“Hostage is freed; cons hold 5 more,” Montreal Gazette. September 25, 1979. Page 01.
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By STEVE KOWCH
of The Gazette
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Ste. Anne-des-Plaines – A war of nerves continued this morning inside the maximum security Archambault Institute where four inmates led by a convicted murderer held five people hostage after freeing another hostage.

The convicts, armed with home made ice picks and an iron bar, are demanding their freedom.

Originally there were 17 other inmates caught up in the incident, but they were released about 5:40 p.m. in exchange for food.

The injured hostage, 25-year-old prison clerk Jacques Lecompte, was freed just before 10 p.m. in exchange for giving the convicts an outside telephone line so they could contact their families. Lecompte had been slightly injured when the four convicts seized control of the Institute’s school shortly before 9 a.m. yesterday.

‘He’s not under sedation for shock. The cut on the back of his beck is not considered serious,’ Laval Marchand, assistant warden of the institution, said after Lecompte was taken to hospital.

This is the second time Lecompte has been held hostage.

He was working at the school when two convicted murderers took six hostages on July 20, 1978.

Following that incident it was recommended that a catwalk be built above the school.

Is is the only section of the building where guards cannot patrol and see from above what is happening.

But 14 months later, little has been done to remedy the situation.

A senior Canadian Penitentiary Service (CPS) official told The Gazette last night that a decision to go ahead with the construction of the catwalk was made only recently.

‘At first we were thinking of moving the school to another area of the institute and didn’t want to spend money on renovations if the move went ahead.

‘But plans have been drawn up for the catwalk that will cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is now in the hands of the Public Works Department,’ said the official.

‘When this hostage taking incident is over, a decision will have to be reached on whether or not to reopen the school before the catwalk is built. It is obvious there is a security risk there,’ he said.

Still being held this morning after Lecompte’s release are guard Serge Geoffroy, 28, and three teachers, Lise Roger, 23, Michel Pare, 35, and John Brockman.

The remaining hostage was not identified because his family hasn’t been informed.

Their captors have been identified as Denis Racine, 22-year-old ring leader who is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Montreal teenager at La Ronde in 1976.

With him are Michel Boudreault, serving four years for armed robbery and escaping custody; Pierre Thibault, serving 11 years for attempted murder and armed robbery and Serge Payeur, serving a 10-year sentence for robbery with violence and kidnapping.

Shortly after the hostage taking occurred, Racine telephone reporter Claude Poirier at the CKVL radio station newsroom.

‘He called up and said ‘Hi Claude. Nice day out, eh? I just thought I would call to tell you that I’m holding six people hostage including a broad and a screw (guard) in the school at the Archambault Institute. I don’t want any violence but if they don’t negotiate seriously with me they’re going to be picking up heads out in the corridor.’

In the 1978 incident, Lecompte was held for three days by convicts Serge Roberge and Maurice Paquette.

Ironically, Paquette was in the school when yesterday’s hostage taking began.

He was one of 17 inmates attending classes when the four convicts who are not students at the school barged in wielding the ice picks and an iron bar.

After taking control of the school the convicts ordered the 17 inmate students on one side of the school and their six hostages on the other side where they are being held in one of the classrooms.

The hostage-takers piled up two rows of filing cabinets in front of the entrance.

Paquette refused to become involved in yesterday’s hostage-taking incident.

He surrendered last year after agreeing to be transferred to another penitentiary.

The 17 inmates were released in exchange for sandwiches, coffee, cigarettes, and some ‘292′ tablets (a powerful aspirin with codeine).

A request for 100 Valium valium was refused.

‘We decided to give them a dozen 292′s because we felt it would calm everyone down. They asked for the 292′s to ease the pain of those injured in the take-over of the school,’ said a senior CPS official last night.

‘The convicts were glad to get rid of the 17 others because it was becoming difficult to control them. They didn’t want to be involved with the hostage taking.

‘They realized they would have let them go when it became impossible to tie them up like they did with the other hostages,’ said the senior Ottawa official.

‘When the 17 inmates were released some of them told us that Lecompte was in pretty rough shape. He was injured and very nervous.’

‘We decided to try and negotiate his release.’