All language subtitles for Outlaw Chronicles Hells Angels - Documentary 04 [2015]

- War defines the Hells Angels.

Born from the ashes
of World War II,

the Hells Angels
will never run from a fight,

and they
are absolutely merciless

when they go to battle.

This is their strength,

but it proved to be
an Achilles' heel

in their longest
and most costly battle:

the war against the Mongols.

How did this fight begin?

And why have the Hells Angels
and the Mongols

hated and killed each other
for the last four decades?

Very few know the answers.

This is George Christie,

the man some call
the last American outlaw,

a born leader,
who ruled the Angels'

Ventura chapter
for 33 years

and has firsthand experience
fighting the Mongols.

- A lot of people
have a lot of ideas

about the way things went down.

Let me give you my side
of the story.

There's a lot of theories
as to what started the war

between the Hells Angels
and the Mongols,

and you know,
the most popular one

is that it started
over the word "California."

- The bottom rocker

on an outlaw motorcycle cut
designates territory,

and the Hells Angels
have claimed California

as theirs since the 1960s.

The name Mongols is inspired
by Genghis Khan

and his fearless horde.

The club forms in 1969
in east L.A.,

but by 1977 the Mongols have
added "California"

to their cuts.

Legend has it that's
what set off the war.

- But that's not entirely true.

I was there,

and I'll tell you it had to do
with a woman and a rat.

So let's back up
and start from the beginning.

- The year is 1972.

A story makes headlines
coast to coast.

- Two bikers
came in from the Deep South,

and they wanted to meet
some Hells Angels.

And they wound up
coming to the Bay area.

- The two bikers,

Big Tom Scholl
and Charles Baker,

are from Georgia.

They're independent,

not affiliated
with any outlaw club,

but they say they're interested
in becoming Angels.

- Here you've got
these two bikers

from several states away.

People want to find out
what they're all about.

I'm gonna mudcheck 'em.

"Mudcheck" is a term

an outlaw biker uses to say,

"I'm gonna find out
what this guy's really made of."

We'll give him some truth serum.

We'll give him ten hits of LSD.

The next thing you know,

their emotions
take over their thoughts,

and they lose control.

During the course of the night,
Big Tom starts unraveling.

In essence,
he's failing his mudcheck.

He can't handle his drugs.

Big Tom is incoherent,
he's yelling, he's paranoid,

and they decide
they've got to restrain him.

So they hogtie him, and they
throw him in the back room.

At some point in time,

someone went in
to check on him,

and they came back out
and said,

"This guy's dead.
He's gone."

Big Tom dies, and then all
of a sudden, they understand,

"We've got a liability here.

We've got a live witness."

It's his good friend

Charles Baker is not gonna
keep his mouth shut.

And now they've got to reach
a decision.

"What are we gonna do?"

And they make a bad choice.

They decide, "We're gonna
eliminate this guy."

They beat the guy.

He didn't succumb
to the beating.

And they wound up
strangling him with a rope.

- But now the Angels
have to dispose

of two dead bodies.

They enlist the help
of one of their own,

George "Baby Huey" Wethern.

- They take the bodies
up to George Wethern's ranch

and thrown 'em down a well.

They sit there for a couple
of years

until police
started nosing around,

creating a paranoid atmosphere.

And then Whispering Bill,

the Hells Angel
in the Bay area,

goes to a police officer

and says, "I've got a story
to tell you."

Whispering Bill
was dying of cancer,

and they threatened to make
him an accomplice

in these murders
as the thing unraveled.

He spills the whole thing out.

Just basically
did what most rats do.

He just cut a deal and extracted
himself from the situation.

Once one domino fell,

the others
started falling as well.

- Several Hells Angels
are arrested,

and once in custody,

they start to lose their nerve
and turn on the club.

- George Wethern
was the vice president

of the Oakland chapter.

George was subsequently arrested
and ended up quitting the club

and providing information
to law enforcement.

- The other is an Angel
named Chester Green,

nicknamed Festus.

- Chester Green another
Hells Angels from the Bay area

became a rat,
testifies against his brothers,

and the end result
was the inevitable.

Several Hells Angels went
to prison for those murders.

The worst thing you can do
is to become an informant.

It's just an unwritten rule
that you can't rat on anybody

and then survive
in the outlaw bike culture.

It just doesn't happen.

- So after Chester Green
is released from custody,

he goes on the run.

