The Hells Angels ran the Olympic Torch.

The year was 1984 and the Summer Olympic Games were just around the corner. The Games were to be held in California, with a torch relay running from Greece to Los Angeles. But since the Games were held in the US during the cold war, there were bitter boycotts from communist countries, creating that much more tension between the United States and Soviet Union.

On top of the governments fearing for their athlete’s safety at such a stressful time, the US had another group to worry about. The infamous Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC).

At the time, the Hells Angels had been the subject of numerous reports, ranging anywhere from drug running to murder. And with the largest sports gathering in the world being held in the Angels home state of California, many worried they would boycott it, or even worse; attempt to ‘disrupt’ the Games from taking place.

When George (Gus) Christie Jr.—the former HAMC Ventura Charter President—heard these rumours, it was just after a bogus arrest attempt by the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) in which they tried to arrest the Ventura charter with no evidence or even a warrant. It was harassment situations like these which gave George an idea. He saw the Olympics as the perfect chance to go on the offensive and show the world the Angels were not only patriots, but also supported the Olympics.

Mr. Christie has long been thought of as a peacekeeper among the Angel ranks, often sorting out differences with rival clubs with words rather than weapons and trying to make a good impression on the public. And this would be his biggest impression to date.

In step one of his plan, Christie went on record with The Times and said in reference to the rumours of disrupting the Olympics “That’s ridiculous. We’re not against the Olympics in any way.” And also went on TV with the local news station, saying “We’re not terrorists, we support the Olympics, and we’re not out to cause any problems.”

The second step of his plan was one which received mixed opinions throughout the entire Hells Angel Motorcycle Club.

George Christie wanted to run in the Olympic Torch relay. Some of his club brothers were against such a thing, others were for it. But through the power of persuasion (and seeing how much positive attention the run received from the media after the fact) Christie eventually had the full support of the HAMC behind him, including the Godfather of the club himself—Sonny Barger.

Together the HAMC raised 3000 dollars for the Special Olympics charity which qualified someone to run one kilometer with the Olympic Torch to represent the Ventura County, and Mr. Christie was the man for the job.

On the day of the run, George and his club brothers left their clubhouse in tight formation as they had done a hundred times before, only this time they were out to make history in a positive way. As a show of good faith, Christie promised not to wear any HAMC advertising or promotional material, including his cut during the run, saying they didn’t need the advertising because they got enough attention as it was.

As impressive as Mr. Christie’s run with the torch was, it was not without its own form of irony. Because of whom and what Mr. Christie was at the time, the government understood his rivals in other Motorcycle Clubs (the Outlaws and Mongols Motorcycle Clubs to name a couple) may take the opportunity to cause him harm.

So as George began his run to the cheer and acceptance of hundreds of Americans, all waving flags, and some flying Hells Angels support gear, he was flanked by FBI agents and local cops on both sides, not in persecution, but rather protection.

It was an amazing moment in history for the club, but sadly, this great feat was quickly overshadowed by the continuing violence between the rival Motorcycle Clubs mentioned above, and fell into the wayside of history, only to be known by those who were there to witness it, are deeply immersed in Motorcycle Club culture, or have read George’s book ‘Exile On Front Street’.