Serge (The Killer) Gauthier,  a Trois-Rivieres Hells Angel, claims he can’t afford a lawyer as he prepares to face charges of murdering 22 people in the bloody drug war with the Rock Machine/Bandidos. Once reputedly the head of a lucrative drug enterprise, Gauthier is said to exist now on disability payments and souvenir-making.

Not so long ago, the Outlaws were written off in Ontario. The club was smart enough not to let Wayne (Weiner) Kellestine into their ranks, but had fallen on hard times, nonetheless. Just two years ago, their president Mario (The Wop, Mike) Parente resigned in disgust, telling me, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”

Now, the club’s rebounding in Kellestine’s old stomping grounds. They’re not a direct challenge to the Angels, but can comfortably lock up the #2 spot in the province’s outlaw biker world.

Meanwhile, the Angels in Parente’s old hometown of Hamilton barely got started playing meet-the-neighbours around their new clubhouse when pesky bylaw officers came calling.

The palatial digs of Montreal mobster Vito Rizzuto are up for sale, for just a smidge under $2-million. It’s understandable why the owners want to sell, with the recent history of murder and disappearances in the tony enclave.

If you like things a tad more grotty, there’s the old Hells Angels’ clubhouse in east Hamilton. It too has character, if no forests in the back.

The case that began with a bang (as police crashed open a clubhouse wall of the Downtown Toronto Hells Angels) has ended with a whimper.

Sentences so far have just been time served, and criminal organization charges haven’t stuck. I imagine we’ll see more club colours on the street now, now that bail conditions stipulations forbidding members from associations expire.

While they didn’t get any extra time, they didn’t get off so easy. Most had four years of pre-trial custody, plus hefty legal fees and lost income.

Meanwhile in Quebec, 51 of their freres prepare for trial on a nasty assortment of charges, including 22 for first degree murder. In all of the charges against the Ontario Angels, there wasn’t one for any killings.

The case against dozens of Quebec Hells Angels has collapsed due to unreasonable delay, with defense lawyers estimating it could take 10 years to reach the courts. That might seem a stretch, but not all of the Angels charged in the April 2007 raid on the downtown Toronto clubhouse have yet gone to trial.

This is known as an Askov decision, named for the 1990 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada which states that any person charged with an offence has the right to be tried within a reasonable time.

That decision came down in October 1990. One of Elijah Askov’s co-accused in that conspiracy to commit extortion trial was Toronto boxer Eddie (the Hurricane) Melo. Ten years ago, Melo was shot dead in a parking lot outside a cafe called Amici, Italian for “friends.”

Some of the hottest outlaw biker wars are fought by copyright lawyers. The Hells Angels fight for their brand as much as any major corporation, with trademark protections on their name and symbols. I find it ironic and a little funny that my story on copyrights and the Hells Angels has been lifted and plunked into pro biker websites.

Meanwhile, Nordic Bandidos are branching out, with the Finnish branch of the club pushing into Estonia. Here in Canada, there’s a much chance of seeing a live brontosaurus as a real-life Bandido.

It was more than four years ago that the clubhouse of the Downtown Toronto Hells Angels was shut down. The trial of five of those Angels finally ended on Saturday, with none of them convicted of organized crime charges. The jury’s message? There’s a difference between an organized crime group and a group that contains some criminals.

An interesting legal tussle is shaping up in London, Ont. Bureaucrats are aiming to do what the Bandidos and Outlaws couldn’t manage: strip the Hells Angels of some of their assets. Liquor license officials allege that two strip clubs in the city are the property of the biker club and fronts for laundering crime proceeds. Randy Richmond of The London Free Press did a nice job of framing the story.

A Facebook ‘poke’ has been likened to a threat in a Hells Angels trial. What’s next? Instead of pulling patches, will bikers ‘unfriend’ former brothers?

American diplomats were unnerved by what they consider the powerful and unsavoury influence of the Quebec Hells Angels, according to documents recently released by Wikileaks. Plenty has already been written and Les Hells and drug trafficking, but the leaked correspondence also points to their involvement in underaged prostitution, video piracy and telemarketing scams.