Latest / Heroes Behind the Badge / Blake Boteler — The Bounty, the Arrests, and the Funeral That Never Happened | Part 2

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Blake Boteler — The Bounty, the Arrests, and the Funeral That Never Happened | Part 2 · Heroes Behind the Badge

• 0:00
  Blake Boteler How did you get out of jail?
• 0:02
  Blake Boteler The club bonded me out the next day,
• 0:05
  Blake Boteler bonded both of us out the next day.
• 0:08
  Blake Boteler But I didn't have my pistol with me.
• 0:11
  Blake Boteler So now I was going
• 0:14
  Blake Boteler unarmed the rest of the weekend.
• 0:16
  Paul Boomer So--
• 0:24
  Paul Boomer In part one, Blake Boteler walked into a
• 0:27
  Paul Boomer Colorado Springs bar, told no one his
• 0:29
  Paul Boomer real name, and spent the next two years
• 0:31
  Paul Boomer becoming a patchwearing
• 0:33
  Paul Boomer member of the Sons of Silence.
• 0:35
  Paul Boomer Here's what being a prospect actually
• 0:37
  Paul Boomer costs and how it ended.
• 0:39
  Bill Erfurth And you're an agency while you're in
• 0:41
  Bill Erfurth jail, especially with the lack of
• 0:43
  Bill Erfurth communications at that time.
• 0:44
  Bill Erfurth Like you say, it was probably just
• 0:46
  Bill Erfurth pagers, right, beepers?
• 0:48
  Bill Erfurth Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:49
  Bill Erfurth They probably didn't even know.
• 0:50
  Blake Boteler Well, actually, the one call I made from
• 0:53
  Blake Boteler jail was to my supervisor.
• 0:55
  Blake Boteler And I just called him.
• 0:56
  Blake Boteler And I said, hey, man, I'm
• 0:57
  Blake Boteler talking from a jail phone.
• 0:59
  Blake Boteler So I can't really say much.
• 1:03
  Blake Boteler Cole, who is my partner's undercover
• 1:04
  Blake Boteler name, Cole and I got locked up last night
• 1:07
  Blake Boteler by the state police for carrying guns.
• 1:12
  Blake Boteler And he goes, is that all?
• 1:13
  Blake Boteler I said, that's all.
• 1:15
  Blake Boteler So he goes, well, I'll get you out.
• 1:18
  Blake Boteler Tomorrow I said, no, that won't work.
• 1:19
  Blake Boteler I said, the club's getting us out.
• 1:21
  Blake Boteler We're in good shape.
• 1:23
  Blake Boteler So sure enough, when I got out of jail,
• 1:26
  Blake Boteler because there was a delay, Daryl didn't
• 1:29
  Blake Boteler get out of jail the same time I did.
• 1:30
  Blake Boteler But I got out of jail,
• 1:32
  Blake Boteler there's a car following me.
• 1:33
  Blake Boteler And sure enough, it's two ATF agents.
• 1:35
  Blake Boteler And they waved for me.
• 1:37
  Blake Boteler I followed them over to this hotel and
• 1:40
  Blake Boteler they offered me a pistol.
• 1:43
  Blake Boteler And I said, man, I can't show up with a
• 1:45
  Blake Boteler pistol if they took my pistol.
• 1:47
  Blake Boteler I said, so I appreciate
• 1:48
  Blake Boteler it, but I can't do that.
• 1:51
  Blake Boteler But those are the things.
• 1:53
  Blake Boteler They knew we were in jail,
• 1:54
  Blake Boteler but it goes back to what--
• 1:57
  Bill Erfurth That helped keep your cover, I think,
• 2:00
  Bill Erfurth concealed, I would think.
• 2:01
  Bill Erfurth The cops didn't even
• 2:02
  Bill Erfurth know you were a good guy.
• 2:05
  Blake Boteler What?
• 2:06
  Blake Boteler In one sense it does, but the other sense
• 2:07
  Blake Boteler is, you show back up
• 2:10
  Blake Boteler after you just got locked up.
• 2:12
  Blake Boteler Every bad guy, when another bad guy gets
• 2:14
  Blake Boteler locked up, wonders what he talked about
• 2:17
  Blake Boteler while he was locked up.
• 2:18
  Blake Boteler Why did he tell the cops?
• 2:20
  Blake Boteler So here I come out as a prospect
• 2:23
  Blake Boteler and they're kind of looking
• 2:25
  Blake Boteler at me like, what did you say?
• 2:28
  Blake Boteler And I don't wanna go over my time, but
• 2:30
  Blake Boteler I'll tell you this one story, because
• 2:32
  Blake Boteler this was in Humboldt, Iowa.
• 2:36
  Blake Boteler All these motorcycle gangs are there
• 2:39
  Blake Boteler flexing their muscles and showing off in
• 2:40
  Blake Boteler the Sons of Silence.
• 2:42
  Blake Boteler We're probably having maybe 70 people in
• 2:44
  Blake Boteler this big campground.
• 2:46
  Blake Boteler And there's concerts.
• 2:47
  Blake Boteler There are these big bands that are giving
• 2:49
  Blake Boteler concerts and everything.
• 2:50
  Blake Boteler So as a prospect, I'm
• 2:51
  Blake Boteler told, go over there.
• 2:53
  Blake Boteler And if any patch holder needs you to do
• 2:54
  Blake Boteler anything, you do it.
• 2:55
  Blake Boteler So I go over there and sure enough, these
• 2:59
  Blake Boteler guys from patch holders from Iowa and
• 3:02
  Blake Boteler Indiana, see this guy taking pictures of
• 3:05
  Blake Boteler him with a 35 millimeter.
• 3:08
  Blake Boteler And they look at me, they all cross bed.
• 3:10
  Blake Boteler Go take that fucker's camera.
• 3:13
  Blake Boteler And I'm thinking, oh, great.
• 3:15
  Blake Boteler So I have to walk over.
• 3:16
  Blake Boteler He's about 30 yards away.
• 3:18
  Blake Boteler I walk up, I grabbed the
• 3:19
  Blake Boteler guy's camera, I opened it up.
