Sonny Barger

Ralph Hubert 'Sonny' Barger
Born	(1938-10-08)October 8, 1938 (age 85) Modesto, California
Occupation	Author
Known for	Founding member of Hells Angels, Oakland chapter
Website	http://www.sonnybarger.com

Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger (born (1938-10-08)October 8, 1938 in Modesto, California) is a founding member (1957) of the Oakland, California, U.S. chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

Sonny Barger is also the author of four books: Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, Freedom: Credos from the Road, Dead in 5 Heartbeats and 6 Chambers, 1 Bullet. He was editor for the book Ridin' High, Livin' Free. Barger was identified but didn't speak in Hells Angels on Wheels and was one of several members of the Angels who had speaking parts playing themselves in Hell's Angels '69. He wrote a guide for motorcycle riders published in 2010.

Barger was one of the Hells Angels present at The Rolling Stones' Altamont Free Concert in 1969. He is also a prominent figure in Hunter S. Thompson's bestselling book, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. Barger and the Hells Angels made international headlines when a small group disrupted hundreds of anti-war protestors in Berkeley, California in 1965.

Barger was also listed in Tom Wolfe's best seller: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test during Ken Kesey's La Honda encampment.

In 1983, Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer, caused by years of heavy smoking. As a result, his vocal cords were removed, and after a laryngectomy he has learned to vocalize using the muscles in his throat.

In 1988, Barger was sentenced for conspiring to blow up the clubhouse of a rival motorcycle club, the Outlaws in Louisville, Kentucky, and spent four years in federal prison in Arizona.

As of 2007, Barger remains an active member of the Hells Angels in the Cave Creek Chapter (Phoenix, Arizona), having moved there from Oakland in 1998. He is reported to have owned 10 to 12 motorcycles throughout his life. In recent years Barger has worked to promote motorcycle safety, co-authoring a book on the subject with Darwin Holmstrom, the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Motorcycles (Alpha: 1998). The book, "Let's Ride: Sonny Barger's Guide to Motorcycling," was released by HarperCollins on 8 June, 2010.

On November 30th, 2010 Barger made a short guest appearance on the season 3 finale of the FX Television series Sons Of Anarchy, about a fictional Outlaw motorcycle club, allegedly based on the Hell's Angels. Show creator Kurt Sutter spent time with Barger and other member's of Hells Angel's researching for the show, and acted opposite Barger in his scene.

Early Life

Sonny Barger was born Ralph Hubert Barger Jr. on October 8, 1938 to Ralph Hubert Barger and Kathryn Carmella Barger in Modesto, CA. By Barger's own account his father worked in the Central Valley laying pavement on Highway 99 while Barger and his sister, Shirley, were shuttled back and forth between Modesto and Oakland, California to keep up with Barger Sr.'s traveling schedule. When Barger was four months old his mother took him to the babysitters house and never came back, leaving the infant Barger to be picked up by social workers and eventually reclaimed by his father. Barger later found out that his mother ran off with a Trailways bus driver. Although his mother attempted contact with Barger several times via mail, Barger never returned any letters. The Barger family settled in east Oakland, CA shortly after.

Barger described his father as a functioning alcoholic that worked as a position with a meat packing company as well as a frieght company and regularly registered with Local 70 in Oakland as a lumper. Barger would regularly accompany his father to the bars in Jack London Square while the elder Barger drank while the younger Barger stole pretzels and hard boiled eggs off the bar. Barger's grandmother, Nora Barger, died in 1946 when Barger was eight years old and as a result of Barger Sr.'s drinking, Barger and his sister Shirley began working at a local gas station for extra money. At times the gas station employees would have to call the younger Barger and his sister to come get the elder Barger, as he was too drunk to walk home.

