The first Hell’s Angels chapter was co-founded in Oakland, Ca. in 1948 by Sonny Barger. This group was originally a bunch of "hard-ass" men from World War II who didn’t want the "fun" to end. But little did these guys know that this "little club" would soon end up to be the largest and most predominant biker gang in the world.
Here is an excerpt from the website of the Virginia Polytetnic Institute and State University the article which is about a man whowas with the Hell’s Angels for a number of years and lived to tell about it. His identity remains anonymous for security reasons. "Thanks to the FBI, BATF, Secret Service, the Treasury boys and several State Police agencies, the club I was affiliated with no longer officially exists. I am officially retired. The club I was with was an international club ranging through the north-east and as far west as Detroit and into Canada. Drugs, guns, prostitution, strong-arm enforcement, hot cars and hot bikes were a way of life. Live hard, ride fast, die young and don’t give a care for anyone except yourself and your bothers. A real glamorous life. Yea, right. When you live the life you live in a constant war zone. You get so you can’t trust anyone, even your own brothers. Paranoid? You have to be, and for good reason. One club will send a prospect in to prospect for another club. When the prospect brings back enough info or sets up a member or two or three from the other club then the prospect gets their patch. The guys that get set up are lucky if they live. They you get the crazy gung-ho bastard that is always starting major fights and encourages the brother to do off the wall crap they wouldn’t normally do, like sell illegal stuff to strangers or even commit murder. That gung-ho guy usually shows up at your trial, clean cut, with a three piece suit and a badge. The only thing glamorous about the life is how it is perceived by citizens. It isn’t all bad, I personally made a lot of life long friends, had a lot of good times. But, I could have done that as a citizen as well. I saw a lot of good people die needlessly. I saw a lot of things that make the citizens hate all motorcycle riders, especially Harley riders. There are some actions in life that no one can be proud of, and I have seen more than my fare share of them. On an individual basis people that are 1% ers aren’t all bad. Hell, there are a lot of good people in those clubs. But, get them in a group and quite often you will see a different mentality emerge. A big part of the culture is protecting your brother’s back. So, take the worst member of any club and that is the personality the club supports when they are in a group. Even if an individual would rather walk away from a certain situation they will support their brother because the culture demands you cover your brother’s back. You may kick his ass to hell and back afterwards, but you don’t have that option in public. It is the loud mouthed trouble makers that set the tempo for a club in public. So, what do I think about 1% ers? The life style certainly isn’t worth all the bandwidth it has received here. And, if you wear a patch on your back you can damn well bet that someone, somewhere at sometime is going to take it very personal for one reason or another. Putt... Asshole #19"
This gives us some insight on what it feels like to be and what the life of a Hell’s Angel is like. He did say that one cool part of “the life” is how your everyday citizens feel and perceive it. It is hard to understand how having citizens look at your life and have them think it is cool or dangerous can make it all worthwhile.
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