• 3:21
  Blake Boteler I exposed the film, climb it back down.
• 3:23
  Blake Boteler I give it to him.
• 3:24
  Blake Boteler I said, you need to
• 3:25
  Blake Boteler get the hell out of here.
• 3:26
  Blake Boteler And then I turn and I
• 3:27
  Blake Boteler walk away and I go back.
• 3:30
  Blake Boteler And then I look and the guy's, he's drunk
• 3:32
  Blake Boteler and he's got this big bottle of liquor,
• 3:35
  Blake Boteler amber bottle of some kind
• 3:36
  Blake Boteler of whiskey and he's drinking.
• 3:37
  Blake Boteler He's just staring.
• 3:38
  Blake Boteler He's just mad now.
• 3:40
  Blake Boteler Well, eventually I'm thinking, oh, dude,
• 3:42
  Blake Boteler you got to leave those patch holders.
• 3:45
  Blake Boteler They see him again.
• 3:46
  Blake Boteler And they say, prospect,
• 3:49
  Blake Boteler go clock that motherfucker.
• 3:50
  Blake Boteler Which means I have to go knock him out.
• 3:53
  Blake Boteler Well,
• 3:55
  Blake Boteler as an ATF agent, I cannot go and punch
• 3:58
  Blake Boteler somebody in the face.
• 4:00
  Blake Boteler I just can't do it.
• 4:01
  Blake Boteler But I know if I don't, I'm gonna get boot
• 4:05
  Blake Boteler stomped right there.
• 4:06
  Blake Boteler Those guys are gonna jump me in and I'm
• 4:08
  Blake Boteler gonna get boot stomped.
• 4:09
  Blake Boteler So I'm thinking, all right, I'm one of
• 4:11
  Blake Boteler those guys I'm trying to think as I walk
• 4:13
  Blake Boteler that 30 or 40 yards towards this guy.
• 4:15
  Blake Boteler And I'm trying to look
• 4:16
  Blake Boteler as intimidating as I can.
• 4:18
  Blake Boteler I got my dark sunglasses on.
• 4:19
  Blake Boteler I'm not a big guy, so, but I'm doing the
• 4:21
  Blake Boteler best I can to look intimidating.
• 4:24
  Blake Boteler And I literally word, run.
• 4:27
  Blake Boteler I don't say it, but I
• 4:27
  Blake Boteler say run to the guys.
• 4:29
  Blake Boteler I'm getting closer to
• 4:30
  Blake Boteler him, hoping he'd run away.
• 4:32
  Blake Boteler But he literally just freezes with that
• 4:34
  Blake Boteler bottle of liquor resting on his lower lip
• 4:37
  Blake Boteler and he's just looking at me.
• 4:38
  Blake Boteler And I walk up and I have a big three D
• 4:41
  Blake Boteler cell flashlight because that's the only
• 4:43
  Blake Boteler weapon I have left on me.
• 4:45
  Blake Boteler And I think I'm gonna pull this thing and
• 4:47
  Blake Boteler hit it in my hand a couple of times.
• 4:49
  Blake Boteler Surely he's gonna get the idea to leave.
• 4:53
  Blake Boteler Doesn't move, just sits there.
• 4:56
  Blake Boteler And I can feel those patch
• 4:58
  Blake Boteler holders eyes bearing down on me.
• 5:00
  Blake Boteler And so I just rear back and I swing with
• 5:03
  Blake Boteler all I've got and I hit that bottle right
• 5:06
  Blake Boteler under his chin and it just explodes.
• 5:09
  Blake Boteler And the guy fall back and I'm thinking, I
• 5:12
  Blake Boteler hope I didn't hit him
• 5:13
  Blake Boteler and I jump on top of him.
• 5:14
  Blake Boteler Sure enough, he's got whiskey all over
• 5:16
  Blake Boteler his face, but he's not hit.
• 5:18
  Blake Boteler And so at that time, my partner's there,
• 5:21
  Blake Boteler we pick him up, we shove him, get lost.
• 5:23
  Blake Boteler Well, by this time, there's a thousand
• 5:25
  Blake Boteler people out in this field
• 5:27
  Blake Boteler with this concerts going on.
• 5:29
  Blake Boteler They're screaming and running.
• 5:31
  Blake Boteler Everybody's running all directions.
• 5:33
  Blake Boteler Well,
• 5:34
  Blake Boteler we go back to the campground and the
• 5:36
  Blake Boteler national vice
• 5:37
  Blake Boteler president, Terry Noley sees me.
• 5:39
  Blake Boteler He goes, prospect,
• 5:40
  Blake Boteler get your ass over here.
• 5:42
  Blake Boteler And I'm thinking, oh crap, did they see
• 5:44
  Blake Boteler that I didn't hit this guy?
• 5:47
  Blake Boteler And so I'm expecting the
• 5:48
  Blake Boteler worst, but he goes, good job.
• 5:52
  Blake Boteler And that was it.
• 5:53
  Blake Boteler So those are the constant challenges as a
• 5:57
  Blake Boteler prospect, you're
• 5:58
  Blake Boteler getting, I can't legally,
• 6:00
  Blake Boteler morally even ethically go
• 6:03
  Blake Boteler blast somebody in the face.
• 6:07
  Blake Boteler But my other choice was just to start
• 6:09
  Blake Boteler running, to run away and end
• 6:11
  Blake Boteler the case, just end the thing.
• 6:14
  Bill Erfurth You know, it's interesting what you're
• 6:15
  Bill Erfurth saying, because I know that all law
• 6:19
  Bill Erfurth enforcement agencies have parameters, but
• 6:21
  Bill Erfurth there's always an
• 6:21
  Bill Erfurth exception to the rule, right?
• 6:23
  Bill Erfurth And especially we were told that if
• 6:26
  Bill Erfurth you're in fear of significant injury or
• 6:29
  Bill Erfurth death, you just do what you gotta do.
