Sonny Barger Dead

Jeff Higgins · 06-30-2022, 05:20 PM

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1109064686/hells-angels-figurehead-sonny-barger-dies

Sonny Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died. He was 83.

Barger's death was announced on his Facebook page late Wednesday.

"If you are reading this message, you'll know that I'm gone. I've asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing," a posting said. "I've lived a long and good life filled with adventure. And I've had the privilege to be part of an amazing club."

The post said that "I passed peacefully after a brief battle with cancer."

And the world is a better place...

masraum · 06-30-2022, 06:13 PM

I think I've read that you're a motorcycle guy.
Just to be sure that I'm reading this right, are you saying that the world is a better place now that he's passed away, or are you saying that it is a better place because he had been in it? Based on what little I think I know about the HA, I would assume it would be the former.

Jeff Higgins · 06-30-2022, 06:41 PM

You are right - the former.

This feckless ass hole criminal murderer somehow achieved cult status in our world of motorcycling. Hero worship from all of the RUBS (Rich Urban Bikers) and badass wannabes. His life had somehow become romanticized over the years. He was a murderer. He was a pimp. He was a drug dealer. He was a racketeer. And that was his good side.

Bill Douglas · 06-30-2022, 06:52 PM

Around here back in the 1970s the Hells Angels and Satan Slaves were white biker gangs who went around terrorising the black gangs. Provided a bit of equilibrium if that's the right word. It was kind of fun seeing hoards of them blasting down the road on Triumph 650s - out on a mission. Now they are just a bunch of old guys with bad limps and watching Coronation Street on the TV behind the barbed wire walls.

Now the biker gangs are all black and decidedly sinister. Heavy dealing in meth etc. The police don't do much because it would be considered racist, so they seem to get away with anything.

Jeff Higgins · 06-30-2022, 07:23 PM

To be fair, when Sonny started his chapter of the HA in Oakland in the late '50's and early '60's, they were just a bunch of young tough guys out for a good time. Working stiffs who couldn't even afford a car, so they rode bikes. They found one another and connected, building a deep and lasting camaraderie. "Brothers" in the truest essence of the word, fiercely faithful to the club and one another.

Then they found drugs, and the money to be made by dealing in them. Many, many of them actually left the club because they simply could not support this new found direction. Honest, hard working guys, family men, who wanted nothing to do with it. The face of the biker club changed entirely when they became organized criminal, for profit enterprises.

The whole thing had gone to schitt by the time I got involved in the late '70's. I had been attracted by the mythos surrounding the whole thing which, by the time I was old enough to actually ride with them, was largely a thing of the past. By the time I got involved, one was expected to participate in these "club activities". All I wanted was guys to ride with, carouse with, drink with, raise some hell with. They wanted foot soldiers...

Today, the clubs have been divided between the "haves" and the "have nots". Lots of b.s. about "brotherhood". What that means is when the drug dealing, pimping, racketeering, illicit gambling clique gets busted, everyone else is expected to "help out". Guys who do not share in the profits of these illegal enterprises suddenly find themselves expected to mortgage their homes, sell their vehicles, raid their children' college funds, or whatever it takes to provide for the bail and legal expenses of their "brothers". Who never shared the largess of whatever it was that got them busted...

That, and the "freak show" that much of it has become. Rather than seeking out good, honest people who value the camaraderie, they tend to attract exceedingly violent psychopaths. The more flamboyantly violent the better. Huge, 'roided out violent psychopaths who dearly love to hurt people, as a hobby. The more intimidating the better. And everyone else is bound, by the "brotherhood", to cover for these guys no matter how unhinged they are.

And Sonny made bank on this. As most of the guys who started the whole thing with him left in disgust, he nurtured it and grew it. He was the consummate sociopath. He didn't give a schitt about anyone but himself - one of his most infamous sayings in club circles was "I burn all of my bridges". "Brotherhood" to him was loyalty to him - a one-way street. He consistently broke all of his own rules, the very "code" under which everyone else was supposed to live, under threat of reprisal from him. He tried to portray himself as an honorable man, with honor above all else. He was anything but, and everyone knew it. The guys sucking up to him pretended he was, all right, but those were the kinds he surrounded himself with. The rest knew better and left. When they did, the entire face of the "outlaw biker" culture changed, and not for the better. I knew some great guys in the clubs. They all left 40 years ago.

911boost · 911boost's Garage

Good riddance, I agree.

Never understood why he was seen as anything other than a dirtbag. And air ride, a lot, call me a RUB or whatever you want, but the HA’s suck.

asphaltgambler · 07-01-2022, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

To be fair, when Sonny started his chapter of the HA in Oakland in the late '50's and early '60's, they were just a bunch of young tough guys out for a good time. Working stiffs who couldn't even afford a car, so they rode bikes. They found one another and connected, building a deep and lasting camaraderie. "Brothers" in the truest essence of the word, fiercely faithful to the club and one another.

