Frank Ryan (gangster)

Frank Peter "Dunie" Ryan Jr. (June 10, 1942 – November 13, 1984) was the leader of the Montreal-based criminal organization, the West End Gang.

Ryan was of Irish descent. His father abandoned their family when Ryan was three years old, leaving his mother to raise him by herself. Ryan dropped out of school in his mid-teens and led his own teenage gang who participated in "petty" crimes such as smash and grabs, garment thefts from trucks and breaking and entering.

Ryan continued his crime spree throughout the early 1960s, ending with an armed robbery conviction in 1966 for which he served 6 years of a 15-year sentence in an American prison. After his parole Ryan joined a new gang to help him continue his criminal enterprises, which now included loansharking as well as robberies. It was while at the helm of this gang that Ryan started to import and distribute drugs in the Montreal area.

After his initial forays in the drug market, Ryan realized that this was a market that could be expanded. He soon built a drug network that spread throughout Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces.

By the late 1970s, Ryan developed relationships with other criminal organizations in Montreal, including the Hells Angels and Cotroni crime family. As both of these criminal organizations depended on Ryan's steady supply of drugs Ryan was on the top of the criminal foodchain in Quebec. When another crime figure, Patrick "Hughie" McGurnaghan, cheated Ryan in a drug deal and carried a $100,000 debt, Ryan contacted the Hells Angels North chapter for assistance. Hells Angels member Yves "Apache" Trudeau was dispatched to kill McGurnaghan. On October 27, 1981, Trudeau planted a car bomb on McGurnaghan's Mercedes-Benz, killing him and seriously injuring a male passenger.[1] According to police documents it was believed that Ryan was worth between $50–100 million.

On November 13, 1984, Ryan was murdered.[2] There are two versions - one was that he was at his Nittolo's Garden Motel office when Paul April, another reputed West End Gang member, either told Ryan that there was a woman in one of the motel's rooms waiting to service him, or that he wanted to privately settle a cocaine debt with him in that room.[2] It is unclear who actually shot Ryan. Four days later, Ryan's funeral was held at St. Augustine of Canterbury Church in Montreal, attended by his mother, wife May, his two children, and another 200 mourners.[2]

References
  1. "The perks of the biker". macleans.ca. April 21, 1986.
  2. D'Arcy O'Connor (2011). Montreal's Irish Mafia: The True Story of the Infamous West End Gang. ISBN 9780470676158.
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