Major federal investigation underway targeting Vallejo Hells Angels The corpses of the family were discovered by firefighters responding to the blaze. "Passaro acted with a knife to stop Meredith Hunter from shooting. Two California members of the Vagos motorcycle club at the crime scene were also shot but survived. Tori Schneebaum For Dailymail.Com, Be a freewheeler! [186] Billy Grondalski had been expelled by the Vallejo Hells Angels on September 28, less than a week before the massacre, and Lester and Diaz had come to his home to retrieve a monetary debt, his motorcycle and items of club property in his possession $900 worth of HAMC support decals and a Hells Angels tattoo on his left arm, reading "84 In, 86 Out". Crabtree, who had grossed $100,000 per month from selling methamphetamine he obtained from HAMC members, withdrew from the club's milieu in August 1977 and began cooperating with authorities in January 1978 after learning that Oakland chapter enforcer James Brandes had put a $10,000 contract on his life in the belief that he had turned informant. shot dead in fight", "Hells Angels: Rival Motorcycle Gang Member Convicted in Killing of S.F. [20], A group of Hells Angels members, as well as some of their girlfriends, were charged in connection with a fight which broke out during a birthday celebration at a cafe in San Francisco in September 1965. Bushnell never set out to chronicle the clubs and its culture. This was the nickname bomber crews used during the World War II. 'That was the moment the Hells Angels went nationwide and worldwide,' Bushnell said. Http://www.hellsangelsdago81.com THIS PAGE IS STRICTLY FOR SUPPORT GEAR AND EVENT NOTICE. [27], Members and associates of the Hells Angels in Sacramento, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area were arrested and charged with racketeering and drug trafficking on May 2, 1985, as part of Operation Roughrider, a three-year FBI investigation into the club. Also among the contraband was a military handbook on booby traps and an address book containing the home address, phone number and the license-plate number of Zerby. [176], Three Hells Angels members and one of their girlfriends were charged on March 8, 1972, with the murder of Bradley Parkhurst, an Alameda longshoreman who was beaten and stomped to death in the basement of an Oakland home on February 24. [16], Five people were charged with inciting a riot and one with the illegal possession of a weapon after the Tulare County Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol and local police dispersed approximately 200 members of seven motorcycle clubs from across California, including the Hells Angels and the Galloping Goose, who converged in Porterville on August 31 and September 1, 1963. It houses some 50,000 pieces, including the cutoff vests emblazoned with a club's patches, known as their colors. TIMES STAFF WRITER. LaBand of West Covina. [153], Three members of the Hells Angels' Los Angeles chapter were arrested on January 6, 1978, in connection with the theft of two thousand pounds of dynamite, which was stolen from a construction site in San Diego County in September 1977. [154] According to a statement given to investigators by one of the Hells Angels arrested in the explosives seizure, "Old Man" John Noble, Glore was assassinated over a personal dispute with Russell Beyea,[155] a senior member of the Oakland Hells Angels. [8], Oakland Hells Angels chapter member Ray Dale "Stork" Keefauver, who had been scheduled to testify for the prosecution in a Redwood City murder trial, was found shot to death in a ravine near Port Costa on June 16, 1974. [5], On March 6, 1977, a woman was allegedly stripped of her clothing, beaten and forced to ingest LSD by Hells Angels members and their girlfriends at the residence of the club's San Diego chapter president. [158] On May 28, 1981, Walton was apprehended by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. [187] Lester and Diaz later claimed that the killings at the Grondalski home began after a .45 caliber pistol that Lester was using to threaten Billy Grondalski accidentally discharged, killing him instantly, and that the remaining family members were killed to eliminate witnesses. [214] Six people were arrested including San Francisco chapter president Gary Kautzman and forty firearms were confiscated in the Bay Area. When he was released, White went back to San Bernardino. Walton pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and appeared as a witness during the trial of Stefanson, who was convicted on five felony charges of possessing narcotics and transporting explosives on February 16, 1973. [198], San Jose Police Department (SJPD) sergeant John Kracht survived an attempt on his life when a bomb detonated near his car on February 19, 1977. The violence allegedly erupted when the bikers attacked two police officers who arrived at the establishment. [5] Officers discovered files on every Hells Angels member in the United States and Europe at Glore's residence. [66], One major event in Hells Angels' history involved the December 6, 1969 Altamont Free Concert at the Altamont Speedway partially documented in the 1970 film Gimme Shelter[67] featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and The Rolling Stones. A man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, and two injured people were treated at the scene. [48], Drug dealer Gail Elmer English and Vallejo HAMC chapter president John Henderson were killed, and another Hells Angel, Ted DeWilde, was left in critical condition as a result of a gun battle at English's Vallejo home on November 1, 1973. Hells Angels members arrested in deadly attack during Chris Stapleton Barger temporarily resigned as president of the Oakland chapter in June 1970 to fight the charges, but returned to the position within months after his successor, John "Johnny Angel" Palomar, was sentenced to a ten-year prison term for shooting a bartender. The Original Hells Angels: Stunning Photographs Of Daily Life Of A "[76], In 1970, during a conflict with the Axemen motorcycle gang, San Diego Hells Angels chapter vice president Andrew Horn was shot and killed with a sawed-off shotgun by Axemen biker Rick McCart, who was acquitted of the killing and subsequently fled the area. [5], A woman was allegedly gang raped by four members of the San Diego chapter of the Hells Angels on July 27, 1969. [62], Nine members and associates of the San Diego Hells Angels chapter were indicted on narcotic and weapon violation charges in December 1990. According to prosecutors, Garrett had ordered the killings of Compton and her daughters in retaliation for her testimony without approval from the HAMC. She didn't want a cent. The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was founded in the San Bernardino area in 1948, according to its website. Vintage photos of Bay Area Hells Angels Motorcycle Club - SFGATE The incident, for which Lester spent four years in state prison, was reportedly the result of a dispute over $5,000 worth of methamphetamine.