Dwight Mushey

Dwight Mushey (born 1968), better known as "Big Dee", is a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and convicted murderer currently serving a life sentence for his role in the Shedden massacre of 2006.

Mushey was born in Winnipeg to a family of Iranian and Filipino descent.

Standing over 6'3 tall, he took up martial arts as a young man.

Mushey worked as both a professional kickboxer and boxer, albeit not an especially successful one.

Mushey had more success in taekwondo, which he had a second-degree black belt in.

His first criminal conviction came for selling methamphetamine in his native Winnipeg.

The journalist Peter Edwards described Mushey as a 6'3 man who liked to wear expensive Italian clothing and who modelled his fashion style after the character Sonny Crockett from the television show Miami Vice.

Mushey is widely believed to have worked as a hitman for the Rizzuto family in Montreal and New York.

Edwards wrote that Mushey's associates in the Shedden massacre, Wayne Kellestine and Michael Sandham, were both pathological liars whose yarns about their "exceptional fighting skills and sang-froid" were all fantasies with no basis in reality, but that in the case of Mushey "the stories had a chilling ring of authenticity".

Mushey was a successful businessman in Winnipeg who owned a house in the upscale neighborhood of River Heights, and was accused of importing methamphetamine into Manitoba from Ontario.

The Canadian journalist Annita Arvast wrote: "Standing over six feet tall, with a slender but athletic build, long, dark hair typically neatly pulled in a ponytail, and refined, wire-rimmed glasses, he commanded respect".

Mushey took in as a boarder, a MMA fighter, Marcello "Fat Ass" Aravena, who would also be convicted in the Shedden massacre trial.

In early 2005, Mushey was the co-owner of a nightclub and strip bar in Winnipeg, when he was recruited into the Winnipeg chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club by Michael Sandham, who served as the chapter president, treasurer and secretary.

On 25 June 2005, Mushey went with Sandham to first meet Wayne Kellestine at his farmhouse outside of Iona Station.

During the visit to Ontario, Mushey was unhappy to discover in Toronto that the Bandidos national president Giovanni Muscedere was unwilling to give the Winnipeg chapter a full charter that would make its members "full patch" member.

On 26 November 2005, Sandham and Mushey again visited Toronto to see Muscedere who refused the demand for the full charter status because of unpaid dues.

Like the rest of the Winnipeg Bandidos, Mushey had a barely veiled contempt for Sandham, whom he liked to call "Little Beaker" instead of "Taz", which was Sandham's preferred nickname.

On 14 January 2006, Mushey went to Vancouver to buy a kilogram of cocaine to sell in Winnipeg together with ephedrine, a chemical used for the production of methamphetamine.

Although Muscedere had forbidden the Bandidos to sell methamphetamine, Sandham together with Kellestine were planning to sell the drug.

At about the same time, one of the members of the Winnipeg chapter, a man known as J.B., contacted Mushey to tell him that he discovered a news report that revealed that Sandham was a former police officer, which Mushey dismissed as merely a case of erroneous reporting.

Between 20 and 22 March 2006, Mushey went with Sandham to Vancouver to hold a meeting with the American Bandido leaders in the Peace Arch Park.

The Peace Arch Park straddles the American-Canadian border and is a popular meeting place for American and Canadian outlaw bikers who cannot cross the border because of their criminal records as it possible to hold a conversation without crossing the border.

On 25 March 2006, at a meeting in Mushey's house, it was announced by Sandham that he and Mushey plus three other Bandidos would be going to Ontario.

The plan was to go to Kellestine's farmhouse to "pull the patches" (i.e. take away their Bandido patches) of the "no-surrender crew" led by Muscedere.

When J.B. visited Mushey's house that day he noted that he was very quiet and seemed to be engaged in planning something important.

Kellestine was not informed in advance of the visit, but welcomed his guests once they arrived.

On 1 April 2006, Kellestine and his visitors had dinner at the Holland House in Iona Station, where the owner, Marty Angenent, noted that Kellestine's bodyguard, Frank Mather, seemed very nervous.

Angenent described Mushey as the leader of the group and the one who paid for the meal.

During his time at the Kellestine farm, plans were discussed for killing Muscedere and others of the "no-surrender crew".

Ultimately, it was decided to call a "church" (mandatory) meeting at the farmhouse with the aim of trapping the "no-surrender crew".

At about 4 pm on Friday, April 7, 2006, the day selected for the "church" meeting, Kellestine produced weapons from his secret gun cache.

Sandham took for himself a .303 Lee–Enfield rifle, while Mushey took a shotgun.

Mushey took the shotgun to Kellestine's garage to saw off part of the barrel to make it more deadly in close quarters, a decision that was later used against him at the trial to prove that murder was being planned in advance.

Sandham put on a pair of white surgical gloves and handed the surgical gloves to the others; Mushey put on a pair of leather gloves over the surgical gloves and then taped them on to his hands.

On the night of the meeting, Mushey was stood armed with the shotgun alongside Kellestine.

As the "no-surrender crew" entered the barn at about 10 pm, Sandham used his rifle to shoot and kill Luis "Chopper" Raposo, the Bandido national treasurer.

At the sound of the shooting, Mushey rushed into the barn with his shotgun.

Two of the "no-surrender crew", George "Crash" Kriarakis and Paul "Big Paulie" Sinopoli, tried to run away, but were shot down and wounded by Kellestine.

Kellestine ordered Mushey to stand guard over the rest of the "no-surrender" with orders to shoot Muscedere if he tried to escape.

Mushey also became close to a man known only as M.H. due to a court order whose testimony at his trial in 2009 would send him to prison for life.