Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Denis LORTIE
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Canadian
army corporal -
Intended
to assassinate Premier René Lévesque - Disgruntled with a number
of policies of the Quebec and federal governments
Number of victims: 3
Date of murders: May 8,
1984
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth: 1959
Victims profile: Georges
Boyer, Camille Lepage and Roger Lefrançois
(Quebec
government employees)
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Quebec, Canada
Status: Convicted of first-degree murder in
1985, but a new trial was ordered due to legal errors. Lortie
pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder in 1987. Paroled
in December 1995
Denis Lortie
is a Canadian murderer, who killed three Quebec government employees in
1984.
A corporal with the Royal 22e
Régiment of the Canadian Armed Forces, Lortie was disgruntled with a
number of policies of the Quebec and federal governments. He planned a
killing spree as a means of broadcasting his discontent.
On May 7 of that year,
Lortie left the CFS Carp military base pretending that he needed time
off to arrange a divorce with his wife. Instead, he rented a car, drove
to Québec City and took a guided tour of the Quebec Parliament Building.
He then rented a room in a motel of the boulevard Laurier for the night.
The next day, at 9:30 a.m,
Lortie walked into the CJRP radio station in Quebec City and dropped off
a sealed envelope containing an audiotape for one of the station's
hosts, André Arthur. He instructed the radio staff not to open the
envelope until 10:30, they opened it anyway, discovering that it was a
statement of Lortie's plans, in which he declared that "The government
now in power is going to be destroyed." However, by the time radio staff
contacted police, Lortie's plan had already been put into action.
At 9:45 a.m., Lortie entered
the Quebec Parliament Building through a side door located on Grande-Allée.
He was dressed in combat fatigues and armed with two submachine guns.
Just as he entered the building, he shot at a receptionist, then killed
a messenger that he crossed in a corridor. He ended up in a smoking room
and shot at the people there. He then went to the cafeteria, but finally
found his way into the Assembly Chamber.
Based on later testimony, it
is clear he intended to assassinate René Lévesque and other members of
the governing Parti Québécois. His plan was to enter the Assembly
Chamber during the parliamentary committee starting at 10:00 that
morning. However, he arrived early when only a few people were present
in the Chamber. Lortie killed three government employees (Georges Boyer,
Camille Lepage and Roger Lefrançois) and wounded 13 others. No
politicians were killed or wounded.
The National Assembly's
Sergeant-at-Arms, René Jalbert, was told there was a man with a gun in
the Assembly Chamber. Upon stepping out the elevator, Lortie fired on
him. Seeing that Lortie was in a military uniform, Jalbert told him that
he too had been a soldier with the Van Doos, and that if Lortie allowed
he would show him his discharge card. Lortie agreed, after which Jalbert
persuaded him to show his own identification.
After this exchange, Jalbert
persuaded Lortie to come to his office to discuss the matter, and
release the other civilians in the Assembly Chamber. Jalbert talked to
Lortie for over four hours, ultimately persuading him to surrender to
military police (he was unwilling to surrender to civilian police) at
14:22. For his heroic act which likely prevented further death, the
Canadian government several months later awarded Jalbert the Cross of
Valour.
In 1985, Lortie was
convicted of first-degree murder, but a new trial was ordered due to
legal errors. Lortie pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree
murder in 1987.
Lortie was paroled in
December 1995.
Marc Lépine, who murdered 14
women in 1989 in the École Polytechnique Massacre, left a suicide note
expressing his admiration of Lortie.
Several people affirm to
have seen Lorti playing with his dentures in a spectacular way at the
time of the last shooting, one classifies this phenomenon as paranormal.
A guy named Max, also known as Como was one of the spectator of
this particular event. Some said Caporal Lortie was a regular client at
Le Carlito restaurant and was often drunk at the club named « Le
Monkey ».
Denis Lortie is a former Canadian army
corporal. In 1984, he stormed into the National Assembly of Quebec
building and killed three Quebec government employees.
Cpl Lortie was a Supply Technician in the Canadian
Forces and was disgruntled with a number of policies of the Quebec and
federal governments. He planned a killing spree as a means of
broadcasting his discontent.
