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How the Hells Angels Work · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast, room Room, etcetera. I'm Josh Clark. With me
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Speaker 1: is always as Charles W Chuck Bryant. That may have
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Speaker 1: been the most realistic Harley Davidson impression made by human mouth. Thanks, Room, Room, etcetera. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I was practicing that. It's good. So Chuck, how are
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Speaker 1: you doing? Oh? I'm good dude. About to start the
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Speaker 1: old Thanksgiving break vacation. I know this is the last
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Speaker 1: thing we have to do and then a week off.
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Speaker 1: But this will probably come out after thank Giving people
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Speaker 1: to be like, yeah, weird, weird. Indeed, Hey, can I
0:50
Speaker 1: take you back in time? We don't have to go
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Speaker 1: the way back machine. I'm just going to paint a
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Speaker 1: picture for you, all right. So, a balmy Saturday night,
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Speaker 1: April seventh, two two. Do you know where you were?
1:05
Speaker 1: I was living in Los Angeles, Okay, so it probably
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Speaker 1: wasn't balmy for me. Okay, It's probably clear and cool,
1:11
Speaker 1: all right. Well, not too far away from where you were,
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Speaker 1: in a town called Laughlin, Nevada. There is a hair
1:18
Speaker 1: Is casino and on that night a couple of guys
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Speaker 1: who were there for the Lafflin River Run. It's a
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Speaker 1: motorcycle uh run ride right, guy named Jeff King and
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Speaker 1: Walter Boosts to two buddies, just normal guys. We're walking
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Speaker 1: into the casino. The hair is at um Laughlin and
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Speaker 1: this burly guy pushed past him and said that they'd
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Speaker 1: better get the blank out of the way, because trouble's
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Speaker 1: about to happen. Sure enough, within two minutes, King and
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Speaker 1: Boost here, Uh two shots fired, and then another shot
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Speaker 1: and then all holy hell breaks loose in the middle
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Speaker 1: of this hair Is casino. Yet they remained after giving
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Speaker 1: the warning. I take it, Yeah they did. I would
2:02
Speaker 1: have been so gone. They actually did remain because um
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Speaker 1: one of them testified later on that a guy pushed
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Speaker 1: past him going the other way out of the casino
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Speaker 1: holding a long knife with blood all over it. So
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Speaker 1: this thing, this this casino erupts into a melee. And
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Speaker 1: what it happened was, uh, the Mongols, a motorcycle club.
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Speaker 1: You might call him a biker gang. That's what some
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Speaker 1: people might say, ran into a Hell's Angels. The Hell's
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Speaker 1: Angels Motorcycle Club. Yes, and again all hell broke loose
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Speaker 1: of melee started. Two Hell's Angels died and one Mongol died,
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Speaker 1: just like the old days. Have you seen this? Have
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Speaker 1: you seen the security video of it? It's nut still
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Speaker 1: you know what I did back when it happened, and
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Speaker 1: they go absolutely crazy. Um, but that's kind of what
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Speaker 1: happens when the Hell's Angels encounter another rival group they're
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Speaker 1: not too fond of, especially the Mongols. From what I've read,
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Speaker 1: apparently there aren't enemies. So we're not going to talk
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Speaker 1: about the Angles today, and maybe another podcast in the works.
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Speaker 1: Respect to the Mongols, we don't know within them, seriously,
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Speaker 1: we're total squares. We have no affiliation whatsoever now. But
3:10
Speaker 1: we do have an article on the site here at
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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com called how the Hell's Angels
3:14
Speaker 1: Motorcycle Club Works. Chuck and I kind of cooled it
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Speaker 1: up by calling this podcast how the Hell's Angels Work, right, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: And that's what generally most people think of them as
3:23
Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels, But that is in fact their full name. Yes,
3:26
Speaker 1: and that's what's adorned on their their jackets and such.
3:29
Speaker 1: Nicely done and by the way. Um. I think forty
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Speaker 1: two Hell's Angels stood trial for that melee, and all
3:36
Speaker 1: but six head charges dropped into plea. Bargain. The government
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Speaker 1: was trying to go after these guys and go after
3:41
Speaker 1: him and go after him, which we'll find out later
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Speaker 1: is a real pattern, um, and couldn't get anything to stick.
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Speaker 1: And I think the most any of the six guys
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Speaker 1: who actually did plea, who got like thirty months something
3:56
Speaker 1: like that bad casino behavior pretty much. Yeah right, yeah,
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Speaker 1: they didn't kissed the dice before you roll them. Right, So, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: let's talk about the Hell's Angels, man, alright, let's do it, room, room, etcetera.
4:07
Speaker 1: The Hell's Angels, Josh, the little history they were started
4:11
Speaker 1: in the Fontana San Bernardino area of California, which, by
4:16
Speaker 1: the way, I don't know if you know this, but
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Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels refer to that chapter as Burdu and
4:21
Speaker 1: Burdue was still around. Yeah, oh yeah, they still remain,
4:24
Speaker 1: although they said I think I read that most of
4:26
Speaker 1: those original Burdue members did migrate north to Oakland, which
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Speaker 1: is why a lot of people think that it started
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Speaker 1: in Oakland, which is faults. So burd was the first
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Speaker 1: chapter who started the best we can tell, a guy
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Speaker 1: named Otto Freedley. Yeah, that's that's in the late nineteen Yeah,
4:47
Speaker 1: and actually he was with another biker gang called the
4:49
Speaker 1: piste Off Bastards, and they've gotten into a war with
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Speaker 1: another honest. Um, they got in a war with another
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Speaker 1: biker gang. And I guess once the war was over, Freedly,
5:00
Speaker 1: I'm out. I'm gonna go start my own thing. Right,
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Speaker 1: maybe that could be disappointing bastards. Um, that's uh, right
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Speaker 1: after World War Two, right, these guys must have been
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Speaker 1: disenchanted um servicemen who couldn't fit back into society. Miscreant pilots, right, Yeah,
5:19
Speaker 1: wasn't there like a bomber squadron called the Hell's Angels? Yeah, Josh.
