The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the United States and eleven chapters in Australia, with chapters also located in 24 other countries. It was formed in 1986, by Salvatore Cazzetta and his brother Giovanni Cazzetta. The Rock Machine competed with the Hells Angels for control of the street-level narcotics trade in Quebec. The conflict occurred between 1994 and 2002 and resulted in over 160 deaths and over 300 injured. An additional 100+ have been imprisoned.

Common nicknames for the organization include "R.M.", "Black & Platinum", "RMMC", and "1813". The official Rock Machine club motto is "A La Vie A La Mort", or "To the Life Until Death". The club also possesses a patch that reads "RMFFRM" which stands for "Rock Machine Forever, Forever Rock Machine", an extremely common tradition among outlaw motorcycle clubs.

The first incarnation

In approximately 1982, Salvatore Cazzetta was a member of the SS, a white supremacist motorcycle gang based in Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal. Fellow SS member Maurice Boucher became friends with Cazzetta and as leaders of the club, the pair became candidates to join the Hells Angels when that club expanded into Canada.

Réjean Lessard, the president of The Sorel chapter of the Hells Angels suspected Laval chapter was interfering with drug profits through personal use of products intended for sale. Initially Rock Machine members chose not to wear Hells Angels-style leather vests that could easily identify members, and instead wore rings displaying an eagle insignia (this would last until 1995, with the adoption of three-piece vests).

thumb|Gold ring given to members of the Rock Machine

thumb|The Rock Machine's first patch (1995)

The official Rock Machine club motto is "A La Vie A La Mort", or "To the Life Until Death". The club the possesses a patch that reads "RMFFRM" which stands for "Rock Machine Forever, Forever Rock Machine", an extremely common thing among outlaw motorcycle clubs. Marice Boucher, was released after finishing a forty-month sentence for armed sexual assault, joined the Hells Angels and was subsequently promoted within the club's ranks. The Hells Angels and Rock Machine co-existed peacefully for many years, a situation that, according to police officials, was due to Boucher's respect for his friend, Cazzetta and the latter's connections with the Quebec Mafia, the only organized crime group that the motorcycle gangs were unwilling to attack. A violent turf war ensued with the Hells Angels. The Rock Machine MC, its support clubs and the Pelletier Clan would provide manpower while the Dark Circle would provide the funding. The Dark Circle's leadership was ruled by a committee of five. The chairman was Michel Duclos.

Boucher organized "puppet clubs" to persuade Rock Machine-controlled bars and their resident drug dealers to surrender their illegal drug business.

There was very little coverage of this incident, but many in Montreal's underground knew that the Rock Machine was defending its territory, months before the death of Daoust. The members of the Alliance (Rock Machine MC, Pelletier Clan, the Dark Circle) as well as other individual narcotics dealers and street gangs met to discuss a united front against the Hells Angels after they gave the narcotics community of Quebec an ultimatum to have them as their mandatory supplier of all contraband goods and narcotics. This offer was refused and the Alliance was formed; due to the Hells Angels' "monopolistic attitude", they had decided to take the initiative and strike first.

A day after on 14 July 1994, The Rock Machine attempted to assassinate Normand Robitaille, a member of Hells Angels support club the Rockers MC and a future and prominent member of the Hells Angels. The attempt failed and Quebec police announced that they had arrested five members of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club for planning to bomb the Evil Ones MC clubhouse which was also aligned with the Hells Angels. Lavoie had previously been buying his wares from the Pelletier Clan associated with the Rock Machine, but had recently switched to the Hells Angels, and as a result the Pelletier Clan hired a hitman named Patrick Call to kill Lavoie.

On 18 October 1996. president of the Rock Machine Montreal chapter, Renaud Jomphe, was shot and killed. He was seated with fellow club members Christian Deschenes and Raymond Laureau in a booth at the rear of a Chinese restaurant known as Restaurant Kim Hoa, located on Wellington Street. A man entered the establishment, approached the table, fired several shots, and fled out the rear of the building. Jomphe and Deschenes were killed, while Laureau was wounded in the shoulder. One of the Paradis brothers, Peter Paradis, would succeed Jomphe as president of the Montreal chapter, taking over much of his business in the suburb of Verdun.

