All language subtitles for Gangland Chronicles S01E04 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[♪]

Gangs rule their territories
through ruthless enterprises,

fear,

and a strict code.

Deviate from this code

or challenge their power...

and retribution soon follows...

especially in the most dangerous
biker gang in America...

The Hells Angels.

Ruled by a ruthless president,

Sonny Barger's Hells Angels

creates
the bloodstained blueprint

for all outlaw biker clubs
that follow.

Here are three stories

that cement the criminal legacy
of this vicious gang.

First, one member
pays the ultimate price

for stealing
from his chapter president.

I can't even begin to imagine
what he's feeling.

Abject terror, abject fear.

[screaming]

[Narrator] Next,
the Hells Angels kill a man

in front of thousands
at a rock concert.

The Angel stabs him
three times in the neck

and takes him
down to the ground.

[Narrator] And finally,
the Feds attempt

to take down
the Oakland Chapter.

[Julian Sher]
One of the prosecutors says

"We want to prove
they're the mafia on wheels."

[Narrator]
These are the stories

from the Sonny Barger years
of the Hells Angels.

This is Gangland Chronicles.

1957.

Oakland, California.

A new and menacing sight

appears on the streets
of this hard-working port city.

It's the outlaw motorcycle gang
called the Hells Angels.

A lot of these biker gangs

are made up
of these ex-servicemen

who have just come back home.

They find that it's difficult
to readjust to civilian life.

[Narrator] The Hells Angels
founded their first chapter

in San Bernardino in 1948.

By 1958, the gang
has added chapters

in San Francisco and Oakland.

Early Hells Angels members
embrace a freewheeling lifestyle

of partying and violence...

but they lack organization.

That would change

when a new leader would emerge
in Oakland, California.

[Narrator]
His name is Sonny Barger.

When he assumes control
of the Oakland Hells Angels,

he sees an opportunity

to bring order and strength
to the club.

He created a structure
within this organization,

so he borrowed the rank-and-file
structure from the military.

[Joel Selvin] Sonny Barger had
genuine leadership capabilities.

He was also probably

the toughest son of a bitch
in the bunch too.

[Narrator]
Under Sonny's leadership,

the Oakland Hells Angels
go from organized recreation...

to organized crime.

They start by building
a fearsome reputation

through brutal gang violence.

The Hells Angels are fighting
with rival gangs.

They have confrontations
with police.

They openly declare themselves
as outlaws.

[Narrator] In the 1960s,
Barger and his lieutenants

turn the gang's muscle
into serious money...

seizing control of the area's
booming LSD market,

and crushing any competition.

They were hands-on involved

in a massive organized
drug trade.

[Narrator] The vice president
of the chapter alone

is making as much
as $200,000 a year

dealing drugs...

1.8 million dollars today.

[Sher] Now they're not just
poor ragtag bikers.

There's a lot of money
involved,

which will lead
to territorial turf wars

and a lot of murder.

[Narrator]
The Oakland Chapter's rise

from rags to riches

inspires a fanatical loyalty
to Sonny Barger.

They'll make anyone who crosses
him pay the ultimate price,

even if the culprit
is one of their own...

like 21-year-old Oakland member
Paul Ingalls.

February 1, 1968.

Oakland, California.

A group of Hells Angels
interrogates Ingalls

for allegedly breaking
a cardinal rule

of the gang's code of conduct.

He had been accused
of stealing Sonny Barger's

rare coin collection.

[Narrator]
The Hells Angels demand

that Ingalls admit his guilt.

So they start
to go to work on him.

And then starting using things
like a cattle prod...

[electricity crackling]

and they're using it on things
like his groin...

[screaming]

on his face...

[screaming]

The amount of pain
that Ingalls is in...

not only just pain,
but I'm sure shock and terror

and just abject fear
for his life.

[Narrator] Time is rapidly
running out for Paul Ingalls.

[groaning]

February 1, 1968.

The Oakland Hells Angels

are trying to beat a confession
out of Paul Ingalls,

a young member

they think stole from
club president Sonny Barger.

Ingalls insists
he is innocent...

...but the bikers
don't believe him...

and they take the torture
to the next level.

[screaming]

At one point, one of the Angels
goes, "Well, hang on, boys.

Don't mark him up.

Can't make this look
like a murder, can we?

No, we got to keep
things above board."

So they decide
to take another route.

They opened his mouth,
they pried open his mouth,

and they shoved a bunch of reds,
which were barbiturates,

down his throat,

and they tried
to make him swallow it...

