During World War II, a group of military planes roared across Europe's skies known as Hell's Angels. The people in these crews were tight knit gentlemen. Not a single drunkard in the group of pilots. They helped many times in defeating the enemies in the islands. In 1948, a punk on the streets of San Bernardino stole the name and used it for his motorcycle gang that defied authority wherever they spread. From then on whenever someone hears the name Hell's Angels, you think of nothing but bikes, beers, babes, and brawls.
In the beginning Sonny Just wanted to find a group of guys who liked to ride motorcycles and would come together at the first sign of trouble, much like a family would. Finding new recruits to put through this process was a long and toilsome task. Recruits had to undergo a long period of evaluation to prove that they would never let their brothers down and always support the club, no matter what (Walter Kern 1).
Along the way the Hell's Angels found themselves in direct opposition with the law, and always for a variety of reasons. The ties of brotherhood were strong though, should any Hell's Angels member have a run-in with the law, all of the present Angel's members were expected to help in some form or another. Whether that meant posting bail money, or hiring a legal team to fight the charges. The concept of a family was definitely present in their organization, unlike other groups where at the first sign of trouble everyone scatters. Fighting the Hell's Angels soon became like fighting an angry swarm of bees intent solely on protecting the hive from any and all external forces that may approach (Walter Kern 1).
California is still the holy land to all Hell's Angels members, but like any good club they've expanded. They now have about 2,100 members in about 193 chapters worldwide. Some chapters are in South Africa, Belgium, and Canada. In fact a 2002 report from Canada's Criminal Intelligence Service stated that the Hell's Angels "persist as the largest and most criminally active outlaw motorcycle gang in the country (January Maxim, 92).
