After a record-setting athletic career as a wide receiver for the University of Arizona Wildcats, Jay traded his football pads for a badge and gun as a Special Agent with America’s violent crime police force - the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).  Jay’s introduction to the street was immediate, vicious and nearly fatal. Within a week in the field he was taken hostage and shot through the back and chest.

Feeling energized, or as he puts it, "bulletproofed" by the experience, "Jaybird" actively sought ever more dangerous undercover assignments, posing as gunrunner, drug dealer, enforcer and hit man.  Self-immersed in the violent underworld of criminal gangs, his obsession to bring down the world’s most dangerous felons left him struggling to live up to his own ideals as a husband and father.  Jay Dobyns is the author of No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels.

Publisher’s Weekly said of No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels, “In this white-knuckler, ATF agent Dobyns infiltrates a chapter of the Hells Angels to show that, aside from much of the romance surrounding the group, it is indeed a violent gang. His investigations lead him through a fascinating cast of crystal meth-heads, gun runners, gang rapists and frauds. Dobyns and co-writer Johnson-Shelton tell a bracing story in straightforward prose that doesn't dilute any aspect of the toll his undercover act (a sprawling long-term investigation that penetrated deeper into the gang than any other) took on his life. A family guy who frequently finds himself taking calls from his worried wife while in the middle of an operation, Dobyns is brutally honest about how far his assignment takes him into the dark side and leaves the impression at the end that it's highly unlikely he will ever be able to totally return to undercover work (Hunter S. Thompson was beaten up while writing his 1967 take on the gang in Hell's Angels). From the medieval desert clan gatherings to breakneck-paced highway odysseys and high-noon showdowns, this is the real deal from an agent whose knack for the job and ability to transform it into elucidating reading recalls the story of Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco.”

According to the ATF, “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is a principal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice dedicated to preventing terrorism, reducing violent crime, and protecting our Nation. The men and women of ATF perform the dual responsibilities of enforcing Federal criminal laws and regulating the firearms and explosives industries. We are committed to working directly, and through partnerships, to investigate and reduce crime involving firearms and explosives, acts of arson, and illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products.