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Portraits in
Carnage: The End of the Rock Festivals
Five months after
the drowning death of Brian Jones, a music festival held near San
Francisco turned murderous, smothering Aquarius
and its political anthems with a handful of apocalyptic screen images,
"restless youth" seemingly devouring itself. The Rolling Stones were
the centerpiece of the hellish fiasco at Altamont on December 6,
1969. The band would forevermore be tainted by the surreal violence
of Gimme Shelter, the documentary film that chronicled the disaster,
and so would the counterculture the Stones had done much to
inspire.
The festival was conceived in the first place to redeem the group's
flagging image. The press had laid into Jagger and crew, emphasizing
their greed, "The stories of the Stones' avarice spread," journalist
Robert Sam Anson reported, and critics pointed to Mick's $250,000
townhouse, the collection of glittering Rolls Royces, "and [they]
wondered how revolutionary 'a man of wealth and taste' could be. A
token free appearance would still those critics. The concert, problems and all, was going to happen, For the Stones' sake, it had to."
The group's management set out to select a site for the event.
They consulted Jan Wenner, the editor of Rolling Stone, who sent
them to several professional concert promoters, and they in turn put
them in touch with famed San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli,
fixture of California's well-heeled "conservative" power base.
This was the first Big Mistake. Belli was summed up at his funeral
in July, 1996 by Bishop William Swing, in a eulogy stitched with
irony in the context of Operation CHAOS, at Grace Cathedral. Over
the infamous attorney's pale cadaver, the Bishop bid farewell to Belli.
A man of law against the chaos of life,
A man of chaos against the laws of life. [1]
A cartoon that appeared after Belli's death in the San Diego Union
Tribune was an eloquent expression of his ethical standards. It
depicted St Peter on the telephone, reporting, "I've got a guy here
claiming he was struck and injured by one of the Pearly Gates," and
there, smiling like an angel, stood a well-groomed soul identified by
the nametag on his briefcase "M. Belli." [2] The San Francisco Chronicle
bid him farewell with a letter to the editor that appeared on the Op-
Ed page. "Melvin Belli helped establish the principles of the plaintiff
attorney: avarice, immunity to logic, self- aggrandizement and
perfect contempt for the interests of society." [3]
He was not only an
ambulance chaser par excellence. The legendary Melvin Belli was one of the CIA's most trusted courtroom
wonders until hypertension and cardiovascular disease claimed him on
July 9, 1996. His client roster included Jack Ruby, Sirhan Sirhan,
Martha Mitchell and Jim Bakker. His first high-profile client was
Errol Flynn, who, according to thousands of FBI and military intelligence documents released under FOIA to biographer Charles
Higham, was an avid admirer of Adolf Hitler, recruited by Dr.
Hermann Friedrich Erben, an Abwher intelligence agent, to spy on
the United States. The FBI, Higham discovered in the midst of
poring through the many boxes of FOIA documents dropped on his
doorstep, pestered Flynn and the studio employing him over his
wartime association with a Nazi, "but there was little doubt that Will
Hays and Colonel William Guthrie, a high-ranking Army officer on
the studio payroll as Jack Warner's troubleshoot in all matters connected with politics, were responsible for the cover-up. Hays and
Guthrie managed to smother the numerous inquiries that began seriously to threaten Errol's career."
[4] Melvin Belli, Flynn's attorney, could
also be counted on to button his lip, and he did repeatedly as a CIA-Mafia legal counsel in a number of assassination cover-ups.
[5]
It was Melvin Belli who chose the speedway at Altamont for the
festival. "As a staging ground for a rock concert," Anson concluded,
"especially one expected to draw 300,000 people or more. Altamont
could hardly have been worse. The raceway, which was on the brink
of bankruptcy, was small, cramped, and difficult to reach. Its acres
were littered with the rusting hulks of junked automobiles and thousands of shards of broken glass. In appearance, it had all the charm
=of a graveyard. Worst of all, though, the deal for its use had not been
sealed until the final moment. Whereas Woodstock had taken
months to prepare, Altamont had to be ready within twenty-four
hours." [6]
The second Big Mistake of Altamont was the hiring of Ralph
"Sonny" Barger and a contingent of Hell's Angels to keep the peace.
