George Kriarakis

During the trial of the Shedden massacre killers in 2009, Jane Sims, the crime correspondent of The London Free Press, stated the Bandidos Motorcycle Club sounded very much like the mindlessly macho He-Men Women Haters Club from the Our Gang short films of the 1930s. Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star, agreed with her, writing the Bandidos had "grandiose rituals and overblown mythology" that were "more the stuff of fantasy and macho escapism than reality" that strongly appealed to weak, insecure men. Edwards wrote that most of the victims of the massacre such as Kriarakis were the type of weak men who were attracted to the Bandidos less because they were criminals and more out of a desire to appear important and powerful. Edwards called Kriarakis a pseudo-gangster, saying he affected the "attitude" of being a gangster as he took to strutting around with his Bandidos patch on his bikers' vest as he thought that this made him powerful. However, Edwards noted that Kriarakis worked 10 to 12 hours a day as a tow truck driver, which led him to the conclusion that Kriarakis did not make his living via crime. Edwards stated in a 2010 interview:

George Kriarakis (1978 – 7 April 2006) was a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who served as the last national secretary of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in Canada and was one of the victims of the Shedden massacre of 2006.

In early April 2006, Wayne Kellestine, the sergeant-at-arms of the Bandidos, accused Jamie "Goldberg" Flanz of being a police informer and demanded a "church" (mandatory meeting) at his farmhouse outside of Iona Station to discuss his allegations. Sinpopoli phoned Kriarakis about the meeting, which he did not wish to attend. Kriarakis stated the meeting did not seem very important, but that he was attending the meeting anyway. On the night of 7 April 2006, Kriarakis was driven by George "Pony" Jessome to Kellestine's farm. Upon entering Kellestine's barn, Sandham killed the Bandidos national treasurer, Luis "Chopper" Raposo. Both Kriarakis and Sinopoli attempted to flee in terror, but were shot by Kellestine. Kriarakis was shot in the abdomen while Sinopoli took a bullet in his right thigh.

On 28 December 2005, the American leadership of the Bandidos, who had grown increasingly unhappy with Muscedere's leadership, expelled him and his followers, charging that they were failing to make money, not paying their monthly membership dues because they did not have the money, and were going about business in a "sloppy" manner, leaving them wide open to prosecution. Kriarakis refused the demand to return his Bandidos patches to their world headquarters in Houston, Texas, writing on various Bandidos-related websites and forums that "Ontario is standing tall". In an email to the Bandidos American national secretary, William Sartelle, Kriarakis wrote "Give us a fair and reasonable chance". Kriarakis also called Sartelle "a peace of work", leading Sartelle to respond: "Yes, I am a piece of work and proud of who I am". A reprieve of sorts was won for the "no surrender crew" when Kriarakis, who had no criminal record, was able to visit Houston and made a good impression. Kriarakis was appointed president of Bandidos Canada, leading Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star, to write: "Somehow, the guy who was privately hoping to get out of the club altogether had been promoted to the top position in Canada". An unassertive man, he surrendered the title back to Muscedere. The status of the "no surrender crew" was somewhat ambiguous afterwards, perhaps because it would be humiliating for Houston to have "no surrender crew" wear their Bandido patches without Houston being able to do anything about it.

During the Taste of the Danforth festival in Toronto in August 2004, Atkinson met Kriarakis to tell him he was planning on leaving the Bandidos, saying that the national president Giovanni Muscedere had lost contact with reality, being short-sighted and ill-tempered; the national sergeant-at-arms Wayne "Wiener" Kellestine was dangerous, and the new Winnipeg chapter president Michael "Taz" Sandham seemed like a shady character. Atkinson wanted Kriarakis to follow him into the Outlaws, and when the latter refused, Atkinson remarked: "These guys are going to get you killed one day". Kriarakis felt a sense of loyalty plus what to recover the $5,000 he lent another member, Paul "Big Paulie" Sinopoli to help him buy a motorcycle. After Atkinson left the Bandidos, Krarakis replaced him as the national secretary. At the Bandido Christmas party in 2004, Kellestine became annoyed when the DJ kept playing rap music. He walked over to the DJ and pulled out his gun, saying: "Stop playing this nigger stuff. Play Lynyrd Skynyrd or something better than this shit or I'll blow your foot off". After that incident, the fiancée of Kriarakis started pressing him to leave the club. Kriarakis's wife Diane whom he married in 2005 often pressed him to quit the Bandidos, and he himself talked frequently of his desire to leave the club, but he stayed out of loyalty to his biker "brothers".

In June 2003, when Kriarakis was eating in a restaurant in Woodbridge where he was surrounded by a dozen Hells Angels and was ordered to go out to the parking lot to be beaten as Woodbridge was considered to be "their" territory. One of Kriarakis's friends called Lenti on his cellphone, who promptly raced off in his tow truck to help his biker "brother" while Kriarakis was badly beaten up in the parking lot. Upon arriving, Lenti was furious to see that Kriarakis had called the police to report the assault, telling him that outlaw bikers never report to the police a crime committed by other outlaw bikers, even against themselves. At a meeting at Fullager's house, Kriarakis was taken to task for his violation of the outlaw biker code, which just publicly humiliated the Toronto Bandido chapter. Muscedere told Kriarakis: "You should had fought like a man". Kriarakis left Woodbridge shortly afterwards to move into a luxury condominium in Toronto. Pointedly, he did not tell Muscedere or Lenti of the move. For a time, he worked in dairy farm in Camrose, Alberta in an apparent attempt to get away from the Bandidos.

Kriarakis was born in Toronto, the son of Greek immigrants and worked as a tow truck driver. Kriarakis excelled as a rugby player as a high school student. His nickname of "Crash" was related to his occupation as a truck tow driver. Kriarakis had no criminal record, refused to use drugs and shunned the company of strippers. James "Ripper" Fullager, who had been active in outlaw biking since the 1960s and whose home in Toronto was a favorite gathering place for the Bandidos, where Fullager recounted his past adventures and gave them advice. The Victoria Day weekend in May is the normal start of the riding season for outlaw bikers in Canada. For Victoria Day in 2003, it turned out that of the Bandidos only Giovanni "Boxer" Muscedere, Frank "Cisco" Lenti, Glenn "Wrongway" Atkinson and Kriarakis actually owned working Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which humiliated Lenti who bitterly complained about "bikers without bikes".