Barger describes his education throught the public school system as being "dragged through Oakland's public schools, first Bella Vista Grammar School, then Roosevelt Junior High School, and finally on to Oakland High." Barger wrote that he never liked being told what to do and that he was kicked out of the fifth grade for a short time after attacking his teacher. Barger attacked a teacher refereeing a school soft ball game with a baseball bat after a disagreement regarding a call in grammar school. By the time he reached junior high school, Barger was fighting at least once a week. Barger describes this as a part of growing up in east Oakland, California as well as a way of determining who was the toughest on the school yard. Barger would even fight friends just for the thrill of it. After being caught fighting while in junior high, the school principal made an attempt to strike Barger with a leather strap. Barger reacted by attacking the principal and was suspended for two weeks. Barger was suspended once more in junior high for slapping a teacher after the teacher told a girlfriend of Barger's the he was a bum and that she shouldn't be seeing him. Barger dropped out of school while in high school.

Barger began working at a grocery store making thirty dollars a month. While Barger was still in high school, he organized his first club the Earth Angels, after the Penguins song. Barger wrote that although he and his friends emroidered a club logo on the back's of their jackets, the Earth Angels never stood for anything and didn't last long. At the age of fourteen Barger began smoking pot. Barger wrote that back in those days in Oakland, if you bought a match box full of pot for five bucks, "man, you were really holding; you had alot of marijuana!" However, Barger's sister Shirley married, and Barger Sr. sold the house Barger had been living in, leaving Barger homeless. Barger decided to join the United States Army. However, Barger was underaged at the time and the recruiter contacted Barger claiming that it would be impossible for Barger to join if he was not of age. Barger told the recruiter there must be some mistake and Barger wrote that with a flick of a pen the recruiter changed Barger's birthdate and Barger was sworn into the Army on July 14, 1955 at the illegal age of 16.

Tour in the United States Army

Barger wrote that the Korean War had just come to a close when Barger entered the Army and the Twenty-fifth Division had just arrived back home. As a result, the war hardened veterans made it a point to teach the young up and comers like Barger how to let loose. Many of them were more than a little restless and some had tattoo's and rode motorcycles. Barger wrote that "These were the guys who created a deep imression on me. I finally saw a reason for regimentation, so I went with the flow." After making it through basic training, Barger was stationed in Honolulu. Barger began sneaking into the bars with the older GI's and sometimes fist fight with the locals. Barger learned how to take weapons apart as well as how to reassemble them. Barger was made a machine gunner soon after. However, after fourteen months in the United States Army, Barger was called into battalion headquarters and honorably discharged from the Army after being discovered as having falsified his birth certificate.

Barger returned to Oakland, California and made one attempt to re-enlist into the Army. After seeing an Army appointed psyciatrist, Barger was deemed "to aggressive and non-conformist," for military duty. Barger obtained a job first as a night janitor, then a position on the assembly line at the Chevrolet plant in Oakland, then the assembly line at the Granny Goose Potato Chip factory, and finally a job cutting and threading pipe at a company called NACO that specialized in overhead spirnkler systems. Barger could not get in sync with the nine to five schedule and wrote he was "as itchy coming out of the Army as I was going in."

Hells Angels Motorcycle Club-Oakland, California

Barger has stated that when he saw the 1954 film The Wild One, Lee Marvin instantly became his hero. Barger wrote, "Lee's attitude was 'If you fuck with me, I'll hit back.'" Barger wrote that his first motorcycle was a Cushman that he bought at the age of thirteen. Barger then bought a 1936 Harley Davidson knuckle head after being discharged from the Army for $125.00. Barger joined the Oakland Panthers MC in 1956, the first motorcycle club Barger ever joined.

However, Barger wrote the club was very disorganized as most of the club members didnt even know each other's names and whenever trouble from other clubs or harrasment from law enforecment occured, it became every man for himself. Barger wanted more solidarity and left the club shortly after. Barger wrote there were many motorcycle clubs in Oakland such as the Oakland MC and the Pissano Boys MC that were mostly comprised of ex-GI's.

Barger began riding around Oakland with some new friends, one of whom was a rider named Don "Boots" Reeves. Reeves wore a patch he had picked up in Sacramento, California from a now defunct club in North Sacramento. The patch was a winged skull wearing an aviator's cap. Barger and the other riders decided to name the club after the patch, the Hells Angels. In 1957, Barger and the others had the skull patch, later to become known as the Deaths Head, embroidered on the back's of their jackets with a top rocker that read Hells Angels. The bottom rocker read Nomad for the first year of the Oakland Hells Angels MC's existence, however it was changed to Oakland a year after the clubs formation.Barger rode down to southern California in the summer of 1957, along with a man named Eddie Brown and two unknown women, headed for Gardena, California.

