June 30, 2022
"It was a rowdy, frequently lawless brotherhood bound, in no particular order, by machismo, tattoos, winged death-head insignia, booze, dope, rides to nowhere..."
"... on thundering Harley-Davidson hogs and a lust for the unfettered freedom found on the open road.
'Discover your limits by exceeding them,' Mr. Barger urged.
Woven into the Hells Angels history was a tradition of crime and violence — much of it involving Mr. Barger, a fact he boastfully acknowledged. He once referred to himself as belonging to a band of 'card-carrying felons.'...
Mr. Barger’s rough and anarchic manner belied a disciplined entrepreneurial streak. He promoted his renegade brand, carefully marketing Hells Angels-themed T-shirts, yo-yos, sunglasses and California wines. He registered trademarks on club logos and designs, and retained an intellectual property rights lawyer to sue poachers, a frequent occurrence.... In 1998, he moved from Oakland to suburban Phoenix.... He ran a motorcycle repair shop and mellowed in suburban life, doing yoga and continuing to lift weights... He kept riding the open road, thousands of miles a year.... What did his nonconformist life teach him? 'To become a real man.... you need to join the army first and then do some time in jail.'"
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Yet another American icon birthed in my grimy little hometown of San Bernardino. There is no care-free side to HA. They are organized crime on hogs and destructive to whatever environments they infest. Unfortunately they followed the McDonalds franchise and grow worldwide strategy.
He was convicted of multiple felonies, including hard drug sales and murder conspiracies, and yet the headline refers to him as an "outlaw." That's what I call good personal branding.
Army and jail make a man?
He never met my brother.
"He registered trademarks on club logos and designs, and retained an intellectual property rights lawyer to sue poachers, a frequent occurrence"
The irony of a group of self admitted "card carrying felons" wanting (demanding really) others to adhere to trademark law is delicious.
It's all about branding and the money.
Sonny was my patient in the ER several times when I was working in Oakland. I tended to many Angels in the ER back then. These were rough guys and, yeah, bad ones - but they were *without exception* pleasant and polite and respectful with us. "Yes, sir" and "No, Ma'am" the whole time. It was wholly incongruous with the image, of course.
One conversation with one of them I've long remembered. There was an Angel named Alvin F. (I guess doctor/patient confidentially still pertains after all these years) and he was a nearly-total blind diabetic. A little guy. We saw him in the ER frequently. Yeah, Alvin no longer rode but he was a motorcycle mechanic - their go-to bike mechanic. Yes, blind. One day I was tending to a laceration on one of the Angels and we were chatting as I sutured him. Alvin's name came up and I asked the guy if Alvin ever got picked on because of his size. The Angel laughed and said to me, "No one fucks with Alvin - he takes our bikes apart...and *puts them back together*."
I offer you this palette cleanser...an actual American hero.
Not judging, but it's a common pattern for high-status men to falsely claim that exactly the set of experiences+skills they've randomly bumbled into should be recommended for all, i.e. a 'real man' is exactly what I am. Coming from the another male peacocking strategy we have Robert Heinlein's boast: 'A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.' - which reads suspiciously like an exhaustive list of all the things Robert Heinlein (he or one of his Mary Sue characters - don't think he had died gallantly yet at the time).
Good riddance.
San Berdoo IS America!
"Harley-Davidson hogs" is redundant and so very perfectly WaPo.
Back when bikers were cool!
When LIFE magazine rode with the Hells Angels
Thinking back to the 17 May 2015 Twin Peaks shootout in Waco. Nine dead, three known to be by law enforcement. 192 arrested; $1 million bond each; 171 charged; 106 indicted; no convictions.
San Berdoo IS America!
6/30/22, 11:59 AM
El Monte, OTOH...
The widespread introduction of methamphetamine into the popular culture was a significant sociological contributions from Mr. Bargers Men's Club.
When the Rolling Stones hired the Hell's Angels for security and Altamont, and one fan was stabbed and killed by the gang, it was the original precursor to "Defund the Police". Truly ahead of their time.
