Stuff You Should Know - How the Hells Angels Work

Episode Date: December 10, 2009

In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck discuss the notorious Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, more commonly referred to as the Hells Angels. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everyone out there, if you want a great looking website, then you need to head on over to Squarespace. Especially if you're selling something, Squarespace is everything to sell anything. They have the tools you need to get your business off the ground, including e-commerce templates, inventory management, a simple checkout process, and secure payments. Whatever you sell, Squarespace has merchandising features to make your products look their best online. So head on over to Squarespace.com slash SYSK for a free trial and when you're ready to

launch, use offer code SYSK to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hey and welcome to the podcast, Vroom Vroom, etc. I'm Josh Clark, with me is always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. That may have been the most realistic Harley-Davidson impression made by human mouth ever, Vroom Vroom, etc. Yeah, I was practicing that. It's good. So Chuck, how are you doing?

Oh, I'm good dude, about to start the old Thanksgiving break vacation. I know, this is the last thing we have to do and then a week off. Yeah, but this will probably come out after Thanksgiving, people will be like, what? Yeah, weird. Weird indeed. Hey, can I take you back in time? We don't have to go the way back machine. I'm just going to paint a picture for you.

Okay. All right. Yeah. So a balmy Saturday night, April 27th, 2002. Okay. Do you know where you were? I was living in Los Angeles. Okay.

So it probably wasn't balmy for me. Okay. It's probably clear and cool. All right. Well, not too far away from where you were in a town called Laughlin, Nevada. Oh, yeah. There is a Harris Casino and on that night, a couple of guys who were there for the Laughlin River Run.

It's a motorcycle run, ride, right? Yeah. A guy named Jeff King and Walter Boos, two buddies, just normal guys. Right. We're walking into the casino. The Harris at Laughlin. Right. And this burly guy pushed past him and said that they'd better get the blank out of the

way because trouble's about to happen. Sure enough, within two minutes, King and Boos here, two shots fired. And then another shot. And then all holy hell breaks loose in the middle of this Harris Casino. Yet they remained after giving the warning. I take it. Yeah, they did. I would have been so gone.

They actually did remain because one of them testified later on that a guy pushed past him going the other way out of the casino, holding a long knife with blood all over it. So this thing, this casino erupts into a melee and what had happened was the Mongols motorcycle club, you might call them a biker gang. That's what some people might say. Ran into the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels motorcycle club. Yes.

And again, all hell broke loose. The melee started, two Hells Angels died and one Mongol died. Just like the old days. Have you seen this? Have you seen the security video of it? No. It's nuts. Oh, you know what?

I did back when it happened, I think. Yeah, they go absolutely crazy. But that's kind of what happens when the Hells Angels encounter another rival group they're not too fond of. Yeah, especially the Mongols from what I've read. Apparently they're arch enemies. Sure. So we're not going to talk about the Mongols today and maybe another podcast in the works

somewhere down the road. All respect to the Mongols. We don't know if in them. Seriously. We're total squares. Yes. We have no affiliation whatsoever. No.

But we do have an article on the site here at HowStuffWorks.com called How the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Works. Yes. We have cooled it up by calling this podcast How the Hells Angels Work, right? Yeah, and that's what generally most people think of them as the Hells Angels. But that is, in fact, their full name. Yes. And that's what's adorned on their jackets and such.

Nicely done. And by the way, I think 42 Hells Angels stood trial for that melee. Really? And all but six had charges dropped in a plea bargain. The government was trying to go after these guys and go after them and go after them, which we'll find out later is a real pattern and couldn't get anything to stick. And I think the most any of the six guys who actually did plea to got like 30 months, something like that.

Bad casino behavior. Pretty much. Yeah. Right. Yeah. They didn't kiss the dice before you rolled them. Right. So Chuck, let's talk about the Hells Angels, man.

All right. Let's do it. Vroom, vroom, et cetera. The Hells Angels, Josh, the little history. They were started in the Fontana San Bernardino area of California, which, by the way, I don't know if you know this, but the Hells Angels refer to that chapter as Burdue Burdue and Burdue was still around. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. They still remain. Although they said, I think I read that most of those original Burdue members did migrate north to Oakland, which is why a lot of people think that it started in Oakland, which is not true. False. Yep. So Burdue was the first chapter.

