The Assimilation: Rock Machine Become Bandidos – Bikers United Against the Hells Angels

One thing I can say with certainty is that I have not had a dull life. I have been shot twice, stabbed, blown up, bitten by a rattlesnake and by a scorpion, plus had numerous car and motorcycle accidents...I've even been married twice.

Here is the true-life story of Richard "Deadeye" Hayes in all its bad-ass, balls-to-the-wall glory. This is a man who stole a machine gun before he was seven and lost his left eye when a good friend shot him in the face. As a member-and then president-of the infamous Los Valientes Motorcycle Club, he broke more laws and had more fun than any six of the coolest guys you know.

Butch told me the club had a hard time deciding whether to vote me in or kill me.

I always hoped he was kidding.

One of the last true Outlaw Bikers, Deadeye knows what it means to be a man, take shit from no one, and have tattoos that actually say something. Riding, drug dealing, and sending men to the hospital with his bare hands, Deadeye made himself a legend among bikers-all the while making sure his daughters never got mixed up with guys like him.

I've always been of the belief that bikers are born, not made. Real bikers, that is. We must have an extra gene or something that gives us this I'll-live-like-I-want-whether-you-approve-of-it-or-not-and-fuck-your-rules attitude.

In his own words, Deadeye tells it all. From earning his colors with an outlaw motorcycle club to his steady diet of drugs, sex, violence, and crime, this is his story: true to life, yet larger than life, and full throttle all the way.

Biography

Richard "Deadeye" Hayes grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and learned at an early age that the confines of school and authority bored him. To alleviate this minor problem, he created much larger ones such as bar fights, gunfights, knife fights, fistfights, drugs, drug dealers, drug dealing, and dealing in stolen goods. It is an understatement to say that Deadeye enjoys adventure and values a sense of humor. He currently serves as president of the Los Valientes Motorcycle Club. He lives in South St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mary Gardner is the author of Salvation Run, Boat People, and two other novels. A former Woodrow Wilson Fellow with a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago, she teaches at the Loft, a community writing center in Minneapolis. Her shorter work has been published in The New York Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Friends Journal. In the winter she lives in St. Paul; she spends summers in her cabin in northwestern Minnesota.

by Edward Winterhalder and Wil De Clercq
cover for The Assimilation: Rock Machine Become Bandidos – Bikers United Against the Hells Angels

ISBN-10: 1-55022-824-2 ISBN-13: 978-1-55022-824-3 June 2008

In the early 1990s, Maurice “Mom” Boucher and his fellow Montreal Hells Angels, reputedly the most ruthless and vicious bikers in the world, subdued all comers except the tough-as-nails members of the Rock Machine. Founded by Salvatore Cazzetta, an ex-friend of Boucher, the Rock Machine had every intention of standing up against the Hells Angels. Seven years of bloody conflict, which left over 160 people dead and countless injured, was the result. Heavily outnumbered, the Rock Machine appealed to the worldwide Bandidos Motorcycle Club, who rivaled the Hells Angels in terms of membership and strength. In January 2000, the Rock Machine ceased to exist and became a probationary Bandidos chapter – the first to be established on Canadian soil.

Biker Edward Winterhalder was assigned by the Bandidos to coordinate the transition. Although the stage had been set for an end to the biker war and a positive outcome for all, it was anything but. Starting with the arrest and unsuccessful deportation proceedings of Winterhalder by the Canadian authorities, more intrigue, assassinations, and double-crosses, Winterhalder found himself in a situation even he found impossible to control.

In The Assimilation, Winterhalder – in collaboration with author Wil De Clercq – recalls his life and times as an outlaw biker; his personal involvement in the creation of the Quebec Bandidos; his friendship with the key players who made it happen; and his eventual disillusionment with, and exit from, the Bandidos Nation.

Order the book: http://outlawbiker.co.uk/infusions/amazecs/index.php