Yves Lavigne

Yves Lavigne wrote a great first book about the Hells Angels in the 1980s called "Hells Angels: Taking Care of Business" a pretty good book about an FBI infiltration of the Hells Angeles in the mid-1990s called "Hells Angels: Into the Abyss" and then this one in 1999, where he takes arguably his most important angle on his subject yet--the deadly Canadian Biker Wars that killed hundreds as the Angels and their rivals competed for drug territory in the mid 1990s--and boffs it. This book is padded with about 250 pages of government documentation serving no purpose other than to demonstrate the author did his homework (a well-researched narrative does that too) surrounding a narrative that reads like a police blotter. "And then the next thing after that happened" is not a way to tell a story. Its a way to show you've got enough facts to THEN tell a story.

I'll leave out that Lavigne likes to pause in the middle of reciting to lecture to deliver sermon at the wisdom level of a high school freshman. His tone is arrogant and mansplainy and someone of his experience should know better. But he doesn't. The Hells Angels is a dark fact of the world wide underground that hard to make boring. Lavigne manages to do that because I think deep down he believes he is more interesting than what he's writing about.… (més)

Hell's Angels: Into the Abyss documents the years in the life of Hell's Angel motorcycle club member Anthony Tait when he went from being a member of the club to being an FBI informant. He joined the club as a prospect in 1982 and over the next few years worked his way up the ranks to be one of the top 4 members on the west coast of the USA. For years he worked within the club and as an FBI informant, the only informant to ever penetrate the club fully. With his help in 1987 the FBI did simultaneous raids through the west coast and made over 40 arrests for charges ranging from drug trafficking to conspiracy to commit murder. Through this raid they were able to remove hundred of weapons, millions of dollars of drugs and cash and many criminals off the streets.

While I didn't find Tait to be a very trustworthy character the FBI obviously saw something in him that made him their perfect informant. It's not often that you can find an informant in a motorcycle club that doesn't already have a criminal records or a history of drug use.

Although this book was a little difficult to get in to at first, the beginning was slow while explaining police procedures, it ended up being a very interesting topic. It's amazing to realize the amount of drugs and weapons available to criminals and how hard it is for police to actually get them off the streets. The violence in this book amazed me, the way the HA could take someone's life without a thought just because they needed to pay-back a rival club for a murder they committed. Even worse is the knowledge that the crimes they committed in the 80's are still being committed today, and they have become even more sophisticated in hiding them. Rivalries have become worse and the war between clubs has strengthened until things like the Bandido Massacre happen. Worth a read if you have any interested in true crime.
3.5*

"He who fights with monsters should look to it
that he himself does not become a monster.
And when you gaze long into an abyss, the
abyss also gazes into you."
Friedrich Nietzsche ~ Beyond Good and Evil… (més)