William Queen, former federal agent and Guilford graduate, spoke on April 6 about his infiltration of the Mongols, one of the country’s most violent motorcycle gangs. “We have 280 majors in Justice and Policy Studies. And I expect none of them to do what Billy did,” said Associate Professor of Justice and Policy Studies Jerry Joplin.

As “Billy St. John,” Queen spent two years living with the Mongols to gather evidence of their crimes from drug, gun, and stolen motorcycle trafficking to assault, extortion, rape and murder.

After playing a clip from his 20/20 appearance, Queen walked into Bryan Jr. wearing a denim jacket, his leather biker’s vest with ‘Mongols California’ emblazoned in black and white, and a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) baseball cap. Pictures from the Mongols show him dressed identically, but with a scraggly grey beard and a bandanna tied around his hair.

Queen just finished the book Under and Alone about his experience. The Greensboro News and Record says Mel Gibson will play Queen in the movie version.

“If I had the whole thing to do over again,” Queen first said in his news clip about the two year investigation, then repeated several times in his speech, “I wouldn’t do it.”

The Mongols have chapters in Calif., Colo., Okla., Ga., Ariz., Nev., and Mexico. Queen said they were dangerous enough to be “the only motorcycle gang to go to war with the Hell’s Angels and beat them down.”

Queen began his operation as a “hang-around;” someone who partied, drank and fought with the Mongols. After several months, they invited him to join.

To fool their three-page application and private investigator, the ATF invented an elaborate back-story, complete with fake documents and agents around the country answering phones as “St. John’s” family, past employers, and even primary school staff.

Queen’s life with the Mongols included seeing barroom brawls, group beatings, and drug use. He also mentioned the abuse of women who rode with the Mongols – they considered the women property of either one member or, sometimes, the entire gang.

He feared that the gang would uncover his identity and kill him or that he would not be able to stop a murder or a rape from happening in front of him. He also recounted nearly killing the man who tried to stab him in a knife-fight, and faking snorting methamphetamines to prove himself to the Mongols.

In spite of the danger and violence, Queen felt himself drawn to his fellow gang-members, and eventually questioned whether he belonged in the ATF at all. He described the days after his mother’s death, when the Mongols embraced him and said that they loved him, while other ATF agents told him to stop grieving and finish the investigation.

“The reality was yes, they loved Billy St. John,” he told The Greensboro News and Record “but they would kill Billy Queen.”

Reconciling his loyalties, he packed up “St. John’s” belongings and disappeared, giving the ATF information leading to 54 arrests and the confiscation of illegal guns, drugs, and cash. He afterwards spent two years, under three assumed names, in the Witness Protection Program. He also suffered personally, rarely contacting his children and wife during his investigation and hiding.

Queen currently lives in Guilford Country, but plans on going into hiding again after publishing his book. While he thinks that the Mongols have stopped plotting his death after five years, he is still in danger and admits that his book will probably reignite their anger.

“I still sleep with a shotgun beside my bed,” he said ” ’cause there’s a thousand outlaw motorcycle gang members out there who would love to kill Billy Queen.”

While Joplin says that careers like William Queen’s are scarce, he lists the varying opportunities within the JPS department. He mentioned Scott Morgan, a program graduate who presented the video “Flex Your Rights”.

“What disparity it is between somebody like Scott coming out of our program who is going around advising people on what their rights are to keep them from getting busted, and then you’ve got somebody like Billy Queen who is doing undercover work,” Joplin said. “That’s one of those things that is consistent with what (the Justice and Policy Studies Department) is doing. I think that what we’re trying to do is prepare people to do these things in an ethical manner.