Former Hells Angels member rates 11 biker gang scenes in movies
Former Hells Angels chapter president Pat Matter rates biker gang scenes in movies and television for realism.
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00:00The clubhouse was being attacked by a rival club, that does happen.
00:07My truck was blowing up, so unfortunately it does go on, and I don't know that it's
00:12ever going to end.
00:13My name is Pat Matter.
00:15I was involved in outlaw motorcycle clubs for 31 years.
00:19I was the president and founder of the Minneapolis chapter of Hell's Angels.
00:23Today, we'll be looking at biker gangs, movies, and TV to judge how real they are.
00:30You wouldn't find the Minneapolis chapter involved with the chase scene where they're
00:41rolling down the freeway.
00:43The ride in a motorcycle on a chase is pretty dangerous anyway, and if you're trying to
00:48carry a gun, shoot at people, you'd most generally want to be in a car to do that.
00:53But it has happened in the club, not my chapter.
00:57On this show, we're actual members of the Hell's Angels, so it gets scenes from or
01:02scripted from the real Hell's Angels.
01:13The motorcycle Jax is riding on is a Harley-Davidson Dynaglide, which was preferably the ride of
01:22the Hell's Angels.
01:23As far as riding goes, the riding formation is the president.
01:29I rode the left lane all the time, and generally who I wanted riding beside me, but typically
01:35if you went in order, it'd be the vice president and then on back with the secretary and sergeant
01:41of arms bringing up the rear behind all membership.
01:45Of course, that's kind of out the window when you're in a motorcycle chase, so I don't think
01:51formation's a big deal there.
02:00As far as gun running, the Minneapolis chapter wasn't involved with that.
02:04It draws too much heat.
02:05I tried to remain undercover and as low profile as I could, but there was instances during
02:15a time when some of the Hell's Angels were busted for gun running, and that was in South
02:20Carolina was one incident because I was out of the club when that happened.
02:28They're wearing black leather vests, which happened to be made by Hell's Angels.
02:33Little Joe from Purdue owned the company, so usually a typical Hell's Angel vest.
02:40You would have the three-piece on the back, which would be Hell's Angels top rocker, middle
02:47patch, which is the death head, and the lower rocker stating where you're from.
02:51You have the choice of either wearing a leather or a denim vest, and I personally wore a black
02:58leather vest, so I'd base it on a four, probably, overall.
03:03I told you to take that stupid f***ing jacket off.
03:06You'd have to kill me to get this jacket off.
03:09Where he said, you'll have to kill me to get this patch off me, I'm sure that would have
03:13been a member's reply.
03:15That's what I call the cut or whatever.
03:18That jacket has the insignia on the back.
03:21As far as any outlaw club, especially a 1% club, it's probably about the biggest insult
03:28you could possibly have as an outlaw member, losing your patch.
03:32If you're going to join one of them 1% clubs, they say 99% of motorcycle riders are law
03:39abiding and 1% is not law abiding.
03:43The Hells Angels happens to be one of the 1% clubs.
03:46You lose your patch, that's a pretty important thing.
03:49There's going to be retaliation.
03:51What about the bar?
03:54Burn it down.
03:57A scene like this, where the bar gets burnt down, could have very well happened.
04:02In 1994, we had a prospective chapter that the Minnesota Hells Angels were sponsoring,
04:11the Hells Henchmen.
04:13They had a clubhouse in Chicago, well naturally the outlaws are from there and they didn't
04:19like another club wanting to join the Hells Angels.
04:22There was a bomb placed in a car right outside the clubhouse and I believe it was the third
04:28biggest bomb in history on the United States soil.
04:31One of my members from Minnesota was down there and I was worried about him.
04:36I remember this very well, so I called down to find out if he was ok and he was and nobody
04:42got hurt on this deal but it was quite a big deal.
04:46This one would be a 10 because it's happened, I've witnessed it personally.
04:55A prospect has got to at least prospect for one year before he can be brought up for membership.
05:01I run a lie detector test on potential members before I ever let them become a prospect to
05:07see if they had ever worked with law enforcement or ever testified against anybody.
05:12In the membership of the Hells Angels, there's naturally the president, a vice president,
05:18a secretary, a treasury, and a sergeant of arms.
05:22And the idea of prospecting is to get to know the individual and see what he's about.
05:3299.
05:35With the drugs out in the open in a place where other folks are working and it seemed
05:42like the club was all there doing it as a whole, that wouldn't happen in the Hells Angels
05:47because all the Hells Angels aren't into illegal activities.
05:51Some are, some aren't.
05:53In the Hells Angels, I did get involved eventually with distribution of methamphetamine.
05:59In my situation, there would have never been no clothing store involved or any store.
06:06Mine was all hand-delivered and flown in to me.
06:11I was very transparent with what I did so members, if they wanted to be involved in
06:20my illegal activity, could.
