All language subtitles for Secrets of the Hells Angels S01E05 Leader of the Pack 1080p HULU WEB-DL AAC2 0 H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

♪

-America has a romance
with outlaws.

They always have.

-The Hells Angels
were larger than life.

They are what every
other biker group aspires to be.

And the person who spearheaded
the myth was Sonny Barger.

-We all got guts.

We're not afraid to fight
for what we believe in.

-It's sort of
a romanticized ideal --

cowboys on wheels, you know?

-He was like all Hells Angel
to me, you know?

It was like a rock-star status.

-And then we get Altamont,
and everything goes wrong.

Sonny says we made a transition
into being gangsters.

Sonny never shied away
from violence.

-I loved Sonny so much,
but marriages sometimes are bad,

and sometimes, if you
hang around tough people,

things happen to you.

He didn't kill me,
but I should have just ran.

-Over and over,
they say they are not criminals.

They're rebels,
rebelling against a society

for which they have no respect.

♪

-We never gave a [bleep]
about what anybody else thought.

♪

-We're mostly a bunch
of happy-go-lucky guys

trying to make it
in this world, you know?

-They're misfits,
they're outlaws,

and they defy the laws
of attraction.

-You know, I like them.
I adore them.

They're my whole life.

-Angels forever, forever Angels.

Speaks for itself.

-The Hells Angels are not
a criminal organization.

-Why don't you people go home?!

-It's an organization
with criminals in it.

-Go home!

-The Hells Angels
run a massive propaganda scheme.

And the unknowing gulped down
that Hells Angels Kool-Aid.

-Everybody just cool out!

Hells Angels, everybody.

-That is all designed to hide

murder, rape, drug trafficking,
gun-running, extortion,

assault, arson.

-I'm not trying
to glorify my life,

but I'm certainly not
gonna apologize for it.

-I'm doing extreme stuff.

For what?

-I'm telling it
the way it really happened.

I never thought I'd be
talking openly about this stuff.

-Ready for this?
-I'm ready.

♪

-Yeah, I'm just a girl
that rides motorcycles

and likes rock 'n' roll.

I guess I don't like boys
with shiny shoes,

but the last thing I wanted
was a boyfriend or a husband

in the Hells Angels, no.

♪

I like to ride my bike
to all these places

and have a good time.

But if you're a woman
by yourself,

every gas station,
you're in potential danger.

One time, the entire charter
of the Oakland Hells Angels

pulls up,
and they're looking at my bike.

I'm like, "Wow. Check this out."

They all want to talk to me.
"Why is this lock on it?"

And I told him straight up,
"I was told, because I'm a girl,

you guys are
gonna steal my bike."

They're like, "No. Hell no.

Nobody's gonna touch your bike."

I've been their friends
ever since.

♪

[ Laughs ]
Sonny was old school, man.

Old-school romantic guy.

The first time I met Sonny,

I was just too nervous
to say anything,

but he was a charmer.

Very persuasive.

♪

He said,
"Can you come by tonight?"

I did,
and he never let me leave.

He brainwashed me.
"Now we're getting married."

"Okay, well, alright."

But the bad boys and I
got along.

I got swept off my feet
by Sonny and the Hells Angels.

-Sonny made a big impression
because he was a little guy.

He wasn't big, but by heart,
he was bigger than me.

-He was absolutely bad-ass.

He would be at the front
of the pack

and he'd be roaring
down the road.

He was rock 'n' roll.

-He was a cool guy,

but he was very hard,
hardcore guy.

♪

-Sonny didn't have
the easiest of childhoods.

His mother left him
as an infant,

and then dad wasn't easy.

Dad was a hard man.

Sonny got into a lot of fights

when he was young in school,
so he was a bit of a rebel.

-After the Second World War,

hundreds of motorcycle clubs
were formed across California.

They had access to all
these surplus motorcycles

from the military

and they developed
a reputation as being tough.

♪

-What you had was
returning veterans

who had been completely
displaced in their lives.

Probably suffering
from undiagnosed PTSD

and maybe not knowing
where they fit in anymore.

Myself included in this.

I think we were
all kind of [bleep]ups.

-Part of the ideology
that really attracted the vets

to the biker culture
and the biker gang

is both groups
had this mentality

that they were on
the fringes of society.

So the vets and the bikers
really bonded together

with this whole sort of
anti-society mentality.