In November 1996, the Rock Machine planted a bomb in the old Hells Angels bunker in St. Nicholas and the residential neighborhood where it was located was shaken by the immense force of the blast. The bunker received significant damage.

On 28 March 1997, Rocker member Aimé Simard, stating he was acting under the orders of the Rocker president, a man known as Gregory "Pissaro" Wooley, murdered Rock Machine member Jean-Marc Caissy as he entered a Montreal arena to play hockey with his friends.

In early 1997, Giovanni Cazzetta was released from prison and returned to the Rock Machine. Claude Vézina willingly stepped down and Giovanni was given the position of national president in his brother's absence. He would lead the club through the conflict until May 1997. In May, Giovanni was subject to a police sting in which a man from Alberta attempted to purchase 15 kilos (30 lb) of cocaine (valued at $600,000; adjusting for inflation, the modern equivalent of $1,132,000). This individual turned out to be an informant for the crown. The mules Frank Bonneville and Donald Waite, who delivered the cocaine to the informant, were arrested and the narcotics were seized by police, Matticks, Bonneville and Waite pleaded guilty on 17 June 1997, and were sentenced to three, four, and two years respectively. Claude Vézina was momentarily reinstated as national president of the Rock Machine. Giovanni attempted to fight the charges brought against him, but he lost these appeals and was sentenced to five years prison time in April 1998. Maria Cazzetta, Giovanni's sister, and Suzanne Poudrier received one year conditional sentences.

On 21 May 1997, Claude Vézina and his sergeant-at-arms Dany "Le Gros" Légaré were both charged with the trafficking of narcotics. In order to conduct his arrest, police had to sneak by guard dogs that he had located on his property; they entered his home and arrested him in his bedroom. This was all the result of a sting operation set up by the Quebec police. A police informant had completed seven transactions of narcotics with the two members of Rock Machine, during a five-month period. The massive raid launched by authorities as part of Operation Carcajou resulted in the seizure of a laboratory where narcotics such as PCP and methamphetamine were produced. $1,500,000 worth of various other narcotics, over 325 kg (716.5 lbs) of dynamite along with detonators, seven pistols, two fully automatic machine guns, three semi-automatic carbines and a pistol suppressor. After the arrest of Vézina, Frédéric Faucher became the Rock Machine's new national president on 11 September 1997, Alain "Red Tomato" Brunette was promoted to president of the Quebec City chapter.

In mid-1997, an imprisoned Hells Angel, Denis Houle, was the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt when a Rock Machine member opened fire on him from beyond the prison fence. The resulting investigation first alerted the public to the existence of the Dark Circle, and it was reported that the Hells Angels would pay well for information identifying the members of the Dark Circle. Over the next two years, two members of the Dark Circle were murdered by the Hells Angels while a third escaped when the Hells Angels shot and killed the wrong Serge.

As the war turned into a battle of attrition the Hells Angels began to gain the upper hand as ever-increasing levels of support poured in from around Canada and internationally, but at the same time, the Great Nordic Biker War was taking place, and the Rock Machine was impressed with the way that the Scandinavian branches of the Bandidos held their own against the Scandinavian branches of the Hells Angels. In June 1997, the three leaders of the Rock Machine, Fred Faucher, Johnny Plescio, and Robert "Tout Tout" Léger, went to Stockholm to seek support from the Swedish branch of the Bandidos, but were expelled by the Swedish police, who declared that they did not want Canadian bikers in their country.

Faucher, had been the President of the Rock Machine Quebec City chapter prior to his promotion to National President, he had gained wide attention in underworld circles by blowing up the Hells Angels clubhouse in Quebec City in February 1997 and after the Rock Machine's leader Claude "Ti-Loup" Vézina was arrested for drug smuggling, he became the Rock Machine's new leader on 11 September 1997.

