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Jury Has Ablett Case
The racketeering murder trial of Mongols Motorcycle Club patch holder Christopher “Stoney” Ablett was scheduled to go to the jury late today. Ablett was tried for killing Hells Angels San Francisco charter President Mark “Papa” Guardado in a street fight in San Francisco in September 2008. There is no doubt that Ablett killed Guardado. Ablett [...]
Continue reading...The Mongols Racketeering Trial
18. January 2012
After a delay of 25 months, the Mongols racketeering trial originally scheduled to begin in Los Angeles on December 16, 2008 will finally get under way. Many of the details have evolved. The judge who was to preside, Florence-Marie Cooper, died in January 2010. When the Glendale office of the ATF found out Cooper was [...]
Continue reading...Motorcycle Noise And Money
4. January 2012
It is tempting for bikers to laugh off the holy crusade against “motorcycle noise” and aftermarket exhaust pipes. In the first place, the reasons for replacing the stock exhaust on a Harley are obvious to the people who do it. Back in the day, 82 inch Shovelheads made about 70 horsepower right out of the [...]
Continue reading...Ciccone, Kozlowski To Testify At Ablett Trial
27. December 2011
The outlines of the prosecution and the defense in the trial of Mongol Christopher Bryan “Stoney” Ablett are beginning to appear out of the legal fog. Ablett is accused of murdering Hells Angel San Francisco charter President Mark “Papa” Guardado on September 2, 2008 on behalf of the “Mongols gang.” The trial is scheduled to [...]
Continue reading...The Nicola’s Shooting
19. December 2011
One of the key events in the ATF undercover investigation of the Mongols Motorcycle Club was a shooting in the parking lot of an upscale topless bar named Nicola’s at 960 South Gerhart Avenue, near Whittier Boulevard, in Commerce, California. The shooting was the result of an altercation at about 2:15 am on April 8, [...]
Continue reading...Fog Of Sparks
29. November 2011
A few details are finally starting to emerge about the brawl between members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club on the casino floor just outside Trader Dick’s Lounge at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada on September 23. Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew, President of the San Jose charter of [...]
Continue reading...Out Bad
20. November 2011
Regular and occasional readers of this page may want to know about a couple of new books that are finally in print. The first is called Out Bad: A True Story About Motorcycle Outlaws. The second is titled The Aging Rebel: Dispatches From The Motorcycle Outlaw Frontier. Both books are self-published, like Granny’s collection of [...]
Continue reading...Doc Cavazos Talks
4. November 2011
Ruben “Doc” Cavazos, the former President of the Mongols Motorcycle Club is eager to tell his side of the events which led to a massive federal racketeering case against his former club. Cavazos complains that he has been prevented from talking for the last three years by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Brunwin and Bureau [...]
Continue reading...The Dialogical Saloon Is Open
1. November 2011
News, in case you haven’t noticed, is undergoing a radical redefinition these days. For more than 30 years the dominant television news format was called “Eyewitness News.” An actor would “stand up” in front of a camera near some recent event and try to give you the impression that he was an eyewitness to that [...]
Continue reading...A Criminal Enterprise
8. October 2011
Operation Black Rain, the three year long, $150 million investigation of the Mongols and other motorcycle clubs, was a crime wave punctuated by at least three deaths, at least two six-figure “drug deals,” countless smaller drug deals, numerous assaults, hate crimes, multiple firearms violations, payoffs, perjury, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, theft and even wildlife poaching. [...]
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21. February 2012
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