• 6:32
  Bill Erfurth And I didn't, but I know of other guys
• 6:35
  Bill Erfurth that had to do cocaine, lines of cocaine
• 6:38
  Bill Erfurth and stuff like that.
• 6:39
  Bill Erfurth And then after the fact, you have to go
• 6:41
  Bill Erfurth to your agency and then you have to file
• 6:43
  Bill Erfurth a use of a injury report,
• 6:46
  Bill Erfurth so that it's documented.
• 6:48
  Bill Erfurth So sometimes you gotta,
• 6:50
  Bill Erfurth you just, it's unavoidable, right?
• 6:52
  Bill Erfurth And you get really, like you said, you
• 6:54
  Bill Erfurth get put in those
• 6:54
  Bill Erfurth precarious positions and who knows?
• 6:57
  Blake Boteler 100%, and you know, if you got stuck with
• 7:00
  Blake Boteler that, if somebody's saying, you do this
• 7:02
  Blake Boteler line of meth, or you're gonna get shot in
• 7:05
  Blake Boteler the head, you're gonna
• 7:07
  Blake Boteler do that line of meth.
• 7:08
  Blake Boteler That's kind of an easy decision, huh?
• 7:10
  Blake Boteler Yeah, yeah.
• 7:11
  Blake Boteler I mean, they had me as a prospect, I had
• 7:13
  Blake Boteler to snort gunpowder
• 7:14
  Blake Boteler once, smokeless gunpowder.
• 7:18
  Blake Boteler So they didn't put a gun to my head, but
• 7:20
  Blake Boteler I knew, oh my gosh, it's gonna be a lot
• 7:23
  Blake Boteler of, it's getting slapped
• 7:24
  Blake Boteler around and beat around.
• 7:25
  Blake Boteler And I'd never tried it before.
• 7:26
  Blake Boteler And I said, how bad can it be?
• 7:28
  Blake Boteler I'll tell you, that stuff's bad, man.
• 7:29
  Blake Boteler I have heard that was horrendous.
• 7:32
  Bill Erfurth Hey, I wanna jump in while we're still
• 7:34
  Bill Erfurth talking about all of
• 7:36
  Bill Erfurth this and the stories.
• 7:37
  Bill Erfurth Let's talk about the
• 7:38
  Bill Erfurth culmination of it all.
• 7:40
  Bill Erfurth Let's talk about how you have rest and
• 7:41
  Bill Erfurth the statistics and all
• 7:43
  Bill Erfurth the good work that you did.
• 7:45
  Bill Erfurth Absolutely.
• 7:46
  Blake Boteler Yeah, and there's a,
• 7:47
  Blake Boteler it adds up fast, right?
• 7:48
  Blake Boteler So once we get in and I become a patch
• 7:52
  Blake Boteler wearing member, you know, you have to
• 7:55
  Blake Boteler fight the whole chapter
• 7:56
  Blake Boteler to get your patch, right?
• 7:58
  Blake Boteler And they drag you through a field,
• 8:01
  Blake Boteler holding onto a rope in
• 8:02
  Blake Boteler Sturgis, South Dakota.
• 8:05
  Blake Boteler All these kinds of things happen to you
• 8:07
  Blake Boteler as a prospect in the sun.
• 8:08
  Blake Boteler So you're pretty beat up and bruised
• 8:11
  Blake Boteler whenever you get your patch.
• 8:12
  Blake Boteler And, but once you're in, then the door
• 8:16
  Blake Boteler opens up, not only with other patch
• 8:18
  Blake Boteler wearing members, but people outside, it's
• 8:21
  Blake Boteler kinda like you're part of the, you're one
• 8:23
  Blake Boteler of the families because when you hit that
• 8:26
  Blake Boteler patch on your back, you can buy dope and
• 8:28
  Blake Boteler you can buy guns from criminals and they
• 8:31
  Blake Boteler see you're a verified criminal because
• 8:34
  Blake Boteler you're a sons of silence.
• 8:36
  Blake Boteler A verified criminal, I like it.
• 8:38
  Blake Boteler Yeah, you're very much in their world.
• 8:41
  Blake Boteler Yeah, you're a good criminal.
• 8:44
  Blake Boteler And so you're out there and
• 8:46
  Blake Boteler so we're able to buy things.
• 8:48
  Blake Boteler My partner and I, in the end, I think we,
• 8:51
  Blake Boteler between the seizures and the purchases
• 8:52
  Blake Boteler had over 230 guns, over
• 8:55
  Blake Boteler 40 of them machine guns,
• 8:58
  Blake Boteler like half a dozen hand grenades,
• 9:02
  Blake Boteler I think four pipe
• 9:03
  Blake Boteler bombs, sawed off shotguns.
• 9:06
  Blake Boteler I think there was 21
• 9:07
  Blake Boteler pounds of methamphetamine.
• 9:10
  Blake Boteler We seized a bunch of motorcycles and it
• 9:13
  Blake Boteler was a large volume of things that we got,
• 9:18
  Blake Boteler but a lot of them we
• 9:20
  Blake Boteler would buy from associates.
• 9:23
  Blake Boteler So, you know, when people say, well, how
• 9:25
  Blake Boteler many patch wearing
• 9:26
  Blake Boteler members did you arrest?
• 9:28
  Blake Boteler And I can't even give you the exact
• 9:29
  Blake Boteler number right now, but with all the
• 9:33
  Blake Boteler associates and people on the outside that
• 9:36
  Blake Boteler we were able to arrest and have arrested
• 9:39
  Blake Boteler without them even knowing it came from
• 9:41
  Blake Boteler us, I think we had like
• 9:42
  Blake Boteler 85 defendants in the end.
• 9:47
  Blake Boteler So,
• 9:48
  Blake Boteler lots of federal charges, state charges.
• 9:53
  Blake Boteler And it was very, very successful.
• 9:55
  Blake Boteler There's none of the other, I mean, I
• 9:59
  Blake Boteler can't recall a case it had purchased or
• 10:01
  Blake Boteler seized more weapons than we
• 10:03
  Blake Boteler did during our two plus years.
