Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Police believe the Hells Angels murdered the children and their mother,

but they have no proof, and there have been no arrests.

The woman and two twin girls had been shot

in the back of the head.

It looked very much like a professional hit.

I've never spoken about this before.

About my sister or the twins,

or what happened in that house.

MIKE GRAHAM: We discovered that the woman was Margo Compton.

The twin girls were Margo's daughters,

Sylvia, and Sandra.

(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

Some of the Hells Angels are predators.

They're looking for whoever they can take advantage of,

especially women.

The Angels were supposed to have some ethics,

certain lines that they don't cross,

that they didn't murder children.

You didn't kill little girls, you didn't kill kids.

Margo Compton's case,

that was way outside the limits.

GRAHAM: Margo was testifying

against a member of the Hells Angels.

Anybody that testifies against the Hells Angels

are gonna become targets.

(ENGINE STARTS)

BROADCASTER: Over and over they say they are not criminals,

they are rebels, propelling against a society

for which they have no respect.

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

We never gave a (BLEEP) about what anybody else thought.

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

We're mostly a bunch of happy go lucky guys

trying to make it in this world, you know?

KERRI KRYSKO: They're misfits, they're outlaws,

and they defy the laws of attraction.

I don't know, I idolize 'em.

I adore 'em. They're my whole life.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

Angels forever. Forever Angels.

Speaks for itself.

(ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES)

The Hells Angels are not a criminal organization.

Why don't you people go home?

GEORGE CHRISTIE: It's an organization with criminals in it.

(ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES)

The Hells Angels run a massive propaganda scheme.

And the unknowing gulped down that Hells Angels Kool-Aid.

Everybody just cool out.

Hells Angels, everybody.

JAY DOBYNS: That is all designed to hide murder,

rape, drug trafficking,

gun running, extortion, assault, arson.

I'm not trying to glorify my life,

but I'm certainly not gonna apologize for it.

I'm doing extreme stuff.

-For what? -I'm telling it the way it really happened.

I never thought I'd be talking openly about this stuff.

-INTERVIEWER: Ready for this? -I'm ready.

(MUSIC ENDS)

(SNIFFLES)

Sorry, it's been...

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

..forty-six years, it's difficult.

I have a difficult time

with what men do to women and children.

Some men.

(FANFARE PLAYING)

GRAHAM: At that particular time,

Washington County was a small county.

I hadn't had a lot of experience.

I'd done a lot of standard

criminal investigations, burglaries, thefts,

armed robberies.

I had been involved in a few murder investigations,

but never the primary detective.

(CROWD CHEERING)

(FANFARE CONTINUES)

GRAHAM: On a Sunday, August 7th, 1977,

I received a call out...

regarding a homicide.

I had no idea what the situation was,

and it was in a small town, a small community called Laurelwood.

When I went into the house and first observed the man

and the woman in the living area,

I determined that they had bullet wounds

behind their left ear.

There was blood all over the telephone.

The young man had been still alive for a while

and had attempted to use the telephone.

We moved into the bedroom,

and I discovered

two twin girls lying side by side.

Both had been shot in the back of the head,

behind the left ear.

They were clutching teddy bears, both of them.

They were about five and a half or six years of age.

GRAHAM: We discovered that the woman was Margo Compton.

The twin girls were Margo's daughters,

Sylvia and Sandra.

And the young man was Gary Sesler.

It became quickly obvious that it was an execution,

probably by a professional hitman,

because there was little or no evidence left behind.

(SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

What did I feel? (LAUGHS NERVOUSLY)

Well...

When I looked at the... At the little girls, um...

My own children were about that age.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

I had no idea how long it would take me,

but I made up my mind

to catch the men who did it, and to bring them to justice.

(SLOW COUNTRY ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

My relationship with Margo was very close. We were best friends.

She was really fun to be around.

She was good in school. She made great grades.

She was very artistic.

Where we lived was a small town,

and we could see the bay from our back window.

So we'd walk down to the bay.

We would go visit friends.

We could walk anywhere in town,

we didn't need a ride.

MARGO: We'll try it again, one more time.

Testing, one, two, three.

One, two, three, four.

All right.

Now I'm gonna start.

And this...

This is really hard.

(MARGO CHUCKLES)

MARGO'S SISTER: At 15, she started dating this guy called Doug Compton.

She moved in with him,

and at 16 they got married and they seemed happy.

MARGO'S SISTER: She got pregnant,

and it was during the pregnancy

that he started becoming violent with her.

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

MARGO'S SISTER: Doug was not very fatherly,

and at that time,

there was an influx of Hells Angels in our town.

