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Twilight Of The Outlaws
Framed by the true story of the murder of Black Piston patch holder Zack Tipton in Jacksonville Beach, Florida in June, 2014 Twilight of the Outlaws rips open the veil that shrouds the world of outlaw motorcycle clubs, reveals the social and economic forces that are hastening their end and exposes the corrupt law enforcement agencies that will stop at nothing to destroy them. Author and motorcycle club expert Donald Charles Davis traces the history of this society of disenfranchised men, the code of ethics that binds them and the ever deepening intrigues that make them more fascinating now than ever before.
222 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 20, 2015
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March 25, 2016
Twilight Of The Outlaws was a difficult book to rate. For some people it would be a fascinating read; for others, it would be a chore just to get through it. I found it quite edifying, but I've been researching motorcycle outlaws for over a year now. Somebody without a grounding in MC culture (or an interest in it) would be lost...not to mention faintly bored.
Outlaws is pitched as an exploration into the murder of Zach Tipton, a member of the Black Pistons MC who was gunned down by a member of the Iron Order MC. However, Davis ranges far afield from that topic in an attempt to explain the broader decay of outlaw culture and the reasons behind it...reasons which have since culminated in the existence of "cop clubs" like the Iron Order, which draws its membership (if you can believe it) from active-duty police officers and firefighters. Its an interesting premise, but there's a problem.
Davis rambles. A lot. He is easily sidetracked into broader issues concerning masculinity, gender politics, police corruption, media distortion of outlaw culture...you name it, Davis rhapsodizes on it. The book is tactically interesting as Davis knows how to turn a phrase, but taken in sum Outlaws suffers from a serious lack of cohesion. Again I stress; if biker culture isn't an interest for you, you'll likely suffer from a serious lack of give-a-damn.
However, if bikers are something you are interested in (and especially if you seek to write about them) I cannot recommend this book enough. Davis offers that rarest of creatures, an even-handed look at "the life". While he is obviously sympathetic to the outlaw way, Davis does a good job of presenting its failures and frailties without apology or sugar-coating, and strips away the layer of romanticizing by offering us the truth in all its tattered, ugly and occasionally noble glory.
Davis paints motorcycle outlaws as men searching for a brand of manhood America once nurtured but now despises, men seeking a boyish Tom Sawyer-esque ideal...that of the "blood-brother", a group of like-minded men whose loyalty is absolute. He asserts that brotherly love, not greed, is the foundation that drives MC life. However, he is also not shy in pointing out the problems this produces - that grown men armed to the teeth chasing a little-boy dream of being one of Peter Pan's lost boys occasionally results in violence rendered savage by way of its sheer inanity. Bikers maim and kill each other, and they do it for reasons that to an outside observer are far more ridiculous than money. In some of the stories exposed in this book I found myself almost wishing bikers were the mafia on motorcycles...it would make more sense than the truth.
Davis spends a good chunk of the book lambasting various media portrayals of outlaw life. He particularly hates Sons of Anarchy, and after listening to is reasoning for it I cannot fault him much - series creator Kurt Sutter grew one hell of an ego during the series' run, to the point where he began describing his fictional MC as a depiction not of what the life is, but what it ought to be...an arrogant perspective that explains why so many bikers hate the show.
He also documents the rise of the so-called "cop clubs", and pulls no punches in pointing out the irony in how their members spend their weeks endeavoring to eradicate motorcycle outlaws and their weekends pretending to be one. Davis describes cop club culture as a "puerile mutation" on the life, one driven more by Hollywood myth than reality, and how the members make a mockery of outlaw traditions and bait real outlaws into confrontations with the intent of gunning them down. This last, he asserts, was the real reason for Zach Tipton's murder...and after reading this book it is a viable theory. The idea of police going 'cowboy cop' to destroy MC culture has been a fact since Hunter Thompson first met Sonny Barger in the mid-60s.
In closing he describes his reason for the title; that we are living in the 'twilight of the outlaws' not due to police efforts but society's increasing cultural appropriation of motorcycle club culture. When real life Hells Angels and Vagos are appearing on a fictional show to prop up a fictional distortion of a culture which was always driven partially by myths and media, when cops chose to pretend to be the people they're chasing, and when some outlaws betray their brothers for a movie deal or a book contract, the line between reality and fiction grows so blurred as to be meaningless. Even "real" outlaws don't know who they are anymore, and that's because fiction has eclipsed reality.
