The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the United States and eleven chapters in Australia, with chapters also located in 24 other countries. It was formed in 1986, by Salvatore Cazzetta and his brother Giovanni Cazzetta. The Rock Machine competed with the Hells Angels for control of the street-level narcotics trade in Quebec. The Quebec Biker War saw the Rock Machine form an alliance with a number of other organizations to face the Hells Angels. The conflict occurred between 1994 and 2002 and resulted in over 160 deaths and over 300 injured. An additional 100+ have been imprisoned.
Common nicknames for the organization include "R.M.", "Black & Platinum", "RMMC", and "1813". The official Rock Machine club motto is "A La Vie A La Mort", or "To the Life Until Death". The club also possesses a patch that reads "RMFFRM" which stands for "Rock Machine Forever, Forever Rock Machine", an extremely common traditional saying among individual outlaw motorcycle clubs.
The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club gained the status of a "hang-around" club in May 1999 and after eighteen months, became a probationary chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club on 1 December 2000. Bandidos National Officer Edward Winterhalder was put in charge of overseeing the transition by Bandidos international president, George Wegers. The original version of the Rock Machine (1986–1999) in Canada changed their colors from black and platinum to red and gold in May 1999; their colors remained red and gold until they became "full-patch" Bandidos on 1 December 2001 in a "patch-over" ceremony at the Rock Machine's Kingston chapter clubhouse.
A second version of the Rock Machine was founded in 2008 in Winnipeg under the leadership of Sean "Crazy Dog" Brown, adopting the original black and platinum colors as their patch.
Since 2007, the club has spread across Canada and throughout several other countries worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, Belgium, New Zealand, Sweden, Serbia, Norway, France, South Africa, England, Spain, Georgia, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Kuwait, Armenia, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Turkey. As of 2022, the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club has established over 120 chapters on five continents. In the 2000s, the Rock Machine allied themselves with fellow international Canadian motorcycle club the Loners Motorcycle Club. In 2023 the Rock Machine chapter in Alaska feuded with the Hells Angels and the fight over the territory ended with the Hells Angels disbanding and surrendering the interior city of Fairbanks after nearly 40 years of domination. Members of the Hells Angels club began turning in their colors after rumored a Rock Machine member that goes by the alias “Sparks” allegedly attacked the now former president which ended in the president stepping down.
The first incarnation In approximately 1982, Salvatore Cazzetta was a member of the SS, a white supremacist motorcycle gang based in Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal. Fellow SS member Maurice Boucher became friends with Cazzetta and as leaders of the club, the pair became candidates to join the Hells Angels when that club expanded into Canada.
Réjean Lessard, the president of The Sorel chapter of the Hells Angels suspected Laval chapter was interfering with drug profits through personal use of products intended for sale. In the Lennoxville massacre, five members of the Laval chapter were killed. Divers located the decomposing bodies of the victims at the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, wrapped in sleeping bags and tied to weightlifting plates, two months after the party. The event became known as the "Lennoxville massacre," and its extreme nature earned the Quebec chapter of the Hells Angels a notorious reputation. Cazzetta considered the event an unforgivable breach of the outlaw code and, rather than joining the Hells Angels, in 1986 formed his own club, the Rock Machine, with his brother Giovanni and Paul Porter. The journalist Jerry Langton: "The Cazzettas and Porter recruited a number of street toughs-including a few former Outlaws and guys who had been rejected by the Hells Angels-to form a new group called the Rock Machine. In the beginning they were a gang, but not a motorcycle gang. Of course, the Cazeettas, Porter and a few others rode Harleys, but the vast majority didn't". Cazzetta spoke fluent French, English and Italian and had contacts with the Rizzuto crime family, the West End Gang, and the Dubois Gang. Giovanni Cazzetta would hold the position of second-in-command. Only Salvatore would hold more influence.
Future Rock Machine National President Fred Faucher later said, "Sal once told me, 'Those guys (Hells Angels), they operate their club in such a way that I didn't want to join them'". The founding members of the Rock Machine were Salvatore Cazzettta, his younger brother Giovanni and Paul "Sasquatch" Porter. Other founding members included, Johnny Plescio, Andrew "Curly" Sauvageau, Renaud Jomphe, Gilles Lambert, Martin Bourget, Richard "Bam Bam" Lagacé, Serge Pinel and several others. The majority of the Rock Machine were former members of the Merciless Riders, the Executeurs and the SS. The Rock Machine made its living via the sale of narcotics and other prohibited goods. As the Rock Machine charged considerably less for cocaine than the Hells Angels, the gang won much market share in the Montreal area. The Hells Angels had been badly weakened by the Lennoxville massacre, which to the convictions of a number of Hells Angels in the late 1980s. Initially Rock Machine members chose not to wear Hells Angels-style leather vests that could easily identify members, and instead wore rings displaying an eagle insignia (this would last until 1995, with the adoption of three-piece vests).Martineau, Pierre I Was a Killer for the Hells Angels, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2003 ()
The official Rock Machine club motto is "A La Vie A La Mort", or "To the Life Until Death". The club the possesses a patch that reads "RMFFRM" which stands for "Rock Machine Forever, Forever Rock Machine", an extremely common thing among outlaw motorcycle clubs.
