Frank Shoofey

Franklin Dimitrios Shoofey (1941 – 15 October 1985) was a prominent criminal lawyer in Canada who was active in the Quebec Liberal Party. In a still-unsolved murder, he was shot to death while working late at his Montreal law office.

Early history and professional background Shoofey was born in Montreal and grew up in a downtown working-class neighbourhood. Shoofey's parents were Lebanese Christian immigrants. His mother wanted to name him after the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom she greatly admired, but the local Greek Orthodox priest told her it was obligatory to name a child after a saint, hence the name Franklin Dimitrios. When he was aged seventeen, his father died and he had to work to support his mother and put himself through school. Shoofey sold encyclopedias, insurance and furnaces as a law student. He failed his bar examinations for civil law, which led to switch over to studying criminal law.! He studied at McGill University, obtaining a BA in 1961 and a BCL in 1964. He eventually became a partner in the law firm of Shoofey, Morneau, Blais, Rolland, Pariseau and Poupart. A flamboyant, colorful character, Shoofey soon became one of the best known lawyers in Montreal.

Shoofey admitted that 90% of his clients were guilty of the crimes they had been accused of, but argued that everyone deserved a defense counsel. Shoofey told a journalist: "Some crimes revolt me. I won't take it if it's a senseless offense, like the murder or rape of a little child. No one forces us to take a case. But if you take it, you must do your best...Many lawyers don't. Some take a client's money and don't show up in court. Any lawyer who gets threats from the underworld usually deserves them". Shoofey was a workaholic who enjoyed working 16 to 18 hours per day for his clients, saying that his clients were entitled to expect him to work as hard as possible for their acquittal. Shoofey was known for his tendency to grandstand in court and for "withering" cross-examinations of witnesses for the prosecution on the stand. An ambitious man, Shoofey wanted to enter politics as he saw himself as the champion of the poor, and viewed his legal career as a stepping-stone to a political career.

Underworld clients Shoofey's clients included gangster Richard Blass, who was killed in a police raid in 1975, and four men apprehended for the 1978 murder of Montreal "Godfather" Paolo Violi. Shoofey later wrote a book about Blass, and told The Gazette newspaper (Montreal) that many of his clients: "were a special group of people living by their own rules … in their own closed society".

Hostage negotiator Police often used Shoofey to help negotiate in hostage situations. After a prolonged stand-off, the gunman released his hostage and gave himself up to police.

Henry Morgentaler and Reggie Chartrand In the two months before his death, Shoofey began an action against famous abortion provider Dr. Henry Morgentaler. The action was sought by client Reggie Chartrand, an ex-boxer, staunch Quebec separatist, and an activist opposed to abortion. Chartrand wanted abortion charges laid based on evidence contained in two National Film Board productions, which allegedly showed Morgentaler performing an abortion. Chartrand continued the effort after Shoofey's death, but failed when justice of the peace Michel Breton decided against laying charges.

Brother André's heart In 1974, Shoofey played a role in recovering the preserved heart of Brother André Bessette (now Saint André Bessette), which had been stolen from Saint Joseph's Oratory. The religious relic was missing for more than a year when Shoofey received an anonymous telephone call telling him its location. Shoofey and police went to the basement of an apartment building where they found a reliquary containing the heart in a locker, the seal on the reliquary still unbroken. At the time, Brother André was being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church, his canonization eventually occurring on October 17, 2010.

Advocate for the poor Shoofey often aided the poor, sponsoring Christmas benefits, raising money for families of crime victims, and opening a community centre that provided job information and legal aid.

Murder Late on Tuesday, October 15, 1985, an unknown assailant murdered Shoofey in the hallway outside his fifth-floor law office, shooting him multiple times. Grant himself went into hiding for a period of time after Shoofey's death, fearing his own life to be in danger.

One of Shoofey's law partners who did not wished to be named stated "We all thought that it [Shoofey's murder] was because of his involvement with the Hiltons", whom she called "a really bad family". She added: "I think their [the Hiltons] involvement with Don King led to Frank's killing". However, she added that unlike his rival Sidney Leithman that Shoofey was not involved in organized crime, saying that Shoofey "can be reproached for a lot of things" such as wearing "a terrible toupee", but that he was "a health nut who ate grapes and other health food". She stated that Shoofey did not abuse drugs and was not involved in the sort of shady dealings that Leithman engaged in.

The hitman Réal Simard accused Cotroni of ordering Shoofey's murder. According to Simard, Cotroni-who was faced with an extradition request from the United States to face charges in Connecticut for trafficking in heroin-and he wanted to sell the Hilton contract to King to raise some money for his legal defense as his lawyer Leithman fought the extradition request in the courts ferociously. Simard stated that Cotroni had wanted to sell the Hilton contract to King as early as 1983, but that Shoofey was the main obstacle who kept blocking the deal, saying the King contract was an exploitative one and Cotroni was not acting in the best interests of the Hiltons. Simard stated that Shoofey was killed because some "very powerful people" in Montreal wanted King to have the Hilton contract and that: "Frank Shoofey was very disturbing for them. Because he was helping the Hilton brothers". Simard also put forward another theory, saying: "The first one is the boxers. The second one is about a lawyer who was involved in some, well, love affair. Who apparently put a contract on Shoofey's life". Commander André Bouchard of the Montreal police stated in 2010: "...Cotroni and his gang had nothing with his [Shoofey's] killing...It was something else completely different. We know who killed him. But he's in a jail right now and he'll be in jail for 25 years, because we got him on something else". Bouchard stated that Shoofey was killed for "the craziest reason in the world. Everybody thinks it's because of the boxing, but that's bullshit".

In an obituary in the Globe & Mail, Kirk Makin wrote: "Mr. Shoofey was a shameless publicity hound, but also a social benefactor of the highest order. His presence was a must on radio talk shows. He played Santa Claus at Christmas parties for urchins and bought sports equipment for inner-city children".

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