[93] Barger attended the last negotiating session with the Outlaws between January 23 and 25, 1999 in Indianapolis, where in a joint press conference with Anastas it was warned that any Outlaw or Hells Angel who violated the peace agreement "would be dealt with". The Modesto native is credited with creating the first Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, an outlaw . 2. A year later he and Don Boots Reeves founded the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, using a logo borrowed from a club in Sacramento. Rednecks couldn't stand us either. Barger was also provided with an alibi from his girlfriend, Sharon Gruhlke, who claimed she was in bed with him at the time of the murder. [21][66] Traveling the country at government expense, Tait made documented purchases of firearms, explosives, and drugs from various Hells Angels chapters. [19] On November 19, 1965, five Hells Angels led by Barger held a press conference at their bail bondsman's office, announcing that the club would not attend the protest the following day as "Any physical encounter would only produce sympathy for this mob of traitors", according to Barger. [117] Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke at the funeral. [6] As a result of critical media attention given to the HAMC after the concert, he went on KSAN, a local Bay Area radio station, to justify the actions of the Hells Angels and to present their side of the story. [45] Barger and his three co-defendants were acquitted on December 29, 1972, following a seven-week trial after Ivaldi's credibility came under scrutiny. If there was a contract out on him, then he'd be dead. That went nowhere, but the day before the march, Barger announced the Angels would stay away out of patriotic concerns that anti-American marchers might provoke violent acts by us and only produce sympathy for this mob of traitors. With the Zimmermans, he also wrote a memoir of biker tales and two novels about a biker named Patch Kinkade, one of which, Dead in 5 Heartbeats, was made into a film in 2013 that he produced along with his fourth wife, Zorana (nee Katzakian); they both played bit parts in it. We really missed the boat not switching over to the Japanese models when they began building bigger bikes. Sonny Barger, famous Hells Angel and bestselling author, dead at 83 of cancer Barger disputed what authorities have long maintained that the Hells Angels are a criminal enterprise held. He was convicted of aggravated assault, but he served only eight days in jail. LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) Sonny Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died. In reaction to his own traumatic childhood, Barger had created a brotherhood on two wheels in Oakland, California, in 1957. We became isolated". Though the outcome of most cases was mistrial, he and Sharon were the only two acquitted outright. He also sent a telegram to the then president, Lyndon Johnson, offering Hells Angels services to provide a trained group of crack gorillas [sic] to demoralize the Viet Cong and advance the cause of freedom. On October 18, 1987, Tait informed Barger of a fictitious plot to bomb the Outlaws' Chicago headquarters, which he purported would likely kill five or six people, and Barger replied: "That'll be really nice after that Joliet thing." [62] Barger and his Oakland contingent rented a house on Toledo's Sylvania Street, and the Angels showed a significant presence in the city throughout the court case. He used us for dupes". Though . [16] Barger was not the founder of the Hells Angels as is often claimed the group was founded in 1948 but he became its best known member to such an extent that he is often misidentified as the club's founder. [73] On the day of his release, Barger took a flight to Oakland International Airport and attended a homecoming party at the Mountain House, a bar at Altamont Pass in Livermore, at which Johnny Paycheck performed. [95], In 2000, Barger became a bestselling author with his autobiography, Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Later that year, Barger suffered a fractured skull during a fight with Oakland police. [66] While most of the Hells Angels arrested in northern California were charged with drug offenses, Barger and O'Farrell were accused of conspiring to violate federal firearms and explosives laws. Sonny Barger Funeral Service | Hells Angels founder Sonny Barger Passed Away Flowers were laid in front of the Sonoma County Hells Angels chapter last Thursday aft 370K views 111K views. During a brawl between the bikers and the crowd, a black spectator, Meredith Hunter, was knifed to death by an Angel, Alan