CALIFORNIA (Washington Insider Magazine) – Sonny Barger, the leader of the Hells Angels, passed away at age 83 after a cancer battle, according to a post on social media and his former attorney.
Barger’s Facebook page has a statement announcing his passing.
He passed away quietly at his home on Wednesday night after a battle with liver cancer, according to his former lawyer Fritz Clapp, who spoke with NBC News on Thursday.
He had a long and adventurous life, according to a post on his Facebook page, and was survived by his wife, Zorana.
Barger signed off as Sonny and noted HAMCO, which stands for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Oakland, before closing the post.
Barger was created in Modesto, California, as Ralph Hubert Barger Jr. In 1957, he founded the Hells Angels in Oakland. Along with acting in the Hells Angels movies “Hell’s Angels ’69” and “Hell’s Angels on Wheels,” he also worked as a technical adviser for both projects.
The adventures and life of Sonny Barger with the infamous group are described in his book “Hell’s Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger with the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club.” He explained the origin and rise of the Hells Angels in it, and he also included tales of their legal run-ins.
The 1969 Rolling Stones show at Altamont Speedway, when Hells Angels’ motorcyclists were employed as security guards and fatally stabbed a concert goer who drew a weapon on one of their comrades, was attended by Barger, the leather-clad face of the Hells Angels.
Barger contended that the Hells Angels fought in self defense in the Altamont killing. The club member involved in the incident was found not guilty. A camera team filming the documentary “Gimme Shelter” caught the stabbing on tape.
The media frequently portrayed the Hells Angels as the violent and criminally inclined outcasts of the 1960s counterculture, who loved drugs, freedom, and rock & roll.
However, Barger, the motorcycle club’s unofficial spokesperson, dismissed its status as an illicit group.
Barger personally disregarded the law.
Charges against him during his arrest history ranged from drunk driving to attempted murder. He spent 13 years in several prisons, according to press reports.
He stated that one of his most fulfilling experiences was being cleared of a racketeering accusation in 1980 and having a racketeering law violation conspiracy case declared a mistrial.
However, a jury convicted Barger guilty in 1988 of conspiring to break the law in regards to explosives and guns in conjunction with plot to kill rival gang members. He was freed in 1992 after serving a 6-year sentence in the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution.
In Hunter Thompson’s 1966 exposé “Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs,” he played the lead role.
Early in the 1980s, Barger had a laryngectomy for throat cancer, which he blamed on a prolonged, 3-pack-per-day cigarette habit. He then covered the vent to talk while breathing via a plastic valve in his neck.
Image via Facebook – Sonny Barger
