As the longtime president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, Sonny Barger, who has died aged 83, was the epitome of the outlaw biker. It was something he had earned, but also an image he cultivated with charisma and shrewdness, turning Hells Angels into a worldwide brand. Though law enforcement saw the Angels as more of a gang than a club, in the 1960s the media latched on to Barger (pronounced Bar-gurr), selling the outlaw image to the world as a form of countercultural protest that took celluloid form in films such as Easy Rider (1969).
This is not surprising. The postwar image of motorcycle gangs was established by the 1953 movie The Wild One. When Marlon Brando, as the leader of the Black Rebels, is asked what he is rebelling against, he replies, “Whaddaya got?”. Early in his biking career, after having his skull fractured by police, Barger added a “1%” patch to the Angels’ outfit, in response to the head of the American Motorcyclist Association claiming “99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding”.
