10. THE DEATH OF DAIN PHILLIPS In 2011, a 51-year-old family man named Dain Phillips found himself caught in the middle of a dispute between his son, Kody, and some of his old high school classmates. Kody allegedly posted a rude comment on Facebook about an acquaintance of his dad, Daniel McRae. McRae was pretty upset about the comment and confronted Kody, but he was unsatisfied with the outcome of the discussion. The following night, Dain Phillips met up with the men who were mad at his son in hopes of peacefully resolving the issue.
Little did he know, McRae was out for revenge, and he had recruited help from some friends with ties to motorcycle gangs. Instead of putting the disagreement to rest, the group beat Phillips with hammers and baseball bats. They left him on the roadside in a pool of blood, and he died later that night at the hospital. Seven people were charged with manslaughter. At least two of them were full-patch members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Another one of the attackers was the president of another gang called the Throttle Lockers, which acts as a support group for the Hells Angels. Phillips was a family man with no criminal record and had unknowingly gotten involved with the wrong people in his efforts to act as a peacemaker.
9. BERKSHIRE TRIPLE MURDER One day in August 2011, three men were seen leaving a Hells Angels party in Pittsfield, Massachusetts together. The trio, which included Hells Angels member Adam Lee Hall, kidnapped, stabbed, and shot three people. They then dismembered and buried the bodies. The victims were David Glasser, Edward Frampton, and Robert Chadwell. The men killed Glasser because he was planning to testify against Hall in an assault case, and they murdered the other two victims to eliminate witnesses.
After committing the crime, the group went to the local Hells Angels clubhouse, where they bragged about the brutal killings. The victims were reported missing a few days later, and soon enough, police dug up their remains. All signs pointed toward Hall as a guilty party, and witnesses identified his accomplices. The investigation led authorities to one of the suspect’s homes, where they found hatchets, knives, a machete, and other tools that they believe were used for hacking the victims’ bodies into pieces. Hall and his accomplices, David Chalue and self-proclaimed Satanist and vampire Caius Veiovis, were found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. They are all serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
8. BIKER BRAWL When 25-year-old David Martinez moved a traffic cone outside the Hells Angels clubhouse in New York City’s East Village one day in 2016, it upset club member Anthony Iovenitti. The cone was in place to mark a reserved parking spot for a biker, and Martinez allegedly moved it so that a car his friend was driving could squeeze past a taxi. Iovenitti reportedly worked as a security guard at the clubhouse and was on patrol that day.
He rushed out to the street and confronted Martinez. Soon enough, the disagreement came to blows, and Iovenitti shot Martinez in the stomach. The bullet was lodged into the victim’s spine and he was hospitalized, but luckily survived the attack. Martinez identified Iovenitti as the shooter in surveillance footage of the incident. Police charged the suspect with first-degree assault and possession. His defense lawyer, Ron Kuby, claimed that Martinez was the aggressor in the argument that led to the shooting. The judge held Iovenitti on $25,000 bail, which he posted shortly after his arraignment. But the case was dropped after the 52-year-old suspect died of an aneurysm. Martinez forgave Iovenitti for shooting him, telling the New York Post that he extended his condolences to the biker’s family and friends and that he wished blessings on the Hells Angels.
7. 2007 MELBOURNE CBD SHOOTINGS Christopher Hudson became a full member of the Hells Angels in 2007, after defecting from a rival motorcycle club the year earlier. While drinking heavily and high on drugs at a strip club in Melbourne, Australia’s Central Business District (CBD) one day, he beat a dancer unconscious and left her in the street.
When Hudson’s girlfriend, Keara Douglas, came to pick him up, he showed her that he had a gun and forced her to walk with him. He reportedly told her “Today you’re going to die. Today’s the last day of your life.” Keara managed to escape Hudson on foot and tried to get into a taxi, but Hudson pulled her out of the car by her hair. Two bystanders – a lawyer named Brendan Keilar and a Dutch backpacker named Paul de Waard – noticed the chaos and approached the pair to ask what was going on. Hudson drew his gun and shot both men and Keara.