They were there to recruit.

And he started hanging around more and more with them

and less and less with the kids, or being there on the weekends

or going on family outings.

Doug was a wannabe. And there's a difference

between a wannabe and a prospect.

He never made it to be a prospect, but he was a hanger-on.

CHRISTIE: There's a specific protocol for becoming a Hells Angel.

The first stage is the hang-around.

The hang-around comes around the club for a minimum

of a 12-month period.

During that 12-month period, you're evaluated,

and someone may want to sponsor you,

and then there'll be a vote.

The second stage is the prospect,

and you've got another 12 months

you have to prove yourself in.

KERRIE DROBAN: Prospecting is very similar to hazing,

where you're pledging a fraternity, for example,

you know, and you're going through certain loyalty tests.

They put you through the ringer.

And the third and final stage is the member.

So if you want to give up 24 months of your life,

potentially wind up in jail

or in a grave, it's a great lifestyle.

MARGO'S SISTER: When the Hells Angels came to our town,

there was a lot of drugs that weren't there before.

And Doug changed dramatically because he was using drugs.

MAN: Never eating, never sleeping, always on the...

MARGO'S SISTER: He started using intravenously,

which caused him to be even more paranoid.

He drank more and he would hurt her.

He would beat her.

He would try to kill her.

MARGO'S SISTER: Margo knew that the situation was getting out of control

and she knew he was gonna kill her.

But she needed help to get away from Doug,

because she had tried so many times before

and he'd found her.

MARGO'S SISTER: One of the leaders of the Hells Angels in our town,

was a guy called Buck Garrett.

Margo felt that he was the best person

to talk to about helping her.

He was the only person that Doug had any respect for,

or cared about what he thought about him.

So that's what she did.

COOK: Margo didn't realize it at the time,

but approaching Buck Garrett

was the worst decision she ever made.

(SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

CHRISTIE: I rode with the Hells Angels for 40 years,

I officially became a member in 1976.

And in the mid-70s,

the Hells Angels had absolute control

of the outlaw motorcycle culture.

Most of the club members were blue collar type guys,

not many of the guys had steady jobs.

We realized from taking narcotics,

that narcotics

could also make us a lot of money.

HOWARD KOHN: Especially meth.

Amphetamines become their main business.

COOK: Methamphetamine can make things

that a normal person wouldn't do,

it can make it seem normal.

There are cases where people have done horrific things

that under a normal state of being,

they would never even consider doing.

MARGO'S SISTER: Doug Compton was doing meth.

And Margo told me that she found syringes

in the girls' toy box, in their bedroom.

And that was enough. She was done.

So she spoke to Buck Garrett about it.

She felt he was the only one

that could help her get away from Doug.

(COUNTRY ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

Buck did provide a house and the food and the utilities

and everything that they needed.

And had Doug come around,

Buck would have protected them against him.

And he also said he could help her get a job.

MARGO'S SISTER: But he was a pimp.

He forced her into prostitution.

She didn't want to be a prostitute.

She wasn't a prostitute.

She was stuck in this situation.

Like a lot of women in those circumstances

when they go to the Hells Angels,

she got taken advantage of.

(BLOWS RASPBERRY)

Come on take a peek.

MARGO'S SISTER: Because Margo didn't want to have sex

with every person that walked in there,

it made people angry.

It made the customers angry, and it made Buck very angry.

She was beaten and raped.

She was bloodied and bruised at this place,

so it became the same torture

that she had with her husband.

(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)

DROBAN: Women have a role in the Hells Angels.

They are predominantly property,

but there is a hierarchy.

To be somebody's old lady,

it means that they are committed

to that particular member,

and usually that's protection.

She's not passed around.

She's no longer abused or gang raped by other members.

There is also women that are considered sheep,

and the sheep are the ones that are passed around,

and abused and oftentimes

these women are becoming prostitutes

for the Hells Angels. So the goal of women

is to become property of a member.

(MOTORCYCLES REVVING)

CHRISTIE: The Hells Angels felt that they were superior to women.

I mean, I'd be lying. I'm not gonna lie here.

Women knew what their place was coming around the club.

But yet, they came around the club.

MARGO'S SISTER: Margo said to Buck, "It's time for me to go.

I gotta go."

And he said, "you owe me $5000.

For rent. It's for food.

It's for clothes for the girls, for school."

GRAHAM: And Buck Garrett said

she was now property of the Hells Angels,

and that if she came up

with that amount of money, then he would let her go.

She didn't have that kind of money.

So Buck said he was gonna keep her kids

until she came up with the money.

COOK: Buck Garrett was a member of the Vallejo chapter of the Hells Angels.

