On December 5, 1994 around 7:10 p.m., a green 1994 Plymouth Voyageur van traveling towards the Jacques-Cartier Bridge on Taschereau Boulevard, near boul. Sainte-Foy (Côteau Rouge) in Longueuil explodes. On board, Bruno Bandiera, a 28-year-old man.
Under the impact of the explosion of the homemade bomb made up of several sticks of dynamite, the debris flew more than 100 meters away. Seriously injured, Bruno Bandiera, ejected about ten meters from the vehicle, was transported to Charles-Lemoyne hospital where he died shortly after.
Bandiera did not have any identification on him. His identity was revealed following fingerprinting.
The investigation quickly showed that it was a homicide. However, the precise circumstances of the crime and the perpetrators of this attack are unknown – and remain so 30 years after the events.
A few days later, La Presse claimed that Bandiera “would have been a recruit of the Montreal Rockers biker gang, a subsidiary of the fearsome Hells Angels”*.
A few days after the tragedy, the daily La Presse affirmed that Bandiera “would have been a recruit of the Montreal Rockers biker gang, a subsidiary of the formidable Hells Angels”. (La Presse, December 7, 1994)
In December 1995, La Presse* published a list of victims of the biker war in which it was stated that Bandiera, of Rock Machine, was “shredded when a bomb he intended for an unidentified victim exploded in his car, Taschereau Boulevard, in Longueuil.
In 2009, author Stephen Schneider* published a book on organized crime in which he took up this information and claimed that Bandiera was a member of the Rock Machine and that he was killed by a bomb he was carrying.
So, was Bandiera killed by a bomb intended for him or by a bomb he intended for someone else? Remember that the explosion of the vehicle occurred half a kilometer from the Hells Angels’ hideout in Longueuil.
Regardless, the Bandiera case is one of several unresolved cases in Quebec, often linked to the criminal violence of the 1990s, a period marked by conflicts between biker gangs such as the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine .
Any information that could help solve this crime can be communicated to the Criminal Information Center of the Sûreté du Québec, at 1 800 659-4264.
Sources :
- CANTINPhilippe, “Biker war: at least two attacks per month for a year”, La Presse, December 14, 1995, p. A4.
- LAROCHEMarcel, “A settling of scores between bikers?”, La Presse, December 7, 1994, p. A5.
- SCHNEIDERStephen, Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. John Wiley & Sons. 2009.