In April 1992, Giovanni Cazzetta was arrested by police and charged with trafficking narcotics, police found him to be in position of three kilograms (7 lb) of cocaine worth around $120,000 (modern equivalent when adjusting for inflation of $246,000 US). He was forced to plead guilty to four charges the following spring and was sentenced to four years in prison. Giovanni was released in 1997 and briefly participated in the conflict that was to come. Marice Boucher, was released after finishing a forty-month sentence for armed sexual assault, joined the Hells Angels and was subsequently promoted within the club's ranks. The Hells Angels and Rock Machine co-existed peacefully for many years, a situation that, according to police officials, was due to Boucher's respect for his friend, Cazzetta and the latter's connections with the Quebec Mafia, the only organized crime group that the motorcycle gangs were unwilling to attack.
Quebec Biker war
Founder of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club, Salvatore Cazzetta was arrested at a pitbull farm located in Fort Erie, Ontario during 1994. He was charged with attempting to import more than eleven tons (22,000lbs) of cocaine valued at an estimated 275 million dollars US (adjusting for inflation the 2021 value is $513,238,697). Claude Vézina, who was president of the Quebec City chapter at the time, became the new National President of the Rock Machine. Renaud Jomphe was made president of the Montreal chapter, while Marcel Demers became the president of the Quebec City chapter until eventually opening the Beauport chapter in late 1996.
Recently promoted Hells Angels Montreal President Boucher began to increase pressure on the Rock Machine shortly after the arrest, which initiated the Quebec Biker war. The local Rock Machine Motorcycle Club formed an affiliation, the Alliance, with Montreal crime families such as the Pelletier Clan, Dark Circle and other independent dealers who wished to resist the Hells Angels' attempts to establish a monopoly on street-level drug trade in the city.Winterhalder, Edward Out In Bad Standings; Inside The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, Blockhead City Press, 2005/Seven Locks Press, 2007 A violent turf war ensued with the Hells Angels. The Rock Machine MC, its support clubs and the Pelletier Clan would provide manpower while the Dark Circle would provide the funding. The Dark Circle's leadership was ruled by a committee of five. The chairman was Michel Duclos.
Boucher organized "puppet clubs" to persuade Rock Machine-controlled bars and their resident drug dealers to surrender their illegal drug business. This led to the creation of the Palmers MC, a Rock Machine MC support club with chapters in Montreal and Quebec City. It was created to counter Hell's Angels allies, the Rockers MC, Evil ones and Death Riders MC support clubs. It was led and organized by Rock Machine members Jean "Le Francais" Duquaire and André "Dédé" Désormeaux, who was initially a member of the Dark Circle but joined the Rock Machine. These two were described as the grandfathers of the Palmers MC, all of whose members would be patched into the Rock Machine in 2000. The starting point of the conflict is disputed; however, on 13 July 1994, three members of the Rock Machine entered a business in downtown Montreal. They assassinated Pierre Daoust, a member of a Hells Angel support club, the Death Riders Motorcycle Club. Once it was confirmed they had the right target, he was shot 16 times in the head and torso.
There was very little coverage of this incident, but many in Montreal's underground knew that the Rock Machine was defending its territory, months before the death of Daoust. The members of the Alliance (Rock Machine MC, Pelletier Clan, the Dark Circle) as well as other individual narcotics dealers and street gangs met to discuss a united front against the Hells Angels after they gave the narcotics community of Quebec an ultimatum to have them as their mandatory supplier of all contraband goods and narcotics. This offer was refused and the Alliance was formed; due to the Hells Angels' "monopolistic attitude", they had decided to take the initiative and strike first.
A day after on 14 July 1994, The Rock Machine attempted to assassinate Normand Robitaille, a member of Hells Angels support club the Rockers MC and a future and prominent member of the Hells Angels. The attempt failed and Quebec police announced that they had arrested five members of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club for planning to bomb the Evil Ones MC clubhouse which was also aligned with the Hells Angels.
With current knowledge of events due to information from Sylvain Boulanger, it is known that on 15 July 1994, the hierarchy of the Hells Angels in Quebec held emergency meetings in the city of Longueuil, Quebec. All four chapters in Quebec at the time were present (Montreal, Quebec City, Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke). There was also a meeting at Hells Angels bunker during this period of time. All chapters had to vote on whether they would participate in the conflict against the Rock Machine and their alliance. All four chapters agreed and the club began to prepare for the long conflict ahead. The Hells Angels was an international organization and received aid from all over the country and internationally, giving them more support than the Rock Machine.