The life and death of the West End Gang's John Slawvey

     Giant-sized West End Gang member John Slawvey is back in the news lately after a criminologist listed him among the people Quebec police forces assassinated over the years.
   I recently interviewed his then-girlfriend who was waiting for Slawvey, 38, to return home from a bar on St. James St. W. (he had no alcohol in his system when killed) on the night that he was shot by police.
   The girlfriend sheds light on another possibility that might have led to the shooting, more on that below.
   According to an official report, police shot Slawvey 20 times in the indoor parking lot at 2555 Benny on May 15, 1976 at about 3:30 a.m.
  He exited his 1974 Chrysler and police, who were waiting for him, yelled at him "police don't move."
  Police later suggested that they waited in the parking lot because his apartment door was barricaded. They did not, however, knock on the door upstairs prior to hiding in the parking lot that evening.
  The six officers present all later swore that Slawvey walked forward, crouched down and produced a shiny metal revolver, a Hopkins Allen 295, which was recovered from the crime scene.
  Some believe that police planted the gun at the scene after the shooting. (His girlfriend said that she had never seen the gun found at the scene but also said that she would not have known anyway.)
   Four officers opened fire (Lucien Lefebvre of the Night Squad with an M76 machine gun, Constable Ross Trudel of the Special Squad, Sgt Det Andre Savard with a M1 shotgun with 9 MM bullets, and Sgt Det Roger David of something called the UEHVQ, who said that he shot Slawvey five times) and two others did not (Sgt Det. J.P. Gilbert Station 10 and Sgt Det. Claude Paquette of the Night Squad).
   Slawvey was likely a killer. He almost surely killed George Calderwood, an Englishman who owned the Blue Top Lounge on St. James in 1971. Calderwood, who had participated in at least one bank robbery, had earned Slawvey's ire by kicking him out of the bar when he was drunk one night.
   It's said that Slawvey wore an afro wig when he committed the murder.
   Police had no love for Slawvey who had reputedly shot and killed motorcycle cop Jean-Guy Sabourin in December 1971 outside of Simpson's during a robbery. (Great footage of police reacting to the news at Station 10 at 53:00 of this documentary).
   Slawvey hated police and was believed to have shot at officers a few weeks earlier as they were conducting intense investigations into the famous Brinks robbery.
   Slawvey grew up poor on Sebastopol in the Point in a Polish family with a domineering mother who would confiscate earnings from his first job and a father who he considered weak.

Life of crime

   The strapping 6'4", 242 lbs Slawvey soon found himself to be an important part of the West End Gang, Montreal's Irish Mafia.
   In 1969 Slawvey was a suspect in a $200,000 cigarette truck heist at the port along with Billy Johnston, James MacDonald and another longshoremen.
   One article suggests that Slawvey might have been the shooter in the downtown murder of MacDonald, who the theory has it, might have been considering turning informant.
   Nobody was charged.
   Although large, Slawvey admitted to being a poor fighter and was once beaten up on Sherbrooke and Girouard by 5'2" Bob Chiu, a Chinese-Canadian biker and friend of Mike French.
   He also backed down from legendary WEG hit-man Jackie McLaughlin after losing his temper with a girl over a small amount of cocaine. West End Gang leader Dunie Ryan once almost fought with Slawvey in a bar after Slawvey slapped a woman.
   And he feuded with oddball former friend and onetime mayoral candidate Roddy Diamond, who he died last year in a trailer outside of the city. Slawvey once tossed a Molotov cocktail into a business in Verdun to piss Diamond off.
  Slawvey was also involved in an epic brawl against a bunch of football players at the Mustache Club on Closse across from the Forum. The football players won.

Gun found at the scene

   Slawvey was good friends with the McGurnahans, a family of 10 whose father died and were raised by a single mother in the Point. Some of the family joined the West End Gang and two were killed after running afoul of West End Gang leaders Dunie Ryan and Alan Ross,
  Slawvey admitted that he was no good at fighting but said that his gun could make up for any shortcomings as a pugilist.
    Slawvey, who dealt and enjoyed the more-than-occasional toot of cocaine, never confessed to any murders to those close to him except for having tossed an older man down a flight of stairs while fleeing a robbery.      
   Slawvey suspected that he had killed the man. He also had a bullet wound in his back, after being shot in Boston.
   At the time of his death, Slawvey was separated from his American wife Nancy. The two had a son named David, then aged nine. David died in a car accident aged 16 in 1985.
   Slawvey had links with the East End mobsters who he'd meet in an East End disco and he was known to motor around in style in an Italian made red De Tomaso Pantera one of only two in Montreal at the time. He also owned a 1929 Ford and a new-model luxury Chrysler.
   One time cops pulled him over while driving the Pantera, which had ample cocaine inside. He got out and threatened the cops and no arrest was made.
    His 21-year-old girlfriend who was waiting at home for him the night of his death had unsettling thoughts during his absence and kept looking out the window thinking that there might be a fire nearby.
   She sensed that Slawvey too might have had some sort of subconscious premonition that his life would be ending as he left home at 1:30 p.m. that day.
   Unusually Slawvey did not put his customary jewelry on.

Slawvey in about 1969

   After the shooting cops rushed to apartment 201 and banged on their door at 3:44 a.m.  His girlfriend scrambled to hide and remove anything that might seem incriminating. She removed the metal barriers from the door which Slawvey had installed after several earlier raids.

Cops come upstairs

    "I opened the door to a long gun pointed at my face. Three detectives rushed in, Andre Savard in front along with two others who were huge like John. They took our shotgun out of the bedroom and asked me if I used it to kill cops. I was extremely uncooperative and his exact words were 'John Slawvey is dead.' He was shot in the garage. I didn't believe them and kicked them out. I saw them towing his car, so I went down to garage and I knew he was gone. I'll never forget what I saw."

   Now the element that has never been mentioned in this narrative is that Slawvey was carrying a large shiny metallic object with him that night in the form of an early-model telephone pager, which he  usually kept in his belt. 

   The shiny pager device measured about 12 inches by 4 inches, according to his girlfriend. It's an item which would have reflected ample light in the darkness of a dim indoor parking lot.
   Police later said that they saw him draw a shiny metal gun from his belt, but it could very well have been the pager.

   Police were never, of course, charged with any misdeeds in connection to the death and were cleared less than a month after in a quickie inquiry. Many went on to significant accomplishments doing tough tasks within the force. 

   But it's possible that the officers opened fire after mistaking the shiny metallic pager for a gun. 

   Slawvey was dressed in a dark blue turtleneck and light blue blazer at his closed-casket funeral several weeks later (open for close family members who came earlier). It was an impressive bit of work done by the Feron funeral home on the bullet-ridden body and invasive autopsy.