Hit Man security

 

School security guard was 5-time killer

Last Updated Tue, 19 Oct 2004 15:45:58 EDT

 

MONTREAL - A former mafia hit man, on the run from authorities since 1999, has been found working as a security guard at one of Montreal's most reputable schools.

 

For nine months, R?al Simard was employed under a false name at Coll?ge Jean de Br?beuf, a private high school in downtown Montreal that included former prime minister Pierre Trudeau and his sons as alumni.

 

 

"He went to the cemetery and picked up a name of a guy about the same age," said Michel Auger, a crime reporter with the Journal de Montr?al. "That way he got a passport, driver's licence and all the proper papers."

 

School officials learned his true identity from police on Friday.

 

Police say Simard held several jobs under other assumed names, including a stint as chauffeur for Richard Holden, former member of the provincial legislature for Westmount .

 

In 1986, Simard admitted to murdering five people in Montreal and Toronto on behalf of the Cotroni organized crime family.

 

His testimony eventually led to the conviction of Frank Cotroni for a 1981 murder.

 

Montreal police say Simard disappeared five years ago after he violated his parole by working and collecting welfare at the same time.

Coll?ge Jean-de-Br?beuf

 

Authorities managed to track him down after he gave a television interview last year.

 

Administrators at the college said they had no reason to suspect Simard was anyone other than who he said he was when he applied for the security job.

 

They said they did not find anything unusual when they ran criminal record checks on the name he gave them, Charles Bouchard.

 

Written by CBC News Online staff

:lol