Sonny Barger

Barger founded the Oakland chapter in 1957 and became the group's US president, bringing them to international notoriety.

Barger also appeared as an actor, including in the biker series Sons of Anarchy and film Angels from Hell. The latter depicted “a destructive ex-motorcycle gang leader [returning] home from Vietnam to resume his life. The next decade, Hells Angels evolved into a gang organization, spurring widespread condemnation. Over the following decades, the Hells Angels became known as a violent outlaw gang with outposts spanning the globe. In the 1950s, they came together to ride motorcycles and party. When Barger helmed the Hells Angels, he got into scrapes, took drugs, and raced his Harley-Davidson, Sweet Cocaine, along California’s expansive freeways. And I’ve had the privilege to be part of an amazing club.

Sonny Barger, a founding member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club who spent decades as the public face of the notorious biker gang, has died at the age of ...

For various gun and weapons charges, as well as a 1988 conviction for conspiracy to kill rival gang members, Barger spent over a decade of his life in prison, according to the Washington Post. Barger was present at a notorious 1969 Rolling Stones concert in California, for which the Hells Angels had been hired as security, using their bikes as a makeshift barrier in front of the stage. With their leather vests and the roar of their engines as they cruised in packs on the open road, for many years the Hells Angels were a symbol -- a frightening one for some Americans -- of counterculture living.

Ralph "Sonny" Barger, the Hells Angels motorcycle club leader who became the rough-hewn face of America's outlaw biker culture and the restlessness, ...

In 2010 Barger appeared on the television series "Sons of Anarchy" as a murderous biker known as Lenny the Pimp. "The way we were depicted, we were Vikings on acid, raping our way across sunny California on motorcycles forged in the furnaces of hell," he wrote in a 2001 autobiography. Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer at age 44 and smoked one last cigarette on the way to the operating room to have his vocal cords removed. "In any gathering of Hell's Angels ... there is no doubt who is running the show: Ralph 'Sonny' Barger, the Maximum Leader ... the coolest head in the lot, and a tough, quick-thinking dealer when any action starts," Thompson wrote. The Angels were brought in to keep spectators from climbing onstage and brawls frequently broke out. Barger emerged as their chief in part thanks to Hunter S. Thompson's 1966 book "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs." He later sent a telegram to President Lyndon Johnson volunteering to take Angels to fight in Vietnam. Barger was born Oct. 8, 1938, in Modesto, California, and raised by his hard-drinking father and grandmother after his mother abandoned the family. The club would become a long-running target of law enforcement, which considered it a crime syndicate deeply involved in multi-million-dollar drug-dealing operations, gun running, witness intimidation and murder. Then he found kindred spirits under the Hells Angels umbrella. Much of that 99 percent was genuinely fearful of the Angels with their menacing appearance, rumbling Harley Davidson motorcycles, violent no-limits lifestyle and black leather wardrobe adorned with the club's sacred winged skull patch. Barger asked that the announcement be published, "immediately after my passing."

Barger, the unofficial spokesman for the notorious motorcycle club, downplayed their outlaw reputation.

Thereafter, he breathed through a plastic valve in his neck, and covered the vent to speak. Of the Altamont killing, Barger argued that the Hells Angels acted in self-defence. He was sentenced to a six-year term at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution and was released in 1992. He was kicked out with an honourable discharge after the forgery was discovered. “We’re a little drop in the bucket. And I’ve had the privilege to be part of an amazing club.”

Sonny Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died. He was 83. Barger's death was announced on his Facebook.

Of the Altamont killing, Barger argued that the Hells Angels acted in self-defence. Thereafter, he breathed through a plastic valve in his neck, and covered the vent to speak. "Live your life the Sonny Barger way? He was sentenced to a six-year term at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution and was released in 1992. "They say we're organised crime, but if you took every Hells Angel on the face of the Earth and got rid of them you wouldn't drop the crime rate in the world one-tenth of one per cent," he said in a 2000 interview for Heads magazine. And I've had the privilege to be part of an amazing club."

The founder of the Hells Angels Sonny Barger has died at 83 after a battle with cancer, according to a social media statement and his former attorney.

In it, he shed light on the history and evolution of the Hells Angels and included stories about their run-ins with the law. Although I’ve had a public persona for decades, i’ve mostly enjoyed special time with my club brothers, my family, and close friends. “I’ve lived a long and good life filled with adventure.

Sonny Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died. He was 83. Barger's death was announced on his Facebook ...

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Sonny Barger, founder of Hells Angels, has died at 83. The iconic outlaw biker had a brief batte with cancer, according to statement Thursday morning.

“I’ve lived a long and good life filled with adventure. Sonny Barger, founder of Hells Angels, has died at 83. Sonny Barger, leader of Hells Angels, dies at 83.

Sonny Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died. He was 83. Barger's death was announced on his Facebook ...

Thereafter, he breathed through a plastic valve in his neck, and covered the vent to speak. Of the Altamont killing, Barger argued that the Hells Angels acted in self-defence. "Live your life the Sonny Barger way? He was sentenced to a six-year term at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution and was released in 1992. The stabbing was captured by a camera crew filming the documentary Gimme Shelter. He was clearly the most competent person around," Thompson wrote. He was kicked out with an honourable discharge after the forgery was discovered. "They say we're organised crime, but if you took every Hells Angel on the face of the Earth and got rid of them you wouldn't drop the crime rate in the world one-tenth of one per cent," he said in a 2000 interview for Heads magazine. And I've had the privilege to be part of an amazing club." He also wrote two novels. "I've lived a long and good life filled with adventure. "We're a little drop in the bucket.