Biography

In 1982 he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and his vocal cords were removed. On the way to the operating room he smoked one last cigarette. After the operation he had to learn how to talk again.

In 1957 he started the Oakland Chapter of the Hells Angels.

In 1988 Barger was sentenced for conspiring to blow up the clubhouse of a rival motorcycle club, the Outlaws in Louisville, Kentucky. He spent four years in federal prison in Arizona.

Involved in the infamous 1969 Rolling Stones free Concert of Altamont in the San Francisco bay area, which resulted the death of a young man who brought a gun to the concert which erupted into in a fight with the Hell's Angels. Later, the Hells Angels were acquitted on all charges. (December 6, 1969).

Barger and the Hells Angels made international headlines when a small group disrupted hundreds of anti-war protesters in Berkeley, California in 1965.

I never thought freedom was cheap.

While most of us merely dream of it, I pursued that lifestyle - choosing freedom over restraint, facing danger without fear, in the fellowship of the most famous Motorcycle club in history - I'm legendary leader who symbolizes the spirit of liberty.

The urge to jump on a motorcycle - to journey as a rebel and be free of boundaries and limits...

(Referring to Keith Richards during the Altamont Concert in December 1969.) "I stood next to him and stuck my Pistol into his side and told him to start playing his Guitar or he was dead."

If I ever get too old to ride my motorcycle and have pretty girls, I'd rather just rob a bank and go back to prison.