Angels of Death: inside the bikers' global crime empire
William Marsden and Julian Sher Hodder & Stoughton, 464pp, £17.99
ISBN 0340898305
The 1960s ended 25 days early on 6 December 1969 at the Rolling Stones concert in Altamont. The Stones had hired the local branch of Hell's Angels as security and, after jabbing a knife into the side of Keith Richards to keep him playing, the Angels then clubbed a black man to death. As the myth of flower power died, so the presence of violence grew within America.
Angels of Death is a well-researched, engrossing account of the biker gangs' rise up America's crime tree. But the authors fail to describe the context in which these gangs operate. How do they remain independent of the Mafia, the Colombian cartels and the Jamaican Yardies that control drug distribution and gun-running in America? Do the bikers have working agreements with these groups? The book also fails to pick up on the increasingly corporate nature of drug crime in America. William Marsden and Julian Sher note that the Hell's Angel name and insignia are incorporated, but don't point out the vertical structure of crime groups, the importance to buyers on the street of branded drugs, or that successful sales groups are rewarded with outings. This book relies too much on the word of the cops and not enough on that of the robbers.
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