The Notorious Bacon Brothers (25 page)

It doesn't happen very often, but the Crown actually appealed the Bacon-Cheng-Burton acquittal. And, in an even rarer occurrence, a team of judges found that one of their peers had made a mistake. The B.C. Court of Appeal tribunal agreed unanimously. Gardner had erred in determining that the arrests and subsequent searches were illegal or unwarranted. They ordered a new trial.

Jonathan Bacon was not behind bars, but he was in big trouble. And the Teflon sheen that he had sported for so many years had fallen away. Though they were still far from eliminated, the myth of the Bacon Brothers' invincibility had been extinguished.

Chapter 11

The Wolf Pack: 2010–2011

While two of the Bacon Brothers were behind bars and the other was awaiting trial—and well aware he was under close police surveillance—the rest of the drug scene in British Columbia continued without them, just as it had without Roueche and Tilli-Choli. But the vacancies at the top were being filled by lesser talents.

One person who was involved in the drug trade hardly fit the stereotypical description of a drug user or trafficker. Kelowna's Brittney Irving was a pretty, dark-haired 24-year-old. Although she usually sported a tan, you could always see her trademark freckles on her nose and cheeks. Several people I spoke with recalled her as a delightful personality, full of life with a great sense of humor.

She was also a healthcare professional. Irving served as a care aide, a registered assistant who aids nurses and practitioners in hospitals and other facilities. She was even known to show up at work on her days off, just because she so enjoyed the company of her patients and coworkers. And she saw what drugs could do to people.

But she had a problem. Irving had become addicted to Oxycontin, a highly addictive oral painkiller with clinical similarities to heroin (in fact, it's commonly known as “hillbilly heroin” in the United States). And she didn't fit that description, either. Typically, Canadian Oxycontin users are over 30 and live in the Atlantic provinces or rural Ontario. Few work in the healthcare industry, in which knowledge of what Oxycontin can do is widespread.

But she was an Oxycontin user and paid for her addiction the way many people in B.C. do—by selling weed. In fact, in March 2009, a police raid at a grow op at a luxurious beach house at 387 Brealoch Road uncovered 1,500 pot plants. Two men and one woman in the house were arrested. Irving also lived in the house but was not present when the raid went down and was not charged. Without anywhere else to live, she checked into a motel. Sources have said that the grow op was part of a massive Hells Angels–operated network. She was also known as a heavy drinker and had been known to associate with Hells Angels, Independent Soldiers and members of the King Pin Crew.

On April 6, 2010, she left the Kelowna Days Inn at about one in the afternoon. She told a family member that she was going to a meeting in the Rutland area but didn't give any details. It was the last time any of her family saw her alive.

She did, however, say a lot more to her ex-boyfriend, Shaun O'Neil, who was still a close friend. “She said, ‘I'm going to meet someone that is a real bad person, and I'm scared of doing what I'm going to do. But this is the last time; don't convince me not to. I love you and pray for me,'” he said, repeating the words that still haunt him. “That was the last I ever heard from her. For the rest of my life, I'll regret not convincing her not to go.”

She was going to trade some weed for Oxycontin. She was reported to have taken 80 pounds of weed and $200,000 with her.

Her empty, locked blue 2001 Ford Explorer was found at seven the following evening in a deeply wooded area by West Kelowna RCMP acting on an anonymous tip. It was parked on a gravel shoulder of Philpott Road where it meets Highway 33. There were no signs of struggle.

Her brother, Neal, claimed that Brittney told him she was going on one last run before she committed herself to rehab.

The man she was going to meet was Joelon “Joey” Verma, an immigrant from Fiji. He did not have a criminal record, but was, as the saying goes, “known to police.” Well known.

Verma was known to be good friends with Independent Soldier Donnie “Blaze” McWhirter, who had recently been arrested for sexual assault. Later, Verma would admit to being an Independent Soldier himself. Verma's girlfriend at the time was a pharmacy technician, making access to Oxycontin at least feasible.

Almost two months later, on May 25, 2010, Irving's remains were found not far from where her car was discovered. The RCMP did not release a cause of death, but they did say that the missing person investigation was now a homicide investigation.

Verma was later arrested and charged with both murder and robbery.