In closing, I cannot recommend Twilight Of The Outlaws to MC romance authors enough. If you write about bikers, Davis' rambling asides will provide you with a huge pile of grist for story ideas, and his explanation of the noble, tragic and darkly absurd nature of "the life" will help you put your outlaw characters in proper perspective. If you are one of those people, this is a 5-star-why-are-you-not-already-reading this rating. For everyone else, approach with caution.
Outlaws is pitched as an exploration into the murder of Zach Tipton, a member of the Black Pistons MC who was gunned down by a member of the Iron Order MC. However, Davis ranges far afield from that topic in an attempt to explain the broader decay of outlaw culture and the reasons behind it...reasons which have since culminated in the existence of "cop clubs" like the Iron Order, which draws its membership (if you can believe it) from active-duty police officers and firefighters. Its an interesting premise, but there's a problem.
Davis rambles. A lot. He is easily sidetracked into broader issues concerning masculinity, gender politics, police corruption, media distortion of outlaw culture...you name it, Davis rhapsodizes on it. The book is tactically interesting as Davis knows how to turn a phrase, but taken in sum Outlaws suffers from a serious lack of cohesion. Again I stress; if biker culture isn't an interest for you, you'll likely suffer from a serious lack of give-a-damn.
However, if bikers are something you are interested in (and especially if you seek to write about them) I cannot recommend this book enough. Davis offers that rarest of creatures, an even-handed look at "the life". While he is obviously sympathetic to the outlaw way, Davis does a good job of presenting its failures and frailties without apology or sugar-coating, and strips away the layer of romanticizing by offering us the truth in all its tattered, ugly and occasionally noble glory.
Davis paints motorcycle outlaws as men searching for a brand of manhood America once nurtured but now despises, men seeking a boyish Tom Sawyer-esque ideal...that of the "blood-brother", a group of like-minded men whose loyalty is absolute. He asserts that brotherly love, not greed, is the foundation that drives MC life. However, he is also not shy in pointing out the problems this produces - that grown men armed to the teeth chasing a little-boy dream of being one of Peter Pan's lost boys occasionally results in violence rendered savage by way of its sheer inanity. Bikers maim and kill each other, and they do it for reasons that to an outside observer are far more ridiculous than money. In some of the stories exposed in this book I found myself almost wishing bikers were the mafia on motorcycles...it would make more sense than the truth.
Davis spends a good chunk of the book lambasting various media portrayals of outlaw life. He particularly hates Sons of Anarchy, and after listening to is reasoning for it I cannot fault him much - series creator Kurt Sutter grew one hell of an ego during the series' run, to the point where he began describing his fictional MC as a depiction not of what the life is, but what it ought to be...an arrogant perspective that explains why so many bikers hate the show.
He also documents the rise of the so-called "cop clubs", and pulls no punches in pointing out the irony in how their members spend their weeks endeavoring to eradicate motorcycle outlaws and their weekends pretending to be one. Davis describes cop club culture as a "puerile mutation" on the life, one driven more by Hollywood myth than reality, and how the members make a mockery of outlaw traditions and bait real outlaws into confrontations with the intent of gunning them down. This last, he asserts, was the real reason for Zach Tipton's murder...and after reading this book it is a viable theory. The idea of police going 'cowboy cop' to destroy MC culture has been a fact since Hunter Thompson first met Sonny Barger in the mid-60s.
In closing he describes his reason for the title; that we are living in the 'twilight of the outlaws' not due to police efforts but society's increasing cultural appropriation of motorcycle club culture. When real life Hells Angels and Vagos are appearing on a fictional show to prop up a fictional distortion of a culture which was always driven partially by myths and media, when cops chose to pretend to be the people they're chasing, and when some outlaws betray their brothers for a movie deal or a book contract, the line between reality and fiction grows so blurred as to be meaningless. Even "real" outlaws don't know who they are anymore, and that's because fiction has eclipsed reality.
In closing, I cannot recommend Twilight Of The Outlaws to MC romance authors enough. If you write about bikers, Davis' rambling asides will provide you with a huge pile of grist for story ideas, and his explanation of the noble, tragic and darkly absurd nature of "the life" will help you put your outlaw characters in proper perspective. If you are one of those people, this is a 5-star-why-are-you-not-already-reading this rating. For everyone else, approach with caution.
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