[motorcycle engine roaring] [dramatic music] (male narrator)
Americans love an outlaw. From Billy the Kid
to John Dillinger, these one-of-a-kind types
capture our imaginations. The Hells Angels
are modern-day outlaws. They spent decades finding
new ways to fill their coffers and build their empire
legally and illegally. George Christie,
the former president of the Ventura chapter, was
there almost from the beginning. I'm one of the few people alive that knows the whole truth. (narrator)
Now, for the first time ever, a member of the Angels
is setting the record straight and telling the secrets no one's ever heard, including how the Angels
fought the law and rival gangs to become one of the most feared
organizations in the world and make billions of dollars
along the way. ♪ ♪ The Hells Angels motorcycle
club is a massive entity with more than 400 chapters
in nearly 50 countries worldwide. They protect
their brand and trademark as fiercely
as they protect their turf. - We don't want any trouble.
- Now what do you say, you guys? Let's get that bastard. (narrator)
But they haven't
always been so powerful or so rich. In the early days,
they were just a small club riding for good times
and cheap thrills. ♪ ♪ The Altamont Speedway Festival is often referred to
as the end of the '60s. The west coast's answer
to Woodstock features the Rolling Stones
performing for nearly 300,000. Among them are about
100 Hells Angels, but they're not there to party. They're working security. People in the club
had personal relationships with the Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane. And Rock Scully,
the Dead manager, suggested they use
the Hells Angels as security. I think the payment was gonna be
all the beer they could drink. The rumor is $500 worth
of beer was bought. That's what the fee
for security was. (narrator)
The Angels and their bikes
form a barrier in front of the stage separating
the crowd from the bands. (Christie)
Animal was Paul Hibbits, someone
I went to high school with, a very close brother of mine. Paul acquired the name "Animal"
by his hygiene habits. He didn't like to bathe. Animal worked in the movie
industry. He was a stuntman. He's got hands that are huge, big fists, a good fighter, someone that you didn't want
to maybe mess with. He was definitely Animal. He was there at Altamont, and, of course,
he knew there'd be a lot of attention from the media, so he wore the hat
with the fox head on it. When the Jefferson Airplane
played, he actually was
the security guard at the stage. (narrator)
Opening act
Jefferson Airplane performs as the surging crowd pushes up
against the Angels' motorcycles, and the Angels push back-- hard. Airplane singer Marty Balin starts yelling
at the Angels to ease up. (Christie)
He was complaining. He wasn't gonna perform.
He refused to go on. Animal was asked
to go talk to Marty. He went up and said, "Hey, you know,
they're pushing on the bikes," and Marty told Animal
to go [bleep] himself. And Animal actually gave him
a chance to back out of it. He said, "I don't want you
talking to me that way, Marty." Marty repeated
three times in a row, "[bleep] you. [bleep] you.
[bleep] you." On the third "[bleep] you,"
Animal knocked him out. You could hear Grace Slick
grabbing the microphone and saying, "Well, somebody
just knocked out our singer." ♪ ♪ (narrator)
At sunset, tensions rise between the Hells Angels
and the audience. Everybody just cool out. (narrator)
When the Stones
finally take the stage, the violence quickly escalates. (man)
Brothers and sisters,
come on, now. (Christie)
A guy named Meredith
Hunter pulled a gun out, pointed a gun at the stage. Allen Passaro thought
that he was acting in a manner to protect
not only the Hells Angels but people
performing on the stage, and he stabbed
Meredith Hunter. He died. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
When the show is over,
the Stones fly back to England, but the battle is far from over. (Christie)
Altamont didn't end
in December '69. It went on for a few years. Allen was acquitted by the jury. He acted in self-defense,
but it was a long, costly trial, and the Hells Angels
felt that the Rolling Stones owed us the $50,000
that we'd paid to defend Allen from going to prison
for the rest of his life, and the Stones
didn't want to pay the money. (narrator)
The Rolling Stones, and especially
lead singer Mick Jagger, are about to find out how
the Angels collect unpaid debts. A member of the Hells Angels
told congress today that the motorcycle gang has a,
quote, "open murder contract" to kill rock star Mick Jagger. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
On a summer evening
in the early '70s, several Angels
gather in the Hamptons, an exclusive beach community
east of New York City. It's rumored
that Jagger's in town, and these Angels have come
heavily armed with knives, guns, and C4 explosives. (Christie)
