A chapter in Quebec’s crime history was turned Friday afternoon when several hundred people – including some of the province’s top gangsters – said a final farewell to leader Gregory Woolley, who was murdered two weeks ago.
MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
Pictured is Richard Mayrand, a potential South Chapter Hells player. MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
The funeral ceremony took place in the late afternoon at the Loreto complex in Montreal’s Saint-Léonard district.
Gregory Woolley was a man who led a lot in the underworld: he had close ties to the Mafia as well as the Hells Angels and street gangs.
Additionally, the ceremony featured key players from these three organized crime factions.
In the photo we see Vito Rizzuto’s daughter Libertina Rizzuto. MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
The co-leader of the Montreal Mafia, Leonardo Rizzuto, whose loyal ally was Woolley, appeared before the cameras of the media present at the scene while fleeing the scene. Her sister Libertina also made a notable presence.
In the photo we see the mafioso Giuseppe Focarazzo. MAXIME DELAND/AGENCE QMI
Other big names in organized crime supported those close to Woolley: the hells Mario Brouillette and Richard Mayrand, the mafioso Giuseppe “Gator” Focarazzo and the gang leader Jean-Philippe Célestin, surrounded by his closest guards.
The latter is expected by crime scene observers to fill the “vacuum” left by the death of Gregory Woolley at the organized crime scene.
Throughout Friday afternoon, hundreds of people entered and exited the Loreto Funeral Home as luxury vehicles – many of them armored – lined the complex’s parking lot.
Numerous police officers from the Sûreté du Québec and Montreal police were stationed around the funeral home to photograph and film people arriving and leaving.
Remember that on the morning of November 17, Gregory Woolley was murdered in front of his wife and four-day-old granddaughter in a commercial parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
He was hit by at least six shots. Her killer still hasn’t been found.