Along the way, Barger's transmission on his bike broke down. While standing along side the highway, a biker by the name of Vic Bettencourt rode up along side Barger and Brown to see what the trouble was. To Barger's surprise, Bettencourt was wearing a Hells Angels cut as well. Bettencourt took Barger and Brown to his clubhouse where he fixed Barger's transmission and put Barger up for a couple of days, letting Barger and Brown stay at the clubhouse. Bettencourt explained to Barger that there were Hells Angels in the San Gabriel Valley, Fresno, San Bernadino, and San Fransisco. The first Hells Angels MC chapter was founded in 1948 in San Bernadino, California by renegade members of the Pissed Off Bastards MC from Fontana, CA, Bettencourt told Barger. Bettencourt then instructed Barger on how a motorcycle club should be run as far as meetings, dues, rules and regulations.

Barger and Brown returned to Oakland soon after and Barger immediatley set to work on organizing the Hells Angels MC in Oakland. Barger changed the bottom rockers from Nomad to Oakland to establish Oakland as the Hells Angels MC's turf. Barger used what Bettencourt had taught him to handle the first Oakland Hells Angels club meetings. Don Reeves was elected the first president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels MC. However, a few months after being elected president, Reeves left to pursue a country western singing career in the Midwest. In 1958, Sonny Barger was elected president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels MC.

President

After taking over from Don Reeves as president in 1958, Barger established firm club rules within the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels MC. Members were not allowed to fight or swear in meeting and were expected to conduct themselves in a proffesional manner. If a member swore, he was required to put money into a jar that went to the clubs treasury. Barger began establishing contacts with the other Hells Angels MC's across California, establishing a rule that no club be permitted to establish a charter within fifty miles of another club. This rule was lifted by the Northern California Hells Angels chapters when charters began forming in San Jose, Sononma, Daly City, and Vallejo, California. Barger established the Oakland chapters first clubhouse as the Snake Pit, which was right around the corner from the 400 Club, which the Oakland Hells Angel MC members liked to drink at. Barger made a rule that any members who slept over night at the Snake Pit were required to pitch in on rent.

Barger re-designed the Deaths Head patch in 1959, debuting the larger version of the winged skull wearing the aviator's cap at a Halloween party in San Fransisco. Barger wrote that the Sacramento and Richmond Hells Angels immediatley took to the new design, however San Fransisco, San Bernadino and several other SoCal chapters wanted nothing to do with it, opting to stick with the old patch. This patch design would become known as the "Barger Larger." Despite the resistance of some of the older clubs, the Barger Larger became "more the rule than the exception," according to Barger. Barger's club in Oakland came into conflict with the San Bernadino Hells Angels MC members when Barger and several of the Northern California clubs opted to change their bottom rockers to read California rather than the respective town that each chapter came from.

Barger had particular trouble with the Gypsy Jokers MC, a club that origionated in San Fransico, Oakland, and San Jose, California. The Jokers were friends of the San Fransisco Hells Angels MC, causing conflict as whenever the Oakland and San Fransico Hells Angels chapters would come into conflict, the San Fransisco Hells Angels would call in the Gypsy Jokers for back up. Barger and the Oakland Hells Angels found this to be out of line with Hells Angels MC protocal. After an Oakland Hells Angel's wife was beaten badly by a group of Gypsy Jokers, Barger and the Oakland chapter "cut up" a large group of Gypsy Jokers. The Gypsy Jokers beat two Daly City Hells Angels with baseball bats in Golden Gate Park. Barger warned San Fransisco to cut all ties with the Gypsy Jokers MC and then ran the Gypsy Jokers out of California. Barger states that until recently the Gypsy Jokers were not allowed to wear their club's colors in California and that they no longer maintain any club houses in California.

By 1966, Barger and the Hells Angels MC granted the first out of California Hells Angels charter to a club in Omaha, Nebraska, followed by a Hells Angels charter in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1967. The first European charter was granted in Switzerland while Barger was president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels. It was decided by Barger and the SoCal chapters that Barger would be in charge of all new charter's granted in Northern California under the Oakland chapters flag, and that San Bernadino would over see all new chapters granted in SoCal.

