Hells Angels MC criminal allegations and incidents in Ohio

Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and prostitution rings. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the individuals who carried them out and not the club as a whole.

The Hells Angels have established a presence in Northeast Ohio, with chapters in Akron, Cleveland, Lake County and Portage County. The first HAMC chapter in Ohio was chartered on December 16, 1967 when two clubs – the Gooses Motorcycle Club, founded in 1960, and the Animals Motorcycle Club – merged to form the Hells Angels' Cleveland faction, known as the "Dirty 30". Gabriel Baird of The Plain Dealer described the Gooses as "a motorcycle gang that would in retrospect seem like choirboys" compared the the succeeding Hells Angels. The Cleveland charter was also the Hells Angels' first in the Midwestern United States.

The Cleveland chapter is influential in the club's national organization and is reputed to be the location of the national treasury. The Cleveland and New York City chapters also govern all Hells Angels activities in the Eastern United States as well as those of chapters in Canada and Europe. The Hells Angels are active in gunrunning, extortion, trafficking in stolen property and methamphetamine distribution in the Cleveland and Akron areas, and have been involved in contract killings and drug trafficking with the Cleveland crime family.

Gang wars

God's Children

Headquartered out of a clubhouse in the city's St. Clair–Superior neighborhood, the Cleveland Hells Angels came into conflict with another biker gang, God's Children Motorcycle Club, soon after their foundation in 1967. The Hells Angels almost immediately declared war on God's Children, the gang claiming control over the area at the time. While in pursuit of members of God's Children, on February 28, 1968, a group of members of the Hells Angels and the affiliated Animals gang shot and killed two men, Roosevelt Brown and James O. Tillett, at Barto's Café, a bar on the east side of Cleveland. Brown, a black man, was shot twice in the back after being harassed by the Hells Angels, while Tillett, a white man, was shot once in the head as he tried to intervene on Brown's behalf. Robert Williams, a piano player at the bar, was also assaulted by the bikers. Two brothers were arrested, and two shotguns and a rifle were confiscated when police subsequently raided the the nearby clubhouse of the Animals.

Six fugitive Hells Angels members – Cleveland chapter president Timothy John "T.A." Adams, Nelson J. "Scotty" Blackburn, Donald A. Fraser, Robert G. "Bottles" Lemmons, Gary Leroy "Monkey" Montgomery and "Dirty" George Westley Rothrock – and two of their girlfriends – Kathy Diane Shaffer and Nellie M. Sideris – were charged with first-degree murder. A .38 caliber revolver used in the killing of Brown was recovered in a garage in Erie, Pennsylvania, where Adams and Montgomery had initially fled to, on March 2, 1968. The same day, Fraser and Shaffer were arrested in Kingman, Arizona. Animals member Donald Griswold also surrendered to police on March 6, 1968. On March 12, 1968, Blackburn, Lemmons, Rothrock and Sideris were captured by the New York State Police near Fonda, New York. The two remaining suspects, Adams and Montgomery, were apprehended by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and local police in Walnut Creek, California the following day. Three other Hells Angels – Donald A. "Doc" Edwards, Eugene F. "Meany" Zagar and Robert D. "Fly" Salerno – were additionally indicted on first-degree murder charges on March 21, 1968. Murder charges were dismissed against Fraser, Shaffer and Sideris, who were held as material witnesses. Salerno was convicted of first-degree murder, Blackburn, Griswold and Lemmons of second-degree murder, and Adams of first-degree manslaughter. Blackburn was sentenced to serve two ten-years-to-life sentences, to run concurrently, and Lemmons and Griswold were sentenced to two consecutive life terms. On June 11, 1975, Governor of Ohio James A. Rhodes, acting on the unanimous recommendation of the state parole board, reduced the sentences of Blackburn and Lemmons to six- and seven-years-to-life, respectively. The pair were released from Marion Correctional Institution on parole shortly after. Blackburn left the HAMC in 1993 and died on October 27, 2011 at the age of 67.