Passaro. [84][83], In 1997, the government of Denmark contemplated banning all outlaw biker clubs in response to the Great Nordic Biker War. Ralph "Sonny" Barger was an author of numerous books, an actor and a founding member of the Oakland Hells Angels on April 1st, 1957. He escaped drug-dealing, kidnapping and murder charges, but was finally convicted in 1973 of possession of heroin and firearms. [7] When students at the University of California, Berkeley announced an anti-Vietnam War rally, the Oakland Hells Angels denounced the rally as "a despicable un-American activity". Birthday, "Hells Angels founder Sonny Barger dies at 83", "Sonny Barger, famous Hells Angel and bestselling author, dead at 83 of cancer", Hells Angels motorcycle club leader Sonny Barger dies at age 83, Hells Angels want to hold Sonny Barger memorial service at Oakland Coliseum, "An estimated 7,000 attend funeral for Hells Angels leader Ralph "Sonny" Barger at Stockton 99 Speedway", "Tucker Carlson gives speech at Sonny Barger's funeral in Northern California", "Look Homeward Angelcycle Icon Sonny Barger Kick-Starts Life as a Free Man by Violating Parole", "Hell's author; Legendary bad-ass biker Sonny Barger and his roaring Harley are burnin' up the highways on a uh book tour? By now, Barger had given up his job as a machinist, and taken advantage of the publicity to work as a technical adviser in exploitation biker movies, beginning with Roger Cormans Wild Angels (1966), starring Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra. [70] The U.S. Sonny had a huge influence on the club and brought it to a world level. He was 83 years old. [28] Hilliard also testified that Barger had offered "to deliver the bagged body of a leftist for every Angel released from jail". Died: Wednesday, June 29, 2022 ( Who else died on June 29? ) [22], On January 22, 1972, Barger and four other Hells Angels Russell Beyea, Bobby "Durt" England, "Oakland" Gary Popkin and Bert Stefanson were traveling through Redwood Regional Park in two cars, a Pontiac and a Cadillac, when they were pursued in a high-speed chase by park rangers, who suspected the occupants of the vehicles of poaching. Sonny Barger, a founding member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club who spent decades as the public face of the notorious biker gang, has died at the age of 83, according to his Facebook page. It was thought up by the FBI. [56] The feud between the two clubs began in 1974 when Outlaws bikers in South Florida murdered three members of the Hells Angels' Lowell, Massachusetts, chapter as retribution for an Outlaw being beaten by Hells Angels at a party in New York City. [19] On October 16, 1965, Barger led a group of Hells Angels in an attack on anti-war demonstrators marching from Berkeley to the Army Terminal in Oakland to protest against munitions shipments. [41] During his incarceration, a bikers' magazine ran a "Free Sonny Barger" campaign, selling T-shirts and bumper stickers, which helped pay his legal expenses. His mother left him when he was just four months old. [62] He denied that jurors were intimidated by the Hells Angels' presence at the trial, saying: "The only ones that are intimidated are the ones the feds tell to be". Bay City News Foundation. Everybody hated us. [52], Barger and 17 of his co-defendants went on trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California at the San Francisco federal courthouse beginning on October 4, 1979. The funeral was heavily attended; thousands of bikers descended on Stockton for the 6-hour affair. Despite establishing a relationship with the police that led to the Angels trading weapons for arrested members, Bargers rap sheet grew. Sonny Barger Death Fact Check Sonny is alive and kicking and is currently 84 years old. [7] He authored five books, and appeared on television and in film. [7] Barger and the Hells Angels became associated with the counterculture phenomenon of the 1960s. Having given his word to the Outlaws that they would be safe at the meeting, Caronite who characterised himself as a "man of honor" reportedly warned away the Outlaws when he learned of the assassination plot. "[5], Barger was employed as a machine operator from 1960 to 1965, when he was dismissed due to extended absences. June 30, (Reuters) - Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the Hells Angels motorcycle club leader who became the rough-hewn face of America's outlaw biker culture and the restlessness, hard living and. [7] Authorities accused the Angels of dominating the production of the drug in the U.S.