5:23
Speaker 1: That is one of the most common misconceptions is that
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Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels were in fact ex servicemen, outlaw pilots
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Speaker 1: from World War Two, miscreants, miscreant drinkers, who were you know,
5:37
Speaker 1: didn't say answer to anybody, even in the army. Not true,
5:42
Speaker 1: because we read it on the Hell's Angel's website. Yeah,
5:44
Speaker 1: if you go into the Hell's Angels website, one guy
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Speaker 1: from the Charleston, South Carolina chapter and another guy from
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Speaker 1: one of the English chapters got together and did some serious,
5:55
Speaker 1: extensive research trying to find out if there was a
5:58
Speaker 1: connection between this armor group. And at no point did
6:02
Speaker 1: they say, we're not, you know, miscreating drunks. But these
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Speaker 1: guys weren't. You know, it's kind of a disservice to
6:09
Speaker 1: these uh, actually really highly decorated and very successful bomber
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Speaker 1: squadron servicemen. And they couldn't have operated they were miscreants
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Speaker 1: and been successful if they were drunks and miscreants know,
6:19
Speaker 1: and they were highly successful. The closest they found, from
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Speaker 1: what I can understand, is that a guy named are
6:26
Speaker 1: avaid arvid arvid Olsen was actually in a third pursuit
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Speaker 1: group called the Hell's Angels, and he was friends with
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Speaker 1: some of the founding members of the Burdoue chapter. UM,
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Speaker 1: but he was never a Hell's Angel himself. And that's
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Speaker 1: the closest they could find for a link between the two.
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Speaker 1: They share a name, and that's it. That's it from
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Speaker 1: what we can tell. Ye, So false false false false.
6:52
Speaker 1: So Chuck, we've got the founding in but the Hell's Angels,
6:56
Speaker 1: I guess kind of rode a little under the radar
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Speaker 1: until nine team fifty seven, right, yes, when that Oakland
7:03
Speaker 1: Chapter was founded. Yeah, that's when they really started rolling,
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Speaker 1: right thanks to a guy named sunny Barger, Yes, Ralph
7:09
Speaker 1: sunny Barger. He uh, I believe founded the Oakland UM
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Speaker 1: Chapter and he wrote a bunch of books that were
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Speaker 1: really successful that kind of kind of peeled back the
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Speaker 1: curtain behind the Hell's Angels up front. I was reading
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Speaker 1: one of them on Google Books today. It's called Hell's Angel,
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Speaker 1: The Life and Times of sunny Barger, I think. And
7:28
Speaker 1: it's an autobiography because he kept using the word I
7:32
Speaker 1: and it was by him, um giveaway for an autobiography
7:38
Speaker 1: usually um. And he in his heyday was a very
7:42
Speaker 1: cool dude, it sounds like it. And also let me
7:45
Speaker 1: let me let me also, um add a caveat to that.
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Speaker 1: I'm also aware that he was also a major drug
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Speaker 1: trafficker who engaged in violence, um and toward women, towards
7:58
Speaker 1: squares like you and me, chuck. Um did all manner
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Speaker 1: of bad things. But who's still kind of cool dude. Right. Yeah,
8:08
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that too a little bit later about
8:10
Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels in whether or not they are uh
8:13
Speaker 1: want to run a foul of the law or ride
8:16
Speaker 1: you know for charity and stuff like that. Well, what
8:18
Speaker 1: are we going to talk about now? Right now, we're
8:20
Speaker 1: gonna talk about um, let's talk about their their colors
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Speaker 1: in their insignia and all that stuff. They call it
8:26
Speaker 1: their colors much like a military people call their uniform
8:30
Speaker 1: their color sometimes. And red and white are the actual
8:33
Speaker 1: colors of the letters. It's a red letters in a
8:37
Speaker 1: white field. Absolutely. And then the thing at the top
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Speaker 1: top patch that actually says Hell's Angels call it the
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Speaker 1: top rocker top rocker, right, and then the bottom rocker
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Speaker 1: is there, um the name of the city that their
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Speaker 1: chapters in right, their chapter location right. And then in
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Speaker 1: the middle is what the middle is. The death head
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Speaker 1: is what it's called. And that is a copy written
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Speaker 1: as death Head it is, and as is their name.
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Speaker 1: And that was designed by the San Francisco chapter president,
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Speaker 1: Frank Satellac Sedillac. And here's an interesting fact for you.
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Speaker 1: Did you know that the Hell's Angels motorcycle Club is
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Speaker 1: at California Corporation. They're incorporated, and they do jealously guard
9:20
Speaker 1: their copyrighted materials, their images, all that stuff. They sued
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Speaker 1: Disney for They sued Disney a couple of years ago
9:27
Speaker 1: for that movie Wild Hogs about all the middle aged
9:33
Speaker 1: bikers Martin Lawrence and Tim Tim Allen and Trivolda and
9:38
Speaker 1: William Macy. Just terrible. I'm sure I would have sued too.
