William "Billy" Queen Jr. is a retired

undercover agent To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an indi ...

with the U.S.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preve ...

(ATF), and the author of the bestselling books ''

Under and Alone ''Under and Alone'' is a book written by undercover ATF agent William Queen and published by Random House in 2005 which chronicles his infiltration of the violent outlaw motorcycle gang, the Mongols. Synopsis William Queen was a nearly 20-year A ...

'' and ''Armed and Dangerous''.

Career

Queen was raised in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

, the son of an ATF agent. He served as a

Special Forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equi ...

soldier in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. After his discharge from the Army, he worked as a police officer in North Carolina for six years. He then became an agent in the

United States Border Patrol The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States' Customs and Border Protection and is responsible for securing the borders of the United States. According to its web site in 2022, its mission ...

, serving for two years before subsequently joining the ATF. Early operations involved infiltrating the Aryan Nation and the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

, two

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

organizations. He also served on an ATF Special Response Team, a federal equivalent of a

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

team. In early 1998, as part of an operation to infiltrate

motorcycle gangs An outlaw motorcycle club is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, ...

, Queen joined the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

chapter of the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

as "Billy St. John", and was a member for 28 months. Despite his nickname, "Billy the Slow-Brain", he was successful within the ranks of bikers, even holding the position of secretary/treasurer, and then chapter vice-president. Based on the evidence he gathered while in these positions, a series of raids on May 19, 2000, by almost 700 lawmen in four states led to the arrest and indictment of 54 gang members (53 were convicted, one took the fall for a brother, and so the second party's charges were dropped). The ATF later described Queen's time undercover as "its most successful

iker gang Iker is a Basque male given name. The corresponding female name is Ikerne. It was created by the Spanish Basque writer Sabino Arana in his book ' (''Collection of Basque Saints' Names'')—an effort to provide neologistic Basque versions of names ...

penetration." Queen was awarded the

Federal Bar Association The Federal Bar Association (FBA) is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States. Six times a year, The Association prints ''The Fede ...

's Medal of Honor for his successful involvement with the Mongols. After the trials of the gang members, Queen retired from the ATF, and wrote ''Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang''. In 2003, while it was still only a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

, film rights to the book were sold to

Icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...

, the Hollywood production company owned by

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...

. The book became a bestseller upon its release in 2005. Queen was also heavily featured in a 2008 episode of ''Outlaw Bikers'', a series of

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

about federal agents infiltrating biker gangs.

Bibliography

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References

External links

Author spotlight: William Queen

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Queen, William American non-fiction crime writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Guilford College alumni Mongols Motorcycle Club United States Army soldiers United States Border Patrol agents ATF agents