Barger, it has since been divulged, was an informant and hit man
on the payroll of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(ATF). When Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver fled the country for
Algeria, the ATF negotiated with Barger to "bring Cleaver home in a
box." He often made deals with law enforcement in exchange for
dismissal of charges against fellow Angels. Barger was even hired by
federal agents to kill immigrant farm labor activist Cesar Chavez, and
may well have if Barger hadn't first been arrested by police in the Bay
area on a prior homicide charge. [7]
The accusation arose in the death of Servio Winston Agero, a
drug dealer. In a surprise courtroom maneuver, Sonny took the
witness stand and confessed to his arrangement with local police and
federal agents. Over a period of several years, he testified, he had
brokered deals with Oakland authorities to give up the location of
hidden caches of automatic weapons, mortars and dynamite in
exchange for the dismissal of all charges against members of his
motorcycle gang. This was a deal he had brokered with Edward
Hilliard, then a sergeant at the Oakland Police Department's vice
squad. Hilliard refused to comment when questioned by reporters.
The defendant admitted for the record that he sold narcotics for a
living, forged IDs, and slept with a pistol under his pillow. On seven
occasions, though, Barger refused to respond to questioning and was fined $3,500 by Judge William J. Hayes for each demurral.
Deputy prosecutor Donald Whyte asked the "spiritual" leader of
the Hell's Angels, an admitted federal operative, to name officers
who asked him to "kill someone." Barger squirmed and claimed that
he could not recall, exactly, but attempted several phonetic variations of a possible name.
[8] Even in the courtroom, it seems, he was not
about to risk retaliation by government contacts.
But the deal was exposed anyway by ATF whistle-blower Larry
Shears. The agent told his story to narcotics agents, and they gathered evidence on the murder plan before talking to the press. Shears
announced that Barger had been contracted to kill Chavez, an assassination ordered by agribusiness magnates in the San Joaquin Valley.
Chavez was only alive, Shears reported, because there had been
delays. The first came when ATF agents insisted that certain files first
be stolen from the farm union. The arson of union offices was
attempted by hired hands, another delay. Confirmation of these allegations came three weeks later when union officials complained to
reporters that there had been recent "arson attempts against [farm]
union offices. Others have been riddled with bullet holes, and on at
least two occasions attempts were made to steal records in the union
offices."
The next glitch in the Chavez assassination, Shears said, came
when the hit man, Sonny Barger, was arrested for the Agero murder.
To support his statements, Shears waved a federal voucher at
reporters signed by Senator Edward Kennedy, a payment of $10,000
to Shears for services rendered as an informant to narcotics agents
and the IRS. [9]
In March 1989, according to wire releases, Sonny Barger was
convicted with four other Angels for conspiracy to violate federal
firearms and explosives laws in a variety of plots to kill members of
rival motorcycle clubs. Barger and Michael Vincent O'Farrell were
sentenced in US District Court, Louisville, Kentucky, for their part
in the transport of explosives with intent to kill. Barger and three
others were slapped with additional counts for "dealing with a stolen
government manual." Barger was freed on parole three years later
The mystery of his early release was dispelled by the Tucson Weekly
in 1996 -- it seems Barger had a political guardian. "You can talk
about the biker tradition," a law enforcement source explained, the
Harley, the patch that they've killed for, but in the end, what's most
important is money. Hell's Angels is represented in 18 countries
now. They're probably the largest organized crime family that we
export from the US. At the center of this global expansion is
Oakland-based International President "Sonny" Barger, who's had
his hand on the throttle of Hells Angels' money and mayhem
machine since the late '50s, despite occasional prison stints. When
Barger was released from prison in 1992, an estimated 3,000 people
attended his party ... Some influential people might get bought. I
can't tell you that Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
received any money... I do know that he used his influence to try
to get Sonny Barger out of prison." [10]
Barger's booze-swaggling, two-wheeling entourage were paid
killers. And since the carnage at Altamont, the Hell's Angels have
twice attempted to kill the Rolling Stones. In March, 1983, a witness
calling himself "Butch," his true identity protected by the federal
witness program, testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about
plots to kill the Stones. "There's always been a contract on the band,"
he admitted under questioning. There were "two attempts to kill
them that I know about. They will some day. They swear they will do it." The vendetta, Butch said, originated with the killing at the
Speedway concert, and was motivated by the failure of the Stones to
back the Angel prosecuted for the killing. The first attempt to assassinate the entire band took place in the mid-'70s. "They sent a
member with a gun and a silencer" to a hotel where the Stones were
staying. The hit-man "staked out the hotel, but [the Stones] never
showed up," said the government informant. And in 1979, the
Angels' New York chapter "were going to put a bomb in the house
and blow everybody up and kill everybody at the party." But this conspiracy sank with a cache of plastic explosives, accidentally dropped
overboard from a rubber raft. Killing the Stones, he testified, was an
"obsession" with the bike gang. [11]
Who in 1969 suspected that the Hell's Angel was in reality a
death squad leader in the pay of "conservative" political operatives?