9:42
Speaker 1: I can't believe you saw it. No, I didn't see it,
9:44
Speaker 1: kidding me. I saw that they sued. Yeah, so when
9:47
Speaker 1: did they sue over? These guys weren't supposed to be
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Speaker 1: Hell's Angels, were they? I think so? They sued because
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Speaker 1: they said they used the Hell's Angels logo and everything
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Speaker 1: without their permission. I don't know if they were specifically.
9:56
Speaker 1: I don't wonder if the antagonists were Hell's Angels or something. Maybe,
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Speaker 1: But all I know is they sued and I couldn't find.
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Speaker 1: As usual, you can never find out what happens with
10:04
Speaker 1: the lawsuit. No, it's probably some deal. But yeah, they
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Speaker 1: sued because they are, like you said, they zealously guard
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Speaker 1: their name. And uh they ride Harley Davidson's but apparently
10:15
Speaker 1: are not required to do so. No, but it's all
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Speaker 1: They almost exclusively ride Harley's. I can't imagine if you
10:22
Speaker 1: wheel upon a Honda that they're gonna come on in. Yeah,
10:25
Speaker 1: come on in, brother, we'll jump you in prospect um.
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Speaker 1: They also apparently a typical member drives about twenty thousand
10:31
Speaker 1: miles a yearly rides, rides. We will get down, say
10:37
Speaker 1: that you drive a motorcycle. Yeah, so, Chuck, you've seen
10:40
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about the patches and and you've
10:42
Speaker 1: seen guys wearing them here. They're right. Well, yeah, there's
10:44
Speaker 1: different patches, Like if you're the president of your chapter,
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Speaker 1: you'll have a little patch that like the boy Scouts
10:48
Speaker 1: sort of. Yeah, and there's all sorts. Oh man, there's
10:52
Speaker 1: all sorts of other patches and insignia. Sure that um,
10:55
Speaker 1: no one outside of the club gang whatever, uh knows
11:00
Speaker 1: the meaning of Yeah, I know the A F F
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Speaker 1: A is a common one, but we do know the
11:05
Speaker 1: meaning of that because that's one of their slogans, which
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Speaker 1: is uh angels Forever, Forever angels. And then you'll also
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Speaker 1: see eighty one a lot of times. Eight H is
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Speaker 1: the eighth letter of the alphabet, and A is the
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Speaker 1: first letter, So eight one J Hell's angels. Yeah, and
11:21
Speaker 1: they'll say call it like local eighty one. Sometimes it
11:23
Speaker 1: sounds for like a union. And apparently they also refer
11:26
Speaker 1: to themselves as one percenters. I heard about that too, Yeah,
11:30
Speaker 1: one percent of the outlaw bikers giving of respectable biker
11:36
Speaker 1: is a bad name. Yes, yeah, pretty cool, Yeah, it
11:38
Speaker 1: is kind of I told you so, Chuck. How do
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Speaker 1: you become a member? Well, Josh, like I said, you
11:45
Speaker 1: need to own a working motorcycle. That's probably first, and
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Speaker 1: have a driver's license. And have a driver's license. That's
11:52
Speaker 1: that's funny that those are rules, but it makes sense. Also,
11:55
Speaker 1: you can't ever have applied to be a police officer,
11:58
Speaker 1: prison guard. I got an a one. You cannot be
12:01
Speaker 1: a child molester. Hell's Angels don't like child molesters. They
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Speaker 1: really don't. Good for them. Yeah, because you know what
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Speaker 1: I don't either. The Hell's Angels have a longstanding hatred
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Speaker 1: of the cops. Um and with good cause Pigs as
12:16
Speaker 1: they call him. Sure, Um Hunter Thompson are our shared hero.
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Speaker 1: Wrote about the Hell's Angels and we can talk about
12:23
Speaker 1: that a little more in depth. But um he said
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Speaker 1: that he was talking about how the average Hell's Angel
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Speaker 1: views the establishment or the law, and he said he
12:35
Speaker 1: knows that somewhere behind the moat, the main cop has
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Speaker 1: scrawled his name on a blackboard in the big briefing
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Speaker 1: room with a notation beside it. Get this boy, give
12:43
Speaker 1: him no peace. He's incorrigible like an egg sucking dog.
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Speaker 1: So apparently that's how Hell's Angels tend to view um
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Speaker 1: the cops. Yeah, why couldn't we get Johnny Depp to
12:52
Speaker 1: have read that wouldn't have been great? Maybe we know, No,
12:57
Speaker 1: that would have been great. Uh So back to membership,
13:02
Speaker 1: if you want to be a member, takes a little while.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes it can take a year or more. Yeah, to
13:07
Speaker 1: become a full patch member. As they say, so you
13:09
Speaker 1: start out as a hang around. Yeah, that's what it's
13:12
Speaker 1: just hang around them, but you're you're invited to hang around. Like,
13:17
Speaker 1: you can't just hang around and be a hang around.
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Speaker 1: They'll say, what are you doing here? Uh? Square, get
13:22
Speaker 1: out of here, drive your motorcycle on out of here,
13:25
Speaker 1: or they'll hit you over the head of the tire
13:27
Speaker 1: iron right can when you drop up in your vol
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Speaker 1: foe to hang around? Uh So, yeah, you're you're invited
13:33
Speaker 1: to hang around and you can attend uh some events.
13:36
Speaker 1: Evidently as a hang around, then you are made an
13:40
Speaker 1: associate if you do a good job as a hang around.
13:44
Speaker 1: How do you do a good job as a hang around?