On 23 August 1998, a team of Rock Machine killers consisting of Frédéric Faucher, Gerald Gallant, and Marcel Demers rode by on their motorcycles and gunned down Paolo Cotroni in his driveway. Cotroni was killed partly to gain the favor of the Rizzutos and partly because he was a friend of Boucher.

On 8 September 1998, Johnny Plescio, a founding member of the Rock Machine, was at his Laval home watching television when his cable was severed. As he rose to see what was wrong with his television, 27 bullets went through Plescios's living room window, 16 of which struck him. At Plescio's funeral, a flower arrangement appeared bearing the word Bandidos, which was the first sign that the Bandidos Motorcycle Club of Texas was taking an interest in the Rock Machine.

On 28 October 1998. Police arrested 25 Rock Machine members and associates as they were eating dinner in the restaurant of a downtown hotel. The men were forced to lie facedown on the ground, they were searched, and then placed under arrest. Richard Lagacé and Denis Belleau were among those arrested. Many were freed the next day, after swearing to stay away from the others who were picked up by police.

Disaster struck the Dark Circle when one of their number, Salvatore Brunnettii, a restaurateur, bar owner and drug dealer, defected to the Hells Angels and gave them a list of the remaining members of the Dark Circle. This basically led to their collapse, leaving the Rock Machine and fragmented members of the "Alliance" to face the Hells Angels and their support clubs.

By 1999 the Rock Machine MC were seriously looking to align itself with longtime Hells Angels rivals the Bandidos Motorcycle Club as the other factions in the Alliance had been devastated, with the Rock Machine itself receiving substantial losses. In May 1999 the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club became a "hang-around" club for the Bandidos.

On 17 April 2000, Normand Hamel, one of the Nomads, was killed when attempting to flee from Rock Machine assassins in a Laval parking lot while he and his wife were taking his son to the doctor. He was the most senior member of the Hells Angels killed during the conflict. On 12 May 2000, the Angels tried to kill the two Rock Machine members, Tony Duguay and Denis Boucher, suspected of killing Hamel, leading to a wild car crash, during which Duguay took bullet wounds to his arms, right hand, and thigh. About forty police officers from the Carcajou squad raided the Rock Machine chapter in Beauport but found nothing worthwhile. In June 2000, the Rock Machine set up in Ontario began recruiting former members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.

In July 2000, Boucher's plans to set up an internet company were derailed when Robert "Bob" Savard, the loan shark who charged 52% interest on the loans he made to the desperate and needy, was gunned down at the Déjeuners Eggstra! restaurant in the north end of Montreal. Savard had been a Hells Angels associate for several years and was considered a right-hand man for Boucher. Savard's dinner companion, Normand Descoteaux, a hockey player turned loan shark, was also a target, but he survived by grabbing a waitress, Hélène Brunet, and using her as an involuntary human shield, ensuring that she took four bullets meant for him. Despite the fact that Brunet took bullets in her arms, legs and shin, Descoteaux was not charged. from 1980 to 2003, he was responsible for 28 murders and 13 attempted murders. His most active years were during the Quebec Biker War, where he killed two members of Hells Angels support clubs in 1997; a third survived an assassination attempt. In 1998 he eliminated five men, including Paul Cotroni Jr., son of deposed mob boss Frank Cotroni, making this his most prominent year as a hitman. He also at times worked for the Irish-Canadian West End Gang.

During this period both groups started to expand into Ontario, with both opening several clubhouses. The Rock Machine opened three chapters in Ontario (Toronto, Kingston and Niagara Falls). The Loners had aligned themselves with the Rock Machine, holding a party in Toronto in June 2000 that was attended by dozens of "machinists", as the Rock Machine are known in outlaw biker circles.

