Outlaws: Inside the Violent World of Biker Gangs (33 page)

‘You’d think so, but I never do any of this stuff.’

For the first time since joining the Pagans almost twenty years earlier, Boone found himself questioning his commitment to the MC world and its values. Nearing forty, he had lived long enough and made enough of his own mistakes to realise that each club had its share of idiots, troublemakers, egotists and cowards. Then there were the intelligent ones and the tacticians, and they didn’t all join the same club. He was starting to see that, in many ways, the actual patch was immaterial to the person. It was an unsettling thought.

The years that followed the shooting at the Bulldog Bash saw the British contingent of the AOA grow in influence. With more manpower than any other country in Europe, and two lucrative festivals – the Rock and Blues and the Ink and Iron – bolstering the amount of funds that could be sent back to the mother chapter, Boone’s club had become a force to be reckoned with.

Dink was spending increasing amounts of time and money travelling the world, meeting other national presidents and coordinating activities between the various chapters. In 2003, his hard work was rewarded with his appointment as the first ever European President of the AOA, a title that confirmed his status as the most powerful Outlaw outside of America. Around this time, he was spending up to £20,000 per year on foreign travel, visiting Philadelphia, Chicago, Florida, Germany and Mexico in 2006 alone.

For Boone and the other rank and file members of the Outlaws, this elevated status came at a hefty price. The pressure to bring more and more money into the club – through legitimate or illegitimate means – was growing. A new line of designer biker merchandise, branded SYLO, was launched and brought in some much-needed cash – proving popular with associates of the Hell’s Angels, until
they realised the letters stood for ‘Support Your Local Outlaws’. Behind the scenes, Dink and other senior members of the club were continuing to coordinate the distribution of drugs between chapters. As before, individual members were tasked with selling off small amounts and returning the profits to the club.

In late November 2006, the Outlaws became the first major international biker gang to open up a chapter in the Far East – with the granting of a full charter to a club in Okinawa City. Motorcycle gangs had been a huge part of Japanese culture for over half a century, threatening the obedient status quo of the nation since the end of World War Two. Legend has it that the early gangs were formed by fearless Kamikaze pilots not ‘blessed’ with the opportunity to die for their emperor, and desperate for new kicks. They were joined by thousands of anti-social young punks who customised their bikes, removing the mufflers to maximise the ear-splitting revs, earning them the nickname kaminari-zoku (thunder tribes).

When trouble came, it arrived by the truckload, but instead of fighting one another, these gangs and their supporters joined forces against what they saw as a common enemy: the police. In Toyoma in 1972, a motorcycle gang led 3,000 rioters in a vicious battle with the police during which several cars were torched and many stores looted. Four years later, in Kobe, an even larger riot took place when police attempted to stop an illicit race meeting. A crowd of 10,000 went on the rampage, destroying patrol cars and taxis and stoning and setting fire to several police stations. A crowd pushed a police truck into a cameraman
and killed him and the incident gave birth to a new name for the biker gangs: bosozoku (violent running tribes).

In the same way that Western motorcycle gangs rebel against authority, so the bosozoku took great pleasure in turning traditional Japanese values like wabisabi (elegant simplicity) on its head. They would paint their bikes a variety of garish colours and fit them with oversized windscreens and banana-seat backs that reached up as much as ten feet high.

The bosozoku acted as a recruiting ground for the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia), but anti-boso legislation ensured that they never became a serious threat. By the early noughties, the police were detaining more than 100,000 each year on traffic violations. Then a law was brought in that allowed police to prosecute the crowds of spectators who turned out to see the gangs ride. The bosozoku fell apart, and in their place Japan saw the creation of smaller, more discreet clubs riding modified Harley Davidsons and aping the style of American gangs.

It was one such club that approached the Outlaws with a view to obtaining a charter and becoming Outlaws Japan MC. And after a period of several months prospecting, representatives from Canada, Germany and the AOA’s mother chapter in Chicago made their way to Okinawa for the patch-over party, along with members from Canada and Germany, but the main contingent of the dozen attendees came from England and Wales. And the patches themselves were handed over by Dink, promoted now to European and Asian President of the Outlaws.

