HELLS ANGELS: A FORCE AT 50

A 'Motorcycle Brotherhood' to Club Members, a Global Crime Organization to
Police

VENTURA, Calif. -- Between bites of a bagel and cream cheese, George
Christie Jr. says the public has nothing to fear from Hells Angels.

Police call them a global organized crime force but Christie, who could be
the next supreme leader of the world's largest biker club, says they are
simply a "motorcycle brotherhood.''

"People have to understand we're an esoteric organization," Christie told
Sun Media Newspapers last week in private interviews during the Hells
Angels' World Run in Ventura, Calif.

Several Canadian Angels joined about 400 of their "brothers" from around
the globe at the Run, a continuation of the Hells Angels' 50th anniversary
celebrations in San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.

While Californians seemed to look upon the riders simply as aging and tamer
versions of the rowdies who once terrorized their state, the 50th
anniversary came at a time of intense activity for the Hells Angels in
Canada.

"Drugs and violence. That's what they're all about," said Edmonton police
Det. Ron Robertson. He and four other Canadian cops followed the bikers to
California.

With the recruitment of more than 20 former Grim Reapers in Alberta last
year, the Hells Angels now have 14 Canadian chapters and about 218 members.

Another 13 Rebels bikers in Saskatchewan are now probationary Hells Angels
who have not yet graduated to full membership, said Sgt. Guy Ouellette, a
long-time Hells Angels expert with the Surete du Quebec.

At the same time, Quebec Angels have not settled a deadly struggle with
rivals from the Rock Machine over what police say is drug turf. An
estimated 60 gang members and associates on both sides have died in the
four-year battle that also killed an innocent 11-year-old boy.

"We've been growing successfully for 50 years and we're certainly not a
threat to individuals that are part of the community," Christie, 50, told
Sun Media Newspapers at The Daily Grind cafe on Ventura's Main Street.

"The fact that we're in every continent speaks for itself,'' said the
trim-looking grandfather.

Christie said that because he does not live in Canada he could not comment
specifically on what police allege are the club's expansionist goals for
Ontario. Neither would he discuss the violence in Quebec.

After half a century, the group now has about 1,600 members everywhere from
South Africa to Brazil.

Christie said the Hells Angels don't go looking for members. The club
grows, he said, because people "want to emulate us in the motorcycle
culture.''

"We're a society unto ourselves and we don't want to create problems for
anybody," said Christie, a martial arts instructor. He said he rarely
drinks alcohol.

Canadian police call the Angels "organized crime" but say the criminal
activity is not organized by any senior club officials. Instead, members
take care of their own criminal business and are supposed to give a share
of that income back to the club, police say.

>From Newfoundland to B.C., the Hells Angels have official chapters or
>"puppet clubs" which police say do their work for them.

But not in Ontario.

There the Hells Angels have no official puppets but they do have contacts
who help them move drugs through Northern Ontario, police say.

Hells Angels' stripper agencies have also placed dancers in northern bars
where the strippers give a share of their income back to the agencies,
police say.

"They have Hells Angels controlling part of Ontario already. Why have a
chapter there? They don't need to," Ouellette said in Ventura. "We won't
see that before the year 2000 for sure."

Police say Angels are distributors of cocaine and big-money
hydroponically-grown marijuana.

Outlaws, Satan's Choice, Para-Dice Riders and other bikers all operate in
Toronto but no club has control of criminal biker activity in the city,
police say.

Last September, Sherbrooke Hells Angels member Sylvain Vachon was arrested
in Toronto as he and others from his chapter tried to meet with the
Para-Dice. Vachon was wanted by police in Sudbury in connection with the
beating of a bartender.

If the Hells Angels do not set up a formal chapter in Ontario, rival
Bandidos -- newly arrived in Canada -- might beat them to it.

Ouellette said the Texas-based Bandidos have a probationary chapter in
Kingston to complement two new trainee chapters in Quebec and Montreal. "In
Quebec, some Rock Machine members already are probate Bandidos," he said.

Outlaws have also aligned themselves with the newcomers, Ouellette said.

The Bandidos and Angels have fought with grenades and other weapons in
Scandinavia, where the body count stands at about 14.

In Quebec City, snowmobile riders armed with AK-47 and .308-calibre rifles
recently shot up the Bandidos' clubhouse, Ouellette said. The shooters are
suspected of having Angels links, he said.