- Chester Green did something
that kind of amazed everybody.

He wound up joining the Mongols.

Not only did he live
to tell about it;

he joins another bike club,
and they embrace him.

- The Mongols
are just a few years old

and desperate for members,

even Hells Angels
who ratted on their brothers.

- To add insult to injury,

Bud Green, who happens to be
Chester Green's brother,

this guy's running around town
with a Hells Angels wife.

- The Mongols
now have a pair of brothers

who violated the outlaw code

by ratting and dating
an Angels old lady.

- I think the Mongols
are walking around in the dark

as to who Chester Green is
and what he's all about.

They think everything's fine.

They think they're
immersing themselves

deeper in the outlaw culture.

And they don't realize it,

but they're heading for a wreck.

This is a recipe for disaster.

- It's 1977,

the Great Western Expo,
held in Orange County.

It was a motorcycle fair,

a chance to pick up spare parts

and celebrate motorcycle
culture.

- We're just
having a great time,

walking around there
getting treated like kings,

never thinking anything
was gonna happen.

- Word starts filtering
among the

the meet is thick with Mongols.

- Chester was too smart
to show up there,

but he did send
his brother Bud,

and they're both Mongols now.

Bud's walking around
there with a Hells Angels wife

like he wants everyone
to see her.

He's really excited.

- No one has any clue

that a jilted heart is about
to start a war without end.

- All of a sudden,
there's Bud Green,

and there's the girl's husband
as well face-to-face.

And the Hells Angel
never says a word.

He just rears back
and decks him,

and it was on.

We were in the midst
of battle,

and some of us
weren't even sure why.

We're outnumbered.

We're surrounded.

- The Hells Angels
operate with a pack mentality.

If one member's in a fight,

everyone else
is expected to have his back.

The Angels call it ratpacking.

- We just started fighting.

We didn't have time to think
about what was going on.

We are the number one bike club.

We're gonna fight it out
in front of God and everybody.

We were all ready to die
for each other.

- The Hells Angels war with
the Mongols motorcycle club

has been the most violent
in club history.

Contrary to popular legend,

which says the conflict
started over territory,

George Christie reveals the
true origin is over a woman.

A Mongol stole an Angel's wife.

- Up until that point,

I don't remember anybody
in Southern California for years

laying a hand on a Hells Angels.

And then, all of a sudden,

you've got Mongols fighting
with the Hells Angels in public

as if it's
an acceptable practice.

- The war starts
at a crowded motorcycle fair

in Orange County when an Angel
attacks the Mongol

who stole his wife.

The Angels group together

to take the wave
of Mongols who respond.

They are vastly outnumbered,
50 to 9.

- Jesse's a Hells Angel
from Los Angeles.

Jesse wasn't very big,

but he was thick,
and he loved to fight.

Jesse falls into this stack
of parts.

What's he come up with?

He comes up with a motor gear,

and he just starts hacking
people across the face,

actually ripping off
hunks of flesh.

There's people screaming.

And there's people running.

- Another Angel
grabs a motorcycle kickstand

and wields it like a club.

- Cliff Mowery had
the kickstand in his hand.

Oh, he was doing some damage.

He had a hold of that,

and he was nailing some people
in the head.

The cops ran up,
and the cop

starts beating on myself
and this other Mongol.

And, you know, people
start breaking and running.

And once the front line
of the Mongols broke,

it was all over.

When the Mongols broke and ran,
it was a triumph.

We were all looking
at each other.

We were feeling pretty good.

We got on our bikes
like a band of outlaws

that just robbed a bank

and rode back
to the Glendale clubhouse.

- This is not the Angels' first
or last brawl,

but it may be their most
significant.

The consequences of this fight
still resonate to this day.

- At that particular point
in time,

Old Man John
was still a president.

John was smoking mad.

He was biting on his cigar.

Just the fact that the Mongols
would even dare lay a hand

on any of us.

And I think as things
revealed themselves,

it was apparent that we had
started this fight

with this obscure bike club,

and John didn't want to hear it.

- That night,
Old Man John,

the highly respected president
of the L.A. chapter,

reaches out to the Mongols.

He's trying to short circuit
a war

before it has a chance
to start.

- John's gonna have a sit-down
with them immediately.

- John negotiates
a temporary truce

between the clubs,

but other California Angel
leaders are calling for blood,

particularly those in San Diego
and the Bay area.

