Biker4friends The Motorcycalist, Bikers Link To Biker Friends are all welcomed

Hell's Angels began as the article

Sonny Barger is the world's most famous Hells Angel. He is the founding member and President of the Oakland chapter who is credited with pulling the disparate clubs together in the 1960's and unleashing the club on a worldwide expansion drive.

In the late 1980's his biking career was interrupted for him to spend some quality time in the Arizona sun. The four year hiatus wasn't exactly voluntary. He was a guest at the federal prison in Arizona for conspiring to blow up the clubhouse of the Outlaws, a rival biker gang.

The world's most famous Hells Angel repaired cycles at 10637 N. Cave Creek Rd. in Phoenix until he retired from that business . 3-03.

When Barger was released in 1992, he took some favorable memories of the Arizona climate with him. A few years later, he relocated to New River--a short ride from his federal holiday locale. He seemed even to have joined the establishment, opening a bike repair shop in nearby Cave Creek.

Barger found a market for club related products beyond members of the outlaw biker organization. Bikers and the curious can buy motorcycles, gear and collectibles including Hell's Angels®, and Sonny Barger™ products from from his web site www.sonnybarger.com.

Fans can also pick up copies of his books. Although book reviews have not been particularly kind, his first book, Hell's Angels: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, (2001, William Morrow & Co.) has become a best seller. One reviewer suggests making the already brief book even shorter read by skipping over the the numerous "f" words. Barger followed up the success of the first book with a second, Ridin' High and Livin' Free (2002, William Morrow & Co.).

Barger mounts up to lead the pack celebrating his 66th birthday. 10-04.

Barger remains in the Hells Angels as a member of the Cave Creek Chapter. Touring internationally to promote his books, he also acts as an unofficial ambassador of the biking club. The aging Barger, the once rakish icon of the "one percenters"--that 1% portion of cyclers that American Motorcycle Association described as giving the rest a bad rap--speaks with a raspy voice reminiscent of the possessed child in the Exorcist. Thanks to a 30 year, three-Camel-pack-a-day habit, Barger needed throat cancer surgery in the early 1980's. He breathes through a plastic valve in his neck, and covers the vent to speak. His exhaled breath then passes through a reconstructed larynx.

More recently, Barger followed up the 21 arrests he had when his first book was published with a stint in an isolated cell at Sherriff Joe Arpaio's Madison Street Jail. On March 7, 2003, the 64 year old Barger was arrested at his New River home after a reported fight with his third wife and step daughter. He was placed in the isolated cell for his own protection.

"Motorcycle Gangs: Losers and Outsiders" (reprinted here) written by Thompson for the May 17, 1965 issue of The Nation. In March 1965, The Nation editor Carey McWilliams wrote to Thompson and offered to pay the journalist for an article on the subject of motorcycle gangs, and the Hells Angels in particular. Thompson took the job and the article, published about a month later, prompted book offers from several publishers interested in the topic.

Thompson spent the next year preparing for the new book in close quarters with the Hells Angels, in particular the San Bernadino and Oakland chapters of the club and their president Ralph 'Sonny' Barger. Thompson was up front with the Angels about his role as a journalist, a dangerous move given their marked distrust of reporters from what the club considered to be bad press. Thompson was introduced to the gang by Birney Jarvis, a former club member and, at the time, police-beat reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. This introduction, coming from an Angel and reporter allowed Thompson to get close to the gang where so many others had failed.

Far from being wary of this outsider the Angels were sincere in their participation, often talking at length into Thompson's tape recorder and reviewing early drafts of the article to ensure he had his facts straight. The gang often visited his apartment at 318 Parnassus Street in San Francisco, much to the dismay of his wife and neighbors. Thompson, however, felt comfortable with the arrangement, having warned the bikers that he "didn't go much for fist-fighting but preferred to settle his beefs with a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun" which he promptly displayed to them.

Thompson remained close with the Angels for a year, though ultimately the relationship broke down when several members of the gang gave him a savage beating, or 'stomping' as the bikers referred to it. Thompson ended his time with the gang at this point, though he would later note in letters to friends and to Sonny Barger that the Angels who had participated in the beating had not been those with whom he had most closely associated. Because of this he continued to think warmly of Barger and other members of the club, such as Terry the Tramp, who had not been involved.

[edit] Effects & criticism

Hell's Angels was the book that launched Thompson's career as a writer. Though he had by then published numerous articles for various journals and newspapers and was recognized as a journalist, the book was his first true exposure to a national audience. Reviews of the work were generally very positive and despite a poor performance on the publicity tour by Thompson, who was by his own admission drunk or exhausted for nearly every interview, the book sold relatively well. Even so, Thompson himself made little off of the royalties from early editions of the book, a misfortune he blamed on a succession of agents and the book's publisher, Random House.

Thompson's treatment of gang-rape by Hells Angels, a practice of which Bikers are commonly accused, was strongly criticized by radical feminist Susan Brownmiller in her own book, 1975's Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.

[edit] Citation

Thompson, Hunter S. Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. New York: Random House, 1966; Ballantine Books, 1996 (ISBN 0-345-41008-4)
Thompson, Hunter S. Proud Highway, The: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (Fear and Loathing Letters/Hunter S. Thompson, Vol. 1). New Orleans: Villard, 1997 (ISBN 0-679-40695-6)

[edit] External links

"Motorcycle Gangs", reprint of the original Thompson article

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Angels:_The_Strange_and_Terrible_Saga_of_the_Outlaw_Motorcycle_Gangs"

Sonny Barger (born October 8, 1938 in Modesto, California) is a founding member of the original Oakland, California, USA chapter of Hells Angels (perhaps the most famous motorcycle club in the world), and perhaps the club's best-known member. He is known as the "Godfather of the Hells Angels."

Barger is known for being the head Hells Angel at the The Rolling Stones' Altamont Free Concert in 1969. He is also famed for his appearance in Hunter S. Thompson's widely-read account of life within the club Hell's Angels .

Sonny Barger is also the author of three books: Hells Angel, Freedom: Credos from the Road, and Dead in 5 Heartbeats. He has acted as editor for the book Ridin' High, Livin' Free. He appeared as an extra in the film Hells Angels on Wheels.

As of 2004, Barger remains in the Hells Angels as a member of the Cave Creek Chapter. He is reported to have owned a mere 10 to 12 motorcycles throughout his life, and currently does not ride a Harley Davidson.

* HAMC WORLD CHARTERS *

HAMC AALBORG