Mel Chancey's Explosive Past: Biker Brotherhood, Rivalries, and the Bomb that Shook Chicago

foreign [Music] guys that are just sort of there for for the Brotherhood and the Fidel that they they want to wear the jacket they want to like hang out they want to be in the clubhouse but they're they're not the guy who's got to run in when when you're being outnumbered you come across those guys as well yeah yeah so so you're showing that you're not that guy right right yeah because it seems like you know and look man I know I know so much about your story we're friends you know so like I've heard a lot of these stories but one sort of recurring theme with you just always seems It's always somebody did something that you felt was unjust somebody hurt somebody that you love somebody put their hands on a woman and so you go and you react right yeah what what was um I mean this club now is starting to become your family was there like one inciting incident that then ratcheted it up to to another level yeah and and that became so we so in 1994 we switched from we switched from the hell's henchmen to the how we became Hells Angels right we were talking to to the Hell's Angels and one of the henchmen was in was in the penitentiary with an angel out of Minnesota and we he they had a good relationship with each other and the Hell's Angels at the time were never in the midwest it was Minnesota and then you know uh nothing in the Midwest and then it was Ohio so there was that big gap of no Hell's Angels right there you know and we were the opportunity right the hell's henchmen you know three chapters guys that were you know about it and stuff like that so once we decided that we were going to become Hell's Angels well that changed the game in the history of Chicago because the Outlaws that was their Hometown that was their their their their their chapter that the Chicago chapter was you know on the map how does that decision give me um all of us took it to a vote there was some older guys in the club that were hell's henchmen at the time that you know knew that they didn't want to take that next step and we couldn't blame them you know at the time I was you know 22 23 years old and uh these guys were you know 40s and 50s and they're thinking okay once we make this decision to become Hell's Angels it's it's going to turn the city upside down here the Outlaws are not going to be happy with this and you know we don't know what's coming but we knew they weren't going to be happy so some guy split we gave them the opportunity we said you can't keep the club the hell's henchmen has to fold and come Hell's Angels you can't keep the club you know so guys left the guys that stayed made the decision to stay and we kind of buckled up for the ride because the Outlaws told us there's nothing more for us to talk about it's on you know mortal enemies at the time how did they send you that message we were we sat with him at a table they had called you know the the at the time that the president was a guy that was the hell's henchen president for probably 15 years and uh they hit him up and five of us went to meet five of them at a restaurant and they asked if the rumor was true and we said yeah we're doing it we're we're going to become Hell's Angels and uh they said okay there's nothing more for us to talk about see you when we see you and I knew right then and there at when them cats left that table it was going to get serious so what and then what is that so what's like once you leave that table what's the conversation like what what does that feel like is there any part of your like [ __ ] it's it's it's on now or are you like bring whatever comes and I'm super young at the time and these cats are you know 10 12 15 years older than me that just you know on the outlaw side too and serious cats right we The Outlaws had a very very tough reputation these guys weren't uh pushovers by any means you know they had a very hardcore crew and in these five cats that came from their team were the hardcore dudes and I looked in and looked in their eyes and seen it you know and uh when we were leaving and I said well we we kind of knew the outcome we were gonna get yeah we knew nothing was going to happen at the time we were in a restaurant we picked you know we all picked a restaurant where it was you know neutral and uh we were just you know going home saying well boys no we've got to see what's going to happen here you know we didn't we weren't taking anything to them they were not happy with what we were doing so we were kind of like sitting back and seeing how it was going to go and things escalated very fast very fast um um the beating started the bar room stuff catching a couple guys in the bars they jumped a few of our guys we returned the favor and it started that way and um and then it's like they took a step up with the violence and we had to try to take the step up to do it right there's no Playbook right it's not your reading from it's like you have to be Johnny on the spot and come you know take what comes your way and that's how we were all doing it right none of us really knew anything I mean when they put the bomb on our clubhouse in 1994 that was the third largest bomb to this day it was like the Oklahoma McVeigh it was um uh the trades Towers you know in New York and this was the third largest bomb detonated in the United States to this day and uh was you know we didn't know about bombs I could barely put the battery in my pager you know we didn't I didn't put you know all I did with motorcycles I put the gas in how did that go how did the bomb go to did the what happened what was the story with that so there they um put a hundred pounds of C4 in a car shaped it and everything like that drove it up our clubhouse was on a in a crazy it was called Grand Avenue and it was a very busy street and it was about five o'clock you know in a weekday afternoon it was a Tuesday Wednesday or something like that middle of the week traffic going by and everything and uh they built they built the bomb in the trunk of this car and one of their members who you know got ricoed and went to prison it's all you know this is God Gangland stuff and every you know knowledgeable he drove the car in in Black the front door of the clubhouse because they thought people were in the clubhouse because there was some cars out in front there was a member from Minnesota with his girl visiting but they were sightseeing at the time and that thing he got out of the car the car picked them up you see from the cameras and he barely got out of view of the cameras you know block or so away and that thing detonated and by the