83.5 Charing Cross Road: Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels

Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels

Jay Dobyns (Author), Nils Johnson-Shelton (Author), Mel Foster (Narrator)
No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels [Audiobook, Unabridged]
Tantor Media | 2009 | ISBN: 1400162483 | MP3@64 kbps | Duration: 12:28:22 | 342.1 Mb

Here, from Jay Dobyns, the first federal agent to infiltrate the inner circle of the outlaw Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, is the inside story of the twenty-one-month operation that almost cost him his family, his sanity, and his life.

Getting shot in the chest as a rookie agent, bartering for machine guns, throttling down the highway at 100 mph, and responding to a full-scale, bloody riot between the Hells Angels and their rivals, the Mongols–these are just a few of the high-adrenaline experiences Dobyns recounts in this action-packed, hard-to-imagine-but-true story.

Dobyns leaves no stone of his harrowing journey unturned. At runs and clubhouses, between rides and riots, Dobyns befriends bad-ass bikers, meth-fueled “old ladies,” gun fetishists, psycho-killer ex-cons, and even some of the “Filthy Few”–the elite of the Hells Angels who’ve committed extreme violence on behalf of their club. Eventually, at parties staged behind heavily armed security, he meets legendary club members such as Chuck Zito, Johnny Angel, and the godfather of all bikers, Ralph “Sonny” Barger. To blend in with them, he gets full-arm ink; to win their respect, he vows to prove himself a stone-cold killer.

Hardest of all is leading a double life, which has him torn between his devotion to his wife and children, and his pledge to become the first federal agent ever to be “fully patched” into the Angels’ near-impregnable ranks. His act is so convincing that he comes within a hairsbreadth of losing himself. Eventually, he realizes that just as he’s been infiltrating the Hells Angels, they’ve been infiltrating him. And just as they’re not all bad, he’s not all good.

Reminiscent of Donnie Brasco’s uncovering of the true Mafia, this is an eye-opening portrait of the world of bikers–the most in-depth since Hunter Thompson’s seminal work–one that fully describes the seductive lure criminal camaraderie has for men who would otherwise be powerless outsiders. Here is all the nihilism, hate, and intimidation, but also the freedom–and, yes, brotherhood–of the only truly American form of organized crime.

This story of a two-year undercover investigation of the Arizona Hells Angels begins at the end and then backs up to tell the whole story. Dobyns, an officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, developed an addiction for the adrenaline rush after being shot and nearly killed during an arrest. In a harrowing first-person account, Dobyns describes his double life as family man and gun trader during the two years he spent undercover investigating the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. As he advanced within the club, eventually earning a “full patch,” he became more estranged from his family and more enmeshed in the violence of his persona, “Bird.” Feared and respected, the Angels were granted free drinks, sex, and drugs but held to a high level of conformity within the club. Dobyns details the “time, commitment, trust, risk, and money” it took for the ATF to penetrate a highly closed group populated by violent felons—some, like him, with families and day jobs. A fascinating look at the Hells Angels and the price one man paid for infiltrating the gang. -- Vanessa Bush

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