Original subtitles

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

These are my weapons.

My dad was so determined to become a Hells Angel.

He changed his whole life to do this one thing.

He was gonna be the best Hells Angel you could be.

PAT: He's a big guy.

A very serious Hells Angel and dedicated.

(ALL CHEERING)

I mean, I lived it.

I slept it and loved it.

DOUG: He was a criminal. He was a gangster.

I'm like this guy is gonna be a Hells Angels member for life.

This was a no nonsense kind of guy.

My kind of guy.

I used to admire him for his size

his tenacity.

His balls.

DOUG: His downfall started when we identified him

as a Hells Angels president in Las Vegas.

PEEWEE: I gave everything to the Hells Angels, everything I had.

But I got to tell you, they screwed me good.

And in the end, the Brotherhood is a lie.

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

they're rebels rebelling against a society

for which they have no respect.

(UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

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

We're mostly a bunch of happy-go-lucky guys

trying to make it in this world.

KERRIE: They're misfits, they're outlaws.

And they defy the laws of attraction.

I don't know, I like 'em.

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

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: It's an organization with criminals in it.

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.

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.

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

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

Let's do this.

(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)

It means the first one to the party, the last one to leave.

(BOTH LAUGH)

What do you want?

I'll be incriminating myself.

People could say what they think it means,

but the legend of the Filthy Few is that, uh...

you took care of business for the club.

I mean, serious business, man.

I did take care of business.

My name's Charles Goldsmith.

That's my real name. Everybody calls me PeeWee,

and I became, uh, a president in the Hells Angels.

PEEWEE: I grew up in Milwaukee.

I lived there my whole life.

My dad was a carnival wrestler.

You used to go to carnivals back in the day.

And they would have a guy in a ring

and people would pay his money

and go in the ring and challenge him.

And then he... he started

messing around with other chicks.

And then he got some other girl pregnant

and he was a big piece of (BLEEP)

(LAUGHS)

I never had a father figure in my life.

BRENDA: Because he didn't have a dad.

I think he tried extra hard to be a good dad.

Like I remember my dad brushing my hair and... (CHUCKLES)

I used to go to the nurse because he'd put my ponytail

so tight, I'd have headaches all day.

PEEWEE: I was married to Dale.

We had Brenda, my daughter,

my senior year in high school.

And then my son Brad was born.

I remember my ex-wife telling me

it's time to grow up, get a real job.

Be a man, support your family.

Be that father figure.

And this Saturday night, at the Italian Community Center,

some fists and feet will be a-flyin'.

Chuck Goldsmith, super heavyweight kick boxer.

Over six feet seven inches tall,

tipping the scales at 400 pounds.

BRENDA: I always knew my dad was a tough guy.

He was always fighting and winning. (LAUGHS)

He was my everything when I was little.

PEEWEE: As time went on, I got better and better.

-(BELL DINGS) -(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

PEEWEE: Bing! I knocked this guy out in the first round.

COMMENTATOR: Watch out, Kickboxing world.

Milwaukee's about to unleash the Locomotive on you.

PEEWEE: When you get that feeling of being a champion,

knowing I was the best of the best, cream of the crop...

-(MOTORCYCLE REVS) -...top of the food chain,

I was always, like, a little intrigued

about the Hells Angel thing, you know?

But I didn't join the Hells Angels in Wisconsin,

uh, because there was none.

BRENDA: I think my dad was always looking for male bonding.

Because he didn't have a relationship with his father.

I had a family,

I was looking for a brotherhood.

Get that (BLEEP) camera off of me, man.

PEEWEE: I ran into the Sinners at a bar.

The guys were all so cool.

The Sinners was a real brotherhood.

When I came there, they had no clubhouse.

They had no money.

Their dues were $10 a month.

They only had about eight or nine guys

and I thought, "Man, we've got to do something here."

I drew people in for them,

and we started growing and growing.

Walk around here and ask some of these guys,

if they're having a good time at the reunion and stuff,

-you know? Hey, prost! -Al, are you having a good time?

Everybody's having a good time, man.

Number one, Sinners number one, buddy.

Woo!

The Sinners and us were such a family.

PEEWEE: There he is. (GIGGLES)

Look at that.

(PEEWEE LAUGHING)

It's way too early for that, Charlie.