Burdue. Who started it? Well, the best we can tell, a guy named Otto Freedley in the late 1940s, 1948. Yeah. And actually, he was with another biker gang called the Pistoff Bastards, and they'd gotten into a war with another. I think that names so much more. It is a pretty good one.

They got in a war with another biker gang, and I guess once the war was over, Freedley said, I'm out. I'm going to go start my own thing. Right. Maybe that could be our side. The war was disappointing. The Pistoff Bastards. In 1948, that's right after World War II, right?

These guys must have been disenchanted servicemen who couldn't fit back into society. Miscreant pilots. Right. Yeah. Wasn't there like a bomber squadron called the Hells Angels? Yeah, Josh. That is one of the most common misconceptions is that the Hells Angels were, in fact, ex-servicemen, without law pilots from World War II, miscreants, drinkers who didn't answer to anybody, even

in the Army. Right. Not true. No. Because we read it on the Hells Angels website. Yeah. If you go onto the Hells Angels website, one guy from the Charleston, South Carolina chapter and another guy from one of the English chapters got together and did some serious extensive

research trying to find out if there was a connection between this bomber group. And at no point did they say, we're not miscreant drunks, but these guys weren't. It's kind of a disservice to these actually really highly decorated and very successful bomber squadron servicemen. And they couldn't have operated. They were miscreant. And been successful if they were drunks and miscreants. No.

And they were highly successful. The closest they found from what I can understand is that a guy named Arvid Olson was actually in a third pursuit group called the Hells Angels. And he was friends with some of the founding members of the Burdue chapter. But he was never a Hells Angel himself. And that's the closest they could find for a link between the two. They share a name. And that's it.

That's it. From what we can tell. Yeah. So, false, false, false. False indeed. So, Chuck, we've got the founding in 1948, but the Hells Angels, I guess, kind of wrote a little under the radar until 1957, right? Yes.

When that Oakland chapter was founded. Yeah. That's when they really started rolling. Right. Thanks to a guy named Sonny Barger. Yes. Ralph Sonny Barger. He, I believe, founded the Oakland chapter.

Yeah. And he wrote a bunch of books that were really successful that kind of peeled back the curtain behind the Hells Angels. Mm-hmm. In front of the Hells Angels. I was reading one of them on Google Books today. It's called Hells Angel, the Life and Times of Sonny Barger, I think, and it's an autobiography. Oh, cool.

Because he kept using the word I, and it was by him, but it's a sure giveaway for an autobiography usually. And he, in his heyday, was a very cool dude. It sounds like it. I'd like to read that. And also, let me also add a caveat to that. I'm also aware that he was also a major drug trafficker who engaged in violence and toward women, toward squares like you and me, Chuck, did all manner of bad things.

But he was still kind of a cool dude. Right. Yeah, we'll talk about that too a little bit later about the Hells Angels and whether or not they are one to run afoul of the law or ride, you know, for charity and stuff like that. Let's talk about now. Right now, we're going to talk about, let's talk about their colors and their insignia and all that stuff.

Okay, man. They call it their colors, much like a military people call their uniform their color sometimes. Right. And red and white are the actual colors of the letters. Yep. It's red letters on a white field. Yep, absolutely. And then the thing at the top, the top patch that actually says Hells Angels, they call

it the top rocker. Top rocker. Right. The top rocker is their, the name of the city that their chapter's in. Yeah. Right. Their chapter location. Right.

And then in the middle is what? The middle is the death head is what it's called and that is copy written as death head. It is. And as is their name. Yeah. And that was designed by the San Francisco chapter president, Frank Sadelec, Sedilec. And Chuck, here's an interesting fact for you. Did you know that the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a California corporation?

Really? Yeah. They're not a gang either. They do jealously guard their copyrighted materials, their images, all that stuff. Yeah. They sued Disney. What? They sued Disney a couple of years ago for that movie, Wild Hogs, about all the middle

aged bikers, Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen and Travolta and William Macy. Just terrible. I'm sure. I would have sued too. I can't believe you saw it. No, I didn't see it. Are you kidding me? They called it, they sued.

Yeah. So what did they sue over? These guys weren't supposed to be Hells Angels, were they? I think so. They sued because they said they used the Hells Angels logo and everything without their permission. Huh. I don't know if they were specifically.

