Hell's Angels

“…which was the stage at Altamont

My humble boys of listless power

We’re pain, we’re steel, a plot of knives

We’re Transmaniacon.”

Blue Oyster Cult, “Transmaniacon MC”

 A few weeks ago I read Hunter S. Thompson’s book on the cycle gangs, which I’d picked up at a Borders clearance sale.  It was an intriguing story (though true).  Nothing which spurred me with any inclination to get on a motorcycle, though.  Here’s the story….

 The Wild One.  This is the 1953 black & white movie with Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin as competing gang leaders terrorizing a small town in California, loosely based on the Hollister incident in 1947.  The movie is fairly sympathetic to the bikers whose “abuse” of the locals seems more like nonchalant fun and good-natured teasing than violent terror, much less rape; the sole female character begs Brando to take her with him, but he declines.  The locals come off as hostile, narrow-minded idiots who expect their sheriff to single-handedly evict 100+ outlaw bikers.  Barger (see below) cites this movie as major inspiration to start up with the Angels in California; he preferred Lee Marvin’s character, Chino (see above).

 Hell’s Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson.  This book was written in 1968 after HST had spent some time with the Angels on various rides and got to know quite a few of them.  His depiction is 80% favorable and certainly sympathetic; any more favorable and it would have been nothing more than a PR deal.  While it doesn’t cover as much time as Barger’s book, it’s considerably more objective.

 Hell’s Angel, by Ralph “Sonny” Barger.  Barger wound up as the de facto spiritual leader of the Angels from the late 60s to the present; he now lives in Arizona.  He was an Army veteran in the early 60s (discharged before the war because he lied about his age), served time in jail and prison on various charges, and survived throat cancer.  His book was written in 2000, so he could cover Altamont and a wider range of Angels history than Thompson’s book does.  Although Thompson was very sympathetic to the Angels in his book, Barger slams Thompson as a coward and a poser. 

 Facts.   As culled from Thompson and Barger, here are the most pertinent facts about the gang.

California.  Although by now the club has spread across the country and has chapters across the world, this expansion has been fairly recent.   The source of the Hell’s Angels is California, and Oakland is essentially their original home base.  There have also been chapters in San Francisco, Sacramento and L.A.  Sometimes the chapters wound up fighting each other.  With its year round sunshine and warm weather, California is well suited, if not uniquely so, to cycling – motorcycles are dangerous in the rain and useless in the snow.

            There seems to have been a tendency for police and uptight squares to label all cycle gangs “Hell’s Angels”, but the reality is less tidy.  The club has definite membership requirements and chapters. There are plenty of other cycle gangs which are NOT the Angels – though they may act like them and wish they were them.  Oftentimes crimes or outrages committed by other gangs, many well outside California, were simply blamed on “the Angels” as if they were all-inclusive across the country.    The top rivals to the Angels are the Pagans (East Coast), Outlaws, and Bandidos (“the Big 4”).  Members of the other three are NOT welcome or eligible for membership in the Angels.   By the numbers, outlaw gang members comprise a tiny minority of registered motorcycle owners in the country, leading to the famous “one percenter” label the outlaws proudly use to refer to themselves. 

 Gang.  The police, and particular the Feds, consider Hell’s Angels a criminal organization, like any gang (Mafia, Crips, Bloods, MS-13, etc.).  They even went after the Angels under RICO, a Federal law targeting organized crime.  But the primary form of criminal activity the Angels engaged in was illegal drugs – buying and selling marijuana, heroin, LSD – but this was incidental, as widespread as it may have been.  These were not drug dealers who happened to ride motorcycles.  At worst, the Angels were simply a club of Harley enthusiasts with colorful backgrounds and criminal records, a fierce passion for drugs, sex, and fighting, but above all, riding.

 Harleys.  As a practical matter, you have to ride a Harley-Davidson to be an Angel.  They seem to acknowledge that Harley has no monopoly on good cycles, but out of sheer loyalty they stick with HD exclusively.  The company itself hasn’t always been completely cool about the Angels’ endorsement, nor have all the Harley dealers.  The Angels were among the first to customize their bikes, and HD itself has often incorporated their modifications into its own designs.  The Angels pride themselves on being good bike mechanics and keeping their bikes running well, smoothly, and aggressively. 

 Nazis.  As Barger puts it, none of the Angels are Nazis.  The swastikas, iron crosses, German helmets, etc. are all for shock value.  Having said that, the club is almost exclusively white – however, they have been on modestly friendly terms with black cycle gangs in Oakland. 

            Women are not allowed in the club as members, but they are certainly welcome to hang out.  “Mommas” are women who are somewhat unselective and nonexclusive in the range of their companionship with the Angels.

 Colors.  Only the Angel who earned the patch can wear the colors on the back of his jacket.  Getting your colors taken away from you by someone – usually from members of competing gangs – is among the worst disgraces an Angel can suffer, and cause for dismissal.  Likewise, the Angels look extremely unfavorably on any non-members wearing the colors and will seek out and punish offenders, a form of extrajudicial copyright enforcement.

 Vietnam.  Much to the horror and dismay of the Berkeley leftists who thought of the Angels as fellow travelers – being social outcasts who rejected mainstream American values – the Angels remained fiercely patriotic and vehemently opposed the anti-war movement. 

 Altamont.  Part of the chaos can be seen in the movie “Gimme Shelter”.  The Rolling Stones hired the Angels to provide security at the outdoor festival at the raceway in California in December 1969.  The Grateful Dead declined to play due to the violence, Marty Balin got his butt kicked by the Angels, and a fan – Meredith Hunter – was killed.  It didn’t help that people were knocking over the Angels’ bikes and trying to prove how tough they were by provoking the gang members.  Barger puts the blame on Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones for being arrogant, clueless, and causing trouble to stoke their own notoriety.