Walter Roberts - Biker Gangs

2012 RW Press Ltd

This 2012 edition published by RW Press Ltd

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ISBN: 9781909284067

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Contents

Introduction

Peggy Maley: What are you rebelling against, Johnny?

Johnny Strabler (played by Marlon Brando) Whaddaya got?

From the 1953 outlaw biker film, The Wild One

The phenomenon of outlaw biker gangs has its origins in the United States in the years immediately following the end of World War II, when many young men purchased motorcycles usually Harley-Davidsons and took to the open road. They formed clubs and developed their own code of practice based on the celebration of freedom, nonconformity and, in particular, loyalty to the group and its members. These clubs came to be known as outlaws because they were not authorized by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA).

The term outlaw has come to mean more than merely lacking sanction by the AMA. Increasingly, biker clubs have become conduits for criminal enterprises, as the US Department of Justice has termed them, especially elements within the Big Four gangs: the Hells Angels, the Pagans, the Outlaws, and the Bandidos. According to the FBI, these clubs are engaged in drug dealing, trafficking stolen goods and extortion. Further problems arise from their wars over territory and control of the illegal drug trade. It is estimated that their combined illegal activity brings in around $1 billion annually.

Biker gangs have spread across the world. The Hells Angels, for instance, have more than a hundred chapters across 29 countries. Biker gangs have been involved in criminal activities and extreme violence in many countries, especially in Canada, Australia and Scandinavia. In Japan, the Bosozoku (Violent Running Tribe) grew in the 1950s out of the Kaminari Zoku Thunder Tribe. These disaffected young men have formed an alliance with the Japanese criminal organization, the Yakuza, and many of them become Yakuza on reaching the age of 20.

Membership of an outlaw motorcycle gang entitles a biker to wear the precious patch, or insignia, of his club. This sacrosanct piece of cloth is a mark of status, brotherhood and intent. It gives the wearer a sense of belonging and has come to embody a bikers entire life his affiliations, his family and his position in the world. In fact, when one club is taken over by another, or an individual changes club, the process is known as patching-over exchanging the patch of one club for another

Biker Gangs opens the doors on the closed and often violent world of the outlaw motorcyclist. It explains how biker clubs work, describing their initiations, values and activities. It tells the story of each of the major gangs from the Hells Angels to the Pagans, and details the astonishing life of Hells Angels leader, Sonny Barger. The book also examines incidents (and individuals) that have given bikers a bad name the Great Nordic Biker Wars, a violent three-year struggle between the Hells Angels and the Bandidos that took place in Scandinavia from 1994 to 1997; the Gerry Tobin murder the murder by Bandidos members of a Hells Angel in Britain; Yves Apache Trudeau mass-murderer and Canadian Hells Angel convicted for the murder of 43 people; Altamont the murder of Meredith Hunter and the Hollister Incident, the crazy, booze-fuelled weekend in a small Californian town that started the whole thing.

The Clubs

Hells Angels

They claim to be merely motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined in order to ride their motorbikes together, to meet socially, to undertake road trips, organize fundraisers, parties and rallies of like-minded individuals. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service see the Hells Angels somewhat differently, however, classifying them as one of the big four motorcycle gangs who use their clubs as a cover for a wide range of criminal activity.

The name Hells Angels now copyrighted by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club dates back to at least World War I. There was a motorcycle club in Detroit in the late 1920s that was sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association. The name appeared in the 1930 Howard Hughes-directed movie, Hells Angels , about two brothers attending Oxford University who enlist in the Royal Flying Corps, the precursor to the Royal Air Force, at the outbreak of World War I. In World War II, a squadron of General Claire Chennaults famous Flying Tigers used the name in China, as did at least a dozen bomber squadrons. In May 1943, the 303 rd s B-17F squadron, known as the Hells Angels, became the first 8 th Air Force squadron to complete 25 combat missions and return to the United States. The name Hells Angels came to be seen, therefore, as representing the toughest of the tough.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club to give it its full name is said to have been founded on 17 March 1948 in Fontana, California and was an amalgamation of former members of other motorcycle clubs in that area. The World War II veterans motorcycle club, the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington, had become disillusioned by the fallout from the violent incidents that took place at Hollister, California in July 1947 during the Gypsy Tour motorcycle rally. They disbanded, but Arvid Olsen, who had been a squadron leader with the Flying Tigers remembered the name used by his squadron during the war and suggested the name Hells Angels for a new club being formed by him, Otto Friedl and several other former Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington. They chose for a logo a grinning skull wearing a pilots helmet with a pair of wings attached to it.

In the coming years, as members moved around the state, other Hells Angels Motorcycle Clubs sprang up San Francisco in 1954, formed by former members of the Market Street Commandos, World War II veterans; North Sacramento in 1956; Sacramento in 1957. They operated independently of each other and were largely unaware of each others existence.

Sonny Barger

It was Sonny Barger, founder of the Oakland Hells Angels, who brought them all together under one umbrella. Some suggest that the organization of the Hells Angels had already taken place in San Francisco in 1953 when Rocky Graves gathered together 13 chapter members, with a president, using a smaller version of the Deaths Head logo. The Oakland chapter used a bigger version of the logo known as the Barger Larger. This would eventually become the standard version used everywhere.