The Sunday Read: The Waco Biker Shootout Left Nine Dead. Why Was No One Convicted?

Published: March 6, 2022, 11 a.m.

b'It was a perplexing event, with little in the way of legal closure. Seven years on from a fatal biker shootout in 2015, Mark Binelli explores the details of the event \\u2014 which started as a brawl between rival \\u201coutlaw\\u201d motorcycle clubs, the Cossacks and the Bandidos, at a restaurant in Waco, West Texas, which left nine dead and 20 wounded \\u2014 and the investigation that followed.\\n\\nThe article delves into the methodology of the case\\u2019s main investigator, Paul Looney, and a trial-preparation specialist, Roxanne Avery, as well as the event\\u2019s cultural significance, described by The New York Times as \\u201cwhat appears to be the largest roundup and mass arrest of bikers in recent American history.\\u201d\\n\\nThe aftermath of the deadly brawl, which was preceded by rumblings of an escalating feud, has been the subject of protracted interest: Despite the arrests of 177 bikers \\u2014 all of whom, regardless of the evidence, were subject to identical felony charges and million-dollar bonds \\u2014 no one has been convicted.\\n\\nBinelli explains the root causes of the tensions between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, relays the details of the incident, and considers why it has been so hard to bring the perpetrators to justice.'