A clandestine group of Hells Angels got a raft
together and were on their way to a yacht that Jagger
had been relaxing in. They were gonna blow it up
just to kind of send a message that we still were waiting
for the money. These were some individuals
that took it upon themselves to make an impression, let's
say, on the Rolling Stones. ♪ ♪ They went to settle the score. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
But when a storm
swamps the Angels' boat, the Angels
realize that navigating at sea is nothing like cruising
down the highway on a Harley. They are forced to turn around
and retreat to dry land. ♪ ♪ Ultimately, though,
the mission is a success. (woman)
Hells Angels has tried and will try again
to kill rock star Mick Jagger. I don't know what transpired
on the way there. The raft, I was told, sunk. But I think the message
somehow got to Mick Jagger, and shortly after that,
a check for $50,000 came to the Hells Angels
from the Rolling Stones. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
The Hells Angels took something
from the Altamont disaster even more valuable
than the Stones' money: a business lesson
that legit jobs are just too much of a hassle, too low-paying, and no way for a bunch of bikers
to make money. Luckily a more
lucrative solution was right in front of them. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
Everybody was partying.
Everybody was drinking. There were drugs everywhere. It would only be a matter
of time until certain members of the Hells Angels
realized that they could make a lot of money fast
getting involved in the-- the drug business. (narrator)
The explosion of drug culture
in the 1960s created a huge market
for mind-altering substances. Some Angels had a long history
with drugs, from selling bags of marijuana
to hippies to dropping acid
with the Grateful Dead. ♪ ♪ They were poised
to turn drug dealing from a small side business
into a huge, lucrative industry. An Oakland Hells Angel
by the name of George Wethern befriends the notorious chemist
Owsley "Bear" Stanley, whose homemade LSD
was famously potent. Some Angels start selling
what became known as the Owl's acid, and as the demand for it grew, so did the profits. Soon, these Angels were raking
in as much as $50,000 to $70,000 per transaction. Yet a new,
even more addictive drug was about to come their way. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
Personally, I don't think
the LSD impacted the club as much as the meth. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
In 1974, a chemist
from a large oil company starts manufacturing
methamphetamine in large quantities. He has connections
to the Hells Angels, who are the perfect
test subjects for his new high-octane drug. (Christie)
We weren't people
looking for problems. We were people
looking for a good time. As far as the Hells Angels
being used as guinea pigs, well, people would give you drugs, and they wanted
to test the drugs on people. (narrator)
For a lot of Angels,
meth was an instant party, but for a few,
it soon meant a whole lot more. If you could figure out the best, fastest way
to make meth, it was literally a license
to print money. There weren't
people in the club that knew how to make drugs, but eventually, one or two guys
got the recipe and became cooks, and I'll tell you, guys that had the recipes, they guarded them like a grandma would guard
her secret spaghetti sauce. (narrator)
Getting the recipe
was the first challenge. The harder job
was securing the ingredients. (Gil-Blanco)
P2P is a substance that is used
to manufacture methamphetamine. It's one of the chemicals
necessary. It eventually became
a controlled substance. What this means is that
the Hells Angels were not able to obtain P2P
in bulk quantities. The first chapter established
in Australia was in 1975. They were able to provide
large quantities of P2P during that time period
to the United States. (Sher)
You could do it
in your kitchen. You could do it in your bathtub. You literally manufacture it. Very, very low risk. High, high gain. (narrator)
Some Angels were said
to prefer making single batches
that could yield up to 79 pounds of meth, each worth nearly $2 million. ♪ ♪ It turns out
they had the perfect vehicle to hide their drugs
already in place. (Christie)
There was a lot of ways
people were hiding their drugs. I mean, they were hiding them
in pockets on their bikes, tanks, handlebars, seats. One of the most unique ones
I saw was the broken-down motorcycle
in the back of the pickup truck. You know,
who would have ever stopped and thought a rear tire
would be packed with narcotics? You know, nobody. (narrator)
With all the pieces
for a successful business fitting perfectly together, many Angels
start to reap the rewards. Some guys were making a lot
of money. They were flying first class. I mean,
I'd show up at the airport, and I had Hells Angel members
upgrade me to first class before. It was nice.
