The nastiest crime ever to hit Brossard

 The worst crime ever committed on the South Shore was the Valentine's Eve massacre of 1975, when four were killed.
   On Feb. 13, 1975 at 11:50 p.m. three masked men walked into a popular bar in the bar inside the Hotel Lapiniere at 2175 La Piniere, a building that has since been demolished. An electrical tower stands now where it was.
   The shooters were Dubois gang soldiers, aiming to kill their rivals from the McSween gang, namely: Roger Letourneau,  Gilles Roy and Paul-Émile Lapointe.
   The Dubois-faction figured they could put a permanent end to a conflict by spraying a few bullets throughout the crowded bar.
   They were correct.
   The McSweens had previously worked with the Dubois brothers, but were unhappy with their cut, so they tried to take over a chunk of the Point.
   The war began when Jacques McSween and his two brothers Pierre and Andre formed a gang responsible for the killing of Raymond Gagne in Chez Jean-Pierre, a bar in the Point on Sept. 30, 1974.
   The Dubois brothers sent a team to Longueuil where they killed leader Jacques McSween, the gang boss, at 4 .a.m. in his car at his home on Oct. 5, 1974. His friend, dancer Monique Desrochers, 20 suffered serious injuries.
   Hitman Donald Lavoie testified the shots were fired by Adrien Dubois, Jean-Guy Dubois and Claude Dubeau. A jury acquitted them of the crime, however, as they didn't fully trust Lavoie's testimony.  Camille Francoeur was later convicted of the killing and served 17 years in prison, although now at 68, appears to be on the lam, violating his parole.
   In retaliation for the murder of Jacques McSween, the gang then killed Pierre Brunette and Serge  Champagne at with a bullet to the dome at 6:40 p.m  while drinking with three friends at Brasserie 9 at 1801 Grand Trunk (since demolished).
   At this point, Letourneau, Roy and Lapointe were definitely sought by the Dubois clan.
   So here, finally, is the story were are here to tell:
   The Dubois brothers were able to track the trio down to a bar on the South Shore and three gunmen, wearing masks, walked in to the club where about 50 were in the crowd on a country music night.
   It was during an interlude that they strode in. A mime named Georges Pantorez was on stage, and aart of the mime's act involved shooting off a fake gun. The killers might have known about the act and timed their visit so the gunshots wouldn't initially be that alarming.
    Pierre Provost (top left), the doorman, attempted to stop them from taking out their machine guns, but they just shot him dead. Provost was well-liked, as his father Paul Provost had been the mayor of Mackayille (1957-1962).
   Letourneau, second from left in the top photo, was shot dead with 12 bullets. He was 31.

Roger Letourneau

   Provost's friend, Richard Bannon, 33, (third from left) who was possibly a waiter, tried to help Provost against the gunmen, but he too was shot dead.
   The fourth man in the top row was also killed. His name was Andre Lefebvre, 32, a cab driver.

Roger Fontaine

   Letourneu was the leader of the McSweens at this point but whether the other three were involved in the gang or not is not entirely clear. They most likely all had some sort of police records, because those are clearly mugshot photos.
   Letourneau's other top lieutenants were seriously wounded but not killed: Paul-Emile Lapointe, from Ville Emard was hit as was Gilles Roy from Montreal, who was hit with two bullets in the throat.

Pierre McSween

   Others struck by gunfire were Claude Lajoie, 35, of Ville Lemoyne and Guy Poissant, 30, a computer technician, was also hit in the thigh with a bullet but was not seriously hurt.
   The shooters were not caught, but Pierre McSween told the Crime Commission that one of the shooters was Roger Fontaine.
   The McSweens had previously laid a serious beating on Fontaine, who was a loanshark and a one-time construction union employee.
   Roger Fontaine was found dead in a burnt camper with a woman on Feb. 28 of 1976, he had been shot in the head.
   The war ended after the shooting. Pierre McSween accepted a deal to turn informant but was eventually put into prison where he died of a heart attack in 1984.