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Sonny Barger, the founding member of the Hells Angels motorcycling club, has died aged 83 after a battle with cancer.
The California outlaw, who was involved in drugs and protection rackets, died surrounded by his wife Zorana and other loved ones.
A post shared on his Facebook page after his death included a farewell message from the biker to his legions of fans after 65 years as a member of the club.
The post read: ‘If you are reading this message, you’ll know that I’m gone. I’ve asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing.
‘I’ve lived a long and good life filled with adventure. And I’ve had the privilege to be part of an amazing club.
Sonny Barger, the founding member of the Hells Angels motorcycling club, has died aged 83 after a battle with cancer
A post shared on his Facebook page after his death included a farewell message from the biker to his legions of fans after 65 years as a member of the club
His reputation as the two-fisted granddaddy of the world’s oldest, largest and most notorious motorcycle club, has spread far beyond the biker community, attracting both hero worshipers and detractors on the way. Pictured: Sonny Barger with his wife Zorana
Sonny Barger, patriarch of the Hell’s Angels, (center) with some of his biker buddies
‘Although I’ve had a public persona for decades, I’ve mostly enjoyed special time with my club brothers, my family, and close friends.
‘Please know that I passed peacefully after a brief battle with cancer. But also know that in the end, I was surrounded by what really matters: My wife, Zorana, as well as my loved ones.
‘Keep your head up high, stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor.’
Barger moved to Oakland, California, as a child and was suspended from school for slapping a teacher. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army at 16 after forging his birth certificate.
He was kicked out with an honorable discharge in 1956 when his deception was discovered and was drawn to the oil-stained world of the so-called ‘one-percenters’ – a term coined by the American Motorcycle Association to describe the tiny minority of bikers they deemed troublemakers.
‘I wanted to live my life the way I wanted to live it,’ Barger said in 2008, explaining the credo of loyalty and rugged individualism he once expressed as ‘don’t be a rat, and sometimes you literally have to fight to be free.’
The California outlaw, who was involved in drugs and protection rackets, died surrounded by his wife Zorana and other loved ones. In the early 1980s, Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer which required the removal of his vocal chords
Sonny Barger, (center front row), President of the Hells Angels’ Oakland chapter, announces at a press conference that the notorious California motorcycle gang would not stage a demonstration against anti-Viet Nam marchers in November 1965
Sonny Barger and company try to tame bull in a scene from the film ‘Hell’s Angels ’69’, in 1969
Ridin High Livin Free a book by Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger
Barger says in one of his autobiographies that the Hells Angels were a small club in San Francisco which had fizzled out when he and other bikers decided to pick up the name, starting the Oakland Hells Angels, the club’s most significant charter.
Trading his first motorcycle, an Indian, for a Harley Davidson – widely known as ‘hogs’ for the firm’s one-time pig mascot – he swiftly became leader of the Hells Angels Oakland charter and oversaw the formation of independent charters, or branches, across the United States and then worldwide.
Barger became the club’s national president and was the most famous member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, which was founded in San Bernardino, California, on March 17, 1948. He helped grow it to the international organization it is today.
His reputation as the two-fisted granddaddy of the world’s oldest, largest and most notorious motorcycle club, has spread far beyond the biker community, attracting both hero worshipers and detractors on the way.
The Hells Angels’ hell-raising activities shocked ‘straight’ America in the 1960s, when among other exploits, Barger offered the services of club members to President Lyndon B. Johnson as a ‘crack group of trained guerrillas’ to drop behind enemy lines in the Vietnam War. His offer was turned down flat.
In another notorious incident, he forced the Rolling Stones to play at gunpoint in 1969 at Altamont Speedway, near San Francisco, after the band had threatened to pull the plug on a concert when an 18-year-old man was stabbed to death by a member of the club.
An FBI agent said in a documentary that bad blood from the incident lingered for years, and the Hells Angels later plotted to kill Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
‘I have no recollection of it ever happening, and why it showed up 35 years later, I don’t know,’ Barger said in 2008.
Barger became the club’s national president and helped grow it to the international organization it is today
Portrait of American biker and founding member of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels Sonny Barge in San Francisco, California, January 1979
Hell’s Angels members congregate at an event where Sonny Barger signs copies of his autobiographical book on life in the Hell’s Angels
Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels holding their flag in a scene from the film ‘Hell’s Angels ’69’ in 1969
Barger had frequent run-ins with the law, spending several stretches in prison mostly for narcotic and firearm offences, but he has also avoided longer sentences after beating a number of more serious charges in court.
In 1972, Barger and three others were acquitted of murder after a Texas drug dealer was killed in Oakland and a residence was set on fire.
Barger was sentenced to ten years to life behind bars in 1973 after he was convicted of possession of narcotics and a weapon by a convicted felon. He was later paroled in November 1977 after serving four-and-a-half years of his sentence.
In 1979, Barger was among 33 people indicted on charges that violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
But he was let off for racketeering charges in a split verdict while nine others were convicted.
In his book Hells Angel, Barger claims he was sentenced to 30 years’ in jail but served just five and had addictions to ‘bikes, booze, girls and good times’.
After a rival gang stole Barger’s Harley Davidson, he hunted down the person responsible, before beating him senseless and breaking his fingers one by one with a hammer.
In 1987, Barger was arrested on charges relating to narcotics, weapons, and explosives after FBI agents carried out raids.
A year later, Barger was convicted of conspiracy to transport and receive explosives in interstate commerce with intent to kill and damage buildings and sentenced to four years in jail.
Barger and three others were convicted on another charge dealing with a stolen government manual, and five others were acquitted on all charges, Schwartz said.
The government contended that Barger and the other defendants planned the attacks in revenge for the slaying of John Cleve Webb, a Hells Angel from Alaska who was shot outside a Jefferson County bar in August 1986. A Louisville Outlaw later pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in Webb’s death.
Barger was released from prison in November 1992 after serving three-and-a-half years of his sentence.
In the early 1980s, Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer which required the removal of his vocal chords.
Following the health scare, Barger publicly advocated against smoking, tailoring his message with the Hells Angels’ textbook anti-establishment attitude: ‘Want to be a rebel? Don’t smoke as the rest of the world.’
In Hunter S Thompson’s seminal book Hells Angels, Barger was described as the group’s ‘maximum leader’.
He has fiercely defended the group despite its multiple controversies, including when Meredith Hunter was killed by its members during a Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Free Concert in 1969.
Barger said the Stones wanted to stop playing but he managed to convince Keith Richards to continue.
He recalled: ‘I stood next to him and stuck my pistol into his side and told him to start playing his guitar or he was dead.’
Barger was diagnosed with cancer in 1983 but continued to smoke three packs of Camel cigarettes a day and eventually had his vocal chords removed.
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