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Speaker 1: I would guess this is just a guess, But if
13:49
Speaker 1: I was a Hell's Angel, I would say that you
13:51
Speaker 1: don't cause a lot of trouble, You're fun to be around,
13:54
Speaker 1: You bring chicks to the party. Sure, that probably didn't hurt. Okay,
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Speaker 1: So after the hang around you become an associate and
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Speaker 1: then what you become a prospect? And this is apparently
14:04
Speaker 1: full acknowledgement that you are in the pipeline for official
14:08
Speaker 1: membership consideration. Yeah. Do you remember when we did our
14:11
Speaker 1: fight Clubs podcast and we talked about how fight clubs,
14:14
Speaker 1: especially in California, often used to like jump in prospects
14:17
Speaker 1: into gangs. These would be the people who are on
14:20
Speaker 1: their last night. Right. Did they get thrown into like
14:23
Speaker 1: a cage match with a bunch of other people and
14:26
Speaker 1: I imagine it gets pretty ugly. Yeah, no, thank you,
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Speaker 1: that's what I say. Uh. And actually, if you're in
14:31
Speaker 1: a prospect at this point, you can participate in the
14:33
Speaker 1: club activities, but you cannot vote. You don't have voting privileges. Yet.
14:38
Speaker 1: That seems funny, doesn't it that they vote? It's democracy? Yeah?
14:42
Speaker 1: And Josh, what's after that? After that, my friend, you
14:46
Speaker 1: are a full patch member. Yep, you are allowed to
14:51
Speaker 1: wear the Death's Head logo. You can wear your top
14:54
Speaker 1: and lower rocker. Yeah, you get your jacket. Yeah, and um,
14:57
Speaker 1: apparently and this is this is one of those things
15:01
Speaker 1: that it may or may not be lower it could
15:03
Speaker 1: be who knows. Apparently, during initiation there is a um
15:10
Speaker 1: bucket filled with feces and urine passed around and dumped
15:14
Speaker 1: on the person. And they're never allowed to wash their colors,
15:19
Speaker 1: so that's on their on their jacket forever. Well, that's
15:22
Speaker 1: not fun. No, it's not um. And I don't think
15:27
Speaker 1: that this is correct. Apparently, our buddy Hunter T wrote that,
15:31
Speaker 1: and um, you get in trouble. He didn't get in trouble.
15:34
Speaker 1: He got away with murder. Apparently, not literally. But Sonny
15:39
Speaker 1: Barger said that that's just not true. That doesn't sound
15:42
Speaker 1: like to be right. It seems like they would not
15:44
Speaker 1: want to desecrate their colors, would be gross. Yeah, it's
15:48
Speaker 1: just a thought. Alright, I'll give us some advice if
15:50
Speaker 1: that's what you're doing, guys, not at all. You should
15:52
Speaker 1: respect your own colors. Advice for the Hell's Angels from
15:55
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant the end. So now you are a full
15:58
Speaker 1: patch member, you're in the Alls Angels, and um, you're
16:02
Speaker 1: you're a member for life. That's why they say Angels Forever,
16:05
Speaker 1: Forever Angels. There's no retirement. No, there's not. And uh,
16:08
Speaker 1: even if you're not allowed to associate with the Hell's
16:11
Speaker 1: Angels anymore because of your terms of parole, you're still
16:15
Speaker 1: considered a Hell's Angel. Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah, So Chuck, Um,
16:20
Speaker 1: let's talk a little more about Hunter t He literally
16:23
Speaker 1: he literally wrote the book on Hell's Angels and the
16:28
Speaker 1: mid sixties early mid sixties. He wrote an article in
16:32
Speaker 1: sixty in the Nation, and then that article got book published.
16:36
Speaker 1: A sniffing around say you should write a book on this.
16:38
Speaker 1: Sunny Barger also wrote wrote or read that article. He
16:42
Speaker 1: liked it and um he said it was a little exaggerated,
16:45
Speaker 1: but he liked Thompson's writing style. So when Thompson started
16:49
Speaker 1: hanging around some of the bars that the Burdue chapter
16:53
Speaker 1: Oakland chapter hung out at I think it was Oakland. Um.
16:57
Speaker 1: They they finally introduced him to Sunny Barger and Barger said,
17:03
Speaker 1: you know what, fine, you can hang out with us
17:06
Speaker 1: um in return for two cakes of beer, which By
17:09
Speaker 1: the way, Hunter Thompson never paid up on UM, and
17:13
Speaker 1: Hunter spent the next year hanging out with the Hell's Angels.
17:16
Speaker 1: Apparently he um helped them unload shipments of meth like
17:20
Speaker 1: planeloads of meth. Um. He helped them. He wont on
17:25
Speaker 1: a gun run with them at least once. Uh. When
17:28
Speaker 1: they got into it with the cops, he apparently jumped
17:30
Speaker 1: into his car and pulled the trunk catch down on him,
17:33
Speaker 1: and Sonny Barger said that that was it. He was
17:36
Speaker 1: like after that, I never looked at Hunter Thompson in
17:38
Speaker 1: the same way again. He figured out he was a coward,
17:41
Speaker 1: but he was also a kind of a skinny guy
17:42
Speaker 1: in a literary type. So yeah, I don't think he
17:44
Speaker 1: ever claimed to be a wise with the fisticuffs, which
17:48
Speaker 1: is why he carried guns. And then finally, this whole
17:51
Speaker 1: thing ends, his whole association ends um when Hunter gets
17:56
Speaker 1: the crap kicked out of him by the Hell's Angels,
17:58
Speaker 1: some of which he considered friends. Right, Yeah, Well, actually
18:01
Speaker 1: what I read was that he later said the ones
18:03
Speaker 1: who actually did the beating were the ones he wasn't
18:06
Speaker 1: hanging around with the most, and they were sort of
18:09
Speaker 1: on the on the fringe there. You know what happened, well,
18:11
Speaker 1: I I couldn't find I heard they he made a
18:13
Speaker 1: remark at a party he did, and I couldn't figure out.
