The Montreal priest and cop who helped out with a big mail truck robbery

Sgt Gerard Proulx covers his face in court
12 June 1964

   Quebec bank robbers were heroes battling the oppressive English moneyed class, according to a narrative advanced by people like separatist intellectuals like Pierre "Elvis Gratton" Falardeau.
   The PR initiative that presents outlaw thieves as Robin Hoods doesn't stand up to serious scrutiny, as psychological analysis demonstrates that such robbers are seriously plagued by issues ranging from psychopathy to repressed homosexuality. (A reason to celebrate gay rights, the loss of shame helps decrease crime.)
   Some Quebecers were, however, sympathetic to such bandits and one heist stands above others as an example of this.
   In what was called The Great Mail Robbery, a priest, a police officer, a waitress and others all helped the bandits.
    On 31 March 1964 at about 7:30 pm  Maurice Arbic or Arbec 26, Benoit Doucet, 37, Gaston Lavoie, 37, Gilles Lebrun, 33, Wilfrid Leclerc, 44 and Rene Leduc, 40 and Henri Samson, 58 robbed a Canada Post truck of $1.5 million at University and Lagauchetiere.
   Another key member of the gang Pierre Talon,. 25, a salesman from St. Donat, would play a crucial role in the story.

  The crooks tied the guards up and abandoned the truck, another truck hauled the loot to a garage on St. Zotique and the gang all met up at waitress Rolande Ostiguy's apartment in the north end. 

  They gave her $2,000 in return for allowing them to use their place for the split, which saw large amounts of cash spread all over the place
   Ten men, including an unidentified inside man, met for the split. It was decided that a driver should take them home.
   One of the bandits called Gerard Proulx, who was a Montreal police officer at the time with 17 years experience.
   Proulx showed up to act as driver for the gang. He left with Leduc, Lebrun and inside man.
   He then returned for Talon who went to his girlfriend's home on Masson.

   Officer Proulx knew about the stolen cash and even told Talon he had a great place to hide money, in a wall safe at his cottage.
  Talon declined that offer and instead hid his loot in the woods near St. Donat.  He was later forced to turn the cash over.
   The thieves paid Officer Proulx $3,700 for his chauffeur service.
    Police got a major break in solving the heist after rounded up Talon.
    Police told Talon that if he didn't rat out his gang, they'd charge him with murdering Michel Dudas, 32, shot dead at 11:30 m on 6 Jan 1964 at Park and Cremazie.
    Seven were brought to trial and Catholic priest Yves Tremblay, 56, offered a false alibi for Arbic in court on 3 February, 1966. He claimed Arbic was discussing religious matters with him at the time.
   Tremblay was motivated by money issues. He wasn't charged with perjury but he was arrested later that evening in Rosemount driving a stolen car with forged registration. He was also charged - and later acquitted - in connection with an illegal hockey lottery after tickets were found at his place on the south shore where he worked as a chaplain for a St. Lambert school. He was later transferred to New England.
  Sgt. Proulx, 42, a the father of three, was also charged after his colleagues arrested him at a Sherbrooke St. E motel after he accepted to perform a similar service in a police set-up.
   Proulx's colleague Demonceau slapped the cuffs on him. After spending 17 months behind bars awaiting trial, a jury found Proulx guilty after a five day trial and on 30 October 1965 he was sentenced to eight years in prison, less than the maximum of 14.
   Andre Paquette was thought the brains behind the heist but  police could not locate him.
   Paquette had participated in at least four dozen robberies since being a member of the cagoule rouge gang in the 1950s. He was considered clever, calculating and non-violent. Police assumed he had been killed.
   Paquette was notable for once allowing crime lord Lucien Rivard to stay at his place after he escaped prison. Two members of the same circle of criminals, Conrad Brunelle and Andre Durocher, killed themselves in prison in 1966. Durocher's father had done the same in 1943.