by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Nicknames can be instructive. For example, one can understandably not expect the same things from a “Swifty” that one might from somebody known as “The Rocket.” So when Gary Francoeur rechristened himself “Wiseguy Wally,” it didn’t come as a huge shock that he’s become a self-appointing online archivist of local organized crime clans.

On his site, www.montrealmafia.com, which he updates every Friday morning, the Concordia journalism student fleshes out the misdeeds of legendary local mobsters and lesser-known gang players who thrive in this, one of the most fascinating canvasses of local crime. Although he covers bikers, street gangs and Italian mafioso, Wally’s abiding interest remains the West End Gang, as they’re now called. “There’s less of them out there and you hardly hear anything about them.”

The group went on to control billions of dollars in drugs imported into the port. “The old guys grew up in poverty and this was a way out of it,” says Francoeur, whose short bios include one of a certain Danny “One-a-Day” Pelansky, a particularly tenacious West End Gang member from the ’60s. “Certain people wanted him out of the way so they shot him in the head three times and put him in the trunk for a couple of days. It took three attempts to finally get him.”

Of all the local criminals he’s studied and chronicled, Francoeur’s favourite remains Frank “Duney” Ryan, who was murdered 15 years ago at Nittolo’s Motel (where the new Loblaws now stands on St-Jacques W.). “His rise to the top is pretty intriguing,” he says. “He got there in spite of being English in a crime world dominated by the French and Italians.”

Francoeur, who confesses that his mother “doesn’t like the site,” eventually plans to scribble a book dealing with local crime, but don’t expect him to write about it with admiration. “Never in any of my profiles do I ever glorify their actions.” :