SF: I finally saw my first Hell's Angel.

[RandySF]

I know, "so what". But there he was, standing just outside the Warfield on Market Street during a Motorhead concert. He wasn't very big or tough looking. As a matter of fact, he flashed me a "How ya doing tonight" kind of smile. I'm just surprised it took 8 years before I saw this piece of San Francisco lore.

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Well, they aren't really San Fransico "lore"....

as their origination is in Southern Cal not the Bay Area.

But, not so scary, eh?

[leftyohiolib]

4. theyre no better than any other thug

[B Calm]

2. The night before the 1975 Indy 500, my girlfriend and I drove to Indy

to pick my mother up at the airport. Turned out she missed her flight and was coming in on a later flight. So we had a few hours to kill and decided to drive my little VW bug down by the Speedway to look at the crowd. We had a drunk group of the Hells Angels escorting us around Speedway and making us have a nervous wreck. They were making fun of my little bug and hitting on my girlfriend. Thankfully the cops saw what was going on and broke up their little fun. We hightailed it back to the airport and waited for the flight to come in.

[JackInGreen]

3. I grew up around the Oakland and Castro Valley club houses

and their denizens.....I don't quite understand the mystique I suppose?

[mulsh]

5. You have probably seen lots of Angels but when they aren't wearing their badges

you'd never know who's a member.

One of my favorite restaurants is right across the street from the Angel's HQ in Oakland. The first time I took my father there a few guy s from the club stopped by to say hi to my dad. My dad had a part time job at Brown Bros. shoes (east bay guys know that store) where he met lots of Angels, including Sonny Barger.

All of my encounters with club members over the years have positive.

[jmowreader]

6. The Angels have mellowed over the years

I think there are three reasons: cops love confiscating Angel bikes and Harleys are too expensive to risk, widespread employer urinalysis has killed drug-fueled lifestyles, and a "lock up your daughters" attitude goes away the minute you have one of your own.

In Spokane, the Angels clubhouse is one door down from the battered women's shelter, and there haven't been complaints - they would have been in the paper if they were.

[Ptah]

7. Yeah, they're all nice and cuddly now. Just ask Jay Dobyns.

Over nearly two years of intensive, highly dangerous undercover operations,
Dobyns and a team of ATF agents, technicians and confidential informants
methodically infiltrated the Hells Angels, primarily in Arizona. Dobyns posed as a
gunrunner and member of a "solo" outlaw motorcycle club interested in joining the
Angels. To earn his "patch" (full membership into the gang) and further establish his
credibility as a potential member ("Prospect&quot with the club’s leadership, Dobyns
staged the grisly fake "murder" of a member of the rival Mongols Motorcycle Club.
A law enforcement officer posing as the Mongols biker was splattered with cow
blood and brains, photographed and videotaped lying in a shallow grave. Dobyns
had a bloodstained Mongols’ "cut" (leather biker vest with club patches) mailed to the
Hells Angels from somewhere in Mexico, and provided a videotape and pictures of the "killing".
According to Dobyns and ATF, the Hells Angels leadership was highly impressed and immediately
voted Dobyns in as a full "patched" member of the club. Although awarded his Hells Angels
vest by the leadership of the Skull Valley charter, the club, including its legendary founder,
Ralph "Sonny" Barger, have vehemently denied that Dobyns was ever "patched-in"

<snip>

Death and violence threats and allegations of ATF mismanagement

In 2004, following the exposure of his true identity during the "Black Biscuit"
prosecutions, Dobyns and his family became the targets of death threats and
plans to inflict extreme violence on them by various organizations, including the
Hells Angels, Aryan Brotherhood and Mara Salvatrucha ("MS-13&quot gang members
and associates. According to Dobyns and official investigative reports by government
watchdog agencies, ATF management failed to take reasonable measures to protect
Dobyns and his family from numerous validated threats, including gang plans to infect
Dobyns with the HIV virus, videotape the gang rape of his wife and daughter,
and otherwise torture and murder them all.

<snip>

In 2008, while Dobyns was away, his Tucson residence was the target of a late night
arson attack while his wife and two children were asleep inside. They narrowly escaped
with only smoke inhalation injuries, but the ensuing fire destroyed the home and most of
the family’s belongings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Dobyns