• 10:06
  Dennis Collins That's how, did any of them, did they
• 10:09
  Dennis Collins ever find out that you were a cop?
• 10:11
  Dennis Collins I mean, did eventually?
• 10:12
  Dennis Collins Oh yeah.
• 10:14
  Dennis Collins Oh yeah, of course.
• 10:15
  Dennis Collins And how did that happen?
• 10:16
  Dennis Collins How did they find out
• 10:17
  Dennis Collins that you were a cop?
• 10:18
  Blake Boteler Well, I'll tell you, I'll give you a
• 10:20
  Blake Boteler story right before they knew for sure.
• 10:22
  Blake Boteler It was towards the end of the
• 10:24
  Blake Boteler investigation, we were getting very, I
• 10:26
  Blake Boteler guess, aggressive, you could say, because
• 10:28
  Blake Boteler we were trying to make
• 10:29
  Blake Boteler all the buys we could.
• 10:32
  Blake Boteler My partner and I, Darryl,
• 10:33
  Blake Boteler we had to sit down and decide
• 10:36
  Blake Boteler when are we gonna quit this thing?
• 10:38
  Blake Boteler Because there was no end in sight.
• 10:40
  Blake Boteler It was how long can we go?
• 10:43
  Blake Boteler We were tired, it was a strain on our
• 10:46
  Blake Boteler families, our professional lives.
• 10:48
  Blake Boteler So, we had a Hell's Angel, Jethro, who
• 10:52
  Blake Boteler had used to be a Sons of Silence member
• 10:53
  Blake Boteler that wanted us to come out to Orlando,
• 10:57
  Blake Boteler over there in California, and wanted us
• 11:00
  Blake Boteler to patch over, excuse me, not Orlando, it
• 11:03
  Blake Boteler was, I forget now his chapter, but he
• 11:06
  Blake Boteler wanted us to patch over, roll our patch,
• 11:09
  Blake Boteler they call it, roll our patch to Hell's
• 11:10
  Blake Boteler Angels, because he had some things going
• 11:12
  Blake Boteler on in South Africa that he wanted us to
• 11:15
  Blake Boteler get involved with him with.
• 11:17
  Blake Boteler He was speaking to us at one of the
• 11:19
  Blake Boteler parties that the Sons of Silence had.
• 11:21
  Blake Boteler So, there was literally no end in sight.
• 11:23
  Blake Boteler We could have rolled our patch and become
• 11:25
  Blake Boteler Hell's Angels and gone on another year.
• 11:28
  Blake Boteler But by this time we were buying guns from
• 11:30
  Blake Boteler everyone, and I was then buying a machine
• 11:33
  Blake Boteler gun in a storage warehouse from one of
• 11:35
  Blake Boteler the main methamphetamine sources for the
• 11:39
  Blake Boteler Sons, and I'm holding the machine gun,
• 11:42
  Blake Boteler it's a Tommy gun type machine gun,
• 11:45
  Blake Boteler and in walks J.R.
• 11:46
  Blake Boteler Reed, the national president, and Frank,
• 11:50
  Blake Boteler crazy Frank, he is an
• 11:52
  Blake Boteler enforcer, but he's got a screw loose.
• 11:55
  Blake Boteler So, he walks in, now Frank's got a big
• 11:58
  Blake Boteler .357 in his belt, these guys hand sitting
• 12:00
  Blake Boteler on it, and J.R. is snorting
• 12:03
  Blake Boteler methamphetamine off this big Civil War
• 12:06
  Blake Boteler sword, and we're in this storage facility
• 12:09
  Blake Boteler full of stuff, right?
• 12:11
  Blake Boteler And J.R. snorts that meth, and then he's
• 12:15
  Blake Boteler holding the sword, and he
• 12:16
  Blake Boteler looks at me and he goes, "Hey Bo,
• 12:19
  Blake Boteler so for what federal agency
• 12:22
  Blake Boteler are you buying all these guns?"
• 12:25
  Blake Boteler Hmm.
• 12:26
  Blake Boteler You know, and so here I was, I mean, this
• 12:29
  Blake Boteler is literally, I've been a patch wearing
• 12:31
  Blake Boteler member for a year and a half, you know,
• 12:33
  Blake Boteler I've been undercover for
• 12:34
  Blake Boteler over two years by this time.
• 12:36
  Bill Erfurth And what was the degree of pucker factor?
• 12:39
  Blake Boteler Well, it was huge because, you know, I
• 12:43
  Blake Boteler had a .45 automatic on me in a shoulder
• 12:46
  Blake Boteler rig, but Frank had his hand resting on
• 12:49
  Blake Boteler his .357 in his belt, and
• 12:52
  Blake Boteler he had crazy eyes already,
• 12:55
  Blake Boteler and I'm holding an empty Tommy gun,
• 12:58
  Blake Boteler basically, crashed the dope dealer guy
• 13:01
  Blake Boteler that I'm buying the gun from, he's
• 13:02
  Blake Boteler oblivious that any of this tension's
• 13:04
  Blake Boteler going on, he's hopping around, so I'm
• 13:07
  Blake Boteler thinking, "Okay, I'm gonna have to hit
• 13:09
  Blake Boteler Frank in the face with this empty gun,
• 13:14
  Blake Boteler and then deal with J.R. if he tries to
• 13:18
  Blake Boteler swing that sword, and then get back to
• 13:20
  Blake Boteler Frank," you know, and that's what flashes
• 13:22
  Blake Boteler through my mind is all I have in my hands
• 13:25
  Blake Boteler is this empty Tommy gun, which is nothing
• 13:27
  Blake Boteler more than a stick, you know, really.
• 13:30
  Blake Boteler So, but I look at J.R. and I go, and I
• 13:33
  Blake Boteler laugh, and I go, "Oh, I'm getting it for
• 13:35
  Blake Boteler the Firearms Reclamation
• 13:36
  Blake Boteler Board," and just laughed, right?
• 13:40
  Blake Boteler And, you know, I knew J.R. well enough to
• 13:43
  Blake Boteler tell that was good enough for me, him, he
• 13:45
  Blake Boteler understood that, but he was letting me
• 13:47
  Blake Boteler know that it was suspicious how much
• 13:50
  Blake Boteler stuff we were buying at that time.