Yeah. I wonder if the antagonists were Hells Angels or something. Maybe, but all I know is they sued and I couldn't find, as usual, you can never find out what happens with the lawsuit. No. There's probably some deal. Yeah. But yeah, they sued because they are, like you said, they zealously guard their name.

And they ride Harley-Davidson's, but apparently are not required to do so. No, but they almost exclusively ride Harley's. I can't imagine if you wheel up on a Honda that they're going to say, come on in. Yeah, come on in, brother. Yeah. We'll jump you in prospect. They also, apparently a typical member, drives about 20,000 miles a year. Really?

Yeah. Rides. Rides. I told you I'm square, dude. We say that you drive a motorcycle. Yeah, so Chuck, you've seen, you know, we talked about the patches and you've seen guys wearing them here or there, right? Well, yeah, there's different patches.

Like if you're the president of your chapter, you'll have a little patch that's like the Boy Scout sort of. Yeah. And there's all sorts. Oh, man. There's all sorts of other patches and insignias that no one outside of the club, gang, whatever, knows the meaning of. Oh, really?

Yeah. I know the AFFA is a common one, but we do know the meaning of that because it's one of their slogans, which is angels forever forever angels. Nice. And then you'll also see 81 a lot of times. Yeah. H is the eighth letter of the alphabet and A is the first letter, so 81, AJ, Hell's Angels. Yeah.

And they'll say, call it like local 81. Sometimes it sounds sort of like a union. And apparently they also refer to themselves as 1%ers. I heard about that too. Yeah. 1% of the outlaw bikers giving 99% of respectable bikers a bad name. Yes. Yeah.

Pretty cool. I told you. So, Chuck, how do you become a member? Well, Josh, like I said, you need to own a working motorcycle. That's probably first. And have a driver's license. And have a driver's license. Yeah.

It's funny that those are rules, but it makes sense. Also, you can't ever have applied to be a police officer or prison guard. I got another one. You cannot be a child molester. Hell's Angels don't like child molesters. I know. They really don't. Good for them.

Yeah. Because you know what? I don't either. I don't. Hatred of the cops. And with good cause. Sure. Pigs, as they call them.

Sure. Hunter Thompson, our shared hero, wrote about the Hell's Angels, and we can talk about that a little more in depth. But he said that he was talking about how the average Hell's Angel views the establishment or the law. Right. And he said, he knows that somewhere behind the moat, the main cop has scrawled his name on a blackboard in the big briefing room with a notation beside it.

Get this boy. Give him no peace. He's incorrigible like an egg-sucking dog. So apparently that's how Hell's Angels tend to view the cops. Yeah. Why couldn't we get Johnny Depp to have read that? Wouldn't that have been great? Maybe.

No. No. That would have been great. So back to membership. If you want to be a member, it takes a little while. Sometimes it can take a year or more. Yeah. You can become a full-patch member, as they say.

So you start out as a hang-around. Yeah. That's what it's called. Basically, you just hang around them. But you're invited to hang around. Like you can't just hang around and be a hang-around. They'll say, what are you doing here, square? Get out of here.

Drive your motorcycle on out of here. Or they'll hit you over the head with a tire iron. Right. When you drive up in your Volvo to hang around. So yeah, you're invited to hang around, and you can attend some events, evidently, as a hang-around. Then you are made an associate if you do a good job as a hang-around. How do you do a good job as a hang-around?

I would guess. This is just a guess. But if I was a Hells Angel, I would say that you don't cause a lot of trouble. You're fun to be around. You bring chicks to the party? Sure. That probably didn't hurt. No.

Okay. So after the hang-around, you become an associate, and then what? You become a prospect. And this is, apparently, full acknowledgement that you are in the pipeline for official membership consideration. Yeah. Do you remember when we did our Fight Clubs podcast, and we talked about how Fight Clubs, especially in California, are often used to jump in prospects into gangs?

Oh, yeah, sure. These would be the people who are on their last night, and they get thrown into a cage match with a bunch of other people. And I imagine it gets pretty ugly. Yeah. No, thank you is what I say. And actually, if you're in a prospect at this point, you can participate in the club activities, but you cannot vote.

You don't have voting privileges yet. I know that seems funny, doesn't it, that they vote? Yeah. It's democracy. Yeah. And Josh, what's after that? After that, my friend, you are a full patch member. Yep.