It was easy to get used to. People wearing diamonds,
driving fancy cars, there was a lot of money around, and there's no doubt about that. (narrator)
In 1972, the California
attorney general credited the Angels
with trafficking $31 million of illegal drugs in a three-year period. Some Angels
wanted to expand, but a rival
was standing in their way. ♪ ♪ Coming up... (Christie)
We were pretty much encroaching
on the Outlaws' territory, and all hell broke loose. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
The Hells Angels began
as a loose association of outcasts
looking for nothing more than some good times
and ways to stick it to the man. But the rise
of the drug business transformed some members
into money-making machines. (Christie)
We had contacts, and we had a distribution system
set up, and all we needed was the drugs, and that's when meth
came onto the scene. Everything changed. (Gil-Blanco)
During the '70s and '80s, the Hells Angels
were in control of the methamphetamine trade
in California and the West Coast. They were the kings
of methamphetamine. (narrator)
Some Angels want
to expand their business to new areas. Two forces, however,
stand in their way: other
drug-dealing motorcycle clubs and the law. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
The problem
with dealing meth in the club is that you immediately attract
the attention of the feds. It brought a lot
of problems with the police. And there were Hells Angels
getting arrested. Drugs were bad because they created heat,
costs for lawyers, for bail. You're talking about a lot
of lawsuits. (narrator)
In 1978, George became president
of the Los Angeles charter of the Hells Angels. His first major decision: move the club to a new location,
Ventura, California. His reason:
to get away from the law and create his own business
empire from the ground up. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
I was a member, and later a leader,
in Los Angeles, and that was great,
but moving to Ventura gave me the opportunity
to build a charter the way I wanted to run it. ♪ ♪ All the drug activity
down in Los Angeles had created a lot
of heat for us, and I was really excited
to move up to Ventura and insulate us
from all that police pressure. One of the first things that we
had to do as a new chapter was stake our claim
and open up a clubhouse. (narrator)
One of the motorcycle clubs
already operating in Ventura is called "The Orphans." ♪ ♪ (Christie)
The Orphans
were some local individuals. Those guys had a big clubhouse, and they had about 20 members, and apparently they were
under the impression that Ventura was their town, so we decided
we had to deal with them. (narrator)
As far as Christie
is concerned, The Orphans have to go. (Christie)
So we went looking for them, and when we found them, we used
our fists to do the talking. ♪ ♪ One night we wound up
at the Rudder Room... And there were three
or four Orphans there, so we started pushing on them
a little bit... ♪ ♪ And wound up
out in the street fighting. I look down the street, and I
see a police car pulling up. I thought,
"Okay, this is gonna be it. We're gonna get arrested
and probably wind up in jail." (narrator)
The last thing Christie wants is to tangle
with the Ventura Police before getting his new clubhouse
up and running. (Christie)
You know, we kind of stopped, and the cops
rolled up really slow on us. (narrator)
But the cops are too smart
to get involved in a beef between two motorcycle clubs. (Christie)
The cop drove up,
rolled his window down, and he said, "Don't
leave anyone in the street." I kind of gave him a salute, so he took off,
and we finished the job. ♪ ♪ And that was the beginning
of the end for The Orphans. (narrator)
Not long after the brawl,
The Orphans' Ventura clubhouse burns to the ground. (Christie)
As I remember it,
when the firemen showed up, they just stood there
and watched it burn. They didn't want those guys
there any more than we did. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
Christie and his Angels
run The Orphans and every other local club
