In California: A Trial of Angels

They were the scourge of the '60s, members of a minor, mean-spirited motorcycle club, raised through their own viciousness and the fascination of the press to the status of ravening Huns. For the past seven months a clutch of Hell's Angels has been on trial in San Francisco's Federal Building, accused of having spent the '70s conspiring to be racketeers. The proceedings are known officially as The United States of America vs. Ralph Barger Jr., et al.

The case began last June, with brightly televised mass arrests and dark allusions in the press to Swiss bank accounts and the Mafia. It has now ground down into a weary, grimy courtroom proceeding, livened occasionally by mention of drugs and guns. The press has pretty much lost interest. The public had little sympathy to lose. The Angels, it is widely agreed, are fairly nasty people.

Whether they are also guilty as charged is something the jury will decide, perhaps by next month. The charge is almost as long as the trial. Its most important question: Have the defendants violated Title 18 of the U.S. Code, a complicated provision known as R.I.C.O. (for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations)?

There are some collateral questions too. Did the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club constitute a racketeering "enterprise"? Did some or all of the 18 standing trial, by virtue of their membership or association with the "enterprise," conspire to manufacture and distribute drugs? Did they conspire to boost business through murder, intimidation, use of false names and identification, killing or injuring police officers, and acquiring amazing numbers of guns?

All the defendants have previously been accused or suspected of crimes. Some have state charges pending. Some have been convicted and have served time. No one, least of all the Angels, denies that they have dealt in drugs and illegally owned guns. But is this record of "bad acts" proof of conspiracy? Or does it mean, as the defense maintains, that they are individual criminals so pathetically disorganized as to be an easy mark for gung-ho U.S. attorneys intent on controlling the defiant Hell's Angels to the public's satisfaction?

To attend the trial in the windowless 17th-floor courtroom, all witnesses, police, lawyers and spectators pass through two security checkpoints where they may be frisked and are electronically scanned like airline passengers. The judge has had a bulletproof Plexiglas partition erected between the audience and participants in the trial. Because belt buckles can be used as weapons, a sign outside reads: NO BELT BUCKLES OVER TWO INCHES; NO EXCEPTIONS.