Richard Sauvé

Richard Michael Anthony Sauvé (born 27 July 1952) is a former Canadian outlaw biker, wrongly convicted of first degree murder in the Port Hope 8 case of 1979, turned social activist.

Sauvé was born into a working class French-Canadian family in Cobourg, the son of Pierre and Adeline Sauvé.

He obtained employment at the Davidison Rubber factory in Port Hope and in 1972 started to date a 15-year-old high school student, Sharon.

Sharon became pregnant and the couple were married in a shotgun wedding in October 1973.

Sauvé's bride was 16 years old and five months pregnant.

Their daughter, Angela, was born in January 1974.

Their marriage was a troubled one as Sauvé's teenage wife had much difficulty adjusting to being a mother and she came to feel trapped in the marriage as she felt that she no longer loved the man she called her husband.

After being fired from Davidison Rubber in 1975, Sauvé obtained employment at the Chemtron factory and became the president of the Steelworkers local.

The couple lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, moving about constantly before settling in a rented house in 1977.

Reflecting tensions in his marriage, Sauvé decided to join the Peterborough chapter of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club in the same year as he felt happier in the company of his biker "brothers" than with his wife.

Sauvé had been close to a Satan's Choice member, Merv Blaker, for a number of years and decided to join after Blaker agreed to sponsor him.

Sharon Sauvé was very much opposed to her husband joining Satan's Choice, which she felt was an adverse influence on him, and felt the decision to join was done as an act of spite towards her.

As a member of Satan's Choice, Sauvé came into conflict with William "Heavy" Matiyek, the sergeant-at-arms of the rival Golden Hawk Riders.

Matiyek was known as the "town bully" in Port Hope and usually carried around a shotgun and a handgun.

In July 1977, when Sauvé was at work, Matiyek came by to shoot up Sauvé's house with his shotgun, forcing his wife and daughter to take cover.

Sauvé was furious that Matiyek had tried to kill his wife and daughter and went to confront Matiyek with a baseball bat.

Sauvé discovered that Matiyek was a coward as he apologized for the shooting incident, saying he was very drunk and high on drugs when he shot up the Sauvé house, and that he was unwilling to take up the challenge of a fight out of the fear that Sauvé would hurt him.

On the night of 18 October 1978, Sauvé received a phone call from a local drug addict, Brian Brideau, who told him that Matiyek was drinking at the Queen's Hotel and wanted to see him at once.

Sauvé was afraid to see Matiyek-who had a reputation as a violent bully-alone and he started to phone around, asking various members of Satan's Choice to come with him to the Queen's Hotel.

The only member of the Peterborough chapter whom Sauvé was able to contact was Merv "Indian" Blaker, who agreed to come with him to the Queen's Hotel.

However, Sauvé felt that Blaker was too easy-going for a possible bar fight and he called the Toronto chapter at 9:19 pm where his call was answered by Gary "Nutty" Comeau.

At 9: 30 pm, he again called Comeau, who agreed to go to the Queen's Hotel along with Lorne Edgar Campbell, Jeff McLeod, Larry "Beaver" Hurren and Armand "In the Truck" Sanguingi.

Sauvé arrived at the Queen's Hotel together with Blaker.

An atmosphere of tension filled the barroom as everyone sensed a confrontation between Matiyek and the Satan's Choice bikers would soon occur.

A waitress, Cathy Cotgrave, who knew both Sauvé and Blaker went to their table to tell them Satan's Choice members were banned from the Queen's Hotel and the two would not be served.

Blaker ignored her by going to the bar to buy some matches and a drink from the bartender, who was his friend.

Sauvé finally mustered up the courage to go sit down at Matiyek's table.

He quickly learned that Matiyek did not want to see him as a very drunk Matiyek took to flashing his handgun and said he had "nine friends"-a statement understood to mean that he had 9 bullets in his gun.

As Matiyek pointed his gun at him and spoke very loudly about wanting to kill him, Sauvé diplomatically tried to find a way to leave the table, but Matiyek forbade him from leaving as he stated he would shoot Sauvé if he tried to leave.

Comeau joined Sauvé at the table and was likewise threatened.

Campbell-who had beaten Matiyek several times before-came over to help.

Matiyek went for his gun, but Campbell shot him three times.

Sauvé promptly left the Queen's Hotel via the John Street entrance.

Sauvé got into Blaker's car and kept saying "holy fuck man, what happened?"

Both Sauvé and Blaker were well known to the staff of the Queen's Hotel and both men assumed correctly that the waitresses would identify them to the police, leading to Sauvé and Blaker to both go the Toronto clubhouse of Satan's Choice, and from there to the house of David Hoffman, the treasurer of the Kitchener chapter.

Both Sauvé and Blaker had frequently drank at the Queen's Hotel, and the waitresses at the Queen's Hotel identified both men by name to the police on the night of the murder as being present when Matiyek was killed.

Corporal Terry Hall of the Ontario Provincial Police's Special Squad interviewed Sauvé about the murder on 31 October 1978.

Sauvé admitted to being at the Queen's Hotel on the night of Matiyek's murder, but denied knowing anything about the murder.

On 5 December 1978, a warrant was issued for Sauvé's arrest on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.

The charges were later increased to first-degree murder.