During the late sixties Barger established the Special California Rules, as California was the home base of the Hells Angels MC despite their expansion. These rules somehow ended up in the hands of the media, and some were printed in the news.Barger is considered the most influential president of the Oakland Hells Angels MC and credited with organizing the Oakland club into the most powerful Hells Angels MC chapter at the time. Barger remained official president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels MC until recieving his fifteen years to life prison sentence in 1973.

Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Oulaw Motorcycle Gangs

Barger was one of the main members of the Hells Angels MC featured in Hunter S. Thompson's 1967 book, Hell's Angels:The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorycle Gangs. In Thompson's book, Barger, along with fellow Oakland Hells Angels Terry the Tramp, Tiny Walters, Zorro, Magoo, and Jim Miles are followed by Thompson through their involvements in the VDC riots at UC Berkley, the 1965 Bass Lake Run, and TIME magazine covering the funeral of Jim Miles. Barger has stated that he disliked Thompson and found the book to be innacurate in its depiction of the Hells Angels MC as well as extremley over embelished regarding its content. Thompson was beaten severely by a member of the Hells Angels MC, later identified by Barger as Junkie George, after Thompson made a comment to his attacker the man found disrespectful.

The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

Barger was once again featured in a book in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, chronicalizing Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters's LSD experiences aboard a school bus dubbed Further. Hunter S. Thompson appears along with Barger and Oakland Hells Angels Terry the Tramp, Tiny Walters, and Buzzard. The Oakland and San Fransisco chapters of the Hells Angels MC visited Ken Kesey's La Honda, California ranch several times along with other notable figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Jerry Garcia.

Involvement in VDC Riots

On October 16, 1965, Barger, Tiny Walters, Zorro and Fat Freddie, all Oakland Hells Angels, attended an anti-war rally on the Oakland-Berkley city line. While at first, the crowd cheered the Hells Angels MC, Barger began attacking random college students and attempted to attack VDC organizer Jerry Ruben before being subdued by police. Tiny Walters was arrested for breaking an Oakland police officer's leg. Barger held a press conference shortly after in which Barger explained that the Hells Angels MC had attacked the protesters because they were all former vets who felt the protesters were behaving un-patriotically by not supporting the soldiers in Viet Nahm. After meeting with the anti-war protesters at his home in Oakland along with Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassidy, Barger released a statement, promising that the Hells Angels MC would not attend any anti-war protests as their presence would result in violence.

Rolling Stones Free Concert

Barger and several members of the Oakland and San Fransisco chapters of the Hells Angels MC attended the Rolling Stones Free Concert in Altamont, California in 1969. Barger arrived at the concert a few hours late, and fighting had already begun between members of the Hells Angels MC and concert goers, as well as performers. Barger has said that the Rolling Stones did not take the stage when expected, which agitated the already unruly crowd. Once the Rolling Stones began their performance a fight broke out at the front of the stage when one of the Hells Angels motorcycles caught on fire. When a large naked woman charged the stage and was subdued by members of the Hells Angels MC, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards threatened to stop playing. Barger produced a pistol and ordered him back out on stage.

Barger wrote that he was not present when Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by a member of the Hells Angels MC after pulling out a gun and aiming it at concert goers. Meredith was already dead by the time Barger arrived at the scene of the incident. The following night, Barger made a very famous call to KSAN radio, an underground rock station in the bay area at the time, in which he defended the Hells Angels MC for their actions and gave the Hells Angels version of events. Barger revealed that he had been told by members of the Rolling Stones management that as long as Barger and the Hells Angels sat on the stage and acted as security, they would be supplied with beer. Barger later admitted in his autobiography that he was high on cocaine at the time of the call. The Rolling Stones denied any such agreement with the Hells Angels MC. Barger can be seen at the Altamont concert in the documentary Gimme Shelter, chronicilizing the Rolling Stones United States tour.