• 13:52
  Blake Boteler Oh, okay.
• 13:53
  Blake Boteler So that, we knew, yeah, we're gonna have
• 13:56
  Blake Boteler to shut this thing down, and we need to
• 13:58
  Blake Boteler be really prepared to get out of this.
• 14:00
  Blake Boteler So that was right towards the very end.
• 14:03
  Blake Boteler We were getting front at five pounds of
• 14:05
  Blake Boteler meth at the time from this dope dealer.
• 14:09
  Blake Boteler So that was shortly
• 14:11
  Blake Boteler thereafter that we did
• 14:13
  Bill Erfurth the-- Well, and clearly then you had to
• 14:15
  Bill Erfurth go touch the fly, and it all had to come
• 14:17
  Bill Erfurth out in trial and
• 14:18
  Bill Erfurth depositions and stuff like that.
• 14:19
  Bill Erfurth Were you ever threatened by these guys?
• 14:23
  Bill Erfurth Have you ever had any kind of encounters
• 14:27
  Bill Erfurth with them throughout
• 14:28
  Bill Erfurth your life since then?
• 14:31
  Blake Boteler Oh yeah, I mean, you know, once they were
• 14:34
  Blake Boteler in jail that night, they're sitting
• 14:36
  Blake Boteler around, and everybody in the chapter
• 14:37
  Blake Boteler sitting in jail except Bo and Cole, you
• 14:41
  Blake Boteler know, were not in there with them.
• 14:44
  Blake Boteler So, huh, the mass had enough, and sure
• 14:46
  Blake Boteler enough, you know, when they were getting
• 14:48
  Blake Boteler the affidavits the next day,
• 14:51
  Blake Boteler our names are on there, right?
• 14:52
  Blake Boteler So they know, and sure enough, it's
• 14:55
  Blake Boteler public knowledge by that time.
• 14:59
  Blake Boteler So yes, the death threats came.
• 15:02
  Blake Boteler There was a $50,000 contract put out on
• 15:06
  Blake Boteler us, and my family had already moved away
• 15:10
  Blake Boteler from Colorado a couple
• 15:12
  Blake Boteler of months before that.
• 15:13
  Blake Boteler We'd moved over to Tampa,
• 15:15
  Blake Boteler and so the family was already in Tampa,
• 15:17
  Blake Boteler had already closed on a house.
• 15:21
  Blake Boteler So we had tried to put it under a trust,
• 15:24
  Blake Boteler so we thought we were
• 15:25
  Blake Boteler gonna be safe on that end.
• 15:28
  Blake Boteler But as it turned out, I went there in
• 15:31
  Blake Boteler December, and there were death threats.
• 15:35
  Blake Boteler They found me in Tampa, they called up
• 15:37
  Blake Boteler and said, "You're a hard man
• 15:38
  Blake Boteler to find, but we found you now."
• 15:40
  Blake Boteler So ATF overnight moved
• 15:42
  Blake Boteler us out of that house.
• 15:43
  Blake Boteler And I say overnight, they said, "Your
• 15:45
  Blake Boteler wife and your kids have to be
• 15:46
  Blake Boteler out of that house in hours."
• 15:48
  Blake Boteler So agents picked them up
• 15:49
  Blake Boteler and they moved them out.
• 15:50
  Blake Boteler There was still Christmas
• 15:51
  Blake Boteler presents under the tree.
• 15:53
  Blake Boteler I had to go by the house and get my kids
• 15:54
  Blake Boteler Christmas presents, and we
• 15:57
  Blake Boteler never went back to that house.
• 15:59
  Blake Boteler And then they moved us up to Virginia
• 16:04
  Blake Boteler under a fictitious name for almost a
• 16:06
  Blake Boteler year, and then moved here, and actually
• 16:09
  Blake Boteler lived here under a fictitious name for a
• 16:12
  Blake Boteler number of years, the utilities, the
• 16:14
  Blake Boteler house, and everything
• 16:15
  Blake Boteler was under fictitious.
• 16:17
  Blake Boteler Wow.
• 16:18
  Blake Boteler So the answer is yeah, it's out there.
• 16:21
  Blake Boteler And then there's certain members that
• 16:23
  Blake Boteler were extremely violent and unhinged that
• 16:27
  Blake Boteler were potentially come and get you.
• 16:31
  Blake Boteler So, but yeah.
• 16:33
  Bill Erfurth No more threats, Blake?
• 16:34
  Bill Erfurth They've ended, they
• 16:35
  Bill Erfurth ended a while ago, I take it?
• 16:37
  Blake Boteler Well, it's hard to say what a threat is.
• 16:41
  Blake Boteler I mean, there's certain members that are
• 16:42
  Blake Boteler still out there that if I walked up to
• 16:45
  Blake Boteler them and they figured out who I was, I
• 16:48
  Blake Boteler think the threat would be alive and well.
• 16:53
  Blake Boteler The one example I'll give you is, I've
• 16:55
  Blake Boteler never lost a case in my life.
• 16:58
  Blake Boteler Usually it's unlawful for you to have so
• 17:00
  Blake Boteler much evidence, especially when you're
• 17:02
  Blake Boteler doing undercover, you have hand-to-hand
• 17:03
  Blake Boteler buys, and it's just so much evidence.
• 17:06
  Blake Boteler It's, you know.
• 17:09
  Blake Boteler So one of the guys that had threatened to
• 17:13
  Blake Boteler do damage said he was
• 17:14
  Blake Boteler gonna kill me and all this was,
• 17:16
  Blake Boteler we took him to trial for assaulting a
• 17:18
  Blake Boteler federal agent, because he was one of
• 17:20
  Blake Boteler those that loved to punch me in the face
• 17:21
  Blake Boteler when I was a prospect and stuff.
• 17:24
  Blake Boteler So, and this was in Denver,
• 17:27
  Blake Boteler in federal court in Denver.