The details of the allegations against Verma have yet to come out at his trial, but social media have been alive with rumors and accusations. Some believe that Irving was killed because she was a rat whose information led to the beach house grow op being taken down. But that's a very unlikely scenario. If Irving was participating in the grow op, telling the cops would not be the way to pay for her Oxycontin addiction.

Others maintain that she owed dealers a huge debt and was murdered for it. There is some plausibility to that. Hells Angels and their associates frequently execute recalcitrant debtors, sometimes over relatively minor amounts of cash. Although it's true that dead people can't pay their debts, murders can make an effective deterrent for others. But money didn't seem to be Irving's problem. She revealed little anxiety about her meeting, aside from the fact that she knew Verma was “a bad man,” and did not appear to be having money problems before her disappearance.

More likely is the theory that she needed her Oxycontin and took the weed and cash she had on hand to pay for it. But Verma, like so many before him, appears to have thought that he could have the weed and cash and keep the Oxycontin. The only thing that stood in his way was an unarmed 125-pound woman.

If Irving's murder was met with shock, and even outrage, the next major drug-related killing was not. Juel Stanton, a full-patch member of the East Vancouver Hells Angels, had an arrest record dating back to 1988 but first showed up on the radar in October 2001, when it was alleged in court that he, his brother Norman and Damon Bartolomeo robbed a grow op and held its owner, Alexander Goldman, captive, beat him up and stole his 1987 Toyota Camry in front of his friend, Nunzio Mela. Damon Bartolomeo was the older brother of Ryan Bartolomeo, who was one of the Surrey Six victims.

Although he owned a construction company named Juel Forming, it was well-known within the community that Stanton was a debt collector for the Hells Angels and that he was extremely violent and unpredictable. Port Moody Police Department Inspector Andy Richards, a biker expert, said that he was actually surprised the Hells Angels allowed such a “loose cannon” into their membership. Indeed, it is a rare man whose violent tendencies make the Hells Angels and biker cops think twice.

Stanton's trial took forever, with bail hearings, appeals and so forth. It was revealed in other trials that the bar at the Hells Angels' East Vancouver clubhouse sported an old pickle jar that was used to collect funds for Stanton's defense.

He wouldn't get it.

In a very rare occurrence, Stanton was kicked out of the club in May 2010. For a full-patch to be expelled over behavioral issues, it requires a unanimous vote by every other full-patch member of the chapter. “He was certainly very, very volatile and very high-maintenance from a club perspective,” said Richards. “He drew a lot of unwanted police attention and a lot of unwanted public attention to the Hells Angels.” Vancouver police had previously issued a public warning about Stanton, who liked to flash his Hells Angels tattoos at people he hoped to intimidate, and had reportedly warned the Hells Angels themselves that they would crack down on them if Stanton was not reined in.

On the morning of August 12, 2010, at 6:15 a.m., Vancouver police received 9-1-1 calls reporting a shooting at 202 West 11th, a luxurious red-brick house just a few blocks away from City Hall. It was owned by Stanton and his wife, Akrivoula. Neighbors recalled the red-and-white Hells Angels flag that used to fly there and the video cameras that watched the property. First responders arrived to find the deceased body of Stanton, filled with bullet holes. He was a few hours away from a court appearance in which he was to have given his side of the grow-op rip story.

It's unlikely that Stanton's murder will ever be solved. Many think it was house-cleaning by the Hells Angels, who did not want Stanton to either talk or get in their way. “If it was an in-house thing with the club, it is done, it is over,” said Richards. “I don't think anybody is going to retaliate against the club. I don't see much coming from this.”

He was right, there wasn't a gang war on anymore. Although both the UN and Red Scorpions continued to exist and do business, they no longer had the manpower, leadership or will to fight it out on the streets. Instead, the Hells Angels and their allies were hard-pressed to keep up with demand. After all the arrests, the manpower needs weighed on the various subgroups like the Independent Soldiers, the Renegades, the King Pin Crew and the Game Tight Soldiers. A lower quality of functionary was recruited, and one of the results was more violence.

For years by this point, Vancouver had been haunted by the missing women of the Downtown Eastside. Over the years, at least 60 women—mostly aboriginal, drug-addicted and involved in the sex trade—had gone missing. The investigation moved at a snail's pace, and what appeared to be police indifference and incompetence enraged many in the area.

