Vincent Meloche: murderous psychopath, father of the disgruntled employee killing spree

Vincent Meloche

Before he killed himself by fire at the Banque Nationale parking lot at  Papineau and Belanger in October 2001, Vincent Meloche committed one of the more awful crimes of the early 70s.
   Meloche was a genius who grew up in a rough home and attempted suicide several times as a youth.
   His brother, also a victim of violent abuse, killed himself in 1987.
   Meloche killed three executives at his former workplace.
   Later the phrase "Je vais melocher mon boss" became part of the Quebec lingo as in: "I'm going to kill my boss."
   After shooting the three executives, Meloche's legal team used language-of-workplace politics to persuade many to think he was either justified or not to blame for his murder spree in downtown Montreal just over 40 years ago.
  Vincent Meloche,  lived at 4478 Fabre on the Plateau and was a 28-year-old salesman at DuPont with a past as a petty criminal. He had presumably been rehabilitated at something called Comprehension House.
   DuPont knew of his past and hired him as part of the program. He was considered bright when hired in April 1970 and was promoted from shipper to salesman but was eventually fired for insolence, or as he put it, "having a big mouth."
   Meloche went to his former office at 555 Dorchester W. in the morning of Oct. 7, 1971 presumably to plead for his job back, but also brought a sawed-off.12 gauge shotgun to the meeting and shot three executives in the head, killing them. He walked out quite cooly and later phoned police from a booth at Park and Bernard to turn himself in.

 A  young Meloche (in front) as RCASC Apprentice 1961
before he was kicked out

 
 He killed Gaetan Langlois, 42 of Pierrefonds, John Cawley, 48 of Montreal West and George Matthews, 61, of Cavendish Blvd.
   Langlois was the big boss, Cawley was below him, then came Matthews, who was Meloche's boss. Matthews was the one who had actually fired Meloche over the phone two days earlier.
  Meloche had previously attempted suicide four times and was apparently going to just shoot only himself at the office but changed his mind amid the pandemonium.
  People at DuPont said that Meloche had previously seemed normal but Andre Leclerc, the head of Comprehension House noted that Meloche appeared to have some pretty deep psychological problems.
  Meloche could have killed several others but didn't pull the trigger on them.

Re-enactment of Meloche's self-immolation

  Meloche was found fit for trial, in spite of high-profile FLQ lawyer Robert Lemieux's blaming of the victims for forcing Meloche to work in English. His case was delayed for 16 months as his subsequent lawyer Robert LaHaye prepared the defence.
   Meloche took out one of his eyes while waiting for his trial in an attempt to get sympathy. After many delays, Meloche eventually just admitted his guilt and was sentenced to life. But an appeals court ordered another trial and was again sentenced to life in 1975. His lawyer LaHaye once again appealed and the case was finally reduced to manslaughter.
  He was paroled in 1984, his brother committed suicide in 1987 and by 1990 Vincent was selling his paintings of flowers in St. Louis Square. He said that he became the way he was because he was frequently beaten by his parents as a child and was going through intensive therapy to deal with this following his release.

  Midway though August 2001 he doused himself in gasoline in a parking lot and killed himself by fire, leaving only a letter for his sister. The note apparently complained that the world hadn't given him a fair shake.
Other Quebec boss murderers
   And in fact, Meloche might have inspired some copycat disgruntled employee killers.
- A few weeks afterwards, 11-year former Verdun fireman Guy Rejean de l'Etoile, 36, a father of four from Brossard, shot City of Verdun Manager Guy Gagnon, 42. at his home on Beatty with a semi-automatic .22 rifle on Oct. 14 after being let go two years earlier for allegedly drinking a beer at the scene of a fire. Gagnon was given $157,000 for his injuries and de l'Etoile was sentenced to four years.
-  And then then next year, on June 25, 1972, a former security guard killed four workers at the Ben Ash restaurant in the Cote des Neiges Plaza. He also seriously wounded a guard in the shooting, which involved him ordering the four workers into a large freezer and then shooting them to death and then tossing debris all over their bodies. Thomas Oszlanszky, 21, also took off with $2,000 at 3:30 a.m. that night.
   He was caught about four hours later. The security guard had nicked him in the neck with a bullet upon his departure. Dead were Spiros Mayrelatof, 18, Sender Nincowcz, 54, Benjamin Earle Segal, 18, and Antonios Alefragis, 22.
   After that the next big Montreal disgruntled worker killing spree took was 20 years later, as Valeri Fabrikant killed four at Concordia University.