A well respected Hells Angel, he wielded a lot of power.

He had connections to Sonny Barger.

He was also a despicable human being.

KOHN: He thought of himself as an old-style Mafia guy.

He had a ruthless side to him,

a very ambitious side to him and a very dangerous side.

Everybody knew about his drug business.

Everybody knew about his prostitution

and everything else that he was involved in.

At that time, Margo knew a man by the name of Don Seslar,

and he offered to help.

So, Don and Margo

went to the local sheriff's office.

The police believed what she was saying.

They understood. They knew that this stuff was happening.

But before they went to get the kids,

they discussed what was gonna happen afterwards.

And they said if she were to help them,

that would be a wonderful thing.

And so she agreed to testify against the Hells Angels,

and specifically against Buck Garrett.

And so the police did help her get her kids back.

And they were back that afternoon.

They were back with her very quickly.

MARGO'S SISTER: Margo started testifying,

and there was gossip around town

that there was a contract on her life now.

MARGO'S SISTER: Margo had to do what she was doing,

and she felt it was the right thing to do.

But we all knew that you just don't snitch on Hells Angels.

If you do, you're not gonna live.

(MOTORCYCLE WHIRRING)

CHRISTIE: Anybody that testifies

against the Hells Angels become targets.

They've taken it upon themselves

to make that decision, cross that line.

and the consequences are clear.

So Margo was, in beyond grave danger,

testifying against somebody like Garrett.

GRAHAM: Margo and Don Seslar got the twins,

and they fled to Laurelwood, Oregon,

There's no chapter of Hells Angels in the state of Oregon,

so he probably assumed that it was fairly safe.

SLEEPER: Laurelwood was almost 100% a religious community.

My fiancee Gary was working in the Coast Guard.

I was 18 and he was 19.

GRAHAM: Gary was the son of Don Seslar,

the boyfriend to Margo Compton.

And he was living with his father and Margo.

I had no clue the seriousness of what was going on.

And then one night, she told me that

she was testifying at a trial

that some people had threatened her,

and that Buck Garrett had told her

he could get a pretty penny for turning the girls out.

And he had no problem with that.

She had been flying down to San Francisco

to testify against Buck Garrett.

GRAHAM: On the last occasion,

she felt that she had been followed home,

called up Detective Tony Novello

and thanked him for the escort.

And, in fact,

he did not send an escort.

BROADCASTER: Police believe the Hells Angels

murdered the children and their mother,

but they have no proof,

and there have been no arrests.

MARGO'S SISTER: The Washington County Sheriff's Department

wanted to speak to my mother,

and she... She just started screaming

and she dropped the phone and she was on the floor.

We drove up to Oregon,

and we were taken to Margo's little house.

I was definitely in shock.

I didn't want my sister to be dead.

In the kid's bedroom. I see the teddy bears. (BREATHING HEAVILY)

They said we could have anything we wanted

out of the house, so I took the teddy bears.

(SNIFFLES)

GRAHAM: We searched the house,

we came up with Margo's diary and some audio tapes.

When we analyzed them later, we learned that Buck Garrett was our main suspect,

but he had an ironclad alibi.

At the time of the homicide,

he had purposely gone out in front of his house,

and raced up and down the street,

so the police would be called,

so that he would get a citation.

So he had proof of an alibi.

I was out of my element.

I was over my head.

We don't even have Hells Angels in Oregon.

So I flew to San Francisco, Vallejo, California,

and teamed up with a couple of detectives

from Solano County Sheriff's Office.

By the name of Dick Grundy and Bill Zerby.

KOHN: They were narcotics guys

who had put the Angels in their crosshairs.

And when Margo Compton was killed,

they were dedicated

to take down the Angels one by one.

GRAHAM: Detective Zerby started putting more pressure

on the Angels in general.

And one day,

he was on his way to court,

and he went to get in his car,

apparently they were watching him from a hill through binoculars.

(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

Apparently they blew him up.

Bill knew the Hells Angels were after him.

And he lost his hearing,

and he lost his job because of it.

You can't be a policeman if you can't hear.

I felt vulnerable.

I also knew that if I ever solved the crime,

that my family would be in danger.

I was frustrated because

local law enforcement can't seem to handle the Angels,

who seem to be just totally out of control

and crossing all kinds of red lines.

And I had determined to solve this case,

and I knew I lacked experience.

I knew that I didn't

possibly have the talent necessary to do this.

But I knew that I had one thing,

and that was determination.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

GRAHAM: Margo testified before the grand jury.

Then she testified in a preliminary hearing,

And after she was murdered, it made no difference.

