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“Police last night were working on the theory that a huge bomb blast in a downtown high-rise was an act of revenge for the Nov. 13 killing of reputed cocaine dealer Frank Peter Ryan,” we reported on Nov. 26, 1984. Better known as Dunie, Ryan had been slain at a motel on St-Jacques St.

The previous day, at 4:10 a.m., a bomb had killed four men in a ninth-floor apartment at 1645 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., between Guy and St-Mathieu streets. Eight other people were injured, though none seriously, we said. The dead included Paul April, who was believed to have been responsible for Ryan’s death. Also being considered was the possibility that the men had been making a bomb that exploded prematurely.

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The blast blew down every interior wall in seven of the eight apartments on the north side of the ninth floor and severed cables suspending the building’s two elevators, causing both to plummet to the basement, we reported.