Officially, the motorcycle club is not a racially segregated organization, but you may believe otherwise if you take a look at its members. Sonny Barger was interviewed in 2,000 and said on this subject: “The club, as a whole, is not racist, but there are probably enough racist members that no black guy is going to get in it.”
The common wisdom on the subject has always been that if you’re white you join the Hells Angels and if you’re black you join the Dragons, an all-black motorcycle club founded in Oakland in 1959. But leader of the Dragons, Tobie Levingston, has stated that he has had a long-lasting friendship with Sonny and that the two clubs get along.
Hunter S. Thompson and the Hells Angels
Strangely enough, author and well known “Gonzo” journalist Hunter S. Thompson has the Hells Angels to thank for the start of his career. He spent a year living and riding with the club and absorbing the biker gang atmosphere before writing Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.
In the end, Thompson and the club parted on bad terms. The writer tried to keep a man from hurting his wife and ended up badly beaten himself. The gang also accused him of taking advantage of them for money and fame and demanded a cut from his profits. The book was a big hit, but Thompson did not share any of the money with the group.
The Altamont Concert Incident
The Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969 was a counterculture concert in which the Hells Angels were in some way hired to do security. It is unclear who actually did the hiring or what it entailed, but almost everyone seemed to agree that it was a bad idea.
The festival was rowdy and violent, and some club members dealt with the audience aggressively, but the real problem started when a man by the name of Merideth Hunter pulled out a gun. The Hells Angels reacted quickly, and member Alan Passaro knocked the gun out of Hunter’s hand and stabbed him to death. He was arrested for murder but was acquitted when a video of Hunter and the gun came to light and proved that Pasaro had acted in self-defense.
The Lennoxville Massacre
There have been times when even different charters of the Hells Angels couldn’t get along. Five members from the Hells Angels North Laval charter were murdered by members of the Montreal, Quebec, and Nova Scotia charters in 1985. The North Laval charter was considered too wild and rowdy. They were bringing police attention to the club and stealing money from other charters.
The victims were invited to the Lennoxville clubhouse where they were beaten, shot, and had their remains thrown into the St. Lawrence River. Five club members who took part in the incident were sentenced to life in prison, but they were all released by 2013. The event became known as the Lennoxville Massacre.
Sons of Anarchy was Loosely Based on the Hells Angels
Sons of Anarchy, the television show beloved by fans and critics and created by Kurt Sutter, was loosely based on the Hells Angels motorcycle club. Numerous plot twists and events in the show are based on actual events that the Hells Angels have come across during the history of the club. Several real Hells Angels even appeared on the show like David Labvrava, Chuck Zito, Rusty Coones, and even Sonny Barger.
The creator wanted the show to be as accurate as possible and even hired Labvrava as a technical advisor to keep things as close to a real motorcycle club as they could. He also played an important part on the show as the character “Happy” and appeared in all seven seasons.