[23], Barger and his wife were among 33 members and associates of the Hells Angels' Oakland, San Francisco, Marin County, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Vallejo chapters indicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statutes on June 13, 1979. 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. That's all cops and newspapers. 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? [117] Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke at the funeral. [66] He said of the government's case against him: "There never was a crime thought up by the Hells Angels. STOCKTON - Thousands of mourners are expected to be in attendance for the funeral of Sonny Barger, one of the figureheads of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, this weekend in Stockton. His mother left him when he was just four months old. Sonny had a huge influence on the club and brought it to a world level. And in 2010, with Darwin Holmstrom, he produced a guide to safe motorcycling, Lets Ride, as if he were now fully transformed into one of the 99%. "[6] Barger appealed his convictions, contending that the government's investigative conduct had deprived him of his Fifth Amendment right to due process, that he had been incited to commit crimes by Anthony Tait and the government, and that the district court erred when it sentenced him pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act guidelines. [17] Unlike the World War II veterans who formed the early Hells Angels chapters, many of the founding members of the Oakland chapter were former servicemen with disreputable military records. Hells Angels founder Ralph "Sonny" Barger and his wife Sharon are shown after his release on $100,000 bond in San Francisco, Aug. 1, 1980. 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. Barger was the face of the Hells Angels for decades, but the origin story of the Hells Angels. He lent the EPIC manual to Tait for photocopying after Anchorage chapter president Edwin Hubert, who also expressed retaliatory sentiment after Webb's killing, instructed Tait to acquire a copy of the manual in September 1986. Keep your head up high, stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor. He also displayed another copy of the EPIC manual and explained how to use it to fellow Hells Angels at an Oakland chapter meeting. With warfare between gangs intensifying, in 2002 he tried to organise a peace conference at the Laughlin River Run rally in Nevada, but a battle between Hells Angels and Mongols left three dead, and the conference was cancelled. And I've had the privilege to be part of an amazing club. White people were scared of us. As the longtime president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, Sonny Barger, who has died aged 83, was the epitome of the outlaw biker. He was 83-years-old at the time of death. [19], According to George Wethern who later testified against the club and entered the Federal Witness Protection Program in his 1978 book A Wayward Angel, Barger convened a meeting of the leaders of the Hells Angels and other California motorcycle clubs in 1960 in which the various clubs parleyed over the mutual problem of police harassment. "[7] On January 23, 1991, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld Barger's convictions, stating that granting him amnesty "would greatly intrude into the law enforcement functions of the executive branches of federal and state governments". 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. Oakland police sergeant Edward "Ted" Hilliard testified in 1972 that he accepted guns, dynamite, and grenades from Barger personally in return for deals on arrests during at least fifteen separate meetings, the most recent of which took place in the spring of 1971. They hated each other. He has acquired his income from his various appearances in films and television series. Rednecks couldn't stand us either. [16] When Otto Friedli, the founder of the original San Bernardino Hells Angels chapter, was imprisoned in 1958, Barger was proclaimed de facto national president. [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. [16] The founding members of the Oakland Hells Angels were "basically honest blue-collar or unskilled workers looking for excitement", according to George "Baby Huey" Wethern, who became the chapter vice-president in 1960. His mother, Kathryn (nee Ritch), ran off with a bus driver when Sonny was four; he was raised by his grandmother and his father, an alcoholic who took his young son with him on crawls through the seamens bars. "[72], On March 10, 1989, Barger was sentenced to 57 months' imprisonment at the Federal Correctional Institution, Phoenix in Arizona. Concert goers and musicians alike were subjected to violence from the Hells Angels, including Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane, who was knocked unconscious, and audience member Meredith "Murdock" Hunter, who was stabbed to death. In December 1969 the Angels were hired by the Rolling Stones to provide security at the Altamont free festival. 