They are a familiar target of law enforcement and rival clubs. Although trouble seems to follow some members, the club has endured harassment, physical and verbal attacks, judgment and condemnation.
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They refused to stand by and be treated like criminals. Some argue that guns, violence and murder are all part of being a Hells Angel, which is In sharp contrast to the romantic image of bikers portrayed by others.
When confronted, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) deny that criminal activity is part and parcel of joining the club. Rather, they claim, it is down to a few bad individuals who just happen to belong to the club.
The group was founded by disgruntled ex-servicemen after the Second World War and chapters can now be found in 22 countries.
The original group lived in a Los Angeles suburb. To mark Independence Day, they descended on the sleepy central Californian town of Hollister and ran riot.
They went drag-racing down the main street, tossing beer bottles in all directions, and terrifying locals by riding their bikes through the doors of the town’s saloon bar.
This and similar behaviour a year later inspired the screen-writers of the 1953 movie The Wild One, in which two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail.
The Hells Angels name may have come from a US Air Force bomber squadron. The club’s insignia is a skull with wings and a motorcycle helmet known as The Death’s Head and can be found on Hells Angels membership cards.
The common misconception is that to buy a big bike and grow long hair is enough to grant entry to the Angels. Wrong. To be accepted you have to prove yourself to be fearless, and loyal to the brotherhood.”
New members have to be nominated by an existing member. If they are accepted then they are allowed to become a “hangaround” or apprentice.
If they prove themselves they graduate to the status of a “prospect” before finally becoming a member. The process can take years and ends with the recruit being issued a jacket with the Death’s Head symbol on it.
Initiation ceremonies are barbaric. In a study of Californian Hells Angels in the late 1960s, a new recruit’s rite of passage was described by author Hunter S Thompson. He wrote: “Every Angel recruit comes to his initiation wearing a new pair of Levis and a matching jacket, with the sleeves cut off and a spotless emblem on the back.
The ceremony varies from one chapter to another but the main feature is always the defiling of the initiate’s new uniform.
It’s impossible to talk about the Hells Angels without a few words about Sonny Barger, who is regarded as the patriarch of all Hell’s Angels. “When we award charters in new states,” Barger explains, “it’s always done by national vote. When a prospective club lets us know they want to become Hell’s Angels, we’ll check them out to see if they’re stand-up people. We’ll send officers out to meet with them, and in return they’ll send guys out to meet with us.
We might invite them to a run or two, and likewise we’ll send some of our guys to party with them. At some point – time varies – we’ll vote on their membership status. The same process that lets in individuals applies to entire new chapters as well… Once we sanctioned each official Hell’s Angels charter, it became their responsibility to keep anybody from starting up an illegal charter in their part of the country.”
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Members can transfer from one chapter to another. However, “because of rats and infiltrators… you have to be in the chapter you’re transferring from for at least one year.”
Members from other Big Four outlaw motorcycle clubs (Outlaws, Bandidos, Pagans) are not welcome to join the Hell’s Angels. Among the many stories surrounding the Hell’s Angels Barger dismisses as myths are those regarding initiations: “To become a Hell’s Angel, there never has been any initiation rite outside of serving as a prospect. As a prospect, you’re basically a gopher for the club.”
The Hell’s Angels have a set of written rules. Some of these have become public, including the obligation to attend regular meetings, not to fight with other club members and not to mess with another member’s wife. Another rule Barger repeats in variations throughout his book states that Hell’s Angels are obliged to support fellow members under all circumstances: “The story of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club is the story of a very select brotherhood of men who will fight and die for each other, no matter what the cause.” Barger goes on to say, “we stand up for ourselves and a Hell’s Angel should never break and run.”
Essentially it is like a golden rule: when a Hell’s Angel fights a citizen or a rival club member, everybody rat-packs to his side.
While Barger rejects the notion of the Hell’s Angels being a criminal organization, he freely admits that members tended to have a criminal record (“most of us were card-carrying felons, and used illicit drugs”).
In 1979, the federal government put Barger and several members and associates of the Oakland chapter on trial on RICO charges (United States of America v. Ralph Barger, Jr., et al.), trying to connect the club to guns and illegal drugs. The jury acquitted Barger on the RICO charges with a hung jury on the predicate acts: “There was no proof it was part of club policy, and as much as they tried, the government could not come up with any incriminating minutes from any of our meetings mentioning drugs and guns.”
In 1982, Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer. His vocal cords had to be removed, leaving Barger with a voice that sounds like Marlon Brando in The Godfather.
In November 1987, Barger was arrested for conspiracy in interstate bombing based on evidence produced by a high-level FBI informant, West Coast representative Anthony Tait. Tait had pretended to be planning the bombing of the Outlaws clubhouse in Chicago and tried to muster the support of several Hell’s Angels, including Barger who after a five-months trial in Kentucky was convicted of conspiracy to violate federal law to commit murder. He served his time in Phoenix, Arizona, until 1992.
In 1998, Sonny Barger returned to Arizona to settle down with his third wife and a daughter. At the time of the publication of his autobiography he was a member of the Cave Creek chapter of the Hell’s Angels.
Members of the Hell’s Angels have a reputation of secretiveness, and no member would undermine this reputation. I met Barger once and found him to be genuine. In my brief conversation I listened to him as he took issue with many allegations against the Hell’s Angels, especially the notion that the organization as such controls its members’ criminal activities. In this respect, at least, he appears credible.
At the same time, Barger doesn’t place the Hell’s Angels in a favorable light, nor does he place himself there. He makes it clear by the way he talks that the club takes honour and respect very seriously. Arguments are sparked by simple insults or drunken slurs. Cross them and you could pay with your life.
After years of drug abuse, brawling and motorbike crashes, it would be unrealistic to find Ralph “Sonny” Barger a picture of health.
But despite his gravelly voice – the 72-year-old former President of the Oakland, California chapter of the Hell’s Angels is no cause for pity and has no plans to slow down.
In my meeting Sonny Barger I told him that in my former life, I was part of an investigation that lead to one of his troubles. He smiled and said, “No worries, we all make mistakes.
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