The Breed

On the orders of Sonny Barger, Clarence "Butch" Crouch commanded the Cleveland Hells Angels in eliminating various local biker gangs in order to corner the methamphetamine market in the Cleveland area. By 1971, the Hells Angels had rid the local drug trade of all but one rival gang. The sole gang to resist the Hells Angels' intimidation and beatings was the Breed, a fledgling club at the time that had expanded into territory held by the Hells Angels in Akron and on the East Coast. The feud between the two clubs reportedly began after a fight in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1969, and continued during the following two decades.

The Breed "came to Cleveland and put patches on about every little Honda rider, all over town", around 1970, according the Crouch. Although the Breed outnumbered the Hells Angels in the Cleveland area, their members were younger and less experienced than the Hells Angels, whose numbers included many Vietnam veterans. Ahead of a motorcycle trade show at the Polish Women's Hall in downtown Cleveland, the Hells Angels organized an ambush on the Breed after being informed by a policeman that the Breed were planning to attack the Angels in the hall. On March 6, 1971, Hells Angels members from Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and California initiated a large-scale brawl with members of the Breed, in which knives, chains and clubs were brandished. With over a hundred bikers on each side, the violence led to the deaths of five people—four Breed members and one Hells Angel. Breed members Bruce "Buster" Emerick, Andrew C. Demeter, Amelio "Pierre" Gardull and Thomas Allen Terry, and Hells Angels biker Jeffrey "Groover" Coffey were killed. Twenty-three people were also injured, including three police officers. Eighty-four people were arrested at the scene. Breed members asserted that they were ambushed by the Hells Angels after attending the event unarmed, as ordered by their chapter officers. On March 9, 1971, forty-seven Breed members and ten Hells Angels were each charged with five counts of first-degree murder. Fourteen HAMC members ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter on October 19, 1971.

After the Polish Women's Hall attack, the Hells Angels took over the distribution of methamphetamine in the Greater Cleveland area. Inspired by The Godfather book by Mario Puzo, the incarcerated Hells Angels returned from prison with a philosophy based upon Mafia customs in which prospecting members must "roll their bones", or commit a murder on a target selected by the club, to become a "full patch" member.

Outlaws

In 1974, the Hells Angels declared war on the Outlaws, their biggest rival in the drug and vice trade. In order to fund the war, the Cleveland Hells Angels started a "Taking Care of Business" (TCB) fund which was used to finance a contract-killing program in which they traveled around the United States carrying out gang hits on the rivals of various chapters. During this era, each Hells Angels chapter also appointed an intelligence officer, who gathered information on rival gangs, law enforcement officers and newsmen.

In 1974, Hells Angels initiate Andrew Shission allegedly shot and killed Outlaws member Bruce Sunday while Sunday was riding his motorcycle on Interstate 77. The motorcycle crashed at high speed, resulting in Sunday's girlfriend, who was riding on the back, suffering serious injuries. Shission and five other Hells Angels were indicted for a series of murders, all but two of which occurred as a result of the club's war with the Outlaws, on June 10, 1982. Authorities at the time suspected the Hells Angels of responsibility in at least twenty homicides during a period of warfare between the HAMC and the Outlaws beginning in 1974. Clarence "Butch" Crouch, the Cleveland Hells Angels vice-president who became a government witness in November 1981, testified against Shission in an aggravated murder trial in 1983. The case against Shission was dismissed due to a lack of evidence to corroborate the testimony from Crouch.

The Hells Angels' Akron chapter was formed in February 1979 by James Patrick Caronite, president of the club's territories in the Eastern U.S. In December 1979, two Outlaws members armed with a silencer-equipped .22 caliber pistol and a sawed-off shotgun were arrested in a car by police near the Hells Angels' Akron clubhouse. Caronite was believed to be the target of the Outlaws' assassination team. Caronite had earlier been ordered by Sonny Barger and other senior Hells Angels to arrange a peace meeting with members of the Outlaws. The peace meeting, to be held in an eastern state, was in fact an opportunity for the Hells Angels to assassinate their rivals' leadership, according to investigators. Having gave his word to the Outlaws that they would be safe at the meeting, Caronite reportedly warned the Outlaws, who avoided the meeting, when he learned of the assassination plans. The warning reportedly angered the HAMC hierarchy.