-Hey, Johnny,
what are you rebelling against?

-What do you got?

-When I first saw the movie
"The Wild One"

with Marlon Brando,
I thought it was really cool.

And I think that's the way
that we lived our lifestyle.

"What do you got?"

-Sonny Barger is
a perfect example.

He came from a broken home.
He ran away and joined the Army.

I think he was 16.

They discovered he was a minor
and they discharged him.

But his family
became the Hells Angels.

That was his real family,

and he became the patriarch
of that family.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-From 1957, when Sonny Barger
joined the Hells Angels,

until the mid-'60s,

he proved that he deserved
to be their leader.

He had a brain
that worked that way.

They respected the way
he handled all situations

and they knew
he could be trusted.

And he eventually became
president of the Oakland chapter

that controlled all
the Hells Angels worldwide,

that determined who could
become a Hells Angel,

and eventually wrote down
all the rules

that the Hells Angels
had to follow.

♪

-Sonny said, "Hey, listen,
we need to be structured

and we need rules,"
because everybody was

just getting crazy
and doing their own thing.

♪

So, for instance, if you lied,
boom, you're out.

You steal, boom, you're gone.

No snitching, and cheating with
another guy's wife was a no-no.

$100 fine if you stab
another member or something.

[Bleep] you know?

Maybe it was $200
if you shot him.

But we had our rules,
and that's what we stuck by.

[ Bombs whistling ]

♪

♪

-Get out of Vietnam.
Get out of Vietnam.

-The Vietnam War
was causing a lot of divide

within the country.

-We're talking here
about a major atrocity,

a major moral crime.

-The Hells Angels were pro-war.

-Sonny was definitely
a patriot always.

-Why don't you people go home?!

Get out of here,
all you pacifists!

-Sonny's a scrappy guy.

He would not hesitate to scrap
with somebody

if it needed to be done.

[ Indistinct yelling ]

-Sonny Barger was a military
veteran who took great offense

at these draft protesters

and people
that were against the war.

He thought that was
un-American in the extreme.

-The Hells Angels was clashing
with the protesters

because the protesters were
these rich kids going to college

that were protesting the war,
and the poor, working-class guys

were the ones going to war
and dying.

-Our patriotic concern
for what these people

are doing to our great nation
may provoke violent acts by us.

Here's a letter that we sent
to President Johnson.

"Dear Mr. President, on behalf
of myself and my associates,

I volunteer a group
of loyal Americans

for behind-the-line duty
in Vietnam."

-"Mr. President, we have
a group here ready for training,

ready to go."

I mean, I've been looking around
at some of the other guys like,

"I don't know
if I'm ready to go tramping

through the jungles of Vietnam."

They probably would have went
down there being like some

Pistol Petes,
just shootin' it up.

It would have been crazy.

-Do you feel
especially qualified

for guerrilla activity?

-Well, I think we all got guts

and we're not afraid to fight
for what we believe in.

-Do the women
of the Hells Angels

agree with your decision?

-There's no women
in the Hells Angels.

-Well, your girlfriends.

Do they think
your decision is a wise one?

-They have no say about it.
[ Laughter ]

-Maybe Sonny wasn't
that sophisticated,

but Sonny was street smart

and Sonny knew
the media was powerful.

-When Sonny would get
press conference,

he'd see the chance to get the
club's name and word out there.

"Here's just a bunch of bikers"

was what
the general public thought,

scumbags or whatever,
but Sonny had a vision.

He wanted the world to know
the Hells Angels were here.

-What are some
of the qualifications

for joining Hells Angels?

-Basically, the first one
is to ride a motorcycle.

-And some others?
-Just to be yourself.

-The mystique
of the Hells Angels --

it wasn't instantaneous.

You know, once they got
a fierce reputation,

once they could walk into a bar
and everyone else cleared out

and made space for them,
emptied the tables,

gave them the best table,
then the mystique

started building,
and that attracted women.

♪

-You walk in a room
with 100 women,

you've got at least
50 of those women

that see this bad boy
with a patch,

and you've got now 50 women
looking at you.

♪

-Just as there were
disaffected men

who wanted to belong to gangs,
there were disaffected women

who didn't fit in
to the suburban lifestyle.

And so they were attracted
to these men.

They went together
like a hand in a glove.

-I was at the bar one night
with my girlfriends.

This guy in a leather vest
walks up

and he pulls my hair at the bar.