You are allowed to wear the death-said logo. You can wear your top and lower rocker. Yeah. You get your jacket. Yeah. And this is one of those things that it may or may not be lower, it could be, who knows. Apparently during initiation, there is a bucket filled with feces and urine passed around and dumped on the person, and they're never allowed to wash their colors.

So that's on their jacket? Forever. Well, that's not fun. No, it's not. And I don't think that this is correct. Apparently our buddy Hunter T wrote that. Oh, really? And you're getting trouble?

He didn't get in trouble. He got away with murder, apparently. Not literally. No. Okay. But Sonny Barger said that that's just not true. Okay. That didn't sound like he'd be right.

It seems like they would not want to desecrate their colors. It would be gross. Yeah. That's just a thought. I'll give you some advice. If that's what you're doing, guys, knock it off. You should respect your own colors. Thanks for the Hell's Angels from Chuck Bryant.

The end. So now you are a full patch member. Yeah. You're in the Hell's Angels and you're a member for life. That's why they say angels forever, forever angels. There's no retirement. No, there's not. And even if you're not allowed to associate with the Hell's Angels anymore because of

your terms of parole, you're still considered a Hell's Angel. Right. Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah. So Chuck, let's talk a little more about Hunter T. Okay. He literally wrote the book on Hell's Angels in the mid-60s, early-mid-60s.

He wrote an article in 65 in the nation and then that article got published or sniffing around saying you should write a book on this. Sonny Barger also read that article and he liked it and he said it was a little exaggerated but he liked Thompson's writing style. So when Thompson started hanging around some of the bars that the Burdue chapter, Oakland chapter hung out at, I think it was Oakland, they finally introduced him to Sonny Barger. And Barger said, you know what, fine, you can hang out with us in return for two kegs of beer, which by the way Hunter Thompson never paid up on.

No wonder it went south. And Hunter spent the next year hanging out with the Hell's Angels. Apparently he helped them unload shipments of meth, like plain loads of meth. He helped them, he went on a gun run with them at least once. When they got into it with the cops, he apparently jumped into his car and pulled the trunk hatch down on him and Sonny Barger said that that was it. He was like, after that, I never looked at Hunter Thompson the same way again. He figured out he was a coward.

But he was also kind of a skinny guy and a literary type. Yeah, I don't think he ever claimed to be wise with the fisticuffs, which is why he carried guns. Right. And then finally, this whole thing ends, this whole association ends when Hunter gets the crap kicked out of him by the Hell's Angels, some of which he considered friends, right? Yeah. Well, actually what I read was that he later said the ones who actually did the beating

were the ones he wasn't hanging around with the most. Gotcha. And they were sort of on the fringe there. You know what happened? Well, I couldn't find it. He made a remark at a party and I couldn't figure out, I couldn't find what that remark was. Hell's Angel by the name of Junkie George had his dog with him.

Hippy Rob? No. Okay. No, this is not Hippy Rob. Although I could see Hippy Rob knowing Junkie George. Sure. Anyway, Junkie George had his dog with him and his dog bit him and Junkie George kicked his dog.

And Hunter Thompson walked up to him and said, only punk slapped their old ladies and kicked their dogs. And Junkie George did not like that one bit. That's what started it. Yep. So he put the smack down on Hunter Thompson, bunch of other guys jumped in and Hunter Thompson drove himself to the police station, the police turned him away and he drove himself to the hospital where he was treated and he never hung out with the Hell's Angels again.

And that was the end. But he did publish the book, Hell's Angels, the Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. Right. And apparently a lot of it was exaggerated, but this is where, as Sonny Barger said, he wrote the book for law enforcement. Like law enforcement all read it and they're like, oh, well, this is what we're dealing with.

And a lot of it was exaggerated. Well, gang rape was in there. And I don't know if that was exaggerated or not, but he said he witnessed gang rape on more than one occasion and that they used it as a form of punishment. And he said that they admitted that it was a form of punishment that Hell's Angels did. So I'll say allegedly here, but it was in the book. And apparently also lent his notes to another journalist, at least equally good by the name of Tom Wolf.

