No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels
by By Dobyns, Jay and Johnson-Shelton, Nils
Category: True Crime , Organized Crime

From the first federal agent to infiltrate the inner circle of  the outlaw Hells Angels Motorcycle Club comes the inside story of the 21-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.