BUNGALOW IN OSHAWA REVEALS BIKERS' SECRETS

Heavily Fortified Hangout Seized By Police Offers Rare Look At Hells
Angels

If the walls could talk, they'd be in a witness protection
program.

The squatty, red-and-white Hells Angels clubhouse at 487 Ortono Ave.
in Oshawa, was once one of the toughest-to-enter addresses in the
Greater Toronto Area, until heavily armed police barged in and seized
it in September 2006.

Back when it was run by the bikers, if you wanted to get inside, you
had to pass under security cameras and hidden listening devices, and
be granted entry by someone on the other side of a steel-plated,
windowless door.

The folks on the other side of the steel door were nicknamed "The
Assylum (sic) Crew" for their wild behaviour.

A member and a former member are currently facing murder conspiracy
and counsel to commit murder charges.

Another member is behind bars for smuggling cocaine through Pearson
International Airport.

Yet another Assylum Crew alumnus began serving a seven-year prison
term in October, after pleading guilty to plotting the murder of his
own brother over drug trafficking turf.

A fifth former member, club secretary Steven Gault, is deep in a
witness protection program, after being paid more than $1 million by
police to work as an agent against his former biker brothers.

You can now safely take a personal tour of their old stomping grounds,
via police photos obtained by the Toronto Star.

The photos of the bikers' former hangout show it to be a little messy,
but far cleaner than your average frat house. The untidy look is
likely from the police search two years ago, when police seized some
$14,000 hidden in the bungalow's walls. On the main floor, photos show
a grey velour couch, facing a little bar and a flat screen television,
which looks to have a 32-inch screen.

It's likely your eyes are drawn upwards to the plaques and photos on
all the walls, each with the winged skull "death head" insignia of the
Hells Angels, the world's largest outlaw motorcycle club.

There's even a cuckoo clock on the wall with a Hells Angel death head,
the club's

On one wall is a framed patch from the old Satan's Choice club, which
was absorbed into the Hells Angels eight years ago, and tribute photos
of former members, now dead.

There's also a black leather vest with a patch with the words "Assylum
Crew," and T-shirts with the words "Montreal" and "Trois Rivieres,"
demonstrating how the Oshawa chapter is particularly tight with Hells
Angels there.

Upstairs the atmosphere becomes decidedly more businesslike.

Photos of Hells Angels chapters from around the world fill the walls.
On a filing cabinet, by the computer, are pictures of prospective
Ontario members and telephone numbers, attached by magnets.

One of the names on a post-it on the filing cabinet is that of "Shakey
Dave," for David Atwell, the former sergeant-at-arms of the Downtown
Toronto Hells Angels chapter. Atwell is now in a witness protection
program, after informing on his old clubmates.

There are also Assylum Crew membership cards, with the phone numbers
of each member, and similar cards for the Hells Angels chapters from
Sudbury, Keswick, North Toronto, Niagara, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon,
London, Denver, Simcoe County and Prince George, B.C.

Other paperwork close to the computer includes a payment chart,
showing how members' $100 monthly dues were split several ways,
including payments to defend the club's trademarked logo and the Big
House Crew, the nickname for members who are behind bars.

Filed in the upstairs office are email addresses for the national
secretaries in each country or region in the Hells Angels world.

Also in the office are photos of every Hells Angel member in the
world, in 190 chapters from Oakland, California to Auckland, New
Zealand, Costa Del Sol, Spain and West Rand, South Africa.

Those photos allowed chapter members to check the identity of any
visitors who dropped by claiming to be Hells Angels members. Hells
Angels members have the right to drop into any clubhouse in the world
and be welcomed as a "trusted equal."

In the office, there's also an old inter-department delivery envelope
from the Durham Regional Police Service's biker intelligence report,
which contains photographs and information on members of the Satan's
Choice, Para-Dice Riders and the Vagabonds Motorcycle Gangs.

The document dates back to before the Satan's Choice and Para-Dice
Riders folded into the Hells Angels, but it was always considered a
sensitive police document, and so it was never included in routine
court disclosure proceedings.

Other paperwork in the upstairs office includes copyright agreements
to make sure no members or people producing souvenirs such as
jewellery privately profit from the club's colours or its death head
logo.

At the back of the bungalow is a more public bar area, with an "AFFA"
banner across the ceiling, standing for "Angels Forever, Forever Angels."

Tables have ashtrays, indicating the bar wasn't in compliance with
provincial antismoking laws for drinking establishments.

Behind the bar are monitors, for checking who's outside the
bungalow.

A baseball bat tucked under the bartender's stool also suggests this
isn't your average watering hole.