Celebrity Biker Author Appearing During Laconia Bike Week

Edward Winterhalder was known as “Connecticut Ed” in the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, where he was a high-ranking world leader until his departure from the organization in the fall of 2003. Winterhalder is now considered to be one of the world’s leading authorities on motorcycle clubs, and will be autographing copies of his new book The Assimilation during Laconia Bike Week at the following locations:

-Borders, 30 Ash Brook Road. Keene, New Hampshire
Monday, June 16th, 5pm to 8pm. Info: 603-357-7667

-Innisfree Books, Mills Falls Marketplace. Meredith, New Hampshire
Wednesday, June 18, 2pm to 4pm. Info: 602-279-3905

-Sundial Books, 604 Main Street. Laconia, New Hampshire
Thursday, June 19th, 1pm to 4pm. Info: 603-524-3322

-Borders, 76 Fort Eddy Road. Concord, New Hampshire
Friday, June 20th, 5pm to 8pm. Info: 603-224-1255

-Borders, 76 Fort Eddy Road. Concord, New Hampshire
Saturday, June 21st, 1pm to 4pm. Info: 603-224-1255

The Assimilation: Rock Machine Become Bandidos–Bikers Unite Against the Hells Angels recounts Winterhalder’s personal involvement in the creation of the Quebec Bandidos; his friendship with the key players who made it happen; and his eventual disillusionment with, and exit from, the Bandidos Nation. Beginning with a short history of the Bandidos, Winterhalder dispels common myths about the founding of the club and outlines the original principles of its founder Donald Eugene Chambers.

In the early 1990s, after seven years of bloody conflict with Montreal’s Hells Angels, Quebec’s Rock Machine motorcycle club appealed to the Bandidos for help. Winterhalder, a born diplomat with an extensive knowledge of law acquired while incarcerated in the early 1980s, was dispatched to Canada in 2001 to coordinate the transition (or “patchover”).

The Assimilation takes readers behind the scenes of Winterhalder’s arrest and unsuccessful deportation proceedings by the Canadian authorities, Bandido politics, double-crosses and assassinations. The book also contains a glossary of biker terms and seven appendices citing club bylaws, projects and job assignments, and a worldwide listing of active chapters and support clubs.

Winterhalder, now 52, is the author of Out in Bad Standings: Inside the Bandidos Motorcycle Club; The Making of a Worldwide Dynasty (Blockhead City Press) and a contributor to The Mammoth Book of Bikers (Carroll & Graf). Events of Winterhalder’s life are the basis of a major character in the new Sons of Anarchy television series, which will debut this fall on the FX channel.