Second incarnation

In 2007, the former Winnipeg chapter of the Bandidos renamed themselves the Rock Machine. After the first president of the Winnipeg Bandido chapter, Michael Sandham, was arrested in June 2006, he was replaced as president by Ron Burling, who became the driving force behind the new Rock Machine.

Typical of the members of the Rock Machine was the president of the Winnipeg chapter, Ron Burling, described by the journalist Jerry Langton as a man with a shaven head, bushy goatee beard, his entire body covered in tattoos except for his face, and "physically huge". Burling's Facebook profile described him as "a member of the Rock Machine Nomads" and his occupation as "Edmonton Maximum Security Penitentiary General Population". He had been convicted of a brazen kidnapping and assault in Toronto. On 8 February 2005, as a member of the Bandidos, Burling smashed through the window of a car to yank out a drug dealer named Adam Amundsen. Burling then beat Amundsen for several hours with a baseball bat and his fists to encourage him to pay a $6,000 drug debt owned to the Bandidos. Burling was convicted of assault and kidnapping, and threatened both the judge and the crown attorneys with violence when his appeal was quashed. Burling tried to lift the bench to throw at somebody, but was tasered by the court marshals. Burling was one of the founding members of the new Rock Machine in 2008. Langton mocked the claims that the second Rock Machine had no connections with criminality, noting that Burling had joined the Rock Machine while he was in prison for assault..

On 19 September 2008, two Australian men with criminal records, Michael Xanthoudakis and Eneliko Sabine, were arrested at Winnipeg airport, and it was revealed that the duo had gone to Winnipeg to join the Rock Machine. On 1 October 2008, the Rock Machine officially announced its existence to the media. The spokesman for the Rock Machine claimed it had 75 members, but none in Quebec "out of respect for the Hells Angels". The Quebec biker war had made the name Rock Machine well known and a chapter had founded in Australia. The claims of the Rock Machine to have a chapter in Daytona Beach, Florida seems to have no foundation in reality. The party that was supposed to announce the new Rock Machine was attended by only three people. The headquarters of the new Rock Machine is Winnipeg, not Montreal. On 3 June 2009, Jean Paul Beaumont, the sergeant-at-arms of the Winnipeg chapter was arrested for having two assault rifles in his house. On 1 December 2009, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched Project Divide and arrested 34 people who were all Hells Angels or Zig Zag Crew members. The arrests allowed the Rock Machine to fill the vacuum and the a puppet gang, the Vendettas MC, was founded in early 2010. The brutal way that the Winnipeg Hells Angels chapter operated had a number of enemies who all joined the Winnipeg chapter of the Rock Machine such as Gregg Hannibal and Billy Bowden, a former Hells Angel.

In March 2010, the Winnipeg police bugged a warehouse on Sargent Avenue which turned to be used by the Rock Machine to sell cocaine. Ronald King of the Rock Machine was arrested and found to be carrying $463, 000 in cash on him. In September 2010, a major division in the Rock Machine emerged about whatever the group should try to open a chapter in Montreal. Jamie "J.C." Korne, the vice president of the Winnipeg chapter was against opening a chapter in Montreal under the grounds that it was too dangerous, which led to his expulsion on 2 September 2010. Sean "Dog" Brown, the national president of the Rock Machine was deposed in November 2010 over the question of the Montreal chapter and was replaced by Joseph "Critical J" Strachan, who at the age of 40 still lived at home with his parents. On 15 December 2010, Andrew Block, a Rock Machine biker, was murdered in Edmonton.