They think the Mongols
have lost their right to exist.

- John started getting flak.

You know, people were thinking,

"They get into it
with the Hells Angels,

and they're still
riding around.

What's going on?"

- Old Man John decides
to let the younger generation

fight this battle and steps
down as club president.

The L.A. club has
an ambitious sergeant-at-arms

angling to take over,
an Angel named Ray Glore.

- I'm a new guy,
and I'm a little bit naive

to all the politics
going on in the club,

but I felt that Ray
was less than honorable.

Ray saw an opportunity to step
in and take John's place,

and a few weeks later,
he did.

He became the president.

You know, Ray as a president
was no Old Man John.

- The Mongols have taken note
of the change in leadership

and are now pressing for terms.

Glore jumps into discussion
with the Mongols

with disastrous results.

- You know, the Mongols
now have a new leader,

and nobody
knows who this guy is,

but he's much more astute
in the ways of the street

than Ray will ever be.

So this new leader
calls Ray up, and he says,

"We've decided we're gonna go
to a California rocker."

- This is a double insult.

Not only have the Mongols dared
to fight the Hells Angels,

but now they are making a claim
on the Angels' territory.

- The Hells Angels felt that
they owned California,

and that through that
ownership, in their minds,

they were the only gang
that was allowed to wear

a California bottom rocker
on their vest.

- You know, he should have
initially just said,

"You know what?

We're not gonna tolerate you
putting that rocker on.

"End of the conversation.

Don't do it."

But that's not what Ray did,

and the Mongols basically
said, "you very much.

We're gonna put
the California rocker on."

The reason I know so much

about the conversation was that
Ray decided to tape 'em all.

He was a very paranoid cat.

He was constantly using meth.

So here you've got Ray Glore
taping these conversations,

showing his inability
to lead or to negotiate.

And then he takes them
to an officers' meeting

and plays them for everybody
to listen to.

They're thinking, "Man, this
guy's a Hells Angel president?"

He showed everybody

that he didn't know
what the hell he was doing.

That September holiday,

the Mongols show up
on the California highways

with the California rocker,

and there was no turning back.

- The California
Hells Angels leaders

keep pushing for blood.

Ray is desperate and eager
to please,

so he gives them
what they want.

- The Mongols stood up and held
their ground, and in many ways,

that gave the Mongols
credibility in the gang world.

The Mongols had stood up
to the Hells Angels.

And the Hells Angels
were furious.

- Some Angels launch
an all-out war on the Mongols.

- The word was out.

"Hey, the Mongols
are on the road,

and they're all wearing
California rockers.

"They've been warned not to.

"They did it anyways.

So we feel we've got
to somehow make a statement."

- Memorial Day Weekend 1977.

George gets a call
from Ray Glore.

The message:
the Mongols are having a run

to celebrate
taking the California rocker.

Ray tells George
they're going out to find them

and to be prepared for
anything.

Other hunting parties are also
going out in groups of two.

This will be the Hells Angels
response to the Mongols.

It will be bloody.

There will be no warning given.

If they find any Mongols,
they will shoot to kill.

- Ray and I had tracked
the Mongols down.

We're in a anonymous vehicle.

We've got a shotgun.

Ray's got a handgun on him.

I'm in the backseat
with the window rolled down

with this shotgun.

This is it.

Here I am ready to go to war.

- The Hells Angels war
with their rivals, the Mongols,

starts as a dispute
over a woman,

then becomes a fight
for territory.

And now,
on Memorial Day Weekend 1977,

some angels are about to take
things to the next level.

George Christie and Ray Glore,

the president of
the Los Angeles Hells Angels,

are following a group
of Mongols

along the remote highway,

but Glore won't engage.

- I'm in the backseat
with this shotgun

with the window rolled down
closing in on the Mongols.

Suddenly and out of nowhere,
Ray backs off.

Something's not right.
He's not feeling it.

And I go, "What the hell
is going on here, man?

What are you doing?"

And the guy--
just scared to death.

He goes, "You know what,
George?

"I can't shoot 'em, you know?

Let's just go back
to the clubhouse."

- Three times
over Memorial Day Weekend,

Ray and George could have
struck against the Mongols,

but Ray always found an excuse
not to.

- Ray Glore is a coward.

So we went back home,

but something
happened later that weekend.

We got a phone call
at the Glendale clubhouse,

and they said,
"Turn on the TV."

