Barger, Beyea and Popkin were arrested after the Cadillac was chased for four miles by converging police. Philanthropist. (Robert H Houston/Associated Press) Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the larger . [38], After Altamont, Barger sought to expand the Hells Angels and improve the club's image. [40] During this period, Barger's main lieutenants were Sergey Walton, James "Jim-Jim" Brandes and Kenneth "K.O." 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]. [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". [17] Under Barger's leadership, the club's membership began to increase. [103] Increasing tensions between the Hells Angels and other motorcycle clubs led to Barger organizing a peace conference scheduled to be held in the Arizona desert following the April 2002 Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally in Laughlin, Nevada. [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. Barger was also present at the club's most infamous . 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. A scene from the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter showing violence at the Altamont free festival. [52] Barger was held on a $1 million bail and spent 14 months in San Francisco County Jail before and during the trial. In 1969, he began a relationship with Sharon Gruhlke, a former beauty queen from Livermore. [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. While imprisoned, Barger received dozens of requests for interviews every month but continuously turned them down as he was collaborating with a screenwriter at the time to have his life story turned into a film and was unwilling to compromise the commercial viability of the project. Barger had liked the discipline, masculine camaraderie, and learning how to disassemble weapons. If there was a contract out on him, then he'd be dead. Image publique ngative [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". On top of his work representing the Hells Angels organization, Berger . 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%. When Tait informed Barger in a phone conversation that the FBI was investigating the package he had mailed to Webb's sister, Barger proposed the alibi that the package contained sympathy cards. 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. By 1960, the Oakland Hells Angels had established an extensive narcotics network within the club. [48] He was paroled on November 3, 1977, after serving four-and-a-half years of his sentence. [7] According to police intelligence reports, he had designated San Jose chapter president Fillmore Cross as his international successor during a motorcycle run at Bass Lake prior to his imprisonment. A delegation of Angels and their chief rival motorcycle gang, the Gypsy Jokers, met the activist Jerry Rubin and poet Allen Ginsberg in front of 1,000 people at San Jose State College to negotiate clearance for the November march scheduled for Oakland. [35] He blamed the Rolling Stones' extended delay before making an onstage appearance for worsening the hostility of the crowd, and said the Hells Angels refused to act as bodyguards for "a bunch of sissy, marble-mouthed prima donnas" when the band asked the bikers to escort them to the stage. Sonny Barger was an American outlaw biker, writer, and actor who was the leading member of the Oakland Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in 1957. I've lived a long and good life filled with adventure. Sentenced to 10 years to life, he served four and a half years at Folsom prison, and reputedly continued to run the Angels from his cell, and to marry his second wife, Sharon, there. [3] [94] The agreement also applied to Canada with the Outlaws agreeing to provide no assistance to the Rock Machine in return for peace with the Hells Angels in the United States. [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 reportedly celebrated his 50th birthday in the midst of the trial by partying and smoking marijuana at the home of Thomas Clay, Michael O'Farrell's lawyer, in Goshen, Kentucky. Sonny Barger, the leather-clad fixture of 1960s counterculture and figurehead of the Hells Angels motorcycle club who was at the notorious Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway, has died. Barger died back in June after a short battle with cancer. Sonny Barger (1 - 40 of 48 results) Price ($) Shipping Autographed Sonny Barger Hells Angels founder 8x10 inch framed photo with JSA COA Rare! Sonny Barger had a family comprising of his wife Zorana only. He was among the motorcycle club's most visible members for decades. When the overall president was sent to prison in 1958, Sonny, aged 20, replaced him, and moved the mother chapter to Oakland. Bullshit, it was the end of nothingAltamont may have been some big catastrophe to the hippies, but it was just another Hells Angels event to me". [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. They divorced after a domestic dispute in which she was hospitalised for a broken rib and lacerated spleen. [85] The Canadian journalist Yves Lavigne wrote that Barger's ability to impose a truce on the Scandinavian branches of the Hells Angels showed that his power over all of the Hells Angels chapters around the world was real, not nominal, and it was significant that he only took action in response to the possibility of a ban on outlaw biker clubs. [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. [87] Barger was later a member of the Yavapai County chapter. We really missed the boat not switching over to the Japanese models when they began building bigger bikes. 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. SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. Thousands of people gathered over the weekend for the funeral of Ralph "Sonny" Barger, longtime president and founding member of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.. An informant had led investigating detectives to the location of the automobile in which Long's corpse was found. [101][102] A Hells Angels member was charged with second-degree murder and seventy-three Pagan members were indicted on federal racketeering charges in the aftermath of the incident. Furthermore, the Appeals Court ruled that the district court did not act in error to sentence Barger under the federal guidelines. [8] He was also acquitted of murder in 1972, and of racketeering in 1980. When he was just four years old, his mother left him . Show creator Kurt Sutter spent time with Barger and other members of Hells Angels researching for the show, and acted opposite Barger in his scene. He was a total fake. An indifferent student, Barger quit school at 16 and joined the army. He began a relationship with Sharon Gruhlke, who was a former beauty queen from Livermore in 1969. These set the scene for Nicholson and Fondas acting breakthrough with Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, a romantic portrayal of bikers as countercultural outlaws. "[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. He'll share with us what it was like to be there. [28] Hilliard also testified that Barger had offered "to deliver the bagged body of a leftist for every Angel released from jail". 