Son of a mother, Kathryn Carmella Barger, and father, Ralph Hubert Barger, Sonny Barger had a rough childhood. On June 29, 2022, Barger died of liver cancer aged 83 at his home in Livermore, California. [4][7], The dispute between the Hells Angels and the Rolling Stones was compounded when the band refused to compensate the Angels for $50,000 in legal fees accrued by the club in the trial of Alan Passaro, who was acquitted of Hunter's murder on the grounds of self-defense. [77] Bowman allegedly placed a $100,000 bounty on Barger's life when he made a speech to hundreds of his followers on December 31, 1993, announcing an escalation of hostilities against the Hells Angels. [87] Barger was later a member of the Yavapai County chapter. [6] As a result of critical media attention given to the HAMC after the concert, he went on KSAN, a local Bay Area radio station, to justify the actions of the Hells Angels and to present their side of the story. Sonny Barger, a founding member of the Hells Angels who provided security at a notorious and fatal Rolling Stones show in 1969, has died. [58] U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese stated that Barger's arrest had averted five murders. 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. The motorcycle community on a global level has lost an iconic man. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. [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. Registered in England No. Sonny Barger was born on 8 October 1938 in Modesto, California, USA. 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[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". We're all across the country, and now we're in foreign countries also. He has nothing else to live for". [41] During his incarceration, a bikers' magazine ran a "Free Sonny Barger" campaign, selling T-shirts and bumper stickers, which helped pay his legal expenses. Obituaries News News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, . [61] The trial took place in Lucas County circuit court in Toledo, a city considered Outlaws territory. Credit: Pete Rosos. 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. Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died at age 83. 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. The Modesto native is credited with creating the first Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, an outlaw . [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. The biker, of California, passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife Zorana and relatives on June 29. [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. [17] After a chance encounter a member of a pre-existing Hells Angels chapter, Barger learned of the club's history, rules, regulations and procedures. He stated following his conviction: "I think we won very handily in there. 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. 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. He escaped drug-dealing, kidnapping and murder charges, but was finally convicted in 1973 of possession of heroin and firearms. For at least five years beginning in 1967, Barger and the Hells Angels turned over weapons acquired on the black market or locations of weapons, which could otherwise be used by Black Panther Party and Weather Underground radicals, to the Oakland Police Department in exchange for the release of jailed Hells Angels members. He was arrested again on the same charge the following year, and for assault with a deadly weapon in 1965 and 1966. [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. 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. 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. He was appointed president of the Oakland chapter in 1958 following a series of meetings with Hells Angels from southern California. Sonny Barger has died aged 83 after a cancer battle surrounded by his wife Zorana and his loved ones The Oakland, California, biker was the founding member of the Hells Angels motorcycling. Jordan Potter. [48] In April 1977, Barger won an appeal to face a retrial on a prior marijuana possession conviction. 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. Sonny Barger has acquired notoriety throughout the years for his contentious career and court difficulties. White people were scared of us. Sonny Barger Net Worth. [51] The bombings prompted the California Department of Justice to issue a warning to police departments that the Angels were engaged on a campaign to eliminate law enforcement personnel who investigated their drug activities. [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. But also know that in the end, I was surrounded by what really matters: My wife, Zorana, as well as my loved ones. Though the outcome of most cases was mistrial, he and Sharon were the only two acquitted outright. Sonny Barger, a founding member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club who spent decades as the public face of the notorious biker gang, has died at the age of 83, according to his Facebook page. [63] A female juror was excused from duty after her son was threatened by a group of Hells Angels at a downtown Toledo bar that he would have "lots of problems" if his mother did not "vote the right way". Philanthropist. [3] After forming the Oakland chapter, Barger was instrumental in unifying various disparate Hells Angels chapters and had the club incorporated in 1966. [67] He also covertly recorded club meetings by wearing a wire. [111], Barger underwent surgery as a result of prostate cancer in 2012. An informant had led investigating detectives to the location of the automobile in which Long's corpse was found. [20] The Oakland Hells Angels maintained a preeminent position as "first among equals" by having the largest membership of any U.S. chapter and because of Barger's esteem among club members internationally. Three men drug dealers Kelly Patrick Smith, Willard Thomas and Gary Kemp, an acquaintance of Ivaldi were found shot to death in a house near San Leandro the day after Agero's murder, and the body of a woman, Karen S. Long, was discovered in the trunk of a car in Oakland on May 26. 