"The Bandidos will represent in Canada an alternative for those who don't
share Hells Angels' goals," Ouellette said

At a 1996 civil trial in Whitby, Anthony Tait, a police informant who
belonged to the Angels from 1982-1987, called Angel Sonny Barger the de
facto international Angels president.

"It's not a listed rank but everyone recognizes him as the boss," Tait
testified under heavy security at the trial launched by Para-Dice Riders
over alleged police harassment.

Tait, a clean-cut man during his Angels membership, testified about a
conversation he had at Barger's home in 1987.

"He turned to me and he said, 'Tony, you're the future of the club . . .
We've got to get away from what we were in the '60s.' " Now, police say
Christie could be the future of the club and he doesn't hesitate to say
what he thinks of Tait.

"I think he's a coward and I think he's a traitor and I think he's a
self-serving individual who's getting attention any way he can."

Unlike many surly bikers who have no use for the press, Christie appeared
to go out of his way to speak with Sun Media in Ventura.

"The press is a powerful medium and I've watched law enforcement use it
against us for years and I think we can use it just as successfully as they
can," he said.

Christie said he spent a couple of years in college "and I like to read a
lot . . . a lot of history. History can be applied continually."

A California cop who has watched Christie called him "a politician" and
suspects he will be Barger's successor. "George is the man. He's their
national spokesman," the officer said.

He said that's probably why Christie's home turf of Ventura was chosen for
this year's annual World Run the day after 50th anniversary festivities in
San Bernardino, the Hells Angels' birthplace.

Ouellette, the Canadian expert, called Christie a "possible" successor to
Barger.

Christie just smiled at the suggestion. "I'm not going to comment on law
enforcement speculation. "It doesn't concern anybody but us."

Christie said he was with Barger in San Bernardino for the anniversary party.

It's unclear how long Barger will be around. A San Bernardino cop who saw
him at a biker run in Nevada last April said the biker boss did not look
well.

"He's got that drawn look. Doesn't look as strong as he used to be," said
Lieut. Mike Gile.

Barger was not an original Hells Angels member but is credited with
overseeing the growth of the club formed by Second World War flyboys in San
Bernardino on March 17, 1948.

There are no original members but some 40- or 45-year veterans remain, said
Christie, who first joined the Hells Angels in Los Angeles.

"I didn't feel that I fit into the mainstream of society," he explained. He
said he had "bounced around" doing various things until he became an Angels
member.

"It was as if I found my family."

Asked how a new chapter is formed, Christie talked about his own experience
in 1978 when he gathered about half a dozen members from other chapters and
started the new branch in Ventura, a coastal city north of Los Angeles.

"I wanted to move back to my home town. This is where I was born. "My
mother comes in on a daily basis, comes into the clubhouse, hangs out with
us," said Christie.

Ventura police Lieut. Don Arth said Christie's chapter once had less than
10 members but in recent years he has "done a lot of recruiting."

His son George Christie III, 21, belongs to the chapter. Among the new
recruits are former members of the local Pierpont Rats street gang, most of
whom have criminal records, Arth said.

Christie himself spent a year in jail before he was acquitted in 1987 of a
murder plot. "I was framed by the federal government."

He said he has only one conviction, a guilty plea to disturbing the peace.

Christie admitted his chapter has taken applicants from "different
so-called street factions." But he said maybe that's why the city doesn't
have much gang violence. Of his chapter's 25 members, about half are aged
21 to 30.

Police estimated about 400 Hells Angels visited Ventura for the Run, but
nowhere near that number attended the final party Tuesday night at
Nicholby's, a Main Street nightclub.

Old soul hits and Aerosmith's Walk This Way drifted from the second-floor
windows of the club where a band played.

Downstairs at the club entrance, bikers mingled while curious local
residents watched from the street corner and hooted their approval when a
pack of several Harleys rumbled toward the club.

Elsewhere on Main Street, there was little activity except for the cops who
walked around Nicholby's in packs and paraded their police dogs. Other than
police cars and police motorcycles, few vehicles drove along Main Street
that night.

Lieut. Arth said the show of force worked.

"We were able to deter a lot of incidents that would normally occur with a
group of this type," he said.

Christie, however, said the tactic "has given the community an idea of what
a police state would be like to live in."

He said he hopes to be around for the 100th Hells Angels anniversary and
never doubted the club would reach 50. Why?

"Because we're dedicated individuals."

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.