OUTLAW CHRONICLES Recap: Are Hells Angels Just a Motorcycle Club or Organized Crime Enterprise?

BN- Last night on OUTLAW CHRONICLES: HELLS ANGELS, former president George Christie Jr. took History viewers from the beginning, when the club was just a group of guys with only good times on their bikes to keep them going, to the contemporary club, where money is not an issue–but addiction is.

The Altamont Festival is a legendary disaster from the early days of the Hells Angels. Hired on for security–it only took $500 of beer–the Hells Angels created a barrier in front of the stage with their bikes. But, when the crowd began pushing on the bikes, and the club members started getting rough, Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin went to talk to “Animal” of the Hells Angels, to get the club to ease up–and the talking ended with Animal knocking out Marty.

Later, when the headliner Rolling Stones took the stage, the tension between the Hells Angels and the crowd was about to break. When a man in the crowd, Meredith Hunter, took a gun out and pointed it toward the stage, Hells Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death. Later, Passaro was acquitted by a jury on the grounds of self-defense. But, as Christie said, “It was a long, costly trial,” and there was a bitterness left between the Hells Angels and the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones refused to pay the $50,000 trial fees it took to keep Passaro out of prison–and you don’t just walk away from a bill from the Hells Angels.

It was reported in national news outlets that the Hells Angels had an “open murder contract” to kill Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger. The tried an attack by sea, but it did not work–Hells Angels work better on land, apparently. But, when the message got to Jagger of the attempt, a check for $50,000 arrived from the Rolling Stones–he must have taken the “bill” seriously, as well as the threat of a future successful attempt to “collect.”

But, it was this incident, Christie indicated, that opened the club’s eyes to the fact that “legit” jobs were just too much hassle and too low-paying.


Not like the fast money drugs could bring.

LSD was a seller in its day. But, methamphetamine was even better–and still is. The Hells Angels are no different than any other drug-saturated individual or group: They are not going to go around admitting it to everyone that they are using, much less selling. But, according to Jeorge Gil-Blanco, Reserve Deputy, Gang Intelligence Unit, San Mateo County, “During the 70s and 80s, the Hells Angels were in control of the methamphetamine trade in California, on the West Coast. They were the kings of methamphetamine.”

Christie did not disagree. But, as he said, that was when everything changed, when meth came into the picture. “The problem with dealing meth in the club is you immediately attract the attention of the feds and it brought a lot of problems with the police.”

George’s first major decision as president in Los Angeles in 1978 was to move the club to Ventura, and rebuild it from the ground up, the way he wanted it built. They kicked out a club already there, the Orphans, and it was all Hells Angels. Christie began international expansion of the drug trade from Ventura and under Christie, the Hells Angels’ drug enterprise flourished. Starting chapters in other countries facilitated this possibility, with the strongest being in Canada. The right people were paid off to keep things flowing–not unlike the mob, which the Hells Angels organization has been compared to in the past. Christie’s rules were designed to protect the club–get caught cooking or dealing meth, you were on your own.

There were legit businesses, as well. But, it was all in the shadow of the drug money and other illegal activity.

So, are the Hells Angels just a motorcycle club–a very large one, but a motorcycle club, nevertheless–or are they organized for crime? In the premiere episode of OUTLAW CHRONICLES: HELLS ANGELS, Christie indicated that, while the Hells Angels walk a blurry line when it comes to the law, they were not organized for crime. That may have been true originally. But, after last night’s episode, it is hard to believe that the club, with its far-reaching contacts in multiple countries, is just full of a lot of individual drug dealers with no direction from the club as a whole.


What do you think? Are the Hells Angels an organized crime enterprise, or are they just a club of brothers doing their own individual thing? Give us your opinion in the comment section below!

More: http://www.tvruckus.com/2015/09/02/outlaw-chronicles-recap-are-hells-angels-just-a-motorcycle-club-or-organized-crime-enterprise/