Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club Croitoru was notorious for his legal history. After his income dwindled following his departure from the WWF in 1991, Croitoru wrestled in what were described as "down-market" leagues. He had been selling illegal
steroids for a number of years, and through another steroid dealer known to the media only as "Jimmy Rich" (a court-ordered
pseudonym, as "Jimmy Rich" is now living in
witness protection after turning Crown's evidence), he came into contact with the
Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club (SCMC), an
outlaw motorcycle club. After joining SCMC's
Toronto chapter, Croitoru was allowed to found a new chapter in Hamilton, with himself as the chapter president, in 1995. Croitoru had gained the approval of SCMC national president
Bernie Guindon to have his club return to Hamilton for the third time; the first SCMC Hamilton chapter had "patched over" to join the
Outlaws in 1977, while the second SCMC Hamilton chapter had disbanded itself following the murders of two of its members by the Outlaws in August 1985. Croitoru's notoriety as a wrestler in Hamilton allowed him to attract many recruits for his chapter. The clubhouse for the Hamilton chapter was located in a former convenience store at 269 Lottridge Street, about six blocks away from the Outlaws clubhouse at 402 Birch Avenue. The Outlaws Hamilton chapter had been an SCMC chapter until 1977, so the choice of location was considered to be a provocation. The decision to open a third SCMC chapter in Hamilton was regarded as an insult to
Mario Parente, the president of the Outlaws' Hamilton chapter. One policeman stated: "Oh, they hated Parente. And they knew it would piss him off to have another club in what he considered to be his town." The pool table for the SCMC Hamilton clubhouse was donated by Pasquale "Fat Pat" Musitano, the
boss of the
Musitano crime family. Detective Sergeant Len Isnor, the head of the
Ontario Provincial Police's (OPP) Anti-Biker Enforcement Unit, was not impressed with Croitoru, saying: "After a while, you can tell who's cut out for the life and who isn't. I could tell right away that he wouldn't make it. Some of the guys would talk to you. If there was a guy who was really into bikes, you could talk bikes, but K-9 [Croitoru] would talk about anything, especially himselfhe was just stupid that way." Croitoru was especially close to
Michel Dubé, the president of SCMC
Sudbury chapter, who was considered by Isnor to be the most dangerous outlaw biker in Ontario. Isnor recalled that he once talked to a biker and convicted murderer who was terrified of Dubé. Both Croitoru and Dubé purchased the cocaine that their chapters sold from the
Hells Angels' "mother chapter" in
Montreal. Guindon had ruled that SCMC members were free to do business with the Angels.
Richard "Rick" Vallée of the Angels' Nomad chapter sold the majority of the drugs purchased by SCMC's Hamilton and Sudbury chapters, which being new chapters did not have the same established drug-dealing connections that the older SCMC chapters had.
Lorne Edgar Campbell, a long-time member of SCMC, described Croitoru as being of limited intelligence but also being a fierce competitor would not accept any defeats, which Campbell found highly ironic given his previous work as a wrestling jobber. After the two men met at a party hosted by Dubé, Campbell defeated Croitoru several times in
Indian leg-wrestling. Croitoru spent the rest of the party pestering Campbell to explain how he won, leading him to recall: "He wouldn't leave me alone. That night, he was like a dog following me around." Campbell finally explained: "As soon as you hook, you roll." At point, Croitoru had a rematch and won, leading Campbell to state: "When I showed him, he almost broke my back." Croitoru was arrested for
smuggling cocaine and served ten months in prison. Soon after, he was convicted of
assault and was given a sentence of seven months. Croitoru seemed surprised that Dubé had decided to bomb the police station, shouting on his phone (which unknown to him had been tapped by the police): "What do you mean the police station? It was supposed to be the Solid Gold!" Croitoru, Dubé and Juretta were arrested and charged, but the trial did not begin until almost two years later.
