Outlaw Biker: My Life at Full Throttle

One thing I can say with certainty is that I have not had a dull life. I have been shot twice, stabbed, blown up, bitten by a rattlesnake and by a scorpion, plus had numerous car and motorcycle accidents...I've even been married twice.

Here is the true-life story of Richard "Deadeye" Hayes in all its bad-ass, balls-to-the-wall glory. This is a man who stole a machine gun before he was seven and lost his left eye when a good friend shot him in the face. As a member--and then president--of the infamous Los Valientes Motorcycle Club, he broke more laws and had more fun than any six of the coolest guys you know.

Butch told me the club had a hard time deciding whether to vote me in or kill me.I always hoped he was kidding.

One of the last true Outlaw Bikers, Deadeye knows what it means to be a man, take shit from no one, and have tattoos that actually say something. Riding, drug dealing, and sending men to the hospital with his bare hands, Deadeye made himself a legend among bikers--all the while making sure his daughters never got mixed up with guys like him.

I've always been of the belief that bikers are born, not made. Real bikers, that is. We must have an extra gene or something that gives us this I'll-live-like-I-want-whether-you-approve-of-it-or-not-and-fuck-your-rules attitude.

In his own words, Deadeye tells it all. From earning his colors with an outlaw motorcycle club to his steady diet of drugs, sex, violence, and crime, this is his story: true to life, yet larger than life, and full throttle all the way.

Richard "Deadeye" Hayes grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and learned at an early age that the confines of school and authority bored him. To alleviate this minor problem, he created much larger ones such as bar fights, gunfights, knife fights, fistfights, drugs, drug dealers, drug dealing, and dealing in stolen goods. It is an understatement to say that Deadeye enjoys adventure and values a sense of humor. He currently serves as president of the Los Valientes Motorcycle Club.  He lives in South St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mary Gardner is the author of Salvation Run, Boat People, and two other novels.  A former Woodrow Wilson Fellow with a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago, she teaches at the Loft, a community writing center in Minneapolis.  Her shorter work has been published in The New York Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Friends Journal. In the winter she lives in St. Paul; she spends summers in her cabin in northwestern Minnesota.

"Colorful, fast-paced and fun." --Kirkus Reviews

"Surely Deadeye Hayes has defied all actuarial tables to live long enough to write Outlaw Biker.  I read an advance copy of this memoir at full throttle with fascination equal to passing an especially grisly wreck on the highway.  The writing possesses sureness, authenticity, and maybe even a touch of poetry.  If you have a rebellious teenage daughter, don't read this book any time soon.  This may just be the best book ever written by an author who's been shot twice, stabbed once, and bitten by a rattlesnake!" --Geoffrey Leavenworth, author of Isle of Misfortune