I remember thinking, "What the
hell are you doing touching me?"

But when you get the attention
from somebody

that has certain
characteristics,

it's hard not to fall into that.

-It's that bad-boy flirtation.

You know, they're
flirting with the dark side,

and it can be seductive and
destructive at the same time.

-It's just like groupies
around rock bands.

They're like rock stars.

And they think that
they can screw anything,

because sometimes,
men think they can do whatever

they want to women.

♪

-The Monterey rape case
involves two teenagers.

One's 14, one's 15.

And the Hells Angels
wind up gang-raping them.

The Hells Angels, of course,

have a completely different
version of this.

They report that, you know,

they had this big bonfire
on the beach

and the girls approached them
and it was all consensual.

So, of course, this becomes
a theme that's perpetuated

throughout the Hells Angels

where, you know,
they never rape anybody.

This is all consensual.

-The whole case unraveled,
fell apart.

That really was
in the news a lot.

And coming behind that
was the Lynch report,

and it just put a big spotlight
on the Hells Angels.

-We have identified
over 446 of these people

with criminal records.

They seem to have a pattern
of feeling

that, in numbers,
they have strength.

-So, Thomas Lynch
defines the Hells Angels

as threatening the social order,

and he makes a statement
in his report.

He goes,
"We have to stamp them out."

And so the irony is,

is that it's in every newspaper
and every magazine,

and so instead of having
the effect of stamping them out,

it actually gives
the Hells Angels a platform.

Now they're on center stage.

He makes them notorious.

[ Engine revving ]

-Someone in Hollywood decided

that this would make
a great movie.

Here's Hells Angels.
They're bigger than life.

Look how big they are.

So you got a subconscious
message to the little kids --

you know, it's great.

To the parents, it's like
we're marauding pirates.

♪

-"Hells Angels on Wheels"
was shown everywhere.

It drew a lot of interest to the
club, where people reached out.

-Hi, there!

-Go!
[ Screaming ]

-Sonny's out traveling
with Hollywood,

promoting these movies,

and that's when
the expansion started.

At that time, Hells Angels
only had California.

Sonny's vision
was further than that.

And that's how we got
your Hells Angels

all over the United States.

-At that time,
they had 10 chapters.

By 1970, they had 18 chapters,

and it was the beginning
of a huge snowballing effect.

♪

-Hunter S. Thompson asked
Sonny for permission

to ride along with Hells Angels
in California, and they says,

"Yeah, well, it's gonna cost
you a keg of beer."

So the club allowed
Hunter Thompson

to ride with them
and party with them.

-Typical Hells Angel party --

anything could happen
and often did.

There was a lot of coke
running around,

and this new drug
came on the scene -- meth.

There was also what we used
to call Outlaw Punch

and consisted of cheap whiskey,

cheap vodka, fruit punch,
and LSD.

That caused some violence
from time to time.

You know, it caused
an actual double homicide once.

The party got out of control.

-Mr. Thompson, you spent
a year living with them.

How do you explain them?

-It's a whole subculture
of dropouts

and washouts and people who

just can't make it
in this automated, you know,

technological society.

-You say they can't make it in
this automated society. Is it --

-Most of them
are not very smart.

-Sonny Barger hated him.

Sonny did admit he was a good
author, but Sonny hated him.

The thing he hated
about him was,

he felt he deceived
the Hells Angels.

[ Engine revving ]

♪

-What'd you think of the book?

-That book is 60% cheap trash.

-You've read the book
and you think that I wasn't --

-I want to know why we didn't
get the two kegs of beer

that you promised us.

[ Laughter ]

-At one time, people would
describe the Hells Angels

as being Neanderthals,
but Barger was very canny.

He knew that if he got
the public onside

or at least did not offend them,
kept them neutral,

that the politicians
wouldn't even care about them.

He was very smart.

He put those people out front,

but he was always there
in the background.

-...any guts after living with
all of these people...

-"Skip" Workman embraces and
condones violence to your wife

or a woman,
and the audience applauded him.

Imagine saying that now.

-Keep a woman in line,
you got to beat them like a rug

once in a while, you know?
-Well...

[ Laughter, applause ]

-The crowd goes nuts.
They cheered this guy on.

They laughed. They clapped.

The audience were the
suburbanites who had to work,

who had to raise their kids, who
had bills to pay, had mortgages.