Brenden Keilar died at the scene; Keara lost a kidney and spent several days in a coma, and de Waard suffered from injuries that required extensive rehabilitation. The shooter fled the scene and dumped his gun and jacket at a construction site, then sought refuge at a Hells Angels clubhouse. He surrendered to the police without incident three days later and was charged with a slew of crimes, including murder, attempted murder, intentionally causing serious injury, and unlawful imprisonment. Hudson pleaded guilty to Keilar’s murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 35 years before becoming eligible for parole.
6. RIVAL REVENGE Francisco Rosado was the leader of the Bronx chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, a rival organization of Hells Angels. Authorities consider the Pagans to be an outlaw club. One day last year, while he was working at his day job as the super of an apartment building, a Jeep Cherokee approached. Three masked individuals got out and opened fire in broad daylight, shooting Rosado in the head, neck, and arm. He died at the scene. Another member of the Pagans, who was with Rosado at the time, was shot in the arm.
At first, investigators were at a loss to explain the trio’s motive for killing Rosado. They charged two Hells Angels members, Frank “Loose Cannon” Tatulli and Sayanon Thongthawath, with attempted murder, murder, manslaughter, and assault. Police also arrested a member of the Satan’s Soldiers motorcycle club named Anthony Destefano and charged him with conspiracy and manslaughter. It eventually came to light that the suspects committed the shooting in retaliation for shots fired outside a local Hells Angels clubhouse months earlier. Although there was damage to the building, and no injuries were reported. What would your nickname be if you were in a motorcycle club?
5. ROLLING THUNDER AND BIG SMOKE Late last year, a police investigation into alleged drug trafficking among biker clubs led to the disruption of an $18 million operation in Delta, British Columbia. The joint projects, codenamed Project Rolling Thunder and Project Big Smoke, arose after locals expressed concern over drug activity in the area. Initially, the investigation focused on street-level drug dealing, and it ultimately led police to “bigger fish.” Detectives connected the operation to the Hells Angels and UN motorcycle clubs.
As part of Project Rolling Thunder, they seized $193,000 cash, $70,000 worth of jewelry, assault rifles and other guns, and several vehicles, including ATVs and Harley Davidsons. Some of the vehicles had hidden compartments. They also found a huge drug stash. Authorities believe that the operation was capable of yielding $18 million in sales every year from cannabis alone. The value of dried cannabis was estimated to be around $1.8 million. Operation Big Smoke, which focused on the illegal pot, led investigators to believe that the facility was operating under a false medical marijuana license. Delta Police Investigations Bureau Superintendent Kelly Young told the press that Rolling Thunder and Big Smoke produced enough information for authorities to continue investigating the area’s drug activity. And it appears that the projects are, indeed, ongoing, because there haven’t been any updates since news of the busts originally broke in November of last year.
4. DELAYED JUSTICE In 2012, a group of eight armed suspects had unexpectedly stormed into a paint and panel shop in Adelaide, Australia, and shot Australian business owner Jason De Ieso to death. The investigation hit a standstill, and the eight suspects were only recently charged for the nearly decade-old murder. While De Ieso had no known gang connections, his death was believed to be related to an ongoing feud between the Hells Angels and Finks bike gangs. Authorities believe that the killing resulted from a case of mistaken identity and that De Ieso was murdered as revenge for the firebombing of a home belonging to three of the killers’ parents. All eight suspects pleaded not guilty to murder. Their trial is ongoing.
3. A REPEAT OFFENDER In 2019, Joseph Lancia, the head of the Rhode Island Hells Angels chapter, allegedly fired a gun at a vehicle being driven by Richard Starnino, a former prospect to join the club. The two were reportedly embroiled in an ongoing feud. The incident, which happened outside of a local Hells Angels clubhouse, was captured on surveillance footage. Police arrested Lancia, and he was released on $100,000 bail. He claimed that the victim was an informant who pointed a gun at him first, and argued that authorities were trying to entrap him.