06:22And there was no problem if they didn't want to be either.
06:25As far as the drugs as a whole in a business scene like that, no, I'd say that's probably
06:34about a zero from my point of view.
06:42The clubhouse was being attacked by a rival club.
06:48That does happen.
06:49My experiences with rival gangs, I run into a lot of clubs, drag racing.
06:56And when I went to the races, I wore a bulletproof vest at all times and always made sure there
07:02was a handgun close as I was surrounded once by the outlaws and another time by the pagans.
07:10After one incident in Milwaukee, there was a bomb, a C4, planted in my truck.
07:1593, December 15th is when my truck was blowing up.
07:19So things like this do happen, you know, unfortunately, it does go on and I don't know that it's ever
07:27going to end.
07:28Have your vote.
07:29I vote for war.
07:32I vote war.
07:34Membership voting on the president not wanting to go to war with another club.
07:39The Hells Angels are probably the most democratic club there is and it's a one-man, one-vote
07:46So the president's only the, you know, he says what's going on at the time, but if there's
07:50a meeting, he's only one man, one vote, too.
07:53But it depends on, you know, the president's usually a pretty respected individual from
07:58that charter.
08:00And so he does have a lot of say.
08:02And then the other two, I'd give eight at least.
08:08Well, I'd like to say, you know, the reverend of the motorcycles, maybe early on in the
08:18Hells Angels.
08:19But like I said, again, the club used to try to be low key, you know, when we come to town
08:26and stuff.
08:27Fellas, he's in that dress properly.
08:28He's going to have to leave.
08:29Properly?
08:30It's wrong with the way we're dressed.
08:32Them are mostly Hells Angels in that scene.
08:34Steve from Bridgeport, Butch from New York City, and Greg Domney from Massachusetts.
08:41Bars for clubs to hang out in, but it's usually bars that the club knows folks, so they can
08:50come in with their attire on.
08:51A lot of bars refuse to serve you for that purpose, which goes into, in Minnesota here,
08:58I had a lobbyist help me with a bill that we passed for it's illegal for bars to discriminate
09:06against the clothing you wear and the mode of transportation when you do go to bars.
09:11That wasn't very nice.
09:12Now he's got to leave.
09:13I'll tell you when to f***ing leave, all right?
09:19That happens quite a bit.
09:22Barroom fights.
09:23Generally, if they tell you they refuse to serve you with your colors on or want you
09:28to take them off, the club would leave.
09:31Instant go to jail when you get in a brawl like that.
09:34This happened in Laughlin, Nevada.
09:36The Hells Angels ran into another club called the Mongols in a casino.
09:42Naturally, the two clubs don't get along and it jumped off in the casino.
09:50It wasn't planned that way, but in them circumstances, brawls do happen.
09:58In the scene here, I see Sonny in the movie as the mafia boss.
10:03Well, you know, I've never encountered anything like that, and the club don't care if it's
10:09the mafia or who it is at the time that's telling them they're refusing to serve them
10:15with their patch on.
10:16It would happen.
10:17There would be a brawl.
10:18I give it a seven or eight because it has happened and not real frequent.
10:25Now there's only pork chop.
10:28It's okay, I'm meeting a friend.
10:30This is Big Shot's name.
10:31If you have somebody unannounced come to the clubhouse, you usually talk to them before
10:36you let them in.
10:37That part is very doable there.
10:40You have to have a clubhouse to establish a chapter in the Hells Angels.
10:47Community-wise, yes, we had cameras to protect ourselves both ways from law enforcement and
10:56other motorcycle clubs that wanted to plant bombs or whatever.
11:00A lawyer!
11:01Look, I just need five minutes.
11:06Let's say we had a party or a benefit party and we opened up the clubhouse.
11:10You're more apt to have a problem there because they don't get vetted as, you know, there's
11:15tickets being sold to everybody and generally, if you're doing a benefit, you want people
11:21to come back.
11:22There's a sign on the wall at the clubhouse that said, if you're not bleeding when you're
11:26leaving, you're welcome back.
11:29So I mean, you know, it don't happen that often.
11:32I mean, you know, if it is somebody got out of line or whatever, you know.
11:35If I don't get answers, a lot of innocent blood can be shed.
11:38I had 90 before, brothers.
11:40Transporting a big school.
11:42No, I remember don't share information from the club to somebody from the general public
11:47or especially a lawyer or something to that effect.
11:51If he did, he'd be kicked out.
11:53What am I going to do here?
11:54Four?
11:55Not saying it couldn't happen, but it wouldn't happen as far as I'm concerned.
12:06Not in the Minneapolis chapter.
12:07I don't think I could stand the smell, but no, that's not a typical, you know,
12:11burning it off would be pretty harsh.
12:14They're usually just covered up, you know, blacked out.
12:17That's bad enough.