Then they found drugs, and the money to be made by dealing in them. Many, many of them actually left the club because they simply could not support this new found direction. Honest, hard working guys, family men, who wanted nothing to do with it. The face of the biker club changed entirely when they became organized criminal, for profit enterprises.

The whole thing had gone to schitt by the time I got involved in the late '70's. I had been attracted by the mythos surrounding the whole thing which, by the time I was old enough to actually ride with them, was largely a thing of the past. By the time I got involved, one was expected to participate in these "club activities". All I wanted was guys to ride with, carouse with, drink with, raise some hell with. They wanted foot soldiers...

Today, the clubs have been divided between the "haves" and the "have nots". Lots of b.s. about "brotherhood". What that means is when the drug dealing, pimping, racketeering, illicit gambling clique gets busted, everyone else is expected to "help out". Guys who do not share in the profits of these illegal enterprises suddenly find themselves expected to mortgage their homes, sell their vehicles, raid their children' college funds, or whatever it takes to provide for the bail and legal expenses of their "brothers". Who never shared the largess of whatever it was that got them busted...

That, and the "freak show" that much of it has become. Rather than seeking out good, honest people who value the camaraderie, they tend to attract exceedingly violent psychopaths. The more flamboyantly violent the better. Huge, 'roided out violent psychopaths who dearly love to hurt people, as a hobby. The more intimidating the better. And everyone else is bound, by the "brotherhood", to cover for these guys no matter how unhinged they are.

And Sonny made bank on this. As most of the guys who started the whole thing with him left in disgust, he nurtured it and grew it. He was the consummate sociopath. He didn't give a schitt about anyone but himself - one of his most infamous sayings in club circles was "I burn all of my bridges". "Brotherhood" to him was loyalty to him - a one-way street. He consistently broke all of his own rules, the very "code" under which everyone else was supposed to live, under threat of reprisal from him. He tried to portray himself as an honorable man, with honor above all else. He was anything but, and everyone knew it. The guys sucking up to him pretended he was, all right, but those were the kinds he surrounded himself with. The rest knew better and left. When they did, the entire face of the "outlaw biker" culture changed, and not for the better. I knew some great guys in the clubs. They all left 40 years ago.

Well said, exacting and true in the least words possible.......

Cairo94507 · Cairo94507's Garage

@Jeff Higgins - An excellent summary of the HA's. The only good they ever did, that I saw, was keeping the other biker gangs in check to some degree.

asphaltgambler · 07-01-2022, 11:51 AM

In northern Va the Pagan's and Warlock's are the 2 largest clubs. Interestingly, have seen little of either in the last few years. Not sure why, but there aren't any bike shows or events anymore, and that's where they would show up.

Gretch · 07-01-2022, 01:27 PM

Jeff H,

Not doubting your summary at all..............

Question: did you know the man personally?

Jeff Higgins · 07-01-2022, 03:23 PM

No, I did not. This is all second hand, through then current members, and ex members I've known and ridden with. Mostly many, many years ago, but some of them much more recently - I just had lunch with one a month ago. But no, he never made it up here, except for book signings and other promotions. Most of the members around here had never met him either, by the way.

His reputation permeated their world. There was a real love/hate, respect/fear, admiration/loathing relationship. Most lived in fear of crossing him in some way, so actually either actively tried to avoid or, at best, didn't put much effort into meeting him. He was very much an enigma in that way, at least to the guys I knew (or know).

My comments on the club scene in general do come from first hand experience. I was pretty enamored with the whole thing when I was younger. I was asked to prospect for a major club, and probably would have done so, but then I met my wife... That, and as I got deeper into it, my pending role began to clarify, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be the romance of the "outlaw biker" I had convinced myself it was going to be. I followed a few of my "mentors" out the door (on their advice) as they were turning in their patches, for the reasons outlined above.

masraum · 07-01-2022, 05:37 PM

I was born in 1970. I'd never had any notion of the HA as being anything other than a gang of criminal on bikes.

If the HA are a criminal organization that takes part in a little bit of everything nasty, and he was the head, then the head of the organization was not a good man.

Around here, I've mostly heard of the Bandidos.

Quote:

1. Who are the Bandidos?

The gang was started in San Leon, Texas, in 1966. It's one of the largest outlaw motorcycle gangs in the United States, with about 900 members and 93 chapters, according to the FBI. The Bandidos has a membership of 2,000 to 2,500 people in the U.S. and in 13 other countries, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

2. How dangerous are they?

A state gang threat assessment released last year by the Texas Department of Public Safety ranked the Bandidos as a "Tier 2" gang — or the second-most dangerous classification — alongside the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano (PRM). The most dangerous outlaw motorcycle gang in the U.S. is considered the Hells Angels from California.