Between the Covers

Hardcover. Two oblong quarto albums. Each measuring 13.25" x 9”. Metal spine assemblies hinged to blue vinyl-covered boards with Chicago Police titles and insignia on the front boards, with small typed labels with gang names taped to the lower right corners. Internal photos are mounted on rectos and verso of cards in clear plastic sleeves, with two additional sleeves at the rear of each with typed index sheets identifying subjects. The first album contains 46 mugshot and booking photographs (42 color, 4 black and white) in various formats. The majority of prints are approximately 4" square color Polaroids; the rest range from 3” x 3” to 7” x 5". The second album contains 112 color mugshot and booking photographs (97 color drugstore prints trimmed down to about 4” x 2.5”), eight prints approximately 4" square color Polaroids, and seven color dual-image mugshot photos, approximately 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". Albums with some tearing to vinyl at spine and about 50 prints perished, overall about very good. 158 photographs in total.

An exceptional pair of circa-1980 photo albums, each a full dossier compiled by the Chicago Police on members of two notorious outlaw motorcycle clubs with a longstanding and bloody rivalry, The Outlaws and Hells Henchmen. The Outlaws were famously the subject of Danny Lyon's seminal 1968 photobook *The Bikeriders.* But whereas Lyons captured biker culture at the mid-point between restless post-war hobby and one-percenter mayhem, these albums clearly portray gangs that have evolved to fully live up to their names. The albums offer a detailed and scarce glimpse into outlaw clubs' membership, holding more than 150 photographs, each identified in police-compiled index sheets noting names, dates of birth, nicknames, and addresses — almost certainly assembled for the anti-gang unit of the Chicago police.

The photographs – taken of both men and women – include several mugshots, but it is not a mugshot album per se. Also present are a large quantity of more informal photos (including several group shots) displaying the bikers' fashion in full detail: black T-shirts, denim, "cuts," leather, and more leather. Especially in The Outlaws binder, the photos are particularly iconic, offering a vivid picture of 1970s to early 1980s one-percenter fashion, which became much more heavily black and bearded in the years following Lyons' documentation. Numerous photos have been excised and the names crossed out in the indexes, presumably of members who were convicted or died.

The Chicago branch of the Outlaws is the founding or "mother" chapter of the worldwide club, which is rivaled in membership numbers and notoriety only by the Hells Angels. Though published accounts of outlaw club activities is mired in sensationalism and secrecy, it is widely believed the Angels allied with the Henchmen as part of an ongoing, historic rivalry with the Outlaws over Chicago turf. The Angels merged with (or "patched over," to use an insider term) the Hells Henchmen in about 1994, when its war with the Outlaws reached a fever pitch. In one of the most audacious and high-profile events in the history of the tumultuous American outlaw biker scene, the Outlaws successfully launched coordinated bombings on two Henchmen clubhouses in the Chicago area. We suspect therefore it is no coincidence that these albums survived as a pair: law enforcement documentation of two bitter rival gangs.

The club members display a wide range of moods: proud, bored, stoned, insouciant, and (of course) angry. In contrast to *The Bikeriders*, these bikers are taken out of their element (having been presumably picked up for various offenses), and forced to reveal something of themselves to the camera's dead-on gaze. Altogether a moving, sensational photographic record, and scarce internal law enforcement document on two of the country’s most notorious outlaw motorcycle clubs. Primary and unfiltered.

Item #415437