They used her recorded testimony and convicted Buck Barrett of pandering,

and sent him to the penitentiary.

(SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

GRAHAM: But of course, I still had to solve

the Margo Compton homicide.

(MUSIC TEMPO INCREASES)

I knew that Buck Garrett had an alibi.

So I had no idea who the hitman might be.

But we were probably dealing with someone

that Buck Garrett had hired.

The Angels were supposed to have some ethics.

Certain lines that they don't cross,

that they didn't murder children, for example.

They didn't murder cops.

When they start crossing those lines,

they become very dangerous.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

GRAHAM: When he got out,

Buck Garrett started to cook meth and make a lot of money.

He had started to climb up through the organization.

KOHN: Killing Margo Compton

took away a really important threat,

not just because she could testify first-hand about being raped and pimped,

but the Vallejo chapter was where the Angels

made their money, off of the meth trade.

And how much did she know about that?

And would she testify about that?

So, after Margo was killed,

Buck Garrett went on to huge success

in the next several years.

A ranch outside San Francisco, horses.

And inside San Francisco, he was notorious.

He was a kingpin.

GRAHAM: I worked on the Compton homicide as best I could

because it was starting to become a cold case,

and there just wasn't much more evidence coming in.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

So... This, um... This case...

Because it involved the two little girls

that were about the same age as my own little daughter,

it cost me sleepless nights

because I kept turning over...

what else could I do to figure out who did this murder?

(MOTORCYCLE REVVING)

GRAHAM: I obsessed enough on it, thought about it enough

that it was partially responsible for the divorce of my first wife.

There was a time period when I was getting promoted.

But for the most part, I passed up promotions.

Because if I'd been promoted,

I would have been taken off the case.

As time went by, I developed some witnesses,

but many of them seemed to die mysteriously.

Doug Compton, the father of the twins, for example,

died of "pneumonia," allegedly.

But the truth of the matter is,

he developed a case of pneumonia

after he was hit in the head with a hatchet.

So I knew that the possibilities of ever solving this case

were slim to none.

But to murder children...

it was a big mistake.

It was probably one of the biggest mistakes

that Buck Garrett could have made

because that's what I knew

would give me an in.

I knew that real men, even if they're bad guys,

didn't put up with that.

If he was responsible

or contributed to Margo Compton

and her family's murder, he crossed the red line.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

One day I got a call from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.

And they told me that they had

a prison gang member

that had information on my case.

He said, "Well, is there anything you can tell me about it?"

And I said, "Well, I can tell you things about it

"that is not public knowledge. Would that help you?"

(MOTORCYCLES APPROACHING)

GRAHAM: I had been working on the Margo Compton homicide

for a good 12 or 13 years,

and word filtered up

from law enforcement in California...

from a confidential informant...

who was a leader in the Aryan Brotherhood gang,

a prison gang, his name was Michael Thompson.

MICHAEL THOMPSON: When we met, he was very direct.

He's not offering deals. He said, "Look,

"I don't really care about you, but I have a passion.

"And my passion is to come to terms

"with the execution of these two little girls,

"and Margo Compton."

And I said, "Well, we share that."

Outside of prison,

methamphetamine was controlled by the Hells Angels.

Inside of prison,

that became the domain of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Because the Hells Angels are a street-based motorcycle club,

and the Aryan Brotherhood is a prison-based gang,

And so the Aryan Brotherhood controlled the prison.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

Buck Garrett was a major supplier in prison.

My information on Margo Compton

came primarily from Buck Garrett,

in my discussions with him,

GRAHAM: He gives us information

that matches the case pretty closely.

But I also know that there's a lot of information

out there in the news media.

So I had withheld a little bit of evidence from the public,

that one of the twins clutched in her fist

a toy out of a Cracker Jack box.

And Michael knew it.

That's when I knew

that Michael was telling me the truth.

THOMPSON: I was at San Quentin

with this guy Bug-Eye Bob McClure.

And Buck Garrett had told me

that Bug-Eye Bob McClure was the shooter.

This was a huge break in the case.

(MOTORCYCLE REVVING)

GRAHAM: I had a name now,

and I was able to associate that name with Buck Garrett.

Mike Thompson didn't particularly care for Buck Garrett.

He didn't particularly care for Bug-Eye Bob McClure,

the men who were capable of and did murder children.

And so he decided to cooperate with law enforcement,

went into protective custody

and decided to testify in court.

BONNIE SLEEPER: There was a knock at the door

and I opened the door,

and Mike didn't really get much out of his mouth

and I slammed the door.

I said, "Go away, I don't want to hear it.

"I don't want any part of it.