Yes, of the of the right stuff fame as well as the electric Kool-Aid acid test. Yes. The Hell's Angels factor hugely in the electric Kool-Aid acid test, which is actually about the Mary pranksters. Right. And I think in 1965, the Hell's Angels went to the Berkeley Oakland border and beat the tar out of some lefty anti-war protesters, college students, beat them up and then vowed to break up any anti-war demonstration they ever came across.

So Hunter apparently took Allen Ginsberg, the poet, and Ken Keezy, the leader of the Mary pranksters, and introduced him to Sonny Barger, then went off his own way. And that meeting kind of made peace between the hippies and the Hell's Angels. Well they took acid together, right? Famously, yeah. Yeah. And I think Ginsberg even wrote a poem about the Hell's Angels. Yeah.

Yeah. I couldn't find it though. Okay. But I would like to see it at some point. Are you sure you didn't dream that? Yeah, man. It was a beautiful poem. Now, he really did write a poem though.

Okay. It's funny to think about Allen Ginsberg hanging out with the Hell's Angels. I know. It's really weird. Especially like the head Hell's Angel. Yeah. But yeah, Sonny Barger said that he loved acid and it was the one thing that his people in the hippies had in common are one of the main things.

And they did plenty of the acid tests at LaHonda and did all sorts of crazy stuff with the pranksters. Sure. Yeah. Those were the days, huh? Those were the days. And actually, let me say another thing about law enforcement, apparently when Hunter Thompson was hanging out with the Hell's Angels, their influence and their membership was drastically

on the way. Oh, really? And then a guy named Thomas Lynch, who was the attorney general for California at the time, he issues a report on the Hell's Angels and it is ridiculous, bloated and exaggerated. Right. And, but apparently it just blew up the Hell's Angels street credit. And all of a sudden they were just there. They have more members than ever after that report.

Huh. Yeah. So sometimes it works against you. Yeah. When you try and quash something. Yeah. And that's about some of the good they do and some of the bad they've done. Because there's divided opinion, the Hell's Angels, they raise money for charity.

They're famous for their work with the Toys for Tots and they do charity rides and stuff like that over the years. Yeah. And I think they've cleaned up their act a lot probably now compared to what it was like in the 60s. But they've had some scrapes with the law many, many times along the way. Yeah. Probably at Altamont Speedway.

That was a big one. Yeah. We can't talk about the Hell's Angels without talking about this. This was the Altamont Free Concert and it was famously recorded in the concert film Gimme Shelter. It was apparently the day the 60s died. Is that what they say? Yeah.

Is that what that stupid song is about from that guy? American Pie? Yeah. He's not talking about that. No. That's about the death of Buddy Holly. That's the day the music died. Either way, screw him.

I hate that song. I do too. I can still sit down and listen to that song all the way through, write in, and I've got a prize for you. You're a special person. We're going to send you information on the Hell's Angels. Back to Altamont, it was a free concert there and a bunch of bands played, Jefferson Airplane, The Rolling Stones, The Dead was supposed to play.

They helicoptered in and then by that time things had gone south. Well yeah, the Stones helicoptered in too and what happened was the Stones hired the Hell's Angels although there's been back and forth over the years that whether or not they were hired for the show by the organizers or whether the Stones specifically hired them as their personal security and he said she said type of deal with the Stones saying we did not hire them specifically and the Hell's Angels saying yes you did. You said you'd give us $500 worth of beer if we would be your bodyguards. So they show up, they park their bikes between the audience and the stage.

Stones go on and actually before this happened the violence had been escalating at this show. Free show in the 60s at Altamont, it was not good. There were I think two or three deaths and numerous fights and beatings breaking out and one of the Hell's Angels smacked down Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane, knocked him unconscious and the Grateful Dead see this and they're like we are out of here. This is not our scene and we're not going to play and we're leaving and they got back on their little helicopter and left. Have you seen that footage?

Oh yeah and yeah give me shelters great if you guys haven't seen that you should definitely watch it. So back to the Stones, Stones takes the stage, things start to devolve into violence and a guy named Meredith Hunter pulls a gun, points it at the stage, you can see all this in the film and he gets jumped and stabbed to death by Alan Passaro, a Hell's Angel famously. And the concert stopped and you know the Stones had a pretty awful time with the PR obviously about this. And apparently the Hell's Angels were exposed for plotting to kill Mick Jagger for criticizing

them after that. Yeah true and Passaro actually got off scot-free, he was acquitted because the film clearly showed that that guy had a gun and he did pull it and so who's he aiming at? They don't know, they said it was toward the stage and you can't really tell from the footage from what I remember but you know the reports were that he was going to kill the Rolling Stones which I didn't know that that was going to happen back then. So the Hell's Angels already had a pretty rough reputation and this just cements it right?