out of town. With the competition
cleared out, Christie is ready to get down
to business in Ventura. ♪ ♪ (Tresmontan)
The Hells Angels drug
business evolved, I think, as many drug
organizations evolve, from a very street-level
small amount of distribution to new markets. New areas of interest. (Gil-Blanco)
They didn't create a charter just for the sake
of creating charters. These are for a drug
distribution link-- something to establish
the Hells Angels' criminal enterprise. ♪ ♪ (Tresmontan)
The way the Hells Angels
grew internationally was by starting chapters
in other countries. Germany, Australia, some
of the Scandinavian countries, Japan. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
By the mid-1980s,
the Hells Angels have started chapters
in 12 countries. (Tresmontan)
It opened up avenues
to distribute methamphetamine outside the United States. (narrator)
But despite
their reach to places as far from home
as New Zealand in the Pacific, their strongest
international chapters are in Canada. (Dobyns)
Marijuana's king in Canada. They distribute it
on incredible scales-- multi-million dollar scales. Drugs aren't just a one-way
street. If North American-grown
marijuana is going to Europe, ecstasy is coming here. One hand washes the other. In the end, they all make money. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
The Hells Angels
had paid informants working the docks
in Montreal and Vancouver. [foghorn blows] (Sher)
If you're bringing in drugs
into North America, the best way is to bring it
in by cargo ship. Hells Angels members
work at the ports. Hells Angels members
infiltrated the unions. They know the ports are
the lifeblood of our economy. They're also the lifeblood
for drug distribution. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
With the drug business booming and new markets
opening constantly, it's crucial that
the Hells Angels add security, and everyone associated with
the club has a part to play. Coming up... (Christie)
Around every club
you got hang-arounds that want to prove their mettle, and they'll do just about
anything to do that. (narrator)
Many Hells Angels
have become major players in the international drug
business, prostitution, and gunrunning. Like any well-managed
enterprise, they're expanding. George Christie is the leader of
the Ventura, California, charter and one of the most influential
Angels in the organization. He realizes if their success
is to continue, changes will have to be made. I had one foot
in the real world and one foot in the underworld. It was a very
dangerous place to be, and I didn't want to have
any unwanted attention coming from the cops
and the feds. (Mike Wallace)
The Hells Angels
are up to their hips in the methamphetamine trade. The Hells Angels
is not involved in narcotics transactions
as an organization. There are all kinds
of men's clubs. They're not
investigating Kiwanis. (Christie)
All of a sudden, I knew
that if we were gonna survive, I would have to come up
with a set of rules for the underworld. ♪ ♪ (man)
More than 8,500 illegal labs were raided nationwide
as law enforcement scrambles to stop its spread. (narrator)
Christie's first rules are made to protect the businesses
of the Hells Angels from the potential consequences
of dealing and using drugs. (Christie)
We didn't restrict members
from dealing with meth, but if they got caught,
they were on their own, and they had to answer
to the charges without any support
from the charter. ♪ ♪ Heroin was outlawed in the club
in the late '60s, because somebody with a bad
heroin habit can't be trusted. They'll steal
from their own mother. If you get caught
shooting heroin, you get kicked out of the club. ♪ ♪ We had a guy
in the club named Larry Newman. He had a heroin problem, and one time
came around the club. He knew what the rule was, and he assured me that he
had chased his demons away. But as time passed, he
started getting that itch again. ♪ ♪ So he got caught in the next
town over buying heroin, and after the cops
figured out who he was, they threatened him. They said, "You know what?
