Black Rock (32 page)

author's note

Many of the events in
Black Rock
really happened. Between
1968
and
1970
(the so-called “third wave” of terrorist activity in Quebec) over two hundred bombs were placed in and around Montreal and Robert Côté and his team dismantled almost all of them, including one in Eaton's (as it was known then) department store and one containing
150
pounds of dynamite in a Volkswagen in Old Montreal. But some bombs exploded. A bomb went off at the Montreal Stock Exchange, five bombs exploded in Westmount in one night, a bomb did destroy part of Mayor Drapeau's home, bombs went off at McGill University and City Hall and federal government buildings. Jeanne d'Arc Saint-Germain was killed by a bomb that exploded in a Defence Department building in Ottawa. And a man reputed to be a member of organized crime was killed when his car exploded on an expressway (the Metropolitan, not the Bonaventure). Every bomb in
Black Rock
is based on an actual bomb.

James Cross was kidnapped and Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and murdered. Shirley Audette, Marielle Archambeault and Jean Way were all murdered in Montreal by the same man, Wayne Boden, who was arrested in May
1971
in Calgary after killing another woman, Elizabeth Anne Porteous. It was the first time in Canadian history that forensic odontological evidence was used. Boden was not referred to at the time as a serial killer as that phrase was not then widely used.

At the time, the Montreal police also believed that Boden was guilty of murdering Norma Vaillancourt but he denied it, and in
1994
another man was convicted of that murder. Many Montreal police officers were assigned to the Combined Anti-Terrorist Squad along with officers from the Quebec Provincial Police and the RCMP during
1970
.

In
1975
a teenager, Sharon Prior, was abducted in Point St. Charles and murdered. This case remains unsolved.

Two FLQ cells were arrested in
1970
in possession of dynamite, guns and press releases stating that they had kidnapped Moshe Golan, the Israeli Commercial Consul, and Harrison Burgess, the U.S. Consul General. The CN rail yards were robbed and nightclubs were raided during the October Crisis. Medicare was introduced in Quebec and the doctors threatened to strike and the specialists did withhold their services. Many hospitals were only able to offer emergency care.

The topless rock band Eight of a Kind performed at the Hawaiian Lounge, and the Playboy Club in Montreal held its “Bunny of the Year” contest in October
1970
. Police were called to the Women in Business Conference at Man and His World.

With more than a dozen abductions,
1970
was the “Year of the Kidnapping” around the world. In many cases prisoners were released and the kidnappers were allowed to go to Algeria or Cuba. In Uruguay, an American, Daniel Mitrione (who was working for the American “Agency for International Development,” advising the Uruguayan government on police and internal security) was kidnapped and murdered.

The Black Rock is a real monument and the story it tells of the six thousand Irish immigrants who died on the ships, or in the sheds in Montreal, is true. My parents bought a red brick duplex in Greenfield Park and I read the Montreal
Gazette
after I delivered the papers. I also delivered the
Sunday Express,
including the edition with the picture of Pierre Laporte's body in the trunk of the car on the front page. I was eleven years old.

Of course,
Black Rock
is a novel and many of the events and characters in the book are entirely fictional. Any mistakes in the research are entirely mine. I'd like to thank everyone who helped in the writing of this book.

My sister Susan Bentley, my cousin Linda McFetridge, my brother Robert McFetridge (who joined the police in
1968
, but the RCMP rather than the Montreal police), Robert Côté, Harold Rosenberg (and the Montreal Police Museum), Barbara McIlwaine (who didn't frequent every bar in the Point, but knew most of their names), Randy McIlwaine, Roy Berger, Michel Basilières, Jacques Filippi, Peter Rozovsky, Keith Logan, Kristian Gravenor (his Coolopolis website is a great resource on Montreal), Kevin Burton Smith and everyone at ECW Press: Jack David, Kevin Connolly, Michael Holmes, Jen Knoch, Crissy Calhoun, Erin Creasey, David Caron and Jenna Illies.

And, of course, my wife, Laurie Reid.

Copyright © John McFetridge, 2014

Published by ECW Press

2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4E 1E2

416-694-3348, [email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or ­otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the ­author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

McFetridge, John, 1959-, author

Black rock : an Eddie Dougherty mystery / John McFetridge.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77090-489-7 (ePUB)

ISBN 978-1-55022-975-2 (PBK)

ISBN 978-1-77090-299-2 (PDF)

I. Title.

PS8575.F48B53 2014 C813'.6 C2013-907773-1

C2013-907774-X

Cover design: Cyanotype

Cover images: two armed soldiers, Dec 3, 1970 © Montreal Gazette/CP Images; Dead girl on floor © Stokkete/Shutterstock. Back cover image: Gangster in car © sint/Shutterstock

Type: Rachel Ironstone

The publication of
Black Rock
has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and by the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, which last year funded 1,681 individual artists and 1,125 organizations in 216 communities across Ontario for a total of $52.8 million. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities, and the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.