TORONTO - Rural southwestern Ontario is generally known for sprawling fields of sweet corn, soybean and even rhubarb, but three years ago a grisly scene disrupted the idyllic calm of one community.
Neatly arranged in one farmer's lot in the community of Shedden, Ont., were four vehicles, stuffed with the bodies of eight men with bullet holes in their heads.
Following the discovery on April 8, 2006, an aerial photograph circulated widely through the media depicted one of the slain men, his body curled in the trunk of a car, wrists pinned in front of him.
The victims were said to be connected with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, an U.S.-based outlaw motorcycle gang.
Killed were six full-fledged Bandido members: George Kriarakis, 28, John Muscedere, 48, Luis Manny Raposo, 41, Frank Salerno, 43, Paul Sinopoli, 30, and George Jesso, 52. Muscedere was believed to be the gang's Canadian president.
Police soon announced they believed the backyard of residents in this tiny community, just west of London, had been made a dumping ground.
On Monday, jury selection is to begin at a London superior court for the trial of six men accused in the killings, which was the biggest mass slaying in modern Ontario history.
The six accused, arrested more than two years ago, are each charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.
Charged are Wayne Kellestine, 59, and Frank Mather, 35, both of Dutton-Dunwich, Ont., Brett Gardiner, 24, of no fixed address, Michael Sandham, 39, Marcelo Aravena, 32, and Dwight Mushey, 40, all of Winnipeg.
The trial is expected to last six months.