• 17:28
  Blake Boteler And, you know, I testified, I thought,
• 17:31
  Blake Boteler well, this is a slam dunk, I mean.
• 17:34
  Blake Boteler And the jury came back
• 17:35
  Blake Boteler and said, not guilty.
• 17:37
  Blake Boteler And they talked to the jury after and
• 17:39
  Blake Boteler they said, well, if you're doing
• 17:40
  Blake Boteler undercover, you need to expect to get hit
• 17:43
  Blake Boteler in the face and beat up.
• 17:45
  Blake Boteler That was the jury's take on it.
• 17:48
  Blake Boteler A month later, he's in a bar called the
• 17:52
  Blake Boteler A-frame Lounge in Commerce City,
• 17:54
  Blake Boteler Colorado, and he shoots
• 17:56
  Blake Boteler two people in that bar.
• 17:59
  Blake Boteler He then gets arrested, makes bond.
• 18:03
  Blake Boteler Then a couple of months later, he's at a
• 18:05
  Blake Boteler party at the Sons of Silence Clubhouse
• 18:07
  Blake Boteler there in Denver and he shoots two more
• 18:09
  Blake Boteler people, one of them
• 18:10
  Blake Boteler being a patch wearing member.
• 18:13
  Blake Boteler So he shoots Meatloaf and-
• 18:17
  Blake Boteler These guys have great names.
• 18:18
  Blake Boteler Oh, they do.
• 18:20
  Blake Boteler But I don't think Meatloaf could sing
• 18:21
  Blake Boteler like the singer Meatloaf,
• 18:23
  Blake Boteler but anyway, maybe he could.
• 18:24
  Bill Erfurth I never heard him sing.
• 18:26
  Bill Erfurth At least they're killing each other, you
• 18:27
  Bill Erfurth know, that's a plus.
• 18:29
  Bill Erfurth Well, and doing a good point.
• 18:31
  Blake Boteler Shooting each other, you know.
• 18:32
  Blake Boteler Well, Meatloaf lived, I mean, Meatloaf
• 18:35
  Blake Boteler lived, he had a
• 18:35
  Blake Boteler colostomy bag, but he lived.
• 18:38
  Blake Boteler And then, and then in, I
• 18:41
  Blake Boteler don't know, maybe 2019,
• 18:45
  Blake Boteler that same guy got shot by another Sons of
• 18:49
  Blake Boteler Silence member, even though
• 18:50
  Blake Boteler he's not a member anymore.
• 18:52
  Blake Boteler And then he got, last I heard he was in
• 18:54
  Blake Boteler jail for doing a drive-by in Denver.
• 18:56
  Blake Boteler Went back up to a
• 18:57
  Blake Boteler house, shot it up, went home.
• 18:58
  Blake Boteler The police arrested him, they sick their
• 19:01
  Blake Boteler canine on him and he
• 19:02
  Blake Boteler was punching the canine.
• 19:04
  Blake Boteler So that guy, you know,
• 19:08
  Blake Boteler yeah, he could be dangerous.
• 19:11
  Blake Boteler A dangerous guy.
• 19:13
  Dennis Collins And pick me up, it sounds like the V.
• 19:15
  Dennis Collins They could.
• 19:16
  Bill Erfurth Is the Sons of Silence,
• 19:18
  Bill Erfurth are they still in business?
• 19:20
  Blake Boteler Oh yeah, they're big as ever.
• 19:22
  Blake Boteler So in business.
• 19:23
  Dennis Collins Big as ever.
• 19:24
  Dennis Collins I mean, you got a
• 19:25
  Dennis Collins business license, I don't think.
• 19:26
  Dennis Collins They're verified.
• 19:28
  Blake Boteler Yeah, yeah, they're very, they're, I
• 19:29
  Blake Boteler mean, in the outlaw biker world, they're
• 19:32
  Blake Boteler one of the big boys.
• 19:34
  Blake Boteler They're in Florida,
• 19:36
  Blake Boteler Arkansas, all through the Midwest.
• 19:39
  Blake Boteler Louisiana, over in Germany.
• 19:42
  Bill Erfurth I gotta tell you, we had one particular
• 19:46
  Bill Erfurth run-in and it was, I don't even know how
• 19:50
  Bill Erfurth this happened because even before I got
• 19:53
  Bill Erfurth on the police department in Miami,
• 19:56
  Bill Erfurth somehow or another in Dade County, they
• 19:59
  Bill Erfurth banned the outlaw motorcycle gang from
• 20:03
  Bill Erfurth crossing the county line.
• 20:05
  Bill Erfurth You couldn't even come in to Dade County
• 20:07
  Bill Erfurth from Broward County and their
• 20:09
  Bill Erfurth house was like in Hollywood.
• 20:13
  Bill Erfurth And so they decided that they were gonna
• 20:15
  Bill Erfurth say, screw you, and they were gonna test
• 20:18
  Bill Erfurth the waters and somehow our department
• 20:21
  Bill Erfurth found out about it and
• 20:23
  Bill Erfurth rallied 100 of us together.
• 20:25
  Bill Erfurth And they crossed from Broward County into
• 20:28
  Bill Erfurth Dade County along A1A on the
• 20:30
  Bill Erfurth beach into what's Sunny Isles.
• 20:33
  Bill Erfurth And we were all ready
• 20:35
  Bill Erfurth for them and waiting.
• 20:36
  Bill Erfurth And basically we just beat the balls off
• 20:39
  Bill Erfurth of them until they turned around and went
• 20:41
  Bill Erfurth back to Broward County.
• 20:42
  Bill Erfurth It was, it was ridiculous.
• 20:44
  Blake Boteler Yeah, I mean, eventually they don't like
• 20:46
  Blake Boteler getting hassled over and over and over,
• 20:49
  Blake Boteler but yeah, a lot of jurisdictions have
• 20:52
  Blake Boteler tried to make it where clubs can't fly
• 20:55
  Blake Boteler their patches like that because of the
• 20:57
  Blake Boteler violence and instills.