Holy man! Now, these guys know how to party.

BRENDA: They had kids my age, so we, like, grew up together.

We had family dinner with them every Sunday.

The riding together, being friends, laughing, joking,

being able to travel with people

and having like a good time where you don't have to worry

about this person turning their back on you.

I think that's what brotherhood is to him.

Here we are at a Sinner reunion Saugatuck, Michigan.

This is what it's all about, you know.

I'm always that guy that steps up to the plate,

and says, "Hey, man, I'll do this.

"I want to be president."

And everybody, "Go ahead, PeeWee, run with it, man."

This is what it's about.

Sinners forever, forever sinners.

-Hey, (BLEEP) you. -PeeWee's around.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Hey, man, what's happening?

Yeah, look, thanks a lot for coming, ladies and gentlemen.

BRENDA: When the Sinners started getting bigger and bigger,

we noticed the ruffling of the feathers

of the Outlaws.

As a kid, I'm aware Outlaws mean danger.

They're bad. You see them, get away from them.

In Milwaukee, there's only Outlaws.

That's the only 1% Club.

NEWSCASTER: Imagine a club where the main requirement

for membership is that you've committed a felony.

But what sort of folks are these?

They're rolling at you right now.

The Outlaws are one of the nation's

largest motorcycle gangs and one of the most violent.

(MAN SHOUTS)

(ALL FIRING)

PEEWEE: I never really paid attention to Outlaws

because I didn't care.

Milwaukee, they were big in Milwaukee.

You know, they were the 1% Club in the area.

MAN: Is this (BLEEP) cool, or what?

I came up with a great idea of really making money,

talking serious money for the club.

It wasn't selling guns and drugs or broads,

you know what I mean?

It was a party.

We'll roast some pigs, we'll have bands and everything,

and we'll charge 40 bucks a person.

And everybody was like, "Yeah!"

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

This chicken isn't that good, it should be boiled.

So everybody was enjoying themselves.

It was a beautiful day. It was great.

And about 40 Outlaws come pulling up to the gate,

and we said, "Hey, it's this much to get in."

And they're like, "(BLEEP) you, we ain't paying!"

Pff. And just blast through the gate.

And what they really wanted was like all the small clubs

to bow down to 'em, you know.

They would make everybody wear this AOA patch,

and that means American Outlaw Association

showing that you're affiliated to them.

And as Sinners we refused to wear that patch.

When a big one percenter biker gang comes into play

and, you know, subsumes a lesser club,

what happens is that you're either gonna

pledge your allegiance to the bigger gang,

or you are going to suffer the consequences.

PEEWEE: We had a confrontation with the Outlaws at our clubhouse,

and this was probably around 1992, '93...

right after I won

the championship in kickboxing.

(CROWD CHEERING)

(BELL DINGS)

The confrontation with the Outlaws was basically me.

So I was already in great shape.

And I mean, this was just a sparring...

sparring session for me.

There was four of 'em.

Boom! The fight was on, and we started punching.

Boom, boom, bam, boom!

It got real crazy and I felt this hard jab in my back,

you know, I was like, "Aargh."

I looked over and he was standing there,

and had a small screw driver in his hand.

I looked at him and I said, "Did you (BLEEP) stab me?"

The fourth guy, I saw he had a gun in his hand.

You know what I mean? He stuck the gun to my head.

I pushed my head into the gun and I said,

"Do it now, man, because I'm thinkin' already." Whew...

The Outlaw leader, he says,

"We're the big 1% Club.

"We're the one you're gonna bow down to."

He walked out the door and he left.

And I turned all the Sinners

and I said, "Hey, do you wanna

"keep putting up with this (BLEEP)? I don't.

Twenty-six guys, only six of them raised their hand,

and said, "Let's do what we got to do."

The rest all said, "Hey, we're done."

They all handed their patches in and they all quit.

This is when I knew,

it was the beginning of the end.

They didn't stand by me,

they stood behind me.

There was a drag strip at this party in Humboldt, Iowa.

And they had beer, motorcycles and (BLEEP)

ANNOUNCER: Pat Matter out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This is the bike that's run by the Hells Angels out of Minneapolis.

It's a 1985, 107 cubic inch Evolution.

(CROWD CHEERING)

PEEWEE: The first living, live Hells Angel I seen.