You give us three busts, and we'll forget
about everything." ♪ ♪ (narrator)
Larry decides his only way out is to betray his brothers. (Christie)
Larry set up three people, and after he did that, he met with them again, and they said,
"We talked to our boss, "and that's not good enough. "You're gonna have to give us
three Hells Angels now, and we want one of them
to be George Christie." [phone ringing] I got a phone call from Larry's
lawyer one afternoon, and he asked me
to come to his office. ♪ ♪ I walked into his office, and he had a tape recorder
on his desk. [tape warbling] He pushed the play button
and walked out. [indistinct recorded audio] I listened
over the next 90 minutes to Larry being pressured
by the cops and talking about setting me up and two other Hells Angels up. He gave them some information and helped them set up
three people outside the club. ♪ ♪ But when it came time
to set us up, I don't know
if it was brotherhood or his feelings for the club, but he basically
disappeared out of town. So we now had this evidence that they were gonna use
against Larry in our possession. What it told me was the cops
can be just as dirty as anybody. They had never intended
for anything less than setting me up. ♪ ♪ Rats are hated
more than anything, and Larry knew
what the consequences would be and wound up dead
in a hotel room back east. Nobody ever figured out
what happened. (narrator)
For the moment,
George has avoided entrapment by law enforcement, but for a Hells Angels leader,
danger is everywhere. ♪ ♪ Coming up... (Christie)
My mind's starting to go, "This doesn't sound
like a social call." ♪ ♪ And he leans back, and he pulls a gun
out of his waistband, and he sets it on the table. (narrator)
By the end of the 1980s,
law enforcement is aggressively targeting
the Hells Angels as a major drug trafficking organization. Ventura president
George Christie is determined to keep his charter
beyond the grasp of the police and the feds. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
When we moved up to Ventura,
the town was wide open, and there was a tattoo shop in town owned
by a friend of mine. His name was Scurvy George. He drank constantly. He died of cirrhosis
of the liver, and his wife didn't know
what to do with the tattoo shop and basically gave it to me. I gave her some money for it, but she said, "I'm sure George would want you to have this," so I wound up
taking over this shop. It was called Ventura Tattoo
at the time. (narrator)
George quickly realized
that owning a tattoo shop was very useful
for a man in his position. (Christie)
If you worked
at a tattoo shop, it was a great source
of information. You're sitting in a chair
for three or four hours getting the tattoo.
What do you do? You talk. And these tattoo artists would
have made great interrogators. In all the businesses
I've had in 40 years, that was the best one
for information, and it was lucrative as well. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
Despite the Hells Angels'
notoriety, many members owned
completely legit businesses like bike shops. ♪ ♪ And while George Christie's Ventura chapter also
has some legitimate businesses, some members may also
enjoy some side benefits. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
I had a concert promotion
business that promoted Jerry Garcia,
Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis. ♪ ♪ One of the most eventful shows
I ever did was with Johnny Paycheck. Johnny Paycheck
had a novelty song-- you know,
"Take This Job and Shove It." (narrator)
But Christie would learn
that Johnny Paycheck is a walking time bomb. (Christie)
Johnny was having so much fun that he forgot to put a lid
on the bottle. So Johnny does the show in Santa
Barbara at the Chili Factory and falls off the stage,
he's so drunk. ♪ ♪ So 18 months passes and Johnny's
career's in the toilet. He's got a bad reputation
of not showing up, and when he does show up,
he can't perform. So I call
his management company... [phone rings] And I book a show with him. They're really honest with me
because we're friends, and they say, "You know what
happened last time up there," and I said, "Yeah, I know." I said, "But I got an idea-- have Johnny fly in on Thursday." He thinks the show
is that night. Johnny's all excited. He's been on the plane for six
hours or five hours drinking, so I get Johnny
in the motel room, and I get another Hells Angel
to watch him, and I tell Johnny--I go, "See you Saturday." He goes, "Wait a minute.
I'm supposed to perform." And I go, "No, you don't
perform till Saturday." And I told the guys, I go,
"No liquor. "He doesn't go out of the room. "Bring the food to him. Don't let him
out of your sight." He's pissed. You can imagine
what he's saying to me. (narrator)
Christie is not going
to back down. (Christie)
So he is just kept prisoner
at the motel till Saturday, and he showed up clean and sober
at the concert. ♪ ♪ Put a hell of a show on. That was the best performance
Johnny had done in years. ♪ ♪ He was a good sport. We laughed about it
for years after that. Any time I ran into him,
you know, he'd tell me,
"You son of a bitch. You're not gonna
lock me in a room, are you?" ♪ ♪ (narrator)
Christie's businesses
are flourishing, but he quickly learns
that as an outlaw, even his legit operations have
risks that threaten his life. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
I remember,
years ago, I got home, and I'm sitting in my kitchen, and I look out front,
and I see this guy, J.T., who's a friend of mine, and he also works
as a collector for people. He comes to the door,
and I open the door up. I go, "Hey,
what the hell's going on? Come on in," you know?
