Billy Grondalski, Patty Grondalski and Vandagriff were each killed by a single gunshot wound to the head from Lester, while Dallas Grondalski died as a result of multiple stab wounds from Diaz, which severed her spinal cord and caused a near-decapitation. Tori Schneebaum For Dailymail.Com
[167] On May 5, 1995, Diaz, by then the Vallejo chapter president, was arrested in Ukiah and Lester was apprehended in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he was living after leaving the club in June 1987. On November 14, 1977, Oakland Hells Angels chapter vice-president James Patton "Sleepy Jim" Brandes was found to be in possession of a pound of methamphetamine, which was hidden behind a threshold plate in a door of his Lincoln Continental, as well as a police radio, a radio band directory, a homemade police siren, a blue flasher, a pocket-sized tape recorder, a radio transmitter and a device for detecting surveillance equipment after he was pulled over by Zerby and his partner, inspector Richard Grundy. Bushnell noted that this incident was then part of Hunter S. Thompson's book on the club. Barger temporarily resigned as president of the Oakland chapter in June 1970 to fight the charges, but returned to the position within months after his successor, John "Johnny Angel" Palomar, was sentenced to a ten-year prison term for shooting a bartender. "[22] President Johnson did not reply to the letter. Two people were killed, and the murders got everybody's attention. Barger would later claim that Hunter fired a shot which struck a Hells Angels member with what he described as "just a flesh wound. In 1964, members were accused of rape in Monterey allegations that they disputed. "[75], In 2005, after a two-year exhaustive cold-case renewal of the file, the Alameda County District Attorney's office permanently closed the case. Wethern and his wife were charged with drug and stolen property possession,[127] and four other Hells Angels Edward "Junior" Carter, Chester M. "Festus" Green, William Mark "Zorro" Mitten and William John Moran were charged with murder and accessory to murder. [211] Eleven of those stood trial. [54], San Diego Hells Angels chapter president Guy Russell Castiglione and his girlfriend, Kathleen Rebecca Pirelli, were indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess two pounds of methamphetamine with intent to distribute after the drugs were found in Pirelli's purse during a search by U.S. Border Patrol agents at a Temecula checkpoint on May 13, 1989. About 30 of his friends joined and that was the beginning.'. [5], Members of the San Bernardino Hells Angels chapter, along with bikers from the Glendale chapter of the Mongols, the Straight Satans of Venice, and the Glendale Night Riders, committed a sexual assault on a fifteen year-old girl in August 1972. Droopy had stage four cancer and introduced Bushnell to other Straight Satans and then former Hells Angels. The Hells Angels have a special hatred for the Mongols, and relations have grown steadily worse over the past year. Haarlem - Holland 1980. [154] According to a statement given to investigators by one of the Hells Angels arrested in the explosives seizure, "Old Man" John Noble, Glore was assassinated over a personal dispute with Russell Beyea,[155] a senior member of the Oakland Hells Angels. [198], San Jose Police Department (SJPD) sergeant John Kracht survived an attempt on his life when a bomb detonated near his car on February 19, 1977. [113] Investigators were unable to determine the amount of property damage and the number of people injured due to a lack of cooperation from witnesses. [5][79] Forty-two HAMC members and associates were served with grand jury subpoenas on March 27, 1978, as part of the investigation into the bombing. At a later murder trial of Hells Angel Alan Passaro, a security guard testified he heard the Hells Angels being summoned over the loudspeakers when the helicopter bearing The Rolling Stones landed. [5], Oakland chapter member Sergey Walton was arrested in October 1979 and convicted in March 1980 of possessing a machine gun. [81] Fourteen of those arrested were "patch holding" members of the San Diego chapter. . Debate after the event was over whether the Hells Angels were to manage security for the entire concert or just for The Rolling Stones. In 1975, several Axemen members survived the bombing of their clubhouse via a remote-controlled explosive device. Sparks declared a state of emergency after another motorcyclist wearing Vagos colors was shot shortly afterwards in the stomach from a passing vehicle. Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and prostitution rings. This page is not available in other languages. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform but cancelled at the last minute owing to the ensuing circumstances at the venue. [5] Days later, San Fernando Valley Mongols chapter president Luis Gutierrez survived a car bombing outside his home. 'After '64, all these people started creating their own clubs or joining these clubs and thought it was (what) the media portrayed it to be and things just got out of hand.'