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. On June 30, 2022, Sonny's Facebook post announced his passing. Barger then made plans to provide an alibi for Tait. They affiliated with the Angels mother chapter in San Bernadino; the clubs unified primarily by their battles with the Jokers. Career Sonny Barger began his acting career in the 1960s. [61] The trial took place in Lucas County circuit court in Toledo, a city considered Outlaws territory. 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. [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. [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. A team of Outlaws members were sent to California in early 1995 to carry out surveillance ahead of the assassination of either Barger or Christie. 5 out of 5 stars (225) $ 165.00 FREE shipping Add to Favorites Mens Biker T-Shirt, Respect Is Earned - Organic Cotton - Motorcycle Motorbike Gift Funny, Sustainable . 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. In October 1965 some Angels attacked an anti-war demonstration in Berkeley, California; six were arrested. [88] Barger transferred over from the Oakland chapter to the newly formed Cave Creek charter in October 1998. TonakTradingCo From shop TonakTradingCo. Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger was born in Modesto, California on October 8, 1938. Christian Adolph "Sonny" Jurgensen III (born August 23, 1934) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, playing for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. [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. "[5], Barger was employed as a machine operator from 1960 to 1965, when he was dismissed due to extended absences. 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. He had cancer. [19] The Angels declared war on the Outlaws during a summit of various chapter presidents in Rochester, New York in November 1978. Barger's former attorney, Fritz Clapp, told The Associated Press that Barger had liver cancer and died Wednesday night at home in . "[7] In the late 1970s, Barger and other senior Hells Angels ordered James "Buddy" Caronite, the president of the club's East Coast faction, to organize a peace conference with Outlaws leaders. [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. Hells Angeles founder Sonny" Barger and his then-wife Sharon after his release from jail in 1980. On November 30, 2010, Barger made a guest appearance as Lenny "The Pimp" Janowitz on the season 3 finale of the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, about a fictional outlaw motorcycle club, allegedly based on the Hells Angels. He was unimpressed with Thompson, and said of the writer: "When he tried to act tough with us, no matter what happened, Hunter Thompson got scared. Sonny Barger, center, with other members of the Hells Angels at a news conference in Oakland, Calif., in 1965. 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. [32] The killing of Agero was one of five possibly linked murders committed in the area around that time. In his autobiography, he divided the history of the Hells Angels into four eras, namely the First Era (1950s and 1960s) characterized by drug use and sex, the Second Era (1970s) characterized by organized crime, the Third Era (1980s) which he depicts as a period of persecution by the U.S. government, and the Fourth Era (1990s), which he characterized as a return to the original values of the club in the 1950s and 1960s. [87] The Angels' amalgamation of the Dirty Dozen was promulgated during a meeting in Oakland. [1] He had no biological children. Later, Sonny made an appearance in Gimme Shelter (1970). 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 called Barger on November 9, 1987, and reported that he had accomplished his mission. "[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. Sonny Barger's Net Worth. 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. [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. [7] He appears in the documentary film about the Altamont Free Concert: Gimme Shelter (1970). Son of a mother, Kathryn Carmella Barger, and father, Ralph Hubert Barger, Sonny Barger had a rough childhood. This is not surprising. Sonny Barger married a total of four times over the course of his life. [59], In October 1982, Barger was part of a large group of Hells Angels from across the country who attended the murder trial of Jack "Jack-O-Lantern" Gentry, a member of the club's Cleveland chapter accused of shooting Outlaws member Ralph "Real Time" Tanner behind the Outlaws' Toledo clubhouse on November 30, 1980. [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. The Hells Angels were incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 1966. 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. His first wife, Elsie Mae (nee George), had died of an embolism in 1967 after a then illegal abortion. Keep your head up high, stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor. [7] Barger and the Hells Angels became associated with the counterculture phenomenon of the 1960s. In December 1969 the Angels were hired by the Rolling Stones to provide security at the Altamont free festival. It was just too bad that Irish [OFarrell] and I were convicted, but we will probably win an appeal. In the post, which was written by Sonny before his passing, it was revealed he . Fourteen months later he was discharged honourably, as he had lied about his age to join without parental permission. [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. He has nothing else to live for". When another chapter member suggested calling the Outlaws to inquire whether Webb's killing was an isolated incident, Barger replied: "Call them collect." [66], Barger sent a stolen copy of a government document prepared by the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), which contained the identities and personal data of Outlaws members and associates, via express mail to Webb's sister in Louisville, Kentucky, who then turned it over to Hells Angels members.
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