Execellent Book

William Queen aka Billy St. John is a agent for the Bureau of alcohol. tobacco and firearms and the veteran of a few successful deep undercover operations so when he is approached by his boss who has a confidential informant that is willing to help get a agent inside of is described as the most violent motorcycle gang in america. when the author and agent is approached with the opportunity he jumps at the chance and is introduced to the bar that chapter of the San Fernando Mongols hangs out in the story really takes off. Of course it goes without saying that it helps that william queen has quite a passion for motorcycles one that he has had for most of his life.

William Queen takes on the undercover name of Billy St. John and starts out as just a hang around and over the period of 28 months he works his way all the way upto full patch member which is pretty amazing considering the lengths that the motorcycle gangs go through to check on the backgrounds of prospects in his case for the Mongols he had to fill out a 4 page application. He was able to make it to different officer positions with in the San Fernando chapter and along the way gather info on all the different criminal activitys which ran quite wide from witness tampering to murder.

But all through the book once he became prospect upto full patch member he had to deal with the pressures on family and surprising the feelings with knowing that he was going to have guys arrested who surprisingly had strong bonds in their brotherhood and and actual true love for their fellow brothers the one instance that really stands out when he had family member pass away and he left the Atf and Mongols for a short time when he came back his fellow agents hardly expressed any sympathy or to let him know that they were there for him they Mongols where

If you really want to see what the motorcycle gang life is like this will diffently give you a real feeling for it this a book i wouls recommend 5 Stars for sure

Eye-Opening, Exciting, and Depressing

William Queen spent 28 months undercover with the Mongols motorcycle group - feared more than Hells Angels. His bravery and "street intelligence" are incredible. Drugs, illegal weapons, gang-rape, witness intimidation, brutal beatins, and motorcylce theft were the gang's most common unlawful activities.

Introduction to the group was via an informant who wanted to get back at the Mongols; unfortunately, the informant also let the Mongols know what she wanted to accomplish, leading them to suspect Queen. To gain stature and prevent being exposed as an ATF agent, he had to fake snorting meth, and appear ready to participate in a gang rape (luckily the intended victims did not show up). Final acceptance required passing a background check using his Social Security #, VA records, last five years' W-2 forms, criminal records, high-school records, and relatives - in this case all made up by the ATF.

Queen reported several instances of the gang's riminality and brutality: 1)A fellow prospective member who changed his mind about membership had to play Russian roulette to get out. 2)Members wanting out had to have their Mongol gang tattoo burned off. 3)One member had been convicted of child molesting his sister's children - because she turned him in he was plotting to kill both her and the children. (Queen managed to thwart those crimes.) 4)Another member, unable to redeem his pawned motorcylce, wanted to kill the pawn shop owner (again Queen was able to avoid this crime).

Shortly after becoming accepted, Queen became chapter Secretary-Treasurer, replacing the functionally-illiterate incumbent. This afforded Queen (and the government) detail about the group's activities that otherwise would not have been available.

Queen paid a steep price for his undercover status - not only did he have to risk his life daily and subject himself to a highly destructive lifestyle (drinking, fighting, fast riding), his girlfriend dropped him, he missed many opportunities to be with his sons, and ultimately they were moved far away from him as part of a protective relocation.

The prosecutorial rewards, unfortunately, were not commensurate, in my opinion: Seventy illegal firearms, two kilos of cocaine, significant amounts of marijuana and meth, and 53 convictions. (Queen only elaborates on one sentence - "Red Dog" - one of the worst members - received only a three year sentence.) This is not a criticism of anyone - just the depressing reality of how difficult it can be to attack organized crime.

Two years later, the Mongols and Hells Angels gangs met in Laughlin, NV - and two people died. Unfortunately the Mongols did not go out of business - no fault of Queen's. I only wish we had applied his talents to anti-terrorism!

Great, easy reading book

Queen takes you with him as he enters into the world of the "Mongols". It's a great book that's an easy read and hard to put down. Highly recommended.