He comes in. We greet each other. You know, not a real
friendly greeting, a little bit distant and cold. I'm kind of thinking,
"Well, what's going on here?" We sit down at this little table in the kitchen, and we're talking, and he goes, "You know why I'm here, George." My mind's starting to go, "This doesn't sound
like a social call." (narrator)
J.T. has come to collect
on a long-overdue debt. (Christie)
And he tells me
the guy that sends him, he's my old partner
in a business. Him and I had a falling out, and in my mind,
I didn't owe him anything. J.T. says, "Well, he thinks
that you owe him money," and then he goes, "I took the job to collect it." And as he says that, he leans back, and he pulls
a gun out of his waistband, and he sets it on the table. (narrator)
Many Hells Angels have all kinds
of ways of making money-- drugs, guns, theft, extortion, even legitimate businesses-- but part of living
the outlaw life means that sooner or later,
you're going to find yourself staring down
the barrel of a gun. George Christie is no exception. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
My ex-partner
in this bike shop-- somehow, in this guy's mind, he's thinking I owe him money. ♪ ♪ He hires J.T.,
who happens to be a collector. He takes a gun
out of his waistband, sets it down on the table. I said, "You really think
I owe that money, J.T.?" And he goes, "Yeah,
I think you owe that money." ♪ ♪ And before he could do anything, I reached across the table,
and I grabbed the gun, and I picked it up, and I said, "Well, then,
if you think I owe the money, why don't you add this
to the bill?" And I stuck the gun
in my waistband, and I just kind of leaned
forward and smiled at him. J.T. didn't know what to do. I think he felt he got a little
bit outgunned and out-commanded, and he got up and left. That's actually
the last time I saw J.T. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
In the mid-1990s,
the Hells Angels are continuing
to expand their territory. As they move into the Midwest, they enter the turf of one
of their greatest enemies, the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. (Christie)
The Outlaws were a motorcycle
club in the Midwest that we had had problems
with for years. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
On June 25, 1994, Outlaw president Peter Rogers,
aka Greased Lightning, is cruising down
a Chicago freeway when a van pulls up behind him. ♪ ♪ A shooter pops out. [gunshots] [tires screeching] Somebody shot him in the leg, and I think he may have also
taken a round in the stomach. [gunshots] [sirens blaring] (narrator)
Many believe the Hells Angels are sending the Outlaws
a message. They are moving
into their territory. Their next action
is more strategic. Different individuals
in our club felt that we needed more growth
in the Midwest, and at the time, the Hell's
Henchmen had been around, like, 25 years, and they had
a relationship with us, and they coexisted
with the Outlaws. We took the Hell's Henchmen and prospected them
for Hells Angel membership, and they were right in the midst
of the Outlaw territory. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
Like any large corporation, the Hells Angels
use an acquisition to quickly gain
a strong presence in the Midwest by absorbing the Hell's Henchmen
into the Hells Angels, and the Henchmen are
more than happy to become part of the most prestigious
motorcycle club in the world. The rival Outlaws,
however, are not amused. [motorcycle engines revving] ♪ ♪ (Christie)
Once the Outlaws got word that we were entertaining
the Henchmen for membership, all hell broke loose. (narrator)
In the mid-1990s, law enforcement begins to track
so-called "Angel Hunts" in which Outlaws attack any Hells Angels or Hell's
Henchmen in their territory with anything from baseball
bats and screwdrivers to knives and guns. One of the most
gruesome assaults takes place on June 1, 1993. Around every club--
I don't care if it's the Outlaws
or the Hells Angels-- you got hang-arounds,
wannabes. You got people
that want to prove their mettle, and they'll do just
about anything to do that, and one guy I'm thinking of in
particular is this David Wolf. (narrator)
David Wolf was a wannabe desperate
to impress the Outlaws. Wolf selected
as his target LaMont Mathias. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
This guy, David Wolf, got his routine down by watching
him for several days. ♪ ♪ Followed him
