A True Story By A Hells Angel President and the Cop Who Pursued Him

2014, Real Deal, 244 pages

In the early going Breaking the Code is a one-sided read with the tales of Pat Matter’s troubled youth overshadowing the story of Chris Omodt becoming a cop and then detective. Soon, as the recounting of senseless brawl after pointless pissing contest after nail-biting drug deal begins to draw the reader into the life of an outlaw biker, he might be tempted to skip Chris Omodt’s less interesting chapters. Don’t make that mistake. As the book hits mid stride and Pat Matter’s life of tribal brotherhood, motorcycle racing and drug dealing reels out of control, Chris fills in the blanks.

Who got shot after Pat told his gang members not to back down from the Outlaws?

Christ will tell you who, where, when and by whom, where Pat remains necessarily vague.

After seeing a dozen or more documentaries on outlaw motorcycle clubs Breaking the Code was a refreshing read. I know little about these clubs first hand and had always felt short-changed by the documentaries. Pat lays it out like it was, raw, unadorned, vague in spots and unapologetic.

I once trained with a man who had the opportunity to teach karate to a chapter of Pagans based in Maryland. He declined the offer. When I asked him why, as that would have been a feather in his martial arts cap, he said, “I got along with them, partied with them. They slept overnight at our house when they were in town—my brother’s guests. But the honor was not there. These guys were drug traffickers, and when you get into that the choices demand dishonor. I could not deface my teacher’s art by imparting it to these guys.”

I often wondered how representative of outlaw biker life this tiny window on their world was. Outlaw bikers I met at bars seemed like down to earth men. Pat sketches both views, by illuminating the brotherhood of the club, as well as the drug-trafficking fueled betrayals and murders.

Breaking the Code is a story of the heyday of biker meth trafficking, and its pages are littered with photos of men who died chasing this counterculture dream as ‘one percenters.’ The tales of defiance, violence, law enforcement corruption, and betrayal read like a cross between The Vikings and The Wire.