Finally, the evidence pointed to something many in the community already knew. The women were dead. And they were killed by Robert “Willie” Pickton. Lucky enough to have inherited a large pig farm in the booming Lower Mainland town of Port Coquitlam, Pickton became a multimillionaire by selling off lots of his farm to residential and commercial developers.

He celebrated his wealth by throwing massive parties on his farm, which now featured a nightclub called Piggy's Palace. The parties, which had as many as 1,700 guests at a time, often featured local political, media and sports personalities and, always, Hells Angels and their buddies.

For entertainment, Pickton would drive around the Downtown Eastside, asking any likely-looking woman if she wanted to go to a party. Dozens, if not hundreds, did. Many did not make it back.

Pickton had been on police radar, mainly for violating fire codes and for not filing the appropriate paperwork for Piggy's Palace. In March 1997, he was arrested for the attempted murder of a guest at one of his parties. She claimed he handcuffed her and stabbed her several times before she managed to disarm him, stab him with his own knife and flee. She did indeed have several stab wounds and, on the night in question, Pickton was treated for a single stab wound, as well. For reasons unknown, police dropped the investigation.

A friend and employee of Pickton's put two and two together after finding purses and other belongings of some of the missing women. He went to the police, but after three searches of the property with no results, they again stopped investigating. And, despite a 1999 tip that Pickton had a freezer full of human flesh on his property, they did not investigate.

In February 2002, police investigating an illegal firearms report on Pickton's property unearthed a prescription inhaler owned by one of the missing women. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder later that month.

His jury trial, which began in 2006, was shrouded in secrecy because of publication bans. Without any real evidence released to the public, rumors and half-truths were everywhere. Some claimed he had killed hundreds of women; many believed he ground their flesh and sold it as sausage meat in the area.

So when he was found guilty of just six counts of second-degree murder in December 2007, people were mystified. More than that, they were outraged.

Both sides appealed, but the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court on July 30, 2010. The publication ban was lifted a week later. The now-public details of the investigation and trial appalled many. The unwillingness the police showed to pursue Pickton, despite overwhelming evidence, smacked hard of racism, sexism and bias against drug addicts and sex workers. Many felt that police treated crimes against aboriginals, drug addicts, sex workers and, in particular, women as less important than they should have. The police forces of the Vancouver region, already fighting bad reputations decades in the making, looked cold and indifferent to the suffering of the victims because of their own biases. At a time when they were needed most, they came off as unwilling to help.

And it was in that tumultuous, almost paranoid period that disaster struck a young woman named Ashley Machiskinic. On September 15, 2010, her body was found in an alley behind the Downtown Eastside's notorious Regent Hotel. Answering a 9-1-1 call about a woman falling from the hotel's fifth floor, paramedics found Machiskinic's body at 5:27 p.m. and declared her dead at the scene.

Several eyewitnesses were interviewed. Some of them said it looked like she fell, others that she had been pushed. Many reported that she had hit her head on overhead electrical wires on her way down. One witness claimed to have seen her shoes thrown down after her.

Video from cameras in the hotel lobby indicated nothing out of the ordinary. There were no signs of struggle, no indications of weapons and no suicide note. The window in question was quite large and low to the floor. Investigators decided that it would be possible to fall out of it “if sitting or kneeling” in front of it. A chair was found in front of the window, with its back to the outside.

Machiskinic was exactly the kind of person activists believed police considered second-class citizens. She was of aboriginal descent and she had problems not just with alcohol, but also with cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine and heroin. Diagnosed in 2004 with chronic schizophrenia, she had been hospitalized many times, including one 10-month stint, for mental-health issues.

The investigators asked the witnesses if anyone might want to harm Machiskinic. There was no shortage of suggestions. All of the people named were interviewed by police, and all denied involvement with her death. All were also able to provide alibis for the time of her death.

According to the coroner's report, her body revealed severely traumatic injuries to her “anterior surface”—which disagreed with many activists' claims that she landed on her back, which they said was evidence that she was pushed rather than fell—and head injuries consistent with hitting the overhead wires. But there were no injuries that indicated a struggle or altercation.