The devil's butler

by Simma Holt

This is a book that won't let you hide or run away. It tells the true and incredible story of outrageous violence and bestial abuse inflected on a young transient held as a captive "butler" by members of the Satan's Angels motorcycle club in Vancouver, and details the capture, trial, and conviction of his tormentors. With thorough documentation, veteran reporter Simma Holt shows how outlaw motorcycle clubs thrive in the context of drugs, rock festivals and hippie migrations, terrorizing the community at large but finding ideal victims in the gentler drop-outs and drug-users who share their anti-authoritarian world. Mrs Holt lets the story unfold with judicious use of transcripts from the police wire-tapping of the clubhouse phone and from the court records of the case, which she follows through to its completion. The story she tells is convincing evidence of her thesis that lawlessness, however non-violent, ultimately leads to violence or becomes its prey.

Genres: True Crime

216 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972