I was just... like a deer in headlights, man.

I saw him smoking that cigarette, man.

Big broad-shouldered dude.

You could tell he was a man, you know what I mean?

And I went, "Pff, look at that patch, man."

All the guys looked at it.

And they go, "Yeah, that's bad, that's bad ass."

And I said, "I'm gonna go over and talk to that dude."

And a lot of the guys were like,

"Don't go over there, they'll kill you."

(ALL SHOUTING)

And I said, "Hey, how you doing? I'm PeeWee."

And he said, "I'm Ralph, Hells Angels, Minneapolis."

I says, "Man, what do I gotta do to be you, Ralph?"

And all he said was in his deep voice, his manly voice,

"Move to where we are."

Put a cigarette in his mouth, turned around and walked away.

(UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

And I thought, I don't give a (BLEEP),

I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to be in this club.

I wanted to be a Hells Angel, and I wanted to be the best.

(WIND HOWLING)

BRENDA: He changed his whole life to do this one thing,

to become a Hells Angel. He moved his family.

It affected everybody in his life.

PEEWEE: That was a huge decision for me to pack up,

uproot my whole family...

has lived our whole lives in Milwaukee

and move to another state. I mean...

Pfft.

We moved the day of my high school prom.

That was the day of my senior prom, we moved.

And then it was sort of like, a lot of...

I did not know that, but go ahead.

Yeah. So a lot of things happened.

Everybody asked me, are you mad,

or are you resentful towards your dad

because your life changed a lot?

I just sucked it up and I says,

"This is what my... my family does."

I wanna get this done, knock it off.

I thought that the Hells Angels were

gonna be the same as the Sinners

because that's what my dad kind of sold to us.

When I first started my adventure

to be a Hells Angel,

it was in Minneapolis with Pat Matter.

He was the president.

He ran the State of Minnesota with an iron glove.

(SIGHS SOFTLY)

Because, uh, what he said went.

PAT: Well, you know, PeeWee is a likable guy.

But there's something about at first with me,

it didn't go off real well.

PEEWEE: They bring me in a room. Pat says,

"Are you ready to do this? You wanna be a Hells Angel?"

I said, "Yes, I do."

"You're willing to go to prison,

"and you may have to kill somebody?

"You may get killed, you good with that?"

And I says, "I'll do whatever I gotta do, man. You know?"

I'm gonna be honest with you.

I thought they were gonna ask me to whack somebody

in Milwaukee, you know what I mean?

And he lays it on me,

"We want you to take a lie detector test."

What the (BLEEP) did you just say?

PAT: We was the only ones that was giving lie detector tests to our prospects.

But what better way to find out

if they was trying to harm the Hells Angels?

If they fail that lie detector test, they was gone.

"Is your name Charles Goldsmith?" "Yes."

"You want hurt the Hells Angels and their families in any way?"

"No."

"Are you a cop?" "No."

"Have you ever testified against somebody for the prosecution?"

Yeah, this is all the (BLEEP) they asked you.

They had me, like, at the edge of my chair.

Like, "Ooh, this is it, man."

And that's when Pat came to me and he goes,

"I've got some bad news for you."

And I said, "What's that?"

He goes, "You passed the lie detector test."

And that's when I started my prospecting.

PAT: As a prospect you do have to be

on call 24/7 for the club.

Club comes first.

Oh, man, I never saw my family.

It was just like minor (BLEEP).

Watching the bikes, cleaning the clubhouse.

Cut your grass, paint your garage.

Screw you, you know?

And there was a lot of that, bro.

A lot of it.

PAT: I think because he was president of the Sinners,

he didn't really wanna be a prospect.

BRENDA: When my dad became a prospect in Minnesota,

it's almost like degrading.

"Oh, PeeWee, come down to the clubhouse."

It's the middle of winter at 12:00 o'clock at night.

And then he'd get all the way down there.

"Oh, never mind. We don't need you."

Yeah, they did that quite a bit.

That was constant. This isn't the Sinners.

These guys aren't gonna come over and have Sunday dinner with us...

-No. -...you know.

I did think we had moved to Minnesota

to be safe from the Outlaws,

that Minnesota was a Hells Angels state,

and that they wouldn't wanna come there,

but it was not the case at all.

