Sonny Barger (1938–2022)

Sonny Barger did not head up a criminal enterprise, but he sure does confess to being involved with a lot of criminal activity. In fact he ends this book with a multi-page list of his encounters with our legal system.

It is a fascinating book which shows the development of motorcycle clubs by disaffected military veterans who were looking for the camaraderie that they were missing as civilians. Many of the Hell's Angels were former military and most of them were hell-raisers. The club was run show more with remarkable discipline and order. It was ironic that the leader of the HAMC ultimately was an advocate for keeping people from smoking tobacco after having lost most of his throat to cancer after a three-pack-a-day unfiltered Camel cigarette habit. show less

The book is basically a series of vignettes narrated by Sonny Barger, the President and one of the founding members of the Hell’s Angels Oakland Chapter. From a strictly historical viewpoint, this is a good overview into how the MC’s developed from returned vets in World War II up to today.

I did not read the electronic version of the book and so had the benefit of having access to all the pictures. These are a great addition to the read as many are photographs of the individuals Barger show more is telling stories about. There are also some great pictures of the bikes – particularly choppers from the late 60’s and 70’s.

Let’s say that if you are looking for hardcore murder, mayhem and drug dealing a la “Sons of Anarchy” you may be barking up the wrong tree. There are inferences and allusions to that life but the dirty deeds are skirted. I guess Sonny Barger felt that he had done enough time and smartly did not incriminate himself in the book.

That being said, the stories are fun. Everything from Sturgis to Altamont, from the summer of love in Frisco to the heydays in Oakland are covered. One thing about the MC life becomes obvious by the end of the book – Sonny Barger is lucky to be alive because most of the members he writes about died. Many died in motorcycle accidents, some from drug overdoses and some in prison murders.

Sonny Barger doesn’t glorify it too much but the story is shined and polished and rated PG so there is still some mystique for those looking for that aspect of the life. Rivalries, old ladies, fights, bikes and bikes and more bikes make up a short, light and entertaining read. show less

A fascinating look inside the world of Sonny Barger and his bike club, "The Hell's Angels". It's predictably apologetic, Sonny gives us reasons for it all. But, I'm not so sure I disagree with his reasoning.

The funniest moment in the book is when he said of "Harley Davidson", "we should have gone with Honda". Hell's Angels on Honda's? Now that is a strange picture.

If you'd like to know how the mind of a thoroughly unpleasant man works, read this book. It paints a nice picture of a man (and his friends) who don't care about anything but themselves.

The style of writing isn't exactly gripping, the main reason I finished 90% of the book was due to the 'factual' information presented and not because it was a pleasant read. The book is not in chronological order, but organized by subject. To me this was confusing at times because points in time are denoted show more as 'when we just started', 'when I met my wife' etc. rather than 'May 1961'.

This book is probably only worth your time if researching Hell's Angels or if you want to decide whether joining an outlaw motorcycle gang is something you'd like to do (in which case you're probably not reading this ;). show less