Campbell Lorne - Unrepentant : the strange and (sometimes) terrible life of Lorne Campbell, Satans Choice and Hells Angels biker

PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE CANADA

Copyright 2013 Peter Edwards

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2013 by Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Edwards, Peter, 1956
Unrepentant / Peter Edwards.

eISBN: 978-0-307-36258-2

1. Campbell, Lorne, 1948. 2. Hells Angels. 3. Satans Choice Motorcycle Club.
4. Gang membersOntarioBiography. 5. Motorcycle gangsOntarioHistory. I. Title.

HV6248.C335E98 2013 364.1092 C2012-904496-2

Cover design by Andrew Roberts

Cover image: photo courtesy of Lorne Campbell
Interior images: all photos courtesy of Lorne Campbell

v3.1

It was actually pretty simple. They like to make it complicated. People have embellished it a lot. We went to the bar. I sat with one other person. We ordered a drink. Mike Everett, he said, Hes sitting with a gun pointed at Rick and Gary. I got up right away and went to the table and I said, How are you doing, Bill?

As soon as I said How are you doing? he went for it.

I totally wish he hadnt gone for it. Ive had to live with it. It hasnt been easy. But he went for it and I happened to be faster. It happened so fast that I just reacted. When you see somebody going for a gun and youve got one, with the upbringing Ive had, youll be fast. Im glad I had the gun. I never questioned my decision. Not once. Not for a second.

Youre kind of helpless to change anything, but I just wish it hadnt happened. Just a waste of life.

LORNE CAMPBELL , outlaw biker for forty-six years

To Barbara, Sarah and James

For making me feel blessed.

P.E.

I t might sound more authentic, given the subject matter inside these covers, if I said this book was written between snorts of cocaine off a tattooed biker chicks belly. In reality, the pages that follow are mostly the product of lengthy interviews that were conducted over several months across the kitchen table of a friend of Lorne Campbells, between feedings of comfort food such as spaghetti with meat balls or freshly baked lemon meringue pie.

I heard about Campbell years before we ever spoke. I knew of him primarily from author Mick Lowes Conspiracy of Brothers, as the outlaw biker who tried to take the rap for the fatal shooting of Golden Hawk Motorcycle Club member Bill Matiyek back in 1978. I also knew that, to some bikers, lawyers and even police, he embodies the old outlaw biker code of sticking up for your brothers, shunning the justice system and ignoring the press.

Naturally, I was curious when Mary Liscoumb, a retired educator whos a mutual friend, suggested a meeting with Campbell in the summer of 2011. In my profession, curiosity often trumps brains, and so off I went. I had written a lot of unflattering things over the years about the outlaw biker world, including the two clubs Campbell had belonged to, the Satans Choice and Hells Angels. As I drove to the meeting, I couldnt stop wondering if I was in some sort of trouble.

It was immediately obvious when we started talking that Campbell was the real deal. He was sixty-three years old and had spent his entire adult life as an outlaw biker. He joined the Satans Choice at age seventeen, the youngest-ever full member of that club, and he had seen and done plenty of things inside and outside the law between that time and his retirement in good standing from the Hells Angels in June 2011. (Yes, you can retire from a biker club and ride away intact.) Campbell had plenty of stories from those four decades on the streets and behind bars. He smiled in a way I couldnt decipher and said he was thinking about telling them in a book.

I said to Campbell that I was interested in his story, but I would only want to write a full and honest account. That meant I would double-check the truth of those stories. I would dig up material on my own and I would have the final say on what was published. I also told him that I had co-written a book, The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime, with one of my journalism heroes, Michel Auger, who survived being shot six times in September 2000. Auger was almost killed for the crime of doing his job as a crime reporter honestly, and the gunman was working for Maurice (Mom) Boucher of the Hells Angels in Quebec. I am proud to share this line of work with Auger and I wanted Campbell to know that I blamed some Hells Angels for the near murder of a friend. He needed to be clear that I could never condone or forget that.

I wouldnt have been surprised if things had ended here. Thats what I expected and that would have been fine. My curiosity was already at least partially satisfied. Instead, Campbell pleasantly surprised me. I learned quite quickly that he enjoys surprising people, although not always pleasantly. He said he had no problems with me telling a full and honest story about himself, adding, with a smile, Ive got plenty of bad stuff.

Campbell knows more about what makes a good story than many people who have spent as much time in classrooms as he has spent in prisons and jails. In another life, he could have made a fine editor. I was a little taken aback when he spoke about the importance of character development and the need to present people as rounded human beingsnot something I expected from a former drug debt collector who has broken more bones than he can remember.

As we continued to meet, I found I actually liked him, even though I still shudder at the thought of many things he has done. I often wondered how, with a different start, his life could have turned out far differently. The qualities that made him stand out as an outlaw biker, such as toughness and loyalty and intelligence, would have won him awards in sports or the military or business. I also liked how Campbell didnt whine about the life he did have. We only have this life and have to play the hand were dealt. Still, at many points during our meetings he made me think about the important role fathers play in shaping their childrens lives. Many of the saddest stories he told me were about people he knew with missing or abusive fathers. Too often in his own story, Campbell is one of them.

In time, I came to respect his brand of honesty. Through months of lengthy interviews, I double-checked his stories and never caught Campbell in a lie. He was never late for an interview and always gave his full attention to questions. He also never ended an interview, even though our average weekly talk lasted more than six hours and the questions were often intensely personal. There have been times when I felt he was leaving out a name or two when describing a crime so that he wouldnt be ratting anyone out, but he is largely comfortable with decisions he has made in his own life and didnt feel the need to embellish or cover up. He was often tough on himself and volunteered things about himself that I had never even heard as rumours. That included details of the Bill Matiyek shooting and how he came close to executing three other men who ran afoul of the Satans Choice. He doesnt dispute what he has done; he just wants to explain why he did it.