Their names resonate with organized crime in Montreal: the Matticks, MacAllisters, Johnstons and Griffins, and Peter Dunie Ryan. They are the Irish equivalent of the infamous Rizzuto and Cotroni families, and the "Mom" Bouchers and Walter Stadnicks of the Hells Angels. Award-winning producer, journalist and author D’Arcy O’Connor narrates the genesis and rise to power of one of Montreal’s most powerful, violent and colorful criminal organizations. It is the West End Gang, whose members controlled the docks and fought the Hells Angels and Mafia for their share of the city’s prostitution, gambling, loan sharking and drug dealing. At times, they did not disdain forging alliances with rival gangs when huge profits were at stake, or when a killing needed to be carried out. The West End Gang—the Irish Mafia of Montreal—is a legendary beast. They sprang out of the impoverished southwest of the city, some looking for ways to earn enough just to survive, some wanting more than a job in an abattoir or on a construction site. In that sense, they were no different from other immigrants from Italy and other European countries. A shortcut to wealth was their common goal. And Montreal, with its burgeoning post-WWII population, was ripe for the picking. The Irish Mob made headlines with a spectacular Brinks robbery in 1976, using the money to broker a major heroin and cocaine trafficking ring. It took over the Port of Montreal, controlling the flow of drugs into the city, drugs which the Mafia funnelled to New York. The West End Gang had connections to the cocaine cartel in Colombia; hashish brokers in Morocco and France; and marijuana growers in Mexico. The gang imported drugs on an enormous scale. One bust that took place off the coast of Angola in 2006 involved 22.5 tonnes of hashish, destined for Montreal. The West End Gang is a ripping tale that unveils yet another chapter in Montreal’s colorful criminal underworld.

Gonzo journalist and literary roustabout Hunter S. Thompson flies with the angels—Hell’s Angels, that is—in this short work of nonfiction. “California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur. . . The Menace is loose again.” Thus begins Hunter S. Thompson’s vivid account of his experiences with California’s most notorious motorcycle gang, the Hell’s Angels. In the mid-1960s, Thompson spent almost two years living with the controversial Angels, cycling up and down the coast, reveling in the anarchic spirit of their clan, and, as befits their name, raising hell. His book successfully captures a singular moment in American history, when the biker lifestyle was first defined, and when such countercultural movements were electrifying and horrifying America. Thompson, the creator of Gonzo journalism, writes with his usual bravado, energy, and brutal honesty, and with a nuanced and incisive eye; as The New Yorker pointed out, “For all its uninhibited and sardonic humor, Thompson’s book is a thoughtful piece of work.” As illuminating now as when originally published in 1967, Hell’s Angels is a gripping portrait, and the best account we have of the truth behind an American legend.

The inside story of the street war between Canada's most violent biker gangs-the Outlaws and the Hell's Angels Once bikers who road together, Mario Parente and Walter Stadnick, are now mortal enemies, chiefs, respectively, of the Outlaws and Hell's Angels, embroiled in a bloody turf war over control of the lucrative drug, prostitution, and vice markets in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe. Written with the cooperation of Mario Parente, Showdown describes the biker gang equivalent of the Godfather, the violent power shifts as Satan's Choice, a rival gang falls into disarray, and as Parente gears up to protect Southwest Ontario from Stadnick's vision of making the Hell's Angels the largest criminal biker gang in Canada. A gang's-eye look at the 2006 Shedden Massacre, where eight men were slaughtered An account that lets Mario Parente go on the record with his story of the biker wars With frightening and compelling detail, Showdown lets readers experience firsthand the personalities and day-to-day workings behind the brutal and deadly rivalries that mark one piece of Canada's criminal underworld.

Abadinsky provides a detailed, comprehensive analysis of the origins, history, theoretical explanations, and structure of domestic andinternational organized crime, including drug trafficking, gambling, and loan sharking. The author also explains the methods employed by lawenforcement agencies to combat organized crime, and the policy decisions reached by various investigating committees and commissions,including the President's Commission on Organized Crime.

Relates the undercover work of George Rowe, who infiltrated the Vagos motorcycle gang, spending three years working to take down the gang from the inside.