(GLASS SHATTERING)

REPORTER: Authorities believe the Outlaws were behind

this bombing of a meeting house.

That bombing could very well mean

more violence in the future.

(SIREN WAILING)

PAT: We killed people that we're at war with, with Hells Angels.

A lot of the guys in the club

didn't wanna see that war start up,

but I was for Hells Angels.

I wanted to see the club grow.

KERRIE: Biker gangs' main purpose is to acquire territory.

The more territory that they have,

the more that they're able to fuel

their drug trafficking, arms trafficking,

all of their nefarious activities.

And the Outlaws' gangland signature is bombings.

So if the biker gangs dip into each other's territory,

it starts a biker war.

(SIREN WAILING)

BRENDA: I remember my dad telling me, like,

he put a broomstick with a mirror on it,

and was like, "Look, look under your car."

"Look for what?"

I thought stuff was scary in Milwaukee,

and the bombs are a lot scarier. (LAUGHS)

PEEWEE: Man, the war was kicked up a huge step.

I think I went to three funerals

in the first year, when I was prospecting.

I guess I was doing it because I had that drive like everything

I had done in my life, I had the drive to do it.

I had to do it. It changed me.

I think my whole family could see it.

I... I took the kids up to the cabins

just to get them out of town with me,

to let the situation

calm itself down.

BRENDA: We just left.

We just got on the road and left,

and we're in the middle of nowhere,

so he would have to go somewhere to call my mom.

I mean, there was a lot of tension

and my brother was really young.

That's all he freaked out about was like, "Where's my mom? "

-Mama's boy. -Stop it. (LAUGHS)

I'm thinking... Pfft.

I'm not gonna let these Outlaws run me out of town.

Every day was a risk.

Every day was a challenge.

But I got to tell you, I don't think Pat wanted me in the Minnesota Angels.

I don't know, he just didn't want me around.

You know, he always tried to bust my balls and (BLEEP).

MAN: Up next, Pat Matter.

(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

MAN 2: Come, Pat, let's go.

(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

PEEWEE: Pat, he worked out.

Yeah, yeah.

(CHEERING)

PEEWEE: I knew these guys were doing 'roids and (BLEEP)

and they were going to the gym,

because he would have mood swings.

PAT: PeeWee liked to talk.

He was always bull (BLEEP).

(LAUGHS) I mean, by bull (BLEEP), talking to people,

when he should've been doing things... other things, maybe.

It's all bull (BLEEP). It's all bull (BLEEP).

I think he... felt endangered by me.

Pat's really short, 5' 4", 5' 5", 5' 6".

I don't know that PeeWee's size had anything to do with it,

but I did think he talked too much.

PEEWEE: Pat said, " don't want PeeWee in the club."

He said, "Hey, Charlie, you're just not cutting it."

I was thinking myself not cutting it, man.

And I was like, "What the hell do you mean, y'all?"

I walked out that door...

and I was actually relieved

of all the bull (BLEEP) I'd just been through.

I never felt no brotherhood there.

None.

But I got this burning desire in me

still to want to be this Hells Angel.

I already had a plan.

I'm gonna show these son of a (BLEEP)

how it's done, you know.

MAN: What began as a small rally in 1938

is now one of the largest in the nation,

with 350,000 or more expected visitors filling the streets with bikes,

and endless black leather.

BRENDA: The first time I met Sonny Barger was in Sturgis.

I mean, it was cool, like, everybody was real respectful,

and... and it actually changed my opinion of the Hells Angels.

PEEWEE: The main president of the Hells Angels.

The king himself, Sonny Barger,

I met him probably a thousand times.

Sonny told me, "PeeWee, you're gonna be very well known

because I watch you,

and like me, you're never too busy

to stop and shake somebody's hand.

You're never too busy to take a photo.

I learned a lot from the guy.

And that's when San Francisco came into the picture.

It was really the San Francisco Hells Angels

that made a really good connection with my dad in Sturgis.

That made him really wanna come back to the club.

I'm gonna go to San Francisco, and I'm gonna do this.

The hardest part for me was I couldn't take my family.

I said, "I think that I should go,

"and do this by myself."

But it did hurt my wife's feelings...

and I said, "Hasta la vista! Frisco, here I come."