Oh yeah big time. We kind of go balls out which is a motorcycle term and not a vulgar expression by the way we learned. We did learn that. And throughout the 70s they own the market on methamphetamines. Apparently just the Burdue chapter alone, this is a law enforcement estimate from 1979 right after they staged a raid on that chapter's clubhouse where Sonny Barger was. But this chapter alone controlled five meth labs that could make $160,000 for the pills

a day. Wow. And this is 1979 man. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. So they don't call it like biker speed for nothing, it was because the bikers specifically the Hell's Angels cornered the market on methamphetamine in the 70s.

They also sold allegedly, sold cocaine, heroin, pretty much anything. Sure. Like prostitution, it was a big one apparently. Yeah. And over the years they've been indicted and accused and booked for everything from rape to murder. Sonny Barger himself was in federal prison for four years for conspiring to blow up a rival gang's clubhouse.

I don't know what the gang was, probably the Mongols is my guess. And so yeah they've run afoul of the law quite a bit over the years. They definitely do but if you'll notice Sonny Barger got four years in federal pent, right? You never hear about a Hell's Angel being put to death, by God you would hear about it if it happened. Yeah, I would imagine. You would never hear about them getting life imprisonment. So you start to get the impression after everything you hear about the Hell's Angels but then

these piddly convictions that are slapped against them that maybe they are right in thinking that law enforcement and the establishment has it out for them. I think they definitely have it out for them and they probably have participated in illegal activities throughout the years but it's a big organization and like you said, if there's a small handful of actual convictions compared to their vast history, that's not too bad. I'm not saying they're great guys or anything but it's not like they've been run up on murder charges all over the place. Although this week they were in the news, the Vegas cops raided six Hell's Angels locations

in Las Vegas and they seized records and knives and evidence because last year there was a brawl once again between the Mongols and the Hell's Angels and I think two people were stabbed. Allow me to interrupt. If we have anything to impart in this podcast, if you ever find yourself in the same room, same building, the same parking lot, same town as a bunch of Mongols and a bunch of Hell's Angels, get out. Do you know what happened in Vegas though?

It's actually kind of funny. Two people were stabbed so it's not funny but it was that they both show up, they were double booked at a wedding chapel, a Mongol wedding and a Hell's Angels wedding were both booked at the same wedding chapel at the same time. Not good. No. And I'm sure the person who booked that wasn't brought up on charges or anything when in fact they're probably the ones that originally are to blame.

They sat back and went whoa. Yeah, exactly. So Chuck, what started out in Burdue and then blew up in Oakland has grown into like a worldwide organization. Whether or not it's an outlaw biker gang or whatever, they have legitimate chapters in how many countries? 29 countries. How many chapters?

More than 100. Yeah. In all sorts of places too. I think in 1984 they had their first South American chapter open in Rio. Crazy. Now they have them in Greece, Russia, Czech Republic, Wales. Luxembourg. Luxembourg.

I think it's the Luxembourg Hell's Angels. Yeah. And that's funny to me. Apparently the ones in Europe are going nuts these days. Are they? There's a huge turf war that's been ongoing in Scandinavia. Australia's having real problems with them too. And there's things like rocket launchers showing up, grenades being used in these gang wars.

Yeah, that's not like the old days with knives and fists. Rocket launcher. Yeah. That's a different deal. I told you I was square. The first chapter outside the U.S. was in New Zealand in 1961. And little known fact, George Harrison of the Beatles, God rest his soul, is allegedly responsible for bringing the Hell's Angels to England.

Yeah, he invited a couple. He invited a couple of dudes that he met in San Francisco, invited them over to England, they come over and hang out, and boom, a London Hell's Angels chapter pops up afterward. Pretty cool. Or is it? I don't know. And right now, Poland and Iceland are currently seeking chapters, so good luck to Iceland, is what I say.

