Micheline Blouin: forgotten killer martyr in the battle against biker Communism

 Micheline Blouin (1944-1974) was awaiting trial for manslaughter when she was found dead with a bullet through her head at her apartment at 256 Delage apt 15 in Beauport, a suburb of Quebec City on 7 February 1974. 

   Next to her body was a .22 caliber pistol and a suicide note bemoaning the stress and loneliness being caught in a biker war between a pair of recently-formed gangs. 

   Serge "Gallo" Beaulieu, her boyfriend, headed the Pacific Rebels. 

   Raymond "Che Ramon" Cardinal was the boss of  Citoyens de la Terre, a purportedly Marxist biker gang.  

   We know little about Cardinal's political beliefs beyond that description, as his name and biker gang disappeared from history. It is said that the Citoyens de la Terre was a truly Marxist biker gang, so we're going to run with that. 

  The war began in July 1973 after the Pacific Rebels ordered the Citoyens de la Terre to ship out, deeming the tranquil suburban island of Ile D'Orleans - today home to a mere 7,000 residents - too small for two biker gangs. 

   The Pacific Rebels attacked the Citoyens de la Terre headquarters which was based in a former police station in the Saint Jean village of Ile d'Orleans.

   Some of the fighting bikers were injured by broken glass, a woman was beaten with an iron bar and a motorcycles vandalized.

   Some days later, nine biker comrades of the Citoyens de la Terre retaliated, armed with rifles and baseball bats, attacked the Pacific Rebels headquarters. 

  The entire Pacific Rebel gang was out of their bunker at the time except for Michele Blouin who managed to shoot one of the attackers, Yvan Lapointe, 19, dead. according to the Allo Police crime tabloid.

   La Presse, in contrast, reported that Lapointe was killed in a larger shootout while guarding the Citoyens de la Terre bunker, likely shot by two assailants, as bullet wounds included some from a .22 caliber and others from a .12 caliber. 

  Police suggested that Blouin's boyfriend Beaulieu, the Pacific Rebels leader, was other shooter that shot Lapointe but only Michele Blouin was charged.

   Citoyens de la Terre leader Raymond Cardinal spoke of the fallen Lapointe in heroic terms at an ornate funeral, praising him for laying his life down for the gang.

   The Pacific Rebels saw it differently, sending a wreath to Lapointe's funeral reading, "It's a tragic accident but the good news is that you're in no shape for revenge because you're dead, you damn dog."

 Predictably, the warring tribes continued their battle.

 On January 1, 1974 Rebels member Ghislain Fiset, 24, was found dead by the road in St. Emile, just north of the city murdered by axe. 

   Then Mario Demers, 18, of the Rebels was shot dead by three gunmen in Sherbrooke on Tuesday, January 29, 1974. His friend Mario Bureau, 19, survived the shooting. 

 The Citoyens de la Terre then struck in one of the most memorable attacks in Quebec City history on 4 January 1974, as the Communist gang planted a bomb in a car shared by several Pacific Rebels who came into town to attend a court hearing for their comrades.

  The car bomb killed Serge Letourneau, 27, and injured three others Pacific Rebels in a touristic area outside of the Chateau Frontenac Hotel. 

   Three days later, police came to Michele Blouin's apartment and arrest her boyfriend, Pacific Rebels leader Beaulieu, who was already out on bail waiting for his trial on charges of armed robbery and rape.

   They also put away three other Pacific Rebels, Rejean Laflamme, Jacques Hamel and Jacques Brousseau on weapons charges. Those three were sprung out on bail, whereas Beaulieu was not. 

  Hours after her boyfriend Serge Beaulieu was taken away, Blouin, in the apartment she shared with Beaulieu, wrote her note and shot herself.    

   The note expressed her anguish at living such a painful life.

   As for her boyfriend Serge, he told a reporter:   "All I had was my bike, boots and girl. Now she's gone and I have nothing." 

   The Ile d'Orleans biker war quieted down after that as many participants were jailed for weapons and other violations and little was heard of either gang afterwards.    

   Serge Beaulieu was later imprisoned for bank robbery and was one of five who escaped St. Vincent de Paul prison in July 1986 through various ducts and drains.

   His brother Jacques gained some notoriety for being such an insanely aggressive nutcase that he required an outrageous $500 worth of security detail every time he left his prison cell at Orsainville to visit a courthouse or see a lawyer.