And they're looking at a guy
who's living free

and just wishing,
"Oh, man, I wish that was me."

-There are those people that
will accuse the Hells Angels

of being misogynist,
violent, racist.

And I think those labels
are actually warranted,

because, you know,

in order to be a member
of the Hells Angels --

I mean, they don't have
any women that are members.

That's an absolute,
you know, no-no.

-I think that the Hells Angels

felt that they were
superior to women.

I mean, I'd be lying --
I'm not gonna lie here.

You know,
it was a man's organization.

But what you have to understand,
there were women in the club.

You know, Mother Ruthe, well,
she was a Berdoo Hells Angel.

There was another woman,
Garbage Head.

She actually had
the tattoo on her back.

But, you know, there's no way to
deny that Sonny took the power.

The girls got pushed out.

They went to property patches,

and you can see
"Property of the Hells Angels."

-If you're property
of your old man,

you exist and have a life
because of him

and you serve
at the whim of him.

There's that commonality between
a lot of the brotherhood.

They kind of come from these
broken, dysfunctional families.

You know, I mean, Sonny Barger
himself was left by his mom.

His mom ran off
with a bus driver and left him

when he was 4 months old,
never to be heard from again.

[ Baby crying ]

-You don't want to be with
a man that had a bad mother,

because what happens?

You know, a lot of them
end up hating women.

A lot of people
in that situation

and in those types of cliques
have bad mothers.

It's kind of
what draws you together.

His sister and father
raised him,

and I think, pretty much,
he raised himself from there.

He's feral.

I don't think
he put too much stock

in my daughter, my children.

I don't think
he respected that enough.

I think he always put
the club first.

Always.

♪

-Hippie means someone who's hip,
who's turned on.

We have our own way of dressing.

We even have
our own police force.

The Hells Angels operate for us

the way
the FBI operates for you.

[ Laughs ]

♪

And among the Hells Angels,
you'll find as many beautiful,

holy people as you will
in any police force.

-Okay, it's definitely on.

The Rolling Stones --
they're going to hold

the concert
with the Grateful Dead,

the Jefferson Airplane, Santana.

It's at Altamont Speedway.

-The Hells Angels --
they got hired

by The Rolling Stones
and their managers

to help provide security
for the stage.

-I don't think
the Altamont Speedway

had ever sponsored a concert.

I don't think that the guy knew
what he was getting into.

-We thought maybe 75,000,
80,000, 100,000 people

would be quite sufficient.

We ended up with 300,000,
and the Hells Angels

were secured with a truckload
of beer that cost $500.

-When we got there, I pulled up
and parked and we were, like,

supposed to sit on the edge of
the stage and keep people off.

People were packed
right up and onto the stage.

And at one time
when some hassling was going on,

the people were getting up
on the stage

and, like, nobody had backed up.

-There was some tussles
and stuff because,

you know, a lot of people,
they're doing a lot of drugs.

They're free to do the drugs.

This is the place to do them.

So you end up with people
that are not thinking logically.

-They were handing out LSD
that was laced

with speed and mescaline
that was bad medicine.

And people were drinking
orange juice

that had been laced with LSD
without knowing it.

-There's this cat
running around on the stage,

like, pretty frantic, you know.

-Very early on,
somebody climbs up on stage

and one of the Hells Angels
takes him out.

Just beats the kid
to a pulp right on stage

where everybody can see it.

-You know what?
Some people got hit.

They got thumped.
You know? They got hurt.

-Having been Angelized,

the whole vibe had
changed completely.

♪

-They lost control of the stage
and they knew it.

And that was when the fear
filled the backstage.

This is out of hand.

-The Angels had decided that the
best weapon would be a pool cue.

The larger end would be
sliced open and drilled,

and it would be filled
with lead

just to give it
a little more whammy.

-With the splintered pool cue,

started jabbing this guy
in the face with it.

-It was really bad.

-The whole concert is chaos now.

-There's a long wait
before the Stones come on.

Temperature drops 15 degrees.

It's cold as hell.

-The whole timbre of the evening
became more sour,

more desperate.

-It's just chaotic.

And then you have
Meredith Hunter,

this young black guy
that looks to me

like he's wired out of his mind.

-Meredith Hunter
and his girlfriend, Patti,

showed up early that morning,

and as they walked
through the crowd

to make their way toward
the front of the stage,

the Hells Angels noted
this flamboyant black guy

in a lime green suit with

a beautiful blonde,
white girlfriend.

