Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Sonny Barger" in English language version.
Born in Oakland in 1938 to a German-Dutch father and an Italian mother, he was nicknamed 'Sonny' according to the tradition of a first-born Italian son.
If there's one thing—and one thing only—I can thank my mother for, it is the shred of Italian upbringing she left behind.
He is equally scathing of Hunter S. Thompson, who hung with the Angels for his famous book, taking a beating from them. "When he tried to act tough with us, no matter what happened, Hunter Thompson got scared. I ended up not liking him at all, a tall skinny, typical hillbilly from Kentucky. He was a total fake."
Oakland police sergeant Ted Hilliard testified in 1972 that the Hell's Angels bought weapons and explosives on the black market for the Oakland police in the late 1960's and that Barger offered "to deliver the bagged body of a leftist for every Angel released from jail".
On the night on February 1, 1968, a phone call from Tramp woke me up. 'Come on over,' he said. 'We've got the asshole who ripped off Sonny's place'. When we arrived at a member's house, we heard yelling so I left Helen on the porch with Marsi. Inside was a kangaroo court of a half-dozen members interrogation Paul A. 'German' Ingalls, a twenty-one-year-old mechanic who had transferred from the Omaha chapter... He had been charged with burglarizing Sonny's collection of coins, a valuable one. The only thing worse than stealing from a member was stealing from the president... At that, I was certain that German faced more than a beating. Suddenly, several members were hovering over him, ramming reds in his mouth... German went home in a coma, was discovered by his wife at 1 a.m. and was dead on arrival at a local hospital.
In 1968, the first execution of a member, sanctioned by the club, was carried out. Paul A. 'German' Ingalls had been convicted by his fellow Angels of stealing Barger's coin collection. He was made to swallow a large quantity of barbiturates until he slipped into a coma and died.
Barger has some bad words for celebrities. He recounts the infamous night when the Hells Angels provided security at a rock music festival with the Rolling Stones back in 1969... Barger blames the Stones: "They agitated the crowd, had the stage built too low, and then used us to keep the whole thing boiling. They got exactly what they wanted—a dark scary atmosphere to play 'Sympathy for the Devil' ... Just because you sing well doesn't mean you can act like a bunch of assholes to your fans—and that's what they did that night at Altamont".
January 22, 1972—Sonny and four members were booked for investigation of kidnapping after some Angels were found badly beaten in the trunk of a car stopped in a high-speed chase through Redwood Regional park. Durt and Bert were flushed out of some nearby bushes, and the trunk wielded Dan Jarman, twenty-seven, with cuts and bruises, and William D. Hood, twenty-nine, alias "Willie the Hood", and Russell Huddleston—with his throat slit but still breathing. Both Hood and Huddleston were bound and gagged, their fate fairly obvious. The occupants of a second car tossed out four handguns and a shotgun, along with an ammunition pouch and a wide leather belt with a silver buckle that read "Sonny Barger Jr., 1957-67, president Oakland Hell's Angels." Sonny, Russell Beyea and Gary Popkin, twenty-seven, were apprehended. Bail ranged from $200,000 for Sonny down to $125,000 for Bert. The charges included attempted murder, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. But all five would wind up pleading guilty to a lesser charge of unlawful imprisonment.
After bombs blamed on the Angels injured two police officers, the feds hit them with RICO in 1979. The case highlights the nature of the ongoing argument about the nature of biker clubs.
Barger's defense was that while some Angels had sold drugs and murdered people, they did this as individuals and not as an organized crime syndicate. The prosecutors failed to provide enough evidence of the bikers conspiring to commit the crimes, and the jury acquitted Barger and his crew.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)He is equally scathing of Hunter S. Thompson, who hung with the Angels for his famous book, taking a beating from them. "When he tried to act tough with us, no matter what happened, Hunter Thompson got scared. I ended up not liking him at all, a tall skinny, typical hillbilly from Kentucky. He was a total fake."
In 1968, the first execution of a member, sanctioned by the club, was carried out. Paul A. 'German' Ingalls had been convicted by his fellow Angels of stealing Barger's coin collection. He was made to swallow a large quantity of barbiturates until he slipped into a coma and died.
Barger has some bad words for celebrities. He recounts the infamous night when the Hells Angels provided security at a rock music festival with the Rolling Stones back in 1969... Barger blames the Stones: "They agitated the crowd, had the stage built too low, and then used us to keep the whole thing boiling. They got exactly what they wanted—a dark scary atmosphere to play 'Sympathy for the Devil' ... Just because you sing well doesn't mean you can act like a bunch of assholes to your fans—and that's what they did that night at Altamont".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)January 22, 1972—Sonny and four members were booked for investigation of kidnapping after some Angels were found badly beaten in the trunk of a car stopped in a high-speed chase through Redwood Regional park. Durt and Bert were flushed out of some nearby bushes, and the trunk wielded Dan Jarman, twenty-seven, with cuts and bruises, and William D. Hood, twenty-nine, alias "Willie the Hood", and Russell Huddleston—with his throat slit but still breathing. Both Hood and Huddleston were bound and gagged, their fate fairly obvious. The occupants of a second car tossed out four handguns and a shotgun, along with an ammunition pouch and a wide leather belt with a silver buckle that read "Sonny Barger Jr., 1957-67, president Oakland Hell's Angels." Sonny, Russell Beyea and Gary Popkin, twenty-seven, were apprehended. Bail ranged from $200,000 for Sonny down to $125,000 for Bert. The charges included attempted murder, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. But all five would wind up pleading guilty to a lesser charge of unlawful imprisonment.
After bombs blamed on the Angels injured two police officers, the feds hit them with RICO in 1979. The case highlights the nature of the ongoing argument about the nature of biker clubs.
Barger's defense was that while some Angels had sold drugs and murdered people, they did this as individuals and not as an organized crime syndicate. The prosecutors failed to provide enough evidence of the bikers conspiring to commit the crimes, and the jury acquitted Barger and his crew.
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