- Members of the Mongols

were involved
in a fatal shootout.

- All the stations
are covering a murder

that occurred on the highway.

Two Mongols were shot
off their bikes

and killed on the way back
from their run.

- Two Mongols named Jingles
and Red Beard,

the vice president
of this Mongol charter,

were both machine-gunned off
their motorcycles and killed.

- Despite the escalation,
the Mongols refused

to take off
the California rocker.

Some members
of the Hells Angels

are pushing to eliminate
the Mongols entirely.

At a funeral for one
of the murdered Mongols,

a man
pulls up to deliver a bouquet.

The flowers are red and white,
the Hells Angels colors.

He drops off the bouquet
and walks away,

leaving his car behind.

Seconds later...

The car explodes,

injuring two more Mongols.

- Seriously.

Come on.

A funeral?

- The Memorial Day murders
are just the beginning.

Members of the Angels initiate
an all-out bombing campaign

against the Mongols.

In the next weeks,
several bombs go off

as Mongol members
start their cars.

- You start hearing about
bombings

in San Fernando Valley.

I remember one particular
afternoon,

there was a Mongol
who had gone out to his van

started it,
and it exploded on him.

At this point,

I didn't feel like I was
in a motorcycle club anymore.

I felt like I was in
an urban army.

We were now in the midst
of a war.

- Not everyone
in the Hells Angels supports

the new bombing campaign.

- I wasn't against the war.

I thought, "Oh,
we should hunt these guys down

"with their California
rockers on,

beat 'em up, and take it,"
but, you know,

dynamite,
I mean, come on.

Downtown L.A. you're gonna have
bombs going off

in the middle of the street.

It just doesn't make any sense.

When we started initially
talking about

not using explosives,

I came under a lot of scrutiny.

I said I was against
the bombings.

And Ray Glore was pissed,
and he started questioning me

because everybody
seems on board.

They, you know,
want to blow these guys up.

And here you've got
this guy going,

"No, no, it's a bad idea."

And it makes you suspect.

- George's warnings
fall on deaf ears,

and the bombing campaign
continues.

- Old Man John
was still around,

and he also was
against the bombings.

- Old Man John,

the former president
of the L.A. chapter

and George's mentor, wants
to test George's convictions.

One night, Old Man John
comes to George with a job.

- he said, "So you're really
against this bomb thing, huh?"

And I said,
"I'm 100% against it."

And he said, "Well,
I want you to put your money

where your mouth is,"
and I'm kind of confused.

And I said,
"What do you mean?"

"You know where
this location is?

"I want you to go up
on the roof,

and over this building, you're
gonna find a 7-inch vent hole."

He goes, "At the top,
there's a rope,

"and there's a bomb suspended.

The detonator failed
to go off."

And he goes,
"I want you to recover it.

You're job's to go get it."

And I took Jesse with me.

- George locates
the bomb wedged in a vent.

He needs to remove it,
but he knows one wrong move

and the bomb could detonate.

- I start pulling
hand over hand.

I don't know
how this bomb was made.

I don't know
what the detonator was.

In the back of my mind,
I'm thinking,

"Any minute,
this thing's gonna go off."

And all of a sudden,

the bomb
starts banging against the wall.

- 1977.

Members of the Hells Angels
are trying to wipe

the Mongols motorcycle club
off the face of the Earth.

Angels members have killed
two Mongols

by shooting them off
their bikes.

Then the bombing begins.

But there's one bomb
that doesn't go off.

Hells Angel George Christie

has been ordered
to retrieve the bomb.

He's on the roof
of a Mongol-owned bike shop

trying to lower the bomb
to the ground.

- I don't know
how this bomb was made.

I don't know
what the detonator was.

In the back of my mind,
I'm thinking,

"Any minute,
this thing's gonna go off."

And all of a sudden,

the bomb starts banging
against the wall.

I mean, I was worried.

I was wondering how I
got myself in this situation.

- Just as George
and his fellow Angel Jesse

brace themselves for the worst,

the bomb stabilizes.

George is able to lift the bomb
out of the vent

and onto the roof.

- We recovered the bomb, put it
in the backseat of the car.

I don't know what possessed us
to put it in the backseat.

We had a trunk
we could've put it in.

All of a sudden...

we hit this bump

that very easily
could've triggered the bomb.

And it may sound
completely crazy,

but there was so much
emotional tension...