Maybe Lollapalooza scheduled for late July in Chicago, Il can try Social Workers and see how that goes.
Hunter Thompson made these degenerates famous. Thompson claimed that Hell’s Angels recruits were obligated to bring "bring a woman or girl [called a 'sheep'] who is willing to submit to sexual intercourse with each member of the club." Seems like a tough sell for most women? This initiation ritual probably involved a ton of rape.
Scum. I've been riding for 54 years, and he and his kind have made it very difficult. No, we're not all sociopathic losers.
Google describes him as an "American Author."
His first wife died at 24 of an embolism following an illegal abortion.
He beat up this third wife so badly that he ruptured her spleen.
'His first wife died at 24 of an embolism following an illegal abortion.
He beat up this third wife so badly that he ruptured her spleen.'
His Old Ladies...
We think of the Kool Kidz as riding Harleys.
But the really cool kids, Brando, McQueen, rode Triumphs.
At least, until McQueen changed to Husqvarna.
Barger was never a cool kid. He was a thug.
John LGBTQ Henry
While the Mob (la Cosa nostra, Unione Siciliane, Mafia, call them what you will) and the Hell's Angels both fall under the rubric of organized crime, their respective psychologies are fundamentally different. The Mafia was from its earliest history in the United States, a composition of criminals. Outside the protection of membership in an organization founded on political corruption, most Mafia "soldiers" would be bottom-tier stick-up men or pimps, whereas the Angels were founded by WWII veterans, among them former aircrew with the 8th Air Force, the origin of their identity.* The original Angels were often damaged young men seeking the supportive male bonding that had seen them through the crisis of war. Personal honor and loyalty were their most valued assets, which account for the differences between the HA and the Mafia.
Without the shared trauma of war, and with more greed than honor, the Mafia was from its inception plagued with internecine violence. Salvatore Maranzano, the early Mob boss who founded the Five Families system in New York in 1931 was assassinated by his chief lieutenants, Salvatore Lucania and Vito Genovese, barely five months later, establishing an indelible pattern of betrayal and murder within the Mafia membership. Intended to create a climate of terror among the lower ranks against "ratting" to the authorities, the omerta tradition in fact created numerous Mafia turncoats. However, because of their internal solidarity and more equitable authority structure, the Hell's Angels have been considerably less vulnerable to penetration by police informers.
*Hell's Angels was the title of Howard Hughes' 1930 epic motion picture about the myths of First World War air combat, especially the camaraderie and rivalries among pilots between missions and the knightly duels of honor between German and Allied airmen in the sky. Being an iconic movie to the young American men who joined the Air Corps in 1942 and 1943, there were at least two B-17 bombers known by that name with appropriately iconic nose art and flight jacket logos. The most famous of these was a B-17E belonging to the 303rd Bomb Group which successfully completed her 25-mission tour of duty. The plane and crew subsequently made a war bond promotional tour State-side before being re-assigned to training outfits. (Some of the second-generation members of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club saw that aircraft as teenagers.) However, there was another B-17 that carried the Hell's Angels nose art that was shot down over Cologne in the autumn of 1942. Several of its crew were captured wearing their flight jackets decorated with "Hell's Angels" painted in tall white letters enclosing a blood-red angel figure. These men and their leather jackets were the subjects of a Nazi propaganda reel intended to generate hatred and disgust for the Americans among French audiences as well as German. Most of the early "milk-run" missions of the 8th Air Force were against industrial and transportation targets in occupied France, which involved French civilian casualties. The propaganda effect of that film alarmed enough political authorities in Washington that the banning of nose art and suggestive unit logos was at least a topic of conversation.
