indictment states Schaefer conspired to interfere with commerce For the next seven or eight years, the Dozen ran a tight ship in Arizona. Im not sure what that means. And thats when MC mayhem broke loose. It was hardly routine for the Hells Angels and the Vagos to have more than two dozen combined bikers in Chino Valley on the same weekend. As TIME wrote, "Many Hells Angels have clearly lived up to their lawless image arrests and convictions for drug trafficking (especially meth), assault, weapons possession and even murder have trailed the group for decades.". All factors for a jury to weigh in trial, if a trial ever happens. entrance to, and maintaining and increasing their position in the His first wife, Elsie Mae (nee George), had died of an embolism in 1967 after a then illegal abortion. That occurred in April, so well see if thats a change in philosophy on the Angels part. Milam says. Less well known to the good people of Yuma Drive were the occupants of a house about 300 yards down the road. finished.". Law enforcement confirms that the Hells Angels appear to have loosened up their bottom rocker policy. San Fernando Valley - California 1978. Our expository features, narratives, profiles, and investigative features keep our 385,000 readers in touch with the Valley's latest trends, events, personalities and places. On one hand, the Hells Angels acquired a big, geographically critical state with lots of wide-open roads and no serious rivals, thanks to the Dozens cleansing efforts. Had they been privy to this information, the citizens of Chino Valley might have been less startled by the pop-pop sound of gunfire that raked across Yuma Drive on Saturday, August 21, 2010, shortly after noon. a 44-yearold Mesa resident. May 2, 1985. Lets have a beer.. Somebody put a pipe-bomb on Arizona Dons front door. 47, of Chandler. Keep it Clean. Upon returning from the war, many G.I.s felt bored with the return to civilian life and longed for the brotherhood and excitement that they'd had within the military. Within the outlaw-biker community, Arizona is known as Hells Angels territory, and the club has gone to war with interlopers in the past most recently in 2010, when members of the Hells Angels Skull Valley chapter and a rival club called the Vagos traded nonlethal gunfire near Prescott. Hells Angel Alan Passaro then stepped in and stabbed Hunter, killing him. Richard John Devries, who police identified as the Las Vegas Hells Angels chapter president, and club recruits Russell Smith and Stephen Alo were arrested late Sunday, several hours after the . The middle patch is the clubs emblem: In the case of the Hells Angels, the famed, winged death-head; in the case of the Vagos, a muscle-bound caricature of the Norse god of mischief, Loki, set against a green field. They divorced after a domestic dispute in which she was hospitalised for a broken rib and lacerated spleen. According to a report filed by Detective Zavos, a Vagos biker named Bob Blankenship who held the rank of Sergeant-of-Arms for the Tri-State Vagos was shot as he executed a U-turn in front of the old Hells Angels clubhouse. I told them to behave themselves, Mora recalls. Much wilder.. Keep reading with a digital access subscription. And respect my authority. Download ICS Google Calendar iCalendar Office 365 Outlook Live. Sunday Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images. [19] Hoover had been president of the Hells Angels Cave Creek, Arizona chapter for years, when he was gunned down outside of the Phoenix Bar Brigett's Last Laugh: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/location/brigetts-last-laugh-6483401 early on Saturday morning, March 22, 2003: https://www.bikernet.com/pages/April_3_2003_Part_2.aspx Johnston, the former president of the Mesa chapter of the Hells Angels, is accused of witness tampering. Rocker Joan Jett poses on the bike of a Hells Angels member in New York City in November of 1985. Ive lived a long and good life filled with adventure. Eckerstrom also said Potter deserved a mitigated sentence because at the time of the crime he was dealing with both schizophrenia and real threats from Hells Angels members who thought he was a police informant. The Yavapai County Attorney accepts the Vagos account of the incident in essence, that the Hells Angels fired on them unprovoked as they rode past the two-story stucco house, triggering the fusillade while the Hells Angels and their attorneys broadly maintain that it was an ambush on the part of the Vagos. For the Arizona Hells Angels, the changing outlaw-biker landscape presents an age-old dilemma for powerful men and alpha-dominant organizations, of dynasties stretching from ancient Rome to Michael Jordans Chicago Bulls i.e., the challenge of holding the center. Robert Rosamilio/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images. In effect, the Dirty Dozen would be trading in their double-six dice emblem for the Angels trademarked death-head skull patch. Barger claimed the spectators had provoked the violence by damaging the Angels bikes; but he also claimed that the crowd had grown restless as the Stones were late and he had held a gun to Keith Richards face to get them to start. Published April 4, 2018. And neither looks to back down. The Vagos got a foothold in Mohave County and now theyre in Phoenix, and that indicates theyre trying to make inroads., How will the Hells Angels respond? Were about brotherhood and riding bikes. 