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Revision as of 01:13, 3 August 2021

Mario Parente
Born
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Other namesMike
OccupationOutlaw biker
Years active1967-2009
Known forNational president of Outlaws Canada

Mario Parente (born 1949) is a Canadian outlaw biker and criminal, mostly noted for serving as the Canadian national president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club between 2000-2009.

Satan's Choice

Parente was born in Hamilton into a working class family of Italian immigrants.[1] As a teenager, he joined the Hamilton chapter of Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club in 1967.[2] Despite being Italian-Canadian, Parente chose as his biker name to be "The Wop" in an attempt to turn a pejorative term into an affirmative one.[2] The majority of the people in Ontario in 1967 were Protestants of British descent, and Parente stood out in the Hamilton chapter on the account of his Italian heritage, which he sought to turn to his advantage.[2] Parente dislikes the name Mario, which he considers to be effeminate, and prefers to be called Mike.[2]

By 1969, Parente was widely viewed as the most toughest member of the Hamilton chapter.[3] The policeman Carl MacLeod stated: "Parente would eventually achieve the exalted reputation among bikers of having a special patch which meant he had either been charged for murder or had a murder conviction to his perverted credit".[3] In 1969, MacLeod raided the clubhouse of the Hamilton chapter, becoming involved in a tense confrontation with Parente and 8 other bikers that only ended when police back-up arrived.[4] By the 1970s, Parente had risen up to be the chapter president.[5]

For a time, he was friendly with his future enemy Walter Stadnick, but the two fell out when Parente vetoed Stadnick's attempt to join Satan's Choice under the grounds he was too short.[5] In 1976, the Satan's Choice national president Bernie Guindon was imprisoned for drug charges, leading Garnet "Mother" McEwen to become the new national president. On 1 July 1977, McEwen together with a number of Satan's Choice chapters "patched over" to join the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.[6] Parente and the Hamilton chapter chose to join the Outlaws.[7] Parente has frequently worked as a construction worker and in the steel industry.[5]

Outlaws

In July 1983, the Hells Angels national president Yves Buteau established the first Angel chapters outside of Quebec when he persuaded the 3-chapter strong Satan's Angels biker gang, based in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and on Vancouver island, to "patch over" to join the Hells Angels.[8] Two Hells Angels from Montreal, Michel "Jinx" Genest and Jean-Marc Nadeau, went via bus to Vancouver to attend the planned ceremony.[8] On route through northern Ontario, Parente and a group of Outlaws by chance happened to ride by the bus and noticed one of the bus passengers was wearing Hells Angels' colors.[8] Enraged, Parente and the other Outlaws proceeded to shoot up the bus when it stopped at the Mr. Mugs coffee and doughnut shop in Wawa in an attempt to kill the two Hells Angels.[9] Through no one was killed, the Wawa incident showed strongly Parente felt about Hells Angels moving into Ontario.[9] At his trial for the Wawa incident, Parente was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison.[10] Parente was released early from prison on account of good behavior.

After his release from prison, Parente was soon arrested again. Parente had a long-standing feud with the three Lewis brothers, whom he called "salt and pepper" people, whom he often quarreled with.[11] Parente was involved in a bar fight with a "local tough guy" named Jimmy Lewis in a Hamilton tavern named Bannister's and after the fight had been broken up, returned home to pick up his shotgun, went back to the bar and shot Lewis dead.[12] Parente insists that he shot Lewis in self-defense.[13] At his trial in 1988, Parente was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison.[14] In 1992, Parente's girlfriend, Linda Demaria, was the target of an assassination attempt; the police believe that the bullets fired at her might have been meant for him.[15] In 1992, Parente was accused of laundering money for the Mafia in connection with an Italian-born businessman, Vincenzo "Jimmy" DeMaria, but Parente and DeMaria were able to prove a legitimate source for the money.[16]

On 29 April 1996, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) launched Project Charlie, a crackdown on the Outlaws and a warrant was issued for Parente's arrest.[17] Parente was arrested at the clubhouse of the St. Catherine's chapter of the Outlaws.[17] He was charged with conspiracy to sell cocaine and uttering death threats.[17] As part of Project Charlie, 9 other members of the St. Catherine's chapter were charged with various counts relating to narcotics, prostitution, and attempted murder.[14] On 10 July 1996, Parente was attacked in the Hamilton-Wentworth Jail by an inmate just arrived from Montreal who attacked him with a crude home-made knife fashioned out of a tooth blush.[17] Parente was able to fight off his attacker, suffering superficial injuries to his eyes and throat.[17] Following the outlaw biker code, Parente refused to testify against his attacker.[17] The Crown offered to drop the charges relating to Project Charlie in exchange for him turning Crown's evidence, an offer he rejected.[18] In 1997, the Project Charlie charges against Parente were dropped when the Crown decided there was little prospect of a conviction.[18] Parente believes that he was only charged out of the hope he might turn Crown's evidence.[18]

In 1997, the hitman Kenneth Murdock was by hired by the Musitano brothers to kill four men, one of whom was Parente.[19] As far as it can be established, Murdock never made an attempt against Parente.[19] Parente rose up to become the national president of the Outlaws. An Outlaw turned police informer known to the media as BK owning to a court order described him: "Mario was a paranoid guy. Never used the phone. Never wrote anything down. Multimillionaire Mario was for Mario. Sold drugs by the kilo".[20]