. [78] The Hells Angels declared war on the Mongols] at a meeting on July 7, 1977. Official Website of the Sonoma Co Hells Angels! This is what they were. Garceau shot and killed Rambo, one of his drug business partners, in Monterey County on February 19, 1985, after he became concerned that Rambo may become an informant. [18][19], 48 Hells Angels members and their girlfriends were arrested at their clubhouse on San Francisco's Folsom Street on December 5, 1964, on charges of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana, contributing to the delinquency of a minor (three of the girls were alleged to be underage), aiding suspected felons, and the alleged rape of a twenty-five-year-old woman, who claimed she was assaulted on the premises the day before. According to Barger's chief attorney James Crew, Ivaldi himself was involved in the conspiracy to kill Agero and, knowing he was a prime suspect and fearing retaliation from the "Texas Mafia", he tried to shift the blame to the Hells Angels. She didn't want a cent. [40][41] The California Department of Justice estimated that the Hells Angels distributed approximately $31 million of narcotics between 1969 and 1972. [57][58], Thirteen members of the Hades Riders MC in Fresno were arrested in July 1989 on narcotics and weapons violations charges. [48], Drug dealer Gail Elmer English and Vallejo HAMC chapter president John Henderson were killed, and another Hells Angel, Ted DeWilde, was left in critical condition as a result of a gun battle at English's Vallejo home on November 1, 1973. Motorcycle parts such as handlebars and tail pipes were used as weapons in the melee, which ended when officers from four local police departments and the Orange County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene approximately five minutes after the fighting began and bikers began to flee. [84], The Mongols seized control of Southern California from the Hells Angels during the 1980s. For 18 months, between 2005 and 2007, Dave (Shaky) Atwell acted as a police informer, "ratting" on his fellow members of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle gang in downtown Toronto. [114], In 2011, president of the San Jose chapter Jeffrey Pettigrew,[115] was shot four times in the back on September 23, 2011, at a casino in Sparks, Nevada. [162], In November 1981, a task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers raided a Hells Angels clubhouse in San Diego and confiscated machine guns, shotguns, more than fifty handguns, explosives, explosives manuals, torture kits, electronic eavesdropping equipment, police radio scanners and narcotics. After his death, Grondalski's Hells Angels tattoo was severed from his body and later disposed of by Lester in the toilet of a recreational vehicle owned by associates of his. [142] On the remaining charges, which included drug possession and firearms offenses, six of the accused Ronald H. Elledge, John Palomar, Alan Passaro, Manuel Rubio, Donald Smith and Bert Stefanson were convicted, while the remaining twelve were acquitted. 04:12 BST 29 May 2021. His name was Droopy. San Bernardino Hells Angels chapter, along with bikers from the Glendale chapter of the Mongols, the Straight Satans of Venice, and the Glendale Night Riders, committed a sexual assault on a fifteen year-old girl in August 1972. [184] He died from cancer at the age of fifty-eight on December 29, 2004, while on death row at San Quentin State Prison.[185]. That chapter is known as Berdoo. [43] According to police intelligence reports, Barger had designated San Jose chapter president Fillmore Cross as his international successor during a motorcycle run at Bass Lake prior to his imprisonment. [5] With over 300 members statewide, the Hells Angels are the most significant motorcycle gang in California in terms of membership and criminal activity. The club opened chapters in San Francisco and Oakland in 1954 and 1957, respectively, and . The case was the result of a months-long investigation into the chapter by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), IRS Criminal Investigation and two local police departments. 19:45 BST 28 May 2021
They had each been fatally shot in the head two days earlier after being handcuffed and beaten. [117][118] Another Hell's Angel, Steve Tausan, an "enforcer" for the Santa Cruz chapter, was shot at Pettigrew's funeral. The complaint describes an October 2021 hours-long assault at the Vallejo clubhouse, where roughly a dozen Hells Angels allegedly pulverized two members of the Union Iron Workers Motorcycle Club . [144], Mark Gary Robles, sergeant-at-arms of the Hells Angels' San Diego chapter, was fatally shot several times in the back before his body was discovered in his parked van in San Diego's Clairemont neighborhood in October 1976. The incident followed a series of shootings and attempted murders between the clubs over the previous eight months in Orange and Los Angeles counties. The warrant was based on an incident in which Breer was alleged to have brandished a firearm during a traffic encounter with other motorists on August 5, 2018, and then evaded police officers in a subsequent chase. On April 5, . SAN FRANCISCO After a two-month trial, a jury is set to decide the fate of three Hells Angels members accused of murdering a fellow club member who . It's 50 years since Easy Rider, but the route the