While the Mob (la Cosa nostra, Unione Siciliane, Mafia, call them what you will) and the Hell's Angels both fall under the rubric of organized crime, their respective psychologies are fundamentally different. The Mafia was from its earliest history in the United States, a composition of criminals. Outside the protection of membership in an organization founded on political corruption, most Mafia "soldiers" would be bottom-tier stick-up men or pimps, whereas the Angels were founded by WWII veterans, among them former aircrew with the 8th Air Force, the origin of their identity.* The Angels were often damaged young men seeking the supportive male bonding that had seen them through the crisis of war. Personal honor and loyalty were their most valued assets, which account for the differences between the HA and the Mafia.
Without the shared trauma of war, and with more greed than honor, the Mafia was
from its inception plagued with internecine violence. Salvatore Maranzano, the early Mob boss who founded the Five Families system in New York in 1931 was assassinated by his chief lieutenants, Salvatore Lucania and Vito Genovese, barely five months later, establishing an indelible pattern of betrayal and murder within the Mafia membership. Intended to create a climate of terror among the lower ranks against "ratting" to the authorities, the omerta tradition in fact created numerous Mafia turncoats. However, because of their internal solidarity and more equitable authority structure, the Hell's Angels have been considerably less vulnerable to penetration by police informers.
*Hell's Angels was the title of Howard Hughes' epic motion picture about the myths of First World War air combat, especially the camaraderie and rivalries among pilots between missions and the knightly duels of honor between German and Allied airmen in the sky. Being an iconic movie to the young American men who joined the Air Corps in 1942 and 1943, there were at least two B-17 bombers known by that name with appropriately iconic nose art and flight jacket logos. The most famous of these was a B-17E belonging to the 303rd Bomb Group which successfully completed her 25-mission tour of duty. The plane and crew subsequently made a war bond promotional tour State-side before being re-assigned to training outfits. (Some of the second-generation members of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club saw that aircraft as teenagers.) However, there was another B-17 that carried the Hell's Angels nose art that was shot down over Cologne in the autumn of 1942. Several of its crew were captured wearing their flight jackets decorated with "Hell's Angels" painted in tall white letters enclosing a blood-red angel figure. These men and their leather jackets were the subjects of a Nazi propaganda reel intended to generate hatred and disgust for the Americans among French audiences as well as German. Most of the early "milk-run" missions of the 8th Air Force were against industrial and transportation targets in occupied France, which involved French civilian casualties. The propaganda effect of that film alarmed enough political authorities in Washington that the banning of nose art and suggestive unit logos was at least a topic of conversation.
Man… I’d thought this guy had died years ago.
Gusty Winds… I remember watching the filmed appearance of the Flying Burrito Bros. at Altamont and the look on pedal steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow’s face as the too much acid and beer fueled Angel antics were going on around the stage… it was a look of fear and a need to fly far, far away.
Hunter S. Thompson’s classic book, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, is the definitive look at the violent motorcycle gang phenomenon before it got organized (as in “organized crime”) and the overreaction to it by law enforcement. This is HST before gonzo, and his reportage is pretty even-handed and believable. There is little romanticization in the book, and none of the Angels or their culture come off well - and neither do the overly-reactionary elements of law enforcement.
The book ends with Thompson’s meditation on “the edge”, a magnificent piece of writing that for me stands above the hyperbolic gonzo that dominated the rest of his career. If the book had nothing else of note but that closing few pages, it would be a classic.
As for Sonny Barger, the ostensible point of the post? A fundamentally limited and mediocre person with a modest talent for self-promotion, who got more than his 15 minutes of fame but ultimately was of little relevance. And that comes out in Thompson’s book too.
John henry said...
"We think of the Kool Kidz as riding Harleys.
But the really cool kids, Brando, McQueen, rode Triumphs.
At least, until McQueen changed to Husqvarna."
You forgot Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman and then there is the Prof. Althouse fav Bob Dylan.
"His past a mystery, his future a ribbon of open highway."
Then Came Bronson
Spent my youth going through San Berdoo to get to Big Bear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGyKBFCd_u4
Don't bother, I'll let myself out and go quietly. And I'll note that Raoul Duke's Samoan attorney claimed to ride an Indian, and was not believed.
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