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. Net Worth, Salary & Earnings of Sonny Barger in 2023. His mother left him when he was just four months old. 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. Barger withdrew from public leadership of the Angels and by 1998 was living in Arizona. Sonny Barger, famous Hells Angel and bestselling author, dead at 83 of cancer Barger disputed what authorities have long maintained that the Hells Angels are a criminal enterprise held. 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. Later that year, Barger suffered a fractured skull during a fight with Oakland police. That's all cops and newspapers. [66] While most of the Hells Angels arrested in northern California were charged with drug offenses, Barger and O'Farrell were accused of conspiring to violate federal firearms and explosives laws. [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. 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. I ended up not liking him at all, a tall skinny, typical hillbilly from Kentucky. [56] The feud between the two clubs began in 1974 when Outlaws bikers in South Florida murdered three members of the Hells Angels' Lowell, Massachusetts, chapter as retribution for an Outlaw being beaten by Hells Angels at a party in New York City. [57] According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Hells Angels and the Outlaws were engaged in a conflict over control of the methamphetamine trade in the United States and Canada. 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. [70] The U.S. His future wife Sharon was a co-defendant; her case ended in a mistrial when a jury failed to reach a verdict. Wearing leathers with the skulled-wing insignia of the Angels, shorn off at the arms to reveal. In 1979 Barger was one of 33 people charged with racketeering under federal Rico (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) laws. [23] Prosecutors claimed that the Angels accumulated $160,000 per day in street sales of the drug. He was convicted of aggravated assault, but he served only eight days in jail. Sonny Barger Funeral Service | Hells Angels founder Sonny Barger Passed Away Flowers were laid in front of the Sonoma County Hells Angels chapter last Thursday aft 370K views 111K views. Barger's third guest appearance on Sons of Anarchy was during season 5, episode 10, which aired on November 13, 2012. 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. Born Ralph Barger Jr in Modesto, California, Sonny grew up in the tough port area of Oakland, where his father, Ralph Sr, was a dock worker. I've asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing. [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. That claim was revised to using the gun to keep the band playing after the violence, which can be seen in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter, had begun. [87] The Angels' amalgamation of the Dirty Dozen was promulgated during a meeting in Oakland. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Sonny Barger to pay them a last tribute. His move to Arizona will allow Hells Angels Ventura chapter president George "Gus" Christie to take over the political reins of the gang, but Barger will help legitimize the gang in the business world from the dry desert state. He rode his motorcycle into the pages of world history. [24] 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. It was something he had earned, but also an image he. Barger's death was announced on his Facebook page late Wednesday. June 30, (Reuters) - Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the Hells Angels motorcycle club leader who became the rough-hewn face of America's outlaw biker culture and the restlessness, hard living and. He asserted that violence only started once the crowd began vandalizing the Angels' motorcycles. [6] He took up running for exercise in prison, saying: "I'm slow but I can go on forever". The defendants shook hands with Mullen and thanked him for his testimony. It was something he had earned, but also an image he. Barger features prominently in Hunter S. Thompson's book, Hell's Angels. "[34] Barger maintained that the Rolling Stones were ultimately responsible for the violent events that took place at the concert, saying: "They agitated the crowd, had the stage built too low, and then used us to keep the whole thing boiling. 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. When a band of rootless outlaws on Harley-Davidsons started cutting a swathe of chaos through America, Sonny Barger emerged as maximum leader of the Hells Angels. We feel that a crack group of trained guerillas could demoralize the Viet Cong and advance the cause of freedom. Submit an Obituary. [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. Barger was the face of the Hells Angels for decades, but the origin story of the Hells Angels. Barger's Guardian obituary also noted that "in 1979 Barger was one of 33 people charged with racketeering under federal Rico (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) laws.
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