This is my second time prospecting,

so I was even more wise.

And more vicious than I was the first time around.

The people you prospect with

are the people that you end up being the tightest with.

JP just got out of Pelican Bay,

and if you know anything about that,

that's about as hardcore as you can get

in the prison system.

JP: You know, the funny thing is,

is if he keeps his mouth shut,

he's the scariest thing on Earth.

As soon as he opens his mouth,

you just realize this guy is the funniest guy

in the world. You know what I'm saying?

I mean, that was PeeWee.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

The other thing that was going on at the time was... was a tug of war

with this other club, the Mongols.

I was used to the Outlaws

because I came from the Midwest.

You know, your problems on the West Coast are with the Mongols.

KERRIE: They've had this sort of cycle of revenge for years,

when the Hells Angels had to secede

their territorial dominance to the Mongols, right,

that was something that they just could not forget or live down.

REPORTER: Tens of thousands of bikers

are here in Laughlin, Nevada,

for an event called the River Run.

This is 20th annual River Run

and normally it's a peaceful event.

KERRIE: In the early 2000s, Nevada is a staging ground

for a huge biker war that's starting.

The feud just intensified in... in Laughlin.

This was Hells Angels territory.

The fact that the Mongols even showed up at this run

was sort of dangerous and risky on their part.

JP: The Mongols slowly started making their way down

to the casino floors.

(GUNSHOT)

JP: Bullets started flying.

We were very outnumbered. (LAUGHS)

Authorities are calling this the worst shooting ever

inside a Nevada casino.

MALE REPORTER: We have 16 victims, identified,

three of which are confirmed fatalities.

The bullet went... Where is this little dimple, man?

The bullet went in the back of my arm,

and it came out my chest.

It broke my arm in half,

I mean, I literally felt like I was in Vietnam, right?

PEEWEE: Unfortunately, I missed the big fight, the shootout.

I was like, "Oh, my God, I got to get there, man.".

I fall asleep, and the next time I opened my eyes,

I got this six-foot-seven,

350-pound dude standing over me.

He's got a sheet across him, and he's got his thumb

in this hole like this.

It was a .44 Mag he was shot with.

As soon as I woke up, I remember lookin' at him

and I'm like, "It's about (BLEEP) time,

I said to him, right?

I said, "Let's go. Get in the (BLEEP) car. Let's roll."

We made it to San Francisco.

He wanted to go to the hospital there,

and the nurse had a little tiny TV.

It's just constantly showing the shootout,

you know, the shootout just rolling with it.

She goes, "What's the problem?"

And he answers for me. He goes, "He's been shot.

"He needs to see a doctor."

I'll never forget it, she says, "Where?"

And I'm like, "Right here."

I'm all high on whatever these pills were.

"I mean where, where did you get shot?"

She wants to know the town, a place.

And he goes, "I don't know."

"Well, who shot ya?" "I don't know."

And she turns around and looks at the TV,

and I look at the TV and helicopters.

Laughlin. Mongols shootout. Hells Angels.

You could see in her eyes something clicked.

JP says, "Hey bro.

"Get the (BLEEP) out of here, man."

I turned around, I walked out the door,

walked out in the parking lot, got in my car.

As I turn and I hit the driveway.

Man, wrooom, wroom, wroom,

like four or five squad cars come flying in there.

You know, because she called up said,

"Hey, there's Angels here and one's shot."

What are you willing to do for the club?

Are you willing to commit a crime for the club?

Are you willing to take the heat

for someone in the club?

All of those things add up

in a Hells Angel's mind to "You're loyal to us".

PEEWEE: They called me in by myself.

That's what I thought was kind of weird.

Man, my... my brain was spinning like, like a top.

He reaches out and he picks up a patch and shoves it,

and then he goes, "Congratulations.

"Welcome to the club."

I just, I remember I just went,

(IN DEEP VOICE) "Yeah! Yeah!"

Like, you know, this is it, man.

I was a Hells Angel.

But if I only knew how bad it was gonna be.

(WHISTLING)

PEEWEE: It was a dream of mine always

to become a Hells Angel...

and to put my own charter in Las Vegas.

KERRIE: This became sort of the final frontier for bikers.

I mean, bikers really only develop chapters

in Vegas in the early 2000s.