27 Annie Oakley Facts That Prove She Was The Wild West's Biggest Badass, Pumapunku, The Ancient Ruins Where The Inca Believed The World Began, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Our expository features, narratives, profiles, and investigative features keep our 385,000 readers in touch with the Valley's latest trends, events, personalities and places. Two swanky Scottsdale restaurants fined for fleecing diners, Five Months Out of Prison, Convict Accused of Felonious Rampage, Super Fans, Mascot Mania, and All-Stars: Suns and Nuggets Get Ready to Rumble, Fight Night: How Phoenix Became a Hotbed for Mixed Martial Arts Champions, New Attainable Not Necessarily Affordable Housing Coming to Downtown Phoenix, Katie Hobbs Gets Singed After Unwrapping Tamale-tastrophe. They didnt really contest it.. Angels, is accused of witness tampering. Though the outcome of most cases was mistrial, he and Sharon were the only two acquitted outright. Between 2010 and 2012 he made three appearances on the biker TV drama Sons Of Anarchy. accounts, the history behind an article. The outnumbered Angels retreated into the house, where the firefight continued for approximately 10 minutes. I mean, theres a chapter back east that doesnt even let its members smoke pot. Two years later Barger appeared in Tom Wolfes Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test when the author and counterculture figure Ken Kesey invited the Oakland Angels to a party; Kesey introduced the bikers to LSD. The back patches, or rockers, cover the more organizational stuff. The Vagos were another out-of-state club that attempted to plant a flag in Arizona during the Dirty Dozen reign, according to Trethewy. The game of "he started it" has come to an end, and it turns out thatthe Hells Angels are the ones who started a gunfight with a rival motorcycle gang last month. One year after the melee, virtually everything else about the case, which has yet to go to trial, is still in dispute. Its all about power and territory.. The Vagos left Phoenix.. The former head of the local Hell's Angels chapter faces a first-degree murder charge after Pima County Sheriff's deputies found a body buried on his property south of Three Points. He escaped drug-dealing, kidnapping and murder charges, but was finally convicted in 1973 of possession of heroin and firearms. Richard Gaxiola, a Phoenix-based attorney who represents Koepke and has defended Hells Angels in previous cases, insists that the seven-point Arizona statute for defining a criminal street gang is "overly broad" and a "crass gambit for GIITEM to justify government funding" by turning the Hells Angels into perennial hobgoblins. Sun 17 Jul 2022 11.49 EDT. Interested members must be invited by a "fully-patched" member and must not be a police officer, a former police officer, or anyone who even applied to be a police officer. Early in his biking career, after having his skull fractured by police, Barger added a 1% patch to the Angels outfit, in response to the head of the American Motorcyclist Association claiming 99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding. As he was a former felon, both were illegal. Its tough to get away with.. Browning sentenced Potter to 19 years in prison. A Hells Angels leader was shot dead and two members of the rival Vagos motorcycle club were injured, in a shooting at Nevada casino, authorities said. I ran the unit for Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City, and the two gangs mostly kept to themselves, Severson says. According to a confidential source with close ties to the Arizona Hells Angels, Eberhardts killers were members of a rival MC. In 1990, the Vagos even managed to start a Phoenix chapter in the heart of Dirty Dozen territory, led by a biker named Don Arizona Don Halterman. I dont care what you say.. Nelson, named by federal prosecutors as the president of the Hells Angels Sonoma Chapter, was indicted in 2017 as part of a large-scale investigation into the Hells Angels. For the rest of us, not so much. As a paid reliable informant, Azevedo had previously worked for law enforcement entities and was known to provide sound information about underworld dealings. Indeed, theres an adage in the biker world that the safest neighborhood in any city is the one with a Hells Angels clubhouse. Disavowing the stigma has itself become something of an institutional passion for the bikers; a sort of sacred incantation, like stone-writ Druidic