It was, by all accounts, an eventful trip. ‘They’re not like us,’ Dink told Boone soon after he returned. ‘I’m not sure
they completely understand what they’re getting into. But they’re part of the club now so if you ever fancy a trip to Japan, you know you’ll be looked after.’

Boone couldn’t get too excited by the club’s overseas expansion. Back home in the Midlands, a power struggle inside the Warwickshire chapter was getting close to breaking point.

The main source of the trouble was one of the newer members, Simon Turner, who Boone had first become acquainted with in the late nineties, when Turner was operating a stolen bike ring. Able to supply virtually any model to order, Turner was a skilled bike thief. He was also fascinated by the whole MC scene and desperately wanted to be a part of it. Boone had his reservations; Turner had a vicious temper and had been sentenced to a ten-year term for pouring petrol over a man and threatening to set him alight in order to secure a drug debt. He kept his own counsel, however, when Turner became an official hangaround, and in due course, a prospect.

The new recruit worked hard and had no problem showing the dedication required to win his full patch. Clearly ambitious, it seemed that his one aim in life was to get into the club as quickly as possible. In fact, once this goal had been achieved, his true craving for violence came to the fore. During regular brawls and bar fights, Turner would be the one to watch, and pull off, lest he ended up accidentally killing someone. And while others looked upon the occasional patrols that involved hunting members of the enemy as a necessary evil and a grim duty, Turner looked forward to them with psychotic relish.

By the end of 2006, Turner was frustrated with the direction his chapter was taking, particularly when it came to the war with the Angels. Although bound by the laws and constitution of the AOA, each chapter of the Outlaws operates independently and is responsible for the conduct of its own members. Turner wanted to be far more proactive about carrying out attacks on the enemy – and with a large chapter like Warwickshire behind him, he was keen to give the other side a pasting they would never forget.

Consumed with the acquisition of power, he did everything he could to gather the support needed to oust Caz and become president of the chapter himself. During church meetings, he was belligerent, voting against the majority just for the hell of it. If he failed to get an agreement to attend a certain venue for a run, he would take a few of his closest supporters and head there anyway, claiming there had been a misunderstanding or that he had been forced to divert because of a breakdown.

There were many in the chapter who wanted to curtail Turner’s power. It wasn’t so much that people were scared of him, it was more that he was an unpredictable character and it made sense to be wary around him. On the other hand, some of Boone’s closest comrades made it clear that they liked Turner, they shared his obsession with guns and his appetite for fighting, and they would follow him to the ends of the earth. One of his biggest fans was Dean ‘Trotter’ Taylor, who Boone had bonded with when they shared a cell in Shrewsbury prison.

Boone hated the way things were shaping up, and it was becoming hard for him to disguise his hostility. ‘I found that
piece of crap on life’s scrap heap,’ he confided to a friend. ‘And now I realise I should have left him there.’

The only way to deal with Turner was to get rid of him and Caz had a solution. Warwickshire was a big area, he explained during a national meeting for the Outlaws MC, which both he and Turner attended. That was a problem the Pagans had encountered when they had been operating on their own. The best thing to do, he suggested, was to split the chapter in two. North Warwickshire would be led by Caz; the south Warwickshire chapter would be run by Turner. Anyone who wanted to move over to the new chapter was welcome to do so.

On its inaugural day, the south Warwickshire chapter had six full members and two prospects. So far as Turner was concerned, the time of reckoning had arrived. Along with Sean Creighton, his sergeant-at-arms, and Trotter, his loyal follower, he started to go out on mini-raiding parties, attacking local bikers whether they were affiliated to MCs or not, ensuring that everyone on the scene knew this area belonged to the Outlaws and no one else.