On May 7 of that year, Lortie left the CFS Carp
military base (better known as the Diefenbunker) pretending that he
needed time off to arrange a divorce with his wife. Instead, he rented
a car, drove to Quebec City and took a guided tour of the Quebec
Parliament Building. He then rented a room in a motel on Laurier
Boulevard for the night.
The next day, at 9:30 a.m., Lortie walked into CJRP
radio station in Quebec City and dropped off a sealed envelope
containing an audiotape for one of the station's hosts, André Arthur.
He instructed the radio staff not to open the envelope until 10:30
a.m. but they opened it anyway, discovering that it was a statement of
Lortie's plans, in which he declared that "The government now in power
is going to be destroyed." However, by the time radio staff contacted
police, Lortie's plan had already been put into action.
At 9:45 a.m., Lortie entered the Quebec Parliament
Building through a side door located on Grande-Allée. He was dressed
in combat fatigues and armed with two submachine guns. As he entered
the building, he shot at a receptionist, then killed a messenger that
he encountered in a corridor. He went into a smoking room and shot at
the people there. He then went to the cafeteria, but finally found his
way into the Assembly Chamber.
Based on later testimony, it is clear he intended
to assassinate Premier René Lévesque and other members of the
governing Parti Québécois. His plan was to enter the Assembly Chamber
during the parliamentary committee starting at 10:00 that morning.
However instead of using a watch, Lortie timed his attack by listening
to CJRP and waited for the station's host, André Arthur, to end his
segment. Fortunately that day, André Arthur ended his broadcast 20
minutes early, leading Lortie to enter the building and make his way
to the Assembly Chamber while it was still mostly empty. Nevertheless,
Lortie killed three government employees (Georges Boyer, Camille
Lepage and Roger Lefrançois) and wounded 13 others. No politicians
were killed or wounded.
The National Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms, René
Jalbert, was told there was a man with a gun in the Assembly Chamber.
Upon stepping out the elevator, Lortie fired on him. Seeing that
Lortie was in a military uniform, Jalbert told him that he too had
been a soldier with the Van Doos (slang for the Royal 22e
Régiment), and that if Lortie allowed he would show him his discharge
card. Lortie agreed, after which Jalbert persuaded him to show his own
identification.
After this exchange, Jalbert persuaded Lortie to
come to his office to discuss the matter, and release the other
civilians in the Assembly Chamber. Jalbert talked to Lortie for over
four hours, ultimately persuading him to surrender to military police
(he was unwilling to surrender to civilian police) at 14:22. For his
heroic act which likely prevented further death, the Canadian
government several months later awarded Jalbert the Cross of Valour.
One of the factors contributing to the crime was
the easy access that Lortie had to both weapons and ammunition. Unlike
other non-combat Canadian Forces Bases, the CFS Carp "Diefenbunker"
did not have room for separate weapons and ammunition lockers.
According to psychiatrist Pierre Mailloux who was
assigned to the case, Lortie suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and
had organized his crime during a psychotic episode, believed his was
acting on instructions from God. Nevertheless, in 1985, Lortie was
convicted of first-degree murder, but a new trial was ordered due to
legal errors. Lortie pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree
murder in 1987.
Lortie was paroled in December 1995. He now lives
in Quebec and works in construction.
Wikipedia.org
Denis Lortie
"Maybe I will hurt a lot of people, but what do
you expect"
At 9.30am on Tuesday, May 8, 1984, Denis Lortie walked
into the CJRP radio station in Quebec, Canada, and handed the person at
the desk at sealed envelope containing an audio tape. He left the person
with the instructions to play it at 10.00am. He had written "The
Life of a Person" on the envelope.
Since Lortie seemed like a
nutter, and had a large hunting knife strapped to his leg they decided
to open the envelope and listen to the tape. It contained a suicide note
of sorts as Lortie told how he was about to destroy the government.
"No one will be able to stop me - not the police,
not the army - because I am going to carry out destruction and then
destroy myself. It will be a first for Canada."
By the time they had got in touch with the police
Lortie's 'destruction' had already begun.
