Hells Angels

Hells Angels, club for motorcyclists that was founded in California in 1948 and is probably the best known of the so-called “outlaw motorcycle gangs.” The club, which is international, has been accused of criminal activity by law enforcement officials.

Most Hells Angels members are white males who ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Each is known by a “legal,” or official, name, which may be a colourful nickname. Membership status is tightly controlled. Prospective members face a long vetting and initiation process, and anyone who resigns is required to turn in all regalia bearing the Hells Angels name or “Death Head” insignia. Some chapters have clubhouses, but members typically gather in bars and ride out together on runs to recreational destinations.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was founded in Fontana, California, near San Bernardino, in 1948. “Hell’s Angels” was previously used as a nickname by World War II bomber crews and as the title of a Hollywood film (1930) about World War I aviators. The club opened chapters in San Francisco and Oakland in 1954 and 1957, respectively, and expanded internationally into New Zealand in 1961. However, it was not well known to the general public until 1965, when Thomas C. Lynch, attorney general of California, issued a report on motorcycle gangs, including the Hells Angels, and their “hoodlum activities.” Critics accused Lynch of sensationalism, but his report was heavily publicized in the American national media. Then Hunter S. Thompson made the San Francisco Bay Area Hells Angels the subject of his first book, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (1966). Thompson befriended many members, but the club ultimately turned against him and beat him. His qualified admiration of Ralph (Sonny) Barger, long-term president of the Oakland chapter, helped turn Barger into the club’s public face and national spokesman.

The Hells Angels’ notoriety increased after they were hired to provide stage security for the Altamont festival, a free Rolling Stones concert presented at a motor speedway east of Oakland on December 6, 1969. A Hells Angels member was charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter, an 18-year-old male concertgoer, but was later acquitted. Images of violence at the concert appeared in Gimme Shelter (1970), a widely distributed documentary by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin. Meanwhile, low-budget filmmakers were exploiting the public fascination with motorcyclists by producing numerous “biker movies,” a number of which referenced the Hells Angels in the title: The Wild Angels (1966), Hells Angels on Wheels (1967), Hell’s Angels ’69 (1969), and Angels: Hard as They Come (1971).

The Hells Angels were always known as dangerous barroom fighters, but law enforcement officials later came to associate them with the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine. Two attempts to prosecute club members under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizatons Act ended in mistrials in the early 1980s. However, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, in its National Gang Report, has continued to characterize the Hells Angels as an “outlaw motorcycle gang.”