[58] Barger addressed such allegations by saying: "I'm sure there are some individual Angels who've sold methamphetamines. Early in his biking career, after having his skull fractured by police, Barger added a 1% patch to the Angels outfit, in response to the head of the American Motorcyclist Association claiming 99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding. Sonny Barger obituary Founding member of the Hell's Angels who revelled in beating up anti-Vietnam War 'peaceniks' and pulled a gun on Keith Richards Saturday July 02 2022, 12.01am BST, The Times. Philanthropist. His wife and relatives were with him. [92] Mel Chancey, the president of the Hells Angels Chicago chapter who served as their lead negotiator, met with Barger in the spring of 1998 to discuss the negotiating terms. [15] Founding their own Hells Angels club on April 1, 1957, each member wore the patch a small skull wearing an aviator cap set within a set of wings, later copyrighted as the Hells Angels' "Death's Head" logo after having replicas made at a trophy store in Hayward. [8] He was also acquitted of murder in 1972, and of racketeering in 1980. Sonny Barger was a founding member of the Oakland, California Hells Angels and a bestselling author and actor. Talks of his retirement are premature. Barger features prominently in Hunter S. Thompson's book, Hell's Angels. [38], After Altamont, Barger sought to expand the Hells Angels and improve the club's image. In 1967 he was consultant on, and had a cameo part in, Richard Rushs Hells Angels on Wheels, which starred Jack Nicholson, and graduated to a speaking part as himself in the movie Hells Angels 69 (1969). [99], In terms of pure workmanship, personally I don't like Harleys. Obituaries News News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, . HELLS Angels founder Sonny Barger has died at the age of 83 after battling cancer. The apostrophe you would expect in Hells would not fit on their new patch. Owen. His wife and family were with him when he died. [1], Ralph Hubert Barger, Jr. was born in Modesto, California, on October 8, 1938, the son of Kathryn Carmella (ne Ritch) and Ralph Hubert Barger. I think it was a devastating blow to the government, and I couldnt be happier with the verdict except if I had been found innocent myself. [7] At Christmas 1989, he sent one of the prosecutors in the case, assistant U.S. attorney Cleve Gambill, a card from prison, showing him posing on a towel as if he were on the beach, with the message: "Nice weather. The reputation of the Oakland Hells Angels preceded them when Hunter S Thompson, then a relatively unknown writer, rode with the gang for 18 months, chronicling their violent exploits in his 1967 book: Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. Thousands turned out for the six-hour funeral service for Ralph "Sonny" Barger, 83. He asserted that violence only started once the crowd began vandalizing the Angels' motorcycles. As the longtime president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, Sonny Barger, who has died aged 83, was the epitome of the outlaw biker. [109] He and Noel later divorced. It was just too bad that Irish [OFarrell] and I were convicted, but we will probably win an appeal. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. When the overall president was sent to prison in 1958, Sonny, aged 20, replaced him, and moved the mother chapter to Oakland. "[23] He also began studying sociology at Folsom. [23] The RICO case against the Hells Angels was the most substantial effort in federal history against the club at the time, and charged the defendants with various crimes dating back to 1971, including manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine; conspiring to commit murder; assault; use of false identification; intimidation; and bribery. Thousands of people are. [14] After his return from the Army, Barger drifted between menial jobs and lived with his father in a single residence at a hotel, later moving in with his sister and her children. [12] His diagnosis and treatment took place at Fort Miley VA Hospital in San Francisco. Mr. Barger's former attorney, Fritz Clapp, said he . Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the tough-living leader of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, has died after a brief battle with cancer. When another chapter member suggested calling the Outlaws to inquire whether Webb's killing was an isolated incident, Barger replied: "Call them collect." [20] Barger justified the male only ruling under the grounds that female Hells Angels were less able to defend themselves against rival bikers looking to steal their patches. The biker, of California, passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife Zorana and relatives on June 29. [93] Under the terms that Chancey and Anastas struck, the status quo was preserved as the Hells Angels recognized Chicago as within the territory of the Outlaws in exchange for being allowed to keep their chapters in the Chicago suburbs. He also displayed another copy of the EPIC manual and explained how to use it to fellow Hells Angels at an Oakland chapter meeting. I'm sure some of our members own guns, whether legal or not. Ralph "Sonny" Barger, Hell's Angel[100], Barger was present at the Hellraiser Ball, a tattoo and motorcycle trade exposition in Plainview, New York, sponsored by the Long Island chapter of the HAMC, which was ambushed by dozens of members of the rival Pagans motorcycle gang on February 23, 2002, resulting in one biker being killed and at least ten injured. Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger, Jr. (October 8, 1938 - June 29, 2022) was an American outlaw biker, convicted criminal, author and actor who was a founding member of the Oakland, California chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in 1957. The Pontiac struck a tree after its tires were shot out by pursuing park rangers, and England and Stefanson fled into the brush only to be apprehended later. The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is Sonny Barger's life. [32] As a result of his imprisonment, Barger was forced to relinquish his presidency of the Oakland chapter for the first time since its inception. Local law enforcement is warning about the possibility of violence at the Saturday funeral of Hells Angels founder Sonny Barger at the 99 Speedway in California. [77][78] The Angels' November 1994 "patch over" of the Hell's Henchmen biker gang in the Outlaws' home base of Chicago resulted in a number of shootings and bombings. Thu 30th Jun 2022 15.32 BST. [32] He was among 33 members of the Oakland chapter arrested on drug charges after police raided a bar and a duplex apartment in the city on August 30, 1968. "[19] The incident led to a collection of students, left-wing political groups, and labor unions led by Allen Ginsberg and Jerry Rubin meeting with motorcycle club representatives, headed by the president of the Sacramento Hells Angels chapter, in a cafeteria at San Jose State College, seeking assurance that a planned Vietnam Day Committee protest march in Oakland on November 20, 1965, would go undisturbed. I've asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing," a . Sonny Barger: Funeral & Obituary. [48] In April 1977, Barger won an appeal to face a retrial on a prior marijuana possession conviction. Anthony Tait, the government's key witness in the case, was housed in a safehouse in the Louisville suburb of Prospect during the trial, where he was guarded by an FBI SWAT team. [90] He founded a motorcycle repair company in Arizona named the Big Red Machine, a reference to a popular nickname for the Hells Angels. [85] To forestall this possibility, Barger attended the peace talks in Seattle representing the Hells Angels along with Thomas Mller of the Angels Malm chapter who was in charge of all the Hells Angels in Europe. Hell's Angel Sonny Barger is just a regular guy. Barger served a total of 13 years in prison, following a conviction for heroin trafficking in 1974, and a 1988 conviction for conspiracy to bomb the clubhouse of a rival motorcycle gang, the Outlaws. He died on 29 June 2022 in Oakland, California, USA. [66], Barger was released from prison in Arizona on November 6, 1992, after serving three-and-a-half years of a four-year sentence. The prosecutors asserted that the Hells Angels were a highly organized criminal organization ruled by a "code of silence" involved in drug trafficking, shootings and bombings. He rode his motorcycle into the pages of world history. [30] Ingalls, a member of the Hells Angels' Oakland chapter who had previously transferred from the Omaha, Nebraska, charter, was found guilty of burglarizing Barger's valuable coin collection by a six-man kangaroo court at another member's home on February 1, 1968, and subsequently killed. Son of a mother, Kathryn Carmella Barger, and father, Ralph Hubert Barger, Sonny Barger had a rough childhood. A Hyatt hotel room key and a handwritten note deemed to have been written by Barger after evaluation by a handwriting expert listing Anthony Tait's hotel room number and rental car license plate number were also found at Michael O'Farrell's residence. And they have no idea how many of us there areWe have money, many allies that are outlaw bikers that are not Hells Angels, that would probably do anything we asked them to, if something happened".