The swastika tattoos and gothic jewelry? Window dressing. The
roughing up of peace demonstrators? The shootouts? The terrorizing of small towns? The rapings? The drugs? A refreshing break
from the status quo.
A supplier from Berkeley donated 1,000 hits of LSD laced with
speed to Barger's Altamont security force, and the Angels toted along
several cases of red wine and a generous supply of barbiturates. The
concert commenced at 1 PM with a set by Santana, and before long
the beatings began. By the time Santana ripped to a close, the first
casualties limped into the first aid station. There were broken arms,
open wounds, shattered jaws and ribs, and bad LSD trips that left
joy-seekers screaming in terror. There were so many of these that the
Thorazine cache ran dry within a few hours, leaving the overdosed
untreated. [12]
The Jefferson Airplane played songs about social unity and revolution and a flung beer bottle fractured a woman's skull. She reeled,
fell, stood and collapsed again.
Jagger arrived in a helicopter. Anson writes "Kids got up, yelled,
and started running, bursting past the Angels to get close to him.
Jagger emerged, smiling, waving, calling greetings, with Timothy
Leary at his side flashing the peace symbol." [13]
Jagger hurried to the safety of his trailer. The Angels resumed
beating concert-goers. A photographer was told to stop shooting the
violence and give up the film. He refused and an Angel smashed him
in the face with his camera.
Crosby, Stills and Nash preceded the Stones, but the escalating
violence forced them to cut their set short. The Stones would not
play until the sun went down and delayed their appearance some 90
minutes, aggravating the macabre tension of the event. The Angels,
riding on electric currents of methamphetamine and lysergic acid,
bludgeoned the audience with lead-filled pool cues. At long last,
Jagger strutted across the stage, sporting a red, white and blue
stovepipe hat, silver pants, black boots, an Omega symbol emblazoned on his chest.
The Rolling Stones packaged the occult education they had
received from Satanist Kenneth Anger. "The top hat," explains Anger
biographer Bill Landis, "was snatched from the legend of [Bobby]
Beausoleil: the Mansonite killer of LA guitarist Gary Hinman. "The
Crowleyan personal power tripping" was amplified by "pop iconography and massive amounts of cocaine to
fuel Jagger's attempt at
incarnating Lucifer." [14]
The Stones managed to lumber through "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and
"Carol," but "Sympathy for the Devil" was accompanied by howls
from the crowd directly in front of the stage. Jagger urged the audience repeatedly to "cool down, cool down, now
..." Another outbreak accompanied "Under My Thumb." The source of the commotion was the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter, 18, who pulled a
gun and reportedly took aim at Jagger.
"As Mick peered out," Ben Fong-Torres recalls, "there were kids
staring at him in incredulous silence, mouthing the word, 'Why?"'
After the concert, reports Anson, "there was a mysterious shake-up in the Angel hierarchy, and the suicide of one Angel who had
been particularly close to the rock scene." Alan David Passaro, 24,
one of Barger's soldiers and an ex-convict, was charged with Hunter's
murder. But Barger himself was unapologetic." I'm no peace creep by ny sense of the word. Ain't nobody gonna
kick my motorcycle." [15]
Passaro, already serving a prison sentence on an unrelated offense
when served, was eventually acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
A platoon of cinematographers was assembled by directors Albert
and David Maysles to shoot Gimme Shelter, the Altamont documentary.
