A motorcyclist was killed in a drive-by shooting on a busy motorway yesterday after he left one of the biggest bike festivals in Europe.

The man, reportedly a member of the notorious Hell’s Angels gang, died at the scene after he was shot in front of weekend motorists. Police immediately ruled out a road-rage attack and said that gang links were a “strong line of inquiry”.

The victim, believed to be in his 30s, was shot after attending the Bulldog Bash, a biker event held at the nearby Long Marston airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon, which attracted 25,000 motorcycle fanatics.

Air ambulance crews treated the unidentified man at the site of the incident, between junctions 12 and 13 of the M40 in Warwickshire, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The drama resulted in huge disruptions to motorists, who were caught in gridlock for hours when both carriage-ways of the motorway in Warwickshire were closed between junctions 14 and 12 southbound and between junctions 10 and 13 northbound.

With ten-mile tailbacks in both directions, police and the Red Cross brought food and water to drivers who were stuck in the cordoned-off area. Police said that the motorway was unlikely to reopen until this morning.

Motorists on the scene tried to administer first aid to the man. Paul Roberts, from Worthing, said: “One lady in a BMW took a first-aid kit to the man, who was lying on his front . . . it was very noticeable that the man was very still and not wearing any shoes.” Police launched a murder hunt and were investigating whether the biker had been targeted.

The shooting echoed a strikingly similar incident six years ago when three bikers were shot at on the M40 as they returned from the Bulldog Bash. One man was hit in the right leg in what police at the time said was an indiscriminate attack.

The event, organised and run by the Hell’s Angels, is billed as the safest bike show of the year. It featured drag racing, a custom bike show and rock acts including Status Quo and The Damned. One of its organisers, known as Bilbo, said that the victim was a Hell’s Angel member but denied that the shooting had any links to gang rivalry or in-fighting. Bilbo, a member of the Hell’s Angels for more than 30 years, said: “I knew the lad and you couldn’t wish to meet a better person. We’re used to deaths, as bikers. People die in accidents but we don’t expect someone to get shot. This is murder, plain and simple, and we have got no idea why this has happened.”

He said that the event had been trouble-free before the shooting, except for an incident over a mobile phone that was lost but later returned. Police said that there did not seem to be any trouble at the gathering and were not linking the murder to the event. The victim was travelling from the show with two friends.

Investigators said that they were searching for an older model of a green Rover, probably a 620, that may have been close to the motorcycles at the time of the shooting. Detective Superintendent Ken Lawrence, of Warwickshire Police, said: “We want to know if any witnesses travelling on the motorway between 2.30-2.45pm were aware of a green Rover car that acted in any way unusual or strange. One or two witness accounts have mentioned this car being close to the motorcycles at the time that something clearly happened.”


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2246589.ece

I saw this on the news last night!

Not the actual shooting....
Just the report about it

...and I thought that the only thing Brits had to worry about was the football yobbos... Hell's Angels may turn out to be the worst US export to the UK since herbal tea.

the angels in england are not as violent as our friends across the pond but from what ive heard and read they are running the extortion rackets and drugs the thing is with the angels people understimate them they are a global criminal empire

THEY are the world’s most iconic gang, cruising the roads on huge Harley-Davidson motorbikes.
Their arrival is heralded by a deafening din and a trailing fug of exhaust fumes.
They are proud of their “born to be wild” attitude and their appearance is menacing.
And on Sunday we saw just how much the Hells Angels live up to their fearsome reputation.
Biker Gerard Tobin was brutally gunned down as he rode home from the Bulldog Bash — a four-day event where motorbike enthusiasts from all over Europe meet at Long Marston airfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon.
The assassination was almost certainly the result of a deadly feud and carried out by a rival chapter of Hells Angels.
How do we know? A near-identical shooting happened after another Bulldog Bash rally six years ago.
Then, a 31-year-old Hells Angel was blasted in the leg while riding on the same motorway by a gunman leaning from a car window.
Unlike Sunday’s victim, he survived and the police treated the attack as attempted murder.
They refused to issue the biker’s name or reveal which hospital he was being treated at, for fear of someone finishing the job.
The pattern emerging from the two incidents is obvious — guns, violence and murder are all part of being a Hells Angel.