That we looked at each,
and we just started

hysterically laughing.

We must've
laughed for ten minutes.

At the end of the day,
we recovered the bomb.

I had succeeded
and was still alive.

It really made me proud to know

that I had accomplished
my mission.

Several weeks later,

that place became the target
of a second bomb,

and it did detonate this time.

- A few weeks later,

some Angels hide another bomb
in a flat tire

and send it to the same Mongol
bike shop to be fixed.

When it inflates,

it activates a hidden detonator
and explodes.

A Mongol member
is killed in the explosion,

and so is
his 15-year-old brother.

They both die instantly.

- I said, "You're gonna
have collateral damage.

"You're gonna lose control
of this device.

"It's gonna turn
into a friggin' mess,

and we're all gonna be held
responsible for it."

The collateral damage
I warned about did happen.

- The Mongols
are running scared,

but the murder
of a 15-year-old kid

means the Hells Angels
are getting unwanted attention

from law enforcement,

putting everyone on edge.

- Ray Glore finally
got busted selling drugs

to one of the prospects,

who turns out is actually a rat.

He's a police informant.

His greed got the best of him.

There was just too much police
attention on him.

- Ray goes to jail
pending a bond hearing,

and tensions are running high

with the increasing
police scrutiny.

Most concerning is a garage

in Glendale that's functioning
as a makeshift ammo depot.

It's a gold mine
of evidence that could be

used against the Angels
if the cops find it.

After the club bails out Ray,
he gets on the phone to Jesse.

The instructions:
"Clear out the garage.

Do it immediately."

- Ray had sent Jesse

to recover dynamite,
machine guns, silencers,

bomb making material.

Everything has to be moved.

Jesse doesn't think anything
about it.

He jumps in his car.

He goes over to the warehouse,
gets out of his car,

walks up to the door,
puts the key in the door,

and all hell breaks loose.

- Get on the ground!

- Who's waiting for Jesse?
The cops.

Jesse's mind starts racing,
and he's pissed.

There's cops
swarming everywhere.

"I just got set up,"
is what he's thinking.

- The Hells Angels
are immediately suspicious.

How did the police
know the garage was there?

More than that,

how did they know to have
a dozen cops waiting the moment

Ray sends a team
to clear it out?

- Reliable sources in the LAPD
start spreading this rumor.

Ray's not holding up well
under questioning.

Anybody could become a rat
at any time.

You just don't know.

Now Ray may be a rat.

- Lesson one
with the Hells

don't rat on us,
because you will be killed.

Lesson two
with the Hells

don't rat on us,
'cause you'll be beaten.

Lesson three is go back
to lesson one.

- Shortly after the police raid
the Hells Angels ammo depot,

Ray Glore's body
is discovered in his home.

He's been shot 12 times
in the head.

- Whoever shot Ray
in the head knew him.

He opened the door.
He let them in.

The police said
it was an in-house cleaning,

is I think
how they described it.

They never did solve it.

- The club
is in a state of crisis,

and there's even more trouble
on the horizon.

- We've been
through this bloody war.

Our former leader was murdered.

The police
are all over the place.

But at the same time,

the Mongols are nowhere
to be found.

We know they're out there,
and they wanted revenge.

- Despite the efforts
of the Hells Angels,

the Mongols had not
disappeared.

They had been reloading.

- And I think at that
particular point in time

there may have been 18,
19 members in the Mongols,

and they were ready to build
for themselves a new club.

And the guys that remained
and stayed had decided,

The Hells Angels are not gonna
tell us what to do."

- The remaining Mongols

begin enlisting new recruits
to rebuild their numbers,

inducting many new members

from some of L.A.'s most
violent street gangs.

They grow into a worthy
adversary.

- They became just as deadly
as us,

and they play just as dirty
as us.

They were now a hard group
of outlaw bikers

that we were gonna
have to deal with for eternity.

- It's 1982.

A Hells Angels named Fat Ray
out of San Diego

goes to a bar known
to be a Mongol hangout.

- Ray had heard that there were
Mongols hanging out

and went there to let
his presence be known

and settle a score.

And the Mongols gave Ray
the option to leave,

but that was--no way
was that gonna happen.

- Like
most Hells Angels, Fat Ray

has a reputation
for never backing down.

- Ray wouldn't leave, and over
the next several minutes

was a fistfight
that escalated to a knifing

that wound up
becoming a shooting.

