On the evening of Tuesday, January 9, 1979, Lucien Lambert, 52, was in a cafe in Rosemont, near the centre of Montréal island, taking a break with another driver. Cafe manager Carmen Bérilla-Legris asked him to drive her home to Longueuil, about 20 minutes away across the St. Lawrence River. Ms Bérilla-Legris was in the habit of taking the day's receipts home with her, amounting on average to $400 or $500. She was always a bit nervous about this but tonight she had been frightened by a mysterious phone call from a woman who hung up as soon as she answered. Mr. Lambert was a regular customer and an old friend who drove for La Salle Taxi for 25 years. He was the father of two teenage boys. Ms Bérilla-Legris lived on the thirteenth floor of an upscale apartment on Joliette Street. As soon as the elevator door opened on the thirteenth floor she knew something was wrong. All the lights were out in the corridor. She instinctively shrank back and Mr. Lambert jokingly asked her what she was doing. At that moment they were confronted by two thugs, a pair of brothers aged 26 and 24. They had been tipped off about the cafe manager's habit by an old girlfriend who once worked at the restaurant. Somehow they found their way into the building with a pistol, a shotgun and a hunting knife. Things went awry when a neighbour, Dr. Ikram Morcos, came out of his apartment with a sack of garbage, heading for the garbage chute. The younger brother shouted at him not to interfere. Dr. Morcos immediately raised his hands and, according to Ms Bérilla-Legris, said "I don't have any business here. This is none of my business." Next she heard a loud cry and then two or three shots. When she started screaming one of the robbers told her to stop or he would shoot her too. Mr. Lambert told her to stay calm. One of the robbers demanded her apartment keys but the other said "Let's get out of here." The two victims were herded into the elevator but when they reached the main floor the cafe manager was able to get away and took refuge in the caretaker's apartment. The robbers took Mr. Lambert away with them as a hostage. Several hours later Mr. Lambert was found in a patch of waste ground at the foot of Rue Cartier in Pointe-Claire, near the south end of Montréal Island. He was discovered by a truck driver who came to dump a load of snow. Mr. Lambert had been stabbed and shot to death. Two shotgun shells were found nearby. Mr. Lambert's blue-grey 1976 Ford Granada was not found until Saturday, January 13. It was a little further up Cartier Avenue from where Mr. Lambert wa found. There were traces of blood on the car floor. The two killers were well known to the police and immediately became suspects. Warrants were issued for their arrest three days after the murder and their photos released to the media. After another three days of seeing their names and pictures everywhere the brothers walked into a police station accompanied by their lawyer and surrendered on Monday, January 15. Mr. Lambert's funeral was held on Tuesday, January 16 the day after the brothers turned themselves in. About 1,000 people attended, including an estimated 400 cab drivers. Cabs with black penants on their aerials joined the procession. An orange floral display in the shape of the dome light from Mr. Lambert's taxi was carried in the procession and laid on his coffin at the grave site in Côte des Neiges cemetery. The actual dome light from his taxi was buried with him and La Salle Taxi announced that his longtime number, 445, would be retired from service. In an interview, Mr. Lambert's widow Claudette gave vent to her grief and anger. "What revolts me is that Lucien's murderers will probably be sentenced to prison for life, but could be out after eight or ten years, maybe to kill some other family's father. If hanging still existed, these people wouldn't kill so easily. "If I was in the judges' place, I would give the same punishment to my husband's murderers as they gave Lucien so savagely. I would drag them by the heels from Longueuil to Pointe-Claire, then I would stab and shoot them. "Father Paul Aquin says we must forgive but it's impossible for us, for me and my children, at the moment. Perhaps people will think I'm a bad person, but the murderers didn't think of his wife and children when they killed him without pity." [Next column]

Claudette Lambert at Lucien's funeral with sons Michel (left) and Martin (right). Photo by George Cree. (Source: Montreal Gazette, January 16, 1979, p. 2 via Google News) Father Aquin was Montréal's "taxi priest" who ran a mobile chapel for taxi drivers (see André Goudreau). Mrs. Lambert heard the news of Lucien's death from her sister. "It's horrible to give that kind of news to a wife and kids," said Rachel Chouinard. "I hesitated for a while and then told them that Lucien was the driver who was killed. A few minutes later his name was revealed on television." The coroner's inquest was held on Friday, January 19, where Ms Bérilla-Legris described the robbery and death of Dr. Morcos. Both brothers refused to testify. At the end of the inquest they were found criminally responsible for the deaths of Dr. Morcos and Mr. Lambert and were bound over for trial which began on February 13. Initially charged with first-degree murder, the brothers pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were each sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 17 years. The brothers claimed the killings occurred accidentally or in self defence. Dr. Morcos raised his hands, but struck the younger brother who, trying to push him away, had the gun go off accidentally (two or three times, according to Ms Bérilla-Legris). Mr. Lambert, after begging "Don't kill me, guys!" somehow got the hunting knife away from the younger brother and stabbed him, whereupon the brothers, in self defence, stabbed Mr. Lambert several times in the kidneys and fired two shotgun blasts into his neck. In June, 1992 the older brother, now 39, walked away from the minimum-security Montée St. François Institute in Laval, which had no surrounding walls or fences. He had been transferred there the same month after a year in medium security. Penitentiary officials said that this was normal procedure in preparing convicts for release. Police warned that the fugitive might be armed and should be considered dangerous. Mr. Lambert's death once again raised the issue of safety measures to protect drivers, particularly the installation of shields. Guy Meunier, proprietor of General Taximètre, the only Montréal garage installing shields, said that only about 15 taxis in the city were equipped with them. Mr. Meunier said that he got inquiries about shields when a murder or series of attacks frightened drivers, but as time went on the fear wore off. Since Mr. Lambert's death he had installed two shields and was to install another the following week. He ordered the shields and other fittings from New York. Mr. Meunier said the main objections to shields were the cost, the separation of drivers from their passengers, and the inconvenience of shields when taxi drivers also used their taxis as personal cars. La Salle Taxi officials said they were going to discuss the possibility of subsidizing the cost of shields for owner-drivers who wanted to install them. Dr. Ikram Morcos, 43, had recently arrived in Canada from his native Egypt and was a research scientist for Hydro-Québec. He was the author or co-author of several books and had thirty or more articles published in research journals. His funeral took place in Edmonton where his brother lived. He is buried in Glenwood Memorial Gardens, Edmonton.