PEEWEE: When we first got there man,

first pull over we got, a cop says to me,

"You're not going to be here long.

"Because either we're gonna kill you,

"or put you in prison.

"We don't want any Hells Angels in Las Vegas."

Like in the old movie Hells Angel '69.

You seen where they ran them out in the movie,

(LAUGHS) it was basically almost like that.

(SIREN BLARING)

You guys have been here less than 24 hours,

and already we've got a riot and a robbery on our hands.

So I'm gonna give you an escort to the county line.

And I don't want to see you in this town again.

An escort? That's pretty neat.

All right, boys, move this bunch out of here.

Las Vegas City is a money city.

You can hide money, you can make money.

DOUG: You've got gambling, you've got alcohol,

you've got the strip clubs,

prostitution is legal in part of the state.

There's a lot going on in Las Vegas behind the scenes.

And then in 2003, both the Hells Angels

and the Mongols opened chapters in Las Vegas.

BRENDA: My dad kept saying, "Will you move to Vegas?"

I go, "Dad. Vegas is somewhere you visit.

Not somewhere you live"

He's like, "Come on. I'm gonna start a charter.

"Come on. We're all gonna be together!"

And we're close and so I came.

PEEWEE: I just wanted to try to keep my family together.

I had that guilt thing still from leaving to go to Frisco.

BRENDA: They got a clubhouse and they started growing.

They had a very big presence.

He wanted to be somebody well-known,

like Sonny Barger was well-known.

He wanted to be one of those people

that somebody looks up to.

Look at the history of Las Vegas, you know,

oh, it was a mob operated.

The mob ran it. When I moved to Vegas,

I, I had to have a little sit down with those guys.

FRANKIE: The Italians and the Hells Angel guys.

There was some animosity.

Everybody wants to be the alpha dog, you know.

PEEWEE: Hey, boys and girls.

Frankie Citro, I smile when I say his name

because I mean organized crime,

money laundering, everything you could possibly imagine

they've got after Frankie's name.

We got together.

The first words out of his mouth was,

"Well, you know, that (BLEEP) happened in Laughlin,

that shoot 'em up cowboy (BLEEP) can't happen here."

That's not what the Italians would want.

They don't want that publicity.

They don't need that camarade, you understand?

PEEWEE: I didn't wanna bring any heat down on us.

So I said, "Hey, man, I have three rules,

"no selling guns, no selling broads and no selling drugs."

FRANKIE: PeeWee said, "Listen, I'm giving you my word."

This was a no-nonsense kinda guy, my kinda guy.

You know, PeeWee and I been in a few situations.

You put the two of us together,

you was in a tsunami, baby! Believe me.

But I'm not gonna disclose any of that.

PEEWEE: If we got busted in Las Vegas,

with any meth or cocaine or anything like that, we lose everything.

GLEN: PeeWee's stance of keeping his charter ruled

to not break laws or to sell drugs,

women, or dope is a nice statement.

But in reality, if they have that 1% patch on

there's a good chance that they are criminals

and they've committed a criminal act

to be able to wear that patch.

DOUG: PeeWee was the leader of a major criminal enterprise in our jurisdiction,

and we did our job and gave him some attention.

My name is Doug Pearson.

My partner and I, Andy McDermott,

we're both detectives at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

assigned to the Criminal Intelligence Unit.

We knew the Hells Angels were there

the day they opened their... their charter in Las Vegas.

The Hells Angels had opened a clubhouse,

gosh, within about a quarter mile from our police substation.

So, probably not a great place

for them to open the clubhouse actually.

PEEWEE: Pearson, McDermott, these two cops had an objective

just to shut us down and get us out of there.

There's some kind of criminal in every group.

You can't control all that.

But as a whole, the Hells Angels are not a criminal organization.

We weren't doing anything but survivin' and representin'.

DOUG: Part of PeeWee's problem was,

you're only as good as the people underneath you,

and he had a lot of people underneath him

that drew a lot of attention to his organization.

We had made multiple drug arrests.

We had made multiple illegal weapon arrests.

We raided the clubhouse because we had stopped a Hells Angels' prospect

leaving the clubhouse, and we discovered a fully automatic machine gun,

with a 50 round magazine and a silencer in his saddlebag.

PEEWEE: They tore my car apart,

saying the dogs smelled drugs in it. There was no drugs in it.