verse. "Hell's Angels" was previously used as a nickname by World War II bomber crews and as the title of a Hollywood film (1930) about World War I aviators. It was clear to law enforcement that the Vagos a rising MC with designs on Mexico and the Southwest were making a push into Arizona. Ernie Severson of GIITEM. Even with his wrist-to-wrist tattoos, the 28-year-old ex-Army infantryman and aspiring Muay Thai prize-fighter seems more Team America than Americas Most Wanted. A California chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club makes the ride together on their way to Bakersfield in 1965. Theyre also impenetrable, talking to media little and law enforcement less. Justin Kaufman, a Vagos hang-around from Mesa who was driving his black Range Rover near the crime scene, told Sheriffs Office investigators that the Angels had been planning the attack for a while.. It seems likely that the Hells Angels noticed, too. In 1983 Barger contracted throat cancer; his vocal cords were removed and he learned to speak through a vocaliser in his oesophagus. Presumably to protect Azevedos confidential status, Zavos never disclosed the nature of the hang-arounds involvement with GIITEM during the initial grand jury evidentiary hearing in November. Derby DayClub, Cinco de Mayo and other Things To Do in the Valley, 10 Things To Know About Phoenix In The Future. But a brawl somewhere, sometime was all but inevitable. The information Atwell acquired for the police helped led to 31 people with ties to the Hells Angels facing 169 charges (not all of which stuck) and the seizure of $3 million in drugs, along with . The video captures hundreds of motorcycle riders, many wearing the HAs trademarked death-head patch and red-and-white colors, riding in a slow, stately procession up Grand Avenue to the strains of Metallicas Nothing Else Matters. The take-away: Motorcycle clubs, also known as MCs, are intensely disciplined and loyal. Residents were alarmed. HELLS ANGELS, HAMC, and the Death Heads (winged skull logos) are trademarks owned by Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation, registered and/or applications pending in the United States, Europe, China and many other countries. According to Nevada court documents, Schaefer and 41 others In addition, the Police raids and headlines reporting biker fisticuffs have done little to stifle the growth of the Angels which have hundreds of charters on every continent in the world except Antarctica, with their headquarters in New York City. makes regular headlines for its counterculture lifestyle and criminal activities, outlaw country music of the 1960s and 1970s. outlaw motorcycle gang in Arizona, federal officials said Aside from riding motorcycles, Barger enjoyed riding and taking care of horses as well, he said in interview. When the overall president was sent to prison in 1958, Sonny, aged 20, replaced him, and moved the mother chapter to Oakland. Still, federal and local authorities have had mixed success making racketeering and conspiracy charges the Kanye and Jay Z of anti-organized crime legislation stick to the Hells Angels over the years. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. And in Phoenix. Tyne & Wear - England 1979. Randall being shot in the back of the head. Hells Angels finished in Ariz., U.S. agent says, Man sought in Tempe woman's 2001 death arrested in Argentina, New pact firms up Gilbert Cactus Surf Park plans, Chandler store offers unusual bling for loved ones, Mountain View tennis player extends success on ACU team. Well-groomed, fit and articulate, Koepke is part of the Hells Angels new guard. Fresno chapter . Mecca Sports Bar and Grill 162 E. Wickenburg Way, Wickenburg, Arizona, 85390 Event Type. There was some shooting and pipe-bombs. People are free to wear whatever patch they like.. With the Zimmermans, he also wrote a memoir of biker tales and two novels about a biker named Patch Kinkade, one of which, Dead in 5 Heartbeats, was made into a film in 2013 that he produced along with his fourth wife, Zorana (nee Katzakian); they both played bit parts in it. Haarlem - Holland 1980. The house which once roared with all-night bacchanals and fleets of hard-revving Harleys had been silent for years. By all accounts, Barger who later moved to Cave Creek took a serious shine to Arizona during his incarceration, which could only have facilitated matters when the Dirty Dozen weighed the Angels offer of a friendly merger. An F.B.I. Weve seen a definite upswing in biker numbers for all clubs, Sgt. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. How could they not be? People always slap that thing on us. PHOENIX The state of Arizona is the new owner of a clubhouse that belonged to the Hells Angels. A man identified by authorities as Hells Angels "enforcer" Michael Mahoney delivers a knockout punch during a bar fight in Vacaville. And in 2016, a Hells Angels member shot a man who'd simply moved a traffic cone in front of their New York headquarters. Each chapter governs itself. Many have since argued that the concept of the peace and love, Woodstock 60s ended that day. Potter is the former president of the Tucson chapter of the Hells Angels, but Chuck Whiteman, a former attorney for the Angels, says "former" should be the operative word. Assistant Pima County Legal Defender Paul Eckerstrom had asked Browning to impose a 10-year sentence on his client. After this photographic trip through Hells Angels history, see some more of the past's most infamous motorcycle gangs in action. Chesnoff said. The Yavapai County Attorneys case against the Hell Angels chugged along in appeals court until May, when a sensational bit of information emerged about one of the key witnesses in the shootout. Winston Salem - Norh Carolina 1979. The state will pay a member of the biker group $102,500 for the Phoenix clubhouse, money that. It was described by DPS as the biggest in a series of violent assaults inside several bars in Bullhead City. They have bylaws, they go to meetings and pay dues, they use trademarks and copyrights, and they commit crime. Randall being shot in the face, the bullet instantly paralyzing him. Yavapai County Superior Court Judge William T. Kiger had similar reservations, kicking the original indictments back to a grand jury after weighing Zavos testimony a short-lived but significant legal victory for the Hells Angels. According to Mora, the stereotype of the meth-slinging, brawl-seeking, recklessly hostile Hells Angel is a vestige of wilder times something that continues to exist on the pages of Hunter S. Thompsons Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, but not in real life. The spike in biker hostilities in Bullhead City initially puzzled authorities, because members of the Vagos Tri-State chapter based in the string of river towns where Arizona, California and Nevada meet had been operating in northwest Arizona since at least 2000 with relatively little incident, according to Sgt. The facts only came to light in May after a court-ordered sheriffs office report. You have permission to edit this article. Mora plays the president of the Oakland Infidelz, a thinly disguised version of the Hells Angels. He ran two, six-year prison terms for the weapons charges concurrently to each other, but consecutive to the murder sentence. And the reason? and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, an interview from June 29, 2013, posted to YouTube. The Hells Angels and Vagos also known as Green Nation in the outlaw-biker world for their signature color have a chippy history, to put it mildly. Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Thats more than likely what precipitated the fight in Bullhead City. Concurrently, the number of Vagos operating in Arizona climbed sharply. The military influence really comes into it. He points to the extensive scarring on his lower legs where surgeons stitched together the two limbs, including the blood vessels underneath, in a successful gambit to save a foot severed in a bike wreck. With warfare between gangs intensifying, in 2002 he tried to organise a peace conference at the Laughlin River Run rally in Nevada, but a battle between Hells Angels and Mongols left three dead, and the conference was cancelled. In the wake of the shooting, law enforcement obviously sought to preserve their Vagos informant. Gone, Critic, Gone: What Happened to the Valleys Theater & Arts Critics. Mora, the one-time Dirty Dozen capo and current Arizona Hells Angel, says that he and his Dirty Dozen comrades would scour the streets and bars of Tucson in the early 1990s, looking for rival bike clubs sporting the Arizona rocker. Richard Gaxiola, a Phoenix-based attorney who represents Koepke and has defended Hells Angels in previous cases, insists that the seven-point Arizona statute for defining a criminal street gang is overly broad and a crass gambit for GIITEM to justify government funding by turning the Hells Angels into perennial hobgoblins. This murder will never be solved, says Donald Charles Davis, L.A.-based author of Out Bad which depicts the battles between the Mongols and law enforcement as well as the popular biker blog The Aging Rebel. Hells Angels' old ladies sit during a rest stop on the group's ride from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, Calif. 1965. 