American Library Association

ANGELS OF DEATH:
INSIDE THE BIKERS EMPIRE OF CRIME
May 2006

Taking direct aim at the avuncular persona head Angel Ralph "Sonny" Barger promotes himself as embodying, Sher and Marsden reveal the worldwide crime cartel constituted by the Hell's Angels motorcycle club. Chronicling worldwide misdeeds and mayhem, they focus on how Barger personally directs a crime organization that has successfully represented itself as a bunch of hard-drinking mischief makers guilty only of loving freedom and hedonism too much. Telling tales of murder and revenge at the hands of chopper pilots in the Netherlands, Australia, the U.S., and elsewhere, they cite control of the drug trade as the root of a criminal empire that also embraces prostitution and sundry other interests. After a confrontation including collateral damage and non-biker casualties between the Angels and their archrivals, the Mongols, erupted on Harrah's casino floor in Laughlin, Nevada, in 2002, a more coordinated law enforcement effort against the gang has purportedly been mounted. Sher and Marsden bring readers up to speed with an ace true-crime saga whose last chapter is far from written.