They were directed to concentrate on the violence, not the performances on stage. A recent TV Guide review of the the video complains
that the crew "focused resolutely on the mayhem and discord."
[16]
"Sympathy for the Devil" was the last-gasp anthem of the festival
scene in America. A repeat of the disaster was visited upon Louisiana
a few months later, when an excess of 50,000 young people turned
out for a "Celebration of Life" on the Atchafalaya River. The
Galloping Gooses motorcycle club, hired to attend to security,
chain-whipped the celebrants, leaving three dead and many wounded. [17]
A cancer was growing on the counter-culture.
NOTES
1. Herb Caen, "Above and Beyond," San Francisco Chronicle, July 24,
1996,
p. B-I.
2. Ibid.
3. Letter to the editor, San Francisco Chronicle, July 19, 1996, p A-16.
4. Charles Higham, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story, New York: Doubleday,
1980, pp 91-92. Background on Higham and the government documents released to him come from author's interviews of Higham.
5. San Francisco columnist Herb Caen reminisced about Belli's bosom
friendship with the screen idol, both of whom had a keen interest in
teenage girls. "When he and his close friend and client, Errol
Flynn,
were out on the town, no young lady was safe. Two Rogue Scholars on
the loose, both exceedingly handsome and dangerous to know too well.
Every time I saw Mel on the make I thought of Dorothy Parker's line
about the girl who lost her virginity sliding down a barrister. One night
at Cal-Neva, the Tahoe gambling joint with the California-Nevada state
line running through the lobby, I saw Mel crossing that line with a very
young girl. Referring to the then-statute against crossing a state line
with
a minor for immoral purposes, I asked him 'Does she know about the
Mann Act?' 'Know about it?' he whooped 'She loves it!'" Herb Caen,
"Friday's Fractured Flicker," San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 1996, p
C.I
For background on Melvin Belli's interaction with the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Mafia, see Constantine, A, Psychic
Dictatorship in the USA, 1995, p. 191; Diamond, S., Spiritual Warfare,
1989, p. 30; Hinckle, W., If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade, 1990, p.
200; Johnson, R.W., Shootdown, 1987, pp. 377-8, 394-5; Kalltor, S., The Ruby
Cover-up, 1992, pp. 224-35, 415-6; Marrs, J., Crossfire, 1990, pp. 414, 424;
Piper, M.C., Final Judgment, 1993, pp. 161, 172-5, Ragano, F. Raab, S.,
Mob Lawyer, 1994, pp. 241-8, 360, Scheim, D., Contract on America, 1988,
p. 154, Scott, P.D., Deep Politics, 1993, p. 233.
6. Robert Sam
Anson, Gone Crazy and Back Again, New York: Doubleday,
1981, p. 141.
7. Account of Larry Shears, ATF agent, alleging that Barger was recruited
by ATF agents -- at a time when G. Gordon Liddy worked for the ATF, a
division of the Treasury Department -- to assassinate Eldridge Cleaver.
December 17, 1971 news broadcast, Channel 23, Los Angeles, CA.
8. Drew McKillips, "Amazing Story by Hells' Angels Chief," San Francisco
Chronicle, December 12, 1972, p. 1.
9. "ATF Agent Says He Was Part of Coast Plot to Kill Cesar Chavez," New
York Times, January 2, 1972, p. 31).
10. Karen Brandel,
"Angels in Arizona," Tucson Weekly, Aug 15, 1996, p 1.
11. Hotchner, p. 320.
12 Anson, p. 148.
13. Anson, p. 149.
14. Bill Landis, Anger: The Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger, New
York:
Harper Collins, 1995, p. 177. It is ironic that with Scorpio Rising (1964),
Anger the satanist had launched the popular mythos surrounding the
Hell's Angels. Anger's cultural oddity, Landis writes, "made them seem
more lyrical after all the media reports on gang rapes, chain whipping
and stomping they were doing." (pp 118-19).
15. Anson, pp. 156-57.
16. "Gimme Shelter, 1970," TV Guide Movie Database, Internet posting.
17. David P. Szatmary, Rockin' in Time: A Social History of Rock and Roll,
New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1987, p. 149.
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