Then... they ripped my car apart

and just left it, like all torn up.

And they were truly (BLEEP).

That means I did my job well, so that, that makes me happy.

Because of PeeWee's family ties, his family was around.

So, we knew Brad. We knew Brenda. We knew his wife.

And they probably felt police pressure as well,

because we were always watching PeeWee.

Pearson and McDermott,

they would, like, go through my trash,

every time I'd come out of my house, they'd take my picture,

and they, like, followed me everywhere.

Brenda, she had kind of a rough reputation about her,

and I think, honestly, Brenda was probably

harder than the average Hells Angels member in Las Vegas.

His wife, during our search warrants of his house,

I'd discovered letters that she had written him.

She loved him.

She hated him being Hells Angels member.

BRENDA: My mom was struggling. This was not her life.

This was my dad's life.

KERRIE: When you're a Hells Angels president,

there comes a whole different kind of pressure.

The president is constantly having to make decisions

that are risky, that can jeopardize his family,

and so then you have to say, "Which family? The club or his family-family?"

I was both father and president of the Hells Angels.

It was hard to draw that line between, you know.

My son came up to me and he said, I wanna be a Hells Angel.

I said, "No, Brad, I don't want you to do it.

"I don't wanna see you, you killed,

"have to kill somebody or go to prison."

As things were, like heating up and stuff with us and the Mongols,

they wanted to teach me a lesson.

Took my wife with me, Dale,

and I jumped in the van and she jumped in the Cadillac,

and I said, "I'll follow you back to the clubhouse."

The Mongols thought my dad was in the car.

They were waiting.

My mom pulled up in front of the clubhouse.

PEEWEE: And a little white car pulled up

and a guy with a ski mask leaned out

and he pfff.

(GUNSHOT)

PEEWEE: It was a high velocity bullet,

went through one side, out the other.

Popped her eardrum and put a little powder burn on her face.

She was like, a ghost, like, she wasn't like the same person.

I know my dad felt,

that was one that hit home for him.

"My family is going to get hurt because of something I did."

PEEWEE: You're living that dream because you're thinking,

"Hey, I don't give (BLEEP), I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to be in this club."

But you keep forgetting, man, they're all at risk.

Your family is in danger at all times.

Brad told me that he was gonna marry his high-school sweetheart,

and we thought that was gonna be a special day.

And then all of a sudden we saw the Mongols.

REPORTER: A dangerous coincidence

brought members of the Hells Angels and the Mongols

face to face in the lobby of a wedding chapel.

PEEWEE: When my son came up to me, Brad,

and he said, "I wanna be a Hells Angel."

And he kept on on and on and on.

And then, like, two years went by.

He told me, "I'm gonna marry Veronica."

That was his high-school sweetheart and I said, "Okay," you know,

and he said, "I wanna prospect,"

and then I, um, let him be a prospect.

DOUG: Brad was not liked by many of the Hells Angels members,

but he was given special treatment through the prospect period

and as well as getting his full patch

just because of who his daddy was.

BRENDA: My brother's wedding was supposed to be a family day.

The ceremony, I was maid of honor.

My brother was marrying

a girl he was in love with since high school

and she was pregnant.

OFFICIANT: Veronica, do you take Brad to be your husband,

-forsaking all others as long as you both shall live? -I do.

PEEWEE: I could see Brad was nervous.

This was his big day, for him and Veronica.

(ALL APPLAUDING, CHEERING)

The bride and groom, they walked down the aisle.

We all proceed out.

I look past my brother

and I can see this guy's got a Mongol dress shirt on,

and I'm like, "Oh, my God."

One of the guys walks up to me and he says,

"PeeWee, the Mongols are here."

I said, "What do you mean, they're here?"

He said, "They're outside.

"They're outside the door. They're in the chapel."

They were getting married after us!

How ironic was that?

Man, my head was spinning.

I was thinking, "Man, of all the (BLEEP) days!" Right?

BRENDA: He tells my brother, "You stay in here with your mom and everybody."

And my brother turned my dad and said, "Where you go, I go."

I knew exactly what I had to do as a Hells Angel.

I knew I had to take care of this.

BRENDA: When my dad went out the door,

everybody followed behind him.

And I closed the door.