2002 shootout at the Harrahs casino in Laughlin, Nev., that left I have a three-part gospel for staying the fuck out of prison, Mora explains. He was convicted and served three and a half years of a four-year sentence; he insisted he had been entrapped by the FBI. The top rocker indicates the name of the club. That was it. Photos From left: Also known as Green Nation, the Vagos motorcycle club was founded in Corona, California, in 1965. After the shootout, authorities would confiscate a tidy arsenal of weaponry at the residence, including 10 handguns, one Norinco SKS rifle, two fighting knives and numerous boxes of ammunition. Ive asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing.. As reflected in their police interviews, the Vagos maintain that the shootout was a premeditated event on the part of the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels-as-neighborhood-watchdog theory may very well have stock unless they happen to be having a shootout with the Vagos. At the end of the day, the Hells Angels is nothing more than a group of guys who love to ride motorcycles and hang out with like-minded individuals. Koepkes objection to the gang label isnt just a matter of semantics; in fact, it carries very tangible legal consequences for the 2,500-member-strong worldwide organization. conspired to commit murder and extortion. So the Dozen were hard-core. Evidently, the summons was taken to heart. Not just in Bullhead City and Mohave County, where Severson currently counts 15 or more. Also in Yavapai County. And where? On Wednesday, federal and local law enforcement agencies But it was a different culture back then. Arizonas law enforcement entities including its anti-gang task force, the multi-agency Gang & Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission (GIITEM) classify the Hells Angels as a criminal street gang, which means courts can apply enhanced sentencing to lawbreakers. They discovered his body after learning the last call Pfeil received was from a phone owned by Potter, a former head of the Tucson chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club. California, Alaska, Washington and Nevada after a two-year Simple assault becomes a multi-year stretch in prison. The town was no longer an HA chapter seat, and only one of the Angels charged in the shootout was a Chino Valley resident. The battle left five bikers wounded, netted 27 arrests and resulted in nine indictments. A crowd of onlookers watches as a member of the Hells Angles rides up to visit children at Emma Children's Hospital in Amsterdam. Stephen is a former staff writer and columnist at, Become a member to support the independent voice of Phoenix 1 on Yelp's SW best eateries, Cocktails on a train car and boutique bowling coming to Tucson, Pac-12 mailbag: Is an Arizona departure worst-case scenario for Pac-12? If they refused, wed cut it off their backs. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. In other words, his cover was blown. Most of them are veterans. A Hells Angels member helps carve turkeys with other volunteers at St. Anthony's Foundation to help the poor in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day 2009. The Angels dispute the criteria. Schaefer also was one of 16 indicted by a federal grand jury in Aug. 28, 1971. Shortly after the phone call, a convoy of Vagos bikers left the Diecks residence and scrambled eastbound down Road 3 in Chino Valley toward the Circle K. Finding no Hells Angels, they continued westbound up Road 4, making a wide loop that would take them past the Hells Angels residence on their way back to the Vagos house. 1965. The Chino Valley shootout was not the first time the Hells Angels and Vagos warred on Arizona soil. California Hells Angels and old ladies hang out outside their clubhouse sometime in the mid-1960s. Could he have lit the powder keg on Yuma Drive by misrepresenting the Circle K encounter? The images keep them awake at night, Randall Pfeils family told Judge Christopher Browning Wednesday. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. Furthermore, the Hells Angels were seen as the torchbearers of what was known as the "one percenter" motorcycle clubs, meaning that they live an outlaw lifestyle different from the other 99 percent of bikers. In Arizona, they are concentrated in Mohave County. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. From what we know, that was the first time [the Dirty Dozen] and the Vagos squared off, Trethewy says. By most accounts, outlaw-biker affiliation is on the rise in Phoenix and elsewhere. Threats of harming another Is one of the most famous outlaw bikers in the world. They claim to be mischaracterized and misunderstood, victims of a zealous law enforcement camp bent on crushing their authority-averse lifestyle. Theyre very well structured, says Trethewy, now a spokesman for the law-enforcement think tank Rocky Mountain Information Network. Sonny Barger, founder of Hells Angels, has died at 83. For more than 50 years, PHOENIX magazine's experienced writers, editors, and designers have captured all sides of the Valley with award-winning and insightful writing, and groundbreaking report and design. The upshot: Neither side came to Chino Valley on August 21 to brawl, necessarily. Last November, Yavapai County Sheriffs Office Detective David Zavos the lead investigator in the Chino Valley case offered a grand jury the following impressionistic analysis of the combatants: The Vagos, for the most part, are not a real aggressive gang.
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