Richard Blass was a notorious Canadian gangster known for both his brutality and his ability to evade death (earning him the moniker ' The Cat'). During the 1960s, Blass would become heavily involved in the Montreal mafia; working as a hit man for the West End Gang and then branching off and forming his own criminal gang. Using intimidation and increasingly violent means, Blass would wage war on the many established Italian groups active in Montreal.

Blass' ascension through the ranks of the criminal underworld would be halted during a failed 1969 bank robbery. While fleeing the bank, Blass shot a policeman before being arrested. A crime which would earn him a forty year prison sentence.

During the 5th year of his sentence, he successfully carried out a plan to have a female visitor smuggle firearms into the facility. Using the weapons, Blass and a group of conspiring prisoners would make their escape. Shortly after earning another chance at freedom, Blass set out on a mission to get revenge on his two accomplices of the failed 1969 bank robbery that went on to testify against him. When he did find them, it would be at the Gargantua Night Club in Downtown Montreal. In a hail of gunfire, Blass would execute both men.

In the months after this execution, Blass became increasingly concerned that witnesses to the execution in the Gargantua would eventually speak to the police, leading to a more aggressive search for the escaped prisoner (and another lengthy prison sentence). His method of dealing with this problem would result in one of the deadliest mass murders Canada has experienced.