"I came here to kill"
Lortie had attacked the Quebec National Assembly. In
the four-and-a-half-hours that followed, Lortie had killed three
officials and wounded thirteen others. He held the entire hall at his
will, even sitting in the Speakers chair for some time. He even spoke to
the wounded, offering apologies to his victims.
"Sorry for wounding you, but that's life."
Lortie was eventually talked into surrender by one of
his captives.
He was originally sentenced to life in prison, but
following appeal he had the charges dropped down to second-degree murder
(representing himself). He came up for parole in 1994, but as far as I
know he's still sitting in a cell.
The next day, Jean-Claude Nadeau, a survivor of
Lortie's attack, went off his fucking head and shot two people.
Unluckily for him they both survived.
Lortie Released
Maclean's - January 16, 1995
Denis Lortie, the former army
corporal who murdered three people and injured 13 others
after storming the Quebec National Assembly in May,
1984, was released on day parole to a halfway house in
Hull, Quebec.
Lortie, 36, had been undergoing
psychiatric treatment in a minimum security prison north
of Montreal, where he was serving a life sentence with
no eligibility for parole for 10 years. According to
National Parole Board officials, Lortie no longer poses
a threat to society and will be eligible for full parole
in six months.
For his part, in an interview on the
CBC's new French-language all-news network, Lortie said
he was "disconnected from reality" at the time of the
killings, but that the counselling he has received in
prison has helped prepare him for release. "I have the
tools," Lortie claims, "that I didn't have before."
Under the release terms, Lortie must
spend every night at the halfway house between 11 p.m.
and 7 a.m. He must also let supervisors know where he is
at all times and is restricted to a 40-km radius from
the house. But the relatives of some of Lortie's victims
say he is getting off too easily.
Indeed, Steve Boyer, whose father was
killed by Lortie, says that he should have been executed.
And Hélène LeFrancois, whose husband was also murdered
in the legislature, adds: "I have tried to forget, but
in the last 10 years nothing has eased the grief I felt
at the loss of my husband."
"Mr. D."
A gunman in
Quebec
Monday, May. 21, 1984 -
Time.com
A bearded man wearing camouflage army gear and a
beret and with a knife strapped to his leg walked into the studios
of CJRP, a Quebec City radio station, one morning last week. He
handed a cassette tape to a reporter and told her, "To you, my name
is Mr. D."
A short time later, a man fitting Mr. D.'s
description burst into the Quebec provincial legislature, called the
National Assembly, firing a submachine gun as he went and shouting,
"Où sont les députés? Jevais les tuer!" (Where are the legislators?
I am going to kill them!) By the time he reached the second floor
and entered the Salon Bleu, the legislative chamber, three people
were dead: an Assembly page, a messenger and an aide to the director
of elections. Thirteen other Assembly employees were wounded, one
seriously.
Police later arrested Corporal Denis Lortie, 25,
a supply technician attached to a Canadian Armed Forces installation
near Ottawa. Canadian authorities have not speculated on Lortie's
motives. But the tape left by the man at CJRP threatened to "destroy"
the provincial government, which has espoused separation from the
rest of Canada. The recording railed against the ruling Parti
Québécois 's pro-French language policies, declaring: "I [have]
waited for just the right moment. It's at hand now. The government
will be destroyed."
The gunman's timing, however, was fortunately
poor. Quebec Premier René Lévesque and his Cabinet were not due in
the Salon Bleu until that afternoon. Some ministers were having a
late breakfast, though, and they quickly barricaded themselves in
the legislature's restaurant. But Assembly employees had no
protection. "I'm sorry for wounding you," the assailant reportedly
told a worker shot in the arm during the fracas, "but that's life."
The hero of the day was the Assembly's sergeant
at arms, René Jalbert, 63, a retired army major who helped convince
Lortie that he should give himself up. Approaching the man as he sat
in the Speaker's throne, Jalbert offered him coffee and a cigarette
and coolly remarked: "I see you're an army man. I'm an army man
myself." Jalbert took him to his downstairs office, where, four
hours later, a Quebec police negotiator persuaded Lortie by
telephone to surrender. (He later pleaded not guilty to three
charges of first-degree murder.) Declared Jalbert modestly: "Every
sergeant at arms across Canada would have done the same thing."
