Sonny Barger

For decades, he was the public face of a nationwide counterculture tribe of bearded, denim-clad road warriors memorialized in literature and film.

The first Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club had been founded in southern California in 1947, made up partly of disaffected ex-servicemen returning from the war; ...

In an announcement pre-written by the biker before his death, he spoke of his live 'filled with adventure' and paid tribute to the 'amazing club' that he ...

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. His death was confirmed on his Facebook page, in an announcement pre-written by the biker before his passing where he spoke of his live “filled with adventure” and paid tribute to the “amazing club” that he founded.

Sonny Barger, the longstanding kingpin of the US motorcycle club Hells Angels, has died aged 83 after a brief battle with cancer.

The gang was built upon ill repute and a lifestyle of ultimate freedom and hedonism. In 1988, he was also convicted of conspiracy to kill members of a rival motorcycle club in Kentucky and blow up their headquarters. The message continued: “Please know that I passed peacefully after a brief battle with cancer. “I’ve lived a long and good life filled with adventure. His death was confirmed in a statement from Barger himself posted to his Facebook page. Although I’ve had a public persona for decades, I’ve mostly enjoyed special time with my club brothers, my family, and close friends.”

Hells Angels is a worldwide club for motorcyclists that was founded in California in 1948. It has an infamous reputation and has been accused of criminal ...

Following his diagnosis, he started publicly advocating against smoking using the message: "Want to be a rebel? He has also been in trouble with the law. Hells Angels is a worldwide club for motorcyclists that was founded in California in 1948.

Sonny Barger, the notorious founding member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, author, ex-convict, occasional Sons of Anarchy actor and one of the bikers ...

Barger also took part in a number of documentaries about the bikers. Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1983 and, in 2010, prostate cancer. Barger said in his book that he forced Richards, at gunpoint, to begin the concert. But also know that in the end, I was surrounded by what really matters: My wife, Zorana, as well as my loved ones. And I’ve had the privilege to be part of an amazing club. Although I’ve had a public persona for decades, i’ve mostly enjoyed special time with my club brothers, my family, and close friends.

Mr. Barger cultivated the motorcycle club's outlaw image and was a pivotal figure in its rise from obscurity into a countercultural phenomenon in the 1960s.

But the group’s rise came in spite of law enforcement’s efforts to tame it, with the authorities seeing it as a dangerous menace. In 2013, at 75, he described in a sworn deposition what he would do if he saw someone wearing an unofficial shirt bearing Hells Angels trademarks. Ralph Barger was born in Modesto, Calif., on Oct. 8, 1938. Soon after, he took over as the club’s national president when Otto Friedli, the founder of the original chapter, went to prison. Chased by the law for decades, he spent time in prison on drug charges but beat several other charges. He was 83.

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.

HELLS Angels founder passed away at the age of 83 after a long battle with cancer.Sonny Barger's last moments were spent surrounded by his wife and fa.

As well as earning money from his TV appearances, Barger wrote numerous books, including Hell's Angel: The Life And Times Of Sonny Barger And The Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club and photography book, Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Just days after the couple's wedding anniversary, Sonny Barger passed away "peacefully" after a "brief battle with cancer" at the age of 83. Sonny Barger married a total of four times over the course of his life.

LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) — Sonny Barger, the leather-clad figurehead of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club, has died. He was 83.

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-defense. 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 honorable 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.”

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."

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.