18:16
Speaker 1: I couldn't find what that remark was. Hell's Angel by
18:18
Speaker 1: the name of Junkie George had his dog. No, this
18:23
Speaker 1: is not Hippie robb Um, although I could see Hippie
18:27
Speaker 1: rob knowing Chunkie George. Um. Anyway, Junkie George had his
18:30
Speaker 1: dog with him, and his dog bit him, and Junkie
18:33
Speaker 1: George kicked his dog, and Hunter Thompson walked up to
18:36
Speaker 1: him and said, only punk slapped their old ladies and
18:39
Speaker 1: kicked their dogs. And Junkie George did not like that
18:42
Speaker 1: one bit that started ye, so he um he put
18:45
Speaker 1: the smack down on Hunter Thompson. A bunch of other
18:48
Speaker 1: guys jumped in, and Hunter Thompson drove himself to the
18:52
Speaker 1: police station. The police turned him away and he drove
18:54
Speaker 1: himself to the hospital. He was treated and he never
18:57
Speaker 1: hung out with the Hell's Angels again. That was in
18:59
Speaker 1: but he did publish the book Hell's Angels, The Strange
19:02
Speaker 1: and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and apparently
19:06
Speaker 1: a lot of it was exaggerated. But this is where
19:09
Speaker 1: Sonny Barger said he wrote the book for law enforcement,
19:12
Speaker 1: Like law enforcement all read it and they're like, oh, well, sure,
19:15
Speaker 1: this is what we're dealing with. And a lot of
19:16
Speaker 1: it was. Well, gang rape was in there, and I
19:19
Speaker 1: don't know if that was exaggerated or not. He said
19:23
Speaker 1: he witnessed gang rape on more than one occasion and
19:25
Speaker 1: that they used it as a form of punishment. And uh.
19:29
Speaker 1: He said that they admitted that it was a form
19:30
Speaker 1: of punishment that Hell's Angels did, so I will say
19:33
Speaker 1: allegedly here, but it was in the book. Thompson apparently
19:36
Speaker 1: also lent his notes to another journalist at least equally good,
19:42
Speaker 1: by the name of Tom Wolf. Yes, of the of
19:45
Speaker 1: the Right Stuff fame, as well as the electric Koliate
19:47
Speaker 1: asseid tests. Yes. Um, the Hell's Angels factor hugely in
19:51
Speaker 1: the electric koal Aid asset test, which is actually about
19:54
Speaker 1: the Mary pranksters. And uh, I think in nineteen sixty five,
19:58
Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels went to the Lee, Oakland border and
20:02
Speaker 1: beat the tar out of some lefty anti war protesters.
20:06
Speaker 1: College students beat him up and then vowed to break
20:09
Speaker 1: up any anti war demonstration they ever came across um
20:14
Speaker 1: So Hunter. Apparently it took um Alan Ginsburg the poet
20:19
Speaker 1: and Ken Kizi, the leader of the Mary Pranksters, and
20:23
Speaker 1: introduced him to Sonny Barger, then went off his own way.
20:26
Speaker 1: And uh, that meeting kind of made peace between the
20:30
Speaker 1: hippies and the Hell's Angels famously. Yeah, and I think
20:35
Speaker 1: Ginsberg even wrote a poem about the Hell's Angels. Yeah, yeah,
20:39
Speaker 1: I couldn't find it though, Okay, but I would like
20:42
Speaker 1: to see you didn't dream that. Yeah, man, it was
20:46
Speaker 1: a beautiful poem. Now he really did write a poem though, Okay,
20:49
Speaker 1: it's funny thing about Alan Ginsberg hanging out with the
20:51
Speaker 1: Hell's Angels. It's really weird, especially like the head Hell's Angel. Yeah, yeah,
20:55
Speaker 1: but yeah, Sonny Barger said that he loved acid and
20:59
Speaker 1: it was the one thing he his people in the
21:01
Speaker 1: hippies had in common, are one of the main things.
21:04
Speaker 1: And they did plenty of the acid tests that La
21:06
Speaker 1: Honda and Stid all sorts of crazy stuff with the prankster. Yeah.
21:11
Speaker 1: Those are the days. Huh, those were the days. And actually,
21:14
Speaker 1: let me say another thing about law enforcement. Apparently, when
21:17
Speaker 1: Hunter Thompson was hanging out with the Hell's Angels there,
21:20
Speaker 1: um their their influence and their membership was drastically on
21:25
Speaker 1: the wing. And then a guy named Thomas Lynch, who
21:29
Speaker 1: was the Attorney General for California at the time, he
21:33
Speaker 1: issues a report on the Hell's Angels and it is
21:36
Speaker 1: ridiculous and bloated and exaggerated, and but apparently it just
21:42
Speaker 1: blew up the Hell's Angel street cred and all of
21:44
Speaker 1: a sudden they were just their members. They have more
21:46
Speaker 1: members than ever after that report. Yeah, so sometimes it
21:49
Speaker 1: works against you when you try and quash something. So
21:53
Speaker 1: I guess we should talk about some of the good
21:56
Speaker 1: they do and some of the bad they've done, because
21:59
Speaker 1: there's the fight an opinion the Hell's Angels. Uh, they
22:02
Speaker 1: raised money for charity. They're famous for their uh their
22:05
Speaker 1: work with the Toys for Tots and they do charity
22:07
Speaker 1: rides and stuff like that over the years, and I
22:10
Speaker 1: think they've cleaned up their act a lot, probably now
22:13
Speaker 1: compared to what it was like in the sixties. But
22:16
Speaker 1: they've had some scrapes with the law many many times
22:19
Speaker 1: along the way, uh, notably at Altamont Speedway that was
22:24
Speaker 1: a big one. Yeah, we can't talk about the Hell's
22:26
Speaker 1: Angels without talking about this. This was the ultimont free
22:28
Speaker 1: concert and it was famously recorded in the concert film
22:33
Speaker 1: Gimme Shelter. It was apparently the day the sixties died?