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. [28] Hilliard also testified that Barger had offered "to deliver the bagged body of a leftist for every Angel released from jail". Sonny Barger has acquired notoriety throughout the years for his contentious career and court difficulties. [41], On April 11, 1970, Barger was arrested on narcotics charges after Donald Howarth, a film studio property manager and 1967 Mr. America from Studio City, was apprehended while walking towards Barger's home with 17 ounces of cocaine and 30 ounces of heroin (with an estimated retail worth of $350,000) in a suitcase. Barger's testimony challenged earlier assertions by government witnesses who testified that Anthony Benesh, a motorcyclist who was shot dead in Austin on March 18, 2006, after attempting to establish a Hells Angels chapter in the city, was killed by Bandidos members because he had ignored the club's warnings to not set up a HAMC chapter in Texas. He will retire only when he dies. [50] He and fifteen others were arrested during a series of raids carried out in the Bay Area by around 200 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents. Sonny Barger was born on 8 October 1938 in Modesto, California, USA. Everybody hated us. Sonny Barger Death Fact Check Sonny is alive and kicking and is currently 84 years old. In reaction to his own traumatic childhood, Barger had created a brotherhood on two wheels in Oakland, California, in 1957. The meeting was canceled, however, as a result of the River Run riot, a confrontation between members of the Hells Angels and the Mongols biker gang at the rally which ended with three deaths.[104]. "[25] President Johnson did not reply to the letter.[26]. Barger, the founder of the Oakland chapter, died in late June at the age of 83. 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. [96] He subsequently wrote several biker-related novels. In July 2022, the Hells Angels made a request to hold a memorial service for Barger at the Oakland Coliseum in East Oakland the following month. 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. Two years later Barger appeared in Tom Wolfes Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test when the author and counterculture figure Ken Kesey invited the Oakland Angels to a party; Kesey introduced the bikers to LSD. Sonny Barger, a Hells Angel known for his role on Sons of Anarchy, died of cancer on June 29 at age 83. 2. The biker, from California, passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife Zorana and his loved ones on June 29. [48] On December 5, 1977, Barger opened the first Hells Angels chapter in Canada and awarded the Canadian Hells Angels national president Yves Buteau the right to wear a Hells Angels jacket with the word "International" written on the bottom a great honor within the world of the Hells Angels where jackets normally list only the state in which the Hells Angel lives in. [74][75] Colorado state senator Nighthorse Campbell had allegedly tried to use his influence to have Barger released from prison earlier. A prosecution witness, Richard Ivaldi, testified that he witnessed Barger shoot Agero dead as he slept at the home of an absent acquaintance, and that Barger subsequently ordered the others to set fire to the residence. The club's organized crime wasn't particularly. [23] The indictments followed two car bombings targeting law enforcement officers in northern California, which were blamed on the Hells Angels. [33], Barger was one of the Hells Angels present at the Rolling Stones' Altamont Free Concert on December 6, 1969, at which the bikers were reportedly paid $500 worth of beer to provide security. [31] In the late 1960s, Barger began selling heroin and also developed an addiction to cocaine. [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. [93] The Angels capitulated in their attempt to establish a chapter within the Chicago city limits, founding a clubhouse in the suburb of Harvey instead. Sonny Barger would not pull up roots, after forty years in the Bay Area, on a whim. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. [16] Although always a predominantly male organization, the Hells Angels had female members until 1964 when Barger imposed a rule making the group male only. Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the larger-than-life godfather of the Hells Angels who helped to transform a California-born motorcycle club into an icon of countercultural rebellion, forging a mythology. Barger. Back in Oakland, living between his fathers and his older sisters family, and doing dock work, he met fellow veterans and in 1956 joined the Oakland Panthers motorcycle club. [32] The drug charges against Barger were later dismissed, although Howarth was convicted and sentenced to serve five years-to-life in prison. [4] Reflecting on the Altamont concert, which has been referred to variously as "the end of the hippie dream" and "the day the Sixties died",[37] Barger wrote in his 2000 autobiography Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club: "All that shit about Altamont being the end of an era was a bunch of intellectual crap. Between October 20 and 23, 1987, Michael O'Farrell periodically stayed in a Hyatt hotel room booked by Tait and drove Tait's rental car. [1] Between 1966 and 1973, the majority of his legitimate personal income was derived from advising various film projects. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Sonny Barger was a founding member of the Oakland, California Hells Angels and a bestselling author and actor. [7] To celebrate the end of his parole, he held another private party in Livermore on November 6, 1994, which was attended by approximately 700 guests, including the politicians Gary Condit and Ben Nighthorse Campbell. 