Hitman Gérald Gallant - Canada's most prolific killer

Before Frédérick Silva, the record for killings in Canada belonged to Gérald Gallant. Gallant admitted to 28 murders and 12 attempted murders between 1978 and 2003.

Gérald Gallant's hallmark was to kill with shots to the head, neck and chest.

Gérald Gallant is 5'-8" with a thin frame and a stutter. The unassuming hit man admitted killing 29, including a bystander, between 1978 and 2003, making him the most prolific assassin in Canadian history.

A young Gallant worked for West-End Gang kingpin Raymond Desfosses, who gave him his first contract in 1980. Gérald Gallant didn’t hesitate to kill anyone, but he had his standards.

Gallant killed often through the ’80s and ’90s, with Desfosses paying $10k per hit.

Desfosses hired him to kill Gilles Cote in 1985. "I saw that he had a little kid next him," Gallant said. "(My partner) got ready to shoot. I told him ‘whoa, whoa! He has a little kid, you understand me? We never do that!' We’ll come back tomorrow!’

Gallant was true to his word and Cote was riddled with bullets the next day.

Work was plentiful by 1997, with the biker war pitting the Hells Angels against the Rock Machine. In 1998 he eliminated five, including Paul Cotroni Jr., son of deposed mob boss Frank Cotroni.

Gallant confessed and named names, putting away 11 gangsters.

The 2000 murder of Bob Savard, right-hand man to HA boss Maurice "Mom" Boucher, was a sign Gallant’s iron nerve was cracking. His associate and two bystanders were injured in a hail of gunfire. Gallant killed two more between 2000 and 2003, and hatched a failed plot to kill Boucher. Gallant killed the wrong man during a hit in Ste-Adele in 2001 and left behind DNA evidence. It was the end. In 2008, Gallant received 48 life sentences for murder and attempted murder.

He won’t be eligible for parole until 2033, by which time he will be 83 years old.