In sharp contrast to the romantic image of bikers portrayed in 1969.

When confronted, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) deny that criminal activity is part and parcel of joining the gang.

Rather, they claim, it is down to a few bad individuals who just happen to belong to the club
The group was founded by disgruntled ex-servicemen after the Second World War and chapters can now be found in 22 countries.

The original group lived in a Los Angeles suburb. To mark Independence Day, they descended on the sleepy central Californian town of Hollister and ran riot.

They went drag-racing down the main street, tossing beer bottles in all directions, and terrifying locals by riding their bikes through the doors of the town’s saloon bar.

This and similar behaviour a year later inspired the screen-writers of the 1953 movie The Wild One, in which two rival motorcycle gangs terrorise a town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail.

The Hells Angels name may have come from a US Air Force bomber squadron. The gang insignia — a skull with wings and a motorcycle helmet — is known as The Death’s Head and can be found on Hells Angels membership cards.

Of their estimated 2,000 official members, around 400 are in the UK and 1,200 in the US. And it is an exclusive club.

The common misconception is that to buy a big bike and grow long hair is enough to grant entry to the Angels. Wrong. To be accepted you have to prove yourself to be fearless, ruthless and have a total disregard for the law.

In the UK, new members have to be nominated by an existing member. If they are accepted then they are allowed to become a “hangaround” or apprentice.

If they prove themselves they graduate to the status of a “prospect” before finally becoming a member. The process can take years and ends with the recruit being issued a jacket with the Death’s Head symbol on it.

Initiation ceremonies are barbaric. In a study of Californian Hells Angels in the late 1960s, a new recruit’s rite of passage was described by author Hunter S Thompson. He wrote: “Every Angel recruit comes to his initiation wearing a new pair of Levis and a matching jacket, with the sleeves cut off and a spotless emblem on the back.

The ceremony varies from one chapter to another but the main feature is always the defiling of the initiate's new uniform.

“A bucket of dung and urine will be collected during the meeting, then poured on the newcomer’s head. Or he will take off his clothes and stand naked while the bucket of slop is poured over them and the others stomp it in.”

One of the most notorious Hells Angels events took place in 1969 at a Rolling Stones gig in California.

The Stones are said to have hired the bikers as security and would pay them in beer. A shoving match erupted as Mick Jagger sang Under My Thumb, then someone in the crowd pulled a pistol.

After firing into a group of Angels he was quickly mobbed and stabbed to death. The bullet hit famous Hells Angel Sonny Barger.

Barger survived and another gang member was acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence. Last year police in Toronto raided a Hells Angels stronghold, arrested 15 men and seized 13 kilos of cocaine, 50,000 ecstasy pills, 23 kilos of marijuana and four kilos of hash and crystal meth.

Home-grown Hells Angels groups include chapters in London, Essex, Manchester, Kent and, most recently, Northern Ireland.

They have slick websites which chart the history of their chapter and their love of Harley-Davidsons.
But none give away the darker side of the gang.
There is speculation the M40 murder was the result of a feud between chapters.
Like the Mafia, Hells Angels take honour and respect very seriously. Arguments are sparked by simple insults or drunken slurs

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007370480,00.html

The Hellz Angels in Melbourne are a bunch of idiots,shooting innocents and picking fights with teenagers.

I strongly recommend to our overseas paisani that they view "The Wild One," with Marlon Brando. It's about a motorcycle gang (like the Hell's Angels) that takes over and destroy a small California town in the early '50's. It's basically a "B" movie, but it contains one of Brando's most electrifying performances. US movie reviewers consistently place it high up on their list of the most influential films of the Fifties.

More accurate, though somewhat dated but still compelling, was Hunter S. Thompson's book, Hell's Angels, about the year he spent with the Bay Area Angels in the mid-1960's. I suspect this might have been Thompson's first book(?) though I can't be sure.

tony b.

I've seen that book around heaps,but i've never picked it up.