grace of God two minutes before that a city bus went by filled with people CTA bus you see a cop car goes by real slow and the cop looks at the door and he goes well it's probably the Angels you know we were that neighborhood the henchmen been there since the 60s oh that's probably the Angels doing moving something I mean if he would have stopped and got out nobody would have lived through this so that bomb goes off you know it blasts down and it blew up five six seven foot hole in the ground they found the VIN number a mile away right well when the ATF gets in there and does you know does their investigation hits the front door big steel front door blows it out of the back of the of the building through it you know a big building you know Old Chicago building three levels the blast goes across the street there's a house that's siding like aluminum siding house by the grace of God nobody's in the house it just rips the house apart nobody can start knocks all the lights out on on off or for blocks around I mean just turmoil right so I was sitting at home and I get a phone call and from one of my friends and he goes hey bro I I think your Clubhouse is on the news and I go well he goes turn on the news I go what channel he goes any of them and I turn on the news and I look and I'm just seeing the city the the block but with no lights the the car piece is far infernos on the streets and I think we've seen it in the sizzle reel of that you know where the the guy was out there from the news and stuff like that and I said yeah that's our clubhouse you know so we all got it got on the phone with each other and we met a few blocks away there was a gas station we came down to the gas station and stuff and it was just it was so crowded it was like if you were there signing autographs the place was just jammed with people because they had everything shut off nobody could get near it right so we were all in a gas station we're like man what happened here right and the neighbors are like man an explosion went off on Grand Avenue right and we're like okay so um as I'm standing there talking to the fellas I hear my name get called hey Mel and I look around and it's it's a couple ATF guys a couple guys that I already knew who they were and they said hey man come here we want to talk to you I said okay they go uh what's going on here I go I have no idea man I just seen it on the news you know they said well who you thinking I go I don't have no idea your guess is as good as mine right you knew exactly I kind of figured it was we didn't have anybody that you know that was could do that at that capacity that we knew besides some guys so I see he goes it's a mess down there man he goes it's it's a disaster I said anybody heard he goes no nobody hurt nobody was in the building I find out later from you know from Lou and the ATF guys you know it would have blast like that if anybody was in that building it would have just ripped their air drums out they would have been bleeding internally just from the concussion right not the plastic concussion and stuff like that and I said okay cool I said uh can I see the place and he says yeah if you talk to me I said yeah let's go let's walk and talk you know how we think it was the Outlaws I go well guys I don't know I was at home I wasn't here when somebody you know did this right and I seen the building I seen the street and I was like look like Beirut when I used to watch the old because at this point you're not interested you're only interested at one kind of Justice at this like you know exactly what you're like yes yeah yeah what's that feeling yeah that feeling was like like so when I got back after seeing the building and the in the and the FED said okay we're seizing this now this is ours we're having people flying from Washington this is a big deal it's we'll let you know when what's gonna happen but we were taking over this this this property right and I said okay you know they were out there and the guys we had guys it was our job as members to make sure we were watching the building too because they cleared the street up Grand Avenue opened and we had guys that had to sit out there in shifts 10 hour shifts and stuff to make sure because there was gaping holes in this building but every day people were flying in from Washington and you know going through the place and making sure you know they wanted to you know do all their investigation and stuff and at the time you know funny old saying is I used to say man tie your shoes up boys it's getting it's gonna get crazy here right and uh you know we were doing that Tit for Tat thing you know and like I said none of us knew that game so it became from it was a personal level fighting running in each other's bars doing stuff like that you know to now wow this thing just happened and turned the game around with the bombing stuff right laughs hey what's going on everybody it's John Bam Bam the dog uh first on behalf of both of us and everybody from the real ones team I just want to sincerely thank you guys for for tuning in the folks that I bring on the show they're family to me and uh being able to tell their stories and bringing you into their world is something I'm I'm just super proud of and uh again grateful that you guys tune in we've decided we want to take things just a step further it's a patreon community and basically what that means is if you become a part of this community look I already board Bam Bam if you want to become a part of this community you're going to be able to hear episodes early and all that ad free and all that good stuff but there's all this behind the scenes footage all this stuff that we've shot that really brings you into the folks that we've had on the show really brings you into their world live chats with me and the folks that I bring on the show to talk about their world talk about the issues that they're dealing with about their triumphs and their tragedies just go to patreon slash real ones on this website that you see right there right on the screen that's right in front of you this whole idea year was something about building bridges and and bringing people together and bringing folks that often don't get the mic and giving the mic to them so the fact that you guys tuned in means the world anyways again thank you be good to each other out there rock and roll

Channel: REAL ONES with Jon Bernthal

Views: 139,193

Keywords: mel chancey, jon bernthal, real ones podcast, biker culture, hell's angels, hell's henchmen, outlaws mc, motorcycle clubs, biker brotherhood, chicago bombing

Id: 4TngAjCHH3A

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023