If your day job found out you were a member of an infamous motorcycle club, what would
happen?
And how would the Hells Angels react if they thought you betrayed them?
Keep watching for the story from the people who know.
Many motorcycle club members are regular folks when they aren't fooling around with their
choppers.
It takes money to buy a big motorcycle and maintain it, so why not work a 9-to-5 job
when you aren't riding from town to town with your biker buddies?
That was how life was for former Ventura, California, Hells Angels president George
Christie in the 1970s.
Aside from being a family man with a wife and children, he was making a more than decent
living with the Department of Defense.
He was also a Marine reservist.
It just so happened that he also really loved the biker gang lifestyle.
Not long after Christie became an official Hells Angels member in 1976, the Pentagon
got wind of his secret life and gave him an ultimatum.
He told KQED,
"Once they found out I was a member of the Hells Angels they basically gave me a choice,
them or us.
I got up and said, 'Well, I'll see you guys.'
It was a big step for me, and I basically immersed myself in the outlaw bike world."
Asked why he chose the Hells Angels over the financial stability of a Department of Defense
job, Christie explained that it was similar to how a wannabe Old West gunfighter would
suddenly change his mind and start hanging with the outlaws after being exposed to the
James Gang or Billy the Kid.
"We made a pact, remember?
You, me and Chevez.
Pals, forever."
As another former high-ranking member of the Hells Angels recalled, being part of the organization
and keeping one's badge took a lot of work behind the scenes, to the point where after
a few years, it was no longer just about partying and riding around.
Former downtown Toronto Hells Angels sergeant-at-arms Dave "Shaky" Atwell said in an interview with
Maclean's,
"You have to pay club dues to buy into the clubhouse and help sell the supporters' gear,
like T-shirts, which makes a lot of money.
We drove all around the province, even in pouring rain, for mandatory parties.
It was very corporate."
He also talked about how Hells Angels chapter meetings would actually involve someone taking
down the minutes, just like you would in an office board meeting.
Not exactly your stereotypical "Born to Be Wild" lifestyle.
Atwell also looked back on how he started out with motorcycle clubs.
Before his original club, the Para-Dice Riders, was absorbed into the Hells Angels, the group
was made up of average, everyday guys with a love for big bikes.
Sure, there were some members who dabbled in drug dealing and other crimes, but there
was nothing on an organized level, at least not yet.
But when Atwell became a full-fledged Hells Angel, he lost his security job.
That's when he started selling drugs.
He explained,
"I'd make $1,700 per kilo of cocaine, delivering it a few blocks [away], stashed in a KFC bag.
I'd rent a car or take public transit to make the dead drops.
That was my life.
I lost a lot of old friends.
Everyone was surprised when I became a Hells Angel, but I saw the individual, not the patch.
When I saw what the patch did to those individual people, it turned me off."
George Christie also ran afoul of the law multiple times after becoming a full-time
Hells Angel.
According to KQED, he had separate stints in prison for murder, dealing prescription
drugs, and conspiracy to firebomb a couple of local tattoo parlors.
He was found not guilty of the murder charge after a year behind bars.
It isn't only rival bikers whose lives are at risk when any given motorcycle gang has
a score to settle.
Regular folks also find themselves in grave danger during such situations.
Writing for Narratively, Christie went into detail about how even in his younger days,
he was staunchly against the Hells Angels' use of bombs as a weapon in gang warfare.
He was disturbed by their potential to harm innocent civilians and how cases of collateral
damage could lead to unwanted attention from the police.
This, he said, was an unpopular opinion among his associates, who suspected Christie of
being "weak," an undercover cop, or an informant.
"I didn't feel like I was in a motorcycle club anymore.
I felt like i was in an urban army."
There was a specific incident in the late 1970s that stood out for Christie, Hells Angels
prospect Thomas Heath orchestrated a scheme where he would walk into a bike shop and ask
one of the mechanics, who was affiliated with the rival Mongols, to change his flat tire.
The tire had a bomb inside it that would detonate once the valve was unscrewed.
Mechanic Henry Jimenez agreed to change the tire, and when he did, the bomb went off,
killing Jimenez and 15-year-old Raymond Hernandez, whose older brother was a Mongols member.
It wasn't just the death of an innocent teenager that bothered Christie; he was also appalled
by how Heath, as he claimed, showed no remorse for his actions.
Members of the Hells Angels and other biker gangs frequently run afoul of the law, and
it's not uncommon for them to even go into hiding.
However, Christie also admitted that during his time with the Ventura Hells Angels, it
wasn't the cops he was most worried about.
It was the members of his own club.
He told KQED,
"It got very, very vicious, and you didn't know who to trust or who not to trust.
[...] I think that the mere fact that I took the position that my former associates had
become people I would have rebelled against is the main reason I left."
Dave Atwell revealed that Angels trying to get their gangmates kicked out "over petty
things" happened often while he was with his chapter in Toronto.
He told Mclean's that jealousy ran high between the less privileged members of his chapter
and the richer ones.
Following his departure from the Angels, Christie was rumored to have become an informant to
the FBI, an accusation he strongly denied.
He received a phone call informing him that he was "excommunicated" from the Angels and
not allowed to talk to anyone.
He said,
"He tells me, 'You know what?
We've changed our status.
You're now out bad, with no contact.'"
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