Monday, June 12, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.
John Katsilometes is the Sun assistant features editor. His column appears Mondays. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-2327.
Whether parting a sea of 300,000 hippies at Altamont Raceway during a free Rolling Stones concert, or striding into a cramped motorcycle shop teeming with dozens of bikers, no one cuts a swath like the Hell's Angels.
And last week Hell's Angels founder/author/cancer survivor Noel "Sonny" Barger cut what might have been his millionth swath, at American Motorcycle Iron Inc. in Henderson.
Barger is on a national tour promoting his autobiography "Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club." If bikers had a Pope, it would be Barger, and about 60 leather-wrapped worshippers eagerly awaited his booming arrival.
Most wore vests bearing emblems of local bike clubs, including Iron Riders, Women In The Wind and I.O.O.B. But for menacing mystique, no one matches the Hell's Angels. When Barger and his trio of Hell's Angels compatriots made their way inside, everyone dutifully parted a path.
At age 62, still donning his road-charred Hell's Angels vest, the man who formed the club in Oakland, Calif., as a teenager does not strike an imposing figure. He stands 5-feet-9 inches, stocky and tightly wound. He has no voice box, the result of having his cancerous larynx removed 18 years ago. Only when pressing against a gauze bandage covering his throat can Barger "speak," and his words are emitted in quiet croaks.
But he willingly explains his role in one of America's more nefarious institutions.
"When we first started it was just a club," he said. "I don't think I realized until I started this tour, traveling around the country, that it was as big as it was."
The conundrum facing today's Hell's Angels is maintaining an outlaw image while operating as a veritable conglomerate. Its famous logo is trademarked and the club markets memorabilia at biker rallies around the country. Barger employs publicists, has a website and even a line of condiments bearing his name.
Consequently, in an effort to reach the masses while appeasing his own, um, constituency, Barger often contradicts himself. In his book Barger contends that at the ill-fated 1969 Altamont concert (where a fan carrying a gun was beaten and stabbed to death in front of the stage) the Hell's Angels "did their job." (Barger also said that, compared with other Hell's Angels transgressions, Altamont was "a church picnic.")
Yet he's is constantly fingering the cops, blaming them for unfairly hassling the club. Barger even had trouble gaining permission to sign books at the Borders Books Music & Cafe in Henderson when local law enforcement feared a crowd of 1,000 might descend on the neighborhood (around 90 showed up).
"The biggest misconception is what law enforcement puts out, that we're a criminal enterprise with nothing but crooks and thugs in the club," said a man who has been arrested 21 times and served prison time. "Really, if I had all the illegal money the cops said I had, would I be out here doing this?"
Probably not. Barger grinned and signed his name for all comers before roaring away. He couldn't have been more genuine, which is no surprise.
The man has a book to sell. So get out of his way.
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