DEAD MAN RUNNING

An insider's story on one of the world's most feared outlaw motorcycle gangs ... The Bandidos

by ROSS COULTHART and DUNCAN McNAB

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New softcover book, 405 pages. Published 2009

They'll come after me. I really am a dead man running.'

The Australian Federal police have identified motorcycle gangs as the greatest organised crime threat in Australia - more potentially harmful to the community than any terrorist cell. This book tells the bloody story of the criminal involvement of the feared Bandidos gang - and how one man broke their code and turned informant.

'We are the people our parents warned us about' is the motto of the Bandidos, one of the world's most feared outlaw motorcycle gangs. For ten years, Steve Utah was a Bandidos insider. He arranged the security of their clubhouses and electronic surveillance and counter surveillance. He 'cooked' ecstasy and ice for them. He was at meetings where interstate and overseas drug and weapons smuggling was planned.

Utah loved the wildness of the Bandido life and their contempt for the law, but as he was gradually goaded into increasingly serious crimes as a test of his loyalty to the gang, his life started to spiral out of control. He witnessed vicious beatings, helped dump corpses, knew about the theft of rocket launchers and machine guns. He saw men executed in front of him.

It all became too much and, in an attempt to regain control of his life, Utah resorted to the unthinkable: he rolled over to the Federal Police and told them all he knew about the Bandidos. He had intimate knowledge of every facet of the Bandidos' business in Australia and many aspects of their activities in North America. So trusted had he become that he could point Police to those complicit in three murders. He literally knew where the bodies were buried.

This shocking, unflinching, tragic story is Steve Utah's confession. He knows he is a dead man running - that inevitably the Bandido code will be honoured and he will be silenced. But not before Utah gets his chance to wake Australians to the looming threat in their midst - the relentless rise of sophisticated organised crime networks inside outlaw motorcycle gangs and the apparent inability of the Police and legal system to deal with it.

About the Authors

Ross Coulthart is a Walkley Award winning journalist.

Duncan McNab is a former policeman and private investigator and the author of The Usual Suspect - The Life of Abe Saffron and The Dodger - Inside the World of Roger Rogerson.

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Dead Man Running by Ross Coulthart and Duncan McNab