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

Ross Coulthart · Duncan McNab

Sep 2008 · Allen & Unwin

About this ebook

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 10 years, Steve Utah was a Bandidos insider, a trusted confidante of senior bike gang members along the east coast of Australia. He arranged the security of their clubhouses and electronic surveillance and counter surveillance. He 'cooked' ecstasy and ice for them. He witnessed meetings in which 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 their 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.

Ratings and reviews

A good read and really nothing of great surprise. The old saying says that money talks, but the reality is that when the money is tainted those who deal in it are prepared to kill for silence. Whilst I have some admiration for Steve Utah speaking out, it is obvious he is only telling the bare minimum. The full and real story will probably never be known, the little told is enough to put Utah's life at very real risk. Some in law enforcement also have their grubby mitts in the criminal pie. Not quite 5 *

This book is full of crap and Coulthart himself should be sued for defamation. Anyone who trusts the words of scum like 'Utah' are really no better than 'Utah' himself... a dog. And every dog has their day.

Don't care if true or not interesting anyway.

About the author

Ross Coulthart is a Walkley Award winning journalist. Duncan McNab is the author of The Usual Suspect - The Life of Abe Saffron (Pan Macmillan 2005) and The Dodger - Inside the World of Roger Rogerson (Pan Macmillan 2006). He is also a former policeman and private investigator.