In a class I take which has a defense attorney as a teaching assistant he was talking about how one of his cases involved a Hell’s angel on trial for drug trafficing. He said that one of the reasons neither he nor the prosecutor wanted to go to trial was because if they did then there would be 50+ hells angels in town sitting in on the trial, collecting info on the judge and prosecutor, etc. Do they really do that, do they collect info on the police, judges and prosecutors involved in the case when one is on trial? What about other gangs like street gangs, do they subtly attempt to intimidate prosecutors and judges by doing this too?
I think they like to cultivate the impression that they do, but I suspect that unless its one of their higher-ups, they scatter into the woodword and let the guy who got caught take his lumps in court.
Yes they do - it happened in my home town of Winchester (the one in Old Hampshire in Old England - not that Virginia imposter). One of their number was on trial for murder (guilty) and they pretty much took over the town pubs etc.
They do, but the Angels aren’t stupid enough to actually do anything to cops and prosecutors.
A couple years back I had the sheer joy of attending a trial where an Angels hanger-on was accused of intimidating a prosecutor’s assistant while a couple of Angels were on trial for cocaine trafficking. This muscle-bound numbskull was stupid enough to pick on the assistant-- who weighed 100 pounds soaking wet-- in a mall, and was caught on tape. I believe he was sentenced to several months in jail…
IMHO, most prosecutors are complete scaredy-cats when it comes to the Angels, even though the gang’s reputation is much, much worse than its bite.
Is it me, or do all Hell’s Angels seem like a bunch of wusses? I mean, a bunch of grown men driving around on motorcycles. Oh No! I better look out! The motorcycle men will growl at me and rev their engines!
Well, the drug trafficking and concomitant car bombings, group beatings, murders, etc. would give me pause.
Oh, I forgot. Anecdote ahead.
A guy I used to work with’s wife was a police officer and she sat in on the trial of Larry Hoover (IIRC), then of the El Rukin leadership fame. There was a level of respect granted to this individual in excess of what would normally be accorded in a court, precisely because it was believed that the other gang members in attendence would intimidate people connected with the case.
During the trial, I was told that the judge would enter and the bailiff would say, “all rise” and everyone would remain seated. Hoover then entered and everyone stood.
Now, this is a second-hand anecdote and Hoover did end up going to prison, but from what this guy said, it was a fairly common occurence.
There is a case on-going in the Netherlands.
A coke-deal had turned into a rip-deal.
When 2 Hells Angels from the Dutch Antilles came over to sort things out, they were found dead a few days later in a ditch.
A special meeting was held to see who was responsible for the rip-deal.
At the end of the meeting the guy from the Dutch Hell’s Angels who was being held responsible for it jumped out of the window.
He was injured so he couldn’t get away, so the Hell’s Angels dragged him back in and shot him.
Now the “funny” thing is that they couldn’t pin the murder of the 2 foreign Hell’s Angels because they couldn’t tell who pulled the trigger.
They could however hold everyone who was at the meeting responsible for the first degree murder of their own member.
Everyone has gotten 7 years.
Both the DA and the defense team will appeal.
In short, these guys are very scary.
Unfortunately no case seems to stick.
They keep trying to label it as a criminal organisation, but have a hard time doing so, as there are (or seem to be) legitimite bikers in there who don’t do crime.
By the way it seems that the Amsterdam chapter of the Hell’s Angels is the leader of the European Hell’s Angels, although they keep denying it.
Whenever a conflict arises things are settles by this chapter.
And they do all show up at the courthouse.
That’s why these cases are now being taken care of at an undisclosed location with no audience or camera’s allowed.
There’s Nordic Hell’s Angels?!? I thought harley bike gangs were a strictly American/Californian phenomena.
Learn something new every day.
The Nederlands isn’t a Nordic country 
No, but there are Nordic Hell’s Angels.
A few years ago there was a full-on war between them and the Nomads.
They were even firing rockets (RPG ones) at each other’s club houses !!
Why do you believe this? From what I’ve seen, it is much the other way around. I’ll admit my experience dates from the 60s and 70s, in Santa Cruz specifically and the Bay Area in general.