Ultimately, however, his anger was directed at the Angels. Although they had come across numerous opportunities, the club had never taken revenge for the attack on Switch, the Warwickshire Outlaw who had been shot twice in the back while riding home after a church meeting. There was also the issue of the Bulldog Bash, the festival which had been started all those years earlier by the Wolf Outlaws and then been hijacked by the Angels and turned into a massive money spinner. It took place on ground that the Outlaws regarded as theirs – but now that the club had split, it would be taking place in territory that belonged exclusively to the
south Warwickshire chapter. Turner saw this as a personal insult, a commentary on his ability to control the area belonging to his club.

Feeding into these frustrations was his knowledge that, internationally at least, the Outlaws were making good on the old motto, ADIOS. He had read about the assassination of Hell’s Angel Roger ‘Bear’ Mariani, shot dead on the I-95 earlier that year. When the cuttings landed on his desk, Turner and his sergeant-at-arms Sean Creighton immediately drew parallels between that case and the shooting of the French-Canadian Angel on the M40 in 2001. No one had been arrested in either incident. The perpetrators, it seemed, had got away scot-free.

In June 2006, Christopher Legere, sergeant-at-arms of the New Hampshire chapter of the Outlaws, was arrested for the murder of a man who had been wearing a t-shirt supporting the enemy. Once again, details of the case were circulated to Outlaws chapters around the world.

The reports told how John Denoncourt tried to enter the Three Cousins lounge, an Outlaws’ hangout, while wearing a Hell’s Angels t-shirt he bought as a souvenir the previous Father’s Day. At least two people tried to dissuade him from going into the bar saying the shirt would cause problems, but Denoncourt said he didn’t care. Legere was seen to go over to the main windows and start pacing, become increasingly irate until he finally stormed out. Moments later he returned. The same people who had tried to talk Denoncourt into removing his shirt or turning it inside out now tried to restrain Legere, but the Outlaw pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and fired at least three shots in the direction of Denoncourt. One bullet ripped through his heart, killing him as he tried to run away.

The bar had been packed but most people insisted they had been in the toilet at the time of the shooting or that they had not seen anything. Legere’s girlfriend, who worked behind the bar, told the court she simply could not remember what had happened on the night in question. Little wonder people were reluctant to speak – the chief prosecution witnesses was himself murdered shortly after the death of Denoncourt.

So far as Turner and the rest of the south Warwickshire chapter was concerned, the Outlaws seemed to have the Angels on the run. Turner was keen to do his bit to keep the momentum going – and to take things to the next level. At this point, however, the Outlaws suffered a series of humiliating setbacks.

Across America, the Outlaws had been feeling so strong and so confident that they decided to attend the 2006 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. One of the largest biker gatherings in the USA, Sturgis has been going since 1938 and attracts over half a million participants each year. Some Hell’s Angels own property in the area and the club always makes a strong showing at the festival, selling thousands of pounds worth of merchandise and scouting out potential recruits.

The Outlaws have traditionally stayed away. They made an appearance in 1990 and the visit ended in violence when one of their members was shot by a Sons of Silence gang member. Sixteen years later, a statement was placed on the club’s website: ‘Law enforcement agencies have been informed of the Outlaws MC intention to visit Sturgis this year. We are not going there to make any type of statement or display of power. We are simply going there to enjoy the
Sturgis venue, see the historical sights and spend time with our brothers.’

Around 300 Outlaws, representing a total of 191 chapters, decided to attend. Rather than staying in the heart of the festival, they based themselves in a rented campsite in the Black Hills, some seventy-five miles from Sturgis itself. Fewer than one hundred Angels were believed to be at the festival at the same time.

Yet during a visit to Custer State Park, two Hell’s Angels in a white pick-up truck ambushed the Outlaws. The exact details of what happened remain unclear (none of the bikers involved made any kind of statement) but what is beyond doubt is that one of the Angels took aim at the Outlaws with a handgun, shooting and wounding five. One of those targeted returned fire, but by then the truck was speeding away.