Hell's Angel shot dead as he rides on motorway

 

by ANDY DOLAN - More by this author » Last updated at 21:29pm on 12th August 2007 Comments

A Hell's Angel motorcyclist was shot dead on a motorway yesterday afternoon, minutes after leaving a bikers' festival.

The 33-year-old man was riding on the southbound carriageway of the M40 near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.

Emergency services including an air ambulance were called at 2.20pm, but the biker, lying on the road, was pronounced dead.

 

The motorway remained closed in both directions as Warwickshire police began a murder investigation, leaving huge traffic queues.

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The biker was shot dead on the M40 in Warwickshire, he was thought to have been on his way back from the Bulldog Bash at the nearby Long Marston airfield

 

 

The unidentified man, thought to be from London, had been at the Bulldog Bash bikers' festival, which had just ended at the Shakespeare County Raceway at Long Marston airfield, 15 miles away.

The four-day festival, run by Hell's Angels, was headlined by veteran rock band Status Quo and attracted a 30,000 sell-out crowd.

Events included drag racing competitions, wet T-shirt competitions, topless bike washes and displays of exotic custom bikes and cars.

The chief organiser, a Hell's Angel who goes by the name Bilbo, confirmed the biker was a Hell's Angel.

He said: "I knew the lad and you couldn't wish to meet a better person.

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The motorway was subsequently closed north and south for hours between junctions 12 and 13

 

"We're are used to deaths as bikers - people die in accidents - but we don't expect someone to get shot.

"This is murder, plain and simple, and we have no idea why." Bilbo, 56, refused to comment on speculation that the man may have been murdered by a rival gang.

He said the event had been "virtually trouble-free".

A Warwickshire Police spokesman said: "The man was riding in a group with at least two other motorbikes.

"We are appealing for anybody who witnessed what happened to come forward."

He said there had been no reported incidents at the Bulldog Bash, but officers would be investigating any rows between rival biker gangs which may have continued outside the festival site.

The Bulldog-Bash, which was celebrating its 21st anniversary, is one of the biggest events of its kind in the world, but has previously been largely trouble-free.

Warwickshire Police are involved in traffic management for the event, but officers do not patrol the site and Hell's Angels are responsible for security.

The Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club was founded in the US in the 1940s and there are now chapters in more than 30 countries.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service has warned that some Hell's Angels are involved in drug dealing.

:o

It's a Murder on the Motorway...

 

...Sounds like a title of a novel.

 

And guess whose parents were caught in the traffic jam.

It's a Murder on the Motorway...

 

...Sounds like a title of a novel.

 

And guess whose parents were caught in the traffic jam.

 

Or a Sophie Ellis-Bextor song?:rolleyes: