The Hells Angels aren't just known for their leather jackets and loud
Harleys. From a psycho serial killer to a biker taking pleasure in dismemberment,
these members have committed some of the most gruesome crimes imaginable.
Several members of the Hells Angels have killed people, but Yves "Apache" Trudeau
is a particularly notorious case. He was a professional assassin who claimed to
have killed dozens of people. Trudeau was already a biker and a murderer when
he joined the Hells Angels in 1977, and as crime writer James Dubro told Vice,
he quickly developed a scary reputation. Dubro told the outlet,
"He had absolutely no conscience, no respect for human life at all."
Trudeau's methods of murder ranged from knives to bombs. As his infamy grew,
he started killing people for numerous different criminal organizations, even murdering his
own kind when the situation required it. The increasing tensions between various criminal
groups and Trudeau's hitman role eventually painted a target on his back. While he narrowly
avoided becoming one of the victims of a brutal mass murder known as the Lennoxville Massacre,
he was expelled from the Hells Angels. By 1985, he had a bounty on his head.
He survived by switching sides. Trudeau became a police informant and pleaded guilty to 43
manslaughters. He was paroled in 1994 and started life under a new identity. However, in 2004,
he was sent back to prison for sexually assaulting a minor. During this time,
he became sick with cancer and died shortly after his release in 2008.
Alan Passaro might not have the longest criminal record among the
Hells Angels. But seeing as his name is forever associated with one of the most
infamous incidents in the organization's history, he deserves to be on this list.
The Rolling Stones have a long career that's full of highs and lows,
but when it comes to their darkest hour, many would likely name the tragedy at their
Altamont concert on December 6, 1969. The swiftly organized free concert at
the Altamont Speedway has become infamous as the antithesis of Woodstock. It drew a
crowd of 300,000 to a distant race track venue and used Hells Angels as security.
This wasn't an ideal decision. The bikers' brand of maintaining order featured multiple
violent incidents, the most notorious being the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter.
"Why are we fighting? Why are we fighting? We don't want to fight. C'mon!"
In what might be the most highly-publicized killing in Hells Angels history, Passaro leaped
down from the stage and stabbed the young man to death during the Rolling Stones' performance.
"Sam we need an ambulance. We need a doctor by
that scaffold there. If there's a doctor can you get to there."
Passaro was eventually acquitted because Hunter had drawn a gun and the case was considered
self-defense. However, a nameless eyewitness told Rolling Stone in 1970 that the bikers specifically
attacked Hunter before they even knew he had a gun. The eyewitness told the outlet,
"So they're chasing through the crowd. And [they're] hitting him
and one Hells Angel pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back."
Sonny Barger's rap sheet is lengthy. But as the longtime face of the Hells Angels,
his true danger was in his visibility and influence. He first rose to prominence as the
president and co-founder of the club's Oakland chapter when Hunter S. Thompson depicted their
lifestyle in the 1966 book "Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga." After that,
Barger acted as the organization's leader and public face for decades.
Barger was a key person in the Hells Angels' clashes with anti-war protesters in 1965,
taking a pro-war side and even trying to contact President Lyndon B. Johnson to
offer the organization's services in the war effort. He also acted as a public spokesman
in many Hells Angels-related scandals and incidents, gaining enough personal notoriety
to work in Hollywood, write books, and even market a line of Barger-branded products.
Despite his comparatively public status, Barger's hands weren't clean when it came
to criminal activities. He was arrested numerous times for violent crimes. Barger
was also charged with a list of crimes that included murder and kidnapping, and did time
for firearm and heroin possession, as well as aggravated assault. Additionally, Barger had a
hand in creating some of the most famous outlaw biker visuals, from the infamous one-percenter
patch to the apostrophe-free spelling of Hells Angels. Barger died in 2022 at age 83.
When a man's nickname is "Wolf," and law enforcement suspects that he's
been involved in 13 murders and two attempted murders,
it's pretty clear that he's highly dangerous. This is precisely the case with David Carroll,
a Canadian Hells Angel who has been on the run since 2001 and continues to elude the authorities.
Carroll was a member of Quebec's notorious and violent Nomads chapter of the motorcycle club.
However, he managed to evade capture when the police effectively ended the Nomads'
reign of terror in a large arrest operation in 2001. Carroll remains the sole Nomad who's
still on the loose. But thanks to the Hells Angels' vast connections and his
fluency in both English and French, he could be anywhere the organization has a presence.
Reported Wolf sightings have been made in countries that range from Brazil to South
Africa and Australia, but the man has never been found. What's more, if people who know
him are aware of his whereabouts, they're staying quiet as well. When fellow Angel
Leslie Greenwood was standing trial for two murders in 2015, he specifically denied having
any information about Carroll beyond the fact that he's on the run. Carroll would be in his
70s if he's still alive, so it's starting to seem unlikely that he'll ever be caught.
One of the several Canadian Hells Angels on this list and arguably the most powerful,
Maurice "Mom" Boucher became a Hells Angel in 1987. From there, he began making moves in
Quebec's criminal underbelly. He ultimately formed his own Hells Angels Nomads chapter, which quickly
became a powerful player in a war Boucher waged against the region's other outlaw biker groups.
It was all part of Boucher's quest to become the sole kingpin of the area's drug trade.
The authorities eventually pinpointed Boucher as a prominent Hells Angels leader and a key
player in the mayhem. At that point, he started applying his murderous tactics to law enforcement
officials. Boucher ordered the deaths of two prison guards and the attempted murder of a third
one. The total death toll of the biker wars was over 165. Not every victim was a biker, either.
Thanks to the factions' use of explosive methods like car bombs, there were also innocent victims.
It took the authorities quite a while to get Boucher behind bars. His first trial ended in
an acquittal in 1998, but a second trial was more successful. In 2002, Boucher was handed
a life sentence. He died of throat cancer in 2022 at age 69, three years before he
would have been up for parole. However, parole may never have been a possibility for Boucher,
considering that he attempted to assassinate a fellow criminal during his time in prison.
"The hells Angels do live outside the law. You know,
we don't adhere to all the laws that society throws down to us."
The scariest kind of criminal is unpredictable, and Hells Angel
Benjamin Silva fits this horrible bill. In January 1981, in Lassen County, California,
he and two other men — Norman Thomas and Joseph Shelton — started following a young couple they
encountered at a gas station. They ultimately convinced the couple to stop their vehicle
by impersonating a police car. What followed is something straight out of a horror movie.
The three perpetrators hijacked the car and drove the kidnapped youngsters to a secluded cabin,
where they proceeded to brutally torture them in different ways. The male victim was chained to a
tree and left exposed to the elements while the attackers sexually assaulted the female victim.
Eventually, Silva and Shelton shot the male victim to death with a machine gun, and Silva had Shelton
dismember the body. After enduring the torture for three days, the female victim was shot to death.
Silva was placed on death row for his part in the crimes in 1982, but the Lassen County district
attorney withheld important information while handling the case. This caused Silva's death
sentence to be overturned. Silva eventually received a new sentence of 25 years to life.
Phil Boudreault's criminal record pales in comparison with some other folks on this list,
but he has a pretty good chance of being one of the most physically dangerous people in
the Hells Angels. After all, he's not just the vice president of a Nomads chapter — he's also
a former Olympic-level boxer who competed at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Boudreault has clashed with the law numerous times, the worst of them being exactly the kind
of thing one might expect from a top-level boxer who's also a Hells Angel. In 2004, Boudreault
beat up two people, breaking one victim's jaw in three places. For this, he spent two years
in prison and was placed on a long-term offender list for 10 years. However, Boudreault violated
the terms of the list with multiple failed drug tests and by associating with criminals.
Apart from breaking the law himself, Boudreault has also
been on the receiving end of violence. In 2016, he was riding his motorcycle when
he was shot twice in a drive-by hit. He survived the attempt on his life.
Adam Lee Hall isn't just a prominent Hells Angel in Peru, Massachusetts — he's also
a convicted triple murderer. Along with two accomplices, Caius Veiovis and David Chalue,
Hall was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2014 for a gruesome case that
involved the shooting and dismembering of David Glasser and two of his friends. Hall and Glasser
had a history of animosity, which culminated in the triple murder in 2011. When the victims'
bodies were found in a ditch, the authorities immediately charged Hall, Veiovis, and Chalue.
"And I'll see you all in hell, too. Remember that."
The case proved to be a difficult one. Hall already had a history of unconventional legal
strategies, having unsuccessfully attempted to become an FBI informant in a previous
case. He ended up wrecking his relationship with his defense attorney by discussing the
lawyer's tactics with the police, and even after the conviction, he attempted
numerous ways to get a retrial. However, his sentence has become shorter since 2014. Hall
was originally convicted of kidnapping Glasser in 2010, but this was ultimately overturned in
2020. This has left him with four consecutive life sentences instead of the original five.
In 1984, British Hells Angel David Richards and his girlfriend killed a 16-year-old boy,
Michael Groves. The murder was a particularly gruesome one that involved a hammer, a wrench,
and a knife. Afterward, Richards wrote the motorcycle club's name on the wall with the
victim's blood. In 2005, Richards walked out of Sudbury Open Prison and resumed his life
like nothing had happened, interacting with his parents and taking a trip to
Ireland without any issue. The police did notice that he'd escaped and marked it on
their system but didn't do much to actually find him. The situation lasted nine years.
The truly unnerving thing about the case is how easily Richards slipped through the cracks.
Granted, Richards was a much older man, but he was still a known Hells Angel who had committed
a brutal murder. So it seemed strange that he could escape for such a long time. What's more,
during his years in freedom, he was able to claim benefits and use his passport without
any issues. At one point, he complained to the police about misbehaving kids.
Although Richards was eventually caught and returned to jail, Groves' family wasn't very
happy about the situation. The victim's sister, Louise Bull, told The Standard,
"This man was living a normal life having brutally killed my brother and it seems the
police did nothing to recapture him. Michael was a lovely boy and he was just starting out in life."