Fat Ray was shot and killed.

Fat Ray was very hard
and very tough.

We figure it took six guys
to bring him down

in that bar that night.

- This is
the first casualty

the Angels
have suffered at the hands

of a rival motorcycle club
in a long time.

- We were myths.
We were legends.

And nobody had a hand
laid on 'em

after that Great Western fight.

And here
we've got a dead brother,

and it was a turning point
for us.

- After Fat Ray's
murder,

there are renewed calls
within the California chapters

to finish off
the Mongols once and for all.

- We being the Hells Angels

gave the Mongols something
to live for.

You know, what better reason
to survive than to rebel

against the biggest and baddest
outlaw bike club in the world?

Such a hatred we felt
against each other

has kept them going
to this point.

I had several times felt that we
should embrace these guys,

and in all likelihood,

they'll drift off into obscurity
like all the other bike clubs,

but we didn't do that.

- It's 1988.

George and his crew are going
to the Easy Rider Expo

in Long Beach.

It's another bike show,

and a chance
for motorcycle enthusiasts

to celebrate biker culture.

- There's a big event
at the Queen Mary.

It's gonna
be the biggest bike show event

in Southern California.

The Queen Mary
is in Long Beach,

and Long Beach
belongs to the Mongols.

We arrive late morning,

and it's a hell of a bike show,
people everywhere.

It's packed.

Out in the parking lot,

the Mongols were preparing
a very military-type attack.

The monster we created

now unleashed its vengeance
on us.

It was time, I guess,
for us to pay.

- In the 1980s,

the Hells Angels war with
the Mongols turns a corner.

Once, the Angels
inflicted all the damage.

Now, the Mongols are ready
to exact their revenge.

It's 1988.

George Christie
and his Angels have gone deep

into Mongols territory,
Long Beach, California,

to attend
a motorcycle convention.

- The Hells Angels there got
a false sense of security,

and we let our guard down,

because out in the parking lot,
the Mongols

were preparing
a very military-type attack.

And then they made their move.

The Mongols sent in a group
of individuals.

There was a confrontation,

and word spread
throughout the event

to the remaining Hells Angels
that the Mongols were now there.

The Hells Angels
gathered up at the front

and told the Mongols,

basically,
they weren't welcome there.

Their response was, "Oh,
really?

Well, you're in our town."

A Hells Angel threw a punch,
and a fight broke out.

The guys were doing pretty
good.

The Mongols
started losing their footing.

They were thinking,
"They're breaking and running.

This is Great Western
all over again."

- It's a false retreat

to separate the already small
group of Angels

and make them easier
to pick off.

- And then
the second wave came,

and the second wave was
much tougher than the first.

They saved their best guys
for this second attack.

A Ventura member said,
"They killed Art.

"They killed Art.

It was a setup, man,
and got set up."

As the fight was subsiding,

someone ran out of the crowd
and stabbed Art in the chest

and killed him.

He died almost immediately.

It did happen on my watch.

As a leader,
it was a nightmare.

- The Mongols score
both a public

and a psychological victory.

- We publicly had a member
killed.

We looked very vulnerable.

We were no longer
these mythic outlaw legends

who nobody could dare hurt.

It didn't look good.

- The Angels and the Mongols
are now a decade

into a war
with no end in sight.

- These wars
are not productive.

The Mongols have lost people.

We have lost people.

I felt it was time to make
an attempt to end that war.

- During the 1990s,

George attempts to make peace
with the Mongols

by meeting with their leader.

He manages to broker
an uneasy truce,

and for several years,

both clubs
coexist without incident.

- Everything's going pretty good
until 2002.

- 2002.

The Hells Angels
are in Laughlin, Nevada,

for the annual
Laughlin River Run.

- The Hells Angels had been
staying at the Flamingo,

and there's about 100 Mongols
at Harrah's Casino.

So these are kind of
the home bases for each club.

This one particular group
of Hells Angels decides

that they are gonna stay
at Harrah's Casino

with the Mongols.

There are six Hells Angels right
in the midst of the Mongols.

It's no big thing.

Everyone seemed to be relaxing
and having a good time.

From what I was told, suddenly,
a Nevada police officer

walked into the bar and thought
that this interaction

was an issue of safety,
possibly.

And the next thing you know,
the police officer

decides that he's got
to alert the Hells Angels,

so he goes up to the Flamingo.