Kenneth Murdock, a
hitman, has claimed he was hired by the Musitano family to kill Croitoru but instead chose to spare his life. Murdock was given a list of four men to kill by his employers, Pasquale "Fat Pat" Musitano and his younger brother Angelo "Ang" Musitano. Murdock was to kill
Johnny "the Enforcer" Papalia, the boss of the Papalia Mafia family;
Carmen Barillaro, the right-hand man to Papalia;
Mario Parente, the president of the Outlaws' Hamilton chapter, and finally Croitoru. The Musitano brothers wanted Croitoru killed because of his connections with the Hells Angels as they feared that he might allow the Angels to establish more influence in Hamilton at their expense. At the time, the Hells Angels had no chapters in Ontario, though their national president
Walter Stadnick lived in Hamilton. Additionally, Croitoru had started to work for the rival Luppino family, which "Fat Pat" Musitano regarded as a betrayal. In September 1998, Croitoru was brought to trial for his role in the bombing. Police suspected that the murders were in response to Lynn Gilbank's assistance in getting William and Angie Smith into a
witness protection program after William Smith gave the police information about the Gravelle crime family. Croitoru, who had several contacts within the Gravelle family (including a contract to kill police inspector Rick Wills, who was investigating the Gravelles), was a suspect in the investigation and had his phones
tapped during the investigation. While awaiting his murder trial, he ran a home renovation business until he was unable to secure a bank loan to cover business expenses. Following this action by the attorney general, both Croitoru and Andre Gravelle announced plans to file lawsuits against people involved with the prosecution. Gravelle sued for $25 million, and Croitoru sought $15 million for wrongful imprisonment and
malicious prosecution. Hamilton Police Services was ordered to pay Gravelle $10,000 for court costs. In June 2006, Croitoru also pleaded guilty to the charges of extortion and violating the terms of his bail. As a result, he was forced to forfeit $10,000 of the bail money. The eldest of the Gravelle brothers, Paul, had retired to Mexico. Gravelle told the media: "I've just gone out of it altogether now. I've retired. It's no secret, yes, I was a drug importer. Mostly hash oil and marijuana." When asked if he ordered Croitoru to kill the Gilbanks, Gravelle said: "No. That's not true. Our family is not killers...That's beyond us to do a thing like that. That's a despicable act. That's a cowardly act".
Life in Vancouver Croitoru lived in
Vancouver,
British Columbia, with his
common-law wife Tracy Edwards from 2007 onward. He also had a brief acting career appearing in a movie titled
Oklahoma Smugglers, in which he portrayed a wrestler, and in such television shows as
Reaper. Croitoru told the media that he loved Vancouver, saying: "It's beautiful out here, oh my God; the ocean, the mountains. Hamilton makes me puke now when I think about it; all those years wasted sitting there in that garbage, you know what I mean?" About his new profession as a bodyguard, he stated: "I love it! I dress up nice, eat the best food, just hang around and make sure nobody screws with these people". Croitoru stated that he was writing his autobiography, saying: "This will be a bestseller. I've been on every extreme in the world-the bikers, I was a wrestler, Major Junior A hockey player for the Kitchener Rangers-I've done a lot of things people can only dream about". Afterwards, Croitoru was reported to be looking for a ghostwriter to complete his autobiography. Although he moved to Vancouver to get away from his underworld associates, he proved unable to resist the allure of the gangster subculture, and soon fell in with the
United Nations gang active in the Fraser river valley. Charged alongside Croitoru on charges of conspiracy to commit murder were United Nations leader Barzan Tilli-Choli (aged 26), Daniel Russell (aged 27), Karwan Saed (aged 32), Soroush Ansari (aged 28) Dilun Heng (aged 25), Young Sung (aged 27), and Aram Ali (aged 23); Croitoru at the age of 45 stood out in the group. On January 24, 2011, Croitoru was charged with first degree murder in connection with the execution of Jonathan Barber and the attempted murder of Barber's girlfriend Vicky King, then 17, in
Burnaby on May 9, 2008. In July 2013, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, and the murder charges were stayed.
Final years In January 2015, he applied for parole, stating that he had agreed to help with the murders to impress members of the United Nations gang, but that he did not intend to kill anyone. The application was denied. Another parole condition was that he was not to enter Hamilton under any circumstances. Croitoru lived at the Keele Community Correctional Centre in Toronto, which was the only halfway house in Canada that was willing to accept him. In his last years, Croitoru learned that the original spelling of his surname in Romania was Kroitoru, and started to use that spelling. Despite the withdrawal of the murder charges in 2006, the police saw Croitoru as the prime suspect in the murder of the Gilbanks, and continued to investigate him, much to his vexation. One outlaw biker who asked not to be named stated: "He just became a nobody. Lost all of his fame. Lost all of his clout...Nobody wants to end up in the Keele Centre. The type of guys who go there are guys who can't go anywhere else...He had seen his better days." ==Death==