Hells Angels Cleveland chapter member Jack "Jack-O-Lantern" Gentry was arrested on June 11, 1982 and charged with the murder of Outlaws member Ralph "Real Time" Tanner, who was shot twice and killed behind the Outlaws' Toledo chapter clubhouse on November 30, 1980. Tanner was one of six Hells Angels indicted for a series of murders, all but two of which stemmed for the club's conflict with the Outlaws, after a a federal grand jury investigation of the HAMC's activities in Cleveland and Akron. Charged with aggravated murder, Gentry stood trial in Lucas County circuit court in October 1982. The trial was attended by HAMC members from across the country, including West Coast leader Sonny Barger and East Coast commander Sandy Alexander. A female juror was excused from duty after her son was threatened by a group of Hells Angels at a Downtown Toledo bar. Hells Angel-turned-government witness Clarence "Butch" Crouch testified that Gentry and other Cleveland Hells Angels had carried out recognizance missions on Outlaws targets in Toledo in the weeks leading up to Tanner's murder, for which Gentry was rewarded with initiation into the HAMC. Gentry was acquitted of all charges on October 29 after a four-day proceeding.

On November 23, 1981, the FBI raided a Hells Angels weapons cache located in a rented warehouse in Cleveland, discovering a large quantity of explosives and automatic firearms, including hand grenades, anti-tank rockets, a supply of dynamite, an M16 rifle, two submachine guns, shotguns and an automatic pistol. The arsenal was believed to be intended for use in the war against the Outlaws.

Murders

Donald Della Serra

Three members of a Hells Angels hit team killed one man, Donald Della Serra, and wounded two others with a submachine gun and shotguns in a drive-by shooting in front of a house in Akron on June 9, 1974. Della Serra was not a member of a motorcycle gang. The intended target of the attack was Outlaws member Steven "Groundhog" Wargo, who previously lived at the residence. The crime went unsolved until Cleveland Hells Angels chapter vice president-turned-government witness Clarence "Butch" Crouch confessed to being one of the gunmen to federal agents on November 5, 1981. He named the other two shooters as Richard C. "Friz" Frazier and Enis "Eagle" Crnic, who died in April 1977. Crouch also implicated Hells Angels national treasurer Andrew Shission in the killing, and testified that Shission had provided the stolen car that was used in the shooting. Shission was acquitted of murder in Summit County on October 27, 1983. Crouch was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to ten-to-forty years in prison.

Sigley home bombing

At a party celebrating the first anniversary of his ascension to "full patch" member, Cleveland Hells Angel Harry" Chakirelis was reminded that he had not yet "rolled his bones", putting him under pressure to commit his first contract killing for the club. On January 7, 1975, three people – Burdell M. Offitt, Maryanne Sigley and Sigley's two-year-old son, Christopher Michael Sigley – were killed and another three others – John and Deborah Slepko, and nine-month-old Steve Sigley – were critically injured by a suitcase bomb that exploded inside the home of William Sigley, who was absent, in Cleveland's Slavic Village neighborhood. The explosive had been left on the porch of the house and was taken inside by Offitt, a visitor to the home. Cleveland HAMC chapter vice president-turned government witness Clarence "Butch" Crouch later testified that two fellow Hells Angels, chapter treasurer Richard A. Amato and Harold L. "Harry" Chakirelis, carried out the bombing in the mistaken belief that the house was occupied by a member of the rival Outlaws.