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. [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. "If you are reading this message, you'll know that I'm gone. His wife and family were with him when he died. When Marlon Brando, as the leader of the Black Rebels, is asked what he is rebelling against, he replies, Whaddaya got?. After forming the Oakland chapter, Barger was instrumental in unifying various disparate Hells Angels chapters and had the club incorporated in 1966. Of the remaining twelve, nine were convicted and three including Sonny and Sharon Barger were acquitted. [32] The killing of Agero was one of five possibly linked murders committed in the area around that time. [7] The Oakland chapter, with Barger serving as its president, assumed an informal position of authority within the Hells Angels that began following a standoff with local police and the California Highway Patrol in the aftermath of an outlaw motorcycle meeting in Porterville in September 1963. [84][83], In 1997, the government of Denmark contemplated banning all outlaw biker clubs in response to the Great Nordic Biker War. [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. [17] Under Barger's leadership, the club's membership began to increase. "If you are. 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). "[43] Barger and the others were charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon. The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is Sonny Barger's life. Sonny Barger: Funeral & Obituary. An estimated 7,000 people attended, and the event was peaceful. [7], The first internal murder of a Hells Angels member sanctioned by the club was allegedly carried out when Paul "German" Ingalls was forced to ingest a large quantity of barbiturates until he suffered a fatal overdose. The warning angered the Angels hierarchy, and Caronite was demoted from his position as a national officer. Mr. Barger's former attorney, Fritz Clapp, said he . [1] He had no biological children. [106] The marriage ended in divorce. [110] Barger remained married to Zorana until his death in 2022. Please, Founding member of the Hells Angels who revelled in beating up anti-Vietnam War peaceniks and pulled a gun on Keith Richards, Sonny Barger with his second wife Sharon in San Francisco in 1980 after he was acquitted of racketeering, Barger at home in Arizona in 2010 in retirement he lost his love for Harleys. And I'm sure the government makes a living off of us. [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. [42] Cross was also imprisoned, for possession of amphetamines in 1975, however, and Barger allegedly continued to lead the Hells Angels from his cell at Folsom State Prison. [48] In April 1977, Barger won an appeal to face a retrial on a prior marijuana possession conviction. [3] After forming the Oakland chapter, Barger was instrumental in unifying various disparate Hells Angels chapters and had the club incorporated in 1966. Leonard "Cool Ray" Mullen, the Outlaws member convicted of killing Webb, testified that he shot Webb over a personal feud and that there was no war between the Outlaws and the Angels. He was convicted and served three and a half years of a four-year sentence; he insisted he had been entrapped by the FBI. Tait's estranged wife, Brenda Lee Fowler, gave evidence for the defense, calling her husband a "liar, a scum and a cheater" and alleging that he dealt drugs. Perhaps the most infamous was the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in 1969, where Hells Angels had been hired to provide . [66], Operation CACUS concluded on November 10, 1987, when 38 Hells Angels members and associates in Alaska, California, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina were arrested on various narcotics, weapons, explosives, and conspiracy charges. "Ralph Barger" redirects here. [10][11] His mother left the family when Barger was four months old, leaving him and his older sister Shirley to be raised by their Pentecostal grandmother and alcoholic father, a day laborer on the Oakland docks. [4] He emerged as the Hells Angels' most prominent member during the counterculture era and was reputed by law enforcement and media to be the club's international president, an allegation he repeatedly denied. Consequently, due to his vocal cords being removed, Barger learned to vocalize using the muscles in his esophagus. [48] Barger gave a series of interviews, including one with Geraldo Rivera for his Good Night America television program, in which he portrayed himself as a model prisoner and said: "They got to let me out sometime. Barger died at the age of 83 of cancer in Livermore and was the founding member of the Oakland branch of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, known for its outlaw reputation and the scrapes with law enforcement that resulted. By 1960, the Oakland Hells Angels had established an extensive narcotics network within the club. [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. As the longtime president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, Sonny Barger, who has died aged 83, was the epitome of the outlaw biker. His wife and relatives were