Former undercover agent Jay Dobyns says people can be forgiven for thinking Sunday’s biker bloodbath in Waco, Texas, was a throwback to a bad 1970s movie.

The shootout — which killed nine people and wounded 18 — seemed aberrant because the public image of many motorcycle gangs has been burnished in recent years thanks to the many largely benign bike enthusiasts who’ve co-opted some of the same clothing and style.

«I think, as a society, and to a large extent even in law enforcement, we fall into the sense that these guys are these big, rough-looking teddy bears that do blood drives and toy runs and are harmless,» says Dobyns, who infiltrated the notorious Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. «These are people that have used the motorcycle culture as camouflage.»

The more sinister side of biker culture was thrust into the spotlight after Sunday’s shooting in the parking lot of a restaurant where members of several rival gangs were having a meeting. By Monday, authorities had charged about 170 gang members with engaging in organized crime.