In the late 1980s I interviewed “Danny”, a gang member convicted of first degree murder. He told me that he and his accomplice had been trying to settle a dispute with a speed dealer in a small Ontario city. They had gone over to the dealer’s home to sort things out, thinking that although the man was an unpredictable and potentially dangerous person, they had a prior relationship with him and might be able to talk through the disagreement.

It didn’t work out the way they had planned. The two of them had been drinking prior to arrival and had also taken some PCP (not exactly the kind of preparation one would expect for diplomacy). And their host wasn’t willing to debate at all. He pulled a gun the minute they walked in the door, and within a matter of seconds the speed dealer and his accomplice inside were dead, along with a woman in the home who was connected to the two – all three shot and/or stabbed to death, left for police to find — a remarkably bloody scene. Danny and the other gang member were arrested three years later, after information made its way to police from a frightened woman. They were convicted of first degree murder.

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