And Patti remembers
seeing the looks

they got just walking
past Hells Angels.

So right from the start,
Meredith was an affront

to the values
of the Hells Angels

who were racist [bleep]

And that's part of their credo.

-No blacks in the club
and everybody thought,

"Oh, because they were racist."

But what you have to understand
is it says no blacks

because when we go
to the prison systems,

as soon as you get
to the penal system,

when you go in,
you see all the white guys,

you see all the black guys,
you see all the Mexican guys.

That's how it works.
Trust me, it's all segregated.

So I walk in with a black guy
and I go, "This is my brother."

Ain't never gonna fly, dude.

Either the white guys
are gonna get us

or the black guys
are gonna get us.

-Well, there are people
in the club

that don't like blacks,
that don't like Mexicans,

but I know black clubs
that don't like whites.

You know, it goes both ways.

-There aren't any blacks
that are members.

In fact, many members
of the Hells Angels are,

you know, white supremacists.

-I got tons
of Nazi tattoos on me,

but it wasn't all about, like,

wanting to be a Nazi
or the white power movement

or any of that stuff.

It was a symbol
of being the bad guys.

-The Hells Angels are racist
by their own rules

and regulations.

It's in print -- no "N-words"
in the organization.

So that's what they think
of black people.

-Come on now.

That means everybody
just cool out!

Hells Angels, everybody.

Let's just keep ourselves
together.

-Meredith had already managed
to assault the stage

at one time or another

and was thrown back by one
or two of the Angels.

-This cat comes along
and loaded on some drugs

and kept trying to
climb up on the stage,

and he's blown it, you know?

And, you know,
he's hysterical, I would say.

-Then they find him again,

waving a gun
on the stage left side.

-Meredith points
a gun at the stage.

Now, I've never got
a straight answer.

Did he shoot at the stage or
just point the gun at the stage?

I don't know.

♪

-How many bullets has he got?

It could hit Mick Jagger.
It could hit a Hells Angel.

Al Passaro took him out
right then and there.

-Alan Passaro,
San Jose Hells Angel,

pulls a knife out of his boot,

jumps on his back,
puts the knife in his neck.

They fall to the ground.

He stabs him three or four
more times.

-All of a sudden somebody down
in front is yelling.

You know, some other Angels
that were sitting on the stage,

like, finally caught the action
of what was happening,

and they started
coming off of the stage.

-They pile on,
they're kicking this guy,

standing on him,
throwing garbage cans at him.

-There was six or seven Angels
on one guy.

They're upset and they're
yelling and carrying on,

and one guy took care of it
and a little bit more violence,

you know?
And there was no more problem.

-The younger folk came in
and just kicked him to death.

♪

-He stabbed the dude, you know,

and he killed him, and
that was, like, a huge --

Everybody -- "Whoa! God.

You know, is this
what these guys do?"

-There's always been

overtures that
the Hells Angels are racist.

You know, you get all these
social justice warriors

nowadays with this and that.
"I saw a Nazi insignia."

You know what? Meredith Hunter
pointed a gun at the stage.

What the hell did he expect?

Yeah, the Hells Angels
got blamed.

Of course the Hells Angels
got blamed.

You know, the Hells Angels
are America's boogeyman

at that particular point
in time.

♪

-We continue now
with the latest developments

in the biggest story
of the weekend,

that free concert given by
The Rolling Stones

over at Altamont.

-Mick Jagger's response
to the Altamont murder

of Meredith Hunter

was to completely denounce
the Hells Angels as thugs,

as killers, as whatever.

And the Hells Angels
did not take kindly to this.

-Hello, KSAN,
and you're on the air, brother.

And they got one of the angels
on the line, Sonny Barger.

Have I got it right, Sonny?
-Yeah.

-Okay. What's up?

-Sonny Barger snorts up
a massive amount of cocaine

and gets on the phone.

-You know what?
You can say anything you want

and you can call us
all kind of lousy dogs.

And, like, we shouldn't be at
these places and this and that.

But we were doing what one
of them managers asked us to do.

Mick Jagger again
put it all on the Angels, man.

-It caused a big rift,
you know.

It caused a rift
with the Rolling Stones.

You know, they had
made a commitment

that any legal fees
they would pay for,

and it came time to ante up
and they didn't want to pay.

-You know what?
I want to be his friend.

