From theNew York Timesbestselling author ofUnder and Alonecomes an intimate and riveting account of federal law-enforcement agent William Queen's relentless hunt for one of America's most cold-blooded criminals. As an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, William Queen must tackle a number of challenging cases, including going undercover to investigate a group of violent skinheads and infiltrating and busting a ring trafficking in high-powered explosives, drugs, and firearms. In the winter of 1985, he faces his toughest mission to date: he must apprehend Mark Stephens, a notorious narcotics trafficker who has been terrorizing the communities around Los Angeles with frequent rampages involving machine guns and hand grenades. A recluse living in the treacherous backwoods outside the city, Stephens is a cunning survivalist. Nobody has been able to catch him, but Queen is determined to take him down. Queen's unique expertise is not taught in any police academy or ATF training seminarhe honed his outdoorsman abilities as a kid. Stephens may have finally met his match in the unwavering Queen, who is adept at hunting and trapping and living for weeks in the wild. Queen will use these skillsalong with surveillance, confidential informants, and intelligence gatheringas he doggedly tracks his dangerous quarry, a chase that culminates in a gripping showdown high in the San Bernardino Mountains. A fascinating look into the daily life of an ATF agent and a taut portrayal of a monthlong manhunt,Armed and Dangerousdepicts a classic race against timelawman versus outlawin a harrowing true story of life-or-death suspense. From the Hardcover edition.

William Queen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Under and Alone. He spent twenty years as a special agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. A Vietnam War veteran, Queen served as an assistant operations and intelligence sergeant on a U.S. Army Special Forces A-Team and is a decorated soldier. Following his military service, Queen devoted his career to law enforcement, serving first as a local police officer and then as a U.S. Border Patrol agent before joining ATF. He is among the country’s foremost experts on the violent world of outlaw motorcycle gangs and has lectured widely to law-enforcement organizations in multiple countries. For his ground-breaking undercover work playing the part of biker “Billy St. John,” William Queen was awarded the 2001 Federal Bar Association’s Medal of Valor.

Douglas Century is the author of Barney Ross and Street Kingdom, the co-author of the New York Times bestsellers Under and Alone and Takedown, and a contributing writer for The New York Times. His nonfiction work has appeared in such publications as Details, Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, New York, Vibe, Radar, Blender, Newsday, and The Guardian. Century is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University. He lives in New York City.


From the Hardcover edition.

Chapter 1

Everyone called him the mountain man. They said he was the most dangerous, gun-crazy renegade seen in the hills and valleys of Southern California since the days of the Wild West outlaws. The local police departments and sheriffs’ offices all said it would be next to impossible for any cop or federal agent to bring him down alive from his mountaintop hideout.

In April 1986, when I first caught wind of Mark Stephens—this “mountain man” terrorizing the Inland Empire communities (those in Riverside and San Bernardino counties)—I was only in my third year as a special agent with the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. But I’d been a law enforcement officer for over a decade, and I’d made my bones as a local cop in North Carolina and as a federal border patrol agent before becoming an ATF agent—I’d certainly heard my share of war stories. Some so-called badass or another was always being touted as the hardest, most cold- blooded criminal in the county, the scariest dude to make the most- wanted lists. I seen this guy whip a dozen cops, other cops would tell you. This guy, he ain’t gonna be taken alive. He’s crazy. If you try to get cuffs on him, he’ll kill you. Ninety-five percent of the times when I confronted these so-called tough guys, all the fight instantly drained out of them. Their ruthlessness turned out to be nothing more than a front, an actor’s persona. When I cornered them, they folded up, dropped their guns, and surrendered without so much as a peep.

But there are those few criminals out there who are righteously bad. Guys who won’t give up without a fight. And when you do decide to confront them, you’d better be ready to fight for your life.

Mark Stephens was one such criminal. Stephens was the real McCoy, the most brazen and fearless criminal I encountered in my early years with ATF. He proved to be equal parts gunman, mountain man, drug trafficker, and out-and-out thug.

Mark Stephens was a paradox for a criminal investigator. He didn’t fit the stereotype: He didn’t come from the wrong side of the tracks and wasn’t abused as a kid; he wasn’t semiliterate or lacking in career opportunities. His parents were well-educated, fairly affluent people who lived in an upscale neighborhood in Rancho Cucamonga, a city of nearly one hundred thousand, located under the majestic San Gabriel mountain range in the Inland Empire, thirty-seven miles east of my ATF desk in downtown Los Angeles.

Sometimes the path to a criminal personality can’t be easily explained; the factors that determine one’s character defy reason. Mark Stephens wasn’t a typical bully, the kind of person who seemed to get emotional gratification from picking on the weak. It didn’t make any difference to him whether you were male or female, old or young, black or white—if you stood in his way, he was going to hurt you. Stephens was a man who had no conscience when it came to taking what he wanted by force. And he’d learned early on in life that hurting people was the way to get what he wanted. The intelligent man locked inside of him may have known that violence was wrong, that he had an uncontrollable problem. But violence physically possessed him; it was an overwhelming force he simply couldn’t rein in. He understood that it would land him in prison one day, and prison wasn’t an option for Stephens. So he decided to separate himself from society—literally. He headed for the hills, disappearing into the vast, impenetrable San Bernardino Mountains.

Stephens put together a basic plan. He would live off the land. He’d grow marijuana in prodigious quantities, smoke as much of it as he wanted, and sell the excess kilos when he needed cash to buy firearms and explosives. He would be as self-sufficient

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Excerpted from Armed and Dangerous: The Hunt for One of America's Most Wanted Criminals by Douglas Century, William Queen
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