Arrests and Imrisonment

In 1963 Barger was given six months in jail and six months probation for marijuana possesion. In 1965 Barger was arrested for assualt with a deadly weapon with intent to kill after pistol whipping a man and then shooting him twice in an Oakland bar. Barger was later acquited. In 1968, Barger's Golflinks Road home in Oakland, California was raided by law enforcment in which a .30/.30 rifle and AR-15 assualt rifle were confiscated. Later that year, during another raid on Barger's home, a man walking towards Barger's home threw a suitcase containing half a pound of heroine and six ounces of cocaine into Barger's garage before being tackled by police. In 1972, Barger was arrested for kidnapping and attempted murder when one of the two cars in the two car party in which he was traveling evaded police during a traffic stop, crashing into a tree, and revealing two Hells Angels MC prospects bound and gagged in the trunk.

Barger was arrested later when evidence thrown from the car in which he was traveling was recovered. A belt with Barger's name and rank within the Hells Angels MC was found along with several firearms. Later that year, Barger was charged with multiple murder in the death of Severo Agero and three men found dead in an apartment in Oakland, California. Barger was aquited of all murder charges. However in 1973, Barger pled guilty to possesion of heroine with intent to distribute as well as posession of other drugs and was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison.

Barger began his first prison sentence at Vacaville Correctional Facility in Vacaville, California before being transfered to Folsom State Prison. Barger was indicted for income tax evasion and pled guilty while behind bars. Barger returned to Oakland, California when he was released from prison on November 3, 1977 after his 1963 marijuana conviction was overturned.

On June 14, 1979 FBI agents raided several homes belonging to Oakland Hells Angels MC members, as well as the Oakland chapter's clubhouse. Barger was arrested along with several other Oakland Hells Angels MC members and charged with violations of the RICO statute. Barger's bail was set at $2 million. Barger and the other Oakland Hells Angels MC members were found not guilty in July of 1980.

Barger was arrested in November of 1987 for plotting to transport explosives over state lines with intent to kill based on the inormation gathered by government informant Anthony Tait. Tait had been a member of the Anchorage, Alaska Hells Angels chapter and became the west coast rep by the mid 1980's. Tait purchased explosives and drugs from several Oakland Hells Angels MC members as well as Hells Angels from chapters across the country and recorded conversations with Barger discussing blowing up the Chicago clubhouse of the Hells Angels rival Outlaws MC. Barger was sent to a federal correctional institution in Eaglewood, Colorado before being transfered to Phoenix Correctional Institution in Arizona. Barger served fifty-nine months and was released in 1992. Barger has spent more than fourteen years in prison.

Move to Arizona

Barger was released from prison in 1992 and returned to Oakland, California as a member of the Hells Angels MC. Barger informed his fellow Hells Angels that if the Hells Angels MC ever granted a charter in Arizona, Barger would be requesting a transfer. In 1994, the Dirty Dozen MC, an Arizona based motorcycle club, petitioned for membership with the Hells Angels MC. By 1997, Barger had asked the Oakland club for a transfer and officially became a member of the Cave Creek, Arizona chapter of the Hells Angels MC. As of 2011 Barger is a member of the Cave Creek, Arizona chapter.

Book and Media Career

Barger is the author of 6 books and appeared in 1967's Hells Angels on Wheels, 1969's Hell's Angels 69', the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter, and recently as Lenny the Pimp in the season finale of the third season of Sons of Anarchy in 2010.

References and sources

Notes

Sources

• Barger, Sonny; Zimmerman, Keith (2001), Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, HarperCollins, ISBN 0060937548, 9780060937546 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Barger, Sonny (2003), Ridin' High, Livin' Free: Hell-Raising Motorcycle Stories, HarperCollins, ISBN 006000603X, 9780060006037 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Barger, Sonny (2004), Dead in 5 Heartbeats, HarperCollins, ISBN 006053253X, 9780060532536 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Barger, Sonny; Zimmerman, Keith (2005), Freedom: Credos from the Road, ISBN 0060532564, 9780060532567 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Bryant, Nick (5 October 2000), ""Hell's Angel" interview (Audio)", Salon.com
• Stillman, Deanne (10 July 2000), "Hell's author; Legendary bad-ass biker Sonny Barger and his roaring Harley are burnin' up the highways on a ... uh ... book tour?", Salon.com

External Links

• http://sonnybarger.com/index3.html