• 20:58
  Blake Boteler I mean, you guys probably heard like in
• 21:00
  Blake Boteler 2016 down here in Waco, Texas, the
• 21:04
  Blake Boteler Bandidos and the Cossacks got into this
• 21:08
  Blake Boteler big shootout, right?
• 21:10
  Blake Boteler And several of the Cossacks were killed
• 21:12
  Blake Boteler and a Bandito I think was killed.
• 21:14
  Blake Boteler So that was a huge thing.
• 21:18
  Blake Boteler And just a really odd
• 21:20
  Blake Boteler thing happened at it.
• 21:21
  Blake Boteler And if you'll remember what I told you,
• 21:24
  Blake Boteler my undercover name was, it
• 21:25
  Blake Boteler was Daniel Raymond Beauye.
• 21:28
  Blake Boteler And the Beauye was spelled B-O-Y-E-T-T-E.
• 21:33
  Blake Boteler So if you look under that 2016 at those
• 21:37
  Blake Boteler bikers that were killed, one of them is
• 21:40
  Blake Boteler Daniel Raymond Beauye was killed in 2016.
• 21:46
  Blake Boteler And his, the only difference is there's
• 21:48
  Blake Boteler not an E on the end of
• 21:50
  Blake Boteler his last name, Beauyet.
• 21:52
  Blake Boteler But so very odd, you know, the chances of
• 21:56
  Blake Boteler Daniel Raymond Beauyet,
• 21:59
  Blake Boteler my undercover identity.
• 22:01
  Blake Boteler And then another guy who was a Cossack
• 22:03
  Blake Boteler member, the Cossacks, a lot
• 22:05
  Blake Boteler of motorcycle gangs was killed.
• 22:07
  Blake Boteler So yeah, they're violent, and especially
• 22:10
  Blake Boteler when they clash with other clubs and
• 22:12
  Blake Boteler they're trying to fight over identities
• 22:16
  Blake Boteler and respect to things that
• 22:18
  Blake Boteler they like to fight about.
• 22:20
  Dennis Collins You know, we could talk for hours, Blake,
• 22:23
  Dennis Collins and you've been very generous with your
• 22:24
  Dennis Collins stories and your time.
• 22:26
  Dennis Collins We promise our listeners and viewers on
• 22:28
  Dennis Collins Heroes Behind the Badge, when you tune in
• 22:30
  Dennis Collins here, you're gonna hear
• 22:32
  Dennis Collins real stories about real cops.
• 22:35
  Dennis Collins And boy, did you fit the bill today.
• 22:38
  Dennis Collins This is real stories about real cops and
• 22:41
  Dennis Collins not very, and we all know this, not many
• 22:43
  Dennis Collins cops actually do what you did.
• 22:45
  Bill Erfurth Well, we haven't even talked about his
• 22:47
  Bill Erfurth Waco and Ruby Ridge stories.
• 22:49
  Bill Erfurth I know, well, we're
• 22:50
  Bill Erfurth gonna have to come back.
• 22:50
  Dennis Collins So I don't know if we keep
• 22:51
  Dennis Collins going or we have him back.
• 22:53
  Dennis Collins Let's have him back.
• 22:54
  Dennis Collins That's a whole nother incident, right?
• 22:56
  Dennis Collins Waco's a whole nother thing.
• 22:58
  Blake Boteler Yeah, there's a lot of misinformation
• 23:00
  Blake Boteler that's been put out over time about what
• 23:04
  Blake Boteler happened in Waco and why we were there.
• 23:06
  Blake Boteler And it's, you know, why didn't you just
• 23:08
  Blake Boteler arrest him when he was out jogging?
• 23:10
  Blake Boteler Well, anybody who knows anything about
• 23:12
  Blake Boteler evidence is you can't arrest somebody and
• 23:15
  Blake Boteler then not have any evidence.
• 23:16
  Blake Boteler I mean, you had to do a
• 23:17
  Blake Boteler search warrant to get the evidence.
• 23:19
  Blake Boteler And so, yeah, there's a lot of
• 23:21
  Blake Boteler misconceptions about that in
• 23:23
  Blake Boteler these movies that got put out.
• 23:25
  Blake Boteler They just fanned the flame.
• 23:28
  Blake Boteler We'll have to have you back.
• 23:29
  Dennis Collins We'll have to ask you to come back at
• 23:31
  Dennis Collins some point and we'll
• 23:32
  Dennis Collins do that another time.
• 23:34
  Dennis Collins So I wanna thank you, Blake.
• 23:36
  Dennis Collins Again, we talked about heroes on this
• 23:39
  Dennis Collins podcast, Heroes Behind the Badge.
• 23:42
  Dennis Collins And you clearly are a
• 23:44
  Dennis Collins hero behind the badge.
• 23:46
  Dennis Collins Very few people have the courage, have
• 23:49
  Dennis Collins the smarts, the intelligence to do
• 23:53
  Dennis Collins something like this, to live a lie,
• 23:56
  Dennis Collins basically, like you said, three lives.
• 23:59
  Dennis Collins Very few people have
• 24:00
  Dennis Collins the ability to do that.
• 24:02
  Dennis Collins You not only did it, but you did it well,
• 24:04
  Dennis Collins and you're here to tell about it.
• 24:06
  Dennis Collins And that's important.
• 24:07
  Dennis Collins You stood in our place to protect and
• 24:12
  Dennis Collins defend and we appreciate that.
• 24:14
  Dennis Collins So thank you again for joining us.
• 24:17
  Blake Boteler Well, thank you for that.
• 24:18
  Blake Boteler It's an honor to serve, but I am no hero.
• 24:22
  Blake Boteler I know some heroes in my life, but I am
• 24:24
  Blake Boteler not one of those guys.
• 24:26
  Blake Boteler But I appreciate that nonetheless.
• 24:29
  Paul Boomer There's one more thing Blake told us
• 24:31
  Paul Boomer after the camera stopped rolling.
• 24:33
  Paul Boomer It was about the arrest plan that would
• 24:34
  Paul Boomer have staged his own funeral.
• 24:35
  Blake Boteler Do you guys know who Jay Dobbins is?