And within seconds, you just heard

screaming and yelling and chaos.

PEEWEE: Bam bam boom!

I just started throwing the punches.

Big ol' buck knife falls on the floor.

I hit like a mule.

So if I'm 450, you're getting a 450-pound punch to your face.

BRENDA: I turned and I looked and I saw my dad

and he, like, had blood, like, all over his face.

REPORTER: We're keeping his identity confidential

but this Mongol says he was just entering the chapel

as a groom

when he says he and his best man were stabbed by members of the Hells Angels

who had just wrapped up a ceremony.

An odd fate that turned a matrimonial ceremony

into a showdown of fists and knives.

MAN: Who am I? I'm a Mongol.

Who came after me? A bunch of chicken (BLEEP).

(SIREN BLARING)

PEEWEE: Brad later said to me,

"You couldn't have postponed this or just said,

'Hey, this ain't the right time or the right place to do this?'"

Yeah, I could have said that. I could have done that.

But...

I did not want to just say,

"Let's walk away from this today."

You know, and make it a good day,

a wedding day or somethin'.

People would've look down at me.

I think people would've thought less of me.

Does that bother me? Yeah, that does.

REPORTER: Detectives tried to piece together the violent brawl

of up to twenty people.

DOUG: I knew about that the night it happened.

DOUG: I knew about that the night it happened.

It's kind of comical to us, right?

Because we... we may, you know,

target him and watch him for so many years,

and quite often they do something stupid.

PEEWEE: Remember, the wedding was in 2008.

A year goes by. No cops.

2010. Bam!

REPORTER: Heavily-armed SWAT team members storm this two-story home

on Torrey Pines near Washington in a predawn raid.

Chopper 8 caught the action.

MAN: I've never seen a problem with them. They seem like cool guys.

But apparently they did something

because the cops are all over it this morning.

Clubhouse gets raided, all of our houses get raided.

They arrest every one of us.

When we arrested him,

he was so big, our leg irons wouldn't even go on his wrists.

The strong rule of thumb in the Hells Angels is you don't talk to the police.

He did talk to the police. He gave a statement.

If you talk to the police at all,

that's a violation.

You could get excommunicated because of it.

Those little nuances and violations of the Hells Angels bylaws

are used against members all the time.

Most of the time, it's because of a power struggle,

where somebody's trying to take PeeWee's spot.

PEEWEE: "You guys think

"I screwed up talking to the cops?

"How many guys in here believe that I disrespected this club,

"this club that I love and gave my life for?"

I think six of 'em raised their hands.

And I thought, "These dirty son of a (BLEEP)."

I took my vest off. I laid it on the table,

and I says, "Well, then I have no other reason to be here,

"so I'm gonna quit."

Yeah, I teared up.

I... I... You know, I was hurt, man.

You know, I... I was leaving something that I cared about.

That's it.

I gave everything to the Hells Angels,

everything I had, and in the end, the brotherhood is a lie.

REPORTER: The courtroom was ringed with extra security

as the 6'8" goldsmith

was sentenced to two to five years

and was led away

in one of the largest pair of handcuffs we've seen.

Dale, my wife said, "If you end up going to prison,

"I'm not waiting for you, and I will divorce you."

And she served me those papers.

BRAD: I just wanna say sorry.

It's changed my whole life.

REPORTER: The second defendant, Brad Goldsmith,

held out hope for probation,

but was likewise given a prison sentence

for a plea deal, 16 months minimum.

BRENDA: My dad was going to prison for the first time,

and it was hard.

It was very emotional.

My mom was a mess.

My family was 100% falling apart.

As a Hells Angel, I... I gave everything I had.

And in the end, they, like, totally reject ya.

The minute you quit, boom, you're a piece of (BLEEP).

(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

I think it was hard being a Hells Angel, and being a father,

but y'know, uh, I was always in my kids' lives.

Can't say, like, I'm telling you about my dad.

(ENGINE WHIRRING)

I'm very close to my daughter, Brenda.

And, um, at this time my son Brad doesn't talk to me.

When he got out of prison, he never talked to me again.

And...

I'm good with that.

I guess when I'm gone, maybe he'll think about it.

Brenda's getting married

and I've gotta walk her down the aisle in Vegas.

I just hope there ain't any Mongols at this one.