"Leave me alone.

"It's done enough to destroy my life.

"Leave me alone."

"Please just hear my side of the story.

"Just hear me out."

So I opened the door and I let Mike in, and we...

We talked for a while,

and somehow he convinced me to testify at trial.

(SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

MARGO'S SISTER: Before the trial's happened,

Mike handed Bonnie and I a little black stone.

And so we're kind of just looking at these

and going, "Okay, so what's up?" And he says,

"The three of us, we're gonna carry these throughout the whole thing."

He said, "Put them in your pockets

"and just keep them there every day."

And we're like, "Okay, that's weird. But whatever."

GRAHAM: I got the idea that if I could give

these two women something physical

that they could hang on to during the trial,

that it might help them in some way.

(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)

THOMPSON: I was going to provide the testimony.

But I was called into the office of the captain,

and the associate warden was there.

and they were associates of the Hells Angels.

DROBAN: The Hells Angels have been able

to infiltrate government institutions

like prisons, like law enforcement,

and it's not that difficult for them.

They've bribed people.

They threaten people.

They will go to whatever lengths it takes

to safeguard their own enterprise.

They had my wife on the speakerphone.

And just as I walked into the office,

I could hear two motorcycles pull into my wife's place.

So it was put to me

that if I was going to go up and testify against Bug-Eye Bob McClure,

that they were going to kill my wife.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

The risk and dangers associated

with testifying in open court

against members of the Hells Angels

are very, very high.

(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

I was at Corcoran State Prison at the time,

and the associate warden and the captain put to me

that if I was going to go up and testify,

they were going to kill my wife.

And I said, "Hold on just a second."

And I called Sonny Barger.

I met Sonny in Long Beach.

So, you know, I had that association

prior to coming to prison.

I told him just exactly what was happening.

And he said, "Mike, I know nothing about this.

"I didn't condone that,

"that was a renegade move by Buck, that's all on him.

"And I'm certainly not condoning this."

And he said, "I'll stop this right now."

And he did.

So I went up to Oregon to testify.

ROBERT HAMILTON: When we decided to go to trial,

we prioritized the trial of Bug-Eye Bob McClure,

because he was the actual shooter.

And we didn't know if we had enough to convict or not.

And we were beginning to be concerned

about maintaining the evidence we had.

These witnesses were convicts

in protective custody, they could get killed.

THOMPSON: They flew me up there.

They took over an entire commercial flight.

Initially, I thought it was a little overdone.

Machine guns hanging off officers...

Come to find out

that their concerns were legitimate.

(SIRENS BLARING)

THOMPSON: They had a series of cars that they convoyed me in,

and they would switch up the cars.

But they discovered that the Hells Angels had learned

which car I was going to be in,

and had planted a bomb on it.

They were looking for a way to safely get me into the courtroom.

So they were gonna have to hollow out a vending machine

and put me inside of it and take me in that way.

And that's what they did.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

SLEEPER: During the trials, at one point,

Buck Garrett stood up and said,

"Tell her to shut up."

Well, his attorney just stood there

and watched me. (LAUGHS)

So, was there remorse?

Nah.

Bug-Eye Bob was a blank, non-emotional, non-feeling...

Obviously Buck Garrett had emotions and feelings,

but they were not necessarily emotions and feelings

that were connected to people other than himself.

(SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

MARGO'S SISTER: And then I found out how it happened.

I knew that they were shot,

but I didn't know that...

the girls were shot in front of her

to make sure that she suffered...

even more. (SNIFFLES)

We watched the jury,

Bonnie and I watched them as they came back

with a guilty verdict.

And the judge said,

"This is the most egregious crime I've ever heard."

I learned so much about evil in this world

that I never knew existed.

I made it clear to Buck that if it was true,

I was very disappointed.

And Sonny felt the same way.

We didn't agree with it. We didn't sanction it,

and I'm not gonna talk about it anymore.

In every homicide,

I liken it to throwing a rock in a pond.

It ripples out and it touches people,

but it really impacts people who love the victims.

We threw those stones so hard,

as hard as we could

into that ocean.

It was another day to celebrate.

SLEEPER: We each took our turn.

It was his way of telling us kids...

you need to let it go.

It needs to be done with.

It needs to be over.

-(WOMAN LAUGHS) Yeah. -All right. Now watch.

-I wanna make sure it gets out. -Oh, no.

MARGO'S SISTER: Mike is very thoughtful,

and he's not just another guy.

He's really special to me.

I really feel like he's a hero.

I decided to do this interview

because I needed to get my sister's story

and the reason why she did what she did out there.

I told her, I promised her I would do it.