characters rode, from LA to New Orleans, still offers a unique insight into the soul of America, Inside the vanished world of SoCal's cruising scene when Camaros and Corvettes roared down Van Nuys Boulevard, gas was 33 cents, and barefoot blondes and brunettes chilled on hoods during the summer of '72, Thousands of bikers descend on South Dakota town for 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which is expected to draw 250,000 people - sparking coronavirus concerns among residents, 'We're not your enemies!' [153], Three members of the Hells Angels' Los Angeles chapter were arrested on January 6, 1978, in connection with the theft of two thousand pounds of dynamite, which was stolen from a construction site in San Diego County in September 1977. I don't let nobody come around and shove me around. He was a technical consultant for films about the Hells Angels, including "Hell's . [5], The Hells Angels became involved in a dispute with the Mongols after the rival club began wearing a California "bottom rocker" a patch displayed on a biker's "colors" denoting the club's territory. [21] 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. [43] The drug charges against Barger were later dismissed, although Howarth was convicted and sentenced to serve five years-to-life in prison. [8], Oakland Hells Angels chapter member Ray Dale "Stork" Keefauver, who had been scheduled to testify for the prosecution in a Redwood City murder trial, was found shot to death in a ravine near Port Costa on June 16, 1974. The indictment alleges the group were responsible for the murders of Morris and Smith as well as the bombing of their funeral. Kracht, who was in charge of all SJPD motorcycle gang investigations, had been involved in arresting numerous Hells Angels members, and he had testified against club members on several occasions. [5] Five Hells Angels members including "Gorgeous" Guy Russell Castiglione, James "Brett" Eaton and Thomas James Renzulli were indicted on racketeering and conspiracy charges in September 1982. "Passaro acted with a knife to stop Meredith Hunter from shooting. [6] The West Coast faction of the HAMC has also been especially active in the infiltration of legitimate businesses, including motorcycle and automobile services, catering operations, bars, restaurants, and antique stores. Two employees of Schultz's limousine service, Gerald Robert Ladley and Thomas Longnecker, were also charged with distributing methamphetamine from the business. [5], Bert Stefanson and Sergey C. Walton, both members of the Hells Angels' Oakland chapter, were charged with weapons and narcotics violations when police found loaded pistols, hand grenades, tear gas canisters, blasting caps, three bags of cocaine and $8,911 in cash in the car in which they were travelling after they were stopped for speeding in Sacramento in March 1972. Travelling the country at government expense, Tait made documented purchases of weapons, explosives and drugs from the Hells Angels. [5] Noble claimed to have been present at a meeting of California chapter officers in Oakland at which a majority of the participants voted in favor of killing Glore. He was granted immunity from prosecution in the Grondalski case other than for the murders in return for his testimony, and also hoped for a reduced sentence in the drug case. ATF agents matched the bomb components to the explosives given to the informant by Renzulli on September 30. An informant had led investigating detectives to the location of the automobile in which Long's corpse was found. Disappearance of Contra Costa Hells Angel part of FBI investigation; feds allege one of three missing members was murdered, cremated Racketeering case making its way, slowly, to trial By Nate. [204] The 1982 made-for-television film Hear No Evil was based on the incident. [7] Additionally, the California Hells Angels have associated in criminal ventures with the Aryan Brotherhood,[8] the Mexican Mafia,[9] and the Nazi Lowriders. [128][129] Wethern became a government witness and the charges against him and his wife were dismissed. A pack of Mongols displaying their bold new California rockers rode along one of Southern California's winding freeways. [169] Waring, a tow truck driver who worked as an informant for California Highway Patrol detectives for over ten years,[170] was convicted of first-degree murder on October 12, 2001 and sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole on February 8, 2002. Another club, the Galloping Goose had formed in the 1940s. Marsh was taken into custody in Manteca on June 27, and Shepherd was apprehended by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputies and California Highway Patrol troopers on Route 60 on July 26 after a high-speed chase through Chino and Ontario. Sonny, the leader of the San Bernardino Hells Angels, needed stitches in his head after crashing his bike, California, 1965. [217] He purchased methamphetamine and cocaine from Kautzman on five occasions between June 4 and November 6, 1982. The handgun used in the killings was melted down with a blowtorch and the slag was scattered over several northern California counties by Michael W. "Little Mike" Tankersley, a member of the Hells Angels' Sonoma County chapter. [157] He fled from San Francisco County Jail on March 24, 1981 while awaiting transfer to a federal prison in Illinois to begin serving an eight-year sentence. His testimony led Mendocino County deputies to a ranch, owned by former Oakland Hells Angels chapter vice-president George J. [107] Shepherd allegedly admitted his guilt in the killing to his lawyer Steven Gore. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the most notorious motorcycle club the world has ever known: the Hells Angels. The trio were found in possession of the stolen explosives, as well as a machine gun and other weapons. [97] The arrests were carried out as part of a five-state operation involving over 700 federal, state and municipal law enforcement officers which resulted in the arrests of fifty-seven Hells Angels across the country and the seizure of approximately 125 firearms, more than a thousand rounds of ammunition, several stolen vehicles and a quarter-pound of methamphetamine. [207] Twenty-one of those were arrested during large-scale raids involving approximately 200 federal agents on the day of the indictments. Bushnell credited Mother Ruthe with documenting the birth of the outlaw. [77] The Mongols had previously listed only individual chapter locations on their "colors", and the Hells Angels asserted that they were the only club allowed to wear a California patch as they were the dominant club in the state. [3][4], There are more Hells Angels chapters in California than in any other U.S. Most of them do not exist today, but . [27], Hells Angels member Charles "Crazy Chuck" Forsyth was arrested in possession of marijuana on February 16, 1967, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was subsequently granted a warrant by the Ontario Municipal Court Judge Richard C. Garner to search the Gray Ranch in Alta Loma, which served as the headquarters of the club's San Bernardino chapter, as deputies had probable cause to suspect the ranch contained more marijuana. Glore's unsolved killing was reportedly carried out by members of his own club. She was also shot by Lester post-mortem. The Hells Angels originated on March 17, 1948, in Fontana, California, when several small motorcycle clubs agreed to merge. It became famous in 1965, when Thomas C. Lynch issued a report on bike gangs. We feel that a crack group of trained guerillas could demoralize the Viet Cong and advance the cause of freedom. [59] Former Winston-Salem chapter officer Charles Terry Norman testified against members of his former club in the case, which also resulted in the convictions of Carl Dulinsky and Harris Blane Shimel. He was a Straight Satan and then a member of the Satans Slaves.'. The violence allegedly erupted when the bikers attacked two police officers who arrived at the establishment. [15] Garrett was imprisoned after being convicted of pimping and pandering in October 1977. Four boys aged three to six, who were the children of Hells Angels members, were sent to juvenile hall. [8], Vallejo Hells Angels chapter president Dennis C. Myhre was one of five men charged with various counts of rape and sex perversion in relation to a January 13, 1974 sexual assault reported by a twenty-three-year-old Richmond woman. [83] Another Hells Angel, Thomas Heath, was convicted in 1994 of two counts of second-degree murder for the killings of Hernandez and Jimenez. [37] James Ezekiel "Jim-Jim" Brandes, vice-president and enforcer for the Oakland HAMC chapter, was charged with the attempted murder of Kracht as well as other crimes as part of a racketeering case against the club in June 1979. [213] The second RICO trial also ended in a mistrial in February 1981. After a long hot, quiet summer, on Labor Day weekend 1977 the Hells Angels broke their silence. Other charges included Hitlerism, marijuana possession and theft. Tyne & Wear - England 1979. The roots of the Hells Angels trace back to Fontana and San Bernardino, California just after the end of World War II. [218] Approximately $1 million in cash was discovered at the Oakland home of Kenneth Owen, a club member arrested for methamphetamine distribution. Castiglione was sentenced to seventy months' imprisonment on September 22, 2005,[94] and Toycen was sentenced to fourteen years' on July 28, 2006. [55] Castiglione pleaded guilty to the charges on December 20, 1989, while Pirelli pleaded guilty to using a telephone to facilitate a drug transaction. It took Bushnell more than a year and half to find one of the Hells Angels co-founder's family, who had his photo album, a set of his colors and VHS tapes of reunions the club held in the 1980s. [132] On April 5, 1973, Moran was convicted of the murder of Baker and acquitted of Shull's murder. Haas implicated Diaz and Lester in the murders after becoming a cooperating witness for the government in February 1994 while awaiting sentencing on a federal drug conviction relating to a large-scale methamphetamine ring in Virginia. [11], The DEA, along with state and local law enforcement agencies, began investigating the HAMC's San Jose and Grass Valley-based California nomads chapters as a result of intelligence suggesting that the Hells Angels was manufacturing and transporting methamphetamine to Savanna, Georgia. [23], Eight Hells