“They are treated just like pigs” – Teresa Martin / #7 WKT5 | WHO KILLED THERESA?
May 23 2021
''And anyway, when did Mike French ever care about anyone but himself? The one other murder that we’ve covered where he is a suspect is the abduction and brutal killing of 16-year-old Sharron Prior. Prior was found raped, beaten, possibly gagged, and held and tortured for several days… then strangled – then dumped – in a field in Longueuil, April 1, 1975. Prior disappeared after leaving her Congregation street home on her way to a Pointe Saint Charles pizza joint. At the time bikers – presumably Satan’s Choice – had a club one block north of her home on Sebastopol.
Mike French
The best source for what we know of Mike French comes from Kristian Gravenor’s website about Montreal sub-culture, Coolopolis. Allegedly French grew up a the Weredale House, a home for
“troubled boys” located in Westmount. At an early age French joined the Satan’s Choice biker club from Saint-Henri, which is just across the Lachine Canal from Pointe Saint Charles. Satan’s Choice was one of the clubs targeted by Montreal community outreach officer, John Dalzell in the late 1960s in establishing his federation of motorcycle gang’s Le MUC (
for more on Le MUC read here).
In the early 1970s, French was possibly living for a period in Beaconsfield, at 67 Portland Place, possibly with a relative named Thalon French. And we know this because they were listed as defendants in a property dispute in the Quebec provincial courts in February 1974. The Portland Place apartment was right along the Lakeshore, not far from the Maples and Edgewater, clubs French was known to frequent. My sister Theresa also went to those places on weekends – well, everyone did – so it is quite possible that she encountered Mike French on some occasions. Though I wouldn’t read too much into this. Yes, French was known to be an erratic, violent man, but there are many people who encountered him in the day and observed that he was often inclined to simply sit at a bar, drink his beer then leave a place with little notice.
Except when he wasn’t. In 1977 Michael French was charged along with five others in an incident involving
“injuring with intent to maim or mutilate.” John O’Donnell described to the court how a peaceful evening out in Montreal with a group of friends turned into a nightmare of violence:
“It only took about 15 seconds… one of them stabbed my two friends in the stomach… then somebody hit me in the face with a heavy object like a beer stein. I was knocked on the ground , had one tooth broken and another knocked out…”
Nigel Gibson, “Knifings took ’15 seconds,’ court told”,
The Gazette, January, 29, 1977
French’s long-time partner in crime Bobby Chou was singled out as the guy who did the stabbing. Rounding out this crew were Brian Powers, Kevin O’Brien, and Tom and Ed O’Neill. O’Donnell required 12 stitches to close the gash to his face (
Kristian Gravenor goes into great, great detail about Chou and this incident over at his website, Coolopolis). The fight occurred at the old Moustache Club on Closse street across from the Montreal Forum.''
Mike French at far left, Bobby Chou at top right,
and Brian Powers in centre with beard – photo courtesy of Coolopolis
For a time French had also been living at 5870 Sherbrooke West, in an apartment in NDG, and we know this because on November 11, 1970, it’s reported French was charged with armed robbery over an argument about the purchase of some hash. 1970 is closer to our target, 1969 and Teresa Martin, and what’s also interesting here is that NDG is inching closer to Pointe Saint Charles, the neighborhood where Sharron Prior lived. Then in 1982 there is a simple obit in the Montreal paper informing us that Michael French died on November 12th. He had several brothers and sisters, Patrick, Geraldine, Peter, Paul, Frances, Wendy living in Montreal, Calgary and Port Coquitlam, BC – and apparently a wife named Madonna.
How and why did French die? The rumor goes like this. French was murdered because he boasted once too often about raping and killing Sharron Prior in the spring of 1975. According to Gravenor, police suspected West End Gang hitman Jackie McLaughlin killed French, chopped him into pieces, and deposited the remains across the Saint Lawrence river in Kahnawake as
“a sort of community service.” Other versions say he was killed for raping the daughter of a cop, or possibly a Mafia boss.
What grabbed my attention most in all this was Mike French being a member of Satan’s Choice, and a gang rape that took place in 1968 by 12 to 23 Satan’s Choice members. On October 24, 1968 a 15-year-old girl was taken by Satan’s Choice gang leader, Richard “Bernie” Guindon to a clubhouse at 22 Willow Street in Ottawa. She first had voluntary sex with Guindon. Then after being beaten she was forced to have sex with the rest of the members.
“… [ he ]took her to “an old shack” where a guy called “Wheeler” said, “Splash!” When she refused the group aberration, she was beaten, stripped and forced to undergo “intercourse” with all the males there, about 23.”
