Ralph “Sonny” Barger, longtime leader and frontman of the lawless motorcycle club Hells Angels, has died. He turned 83 years old.
It appears in a message on Barger’s Facebook profile.
– I have lived a long and good life, full of adventure, it says in the message.
The cause of death was cancer.
Barger was diagnosed with throat cancer at the age of 44, and smoked his last cigarette on his way to the operating room to have his vocal cords removed, according to the news agency Reuters.
– Barger died at the age of 83, after a long period of cancer. Photo: IMAGO / NTB
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Criminal syndicate
Hells Angels was formed in 1948 in Fontana, California.
Nine years later, Barger, also known as the “godfather” of Hell’s Angels, co-founded HA’s Oakland, California branch.
Shortly afterwards, he took over as club leader, after the then leader Otto Friedli was imprisoned, according to New York Times.
Today, the club is considered a worldwide criminal syndicate.
Barger has himself been convicted of possession of marijuana, heroin trafficking, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, possession of an illegal weapon and conspiracy to blow up the clubhouse of a rival motorcycle gang in Kentucky, according to Reuters.
But in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Barger said that the 13 years he had to serve in prison “were not so much, considering all the fun I’ve had.”
Merits
Before his death, there is little doubt that Barger has lived a life, with several “adventures”, as he himself writes. And his mystified figure has also opened up possibilities, both as an author and as a motif for books and films:
He himself has authored six books, including his autobiography Hells Angel – The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club.
In addition, he was a central figure in the book of journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, including Tom Wolfes The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
And he participated in a minor role in the motorcycle series Sons of Anarchy, as well as a role in Jack Nicholson’s film Hells Angels on Wheels.
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