While awaiting trial, the 30-year-old found himself in hot water yet again. This time, he was involved in an altercation at a strip club, where several Hells Angels members were seen arguing with security guards and managers. Police found the assistant manager bleeding after getting punched in the face. He fell unconscious and went to the hospital for his injuries, but said he didn’t want to press charges. Officers took Lancia into custody on the suspicion that he had committed the assault, and he served two months for violating his bail agreement. He is currently on trial for nine charges related to both incidents, including felony assault and battery, disorderly conduct, assault with intent to commit murder, carrying a pistol without a permit, and more. Lancia recently rejected a plea deal offer that would sentence him to five years in prison. It’s the second offer he’s refused, after first being allowed to do eight years. His case will go to trial, and he faces up to 61 years in prison if convicted on all nine counts.
2. A SMUGGLING SLIP-UP In 2015, Australian ex-pat Luke Joshua Cook; his partner, Kanyarat Wediphitak, and American ex-pat Tyler Gerard tried to smuggle a half-tonne of methamphetamine into Thailand on a yacht. They were transporting the $300 million shipments for the Hells Angels through their illicit boat importation business. After picking up the drugs from a Chinese vessel, the trio’s yacht was approached by a Thai Navy vessel. They dumped the stash overboard and it washed ashore. Locals found it and turned it over to the authorities, who were unable to link the drugs to any suspects. They eventually arrested Cook, Wediphitak, and Gerard.
Prosecutors claimed that the Hells Angels paid Cook $10 million to move the shipment, but Cook’s lawyer argued that he was framed for the crime. He was sentenced to death and appealed, but a court didn’t believe in a frame job and upheld the sentence. Cook and Wediphitak were finally acquitted by a Supreme Court after a drawn-out legal battle over the credibility of a witness and a lack of evidence linking them to the drugs. He returned to Australia and was reunited with his two children after quarantining for two weeks to ensure that he doesn’t have COVID-19.
1. REFORMED AND REGRETFUL Ben Geppert became a criminal during his teens and eventually became a member of Hells Angels on Australia’s Gold Coast. But he learned the hard way that the lifestyle is not all it’s cracked up to be. Geppert has made headlines several times in recent years and spent much of his adult life in and out of jail. During a 2019 trip with his ex-girlfriend, Instagram model Allaina Vader, he allegedly became violent while behind the wheel. Fearing for her safety, Vader jumped out of the moving vehicle to escape Geppert. Police had to take him three times to subdue him, and he was sentenced to six months in jail for the incident. That same year, Geppert’s 17-year-old brother, Harrison, was stabbed to death.
Ben had introduced his sibling to the gangster lifestyle and felt responsible for his death. In an emotional Instagram post, he vowed to make sure that the person who killed Harrison paid for their actions. He also left the Hells Angels. Earlier this year, the notorious ex-biker starred in a video for a Queensland government program aimed at reforming gang members and preventing young people from joining gangs. In it, Geppert discussed how being a gangster had ruined his life, taken his brother from him, and made it difficult for him to find a normal job. A few months before the video first aired, he was arrested for a violent burglary he committed over a drug debt.
Then, Geppert got in trouble for violating a restraining order by calling his ex-girlfriend multiple times from jail. He was sentenced to three years in prison for his most recent crimes, and will soon be eligible for parole. Geppert has a reputation for posting too much of his gang-related business on Instagram, and it reportedly earned him a target on his back. The judge who imposed the punishment said that she would normally hand down a longer sentence. But because Geppert would likely spend most of his sentence in isolation, which wouldn’t help him become reformed, she went somewhat easy on him.
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Reviewed by Muneeb Awan
on
November 09, 2021
Rating:
