Hells Angels Group Psychology
David Chirko, A.B.
Chirkoart.ca
Sudbury, Canada
Abstract
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), also known by the nickname “81” (a shorthand for the eighth and first letters of the alphabet— “H” and “A”), offers a vivid case study in group psychology. Although the HAMC is often linked to crime, violence, and intimidation, it simultaneously exemplifies the powerful bonds, loyalty, and identity that can form within tightly knit groups. Beyond its notorious reputation, the club has also sponsored charity rides, community events, and fundraising efforts—demonstrating how cohesion and organizational skills can be directed toward prosocial ends. This duality highlights the complexities of in-group solidarity, collective reputation, and the shaping power of shared identity.
…Darwin would recognize in…motorcycle gangs his missing link…Freud would marvel at the id unleashed – Yves Lavigne (p. 127)
Origins
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), according to their official web site, Hells Angels World (n.d.), was founded March 17th, 1948, in the Fontana/San Bernardino area of California. Other clubs at the time came to fruition, but they had no connection with the Hells Angels, nor with one another, and most are no longer extant. No lineage exists between the jingoistic HAMC and former members of World War II’s Hell’s Angels B-17 Bomber Group. The only military person associated with the two groups, former Hell’s Angels Flying Tigers Squadron Leader Arvid Olsen, was never a member of, nor had ever applied for membership in, the HAMC. He inspired HAMC’s founder1 to use the sobriquet “Hells Angels” and their red on white colours. Frank Sadliek, former HAMC San Francisco Chapter president, designed their death head insignia.
Structure, Induction, Activities
Hells Angels flourish in 66 countries, with 592 charters (Hells Angels World, n.d.), and some 6,000 members (Gelineau, 2023). Biker aficionado Lillie Gabler (2023) says their top-down organization is hierarchical—as is the focus and structure of their motorcycle runs, affirms Jay Dobyns, ATF agent/former California infiltrator, 2001-3 (Insider, 2023).
Dobyns explains, in local clubs “There’s…charters and within the charter, the…chapter, the group,” each comprised of a President; Vice President; and Warlord, handling weapons, defense and retaliation. Gabler adds Treasurer, and Amanuensis; all duly elected. Morgan (1979) includes aSergeant-at-arms, and Road Captain.
To be considered for Hells Angels membership Dobyns says one first becomes an “associate,” spending time with them, which is, Gabler states, gaining trust by frequenting their events, riding bikes, and partying (sometimes instantaneously, as Dobyns describes). Dobyns explains, after a built relationship one becomes a “hang-around” (Gabler says is a gofer, delivering drugs, guarding the clubhouse, as ordered; also, less than one per cent of them succeed to the highest echelon [below]). Dobyns avers, they later become a “prospect,” involving a probationary minimum of one year. Gabler adds, they are member sponsored and must follow directives from any Hells Angel, their obedience incessantly scrutinized. Dobyns states they then get their bottom curved rocker patch on their vest or “cuts.” To become a full member, they must be unanimously voted in favor of by their charter, acquiring their top rocker patch and centre patch death head on their vest. Gabler reminds, one now forever and totally espouses Hells Angels’ values and lifestyle (preserving group identity). However, members are on probationary basis, therein they can still be ousted and remain under the microscope. Further, members can be beaten, demoted, or expelled if they violate extensive club conduct rules.
Dobyns states Hells Angels test new members via “mud checks,” wherein they may be put in ineluctable situations where they must eliminate someone or be killed. Former Globe and Mail reporter and infiltrator Yves Lavigne (1987) says Hells Angels make fear tantamount to respect, utilizing their squad, the “Filthy Few” (p. 53)—the words tattooed inside their forearms–who killed dissidents in their ranks (intraspecific aggression). Dobyns says members may retire, or “out good,” but must return their club paraphernalia; if they are (dishonorably) “out bad,” the Hells Angels will come over forcibly and take back their bike, vest and tattoo.
Gabler says chapter business is reported to regional and national leaders, maintained through weekly and monthly meetings—called “church” (Lavigne, p. 57). She explains, members defray monthly dues in order to handle club operations and events. Extortion and drug sales also provide revenue for chapters. Gabler continues, stating personal disputes and delegation of criminal or social actions are handled here. Dobyns says many do honest work, like selling t-shirts, however, chapters operate independently regarding how they make money, which they retain. There is no paycheck forthcoming from anywhere. Some individual members must sell street drugs, keeping most of their gains, but Dobyns notes, some Hells Angels are teetotalers, nonsmokers, and physically fit. He states Hells Angels do not always actively recruit, just seek those possessing valued skills.
Public affairs advisor Patrick Lejtenyi (2016) says Hells Angels have junior clubs whose members perform their messy work, purvey security at social events (like patched members, at “Altamont” [Lavigne, pp. 20-21]), maintain Hells Angels’ turf, and establish drug distribution systems. Pierre de Champlain, former RCMP civilian analyst and author (Lejtenyi, 2016) says they are eager to become prospects by proving themselves. Lejtenyi adds, an ex-undercover UK policeman says they are monitored–precluding journalists or police joining their coterie–by being ordered to perform egregious tasks, which the former cannot stomach, so, many abdicate.
Criminal Behaviour: America, Beyond
As an anti-society, clannish, tribal subculture, Lavigne (1987) avers many opine Hells Angels are “…the last truly free men—those who dare break laws” (p. xiii); “taking care of business” = doing whatever is necessary (pp. 191-199). Gabler (2023) enumerates crimes Hells Angels often commit (and are convicted of): assault – vicious acts against enemy bikers, like “shoulder tapping,” dislodging their patches to mortify and scare them; drug trafficking – marketing cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines (the drug most often produced and peddled [Abella, et al, 2024]), etc.; extortion – sometimes for “protection”; money laundering – through legitimate enterprises; murder – contract killings; prostitution – kidnapping and forcing women into sex rings; and weapons trafficking – of guns and rocket launchers.
Forensic psychologist Jane Wood (2014), alluding to Malcolm Klein, et al (2006), avers it has been incontrovertibly established well-seasoned criminals joining gangs can become even more felonious. Gang influence involved here has not been completely ascertained. However, group processes potentially encourage members to form an identification with a gang, conform to its group norms, like moral disengagement and justification of sex crimes; become homogeneous and work reaching group goals, like status (as found in the Hells Angels).
Law enforcement and international intelligence agencies, like the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC), Ottawa; Australian Federal Police (AFP), Canberra; the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), The Hague, Netherlands; and the Justice Department, or United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Washington, DC, proclaim that the Hells Angels are an arm of organized crime. In fact, United States Department of Justice (2023), officially asseverates:
“Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) are organizations whose members use their…clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises. There are more than 300…OMGs within the United States…Hells Angels, Mongols, Bandidos, Outlaws, and Sons of Silence pose a…national domestic threat and conduct the majority of criminal activity linked to OMGs, especially…drug-trafficking and…cross-border drug smuggling…with major international drug-trafficking organizations….”
Dobyns (Insider, 2023) says Hells Angels control territory augmenting their power and income, battling, particularly, the Mongols. The Pagans, active only in United States, are part of “The Big Four” (Lavigne, p. 127), which includes the aforementioned Hells Angels, Bandidos, and Outlaws–all enemies, but there have been sit-downs, to resolve differences. 1%er (n.d.), states outlaw gangs are all “one percenters” –unlike the 99% from the total of all clubs, who are good. Notwithstanding, renowned Hells Angels spokesman and Oakland chapter leader, Sonny Barger, in 1983 proclaimed, “The police call it a gang…. We call it a club” (Lavigne, p. 42). Recently, former Hells Angels Ventura, California president George Christie declared, “It’s an organization with criminals in it” (A&E, 2024). Gabler states, far removed from criminality are Hells Angels, as a club, sponsoring charitable causes like children’s toy drives, but such exist for positive public persona purposes, not for magnanimity (or even as reaction formations). However, Dobyns also asserts Hells Angels do toy runs, blood drives, and community service for public good, and Griswold (2024), mentions special needs schools.
Dutch Criminologists’ Studies
Sjoukje van Deuren, et al (2020) state, “…the direct and coordinating role of…formal OMCG club structure in…(organized) criminal behaviour of members may be present less often than…assumed by advocates of far-reaching policies targeting OMCGs.” They say Klaus Von Lampe and Arjan Blokland (2020) find criminal structures in various groups like the OMCG (Outlaw Motorcycle Gang), administer criminal as well as social functions, with a code of conduct which provides a feeling of belonging, and overall protection of its adherents. Said examined the filing of 60 cases against Netherland’s2 OMCGS, 2012 to 2018. Three distinct rubrics were ascertained, pertaining to group and structural relationships between OMCGs and crimes of its members: “bad apple” (one recalcitrant member)—78 percent of charges, “club within a club” (members acting independently)—38 percent, and “club as a criminal organization” (whole group misbehaving)—27 percent. Concerning the 202 individual charges therein, it was: bad apple—48 percent, club within a club—27 percent, and club as a criminal organization—25 percent.