[Jarroush]
And it gets to a point

that Ingalls has ingested
so many of these pills

that eventually
his body just gives up,

goes limp,
and he falls into a coma.

[Narrator]
The Oakland Hells Angels

dump Ingalls at his house
in the middle of the night,

where he's
later discovered by his wife

and rushed to the ER.

Paul Ingalls is pronounced
dead on arrival.

Members of the inner sanctum

were actually killing
one of their own,

and they did that to set an
example for the other members.

If you mess with Sonny Barger,

if you steal from the president,

you will be executed.

[Narrator] No one is ever
charged with Ingalls' death.

Across Hells Angels chapters,

the message of intimidation has
been received and understood,

but the rest of the world

has yet to see the Hells Angels
for who they really are,

and it all comes to a head
on one fateful weekend

when the Hells Angels are caught
in the national spotlight...

The Altamont Free Concert.

December 6, 1969.

[♪]

The Rolling Stones are set
to play a free concert

at the Altamont Speedway,
about 50 miles east of Oakland.

[Droban]
Rolling Stones was one of them,

but they had the Grateful Dead,

they had Jefferson Airplane,

and the manager
of the Grateful Dead

had this wonderful idea,

"Hey, let's get the Hells Angels
to be our security."

[Narrator] At first,
the gang tells organizers

they aren't interested,

but the Stones' manager
sweetens the deal.

[Droban] So for $500 in beer,

the Hells Angels were there

as sort of the muscle
for the event.

[Narrator]
An estimated 300,000 fans

descend on Altamont,

with the Hells Angels
between them and the stage.

They immediately
put their bikes

parked right along
the front of the stage.

It created a natural barrier

between the stage
and the audience.

[Narrator] Stoned kids
squeeze past the bikes

and begin climbing up
onto the stage,

only to be roughed up
and thrown off

by the Hells Angels.

But the crowd,
strung out on drugs,

just keeps coming.

[Selvin] Hell's Angels
in front of the stage

came bearing pool cues,

and they beat the hell out
of people in the front rows.

[Narrator] As evening falls

and the Rolling Stones
hit the stage,

Sonny Barger
and his Hells Angels

are running low on patience.

Somewhere during that time,

a young black guy
named Meredith Hunter

tries to climb up
on the stage,

and gets knocked back down
by one of the Hells Angels.

[Narrator] In a fit of rage,

Meredith Hunter
draws a gun from his jacket

and points it towards the stage.

[Selvin] Alan Passaro
sees him pull out a gun,

reaches into his ankle,

where he has a knife...

[Narrator] The Hells Angels

are about to take
the violence at Altamont

to a terrifying new level.

December 6, 1969,
Altamont Speedway.

A rock concert
headlined by the Rolling Stones

has descended
into brutal violence

between the audience
and the Hells Angels.

Gang member Alan Passaro

pulls a knife on
18-year-old Meredith Hunter

after he draws a gun
and points it at the stage.

[Selvin] Alan Passaro
jumps on Hunter's back,

stabs him three times
in the neck,

and takes him
down to the ground...

where Hells Angels
swarm over his body,

kick him, stand on him,

and Barger's
sitting there watching.

[Narrator] Someone in the crowd

convinces them to pick up
Meredith Hunter's body.

He is taken backstage,

where medical staff
pronounce him dead.

Alan Passaro is the only
member of the Hells Angels

tried for the killing
of Meredith Hunter...

but he is found not guilty.

They were able to verify

that Meredith Hunter
actually did lunge at the stage

and looked like he was going
to shoot Mick Jagger,

and so the Hells Angel
gets off.

[Narrator] From this point on,

the Hell's Angels
are known nationally.

The spotlight
doesn't slow down the gang...

but it does
get the attention of the Feds.

The 1970s.

The Hells Angels enter into
a new criminal era.

[Sher] Sonny Barger will say,
"In the 1970s,

we were all gangsters."

[Narrator] The group pivots
their trafficking operation

from LSD

to a highly addictive
and lucrative drug...

Meth.

It was easy to mass-produce,
manufacture, distribute, sell,

and you could make it
domestically.

[Narrator] The Department
of Justice estimates

that by the late 1970s,

the Oakland meth operation

is raking in $160,000 a day
in street sales,

$245 million dollars
a year today...

and this puts them
on the Feds' radar.

So police
and law enforcement feel

that they have to go after
the Hells Angels

in a more systematic way,

and they start cracking down,

investigating
the meth network.

[Narrator]
Local law enforcement

pursues the Oakland chapter
relentlessly.