Angels were arrested when a fight broke out in a Daly City tavern on April 15, 1966, following the funeral of San Francisco HAMC chapter member Larry Dean Lucas, who died in a motorcycle accident near Santa Maria on April 9. Copenhagen - Denmark 1980. The raids were the result of a three-week investigation. [141] The initial trial ended in a mistrial in July 1980[142] as did the subsequent retrial in February 1981. [8], Douglas Chester Schultz, president of the San Diego Hells Angels, was arrested on October 31, 1985, and indicted on eighteen counts of possession of methamphetamine, intent to distribute and conspiracy. Officers serving a warrant at the home of Los Angeles chapter president Ora Ray "Indian Ray" Glore discovered his corpse; he had been shot in the head. According to police, after the shooting, the suspect, Steve Ruiz, disappeared and one or more people tampered with the crime scene, washing away bloodstains and removing evidence of the shooting. By 1959, there was already a third generation of Angels and Bushnell noted the Straight Satans and Satans Slaves started up around this time. The club later reinstated him, however, as they had unknowingly violated their national charter by expelling an incarcerated member. [140] Brandes, who was implicated in a total of four of five homicides, was ultimately never convicted of any. Following the seizure, search warrants were served on the residences of all known members of the Los Angeles Hells Angels. According to a police informant and former Hells Angel, the murder was committed by the San Diego Hells Angels. The corpses of the family were discovered by firefighters responding to the blaze. [95], A two-year ATF investigation of the HAMC resulted in the arrests of twenty-six club members in the San Fernando Valley, San Francisco and Ventura County on December 3, 2003, on racketeering charges filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada and stemming from the River Run riot. state. [143], Additionally, Garrett was a suspect in the possible homicide of Rhonda Lynn Yocom, a nineteen-year-old Filipina American woman who was last seen getting into a car with Garrett in Oroville on February 10, 1985, before she disappeared. It was also unclear if members of the Mongols, who also attended the swap meet, became involved. [101], In 2008, Mark "Papa" Guardado, the president of the San Francisco chapter, was shot dead after a bar fight in the Mission District of San Francisco. Baker and Shull had been beaten and strangled to death by Pifer and other members of the club's Richmond chapter after being spiked with LSD at a party on January 15, 1971,[126] while the woman was killed by a gunshot to the head. [37] Morgan, who had been assigned to investigate motorcycle gang activity in the area in 1975, retired from law enforcement and fled California with his family due to intelligence reports that there was a $50,000 bounty on his head. [11], Hells Angels member Obediah Breer was arrested on state charges on August 15, 2018, when a police SWAT team executed a search warrant on his Escondido residence and discovered cocaine, methamphetamine, pharmaceutical pills and a firearm. [120] On April 24, 2022, Dickson was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting at the Marquis Lounge in San Bernardino. "[76], In 1970, during a conflict with the Axemen motorcycle gang, San Diego Hells Angels chapter vice president Andrew Horn was shot and killed with a sawed-off shotgun by Axemen biker Rick McCart, who was acquitted of the killing and subsequently fled the area. Seslar was killed because he happened to be present at the time of the murders. Vice-president Michael Shafer was charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana, conspiring to distribute heroin, distribution of marijuana, and two counts of use of a communication facility to facilitate a drug trafficking offense, and secretary Patrick Gonzales was charged with being a felon in possession of firearm and ammunition, while Ricky Blackwell was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, and possession of a firearm after suffering a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. [42], Hells Angels Oakland chapter president and national leader Sonny Barger was arrested on narcotics charges after Donald Howarth, a film studio property manager and 1967 Mr. America from Studio City, was apprehended while walking towards Barger's Oakland home with seventeen ounces of cocaine and thirty ounces of heroin (with an estimated retail worth of $350,000) in a suitcase on April 11, 1970. [27][62] Owen died July 4, 2016. [38], A woman alleged that she was beaten and assaulted with a rubber dildo by two San Diego Hells Angels members' girlfriends, and that she was forced to orally copulate a Hells Angel and a German Shepherd dog after she accepted a ride home from a biker funeral with the group in 1975. [39] At that time, the HAMC became involved in a drug war with the Gypsy Jokers in the San Francisco Bay Area. [24][16], For at least five years beginning in 1967, the Oakland chapter of 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 (OPD) in exchange for the release of jailed Hells Angels members.
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