Hells Angels and their ‘old ladies’ captured on camera in amazing black and white pictures from 1965
Photographer Bill Ray spent weeks on the road with the feared bikers
YOU can almost hear the roar of the Harley Davidsons and smell the exhaust fumes as you look at these amazing Hells Angels pictures from 1965.
The black and white pictures were taken by photographer Bill Ray, who spent several weeks with the California chapter of the biker gang when they were a relatively new phenomenon.
Bill and writer Joe Bride spent their days and nights with Buzzard, Hambone, Big D and other Angels as well as their equally tough "old ladies".
He recalled: "This was a new breed of rebel.
“They didn't have jobs. They absolutely despised everything that most Americans value and strive for — stability, security.
“They rode their bikes, hung out in bars for days at a time, fought with anyone who messed with them.
“They were self-contained, with their own set of rules, their own code of behaviour. It was extraordinary to be around.”
Bill followed the bikers on a major rally from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, California – a 130 mile trip.
He told TIME Life: “The Bakersfield run was around the clock, three days and nights. In Bakersfield, I slept on the floor of the Blackboard Cafe — the bar that the Angels basically lived in while they were there."
The pair gained the trust of the Angels after an initial meeting in which Joe Bride was blindfolded and driven hundreds of miles to a secret location.
They also talked to the women, who flocked around the bikers and travelled with them.
Bill added: “The girls weren't there in chains, or against their will. They had to want that life if they were going to be accepted by the Angels.
“These guys were kings of the road. I don't think they ever felt they had to look around for girls. Girls came, and they had their pick. Then they'd tell them where to sit and what to do."
The Hells Angels were started on March 17, 1948,in Fontana California when several small motorbike clubs – including the P***ed Off B*****ds of Bloomington – merged.
The name was suggested by Arvid Olsen, a friend of the founding Bishop family, who had served in the US Air Force Flying Tigers squadron – dubbed Hell’s Angels – in World War II.
In the following decade, chapters of the club were founded in San Francisco, California, Gardena, Fontana, California, Oakland and California.
In the 1960s the gangs became part of the counterculture movement which originated in San Francisco, headed by the likes of Ken Kesey, Alan Ginsberg and Jerry Garcia.
The ‘Death’s Head’ logo was design to Frank Sadilek, past president of the San Francisco chapter in 1953. Before that date the jacket emblem was copied from the insignia of the 85th Fighter Squadron and the 552nd Medium Bomber Squadron.
The first London chapters sprung up after Beatle George Harrison invited members of the San Francisco Angels to stay at Apple Records, in 1968.
Today, there are 425 chapters in 50 countries and, although the members deny they are anything more than motorbike enthusiasts, police and intelligence agencies in many nations regard them as criminal gangs,
Past alleged criminal activity includes drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, and extortion.
In November 1972, three members were convicted for the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was dragged off the street and assaulted in front of a baying crowd in Winchester and in 1979, 24 Angels were jailed or given suspended sentences after a brawl between the Windsor and Brockenhurst chapters in which one leader was shot three times in the head.
In the late 1990s British Hells Angels raged a two year turf war with the Outcasts, in London and East Anglia and in 1998, two members of the rival gang were killed in a clash at a concert in Battersea.
In 2008, a brawl between 30 Hells Angels and members of their rival gang, The Outlaws, broke out on a plane from Alicante and police found knuckledusters, a machete, hammers and a meat cleaver had been carried onto the plane.
To join the club, enthusiasts must have a valid driver's license, a motorcycle over 750cc and must be voted unanimously into the club.
It is said the club excludes paedophiles and anyone who has applied to become police or prison officers.
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