• 24:38
  Blake Boteler There's a book out there called "No
• 24:39
  Blake Boteler Angel" and a very good book.
• 24:42
  Blake Boteler And anyway, he's an outstanding
• 24:44
  Blake Boteler undercover agent, right?
• 24:46
  Blake Boteler So I brought him out on this case, right?
• 24:50
  Blake Boteler Because I needed somebody originally, and
• 24:52
  Blake Boteler we didn't get into it.
• 24:53
  Blake Boteler We just didn't have the time.
• 24:54
  Blake Boteler But originally the plan that we had made
• 24:57
  Blake Boteler was I was gonna be killed
• 24:58
  Blake Boteler in a car bombing, right?
• 25:01
  Blake Boteler And that my body would
• 25:03
  Blake Boteler then, we'd have a funeral.
• 25:04
  Blake Boteler We'd actually bought a funeral plot in a
• 25:06
  Blake Boteler cemetery there in Colorado Springs.
• 25:09
  Blake Boteler We were gonna,
• 25:10
  Blake Boteler all the outlaw bikers and everybody that
• 25:14
  Blake Boteler I dealt with come to the
• 25:16
  Blake Boteler funeral in the graveyard.
• 25:19
  Blake Boteler And that's where we were
• 25:19
  Blake Boteler actually gonna do the arrest.
• 25:21
  Blake Boteler Instead of all these individuals searched
• 25:24
  Blake Boteler in arrest warrants
• 25:24
  Blake Boteler which was very dangerous.
• 25:26
  Blake Boteler But we were putting this out to ATF and
• 25:29
  Blake Boteler headquarters there in
• 25:30
  Blake Boteler DC, and they shot it down.
• 25:32
  Blake Boteler So we had to do it other way, which was
• 25:35
  Blake Boteler the way we ended up doing it, which had
• 25:39
  Blake Boteler its own built-in problems.
• 25:41
  Blake Boteler But we had the fake body from a back
• 25:46
  Blake Boteler draft, one of the burned
• 25:47
  Blake Boteler bodies that was gonna be there.
• 25:49
  Blake Boteler And I'd already lined up the hearse and a
• 25:51
  Blake Boteler friend of mine has a funeral home and I
• 25:54
  Blake Boteler actually trained with him on some stuff,
• 25:55
  Blake Boteler part of my background
• 25:57
  Blake Boteler under cover background.
• 25:58
  Blake Boteler And Jay Dobbins was gonna drive the
• 26:00
  Blake Boteler hearse and all that stuff.
• 26:02
  Blake Boteler So he didn't know much about motorcycles,
• 26:04
  Blake Boteler but that one got shot down.
• 26:05
  Blake Boteler So later we brought in several guys and
• 26:08
  Blake Boteler Jay was one of them.
• 26:09
  Blake Boteler And he got bit by the bug then for outlaw
• 26:12
  Blake Boteler bikers because he didn't
• 26:13
  Blake Boteler work bikers until then.
• 26:15
  Blake Boteler But when he left there,
• 26:17
  Blake Boteler nothing but bikers.
• 26:18
  Bill Erfurth Yes, and I remember one time sitting on
• 26:20
  Bill Erfurth the couch and I was like, "Hey, Jay, I'm
• 26:22
  Bill Erfurth gonna tell you myself, "how the fuck am I
• 26:23
  Bill Erfurth ever gonna get out of this?"
• 26:24
  Blake Boteler Yeah, it was a true
• 26:26
  Blake Boteler conversation in the undercover house.
• 26:27
  Blake Boteler We just looked at each other and said,
• 26:28
  Blake Boteler "Hey man, how much longer can we go?"
• 26:32
  Blake Boteler Because it's never gonna stop
• 26:34
  Blake Boteler the flow of weapons and dope.
• 26:36
  Blake Boteler That would never stop.
• 26:37
  Blake Boteler So we had to pick a time.
• 26:39
  Blake Boteler So we picked October 7th, 1999,
• 26:44
  Blake Boteler and this was back in whatever,
• 26:47
  Blake Boteler May or whatever we did.
• 26:48
  Blake Boteler I don't know exactly, but it
• 26:49
  Blake Boteler was like six months in advance.
• 26:52
  Blake Boteler So, but you had to find an endpoint.
• 26:57
  Dennis Collins If you liked anything Blake had to say
• 26:59
  Dennis Collins today, and there was a lot
• 27:01
  Dennis Collins to like, would you do this?
• 27:04
  Dennis Collins Would you hit subscribe, follow, like, or
• 27:08
  Dennis Collins most important, would you make a comment
• 27:10
  Dennis Collins about what Blake had to say?
• 27:11
  Dennis Collins This is a true American law enforcement
• 27:15
  Dennis Collins hero who put his life on the line to get
• 27:18
  Dennis Collins into what most people run away from.
• 27:22
  Dennis Collins And if you liked his story, please
• 27:24
  Dennis Collins follow, like, subscribe, make a comment.
• 27:28
  Dennis Collins Also, Citizens Behind the
• 27:30
  Dennis Collins Badge sponsors this podcast.
• 27:32
  Dennis Collins Citizens Behind the Badge
• 27:33
  Dennis Collins is the leading organization,
• 27:36
  Dennis Collins the leading voice in support of the men
• 27:39
  Dennis Collins and women of law enforcement.
• 27:41
  Dennis Collins You can get involved right now today by
• 27:44
  Dennis Collins going to citizensbehindthebadge.org.
• 27:47
  Dennis Collins That's citizensbehindthebadge.org.
• 27:50
  Dennis Collins Again, our thanks to Blake, our guest.
• 27:52
  Dennis Collins My thanks to Bill Erpirth and Craig
• 27:54
  Dennis Collins Floyd, our co-hosts.
• 27:56
  Dennis Collins It's Dennis Collins saying, signing off
• 27:59
  Dennis Collins for this episode of
• 28:00
  Dennis Collins Heroes Behind the Badge.
• 28:01
  Dennis Collins We'll see you next time, stay tuned.