bill.
Ace was so thrilled that he dropped his grocery shopping and rushed to meet Hudon-Barbeau, who - to his surprise - was with Wolfson.
Ace had been instructed to meet at a restaurant, which turned out to be closed. He spotted Hudon-Barbeau's car backed into a parking spot, as if ready to drive off in haste. Soon Wolfson was shooting at Ace.
Ace was hit but ran into a nearby garage and then a depanneur and called for help. He ended up in hospital for two weeks.
Hudon-Barbeau called him at the hospital the next day pretending not to know what had happened.
Ballistics experts determined the bullets came from a an automatic .45 caliber Para-Ordnance, which police seized from a Mercedes SUV parked in a laneway next to Wanda's strip club.
Wolfson had appeared in photos holding the same weapon.
Hudon-Barbeau denied any plot to shoot Ace. He said that the call he made to Ace on the day of the shooting was a simple request to deal with the place he was renting.
Hudon-Barbeau said that Wolfson and Ace had their own little spat and he also denied writing the angry texts to Vincent Pietrantonio.
The courtroom noted that Wolfson, unlike the accused, had no motive to kill Ace, as the two had been good pals.
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| Vincent Pietrantonio and his son Tommy |
Ace barely survived the three bullets and was forced to undergo a colostomy.
***
Vincent Pietrantonio was understandably nervous after Ace was shot, so when he returned from Switzerland, he had asked his friend Frederic Murdock to sleep at his home to help protect him.
So one morning Hudon-Barbeau invited another unnamed individual, called B, to watch the crime report on LCN by Claude Poirier.
Hudon-Barbeau was anticipating that some interesting event would be taking place. Wolfson, meanwhile, had spent the next near Vincent Pietrantonio's place.
Hudon-Bareau called Wolfson to ask who else was in Pietrantonio's home.
The witness B, noted in court that Hudon-Barbeau was revved up and told Wolfson to get inside Pietrantonio's home. "He was getting impatient. He was eager for it to happen."
B also noted that Hudon-Barbeau was irritated with Wolfson for his bad aim.
Pietrantonio saw a car pull up. He told Murdock to stay inside the house but Murdock rushed out. Gunshots rang through the afternoon and Pietrantonio went outside too and was shot at near his front door. A bullet hit him in the chest, two inches from his heart.
Murdock was dead and Pietrantonio barely survived. He was unable to identify the shooter who had blasted the two with a Glock semi-automatic 40.
Wolfson had driven to the shooting in a car he borrowed from stripper friend Marie-France St-Denis. He had stayed at her place a couple of days and then left with her car.
Police later seized the gun and other ballistics evidence in a car outside of Wanda's on November 3. They linked it to Wolfson and for good measure found the .45 caliber automatic Ruger wielded by the victim Frederick Murdock.
***
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| Fortier |
Pierre-Paul had worked for Hudon-Barbeau before he switched to an Italian boss in 2006.
The two brothers Fortier met with Hudon-Barbeau in the back of a bar in the summer of 2012. Hudon-Barbeau said he wanted to return to doing business with the duo but Pierre-Paul said he was happy working for the Italian.
Pierre-Paul was nervous and gave Hudon-Barbeau $1,8000 per month to buy his peace. The deal didn't make Hudon-Barbeau happy, who demanded $1 million and then $250,000 for reasons clear to himself surely.
On the afternoon of October 18, 2012 Pierre-Paul Fortier was tinkering around in his garage with friend Jean-Sébastien Mapp. Pierre-Paul said that he was going to eat that day with a guy he identified by putting his left hand on his right bicep. It was his way of referring to Barbeau-Hudon.
Hudon left the Ritz-Carlton hotel on October 26, 2012 in a rented white Lincoln MKX SUV and two days later the vehicle was spotted at the entrance of the Manoir St. Sauveur.
Wolfson was seen on surveillance video leaving the car from the passenger side. One hour later four gunshots rang out and a SAQ employee witnessed Wolfson running away from the scene.
On trial Hudon Barbeau conceded that he rented the Lincoln and also identified Wolfson from the surveillance video.
He was only forced to admit being at the hotel because cell phone towers located his cell phone. He said he was going to the gym and was driving a Cayenne Porsche.
Witness B, noted however, that Hudon-Barbeau was driving the Lincoln and that Hudon-Barbeau had come right out and said that he had just killed someone.
Hudon-Barbeau and Wolfson were later delighted to hear that police were looking for a fat man in a Cadillac in connection with the crime.
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| Larose and Hudon |
That gun was also seized in the same raid outside of Wanda's on Nov. 3, 2012.
Wolfson, prosecutors noted, had no motive to kill Fortier. Hudon-Barbeau, however, sought to take over the lucrative drug trade north of Montreal.
The court prosecutors described Hudon-Barbeau as dangerous, manipulative, narcissistic, impulsive and uncontrollable. She suggested that he had attempted to intimidate a witness.
The court prosecutors described Hudon-Barbeau as dangerous, manipulative, narcissistic, impulsive and uncontrollable. She suggested that he had attempted to intimidate a witness.
***
Four psychologists analyzed Hudon-Barbeau, with one interviewing him for 90 minutes a half dozen times at the Rivière-des-Prairies Prison. One of them determined he was near 30 on a scale of 40 for psychopathy.
**
The court proceedings include a lengthy narrative discussing how Hudon-Barbeau terrorized another witness, apparently his girlfriend, who noted that Hudon-Barbeai would frequently vow to kill her mother or other various people who had nothing to do with any of his dealings and that he once forced he to go look at a decomposing body in the woods.
**
Court transcripts also include several paragraphs of insults he hurled at authorities, such as;
Je te le dis, toé, ma grosse face, ta grosse face de corrompu plein de marde, hein! (inaudible)… gang de pourris, vous êtes des ostis de pourris, là, ça se peut pas, le gros. Esti t’es chanceux (inaudible)… Je te (inaudible) mon gros cochon. Toé. Tu peux bien rire, gros crisse de mangeux de marde de corrompu, avec ton Baribeau plein de marde maudit crisse de cochon. Tu penses que tu vas t’en aller juge, toi, Baribeau, hein? Tu vas finir comme (inaudible), le gros, à municipale (?). Crisses de bâtards, ostis de corrompus, j’ai jamais vu ça. Y a des ostis de bâtards qui (inaudible). Decâlissez ma gang de pourris, j’en reviens pas, man.
**
Wolfson was sentenced to life in prison in October 2016.
Wolfson was sentenced to life in prison in October 2016.
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