22:36
Speaker 1: Is that what they say? Is that that what that
22:39
Speaker 1: stupid song is about from that guy American Pie. Yeah,
22:42
Speaker 1: he's not talking about that now, that's about the death
22:44
Speaker 1: of Buddy Holly. That's the day the music died. Either him.
22:48
Speaker 1: I hate that song. Anyone who can listen, sit still,
22:51
Speaker 1: sit down and listen to that song all the way through,
22:54
Speaker 1: right in. And I've got a prize for you. You're
22:56
Speaker 1: a special person. I forget to send you information the
22:58
Speaker 1: Hell's Angels. So back to altamont Um. It was a
23:02
Speaker 1: free concert there and a bunch of bands played, Jefferson
23:06
Speaker 1: Airplane and the Rolling Stones. The Dead was supposed to play.
23:09
Speaker 1: They helicoptered in and then by that time things had
23:12
Speaker 1: gone south. Well, yeah, they the Stones helicoptered into and
23:16
Speaker 1: what happened was the Stones hired the Hell's Angels. Although
23:19
Speaker 1: there's been back and forth over the years that whether
23:22
Speaker 1: or not they were hired for the show by the
23:24
Speaker 1: organizers or whether the Stones specifically hired them as their
23:27
Speaker 1: personal security, and it's a he he said, she said
23:31
Speaker 1: type of deal with the Stones saying we did not
23:34
Speaker 1: hire them specifically, and the Hell's Angel saying, yes you did.
23:38
Speaker 1: You said you'd give us five with a beer if
23:41
Speaker 1: you we would, we would be your bodyguards. So they
23:44
Speaker 1: show up. They parked their bikes between the audience and
23:47
Speaker 1: the stage. Stones go on and actually before this happened
23:51
Speaker 1: that the violence had been escalating at this at this
23:54
Speaker 1: show free show in the sixties at Altamont, it was
23:57
Speaker 1: not good. There were I think two or three deaths
23:59
Speaker 1: and numerous fights and beatings breaking out, and one of
24:03
Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels smacked down Marty Balan of Jefferson Airplane
24:08
Speaker 1: knocked him unconscious. The Grateful Dead see this and they're like,
24:12
Speaker 1: we are out of here. This is not our scene
24:15
Speaker 1: and we're not gonna play and we're leaving, and they
24:17
Speaker 1: got back on their little helicopter and left. Have you
24:19
Speaker 1: seen that footage? And uh, yeah, give me shelter is great.
24:23
Speaker 1: If if you guys haven't seen that, you should definitely
24:25
Speaker 1: watch it. Um. So back to the Stones. Stones take stage,
24:29
Speaker 1: things start to devolve into violence and a guy named
24:34
Speaker 1: Meredith Hunter pulls a gun, points it at the stage
24:37
Speaker 1: and you can see all this in the film, and
24:39
Speaker 1: he gets jumped and stabbed to death by Alan Pizzaro,
24:42
Speaker 1: a Hell's Angel, famously, and the concert stopped. And you know,
24:47
Speaker 1: the Stones had a pretty awful time with the pr
24:50
Speaker 1: obviously about this. And apparently the Hell's Angels um were
24:53
Speaker 1: exposed for plotting to kill Mick Jagger for criticizing them
24:56
Speaker 1: after that. Yeah, true, and uh Pissarrow actually got off
25:00
Speaker 1: Scott Free Equitt. Yeah, because the film clearly showed that
25:04
Speaker 1: that that guy had a gun and he did pull it,
25:07
Speaker 1: and so he was the aiming it. They don't know.