12:18As far as tattooing, here's the rules of the hell's angels.
12:22My chapter in Minneapolis, you had to have a year in before you could get a club tattoo.
12:27The thing with getting that tattoo is when you leave the club, if you're in good standings,
12:33your tattoo remains the same way it was.
12:35It's just an outdate on it.
12:38Let's say you was out December 1st, 1989 or whatever.
12:42That's got to be on there.
12:43Otherwise, if you're out in bad standings, they're inked over.
12:46I give it a four because of that, the reality.
12:55With an undercover police officer trying to infiltrate the club, hell's angels have had
13:01a few undercover police try to infiltrate the club.
13:06One was Jay Dobbins until they did the raids is when he was finally exposed to who it was.
13:14There was another incident with Tony Tate.
13:17He never got found out either until they did raids.
13:23What he did was he come to Minnesota.
13:25Our club was doing security on membership that joined the meeting.
13:30We had a bug detector.
13:32He seen that we was checking people and got scared.
13:35I did have a little experience with a situation like this.
13:45As I see here, Charlie Sheen, he's trying to build his cover so they don't figure out
13:50that he's working for law enforcement.
13:52In my experience, what I did actually was I never worked undercover or anything like
13:58that.
13:59Most of mine was just confirming what I did in my business.
14:04Two individuals went to jail over that.
14:07One was a hell's angel and one was my source.
14:11When I decided to cooperate, I was already in jail.
14:14I ended up going to federal prison for drugs.
14:19If I didn't cooperate, they was going to charge me with continuous criminal enterprise after
14:26they got enough informants.
14:27I decided at that point, because of my family and my age, that I was going to cooperate
14:35with the other charge.
14:37Who knows what time I would have done.
14:39It could have been life.
14:41You're under arrest, Blood.
14:46I was a hardcore hell's angel.
14:50I don't regret being a hell's angel.
14:52I regret some of the actions that I did when I was a hell's angel.
14:58That part is on me.
14:59As far as when I got out of prison, I was asked to do seminars for law enforcement.
15:06Just telling them about my life experiences and what happened to me and how they can maybe
15:14stop drugs if they can.
15:16This is a 10, a 9 or 10, because it does happen.
15:21You can't be here.
15:23It's private property.
15:25Sign says Yellowstone.
15:26As far as being on private property like that, the hell's angels would have probably made
15:30sure that there was no problem before we camped someplace.
15:34When hell's angels usually are on a run site, it's because they've already asked beforehand
15:40and get permission.
15:41Trespassing, we wouldn't do.
15:43It'd be like looking for trouble.
15:44You got a problem?
15:45What did you say to me?
15:46I called you a...
15:48There is no membership with women in the club as far as the hell's angels or the other
15:54club I was involved in.
15:57Usually the women there are the club members' wives.
16:01As far as the trespassing and the women being involved in a fight like that, I've never
16:07seen it happen.
16:08I'd probably rate that a zero because I've never seen it happen.
16:18The reality of the club being involved in a riot in town, I haven't seen it.
16:23In some cases, it has happened.
16:26For instance, in 1948 in Hollister, there was an event that turned into a riot with
16:33a few motorcycle clubs being there.
16:39In a situation like this where just local citizens are being attacked, if there's no
16:47reason for it, it don't happen.
16:49I'd only give it a very low score, a two.
16:52You're a prospective now, man.
16:59I think if I was a prospect and had that all poured over me, I'd be fighting somebody.
17:06Usually if a prospect makes member, we'll go out to a bar or party at the clubhouse.
17:12My initiation was really nothing.
17:17You're voted in and congratulated.
17:19We had a big party.
17:20That stuff might have happened in the 70s and 60s.
17:31In 1994, we all rode to San Francisco from Minneapolis to San Francisco for the World
17:41Run.
17:42It's very common for everybody to get together and ride across country like this, what they're
17:47doing here.
17:48If there's room to do it and stuff, if they're at a hill climb and stuff, yeah, I can see
17:54members joining in to do a hill climb or a drag race, whatever.
17:59Usually, the run site's just mostly dedicated to hanging out and visiting with members from
18:07other charters and where have you from.
18:09On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give it a 6 because afterwards, they're partying and stuff.
18:18The only thing I don't see happening anymore is pouring all the stuff on the member.
18:32As far as clubs and chains in a brawl, yeah, anything's used in a brawl, I guess.
18:37I was going to say like the Women's Polish Hall, they had clubs, knives, chains, no guns.
18:44They had planned it before it opened up for the bike show, but guns come into play also
18:49when stuff like this happens.
18:51A 3 because attacking people on your motorcycle with a chain just is not really common.
18:57My favorite biker gang show is Sons of Anarchy and the reason is there's some Hells Angels
19:05that helped film that show and it kind of a takeoff of the membership of the Hells Angels.
19:18Thanks for watching.
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