If he don't want to be
my friend, then out of sight.

Don't even talk to me.

I'm a violent cat
when I got to be.

But if somebody
wants trouble with us,

they're gonna get it.

-Sonny's coming out there saying
he wants to whack Mick Jagger.

I mean,
Sonny was out there, man.

He was, you know,
telling it like it was.

-They actually put out
a hit on Mick Jagger.

They got a raft
and they put a bomb on the raft,

and they were gonna go out
to Mick Jagger's boat

that was his yacht that was
docked on Martha's Vineyard,

and they were gonna
blow up the yacht.

-Rock star Mick Jagger
is marked for death

by the Hells Angels
motorcycle gang.

Well, that was just part of
the frightening testimony today

before the Senate
Judiciary Committee.

-Some of the most startling
testimony came from

an ex-Hells Angel
identified only as Butch.

Butch says there have already

been two attempts
to kill the group.

-Had a pontoon boat,
a little rubber raft thing,

with plastic explosives in it,
and they lost it in the water.

-The boat flooded,
it capsized.

They swam back to shore.

Once that was stated
before the Senate subcommittee,

Jagger coughed up
with the dough.

Well, you know, somebody
coughed up with the dough

because the debt was satisfied.

And I think the ironic thing
was, you know,

they gave us $50,000,

and then we wound up
fighting over the money.

Who was gonna get it?

Which, you know,
I don't even know

if I've ever said
that publicly before,

but it's the honest
to God truth.

♪

-After Altamont,
the love affair of the media

with the Angels ended.

The love affair of the hippies
with the Hells Angels ended.

As they entered
the decade of the '70s,

Sonny Barger said,
"Screw society.

We're getting into
the drug business."

Barger realized
that they could make drugs

and make a lot of money,

but to do so,
they had to fly under the radar.

He said, "We need
to clean up our act"

because he didn't want
to attract unwarranted attention

from law enforcement.

The Angels seriously
got into drugs in 1970.

They lucked out in 1974 when
they ran into a retired chemist

from the Shell Oil Company.

One of their members was taught
how to cook methamphetamine.

And that's when they started
making heavy-duty money.

-They were involved
in the drug trade.

And so the more territories
they had,

the more they would,
you know, seize that drug trade.

♪

-Sonny got hassled constantly
by the police and federal agents

and, you know,
all that kind of [bleep]

Constant phone tappings
for landlines.

-Sonny was absolutely
the head of the snake,

and that's what law enforcement
was attempting to do

this whole time is to cut
the head off the snake.

-The police would have loved
to arrest Sonny.

They have such a boner
for Sonny.

♪

-We're seen by the public.

And when the police say
"these guys are killers,

these guys are dope fiends,

these guys are dope dealers,"
this and that,

it's probably not too hard
for the public to believe

because they see us standing out
from the rest of the population.

But as far as any truth to it,
I say there's no truth to it.

-Sonny is like Teflon.
Nothing sticks to him.

He's always selling the fact
that they're not criminals.

You know, they're not up
to any type of,

you know, criminal exploits.
They're just good old boys.

Part of the challenge
that law enforcement

has is that
he's a likable person,

and people don't want to
throw the book at him.

They don't want to come back
and convict him.

In June of 1970,
the feds organized

this raid
of Sonny Barger's house.

They are absolutely certain
they're gonna find drugs there.

-We managed to enter without
any difficulties whatsoever.

They've been under surveillance,
the Hells Angels

and particularly their leader,
Mr. Barger, for some time.

And this was the end result,

culminating in
the investigation.

-Here you have at least
$300,000 worth of narcotics

that was out on the street.

We also find arms
and ammunition.

We find these outlaw groups
like the Hells Angels,

particularly in this case
where we have the president

of the organization
with literally an arsenal.

He has enough ammunition
and guns here

to destroy a lot of people.

They're not hunting weapons.

-Sonny gets the best lawyers,
he's got sympathetic jurors,

and Sonny himself is
very charming,

and, not surprisingly, gets off.

♪

♪

♪

♪

-Criminals are always
ahead of law enforcement,

and Sonny Barger
even forbade anyone

from talking about business,

drugs, murder, prostitution
inside the clubhouse

because they could be wired.

♪

But the problem they ran into
in the '80s

was that the FBI
had an informant

within the Hells Angels.

They used a top-echelon snitch

to bring down a top-echelon
criminal.