A classic film AND a classic book

As this has happened ive been out today and bought a book called Angels of Death by William Marsden and Julian sheer i havent read any yet but when ive read a bit ill let every know how it is.

I've got that to...
Have'nt read it either. I actually got it last Xmas
It's in my "to read" pile

Read a chapter so far (whilst at work on my breaks of course) and so far so good

i have just been listning to the news and they are now saying they think the murders have been carried out by a rival International Hells Angel chapter although they are not sure which one, one senior detective seems to think it could be from one of the Dutch Chapters and it is to do with Cocaine smugling,although this is just speculation at the minute i look forward to hearing the developments as this is something we dont hear much of in the Uk

I tend to read books at work whether i'm on a break or not
But if the phone don't ring and there are no alarms then i can do that!
Like being on call i guess!

One of mates takes the sun and goes to the toilet for about an hour!! no wonder our scores are down!!

DETECTIVES have arrested three men in connection with the murder of a Hells Angel.

Warwickshire Police confirmed that the men were arrested yesterday morning in connection with the fatal shooting of Gerry Tobin, 35, from Mottingham.

The biker was shot at the back of the head while travelling on the M40 after leaving the Bulldog Bash music festival on August 12.

Assistant Chief Constable Bill Holland told a press conference yesterday morning that arrest and search warrants were executed in the early hours of the morning at two addresses in Coventry and one in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

The three men were taken to a police station in Warwickshire where they were questioned by detectives investigating Mr Tobin's murder. At the time of going to press, they were still being questioned by police.

The arrests come just days after Mr Tobin's mother Maria Hutton flew from her home in Alberta, Canada to see the body of her son who had left the country to start a new life in England as a motorcycle mechanic.

Speaking of her grief, she said she feels "betrayed by life itself" and "robbed of the most perfect light".

She added: "This is the most unnatural feeling. A mother, a parent, should never have to hold the dead body of her child who has been sacrificed because of indifference in this world towards what is good.

"Inside of me I feel a sorrow too big to endure, and if there's any way I could stop anyone else in this world having to go through this I would wish for that."

In Calgary, Canada Tobin was a member of Bethany Chapel, then an evangelical protestant church, where he led Bible studies and dreamed of becoming a missionary.

Originally born in Macclesfield, he returned to England with his wife in 1999 but they separated in 2004 and were divorced early this year.

Following the split he had been living with girlfriend Rebecca Smith, 25, in a flat in Mottingham Road and the couple worked together at Warrs Harley Davidson shop less than two minutes walk from their home.

Ms Smith appeared at a special press conference arranged by the Hells Angels at the motorcycle shop last Friday.

Surrounded by giant leather-clad bikers in jackets emblazoned with '666' logos, her statement was read out by Marcus Berriman, President of the London chapter of the Angels.

It read: "To those who knew him Gerry stood out in the crowd as a true gentleman. He was a rare breed of a man with the heart of a lion and a soul filled with compassion and selflessness.

"Gerry was both a man of his word and a defender of principles. His charming personality and quick-witted humour always kept everyone smiling.

"The nature of his untimely death - due to the callous and cowardly act of violence - from which it was impossible to defend himself - only accentuates further, the pain and suffering that we are all experiencing due to this terrible loss - a loss that has left a void in so many lives that can never be filled

http://www.bexleytimes.co.uk/content/bex...3A59%3A31%3A903

SAINTE ANNE DES PLAINES - One of the worst killers in Canadian history saw his parole hearing postponed Tuesday morning because his plan for release was incomplete.

Yves Trudeau, 61, a former Hells Angel who admitted to committing or at least playing a role in 43 murders made an unexpectedly brief appearance before the National Parole Board. The hearing was held inside the Archambault Institution, a medium-security penitentiary in the lower Laurentians.

The once-murderous biker gang member appeared frail as prison guards brought him to the hearing room in a wheelchair. With his thin frame, greying hair and weak voice it is difficult to imagine Trudeau as the man once known by his Hells Angels nickname, Apache, and feared even by members of his own gang.



