Montreal Gazette

Angels of death
May 6, 2006

"The Hells Angels have control from production to distribution, to brokering and smuggling," Insp. Paul Nadeau, head of an RCMP drug enforcement team, told the authors of this true-life investigative thriller.

And just as their stake in the drug industry has mushroomed, the Hells Angels themselves have developed into a well-integrated industry, expanding from a single chapter in San Bernardino, Calif., in 1957 to a present-day network of about 2,500 "full-patch" members in 25 countries. And while the early Hells Angels were easily identifiable rowdies sporting goatees and an attitude, today's members are just as likely to wear pinstripe suits, and include stockbrokers, airline pilots and lawyers.

There aren't many writers who can boast the background, contacts or knowledge needed to write about the rise of this criminal empire. William Marsden, a senior investigative reporter with this newspaper, and Montreal author and documentary producer Julian Sher are among the very few. Their previous collaboration about bikers, The Road to Hell, won the 2004 Arthur Ellis award for best non-fiction work on crime from the Crime Writers of Canada, and a Book of the Year award from the News Group Canada. And there is every reason to expect that this gripping, personal and ambitious follow-up will be just as well received.

Because this is one hell of a story.

In their last book, the authors wrote about bikers in Canada. This time, they expand their scope to trace the global expansion of outlaw motorcycle gangs and the responses of different police forces and legal systems. But rather than getting bogged down in facts and administrative jargon, they use plain, sometimes harsh, language to draw vivid portraits of the people involved, on both sides of the legal equation.

Meet Sonny Barger, the charismatic pioneer of the Hells Angels movement, whose Oakland chapter began supplying PCP (appropriately nicknamed "angel dust") to hippies during the Summer of Love, in 1967. That paved the way for the gang's involvement in the fantastically lucrative methamphetamine trade.
It was Barger's idea to trademark the club's death's-head logo and develop the charitable, feel-good image the gang tries to cultivate to this day.

Then there is biker George Christie, whom police dubbed the Al Capone of Ventura, Calif. Convicted on a single, measly drug charge after a massive sting operation, he claimed actors Mickey Rourke and David Carradine were among his friends.

The overseas organizers include Big Willem Boxtel in Amsterdam, the ultraviolent street punk who used to receive state funds to subsidize his motorcycle club, and Paul "the Butcher" de Vries, who earned his nickname for chopping up dead rivals.

One of the book's chapters, set in Australia, reads like an action novel, as a retired police officer's rash deed sparks bombings and murder and general mayhem. Similar madness unfolds in Quebec, Denmark, Arizona and Laughlin, Nev., where in 2002, rival gang members had the kind of bloody showdown usually seen in Westerns.

The stories of innocent victims are also told here, including that of Cynthia Garcia, the 44-year-old mother of six who was killed for "talking back" and resisting bikers' sexual advances, and Dallas Grondalski, a tiny girl whose throat was slashed after her parents were murdered.

Especially compelling are the profiles of the intrepid few with nerve enough to mingle with the bikers undercover.

These include special agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco and, to a certain extent, the informants who occasionally "flip" on their gangs to provide valuable information. This information does not always result in convictions, in part, say the authors, because often, "bureaucracy and institutional wrangling can screw up an investigation."

Amply informative, gripping, often personal and generously illustrated with photographs, this is a valuable contribution to crime writing - and one that many readers will enjoy.