Sonny Barger, the founder of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, passed away on June 29 at his home in Livermore, California. Posted on his official Facebook page was: “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.” His former lawyer, Fritz Clapp, confirmed his death and said the cause was liver cancer.
Ralph Hubert Barger Jr. was born in Modesto, California, on October 8, 1938. His mother left with a bus driver when he was four months old, leaving only his father to take care of him. Sonny grew up eating pretzels and hard-boiled eggs and learned to curse from a parrot. His father remarried, but the second wife ran off again. Sonny hated school and was often suspended for vulgar language and attacking his teacher. Sonny first smoked marijuana at 14 and dropped out of high school at 16. He joined the Army with a forged birth certificate. Fourteen months later, he was caught by the military and went job-to-job, working as a janitor, pipe threader, and potato chip assembly-line worker.
In 1956, he joined the Oakland Panthers, his first biker group. One year later, he formed the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
“I needed a close-knit club of men who could jump on their bikes, ride cross-country if they wanted to, and not abide by rules or clocks,” he wrote in his autobiography. Over the next several decades, his club became a financially sustainable network with thousands of members throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Barger published 2 novels—Dead in 5 Heartbeats in 2003 and 6 Chambers, 1 Bullet in 2006—about murder and mayhem in the biker world. He went on to publish a New York Times best-selling autobiography and received positive reviews for 2005’s Freedom: Credos From the Road and 2002’s Ridin’ High, Livin’ Free. Barger also co-authored other books with Kent Zimmerman and Darwin Holmstrom.
In 1982, he was diagnosed with throat cancer after smoking three packs of cigarettes per day for 30 years. The surgery to remove his vocal cords forced him to speak raspily through a hole in his mouth. After his first wife, Elsie George, died in 1967, he married Sharon Grunlike and Beth Noel Black. Both relationships ended in divorces. He married his fourth wife, Zorana Katzakian, in 2005. After moving to Phoenix in 1998, Barger started a motorcycle repair shop and continued lifting weights, a pastime he acquired while in prison. In his autobiography, he wrote that his nonconformist life taught him that “To become a real man, you need to join the army first and then do some time in jail.”
Ralph Hubert Barger Jr. was born in Modesto, California, on October 8, 1938. His mother left with a bus driver when he was four months old, leaving only his father to take care of him. Sonny grew up eating pretzels and hard-boiled eggs and learned to curse from a parrot. His father remarried, but the second wife ran off again. Sonny hated school and was often suspended for vulgar language and attacking his teacher. Sonny first smoked marijuana at 14 and dropped out of high school at 16. He joined the Army with a forged birth certificate. Fourteen months later, he was caught by the military and went job-to-job, working as a janitor, pipe threader, and potato chip assembly-line worker.
In 1956, he joined the Oakland Panthers, his first biker group. One year later, he formed the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
“I needed a close-knit club of men who could jump on their bikes, ride cross-country if they wanted to, and not abide by rules or clocks,” he wrote in his autobiography. Over the next several decades, his club became a financially sustainable network with thousands of members throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Barger published 2 novels—Dead in 5 Heartbeats in 2003 and 6 Chambers, 1 Bullet in 2006—about murder and mayhem in the biker world. He went on to publish a New York Times best-selling autobiography and received positive reviews for 2005’s Freedom: Credos From the Road and 2002’s Ridin’ High, Livin’ Free. Barger also co-authored other books with Kent Zimmerman and Darwin Holmstrom.
In 1982, he was diagnosed with throat cancer after smoking three packs of cigarettes per day for 30 years. The surgery to remove his vocal cords forced him to speak raspily through a hole in his mouth. After his first wife, Elsie George, died in 1967, he married Sharon Grunlike and Beth Noel Black. Both relationships ended in divorces. He married his fourth wife, Zorana Katzakian, in 2005. After moving to Phoenix in 1998, Barger started a motorcycle repair shop and continued lifting weights, a pastime he acquired while in prison. In his autobiography, he wrote that his nonconformist life taught him that “To become a real man, you need to join the army first and then do some time in jail.”