On 22 March 2011, a Rock Machine biker, Ashley Sandison, contracted his estranged wife despite a restraining order forbidding him from contacting her, which led a shoot-out with the police who had arrived at the house of Mrs. Sandison. On 29 June 2011, the home of Strachan's parents in Winnipeg were destroyed in a case of arson after Molotov cocktail was tossed into the house. On 10 July 2011, a business associated with the Hells Angels and the home of a Redlined Support Crew (Hells Angels puppet gang) were burned down. On 12 July 2011, the house of a Redlined Support Crew member was shot up and a 14-year-old boy was wounded. On 9 August 2011, the police arrested two members of the Vendettas, Guy Stevenson and Joseph Choken, for attempting to kill a Hells Angel associate. On 11 August 2011, the home of another Redlined Support Crew member was burned down in a case of arson. On 12 August 2011, the tattoo shop owned by Wayne Nuytten, a Hells Angels associate was burned down in another case of arson. Two Rock Machine members, Taylor Morrision and Shaine Stodgell, were convicted of the arson attacks.

Chevy Ballentyne, a Winnipeg drug dealer who once worked for the Manitoba Warriors and had been convicted of the murder of Guy Poliout, was arrested for a vicious stabbing spree on 23 December 2009. Once Ballentyne was convicted of assault on 17 August 2011, it was revealed that he was a Rock Machine member. On 2 February 2012, the police launched Operation Deplete, which to the seizure of 6, 912 grams (2 lb) of cocaine, 465 grams (1 lb) of crack cocaine, 272 grams (10 oz) of methamphetamine, 9, 811 Ecstasy pills and 501 tablets of oxycodone. Arrested were two Rock Machine members, Billy Bowden and Joshua Lyons. On 14 October 2012, Beaumont was murdered in prison. On 30 January 2013, the Rock Machine national president Strachan was arrested at his parents house on charges of drug trafficking. Also arrested were Rock Machine "full patch" members Todd Murray, John Curwin, and Cameron Hemminger along with the "prospects' Donny Syraxa, Danny Tran, Patrcik La, Chris Camara, Tegveer Sinh Gill an Richard Lund. The police seized 16 pounds of cocaine along with six guns, two pipe bombs and ammunition. In a plea bargain with the Crown on 13 June 2013, Strahan made guilty pleas to the charges of drug trafficking and gangsterism.

Allies

  • Outlaws Motorcycle Club - The Outlaws motorcycle club had initially given minor support to the Rock Machine during the Quebec Biker War, The Outlaws were also fighting a conflict with the Hell's Angels during this period. An official alliance would be formed between the resurrected Rock Machine and the Outlaws in Manitoba in 2011.
  • Gremium Motorcycle Club - During the club's expansion into Europe, it made an alliance with Gremium MC, one of the largest motorcycle clubs in Germany.
  • Loners Motorcycle Club - A fellow Canadian-based international motorcycle club, an alliance between the two was established in the 2010s.
  • Vendettas Motorcycle Club - A RMMC created support club that was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Serves as an international support club for the Rock Machine with chapters in Canada, Australia and Russia.
  • Manitoba Warriors - A Native-Canadian gang based in the Canada's prairies, an alliance was formed between the two groups during Rock Machine's expansion into Western Canada in 2008.
  • Bandidos (formerly, 1999–2006) - The Rock Machine became a chapter of the Bandidos in mid-1999. After 18 months, they became an official probationary club. All members of the Rock Machine were patched into the Bandidos on 6 January 2001. They would remain as a single entity until the events of the Shedden Massacre and the subsequent closure of the Bandidos MC Canada. The Rock Machine was reestablished by former Bandidos, and disgruntled members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club.

