Toronto Star reporter, leading crime reporter and author of 10 books, Edwards wrote a book he didn’t really want to write when offended with the massacre of eight Bandido bikers in Shedden, Ont. April 8, 2006 being dismissed as an internal cleansing.
Edwards says the families of those murdered bikers erupted an awareness in him that “these are big emotions, these are real families, real people, with real, genuine feelings.”
He describes one victim, “Boxer”, as being “breathtakingly brave to have died the way he did,” when faced with the choice of joining in the killing or being killed.
“I’m not trying to glorify anyone,” says Edwards, “I just want to tell the real story.”
April 8, 2006, in the tiny community of Shedden, eight members of the Bandidos motorcycle club were brutally murdered by six of their own. The news rocked the quiet rural community, a shock reverberating to global headlines.
Edwards says he went to the scene immediately to try to interview Wayne Kellestine, a Bandido’s member residing in the area who advertised himself as a killer, but unable to locate the residence, resorted to a telephone call instead.
Kellestine told Edwards to “---- my ---.” Edwards describes Kellestine as not having it within his grasp to understand the depth of what he had done.
He recalls a party atmosphere in the background of that phone call and says Kellestine seemed like he was performing.
“There was an air of unreality,” he says.
Introduced to the audience as “a man who starts his car with a remote control,” Edwards interjects comedic relief by replying: “ I want to thank the guards at Millhaven (Penitentiary) for doing their jobs and allowing me to do what I am doing.”
There is, however, no denying the danger this presents him with.
The Betrayal and The Agony
“Some of the people (involved in motorcycle clubs), when you get them outside of the club, are actually nice people. They are like you and I and their families are nice and decent people,” says Edwards.
Inspired by his high school teacher, James French of London, Edwards was able to begin relating the betrayal inherent in this case to Shakespearean portrayals of betrayal and the book began to take shape.
Attending the trial of the six accused Bandido’s members, Edwards describes the strange essence of community that is built among those in attendance.
Behind him in court sat five members of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club and there were moments, he says, when the tough act of their exterior was broken by the icebreaker of laughing at the same time in response to certain situations. But it was the mothers that got to Edwards, he says.
He describes one mother sobbing while listening to the testimonies about the execution of her son. At one point, she appeared to faint, he says.
When the court was told that some of the victims got down on their knees and prayed before they died, that mother got a sense of relief saying, according to Edwards:
“Now, I’m going to see my son in heaven, I was looking for a sign (of that).”
An audience member, in the question and answer period afterwards said:
"It is frightening what people will do in order to belong."
A Specialist in Organized Crime and Justice Issues Reporting
To be given an eagle feather is a respect given to few non-natives. Edwards was given an eagle feather by the Union of Ontario Indians and it is an ultimate show of respect. His book, One Dead Indian: The Premier, the Police and the Ipperwash Crisis, is highly regarded.
“The images coming from Ipperwash are a pretty ugly mirror of Canadian society – it’s not the image we like to see,” says Edwards in a June 4, 2007 Macleans interview.
Among his other books are: A Mother’s Story: The Fight to Free My Son David, written with Joyce Milgaard, The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime, written with Michel Auger and his latest, The Infiltrator: Henri Le Caron, the British Spy Inside the Fenian Movement.
According to his website, Edwards has been nominated for several awards, has been asked to lecture at several universities and has been interviewed by the BBC, CBC, CTV and the Mob Stories series for History Television.
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