The gang hits back at the cops
with a new level of violence.

Their first victim, San Jose
Police Sergeant John Kracht,

has recently busted
several Oakland Hells Angels

on meth trafficking charges.

So the Hell's Angels decide

that, okay,
these police officers

are becoming
a bit of a nuisance,

so it's time for us
to take care of them

by sending them
a little bit of a message.

[Narrator] February 19, 1977.

Sergeant Kracht
approaches his car.

He doesn't see
what is coming next.

[explosion]

The bomb badly injures Kracht,
but he survives.

Their next target

is Solano County Detective
William Zerbe.

[explosion]

[Jarroush] Neither of them
will die in these explosions,

but it is these bombings

that make it so that
the Feds are fed up

with this chapter
of the Hells Angels.

[Droban] They said, you know,

"How are we
gonna go after them?"

So they started to go after them
with the RICO Act.

[Narrator] The RICO Act

will later bring down New York
Italian Mafia families,

but its first real test
is actually the Hells Angels.

[Droban]
Essentially the idea was

how can we go after
the head of the snake,

which was Sonny Barger.

If we take off
the head of the snake,

then we're going to topple
the whole organization.

[Narrator] But they are going
to need to prove

that Sonny Barger
is calling the shots

in order to nail him
and the Hells Angels

to the wall.

[Sher] One of
the prosecutors says,

we want to prove
they're the mafia on wheels.

[Narrator] After a year
of interviewing eyewitnesses

and reviewing prior convictions
of Oakland Chapter members,

the Feds believe
they have enough evidence

to indict Sonny Barger
and his fellow Hells Angels.

Will they bring Barger and
his Hells Angels chapter down?

June 13th, 1979.

Oakland, California.

200 agents from the FBI and ATF
raid the Hells Angels.

Thirty-two gang members
and associates are arrested,

including Sonny Barger
and his wife.

The Department of Justice

announces a total
of 64 indictments

connected to the Oakland
Chapter's meth operation

under the 1970 RICO Act.

[Droban] They go after them
for drug trafficking,

arms smuggling,
attempted murder,

conspiracy to commit murder.

One of the things that
Sonny Barger is worried about

early on during this RICO trial

is that there's
a lot of members here,

and that they'll start
flipping on each other.

[Narrator] Barger knows
that if the prosecution

can convince
just one defendant

to flip and testify
against the gang,

it could mean the end
of the Oakland Hells Angels,

and a 20-year stint
in prison for him...

but Barger has a plan.

[Droban] He says
nobody's taking a deal,

nobody's cooperating.

We are going to be
a united force,

and this is how
we're going to win this.

[Narrator] The RICO case against
the Oakland Hells Angels

goes to trial in San Francisco's
Federal Building.

And the Feds try
to make their case,

and they have a lot of
convincing, powerful evidence.

They'll reveal the weapons

that have been found
in Hells Angels hangouts.

They'll allege
that Sonny Barger has boasted

that he has committed
eight to ten murders.

[Narrator] On the stand,

Barger's testimony
is convincing,

poking significant holes

in the prosecution's
racketeering case.

[Sher] Sonny's defense:
yes, he's the figurehead...

but technically, legally,
by Hells Angels rules,

he really couldn't
command his fellow members

and what they could do.

Any criminal activity
a member does,

he does as an individual,

not as part
of the Hells Angels.

[Narrator] Things go
from bad to worse for the Feds

when they fail to convince
a single defendant

to rat
on the Oakland Hells Angels.

As a Hell's Angel,
you do not snitch on your own,

especially, you know,
Sonny Barger's chapter.

You don't do it.

[Narrator]
As the trial goes on,

the defense
gains the upper hand.

[Droban] And that was really due
in large part

to the brilliance
of Sonny Barger.

He says they were not
a criminal organization;

they were an organization
that had some criminals in it.

[Narrator] On July 2, 1980,

the conspiracy
and racketeering charges

against Sonny Barger
and most of his Oakland brothers

are dropped.

It's a huge victory
for the Oakland Hells Angels,

and they waste no time
getting back to business

and expanding
the gang's criminal reach.

There's like 23 new chapters
by the end of the '70s,

33 new chapters in the States
by the end of the 1980s,

and a huge expansion globally.

This is a massive
criminal enterprise

known for their brutality,

and so they continue to be
and pose a threat.

[Sher] Sonny Barger
didn't found the Hells Angels,

but he constructed the myth,

and I think the Hells Angels
are here to stay

for a long, long time.