I will say right away, without much prelude: today will not be an ordinary post, but an obituary dedicated to one of the most famous bikers in history – Sonny Barger, who went to another world on June 29, 2022 due to liver cancer at the age of 83 years. He had very good health, because only the third cancer caused his death. The first two are throat cancer and prostate cancer, from which Sonny successfully recovered. Barger, in his later years, greatly lamented the fact that he abused cigarettes and drugs too much. My guess is that these regrets were caused by the aftermath of a throat cancer operation in which Barger lost his larynx and had to relearn how to speak.
In his posthumous admonition, which Sonny ordered to be published on Facebook after his death, the first thing he urges his followers to cherish freedom and never give it up. It is interesting that his spiritual testament begins precisely with the idea of freedom. For example, the motto of the Hells Angels – “Better to be a king in hell than a servant in paradise” – is about the same thing: about freedom and complete rejection of submission to anyone. Sonny also bequeathed to all bikers to cherish their honor and cherish it, never lower their heads and hands, and also not betray themselves.
According to the members of the Hells Angels bike club, Barger could motivate even a complete loser, had a phenomenal equanimity and the ability to take a hit. As a person, of course, he possessed a remarkably wholesome character.
On the other hand, Barger’s cultivation of military customs and customs in the criminal environment of the Hells Angels , where murder of enemies, drug trafficking and racist antics were commonplace, speaks of some contradictions in his character. Given Sonny’s background and how he came up with the idea of becoming a biker, it’s not hard to see where these controversies come from.
HOW BARGER LIVED BEFORE HELLS ANGELS
In addition to the phrase “full ass” other words are very difficult to find. As Sonny said, no one needed him in his family: neither his mother, who left him as a 4-month-old baby in the care of his father, who abused alcohol and worked at a menial job in Oakland, to buy another portion of alcohol, nor his grandmother, who was not interested in anyone and nothing but God and religion.
He had no one to rely on but himself. Since childhood, Sonny has been used to the fact that his family will not protect him, so he is used to defending his interests and fighting for them, including by physically beating enemies. When the school teacher got well from Barger, he was expelled from the 9th grade. But the future founder of the Hells Angels did not lose heart, quickly forged a birth certificate in order to have the right to join the army by age, and directed his steps to the US Armed Forces. The army impressed Barger so much that he planned to stay there and devote his life to the cause. However, the military caught the young forger red-handed and sent him home.
Sonny had an unenviable prospect: people from his circle usually end up as day laborers and, at best, live in cheap rented housing or with relatives. Barger had a similar situation in that he worked day jobs and lived in the home of relatives. After watching the movie “The Savage”, he began to think where to go: to the bikers or to the then fashionable beatniks. Later, Sonny said that he did the right thing by choosing bikers, because, being a beatnik, he would have been high on drugs and would have gone to another world in the 60s.
So, having bought a decommissioned bike from the military, Barger in 1956 went to the Oakland Panthers motorcycle club.
BARGER IN “HELL’S ANGELS”
The founder of the Hells Angels stayed with the Oakland Panthers for only a year before they broke up. After that, Sonny thought about starting his own motorcycle club, with the goal of creating a community in which he would feel like in a family, or rather, in a “second family”. He wanted every member of the bike club to be as dedicated to drag racing and bikes as he was.
Barger’s wish was realized in the Hells Angels motorcycle club on April 1, 1957, which he founded in Oakland.
It remains a mystery why Barger called his motorcycle community the “Hell’s Angels”. Either it came to his mind himself, or he decided to borrow the name, since in California in the mid-50s there were already several motorcycle clubs with a similar name. Be that as it may, Sonny made tremendous efforts to unite with these bike clubs and thus increase his influence, for which he traveled half of California with his closest associates, convincing and persuading the owners of these bike clubs to join the Hells Angels “.
When you get acquainted with the inner workings of the Hells Angels, the most surprising thing is the clear and rigid system of values and rules that Barger established for all members of the motorcycle club. For example, Sonny strictly forbade any fights among the Hells Angels, imposed strict army-style discipline in the motorcycle community, demanded loyalty to him and to each other, and under pain of punishment forbade hitting on the wives and girlfriends of bikers who are members of the Hells Angels. , ordered to drive only Harley-Davidsons (however, he did not deny that Harleys are needed to give the Hells Angels a cool image, and he himself loves Behi and Honda ST 1100).
With a large number of bikers loyal and devoted to him at hand, Barger was not afraid to eat with other biker clubs and wage real turf wars with them. In 2002, years of war with the Outlaws , Pagans and other motorcycle clubs were over. The Hells Angels were given the informal title of leader among the “one percent” bike clubs.
It is clear that the biker wars were not without killings, but Barger had an amazing talent for getting away with it and sat in the zone only 2 times. Evil tongues claimed that Sonny had an influential patron – Senator Campbell, who solved his problems with the American authorities.
THE OTHER SIDE OF BARGER’S LIFE
Of course, the biker legend lived not only as Hells Angels. From time to time he acted in films. Barger had more or less decent screen time with lines in the series Sons of Anarchy (the final episodes of seasons 4-5), as well as in the movie Hells Angels 69.
The life of a biker, constantly fraught with risk, and safety are generally incompatible concepts. However, Sonny clashed with the owners and directors of motorcycle factories and demanded that measures be taken to improve motorcycles in terms of safety. His arguments for his own view of the problem were detailed in Let ‘s Ride : Sonny Barger ‘s Guide to Motorcycling .
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