Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang

William Queen

Apr 2005 · Sold by Random House

About this ebook

In 1998, William Queen was a veteran law enforcement agent with a lifelong love of motorcycles and a lack of patience with paperwork. When a “confidential informant” made contact with his boss at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, offering to take an agent inside the San Fernando chapter of the Mongols (the scourge of Southern California, and one of the most dangerous gangs in America), Queen jumped at the chance, not realizing that he was kicking-starting the most extensive undercover operation inside an outlaw motorcycle gang in the history of American law enforcement.

Nor did Queen suspect that he would penetrate the gang so successfully that he would become a fully “patched-in” member, eventually rising through their ranks to the office of treasurer, where he had unprecedented access to evidence of their criminal activity. After Queen spent twenty-eight months as “Billy St. John,” the bearded, beer-swilling, Harley-riding gang-banger, the truth of his identity became blurry, even to himself.

During his initial “prospecting” phase, Queen was at the mercy of crank-fueled criminal psychopaths who sought to have him test his mettle and prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling (and doing) drugs, to arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles, driving getaway cars, and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol “ol’ lady” after a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend.

Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, for whom planning cop killings and gang rapes were business as usual, Queen also came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from family, his friends, and ATF colleagues, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. “I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldn’t hesitate to murder Billy Queen.”

From Queen’s first sleight of hand with a line of methamphetamine in front of him and a knife at his throat, to the fearsome face-off with their decades-old enemy, the Hell’s Angels (a brawl that left three bikers dead), to the heartbreaking scene of a father ostracized at Parents’ Night because his deranged-outlaw appearance precluded any interaction with regular citizens, Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenaline-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America and with the law enforcement agents who risk everything to bring them in.

Ratings and reviews

My Dad WAS Billy's PARTNER- UC NARCOTICS AGENT AND HEd BEEN ACCEPTED. Billy.. "William", WAS my Dad's PARTNER, AND A GREEDY LIAR. FIRST PERSON TO EVER BE ABLE TO BE TRUSTED AND, THUS, 12 BLOWN UP CARS AND HARLEYS. I WAS 12, he didn't come BACK 1 night when HE WAS scheduled for the biggest MOTORCYCLE GANG BUST IN HISTORY, at 2:30 am...THAT EVE, his source OF transport. BILLY never WAS A TRUE FRIEND & HE CAN NEVER MAKE THIS RIGHT. THE LIES, FROM PAGE 1 TO THE END WHAT BILLY DID AFTER THE MEMORIAL, WAS HORRIBLE BILLY WASNT A FRIEND, MY DAD DIED. THEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIS REAL LIFE WAS $$$$ his HEART WAS BLACK AFTER THE ENTIRE BOOK OF LIES. Billy Queen, THE REAL LIAR DESERVES PUNISHMENT FOR RAPIDLY RELEASING HIS FALSIFIED "TRUE STORY" IS MY Dad's. I NEVER saw HIM AGAIN once DAD WAS gone. NOBODY KNEW ABOUT THE FACTS, JUST my dad & Billy. I HAVE BEEN DOING research AND I'm speaking TO pro bono lawyers who ARE 100% great. Ur Disgusting, AND I WILL destroy YOU, with truth. Zero ☆'s

Gritty and interesting. It pulled me along for the ride along the lonely trail this ATF agent took in order to pursue justice. I found his conflicting emotions played true as he described finding friendship and comfort among men he would ultimately betray. The criminal enterprise was interesting, but more interesting was the peek into the Mongols and their mindset. I would recommend this book.

Great read about an ATF undercover & actually becomes very close to many of his new "family of bikers". Working undercover puts you into a mode of defense every second, hoping you are not discovered. But he not only patches in, he enjoys the company he's keeping and bonds with his new brothers. After he turned the tables, came the hardest part. Giving up friendships.

About the author

WILLIAM QUEEN spent twenty years as a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. A Vietnam War veteran, Queen served with the U.S. Army Special Forces and was awarded the Silver Star during his 1971 tour of duty. After his military service, Queen devoted his entire career to law enforcement. For his groundbreaking undercover work playing the part of biker “Billy St. John,” William Queen was awarded the 2001 Federal Bar Association’s Medal of Valor, the Director’s Award from the Department of Justice, the Robert Faulkner Memorial Outstanding Investigation Award from the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigator Association, the Medal of Valor from the International Narcotics Investigators Association, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.