[167]. At one point, Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane was knocked unconscious following an altercation with an Angel, an event later depicted in Gimme Shelter. [11], Thirty-three members and associates of the Hells Angels' Oakland, San Francisco, Marin County, San Jose, Los Angeles and Vallejo chapters, including Oakland chapter president and reputed national leader Sonny Barger, were indicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act statutes on June 13, 1979. His testimony led Mendocino County deputies to a ranch, owned by former Oakland Hells Angels chapter vice-president George J. Crabtree testified in front of a grand jury that he and two Hells Angels Kenneth Owen and Sergey Walton, the Oakland chapter president stole bottles of phenyl-2-propanone and enough glassware to build five methamphetamine laboratories during a heist at a local chemical company in January 1977. [31] Dennis L. Thomas and David Lee Baumgardner pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana on November 27, 1967. Owen for intruding on Owen's narcotics franchise. [5], Thirty-three members of the Oakland Hells Angels chapter, including the club's president Sonny Barger, and four of their girlfriends were arrested on drug charges after police raided a bar and a duplex apartment in the city on August 30, 1968. For 18 months, between 2005 and 2007, Dave (Shaky) Atwell acted as a police informer, "ratting" on his fellow members of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle gang in downtown Toronto. [79] The violence led to a crackdown by law enforcement, and on October 7, 1977, 32 members and associates of the San Diego Hells Angels were arrested on various charges, including chapter president Thomas James "Crunch" Renzulli who was charged with attempted murder. [47], Barger was sentenced to a prison term of ten years-to-life on March 16, 1973, after he was convicted of possession of narcotics for sale (thirty-seven grams of heroin), and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. Tyne & Wear - England 1979. Before that, the guys weren't posing for the cameras to look cool. When serving a warrant at the home of chapter president Ora Ray "Indian Ray" Glore, police found him dead with nine .22 caliber bullet wounds to the head. [43] According to police intelligence reports, Barger had designated San Jose chapter president Fillmore Cross as his international successor during a motorcycle run at Bass Lake prior to his imprisonment. Webb, the president of the Anchorage HAMC chapter, who was shot and killed by two Outlaws members outside a bar in Jefferson County, Kentucky on August 12, 1986. [23], Eight Hells Angels were arrested when a fight broke out in a Daly City tavern on April 15, 1966, following the funeral of San Francisco HAMC chapter member Larry Dean Lucas, who died in a motorcycle accident near Santa Maria on April 9. [5], Four police officers were fired and another four were suspended as a result of a brawl between policemen and Hells Angels members outside the HAMC clubhouse in Oakland on April 2, 1978. [21] He went on to read out a telegram sent to President Lyndon B. Johnson, reading "I volunteer a group of loyal Americans for behind the line duty in Vietnam. [102] Christopher Bryan Ablett, a member of the rival Mongols MC club, was later arrested for Guardado's murder. Decades later, the infamous biker gang still makes regular headlines for its counterculture lifestyle and criminal activities.. . [18][19], 48 Hells Angels members and their girlfriends were arrested at their clubhouse on San Francisco's Folsom Street on December 5, 1964, on charges of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana, contributing to the delinquency of a minor (three of the girls were alleged to be underage), aiding suspected felons, and the alleged rape of a twenty-five-year-old woman, who claimed she was assaulted on the premises the day before. [167] On May 5, 1995, Diaz, by then the Vallejo chapter president, was arrested in Ukiah and Lester was apprehended in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he was living after leaving the club in June 1987. [8], Hells Angels associate Henry Crabtree was extradited from Arkansas where he was charged with the October 18, 1979 murder of Michael Burch in November 1979 to testify for the government against nine East Bay club members and associates, implicating the bikers in drug dealing which took place between 1968 and mid-1977. Exclusive tour inside Hells Angels clubhouse - YouTube [84], The Mongols seized control of Southern California from the Hells Angels during the 1980s. [28] Friedli was convicted of maintaining a place for the unlawful use of marijuana, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a former felon. [73][74] Hunter was stabbed to death. [169] Waring, a tow truck driver who worked as an informant for California Highway Patrol detectives for over ten years,[170] was convicted of first-degree murder on October 12, 2001 and sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole on February 8, 2002. Laurence Richard "Large Larry" Lajeunesse, a senior member of the Hells Angels' San Fernando Valley chapter, and his girlfriend Tammie Ann Brannigan were shot to death in the converted industrial garage in Chatsworth, Los Angeles where they lived on December 3, 1998 by Daniel Ray Waring, who was described by prosecutors as an aspirant Hells Angels member involved in a feud with Lajeunesse over methamphetamine dealing.
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