with him. Died: Wednesday, June 29, 2022 ( Who else died on June 29? ) They affiliated with the Angels mother chapter in San Bernadino; the clubs unified primarily by their battles with the Jokers. [7] Barger would later state that Hunter fired a shot that struck a Hells Angels member with what he described as "just a flesh wound. Barger then made plans to provide an alibi for Tait. The Associated Press. Son of a mother, Kathryn Carmella Barger, and father, Ralph Hubert Barger, Sonny Barger had a rough childhood. Obituary Sonny Barger was a founding member of the Oakland, California Hells Angels and a bestselling author and actor. Birthday: October 8, 1938 How Old - Age: 84 Recently Passed Away Celebrities and Famous People. [14] Barger took umbrage with what he felt was the Stones' refusal to take responsibility for the catastrophe and he said in the days after the concert: "Mick Jagger, like, put it all on us. The club also hired public relations specialists and began participating in charity fund drives. I've asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing," a . [64] When Gentry was acquitted after a four-day trial, Barger sent invitations to the jurors to attend a party he threw for Gentry at a local Sheraton Hotel. [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. Philip Reich of the Detroit Police Department motorcycle gang unit described the feud as "an ongoing thing over who had the better club", saying: "It was like the Hatfields and McCoys. In 1969, he began a relationship with Sharon Gruhlke, a former beauty queen from Livermore. By Katy St. Clair. Sonny Barger was born on October 8, 1938 and is 84 years old now. Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the tough-living leader of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, has died after a brief battle with cancer. Barger was represented by defense attorney Stephen Miller, and Barger's wife worked on the defense team as a paralegal. [18] With Barger as president, the Oakland Hells Angels traveled around California and amalgamated with the other Hells Angels chapters, dividing territory and forming club bylaws. I've lived a long and good life filled with adventure. [67] Two EPIC manuals and a homemade explosive device were discovered in Barger's home by federal agents. [68] On August 12, 1986, John Cleave "J.C." Webb, a member of the Anchorage Hells Angels, was shot and killed by Outlaws outside a biker bar in Jefferson County, Kentucky, prompting Barger to say that it was "time to start killing Outlaws again". [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. As he was a former felon, both were illegal. His prostate was removed and he was subsequently declared free of cancer.[112]. [58] U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese stated that Barger's arrest had averted five murders. Though the outcome of most cases was mistrial, he and Sharon were the only two acquitted outright. His father had German and Dutch ancestry, and his mother was of Italian descent. 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. [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. He was appointed president of the Oakland chapter in 1958 following a series of meetings with Hells Angels from southern California. The ten defendants went on trial at Louisville federal court beginning in July 1988, accused of plotting to bomb the clubhouse of the Outlaws' Louisville chapter, located in the city's Portland neighborhood, in retaliation for the killing of John Cleave Webb. [29] He denied, however, that authorities permitted crimes committed by the Hells Angels. [53] The prosecution team, representing the federal government, attempted to demonstrate a pattern of behavior to convict Barger and other members of the Hells Angels of racketeering offenses related to illegal weapons and drugs. [62] Wearing their "colors", the bikers rode their motorcycles past the residence of assistant county prosecutor James Bates, visited the neighbors of jurors after obtaining a list of prospective jurors in the case, and circled the courthouse in black vans with "Hells Angels" painted on the side. He joined the Hells Angels' Cave Creek chapter, and operated a motorcycle repair shop. Sonny Barger, Face of the Hells Angels, Dies at 83 He cultivated the motorcycle club's outlaw image and was a pivotal figure in its emergence as an emblem of West Coast rebellion in the 1960s.. 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. [116] Instead, Barger's funeral was held at a motorsports racetrack in Stockton on September 24, 2022. According to the post, Sonny Barger passed away from cancer while being surrounded by his wife, Zorana, and other close family members. [4][13] Growing up, Barger was suspended from school several times for assaulting teachers, and he often fought with other boys. Hood and Jarman told police that the incident was merely an initiation hazing. [86], On October 18, 1997, the five-chapter strong Dirty Dozen biker club of Arizona "patched over" to became Hells Angels chapters. [38], After Altamont, Barger sought to expand the Hells Angels and improve the club's image. Unable to travel to the trial in San Antonio, Texas due to medical reasons, Barger testified via video link from the federal courthouse in San Francisco, denying that the Hells Angels and the Bandidos were enemies.