DALY CITY, Calif. - There can be no quiet goodbye for a slain Hells Angel leader.

The funeral of Mark "Papa" Guardado, the 46-year-old president of the San Francisco chapter shot down after a barroom brawl, brought about 2,000 Hells Angels to Duggan's Serra Mortuary in Daly City, most driving the biggest, baddest, loudest Harleys ever.

They came Monday from chapters all over the country, not to mention Stuttgart, Germany; Alberta, Canada; and Melbourne, Australia.

An overflow crowd of hundreds of members sat or stood in the funeral home parking lot for two hours, creating a spectacle that attracted hundreds of gawkers and police from three cities.

The group then led what police say may have been the largest motorcycle procession ever in the San Francisco Bay area from Daly City to the Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, creating a deafening uproar of engines and a spectacle that stopped traffic in its tracks on both sides of Interstate 280.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_re_us/hells_angels

An interesting American subculture that has spread world wide.

The "freedom of the road" or drug dealing scumbags?

It's a bit long, but then you get the general feeling ...

The "freedom of the road" or drug dealing scumbags?

Murderous lowlives.

The "freedom of the road" or drug dealing scumbags?

Murderous lowlives.

I feel a little bit of envy here ...

The "freedom of the road" or drug dealing scumbags?

Murderous lowlives.

I bought Hunter S Thompson's book on them in your shop a few years back General. It's a bit dated now because it was written before they took up serious drug dealing but is still the standard work on their mentality and culture.

The "freedom of the road" or drug dealing scumbags?

Murderous lowlives.

I bought Hunter S Thompson's book on them in your shop a few years back General. It's a bit dated now because it was written before they took up serious drug dealing but is still the standard work on their mentality and culture.

Don't forget they evolved from the US Marine pilots group called the Hells Angels. They were mainly sgt pilots and have very high casualties in the Pacific campaign. Post war they didn't have the options of their officer compatriots for education and jobs etc. They started off in Oakland and formed a charter.They banded together and rode motorcycles for fun. Motorcycles especially the HD WALA (ww2 issue) were cheap and easy to maintain. Cars were still relatively expensive then. On weekends they went for rides together and evolved into the Hells Angels motorcycle group. Sonny Barger was a volunteer soldier in Korea as were many of his co riders at the time. It was during the 60s that things changed and the 70s when it turned very serious. Drugs, prostitution, and other illegal activities. In Australia the Hells Angels own a wide number of legitimate businesses including Video Easy, several McDonald and Pizza Hut stores.

CB

I've read a lot of books on them recently.

Apparently certain chemicals - that are illegal in America - for making Meth are freely available in Australia so the Hel_l's Angels in the U.S. set up some branches in OZ and taught them how to make amphetamine in return for ingredients from Down Under.

They - and other famous motorcycle gangs - set up branches all over the world in order to help each other in criminal activities, including drug dealing and murders. Ko Samui has had a lot of problems with some of their rivals shaking down small businesses owned by farangs there, but they don't normally wear their colors to fool the Thai police.

If someone tells the police, the gangs require someone who wants to be a member to kill them as initiation, and they often bring in someone from overseas to do the dirty-work and then go on home. This is what the books say anyway.

Drug dealing criminals, who hide their blatant money making acts behind a false "moral" code. The Jesters in dear Patters ride big bikes, enjoy their beer and do graet work for kids and the less fortunate in society. This proves it's not the bikes the booze and the girls ( Jesters enjoy all those ) that make a freedom loving biker the man he is, it's his state of mind and his intention to be a murdering shit-head, drug dealer or a proud member of a club which prides itself on its achievements.

Actually, according to about 3 different books written by police investigators and undercover plants, many of the criminal gangs purposely do charity work in order to get public sympathy and hide their criminal activities. I'm not pointing any fingers, because I have no clue how most of these groups operate in Thailand, but it does make one wonder.

The "freedom of the road" or drug dealing scumbags?

Murderous lowlives.

I feel a little bit of envy here ...

There is not much in their lifestyle that I would be envious about. Live hard and die young. I haven't heard of any Hells Angels setting records for aging. In fact, that would be a fun story for someone to write...the Inside Story of the Geriatric Angels. Perhaps there is a secret rest home for them in California where the old codgers ride souped-up motorized wheelchairs.

Sonny Barger's 70 this year.

because I have no clue how most of these groups operate in Thailand,

maybe like this ??

Thailand Motorbike Mafia

Good link!

An interesting story in an Australian newspaper this morning.

This is the aftermath of a gun battle between bikies and "Lebanese dealers" in an Adelaide night life area.

It looks like the Middle Eastern gangs are bringing in some heavy artillery to take on the outlaw bikers.

Gouger St shooter 'an Iraqi Gulf War vet', Adelaide court told

THE man charged over a shootout in Gouger St is a former Iraqi Army corporal and weapons expert with "extensive" ties to organised crime, a court has heard.

A prosecutor today alleged Gulf War veteran Ahmed Al-Khafaji fled interstate after the city shooting in May and tried to disguise himself with new tattoos and false identities in NSW and Victoria.

Link