'Brothers' reunite in 25th anniversary of book's release

Twenty-five years ago, Conspiracy of Brothers landed on bookshelves everywhere.

The true crime classic was a best-seller, winning awards for best non-fiction crime book.

Written by Sudbury's own Mick Lowe, the novel recently saw its rebirth. On May 26, Lowe was flanked by real-life characters Rick Sauvé, Merv Blaker and Gary Comeau as he signed copies of the 25th anniversary reprint of the book.

Sauvé, Blaker and Comeau were all part of the story — the story about the grizzly murder of Bill Matiyek in a Port Hope bar by a member of Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club.

Matiyek was having a drink in the bar on the night of Oct. 18, 1978 when a gunman suddenly walked up and fired three bullets into his head.

“Members of the rival bike club Satan’s Choice, who were in the bar, quickly vanished," according to Lowe's website. "Was it a cold-blooded gangland-style execution, as the Crown Attorney and police would argue, or the compulsive act of a single gunman? Was the trial that followed driven by persistent police work or a police frame-up? Did the bikers conspire to murder or did the law conspire to convict them? Guilt by association, unreliable eyewitness testimony, suppression of evidence, botched police procedures — call the results justice or call them revenge, the question remains: Who really killed Bill Matiyek, and why?”

The Random House Canada reissue of Conspiracy of Brothers includes a 6,000-word update containing exclusive new information regarding the central figures in the case, which Lowe believes to be “arguably the most egregious miscarriage of justice in the annals of Canadian jurisprudence” – then and now.

Copies of the reissue are now available. For more information visit micklowe.ca. Stay tuned for his next project — a Sudbury story circa 1960.