Showdown: How the Outlaws, Hells Angels and Cops Fought for Control of the Streets

by Jerry Langton

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given how the subject matter naturally intrigues me, I expected to enjoy this book and come out with a strong understanding of how the Hells Angels formed in Canada. The author undoubtedly knows his subject matter, but the plethora of detail isn't relayed in a cohesive and compelling narrative. Every detail -- from trivialities to major events such as gruesome murders -- is given the same weight. As a result, the gravitas of the Hells Angels' crimes never comes across with any force or real darkness. There is also an irritating pattern of name-dropping every gang member's name -- inclusive of the nickname -- enclosed in quotation marks. On one page at least, an entire paragraph was composed of a string of names (and nicknames). This book would have benefited from a narrative that chunked the details into sub-topics and themes -- an arc that would have helped to make sense of the tangled history of the Mafia, Hells Angels, and other one-percenter gangs in Canada, and helped to engage readers on what is a genuinely compelling, if disturbing subject.

[Iain Parke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good example of how a professional journalist can tell a tale and make it both informative and readable, this is very much a focused history of the conflicts between bike clubs in Canada.

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[Tom Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed view of some key players in Canada's ongoing biker wars.

[Joey Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books written about Motorcycle gangs in Canada.