In the 70's, in Canada, especially the province of Quebec, "The Cat" as he was known by all became famous for three reasons. Richard Blass evaded death by surviving three assassination attempts, a police shoot out and escaped custody twice.
Starting out his young life on the east side of Montreal, Blass started boxing in a way to get rid of his anger. That would last for a certain time. One night after losing a fight, he attacked his opponent with a knife. He pleaded guilty to assault and spent one night in jail.
Becoming more and more obsessed with the Mafia, Blass took interested with the New York and south Montreal Mafia. Funny enough, as much as he liked the Mafia concept, he was also known to have a hatred of Mafia organizations. In particular, he hated the Italian Mafia who were running the underworld of crime of Montreal in the 60's. Going as far a having fights with its members and even becoming a hit man for a rival gang.
After a while he decided to start a gang of his own. Angered by the fact that thy could not kill the Italian Mafia boss, they grew more and more violent. They murdered many Italians. Some from the Mafia and some who had nothing to do with the Mafia.
On August 24 1968, while enjoying some drinks in a bar, Blass was shot at multiple times by two hired hit men. He escaped unscathed. Two weeks later he escaped a hotel fire that killed three people. The Mafia had tracked him down, but again he escaped un- hurt.
On October of 68, Blass was shot to the head and back after being ambushed in a garage. He was able to escape by driving through the garage door and fled to the hospital. Some say he gained respect by the Canadian Mafia when he would not identify his attackers.
In January of 69, he and his gang tried to commit a bank robbery. Things didn't go as planned and Blass shot a police officer. He was arrested and sentenced to four consecutive terms of ten years in jail.
Blass became a fugitive for the first time on October 16th of that year. He and other prisoners overpowered a guard and took the van that was taking them to court. Blass was caught not long after when an anonymous call indicated that he was hiding in his wife's apartment.
After being patient for five years, Blass had decided to escape again in 1974. An unidentified woman had brought him a number of firearms while visiting him. Now armed with various guns and rifles, he broke the visitors window and made his way out of the jail for a second time.
His plan was to go kill two men who had helped him in his failed bank robbery, but that had testified against him. On October 30th, he found them in a bar and shot them dead. Of course there were other people in the bar. Wanting to leave no witnesses, Blass and his accomplice returned to the bar on January 15th. They locked ten men and three women in a bar locker and set fire to the place. They were all found dead.
Tired of being ridiculed, the Canadian law enforcement went on with its largest manhunt in its history.
Blass was eventually found in a cabin in the woods. On January 24th at 4:30 AM police opened the door to the cabin and Blass fired one shot. Police retaliated and pretty much shot everywhere. Blass was hit twenty-three times, he died instantly.
Smuggling drugs out of Turkey in the 70's was and still his a very bad idea. Billy Hayes learned that getting out of a Turkish jail, or for that matter merely surviving, is life changing.
In 1970 an American student known as William Hayes went to Turkey with his girlfriend. While there, he was able to purchase some i.e. alot, of hashish. Of course the plan was to bring some back to the USA. Again, 4 ½ pounds of hash is not an easy quantity to smuggle.
Before boarding the plane, Hayes was sniffed out by dogs and thus was taken aside to be searched. They did indeed find what they thought. Billy was taken to the police station and was stripped naked. Standing in the middle of the room with no clothes on, he began feeling very much afraid. He didn't understand the language and having ten police officers yelling, pointing and sometimes laughing can be scary. Drug possession and smuggling was and still is a very severe offense. Hayes was sentenced to four years in the Turkish penal system. After surviving a year he was able to go to court to get an appeal on his sentence. Things didn't go as expected. His sentence was not reduced as he thought it would be. The judge actually extended it to a life sentence to show others how serious smuggling drugs would be. This was the first sign of a breakdown. Billy went on a racist rage against all Turks. He didn't understand why these "pigs" would do this to him. After his rant, he broke down in tears and was taken off to serve his newly announced life sentence.
