I recently read "No Angel" by Jay Dobyns about his UC infiltration of the Arizona Hells Angels, which took place in 2003.

Not a bad read at all; his cover story going in was that he was a debt collector for a Mafioso named "Big Lou" based in Nevada.

When the time came for him to prove more of his back story to his Hells Angels brothers he arranged for his sponsor to join him on a trip to Las Vegas where the ATF arranged for someone to play the role of Big Lou. In the book, he says it was initially intended to be another ATF UC. The man was supposedly aged approximately 60 years old and Dobyns thought he was over the top - tinted glasses, flashy suit and outspoken to say the least. When he complained to his supervisor that the UC was pouring it on too thick his supervisor told him, to his surprise, that the guy playing Big Lou was not an actor at all - it was a co-operating witness who was/had been a member of "the Jersey mob".

Of course, he played the part perfectly and the Angels bought it hook, line and sinker.

Naturally, it made me wonder who this could have been?

The first assumption when you hear Jersey is a member of the DeCavalcantes; could it have been Vinny Palermo while in witness protection?

Charles Stango lived out in Nevada, could he have co-operated on some level in order to get out from under a charge of some kind?

Or is the "Jersey mob" a misnomer; could it be a Genovese, Gambino or Lucchese associate based in Jersey? Who else would have been approximately 60 years old and living in the Nevada area at the time?

Does anybody happen to know who this Mafioso was? Failing that, would anybody else like to try and guess?

I've read that book a couple times, I give it a 2 out of 5 at best. Just wasn't well written.

I thought the mafia guy had been picked up locally for something illegal and law enforcement said do us this favor and we'll forget about it. I don't think it was necessarily a big time guy, but at least someone who could really talk the talk. I figured it was a nobody.

There are a few tv specials on youtube with Dobyns and that Hells Angel Bobby I forget his last name, the sponsor you mentioned.

Also google an article from The Aging Rebel called paying Michael Kramer, deals with Mesa HA during that era. Just another murdering psycho that the FBI paid millions of dollars to and let him off the hook. Might be one of our neighbors now.

The book Under and Alone from when an ATF agent infiltrated the Los Angeles Mongols is considered by many/most to be the best of the biker infiltration autobiographies.

Dobyns would go on to be accused by the ATF of attempting to burn his own house down in Tucson and blaming it on HA retaliation. He and I think a couple other agents including the one who wrote the Mongols book sued ATF for lack of post operation support/protection and I think they won some money.