Rivals

  • Hells Angels (1986–2002) - The Hells Angels' actions during the Lennoxville massacre directly led to the creation of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club itself. Despite this, the two clubs existed in relative harmony until the 1994 arrest of Rock Machine President, Salvatore Cazzetta. From 1994 to 2002, the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels engaged in the deadliest motorcycle conflict in history. This cemented their rivalry. There have been several sporadic incidents since then.
  • Rebels Motorcycle Club - The rivalry between the Rock Machine and the Rebels Motorcycle Club started when the Canadian club expanded into Australia. This saw the beginning of the Rock Machine-Rebels conflict.
  • Red Devils Motorcycle Club - the Red Devils are the official support club of the Hells Angels, they have had several incidents with the Rock Machine.
  • Bandidos Motorcycle Club (2011–present) - Tensions between the Bandidos and Rock Machine started in the mid-2000s, with the Shedden Massacre and the dissolution of the Bandidos Canada driving a wedge between the reemerging Rock Machine and their former ally. The rivalry escalated into conflict in 2011, when the two clubs clashed for control of the German city of Ulm. There has since been several conflicts fought between the two groups in multiple countries.
  • WolfSSChanze Faction - a splinter faction of the Rock Machine led by Suat Erköse. The faction changed their emblem in 2022.

Meeting with the Pagans

For decades the Pagans Motorcycle Club had looked north to Canada for possibility of expansion. It also found the idea of supporting Hells Angels rivals beneficial. The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club, a Canadian-based international motorcycle club with chapters all over the world, has fought several conflicts with the Hells Angels including the Quebec Biker War, the deadliest motorcycle conflict in history. The Pagans deeply respected these feats and sought to establish a relationship with the Rock Machine. In 2011, dozens of the Pagans traveled to the Canadian province of New Brunswick to meet with the several chapters of the Rock Machine and other locals. At the time New Brunswick was a Canadian province that had little outlaw motorcycle influence. The meeting was to consolidate a friendship and probe the province for expansion. However, in 2018, Pagans member, Andrew "Chef" Glick revealed that the group had abandoned its plans at expansion North, they cited Canada's anti-biker laws but also a large part of the reason was that Canadian Hells Angels are considered particularly violent members of the outlaw biker – or "one percenter" – community, Glick said in an interview.

<blockquote>"In Canada and Australia, that's where the heaviest (toughest) one per centers are," Glick said. "Being a one per center in Canada, I would say is a little more dangerous than being a one per center in the U.S." New Jersey bikers are tough, but "not near as violent as what I've seen and read (about) in Montreal and Toronto."</blockquote>

Membership

Today the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club's membership is open to anyone but not to everyone.

Earning membership and rules

Like most other Outlaw motorcycle clubs, members must own and operate a North American or British-made motorcycle with an engine of at least 1000cc and have sufficient riding skills not to be a danger to themselves or others.

In order to become a Rock Machine prospect the rules are strict. All candidates undergo an extensive background check, must have the right set of personal qualities & prove their loyalty to the club.

Past members

Former members of the club included Salvatore Cazzetta, Giovanni Cazzetta, Claude Vézina, Paul Porter, Andrew Sauvageau, Marcel Demers, Richard "Bam-Bam" Lagacé, Johnny Plescio, Tony Plescio, Renaud Jomphe (the former president of the Montreal chapter), Martin Bourget, Serge Pinel, Frédéric Faucher, Alain Brunette (who would become the first national president of the Canadian Bandidos in 2001), Jean Paul Beaumont, and Peter Paradis (who became its first member to turn crown's evidence).

The Rock Machine was merged with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club on 6 January 2001, in a patch-over ceremony located at the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter clubhouse. It was overseen by high-ranking Bandidos member Edward Winterhalder.

Criminal allegations and incidents

Since its rebirth, the Rock Machine maintains that it is a group of motorcycle enthusiasts and claim that it now dismisses members who are involved in known crimes or criminal activity. Any members that do commit crimes, do so without the club's permission. The scripted drama will depict events related to the Quebec Biker War, debuted in January 2025. Directed by Julie Perreault and written by Luc Dionne, the series depicts events that led to the arrest and conviction of Boucher during the Quebec Biker War.

Bibliography

  • CBC News In Depth: Biker Gangs in CanadaDead Link
  • CBC News In Depth: Canada's Anti-gang LawDead Link
  • The Fifth Estate: The Road to Hell: The Rise of the Hells Angels in QuebecDead Link
  • York University's Nathanson Center for the Study of Organized Crime and CorruptionDead Link