25:10
Speaker 1: They said it was towards the stage, and um, you
25:12
Speaker 1: can't really tell from the footage from what I remember,
25:15
Speaker 1: but um, you know, the reports were that he was
25:17
Speaker 1: going to kill the Rolling Stones, which I didn't know
25:20
Speaker 1: that that was gonna happen by then. So the Hell's
25:23
Speaker 1: Angels already had a pretty rough reputation. This is this
25:26
Speaker 1: just cements it, right, So they just kind of go
25:29
Speaker 1: balls out. Um, which is a motorcycle term and not
25:32
Speaker 1: a vulgar expression. By the way. We learned that um
25:36
Speaker 1: and uh by throughout the seventies, they own the market
25:42
Speaker 1: on meth amphetam means yeah, apparently just the burd dude
25:46
Speaker 1: chapter alone. This is a law enforcement estimate from nineteen
25:49
Speaker 1: seventy nine, right after they staged a raid on that
25:54
Speaker 1: chapter's clubhouse, where Sunny Barger was right um that this
25:59
Speaker 1: this chapter alone controlled five meth labs that could make
26:03
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty thousand dollars or the pills a day. Wow,
26:07
Speaker 1: and this is nine man. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. So
26:11
Speaker 1: they don't call it like biker speed for nothing. It
26:13
Speaker 1: was because the bikers, specifically the Hell's Angels, cornered the
26:17
Speaker 1: market meth am fed amine in the seventies. They're also
26:21
Speaker 1: they also sold, allegedly sold cocaine, heroin, pretty much anything. Sure,
26:27
Speaker 1: prostitution was a big one apparently. And over the years
26:31
Speaker 1: they've been um indicted and accused and booked for everything
26:36
Speaker 1: from rape to to murder. Sonny Barger himself was in
26:40
Speaker 1: federal prison for four years for conspiring to blow up
26:44
Speaker 1: a rival gangs clubhouse. I don't know what the gang was,
26:47
Speaker 1: probably the Mongols is my guess. And so yeah, they've
26:50
Speaker 1: run a foul the law quite a bit over the years,
26:52
Speaker 1: they definitely do. But if you'll notice Sonny Barger got
26:55
Speaker 1: four years in federal pent right, you never hear about
26:58
Speaker 1: a Hell's Angel being put by God. You would hear
27:01
Speaker 1: about it if it happened. Yeah, I would imagine you
27:03
Speaker 1: would never hear about them getting life imprisonment. So you
27:05
Speaker 1: start to give the impression after everything you hear about
27:08
Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels, but then these pittily convictions that are
27:11
Speaker 1: slapped against them that maybe they are right in thinking
27:14
Speaker 1: that law enforcement and the establishment has it out for him.
27:18
Speaker 1: I think they definitely have it out for him, and
27:20
Speaker 1: they probably have participated in illegal activities throughout the years.
27:25
Speaker 1: But it's a big organization, and like you said, if
27:27
Speaker 1: there's you know, a small handful of of actual convictions
27:32
Speaker 1: compared to their vast history, that's, you know, that's not
27:35
Speaker 1: too bad because it's not saying they're great guys or anything,
27:39
Speaker 1: but it's not like they've been run up on, like
27:41
Speaker 1: you said, murder charges like all over the place. Although
27:44
Speaker 1: last this week they were in the news the the
27:48
Speaker 1: Vegas cops rated six Hell's Angels locations in Las Vegas
27:52
Speaker 1: and they seized records and knives and evidence, because last
27:56
Speaker 1: year there was a brawl once again between the Mongols
27:59
Speaker 1: and Hell's Angels, and I think two people were stabbed.
28:03
Speaker 1: Allow me to interrupt if we have anything to impart
28:07
Speaker 1: in this podcast, it's if you ever find yourself in
28:10
Speaker 1: the same room, the same building, the same parking lot,
28:13
Speaker 1: same town as a bunch of Mongols and a bunch
28:16
Speaker 1: of Hell's Angels, get out. Do you know what happened
28:18
Speaker 1: in Vegas? Oh, it's actually kind of funny. Huh. Two
28:20
Speaker 1: people were stabs, so it's not funny. But that was
28:23
Speaker 1: at a They both show up at a they were
28:25
Speaker 1: double booked at a wedding chapel, a Mongol wedding. Oh yeah,
28:28
Speaker 1: a Hell's Angel's wedding. We're both booked at the same
28:30
Speaker 1: wedding chapel at the same time. Not good, No, And
28:34
Speaker 1: I'm sure the person who booked that didn't wasn't brought
28:36
Speaker 1: up on charges or anything. And in fact, they're probably
28:39
Speaker 1: the ones that originally are to blame. They sat back
28:41
Speaker 1: and went exactly right. So, Chuck, what started out in
28:46
Speaker 1: Burdou and then blew up in Oakland has grown into
28:50
Speaker 1: like a worldwide organization. Whether or not it's an outlaw,
28:53
Speaker 1: biker gang or whatever. Um, they have a legitimate chapters
28:58
Speaker 1: in how many countries? Twenty nine countries? How many chapters?
29:01
Speaker 1: Want more than a hundred? Yeah, in all sorts of
29:04
Speaker 1: places too. I think in nineteen eighty four they had
29:08
Speaker 1: their first South American chapter open in Rio. Now they
29:12
Speaker 1: have them in Um, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic, Wales, Luxembourg, Luxembourg,
29:20
Speaker 1: the Luxemburghs Angels. Yeah, and that's money to me. Apparently
29:23
Speaker 1: the ones in Europe are going nuts these days. There's
29:27
Speaker 1: a huge turf woar that's been ongoing in Scandinavia. Australia
29:30
Speaker 1: is having real problems with them too. Um. And there's
29:34
Speaker 1: things like, you know, rocket launchers showing up, grenades being
29:38
Speaker 1: used like in these gang wars. Yeah, that's not in
29:41
Speaker 1: the like the old days with knives and fists. Rocket
29:43
Speaker 1: launcher Yeah, yeah, that's a different deal. I told Joe Square.
29:47
Speaker 1: The first chapter outside the US web was in New
29:51
Speaker 1: Zealand in ninette. And little known fact, George Harrison of
29:55
Speaker 1: the Beatles God Rest his Soul is allegedly responsible for
30:00
Speaker 1: bringing the Hell's Angels to England. Yeah. He invited a
30:02
Speaker 1: couple vide a couple of dudes that he met in
30:04
Speaker 1: San Francisco viting them over in England. They come over
30:06
Speaker 1: and hang out and boom, a London Hell's Angels chapter
30:10
Speaker 1: pops up afterwards. Pretty cool or is it? I don't know.
30:15
Speaker 1: And right now Poland and Iceland are currently seeking chapter.
