Blue Top Lounge at St. James & Cavendish 1971 - George Calderwood and Billy Fraser killed

   George Calderwood, 39, who co-owned the Blue Top Restaurant Club at 6690 St. James W, near Cavendish was shot to death while walking at St. James and Beaconsfield on March 15, 1971.
   He was had a good deal of money on him at the time but the killer did not take the cash.
   Calderwood, whose parents had moved to Canada from Scotland, had served five years in prison for robbing the CIBC at Sherbrooke and Westmore.
   Served as Bill McCarthy's top assistant at The Old Brewery mission and that's when Tommy Gavin approached him to partner in the Blue Top.
  Gavin was the actual owner of the Blue Top, which lasted about five years before he transformed it into the South Seas Restaurant.

Calderwood again

    One published report described Calderwood as a loan shark but family suggests that was unlikely.

Ulla

   A more likely interpretation is that he was part of a crew that was to pull a heist at the airport. Calderwood opted to withdraw his participation at the last minute and the other guys demanded that he come up with a share.
   The killer, who was never apprehended, appeared to be a black man, according to Calderwood's girlfriend Monique, who was with Calderwood.
   The shooter (or shooters) pulled out a .12 gauge sawed off shotgun and then walked up and stood over him and shot him again in the chest.  He only died later in hospital.
   The killer, or killers, ignored Monique.
   One account has it that the killer was Big John Slawvey, who was irritated with Slawvey for having him banned from the Blue Top.
   Caldrewood's wife Jeannie was consistently rude to Slawvey at the bar and would scream and toss glasses at him.
   Slawvey was not black but might have sported an afro wig for the occasion. Calderwood's girlfriend, who was with him at the time, was not targeted.
   Calderwood had three kids, who still speak glowingly of the father they lost.

***

Billy Fraser

Fraser

  Five months later William Fraser, aka Billy Fraser, 38, was shot four times to death inside that same bar on a Tuesday morning at 1:40 a.m. on August 17.
  Fraser did not have a criminal record.
  West End Gang hit man Dick Lavoie was sought for questioning.
  According to local crime legend Lavoie knew Fraser and asked to see his holstered gun.
  He took Fraser's own gun and shot him dead with bullets to the head and neck.
  Witnesses inside the club claimed that they saw nothing. They said that people were scared of Fraser because he came in with a gun.

   Fraser's body was dragged to another part of the bar and staff took quite some time before calling police.
 Lavoie admitted to being at the Blue Top at the time but said he fled because he didn't want trouble, as he had a long criminal record, having been deported from the states after serving many years inside a couple of years earlier, and didn't want trouble.
   Barmaid Ulla-Maiia Tissari, aka Ulla Bussiere, a Finnish-Montrealer, was Lavoie's girlfriend. (It's not clear whether he fathered either of her two daughters).
    Ulla vouched for Lavoie. She said she saw nothing, as she had been taking a breath of fresh air out back.
   Why would a PYT like Ulla Bussiere (she divorced Jacques Bussiere in 1975), go out with an old criminal like Lavoie you ask?
   According to another woman around the same age in the same scene at the time: "Older guys were far more exciting, especially the rounders. They could show you a whole new world. You could have almost anything you wanted (At a huge price)."
   Someone in the circle saw Ulla with a younger guy at the Monkland Theatre in 1974 and told Dickie. They broke up around that time. Dickie later lived above the bar at Elmhurst and St. James with Sheila, a woman closer to his age named Sheila. She was often drunk. He was never the same after she died.
  (Ulla later had businesses in Dorval but her whereabouts after that are unknown).
  Police actively sought Lavoie after the incident but was in the Eastern Townships with Ulla for about a week. He eventually heeded her pleas to turn himself in.
 

Manager Mr. Mattwar and waiter Bill (right) saw nada

Lavoie told the court that an attractive woman named Betty sat next to Fraser and lambasted him for raping her 10-year-old daughter. He talked to her and offered to buy her a drink.
    The Blue Top Lounge stayed open, under new management apparently, until at least May 1971. Owner Tommy Gavin later renamed it the South Seas Restaurant.

Ulla Bussiere

See also 

• The life and death of the West End Gang's John Slawvey
• Cop misdeeds of the past
• Murder at Andrew's Pub - who did it?