Sonny Barger, biker outlaw and founder of the Hell Angels, died at 83 on June 29th, 2022. “If you are reading this message, you’ll know that I’m gone. I’ve asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing,” Barger wrote in a Facebook post. Barger’s former lawyer Fritz Clapp confirmed his death and said that it was caused by liver cancer.
Mr. Barger is both a biker and a writer. He was the founder and leader of the biker gang Hells Angels and was the public face of the fierce and menacing bearded bikers that road through towns and on the open highway. He is the author of “Dead in 5 Heartbeats” (2003) and “6 Chambers, 1 Bullet” (2006). These two books talked about the murder and mayhem of the biker world. He also wrote an autobiography, “Hell’s Angel – The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club,” which became a New York Times bestseller.
Mr. Barger had a rough childhood. Both of his father’s wives ran off with another person, and young Mr. Barger followed his father to the bar often, where he learned his first cuss words from a parrot. He hated school and was repeatedly suspended. He smoked his first marijuana cigarette at 14 and dropped out of school at 16 to join the army. However, he was soon ousted from the army due to a fake birth certificate and was sent back home.
This was when Barger joined his first biker group, the Oakland Panthers, and a year later he created the biker group now known as the Hells Angels. Over several decades his biker group grew larger and larger, and Barger wrote several books about himself and the group. In 1982 he was diagnosed with throat cancer because he’d smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day for 30 years. In 1998 he moved to Phoenix and dropped his official duties in Hell Angels. He remained a long-distance member. Barger died in his home in Livermore, CA last Wednesday.
Link to article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656879308411x864568959391319300/Sonny%20Barger%2C%20biker%20outlaw%20and%20founder%20of%20Hells%20Angels%2C%20dies%20at%2083%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
Mr. Barger is both a biker and a writer. He was the founder and leader of the biker gang Hells Angels and was the public face of the fierce and menacing bearded bikers that road through towns and on the open highway. He is the author of “Dead in 5 Heartbeats” (2003) and “6 Chambers, 1 Bullet” (2006). These two books talked about the murder and mayhem of the biker world. He also wrote an autobiography, “Hell’s Angel – The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club,” which became a New York Times bestseller.
Mr. Barger had a rough childhood. Both of his father’s wives ran off with another person, and young Mr. Barger followed his father to the bar often, where he learned his first cuss words from a parrot. He hated school and was repeatedly suspended. He smoked his first marijuana cigarette at 14 and dropped out of school at 16 to join the army. However, he was soon ousted from the army due to a fake birth certificate and was sent back home.
This was when Barger joined his first biker group, the Oakland Panthers, and a year later he created the biker group now known as the Hells Angels. Over several decades his biker group grew larger and larger, and Barger wrote several books about himself and the group. In 1982 he was diagnosed with throat cancer because he’d smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day for 30 years. In 1998 he moved to Phoenix and dropped his official duties in Hell Angels. He remained a long-distance member. Barger died in his home in Livermore, CA last Wednesday.
Link to article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656879308411x864568959391319300/Sonny%20Barger%2C%20biker%20outlaw%20and%20founder%20of%20Hells%20Angels%2C%20dies%20at%2083%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