30:17
Speaker 1: So good luck to Iceland, that's what I say, Poland, Yes, alright,
30:22
Speaker 1: good luck with that. So that's the Hell's Angels. I'm
30:24
Speaker 1: quite sure that there's a lot, a lot, you could
30:28
Speaker 1: even say a hell of a lot more information out
30:32
Speaker 1: there that will never find out because again, Chuck and
30:35
Speaker 1: I are squares who will never get to hang out
30:37
Speaker 1: with the Hell's angel ever, mainly because we don't want
30:41
Speaker 1: to get beat up. Yeah. I'm not a big fan
30:44
Speaker 1: of throwing punches or taking them on the chin. It's
30:48
Speaker 1: just not me. I'm a fan of running away. Um,
30:52
Speaker 1: if you want to learn a little more about The
30:53
Speaker 1: Hell's Angels, you can take that into the handy search
30:56
Speaker 1: bar at how stuff works dot com. Uh. You might
30:59
Speaker 1: also want to you go onto the Hell's Angels Motor
31:02
Speaker 1: Club website. It's pretty interesting. It's got links to other
31:05
Speaker 1: chapters two and also congratulations uh to the Burdue chapter
31:10
Speaker 1: on their sixtieth anniversary, which and um, since I said
31:16
Speaker 1: the Burdu chapter, I guess that means it's time for
31:19
Speaker 1: listener mate. Yes, indeed, Josh, I have a couple of
31:25
Speaker 1: corrections here for a change that we're going to acknowledge. Well,
31:29
Speaker 1: we haven't read corrections in a while. First of all,
31:32
Speaker 1: if I want to say that Bernie Gets, Bernard Gets
31:34
Speaker 1: is not a serial killer, I mistakenly said that and
31:38
Speaker 1: pre killer right. He didn't kill anyone. He shot some
31:41
Speaker 1: guys in New York and no one died, and he
31:44
Speaker 1: was not even convicted of attempted murder or anything. And
31:48
Speaker 1: he's still alive and living in New York. And I
31:51
Speaker 1: feel like a big jerk because I got him confused
31:54
Speaker 1: with Charles Bronson and death Witch. I was dead wrong,
31:56
Speaker 1: and I'm man enough to admit it. I'm sorry Bernard Gets,
31:59
Speaker 1: you didn't. You're not a real killer, obviously, so I
32:02
Speaker 1: apologize for that. We had angry people right in about
32:05
Speaker 1: that dude. That one lady man, it's like Bernie Gets
32:08
Speaker 1: his sister or something. I think she was she was scared.
32:11
Speaker 1: But I do feel bad because that's not right. Uh.
32:13
Speaker 1: We have a quick correction. Remember the toling Get Indians
32:17
Speaker 1: that we were trying to pronounce. Apparently it's pronounced clinkett.
32:21
Speaker 1: And we had people right in from Alaska. Matthew actually
32:24
Speaker 1: Matthews from Seattle, Washington. He wrote in and says it's
32:27
Speaker 1: pronounced clink clink up. So there he had that. Thanks,
32:30
Speaker 1: And then finally we have another correction. I remember when
32:32
Speaker 1: I said about the Amish not being able to listen
32:35
Speaker 1: to us rooms spring up and that if they actually
32:38
Speaker 1: wrote in they would be liars. I'm not true because
32:40
Speaker 1: of what rum. Yes, we had a farmer, John of
32:44
Speaker 1: New York right in and said that we had a
32:46
Speaker 1: few people write in on this. The Amish, every Amish teenager,
32:51
Speaker 1: nearly every homist teenager goes on rum spring out where
32:54
Speaker 1: they effectively leave the community and live with us regular
32:57
Speaker 1: English folks, Americans for a period of time, and they
33:01
Speaker 1: are free to indulge in the things that American kids
33:05
Speaker 1: indulge in, drugs, drinking, smoking, whatever if they want. And
33:10
Speaker 1: podcast podcast listening is is definitely one. So evidently we
33:15
Speaker 1: could very well have been heard by an Amish person.
33:18
Speaker 1: Here's my argument to that. Okay, so they go on
33:21
Speaker 1: rump springing to decide whether they want to live with
33:24
Speaker 1: the English or stay in Amish. Sure during this period,
33:29
Speaker 1: in my opinion, they're in some sort of middle ground
33:33
Speaker 1: between the two, so they're technically not Amish. So if
33:36
Speaker 1: one of them on rum spring I heard this, send
33:38
Speaker 1: it in and be like, dude, you haven't made your
33:40
Speaker 1: decision yet, I don't want to hear it from me.
33:42
Speaker 1: Or what if they heard our podcast and we're so
33:44
Speaker 1: taken with it they refused to go back to the
33:46
Speaker 1: Amish lifestyle, or if they heard it and hated it
33:49
Speaker 1: so much they went screaming back to Mom and Paul sportily.
33:53
Speaker 1: So thank you. Farmer John in New York, he says, ps,
33:55
Speaker 1: I'm not Amish, but I'm a lowly cal farmer. Although
33:58
Speaker 1: rum spring it would be pretty sweet, that's what he says. Yeah,
34:01
Speaker 1: So I encourage John just go on his own room springing.
34:04
Speaker 1: I went on my own room springing. I'm still online. Well,
34:08
Speaker 1: if you have a story about your own personal rum
34:10
Speaker 1: spring of whether you were Amish or not, you can
34:14
Speaker 1: send in an email to Stuffed podcast at how stuff
34:17
Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of
34:24
Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuff works dot com want more
34:27
Speaker 1: how stuff works, check out our blogs on the house
34:30
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by
34:35
Speaker 1: the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you