Common nicknames for the club are the "H. Many police and international intelligence agencies, including the United States Department of Justice , the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada , the Australian Federal Police , and Europol , consider the club an organized crime syndicate. The Hells Angels originated on March 17, , in Fontana, California , when several small motorcycle clubs agreed to merge. We don't". Some of the HAMC's early history is not clear, and accounts differ. The club's first official charter was reportedly drawn up in Fontana in A North Sacramento charter was established in , followed by another charter in Sacramento the following year, which was formed by two brothers, James "Mother" Miles and Pat Miles, who were former members of the Hell Bent for Glory biker club.
Barger has been credited with helping to unify these various disparate charters under common club bylaws. The Oakland charter, at the time headed by Barger, used a larger version of the "Death's Head" patch nicknamed the "Barger Larger", which was first used in It later became the club standard.
The Hells Angels are often depicted in semi-mythical romantic fashion like the 19th-century JamesβYounger Gang : free-spirited, iconic, bound by brotherhood and loyalty. At other times, such as in the Roger Corman film The Wild Angels , they are depicted as violent and nihilistic, little more than a violent criminal gang and a scourge on society. The club became prominent within, and established its notoriety as part of, the s counterculture movement in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District, playing a part at many of the movement's seminal events.
Thompson 's book about the club launched his career. In , members from several branches of the organization protested at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing about a proposed transportation plan that included restrictions on motorcycle use and sales to get California to meet the new Clean Air Act standards. The Hells Angels' official website attributes the official "death's head" insignia design to Frank Sadilek, past president of the San Francisco charter. The Hells Angels have a system of patches similar to military medals.
The specific meaning of each patch is not publicly known, but the patches identify each biker's specific or significant actions or beliefs. The patches are worn on leather or denim jackets and vests. Red and white are also used to display the number 81 on many patches, as in "Support 81", "Route 81".
