'We know who did it': Hells Angels from across the world gather to remember biker

· Police fear retaliation attacks after M40 shooting
· Killing revives debate over violent history of 'club'

Duncan Campbell
Saturday August 18, 2007

Guardian

Friends of the Hells Angel who was shot dead on the M40 motorway last Sunday believe they know who was responsible for his murder. Police fear that the shooting will lead to revenge attacks by fellow-bikers angered by what the London president of the club described yesterday as a "callous and cowardly" killing.

No one has been arrested for the killing of Gerry Tobin, who was shot in the back of the head while travelling at 70 , but a close friend said yesterday: "We know who did it but we're not telling them [the police]." Bikers' feuds are common in North America and parts of Europe, but rare in the UK, at least in terms of fatalities.

"It would be foolish not to consider that there may be retaliation," said Detective Superintendent Ken Lawrence of Warwickshire police, who is heading the inquiry. While he was sure the core membership would not be involved, others on the periphery might retaliate.

"I don't think this was a plain and simple random attack," he said of the shooting in which two or three men in a green Rover 620 drew alongside Tobin and fired a handgun twice as he and two biker friend drove south after attending the Bulldog Bash festival. "There must have been some precursor event. I am still of the opinion that Gerry was the intended target of this shooting, but we have yet to ascertain a motive."

Bible study

But he added that his officers were considering the possibility that Tobin was attacked simply for being a Hells Angel, because he was wearing club insignia when he was killed.

Police are continuing to study CCTV footage from the motorway as well as photographs and video footage provided by members of public. Billboards appealing for witnesses and information are being set up at motorway service areas where leaflets are also being distributed.

Members of the Hells Angels, in full regalia, from as far afield as Portugal and the Costa Blanca, gathered yesterday at the Harley-Davidson dealership in Mottingham, south London, where Tobin worked as a mechanic. Marcus Berriman, president of the London chapter, read out a statement on behalf of Tobin's girlfriend, Rebecca Smith, 25, flanked by family members and bikers.

"To those who knew him, Gerry stood out in the crowd as a true gentleman," he said. "He was a rare breed of man with the heart of a lion and a soul filled with compassion and selflessness. The nature of his untimely death, due to a callous and cowardly act of violence from which it was impossible to defend himself, only accentuates further the pain and suffering that we are all experiencing."

Macclesfield-born Tobin, 35, emigrated with his family to Canada as a boy. According to the Canadian National Post, he led Bible studies at his home in Calgary and dreamed of becoming a missionary before going to England 10 years ago. "He was definitely unashamed of his faith in Jesus," said Chris Stevenson, a missionary who knew him in those days.

About 60 officers are working on the investigation, and will begin handing out leaflets and beer mats appealing for information in bikers' pubs and clubs in the coming days. The inquiry had some help from bikers' organisations but the response of the Hells Angels had been less than completely open, Mr Lawrence said.

Police said yesterday that they have received many anonymous tips but part of their problem seems to be an intelligence vacuum regarding bikers in general, unless they are involved in drug dealing. In the 90s, the National Criminal Intelligence Service had officers dedicated to tracking biker activity but when that body was absorbed into the Serious Organised Crime Agency last year, that specialisation appears to have been lost.

Tobin's murder has again focused attention on the Hells Angels, and on the debate over whether they are just a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who raise money for charity or part of a violent international criminal gang.

Throughout the 90s, the public face of the Hells Angels in the UK was the genial "Maz" Harris, perhaps the only club member with a doctorate in philosophy (from Warwick University), who would tell the media that they were "a club, not a gang". He died in a motorcycle accident in 2000 and his funeral, at which the Doors' Riders on the Storm and Richard Burton's reading of Under Milk Wood were played, was attended by 1,000 bikers.

Since then, Alan "Snob" Fisher, who runs a motorcycle business, Snobs Ultimate Customs, has become their most public face, notably when he led 50 bikers in procession to pay their respects to the Queen on her golden jubilee in 2002.

Valhalla

But Hells Angels in Britain have been at the pleasure of her majesty in other ways. In January, 1998, about 30 Angels, armed with an axe, knives, metal bars and baseball bats, gathered outside the Rockers Reunion in Battersea, south London. By the end of the evening, two members of the rival Outcasts, were dead. Witnesses said the stabbing and hatcheting were carried out in silence and appeared "ritualistic".

Only one man, 114kg (18st) Ron "Gut" Wait, was convicted for the attack. He was jailed for 15 years for conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm and died in jail of a heart attack in 2001. On the Essex Hells Angels website In Memory there is a tribute to "our brother Gut".

Canadian Hells Angels have crossed the Atlantic in the past. In 1994, two Quebec members came to London as part of an attempt to smuggle more than 500kg of cocaine into the UK. They had been infiltrated by the Mounties before they set off and were busted at the Hilton hotel where detectives found the contact lists for all the Angels' British chapters.

"The Angels in the UK have done a superb job of spinning a PR web while keeping the worldwide criminal activities of their club well hidden," say Julian Sher and William Marsden, authors of Angels of Death, a study of the group worldwide.

Meanwhile, a farewell message for Tobin on the Harley-Davidson Riders Hangout site reads: "Have a safe journey to Valhalla."