Template:Did you know nominations/Donald Lavoie

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Jolly Ω Janner 07:11, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Donald Lavoie

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... that Donald Lavoie is a self-proclaimed former hit man who confessed to performing at least 15 murders?

Reviewed: Gulf Hamstery
Comment: Published from Draft to Main namespace on 13 January 2016

Created by Taylorcarson (talk). Nominated by Northamerica1000 (talk) at 05:32, 13 January 2016 (UTC).

Dull hook. Self-proclaimed former hit man confessed to killing people? What's next? Self-proclaimed former hockey player confesses to scoring 15 goals during NHL career? (Snark off: It's what they do). Daniel Case (talk) 19:08, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

@Daniel Case: Any ideas for alt hooks, or are you just going to criticize the present one? The hook's intrigue is based upon the amount of crimes the subject admitted to perpetrating, relative to the serious nature of the crimes. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 19:50, 4 February 2016 (UTC)
Murder is much more serious compared to goals scored in a game, eh? Your comparison is apples and oranges, imho. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 19:56, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Fifteen isn't particularly unusual for organized-crime figures (well, maybe in Canada, I don't know ... but Sammy Gravano copped to over 20 (I think) as part of his plea deal). Perhaps there is something in the sources expressing amazement at this? Daniel Case (talk) 19:54, 4 February 2016 (UTC)
OK, here's one:
ALT1: ... that Donald Lavoie, a hit man for Montreal's Dubois Gang, escaped his intended execution at their hands by sliding down a laundry chute?
Also, do we at least know what year Lavoie was born? Most of our other biographical articles include that information; we should have it in this one. Daniel Case (talk) 19:59, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

I don't recall the subject's DOB being mentioned in sources, and DOB in articles is not required or mandatory, nor is it for DYK qualification. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 20:02, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

No, but otherwise when I read this I'm sort of mystified about when this all took place. You did the research ... are you sure you can't find a source that at least says what year he was born? Daniel Case (talk) 00:24, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

A problem with ALT1 is that the source states that the subject was concerned about people shooting him, but not executing him. I have edited the article to reflect this (diff). Also, the term "organized crime" is not used or sourced in the article, which would be necessary to use ALT1. Additionally, I prefer for the term hit man to be linked. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 20:05, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Well, why would his partners in crime want to shoot him ... for target practice? Just because the article doesn't say this literally doesn't mean we don't have to use it.

Same deal with organized crime—it sounds like that's what the Dubois Gang was (Of course it would be nice if we had an article on them that this one linked to as well. It sounds like they're notable as well). Daniel Case (talk) 00:24, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

And on that front, see this source: "Back in 1975 and 1976, Mr. Dubois and his family were front-page news during the hearings of the Quebec Police Commission’s inquiry into organized crime." Sounds like we can use it.

Also, I don't see why we would need to link "hit man", as most people fluent in English know what it means. Daniel Case (talk) 00:27, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

OK, as for his age: This source quotes from contemporary news coverage suggesting he was 39 when he took the witness stand in October 1981. That suggests to me we can approximate his year of birth at 1942. Daniel Case (talk) 00:42, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

@Daniel Case: Per WP:WIADYK #3, if you want ALT1 to be considered, its content needs to be in the article with an inline citation at the end of the sentence that states the information. At this time there's still no mention of organized crime in the article. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 02:14, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Easier at this point to change the hook than further argue this point, so

Done. Daniel Case (talk) 03:50, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Full review needed now that hook issues have been settled. BlueMoonset (talk) 04:51, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
- The page is new enough, long enough (2344 characters), written neutrally. The hooks are interesting and have inline citations. No close paraphrasing or copyvios detected. No image on page, so permission for images is not an issue. SojoQ (talk) 20:53, 11 February 2016 (UTC)