However, van Deuren, et al, conclude, “Members…are disproportionately engaged in criminal behavior.” OMCGs are not as often involved directly in crimes but usually engage in inter-gang organized violence when said violence is inflicted upon their own members. Further, OMCGs operate as a gathering of fellow offenders and market for criminal goings-on. They describe how membership indirectly intertwines with perpetration of crime by OMCG members. Board members may sanction criminal activity, ratifying a rapprochement between members, non-members, and OMCGs’ rivals at times of conflict. They also condemn criminal behavior of members, deleterious to the OMCG. Members employ the violent reputation of OMCGs, making them propitious in certain criminal activities.
Canadian Presence
Lejtenyi (2016) describes how the Hells Angels, after embarking on Canada in 1977, getting control of its crime environment “…has maintained…dominance through a savvy combination of diplomacy, business sense, marketing, and bloodshed.” After the rival Outlaws and Bandidos moved out of Canada this left the Hells Angels, by 2010, with no notable opposition. He alludes to Peter Edwards (Toronto Star), who stated that, in Ontario, there were the Hells Angels, and those they allowed to exist, demonstrating the former’s group exclusivity. Lejtenyi continues, saying blue-collar and not avowed racketeers who are members and associates extracted from other, disbanding, groups do networking for them. Those who qualify could thereby augment their status and sell their drugs, unfettered.
Mafia Connections
Lejtenyi (2016) says bikers have become, unlike the (Italian) Mafia, ubiquitous, as in Quebec. However, de Champlain (Lejtenyi) says Hells Angels could emulate the Mafia model, surreptitiously adapting to fluctuating situations. Ontario Provincial Police Staff Sergeant Len Isnor (Lejtenyi) explains they collaborated in Montreal with not only the Mafia, but the preponderantly Irish West End Gang, too. Former Mafia capo Michael Franzese and Christie affirm Hells Angels and Cosa Nostra are both personally sponsored, ritualistic brotherhoods, putting their organizations before families; not “criminal,” but disrelish law enforcement; and copiously vet members, enforcing silence (Michael Franzese, 2024).
Racism, Sexism
“Most…are white males who ride Harley-Davidson [or Indian] motorcycles. Each…known by a ‘legal,’ or official, name, which may be a colourful nickname” (Abella, et al, 2024). Hells Angels, culpable of some hate crimes (Childs, 2023), have a cordial relationship with non-White groups, like The East Bay Dragons, whom Barger befriended (Levingston & Zimmerman, 2003). Christie says Black and women bikers, once full members, were later driven out, because prison gangs, including Hells Angels, are distinguishable by color lines, spreading to society (Michael Franzese, 2024).
Lavigne (1987) says women, “old ladies” (p. 91), wear jackets reading: “Property of Hell’s Angels” (p. 87), and are attracted to the biker lifestyle of speedy bikes and cars, imbibing, getting high, momentary excitement, parties, and sex with macho men. Dobyns (Insider, 2023) explains making overtures to girlfriends and wives of other members is verboten, wherein one can be severely amerced, however, some women are freely itinerant in their relations with members.
Summary
Worldwide, Hells Angels charters preserve group status through a structured, draconian hierarchy. They collectively display a masculine, aggressive character embracing iconoclastic, but regulated, freedom. Hells Angels eschew cooperation with reviled rival gangs, whom they fight over territory.
Some have been convicted for committing crimes like contract killings, extortion, forced prostitution, money laundering, trafficking of weapons, violent assaults, etc. International law enforcement/ intelligence organizations vouch for their gang involvement in world drug-trafficking. They are celeritous when someone, like the Mafia, requires their input. They perpetrated crimes against Blacks, however some maintained amicable relations with them, although Black (and women) bikers were earlier excluded. Female members, innocuously intrigued with the lifestyle, are treated mainly like chattel.
Many, if not most, Hells Angels chapters are not incessantly, but can be, involved in anti-social behavior and numerous members are occupied in legitimate vocations, businesses, and charities.
Notes
1 Hells Angels World does not specify who the Hells Angels were founded by: World War II veteran Otto Friedli who, with other members, after a row with another gang, left their precursor: the Pissed Off Bastards (Griswold, 2024; James, 2009), or Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington; abbreviation: P.O.B.O.B. (Gabler, 2023; Lavigne, 1987).
2 Hells Angels were banned in Holland (BBC News, 2019).
References
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