Blue Sheep Books<\/a>\u2018, new True Crime and Crime\/Thriller Book Club.<\/p>\nGoing into reading this book my knowledge of the Hell\u2019s Angels was pretty limited to being a bunch of guys riding motorbikes and seeming to get into a lot of trouble but in terms of knowing exactly what went down in their history I had no idea.<\/p>\n
Sonny Barger was the president of the Oakland Hell\u2019s Angels in California and as shown during this book lead the entire club in many run ins with the law and the American public. The book is an unflinchingly honest, brutal and violent account of both Sonny\u2019s life (up until 2001 anyway) and the history of the club, which in many ways are one and the same.<\/p>\n
From Sonny\u2019s creation of the Oakland chapter in the 1950s, to the height of the Hell\u2019s Angel\u2019s notoriety in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as Sonny\u2019s periods of imprisonment, fights with rival gangs and his own fight against throat cancer in 1982, this autobiography really feels like it doesn\u2019t leave any stone un-turned. Also having grown up in the 2000\u2019s when any D list celebrity had a book it\u2019s fascinating to read one by someone who lived such a full life outside of the law.<\/p>\n
Sonny does also show who he is as a person to the reader and I found him to be quite complex. Whilst he clearly enjoyed partying and some of the violent acts that came with it, there was also a very principled side to his personality and a loyalty and dedication to the HAMC and you really get the sense that he lived and breathed that club throughout the sixty or so years the book spans.<\/p>\n
I do find with autobiography\u2019s there are always parts that can be kind of slow or less interesting for different readers. For example, there is a chapter where Sonny discusses his love of motorbikes and Harley Davidson\u2019s, as well as the modifications members made which I have to be honest as somebody who doesn\u2019t know a lot about bikes went completely over my head, whilst I fully understood his passion for motorbikes.<\/p>\n
My personal standout chapters in the book were when he described a time when the Hell\u2019s Angles were used as bodyguards at a free Rolling Stones gig at Altamont Raceway in 1969. This was something I didn\u2019t know anything about and had to ask my dad if he remembered anything from he time and he did recall something about a troubled concert of there\u2019s around the same time but not exactly what happened).<\/p>\n
I also found fascinating the chapter surrounding Sonny\u2019s battle against the RICO charges. RICO stood for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and whilst it\u2019s intention seemed to have been around breaking up Mobsters and criminal organisations, the law and how it was implemented as described here seems like a very problematic law that could easily be used for corruption. This formed the basis of the Hell\u2019s Angels defence but seems even more timely when we live in an era where data privacy and government usage of people\u2019s data and state intervention is such matters is such a controversial topic and talking point.<\/p>\n
My final thought which I have to share because I found it amusing was how the Hell\u2019s Angels groups described themselves as Chapters. My ex-boss was in a business networking group called BNI and they also describe their groups as chapters (and also started in the USA in California), so reading references to Hell\u2019s Angel Chapter Meetings gave me some very interesting images in my head but probably the two would not be the same.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, for a very hard-hitting but fascinating account of one of America\u2019s most controversial, yet I would say globally iconic, groups, this book would be a great place to start. If you have read this book, let me know in the comments down below your thoughts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n