Eddie Melo

Eduardo Manuel de Melo (31 July 1960 – 6 April 2001), nicknamed "Eddie the Hurricane", was a Portuguese-born Canadian boxer and gangster.

Boxer Melo was born in São Miguel in the Azores archipelago, but grew up in Toronto, where his father worked in construction. Melo arrived in Canada on 5 October 1966. He recalled about his youth in a working-class neighborhood: "I was always fighting. If I had a black eye, I didn't put on dark glasses to hide it. If I got a little scratch and come home bleeding, my mother would go crazy. But the way I figured it, you can't give pain to somebody else and not expect to get a little bruised yourself". In 1971, his lifelong obsession with boxing started after he watched the famous Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali fight of 8 March 1971 on his family's television. Melo made his debut as a professional boxer in Montreal on 7 March 1978 at the age of 17. Melo's boxing style gave him the nickname of "The Hurricane". Spider Jones said of Melo: "Eddie Melo filled the Montreal Forum at 18 years old. His explosive power punching style made him on one of Canada’s most exciting fighters of our time". The journalist James Kernaghan described the young Melo: "He was fast, a terrific puncher and he could take a punch. Growing into a light heavyweight (175 pounds) he was still mowing them down. Of any Canadian boxer of the past 50 years, the guy who looked like a young Anthony Quinn had world champion written all over him." The hitman showed the photographs of the crash test dummy and was paid for the supposed murder, leading to those who had paid him being charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Melo's daughter, Jessica, who was studying criminology at Simon Fraser University at the time of his murder told the media: "He was the most amazing father, friend, confidante, supporter, everything. I couldn't have asked for a better person to be my father...I was with him for nineteen years. I went everywhere with him".

Gagné was promised to be paid $75,000 for killing Melo. I his testimony during the DaSilva trial, Gagné claims to not have been paid the amount promised to him. Gagné was a career criminal from Montreal who was on parole for armed robbery when he took the contract on Melo's life. On 30 September 2003, Gagné pledged guilty to second-degree murder after striking up a "sweetheart deal" and a promise of financial security by the Crown Attorney Steve Sheriff and the Crowns star witness Fernando Ribeiro. Gagné was sentenced to life in prison, being eligible for parole after 12 years in exchange for testifying against his employer. A deal that the Crown and his witness Ribeiro contrived. The Melo family had been forewarned by the detectives NOT to trust Ribeiro. Gagné received funds in his canteen from Ribeiro along with his wife Maria. In total Gagné has received $80,000.00. In 2016 Gagné married and Ribeiro also provided the wedding rings and an envelope containing an undisclosed amount of money. The police believe that Melo's murder was linked to a "historical conflict within the 'Ndrangheta (in Ontario) and that the organization has had with other Italian criminalized groups (in Canada)." In 2005, a Toronto businessman, Manuel Dasilva, went on trial with the Crown alleging that he hired Gagné to kill Melo. On 18 February 2022, Gagné was denied full parole, but was granted limited release.

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