Project Retire

On 25 September 2002, the OPP launched Project Retire, an operation intended to end the Outlaws once and for all in Ontario.[21] As part of the Project Retire raids, the police seized five stolen motorcycles, one stolen truck, 44 guns, drugs worth about $1.6 million dollars and 5 Outlaw clubhouses.[14] All 58 Outlaws in Ontario were arrested.[21] Parente was held in jail, but was released on $400, 000 bail in 2004.[22] By October 2008, 16 of the Outlaws arrested had pleaded guilty to being members of a criminal organization with almost all the others also made plea bargains in exchange for reduced sentences.[21] Parente together with Luis Ferreira were the only Outlaws who refused to make plea bargains and chose to take their chances with a jury.[21] Parente felt much disgust with the willingness of his fellow Outlaws to make plea bargains, feeling that the other members were being very selfish in testifying for the Crown in order to reduce their sentences.[21]

According to the informer BK, the American leadership of the Outlaws disliked Parente as BK stated: "He wanted money from the U.S., but they didn't like him down there. He couldn't tell the truth. They'd ask him how many members there were in Canada and he'd say 200 when we had maybe 60".[20] BK stated the general feeling was that "Mario was for Mario".[20] On 13 March 2009, Alex Smith, the Crown Attorney prosecuting Parente's case dropped all 17 weapons and drug charges against him, saying there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction if the case should go to trial.[23] Smith announced that the key informer was unwilling to testify, making a conviction impossible.[23] Through Parente and Ferreira had the charges against them dropped in 2009, Project Retire crippled the Outlaws in Ontario as the club was only a shadow of its former self with almost all of its members being convicted.[14]

In an interview published with Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of the Toronto Star published on 30 March 2009, Parente expressed much fury at the Crown, saying: "If there was so much evidence, why didn't the Crown come forward with it?".[23] About his lifestyle, Parente stated: ""I have to say I'm not a saint. I've made mistakes...I'm not claiming that I'm goody two-shoes."[23] Parente also expressed his disgust with his fellow Outlaws, saying: "They (other Outlaws) were out partying and didn't donate a dime to help out. I don't get a nickel of support from anybody to fight something that implicates everybody...With brothers like that, who needs enemies?"[23] In the same interview he announced his resignation as Outlaws national president, saying he was angry at the lack of support from the other Outlaws, whom he had no respect for.[23] Parente concluded the interiview by saying he was now intending to work as a construction contactor.[23]

In 2009, Parente approached the author Jerry Langton to write his biography.[24] Langton stated in 2010 about the writing process: "Parente approached me originally to write his life story as he saw it, but I couldn’t do that. I had to investigate things for myself. He got angry at me a couple of times, because he came into the process with certain things in mind that he wanted to get accomplished. He wanted me to tell the story as he saw it, and when I didn’t agree with that, he got angry at me, but was nothing short of gentlemanly and was very polite. I would have liked to have worked with him, but I couldn’t do what he wanted me to do."[24] In 2019, Parente's long-standing civil suit to secure the Outlaw assets seized by the Crown in 2002 finally ended with the Crown handing over assets worth $238.97 as the rest went to cover unpaid property taxes on the Outlaw clubhouses.[25]

Notes

  1. ^ Langton 2010, p. 66.
  2. ^ a b c d Langton 2010, p. 67.
  3. ^ a b Knuckle 2007, p. 61.
  4. ^ Knuckle 2007, p. 61-62.
  5. ^ a b c Langton 2010, p. 2.
  6. ^ Langton 2010, p. 46-47.
  7. ^ Langton 2010, p. 71.
  8. ^ a b c Langton 2006, p. 70-71.
  9. ^ a b Langton 2006, p. 71.
  10. ^ Langton 2010, p. 80.
  11. ^ Langton 2010, p. 78.
  12. ^ Langton 2006, p. 79.
  13. ^ Langton 2010, p. 79.
  14. ^ a b c d Schneider 2009, p. 428.
  15. ^ Langton 2010, p. 111-112.
  16. ^ Humphreys, Adrian (1 May 2018). "When cops can't convict a 'top Mafia boss,' they turn to desperate measures". The National Post. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Langton 2010, p. 112.
  18. ^ a b c Langton 2010, p. 154.
  19. ^ a b Langton 2010, p. 19.
  20. ^ a b c Caine 2012, p. 148.
  21. ^ a b c d e Langton 2010, p. 158.
  22. ^ Sims, Jane (13 March 2009). "Charges Withdrawn in 6 and a half year Outlaw trial". St. Catherine's Standard. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  23. ^ a b c d e f g Edwards, Peter (30 March 2009). "Outlaws president resigns in disgust". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  24. ^ a b Yates, Carolyn (11 October 2010). "Hamilton, city of vice". The McGill Tribunal. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  25. ^ Sims, Jane (8 February 2019). "Local Outlaws end 10-year fight to recover biker assets from Crown — $238.97". London Free Press. Retrieved 2 August 2021.

References

  • Caine, Alex (2012). Charlie and the Angels The Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Sixty Years War. Toronto: RandomHouse. ISBN 9780307358967.
  • Knuckle, Robert (2007). A Master of Deception: Working Undercover for the RCMP. Renfrew: General Store Publishing House. ISBN 978-1897113660.
  • Langton, Jerry (2006). Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick and the Canadian Hells Angels. Toronto: Harper Collins. ISBN 144342725X.
  • Langton, Jerry (2010). Showdown: How the Outlaws, Hells Angels and Cops Fought for Control of the Streets. Toronto: John Wiley. ISBN 978-0470678787.
  • Schneider, Stephen (2009). Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0470835001.
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