Amato and Chakirelis were among six Hells Angels members indicted for a series of unsolved murders, some stemming from the conflict between the HAMC and the Outlaws, on June 10, 1982. Amato was charged with three counts of aggravated murder and three counts of attempted murder, while Chakirelis was charged with a single murder count. The indictments were the result of a federal grand jury investigation of the Hells Angels' activities in Cleveland and Akron. An aggravated murder case against Amato was dismissed on November 8, 1983 by judge James J. McGettrick, who deemed four days of testimony insufficient to prove the prosecutor's case. Deborah Slepko, who spent eleven months in hospital, was blinded in one eye and lost hearing, testified in the trial. The dismissal of the Amato case led prosecutors on November 28, 1983 to also withdraw the case against Chakirelis. Chakirelis died at the age of seventy-six on June 11, 2019.

David Hartlaub

On February 27, 1988, music store manager David Hartlaub was fatally shot thirteen times in his van at a bank parking lot in Perkins Township, as he was making a nightly cash deposit, by Hells Angels "prospect" John Ray Bonds, who sustained an arm wound from a bullet ricochet. Bonds fled in the van, which he abandoned nearby. Both the van's interior and the murder weapon, a MAC-11 9 mm caliber semi-automatic pistol fitted with a homemade silencer, were spattered with Bonds' blood. The deposit bag, containing approximately $4,000, was not taken. Douglas Waratuke, a music store employee who had followed Hartlaub to the bank in a separate vehicle, was threatened at gunpoint by "full patch" Hells Angels member Steven Wayne Yee, who then fled on foot. Another "prospect", Mark Verdi, acted as a getaway driver and drove Bonds and Yee from the scene in a car registered to Yee. Hartlaub was killed by the Hells Angels assassination team after being mistaken for a member of the Sandusky Outlaws chapter who drove an almost identical yellow van. The killing was planned in retaliation for the September 18, 1987 Joliet, Illinois shooting and wounding of Cleveland HAMC chapter president Kenneth "Kenny" Yates, at which Bonds had been present.

A March 9, 1988 search of Verdi's home in connection with an unrelated crime uncovered several items believed to be evidence of the murder, including a map, plastic bags and rolls of electrical tape of the types used to create a device to collect cartridges which was secured to the murder weapon, and several firearms. Despite the serial number on the murder weapon being obliterated, the FBI were able to trace its origin. The gun had previously been owned by a former roommate of Yee, who had owned two such weapons and testified that they had been stolen from his car when it was parked outside their apartment. Spent shell casings which experts later determined came from the murder weapon were found in Yee's car, which was tracked down days later. Fibers found in the car also matched fibers from a glove found three weeks after the murder on the side of Route 2 connecting Cleveland and Sandusky. Discovered along with the glove was Hartlaub's van registration and title, an empty box of 9 mm cartridges of the type used in the murder and found in Yee's car, and a loaded revolver. Bonds was identified as the shooter who had hid inside Hartlaub's van as a result of DNA evidence found at the murder scene and in Yee's car. The trio were subsequently indicted. Verdi and Yee were taken into custody on March 7, 1989, but Bonds fled before he could be brought to trial; he was a fugitive for eight months before being apprehended on November 8, 1989 when a patron at a bar in Paducah, Kentucky alerted law enforcement of his whereabouts. Authorities had earlier had him profiled on a nationally-televised crime show that summer.

Bonds, Verdi and Yee were convicted of federal weapons violations at the U.S. District Court in Toledo on February 22, 1991. On June 21, Verdi and Yee were sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, and Bonds was sentenced to twenty five years'. All three men later pleaded guilty in state court to aggravated murder. This was one of the first cases of DNA being used for criminal conviction. Yee and Verdi were sentenced to an additional twenty years-to-life, while Bonds was given thirty years-to-life. Bonds' murder trial was delayed after he was stabbed several times in prison on January 10, 1992. Yee filed multiple appeals in a failed attempt to remove his guilty plea, and also unsuccessfully requested resentencing. The case was the subject of "The Initiation", episode ten of season five of the documentary series The FBI Files, which originally aired on June 17, 2003.

Contract killing

Due to the club's rule that a new member must "roll his bones", or commit a contract killing, the Cleveland Hells Angels became prominent contract killers in the 1970s. The Cleveland Hells Angels became the preeminent hitmen for various Hells Angels chapters across the United States.