From what I was told, he
finds a group of Hells Angels,

and then he goes, "Well,
I just want you to know,

"some of your brothers
are down there, man.

"There's, like,
100 Mongols around them.

I don't know
what the hell's going on."

That doesn't seem
like a very prudent statement

to make to a bunch
of Hells Angels

standing around in front
of a bar drinking.

What this cop says
to this group

of Hells Angels set off a chain
of events

that led to this situation

that would become
just a catastrophe.

- 30 Angels jump
on their Harleys

and ride off to Harrah's Casino
and to a deadly biker brawl

that is all caught on tape.

- So now you've got
100 Mongols,

6 Hells Angels.

You've got about
30 Hells Angels,

who had just got off
their bikes

and are entering the casino
to find out

what the hell's going on.

- Man, come one, come all.

That's one of the first rules
of Hells Angels life,

is that when a brother's
in trouble,

you better get in the mix,
because if you don't,

you'll be the next one
getting your ass beat.

- The tension seems to be
rising.

These guys are outlaw bikers
loaded up with guns.

And the next thing
you know, all hell breaks loose.

- By 2002,

the Hells Angels
have gone more than a decade

without any run-ins
with their biggest rival,

the Mongols motorcycle club.

- We had a very,
very shaky truce.

It was kind of a friendly
rivalry with the Mongols.

I guess you could say
maybe there was some sort of

peace between the two clubs.

- Then in April,

Hells Angels
from across the country

gather in Laughlin, Nevada,
for the annual River Run.

Six Hells Angels
are at Harrah's Casino

surrounded by about 100
Mongols.

When another group of Angels
at the Flamingo

get word their brothers
are surrounded by Mongols,

they get on their bikes
and head to Harrah's.

- So now you've got 30
Hells Angels

entering the casino
to find out

what the hell's going on.

- The 30 Hells Angels
gather near the front

of the casino
and start making a sweep

to the back of the room.

- So the Hells Angels decide,

"Okay, we're gonna
make a move against these guys."

The first punch
was thrown by a Hells Angels.

A Mongol went down,
big fight broke out.

The first shots were fired.

And the next thing you know,
all hell breaks loose.

You can see the violence
erupting between everybody.

You can see
them picking their targets,

running up behind them,
hitting them with wrenches,

people getting stabbed;
you see people getting kicked.

You see people panicking.

We were now in a shooting war
with the Mongols.

- It was just chaotic.

People were just
pop-pop-pop-pop.

You know, you just--
you feel like you're in a movie,

but you know it's happening.

- In the midst of all this
is the public hiding

behind these various slot
machines.

- Weapons came out,
knives, guns, everything,

and it all broke loose
right there in the casino.

- Maybe it was only
15 gunshots,

but they lasted
for a long time.

I felt this whole situation
had been brewing for two days.

And I don't think that it needed
to come to a head.

- There were two
police officers standing

behind the slot machines

watching the whole fight
take place.

Never made a movement
to stop anybody,

never tried to interfere.

Just letting these guys
fight it out.

Nobody knows for sure when
the actual death took place,

but we lost three Hells Angels,

and the Mongols
lost one of their brothers

that night as well.

Any chance to resolve the
issues between the two clubs

disappeared after that night.

- A few days after
the Laughlin casino brawl,

George gets a call
from the national leader

of the Mongols,
Doc Cavazos.

- He said, "Man,
we need to sit down.

"We need to work this out.

"This thing just got
out of hand.

I don't know
what the hell happened."

It kind of caught me off guard,
and then I said,

"Let's go
to the table and talk."

- George and Doc
agree to figure out terms

that will end the war
once and for all.

But again,
George has a hard time

getting other Angel leaders
to come to the table.

- Well, Doc did want
to come to the table,

but people in the Hells Angels
as well as the Mongols

had no interest
in resolving it.

They wanted retribution,
and they wanted retaliation.

But what they failed to realize

was that we
lost a great opportunity

to put this war behind us,
to end this war.

- I don't believe
that either side really knows

what they're fighting about
between the Hells Angels

and the Mongols.

They just know that it's
required of them

to dislike and hate each other.

- The war between the
Hells Angels and the Mongols

still ranges on today.

You could ask
a young Hells Angels,

"Why are we shooting each other?

Why are we fighting
each other?"

And they'll answer,
"I don't know."

There seems to be no resolution
in sight to end this war.