And that's what it takes.

♪

♪

-Why is the government
going after you?

-Well, they claim that I am
the leader of the Hells Angels,

and as such, I think everybody
that's been following this case

from the beginning knows
that it's a harassment.

-Sonny came back from prison,
and he realized

that he didn't have
the power base that he once had.

He came home to turmoil
in the Hells Angels.

The club, Oakland,
had split in half.

He got in a bitter battle

and "Cisco" Valderrama
became president.

So what does he do?

Packs up, goes to Arizona
and starts fresh.

-Me and Sonny moved
to another state,

so I didn't feel like
I had my extended family

like I did in Oakland
and California.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

I didn't know any of these guys.

I felt disliked,

and I think that's probably why
our marriage started to fail.

And I know that he would
get...aggressive with it.

After the first ass-kicking,
I should have left.

♪

-Phew!

♪

My ex-husband was a sergeant
of arms of the Hells Angels.

Not all of them are abusive,

but me, as a wife,
was absolutely abused.

The day before my wedding,

he kicked down the door
of the hotel, and he choked me.

I just had my little son,
and he was 6 weeks old,

and we went to a hockey game.

And we were driving home
from the hockey game,

and out of the blue,
he punched me in the face.

I remember
blood splattering the window,

and he threw me in a ditch

because I didn't wear
the right outfit

and present him properly
at the game.

Another time, my son --
he gets a little buddy.

Well, his little buddy ended up
being a police officer's son.

My ex-husband seen that e-mail
that came in

which is just on
a parent e-mail thread.

He beat me for probably
about 9, 10 hours.

♪

And he had the computer
ripped out of the house

to have it analyzed.

And he threatened
that I would be killed,

that brothers of his
would help bury me.

Um...

♪

[ Sobs ]

♪

♪

-The position of women
in the Hells Angels

is either on their back
or on their knees.

And they have no respect
for anyone.

-Sonny wanted to fight with me.
He wanted to argue with me.

He wanted to say
bad things to me.

I was hurt many times.
I was hit for no reason.

I think the fist came into play
because I can be lippy.

-I think that was a really
tough time for Sonny.

That relationship spun
out of control with Noel.

He physically hurt her.
She said she couldn't move.

-He kicked me in the back

while I was sitting
in a lawn chair.

Broke it. Three places.

He had called 911,
said that I tried to shoot him.

-And it finally came to a head
when he did the 911 call,

and he basically
called the cops on her.

-Never dial 911. No.

That's a big rule in the club.

You do not dial 911.

And that was
the first thing he did.

-Sonny Barger was the only
member that called 911,

interacted with law enforcement,
and remained in the club.

Because that was a rule.
He broke it.

Other members had got
kicked out in the past for it,

and other members got kicked
out in the future for it.

And this caused a big problem

between Sonny and not
just myself in the club,

but I would say 50% of the club.

-I heard the tape,
and I was flabbergasted,

and I was thinking, "Wow."

-There was a group
of individuals

that were gunning for him
with that 911 tape.

-As much as he's respected
and loved as a man,

he should have just stepped down
and walked away

and said,
"You know, I [bleep] up, man."

♪

-Sonny Barger was very abusive
toward women

and so really instrumental
in the mentality

of the Hells Angels.

You know, they were misogynists,

and he was completely
accepting of it

within the culture
of the Hells Angels.

-You know, him and I feuded
for years.

He was a Hells Angel
24 hours a day,

7 days a week.

But there was a problem
and a flaw

that I saw in Sonny.

The problem was

Sonny thought the club
belonged to him.

And my position was that
we all belonged to the club.

And that's the big difference
between me and Sonny.

You know, I wasn't afraid
to disagree with him

on any level,
and I did many times.

And, you know, it really created
a wedge ultimately at the end.

♪

-Ride on, Sonny, into history,
which are angels from hell.

[ Engine revving ]

-I've got to give him credit.
He was a hell of a leader.

-Sonny succeeded absolutely
in building a myth

for the Hells Angels.

-And he set in motion
what would become

the largest organized-crime
gang on this planet.

-Even today, the Hells Angels
remain a threat to society.

The Hells Angels are involved
in drug and arms trafficking,

in prostitution, in gambling.

They're skilled as assassins,
and they murder witnesses.

They bribe judges.

The fact of the matter is,

they are an organized
criminal syndicate.