Go Poland. Yes. All right. Good luck with that. So that's the Hell's Angels. I'm quite sure that there's a lot, a lot, you could even say a hell of a lot more information out there that we'll never find out because, again, Chuck and I are squares who will never get to hang out with the Hell's Angel ever.

Never. Mainly because we don't want to get beat up. Right. Yeah. We're not throwing punches or taking them on the chin. Right. It's just not me. No.

I'm a fan of running away. If you want to learn a little more about the Hell's Angels, you can type that into the handysearchbar at howstuffworks.com. You might also want to go on to the Hell's Angels Motor Club website. It's pretty interesting. It's got links to other chapters, too. And also, congratulations to the Burdou chapter on their 60th anniversary, which they recently had, yeah.

And since I said the Burdou chapter, I guess that means it's time for Listener Man. Yes, indeed, Josh. I have a couple of corrections here for a change that we're going to acknowledge. What do you mean for a change? Well, we haven't read corrections in a while. First off, I want to say that Bernie Getz, Bernard Getz, is not a serial killer. I mistakenly said that. He's a spree killer, right?

He didn't kill anyone. He shot some guys in New York. No one died. And he was not even convicted of attempted murder or anything. And he's still alive and living in New York. And I feel like a big jerk because I got him confused with Charles Bronson and Deathwitch. I was dead wrong and a man enough to admit it. I'm sorry, Bernard Getz, you're not a serial killer, obviously.

So I apologize for that. And we had angry people write in about that. Dude. That one lady, man. It's like Bernie Getz's sister or something. I think she was. She was scary. But I do feel bad because that's not right.

We have a quick correction. Remember the Tlingit Indians that we were trying to pronounce? Apparently, it's pronounced clinkit. And we had people write in from Alaska. Matthew. Actually, Matthew's from Seattle, Washington. He wrote in and says it's pronounced clinkit. Clinkit.

So there you have that. Thanks, man. And then finally, we have another correction. Remember when I said about the Amish not being able to listen to us? Rome Springer. And that if they actually wrote in, they would be liars? Not true because of what? Rome Springer.

Yes. We had a farmer, John of New York, write in and said that. We had a few people write in on this. The Amish, every Amish teenager, nearly every Amish teenager goes on Rome Springer where they effectively leave the community and live with us regular English folks, Americans, for a period of time. And they are free to indulge in the things that American kids indulge in. Drugs, drinking, smoking, whatever.

If they want. And podcasts. Gambling. Listening. Podcast listening is definitely one. So evidently, we could very well have been heard by an Amish person. Here's my argument to that. Okay.

Okay. So they go on Rome Springer to decide whether they want to live with the English or stay in Amish. Sure. But during this period, in my opinion, they're in some sort of middle ground between the two. So they're technically not Amish. So if one of them on Rome Springer heard this.

Gotcha. Send it in. It'd be like, dude, you haven't made your decision yet. I don't want to hear it from you. Or what if they heard our podcast and were so taken with it, they refused to go back to the Amish lifestyle? Or if they heard it and hated it so much, they went screaming back to Maughan Paws for Pikely.

Yeah. So thank you, Farmer John in New York. He says, P.S., I am not Amish, but I'm a lowly Cal Farmer, although Rome Springer would be pretty sweet. That's what he says. Yeah. So I encourage John. Just go on his own Rome Springer.

I went on my own Rome Springer. I'm still on mine. Well, if you have a story about your own personal Rome Springer, whether you were Amish or not, you can send it in an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Want more How Stuff Works? Check out our blogs on the howstuffworks.com homepage. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry.

It's ready. Are you? You're ready to travel in 2023, and since 1981, Gate One Travel has been providing more of the world for less. Let Gate One handle the planning for you with affordable escorted tours and European River Cruises. And right now, through January 30th, use promo code HEART20 to receive 20% off your tour. That's promo code HEART20 through January 30th.

Visit gateonetravel.com for more information or to book your tour. That's gatethenumberonetravel.com. Once again, use promo code HEART20 through January 30th to receive 20% off your 2023 trip. The South Dakota Stories, Volume Two. I could see beyond the black hills and the way they called for exploration. I could feel the air, the way it paints against skin and fills hungry lungs. I could hear the way the water ran for miles and the way the bison grazed, the way our

boots meet the earth as we step past expected. I could imagine my time in South Dakota and I wish to go back because there's so much South Dakota, so little time.