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Gran Leon Books - Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $19.99
Your Save: $ 4.96 ( 20% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Random House
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1066092
EAN: 9781400060849
ISBN: 1400060842
Label: Random House
Manufacturer: Random House
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2005-04-05
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: 2005-04-05
Studio: Random House
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Editorial Reviews:
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In 1998, William Queen was a veteran law enforcement agent with a lifelong love of motorcycles and a lack of patience with paperwork. When a “confidential informant” made contact with his boss at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, offering to take an agent inside the San Fernando chapter of the Mongols (the scourge of Southern California, and one of the most dangerous gangs in America), Queen jumped at the chance, not realizing that he was kicking-starting the most extensive undercover operation inside an outlaw motorcycle gang in the history of American law enforcement.
Nor did Queen suspect that he would penetrate the gang so successfully that he would become a fully “patched-in” member, eventually rising through their ranks to the office of treasurer, where he had unprecedented access to evidence of their criminal activity. After Queen spent twenty-eight months as “Billy St. John,” the bearded, beer-swilling, Harley-riding gang-banger, the truth of his identity became blurry, even to himself.
During his initial “prospecting” phase, Queen was at the mercy of crank-fueled criminal psychopaths who sought to have him test his mettle and prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling (and doing) drugs, to arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles, driving getaway cars, and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol “ol’ lady” after a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend.
Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, for whom planning cop killings and gang rapes were business as usual, Queen also came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from family, his friends, and ATF colleagues, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. “I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldn’t hesitate to murder Billy Queen.”
From Queen’s first sleight of hand with a line of methamphetamine in front of him and a knife at his throat, to the fearsome face-off with their decades-old enemy, the Hell’s Angels (a brawl that left three bikers dead), to the heartbreaking scene of a father ostracized at Parents’ Night because his deranged-outlaw appearance precluded any interaction with regular citizens, Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenaline-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America and with the law enforcement agents who risk everything to bring them in.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Under cover
Comment: I loved this book and recomend it to all my friends. It shows a clasic struggle between good and evil and how at times it can be hard to tell which is which. Shows both sides to being a member of a MC in that the brother hood is awsome but it also shows you the illegal side of things and how evil the people in the Club can be.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: It's OK
Comment: The book is ok, but lacks in writing style which also effects it over all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Comment: I haven't read the book as yet but I'm looking forward to it, especially after watching several programs about outlaw m/c gangs.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Comment: I was on a plane and the guy next to me saw my Kindle and asked me about it. We then began to talk about books and he recommended this one to me. WOW! Who knew? I swear, I never knew how criminal they really were. I even grew up a in Daytona Beach, FL and thought this Motorcyle Gang stuff was just made up. "Gangs are for young thugs with bad parents and no jobs."
I was not part of this culture, but it was all around me. Bikers were always nice, very willing to help out. Even the ones with the patched up vests and the half naked women at The Iron Horse on US 1. So yeah... they got a little drunk, could be a little rowdy, but overall were seemingly good guys that were interesting to look at and looked REALLY scary.
We would hear about the Outlaws down there, as well as the Mongols and Hell's Angels - not to mess with them. But, what does that really mean? These guys are in their 40s, too old for trouble. Now I know. It means business. Now those are the 1%ers - The rest are just guys and girls with enough money to get a bike.
Mr. Queen did such a great job taking the reader through the terrible things that most people don't know or see as well as the sweet emotional sides of these guys that are looking for family. It felt like I was right there, a witness to his experiences. Sometimes, harrowing, sometimes sad, sometimes sweet.
I won't spoil anything, but I can only imagine how angry his ex-wife must have been.
This is defintiely a great read - even if you've never seen a biker.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Comment: this is a very interesting and informative book about how dangerous motor cycle gangs and the criminal activity they are involved in.Good job Mr Queen in taking some of these outlaws off the streets.
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