into his workplace, and as he was going
about his day, shot him several times... ♪ ♪ Beat him in the head
with the butt of the gun until it broke, then took a screwdriver
from Lamont's toolbox, stabbed him in the neck
several times... And killed him. This is a perfect example
of what can happen if you encroach
on somebody's territory. (man)
Police believe the rival gangs are killing off
each other's leaders. Officials say they are at a loss
over the inter-gang murders. (narrator)
Mathias' funeral is attended
by more than 300 Hells Angels, and David Wolf is made
a full-patch Outlaw. The Angels and Outlaws
are now at war. (Christie)
We were pretty much
encroaching on the Outlaws' territory. They'd been there for years, and I know how I would have felt if they would have moved
into Ventura. It would've been a real problem. We were infringing
on their action. We were pushing on them, and they didn't like it. (narrator)
George takes it upon himself to try and broker a peace between the rival
motorcycle clubs. Christie goes to Terre Haute,
Indiana, to seek out Harry "Taco" Bowman, the Outlaws' leader. (Christie)
I went to Terre Haute prison,
Indiana, because of an invitation
from two Hells Angels that were doing time there, and in that prison, along with these
two Hells Angels, was Big Jim Nolan,
who, at one time, was the international president
of the Outlaws. Some of those guys
were in prison for a reason directly related to the war between the Hells Angels
and the Outlaws, and they wanted to end it. They didn't want to see any
more Hells Angels go to prison. They didn't want to see
any more Hells Angels die. They had an agenda, and the agenda was to open up
a line of communication. (narrator)
In prison, George meets
with former Outlaws leader, Big Jim Nolan, who tells him the whereabouts
of their leader, Taco Bowman. (Christie)
They let me know
that Taco Bowman was at a motel just down the road, and I made a decision to go to the motel
that day and talk to Taco and do my best to try
to put our differences aside. I wanted to end the war between the Hells Angels
and the Outlaws because I was getting tired of waiting for a gun
to shoot at me. Ventura clubhouse bombed twice. A hand grenade
exploded in there. People were dying. [gunshots] We were in a war, but I thought,
"Maybe I have a way to end it." into the Midwest,
which until now has been the territory
of their chief rivals, the Outlaws. The two clubs are in the middle
of a bloody turf war, and Hells Angel leader
George Christie is about to pay surprise visit to the Outlaws' leader, the notorious
Harry "Taco" Bowman, at a motel in Indiana. It seems like a suicide mission. (Christie)
I start walking into the motel, and I've got about 15 Outlaws
come charging out there, and they're just going, "What
in the hell are you doing?" And I said, "Well,
I want to talk to Taco," and they said,
"Does he know you're coming?" And I go,
"No, I don't think so," and they go,
"[bleep], man, wait here." In the back of my mind, I knew there was a possibility that could have been
the end of my life that day. (narrator)
Bowman was known
for being ruthless with members of rival clubs and was accused
of multiple murders. (Christie)
I'm by myself. And I'm starting to think,
"What the hell's going on here?" So all of a sudden, I see this guy
walking out of the motel. He's got a black headband on. That was Taco's trademark. ♪ ♪ And he's got a smile
on his face, so I'm thinking,
"Well, that's a good thing. He's got a smile on his face,"
but he's shaking his head, and he's kind of laughing. ♪ ♪ And he just goes, "What
the hell are you doing here?" He goes, "You [bleep] crazy?" I said, "Well, Taco,
I want to talk to you." And he goes,
"Well, I'm listening." And we started talking, and our relationship
built from there. (narrator)
Christie carefully
talks to Bowman about how and why their two
clubs should make peace. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
We had to put
some differences aside, and we had
to make some agreements. We had a shaky truce,
if you will, and that was something
we accomplished together. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
Christie and Bowman
part on good terms, and for several years,
the landmark truce holds until a tragic mistake
by a group of Angels threatens everything. ♪ ♪ (Christie)
Now, we still had
this uneasy truce going on. This had gone on several years, and it ended abruptly when a group of Hells Angels
