The police and media usually referred to the Loners under Kellestine as the London Loners or the St. Thomas Loners, but the gang always called themselves the Chatham Loners because their clubhouse was located in that city. The "Globe and Mail" reported in 2004 about the Hells Angels' push into south-western Ontario: "From 1999 to 2002, when the conflict reached a peak, beatings, brawls and shootings became common". In October 1999, the Hells Angels sponsored an attempt to murder Kellestine after he vetoed an offer from the Hells Angels to join their club. The Hells Angels offered to have the Loners "patch over" to become Hells Angels, but Kellestine refused the offer, expelling all of the Loners who wanted to join the Hells Angels and had one pro-Hells Angels Loner beaten and pistol-whipped before he was expelled. One of the Loners, Jimmy Coates, had a brother, John, who was a member of the Sherbrooke chapter of the Hells Angels, and together the Coates brothers worked against Kellestine, attempting to foment a mutiny against Kellestine's leadership of his chapter of the Loners. On 22 October 1999, in a drive-by shooting, a pro-Hells Angels Loner Davie "Dirty" McLeish and a Quebec Hells Angel from Sherbrooke, Philippe "Philbilly" Gastonguay, opened fire with a shotgun on Kellestine, who was sitting in his truck at a stop at the only intersection in Iona Station. McLeish and Gastonguay put several bullets into Kellestine's truck, but failed to hit him. After the assassination attempt, the police searched Kellestine's farm and discovered he had some 40 odd guns and a rocket launcher at his farm, which led him to be charged with violating Canada's gun control laws.