Parole commissioner Michel Pallascio presided over the hearing which ended prematurely because the release plan Trudeau wanted to propose to the board was incomplete. Pallascio said a new hearing will be rescheduled within 60 days. A Gazette reporter was asked to leave the hearing room when elements of Trudeau's release plan were discussed.

His security as a former high-profile police informant is apparently still a concern for the provincial government as two Surete du Quebec officers attended the hearing.

In 1985, Trudeau decided to become a police informant after he learned he was supposed to have been killed along with five Hells Angels who were shot to death by fellow gang members in Lennoxville. Trudeau was in a detox centre in Oka in March 1985 and couldn't attend when members of the Hells Angel's Laval chapter were summoned to the Eastern Townships for what they were told was a meeting. Instead, they were ambushed by members of other Hells Angels chapters. The slaughter, known now as the Lennoxville Purge, was carried out because the Laval chapter was unruly and used cocaine the gang intended to sell for profit.

Trudeau was given a controversial informant contract that allowed him to plead guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter in 1986. He was sentenced to life but was eligible for parole seven years later. In exchange he supplied the police with information on several organized crime figures including members of the Hells Angel.

Trudeau was provided with a new identity when he was granted parole in 1994. He lived under the name Denis Cote and led a secret life for years until he was arrested in March 2004 for sexually assaulting a young boy. Trudeau pleaded guilty to the offence four months later and was sentenced to a 4-year prison term. While his is eligible for parole Trudeau is still serving a life sentence and can held behind bars until the National Parole Board determines he is ready.

i read about this guy,he is a stone cold killer

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/ne...d609305&k=32148

Its amazing how many mass murderers there is and we never even knew about it,only the poor victims..

There are several commercial writings concerning the Hells, as well as other 1%er type organizations. The type and quality of these writings vary considerably. Here is a brief review of some of the more well-known offerings:

Hell's Angels: Three Can Keep a Secret if Two are Dead
Author, Yves Lavigne

This book presents a somewhat sensationalized perspective on the so-called "Big Four" of the American motorcycle organizations, but all the information in it a matter of record. If there's a problem with this one, it is only that author Lavigne seems to be going out of his way to present us with the raunchiest concoctions of adjectives and similies possible. The career of the infamous Apache Trudeau is detailed herein, along with the antics of a lot of other characters whose crimes might not be quite so prolific, but which are every bit as horrible. The book is both fun and extremely depressing to read.


Hell's Angels: Into the Abyss
Author, Yves Lavigne

In this book, Lavigne tones down his language considerably to present us with an account concerning the doings of an FBI informant who managed to rise to an extremely high level within the Hell's Angels, and who was instrumental to a covert law enforcement operation known as Rough Rider, which managed to do quite a bit of damage to the organization at large-- including to bring about the incarceration of the famous president, Sonny Barger.


Angels of Death: Inside the Bikers' Global Crime Empire
Authors, William Marsden and Julien Sher

This extremely well-written and informative volume details the criminal doings of the Hell's Angels as they are found in several countries around the world. The British crew is discussed at length, as are the boys from Amsterdam, Canada, and elsewhere. Various criminal cases concerning these fellows are discussed at length, but most especially a very lengthy infiltration that involved the famous ATF agent, Jay Dobyns. This book is one of the best of its genre.

Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
Author, William Queen

This book is autobiographical in nature, as author Queen served as an undercover agent for the ATF (which agency seems to really spearhead the attack of American law enforcement against outlaw motorcycle organizations) who managed to penetrate and become a member of the Mongols M/C, much to their ultimate dismay. The book is extraordinary in the sense that William Queen doesn't hesitate to describe to us the emotional travails of such a difficult assignment as he successfully completed, and more, doesn't hesitate to criticize the shortcomings of the agency which sent him into the jaws of the tiger. The book refrains from sensationalism, but, due to the dire nature of the group he infiltrated, is extremely exciting to read. And by the way: the Mongols are every bit as deadly as the Hells are-- just not so wealthy or well-organized... yet.

Give them time...

Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
Author, Hunter S. Thompson

This book is a classic in the sense that it was the first lengthy release of any type that dealt with the Hell's Angels organization. It is superbly well-written and provides a perspective that is extremely interesting to read. However, the writings are also extremely dated, and present a picture of the group as it was in the late 1960's. The Hell's Angels, as they were when Thompson rode among them, have changed greatly since that time and are rather more sophisticated and well-organized than they were in their early years. Also it is worthy to note that Sonny Barger routinely denounces this book, saying that while Thompson might be the best writer of recent times, he is also full of baloney. Still, a great deal of what Thompson tells us is, in fact, a matter of public record, and there are times when Thompson writes of them sympathetically, if not necessarily approvingly. At the very end of the book, Thompson literally calls for the extermination of the Hell's Angels M/C.

Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club
Authors, Sonny Barger, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman

This autobiography presents us with the views of the legendary president of the Hell's Angels, Sonny Barger. It is written in a straight-forward manner, with Sonny telling his tale in a manner so unashamed as to be startling. The book can also be chilling as Barger describes scenes of attempted murder and aggravated battery in the matter-of-fact fashion one might expect of an automotive mechanic discussing the repairs he recently made to a customer's car.

The book has been dismissed as being somewhat self-serving, but by the same token we are provided with a glimpse into the necessary attitude that a man would have to have in order to survive in the often-difficult world of the outlaw motorcyclist.

Which brings me to a quote, courtesy of Sonny Barger himself, who once said:

Why do they lie about us? Isn't the truth bad enough?

I have all of the Books and the only one i dont like is Hunter S Thompsons,not only does Barger say thompson is full of shit other writers do as well,i dont like the man in general and i certainetly dont like this book,out of the five on your list Yves Langvines three can keep a secret if two are dead is by the far the best but that is also dated now,so for me now the most update is Inside a Global empire

But if your looking forsomething on the scandanavian biker wars of the 90's then go for biker wars by Yves Langvine

In The FBI at 100, a BBC documentary premiering Monday, a former fed reveals that the Hells Angels plotted to snuff Mick Jagger after the Rolling Stones frontman dissed the biker group's handling of security at the 1969 Altamont Speedway concert, where a fan was stabbed.

When Jagger declared the Angels would never work a Stones gig again, "[They] were so angered... that they decided to kill him," says doc host Tom Mangold. "A group of them took a boat and were all tooled up... to attack [Jagger's Hamptons vacation home] from the sea." The would-be killers would get no satisfaction, however, as a storm swept them overboard, and the plot was foiled. Jagger has not yet commented on the documentary.

The local news station here on Long Island (where Jagger had his vacation home in the Hamptons) has been reporting this story all day long.

It's been reported quite a bit in England as well in Sonny Bargers Book he comments on the Incident where he stuck a gun in Jaggers side and told him to carry on playing 'or he was fucking dead'

"the storm swept them overboard".

Should have stuck to their bikes

These losers attempt to terrorize the streets of Canadian cities as well. They form partnerships with the Mafia and can be just as ruthless. Their barbaric nonsense plagues Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Vancouver and other cities but the violence is sporadic. It's the old thing, when things are good blood is not shed, but when things are bad people get killed. The Hell's Angels will not hesitate to kill innocents and of course members of rival gangs. They are criminals.

Up to 75,000 motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to swell the small Colorado River resort town of Laughlin this weekend for a rally that has been raucous but relatively peaceful in recent years after being marred by violence in 2002.
The 26th annual Laughlin River Run is billed as one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the nation.

Along with bikers from throughout the West, it draws police from Nevada, Arizona and California to keep an eye on revelry along the main drag of the tourism and gambling resort. Fewer than 9,000 permanent residents live in Laughlin, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas.
Last year, police reported making 88 arrests and issuing about 600 traffic citations, mostly for speeding. Another 51 tickets were given to juveniles, mostly for breaking a curfew banning people under the age of 18 from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Casino Drive.

Police have imposed vehicle checkpoints and closely monitored the rally since three people were killed and dozens were injured in a 2002 brawl and shoot-out between Hells Angels and rival Mongols motorcycle gang members at the Harrah's Laughlin casino.

My dad and the guy I learned how to hustle pool from were bikers, my uncle was a biker, my dad won't talk much about those days which of course only makes me curious.