stopped in an Outlaw town, and they wound up
in a Outlaw bar. ♪ ♪ And one of the things
that was asked by the Outlaws was, if you stop
in any of our towns, don't come to our bars
with your patches on. ♪ ♪ Now, they're in this Outlaw bar
running around partying, and there's no way you can go
into a Hells Angel bar, an Outlaw bar, a Mongol bar, a Bandido bar-- someone's gonna
call one of them and tell them, "Hey, your enemy's here. What's going on?" And that happened. Out of nowhere, a dozen or so
unidentifiable masked men walked into the bar, and with absolutely
no warning signs... Attacked the Hells Angels
that were in there with axe handles. They started hitting them. They started kicking them. They knocked these guys
out cold. And when they awoke,
their patches were gone. [phone ringing] My phone immediately
starts ringing off the hook, so I called Taco, and I go, "Taco, man, you got
to get me these patches back." Taco gives me the standard, "I don't know
what you're talking about," and I just said, "Look, "you've got to get
the patches back, man. Everything we've worked for
is gonna unravel." And said he'd do what he could. He'd get back to me. So the next day,
my phone rings, and now it's Taco calling me, and he goes, "You know,
I'm right in the middle "of trying to get
these patches back, someone throws a grenade
in one of our houses." "What the hell's going on?" Well,
I didn't know what was going on, and I don't think
he believed me. In all honesty,
I didn't believe he didn't know
where the patches were. Anyways, he said,
"Well, you know what? "Until this grenading
can be answered for, I'm gonna quit
looking for the patches." And I said,
"That's your position on this?" And he said, "Yeah," and I
said, "Well, you know what? You'll never hear from me again,
Taco." [phone beeping] ♪ ♪ And that was the last time I talked to Taco
for several years. The end result-- we wound up
exactly where we started... Taking each other's lives again. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
The truce ends, and the war between the Angels
and the Outlaws resumes. ♪ ♪ Then, one day in 2000,
Christie's back in Ventura when he is visited
by a local cop. (Christie)
This police officer wanted
to let me know that Taco Bowman had been arrested
with a group of individuals, and in their possession
was a silenced weapon, a map of Ventura, a map laying out my house, and pictures of me. I understood what was going on
with the Outlaws. They had sent out a hit team
to kill me. (narrator)
Taco Bowman's plan to
assassinate George is a failure, and Bowman, who'd been
on the FBI's most wanted list, was finally apprehended. The Hells Angels'
expansion into the Midwest had been a costly one,
with blood shed on both sides, but George proved that peace
between clubs was possible, and in the end, the Angels
won control of the region while Bowman paid a high price
for his crimes. (Christie)
Taco is doing life
for racketeering. He also got
an additional ten years for the assassination
attempt on my life. ♪ ♪ And when I talk to him,
I says, "You know, Taco, I've got to ask you
this question," and I think Taco, knowing me, knew what was coming, and I said, "Are you gonna
do the life sentence first, or are you gonna
do the ten years first?" And he told me to go to hell. ♪ ♪ As far as business
for the Hells Angels, everything changed
at the end of the '80s. The fellows that had been
doing the cooking of the drugs were all in prison, and something new was happening. The Mexicans came to me,
and they said, "We're getting
in the drug business, and we're looking for outlets." ♪ ♪ During the '70s and '80s, the Hells Angels
were predominantly in control of the methamphetamine trade. Eventually,
the Mexican nationals started producing it
at a cheaper rate and providing it at
a cheaper rate to the customers. But the Hells Angels
are always looking for something to establish the Hells Angels'
criminal enterprise. ♪ ♪ (narrator)
The Hells Angels members
continue to have interests in a variety of businesses and remain a powerful
global force. Their position is maintained
by their history, reputation, and most of all, their willingness to protect
their outlaw lifestyle and their turf at all costs. (Christie)
Look, if you want
to control things through inferences of violence, you have to be prepared
to commit violence, and we all know
the Hells Angels is ready to commit violence
if they have to. They will rise to the occasion.
