Original subtitles

-When the Hells Angels need to put out a hit on somebody,

they will oftentimes recruit people

that are not Hells Angels.

-Ted Soke was a very rough guy.

Always had a knife on his side.

You know, he's always been known to be

affiliated with the H.A.'s.

-Ted would do anything for the Hells Angels. Anything.

He just idolized them.

-The Hells Angels really don't have any qualms about,

you know, recruiting from, you know, the dregs of society.

They're going to recruit sociopaths

who are so used to killing, it doesn't mean anything to them.

-Ted was like a puppet master. He had to have a puppet.

Donny would do anything for Ted.

-He was his hero. You know what I mean?

His dad was his hero.

-Donny buried his first bodies with his father

when he was 10 or 11 years old.

-This is who they're willing to get to do their dirty work.

[ Motorcycle engine starts ]

-Over and over, they say they are not criminals.

They're rebels, rebelling against a society

for which they have no respect.

♪

-We never gave a [bleep] about what anybody else thought.

♪♪

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

trying to make it in this world, you know?

-They're misfits, they're outlaws,

and they defy the laws of attraction.

-You know, I idolize them. I adore them.

They're my whole life.

-Angels forever, forever Angels.

Speaks for itself.

♪♪

-The Hells Angels are not a criminal organization.

-Why don't you people go home?!

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 going to 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.

-Ready for this? -I'm ready.

♪

-As to count one, aggravated murder,

this court sentences you to life in prison

without chance of parole before 30 years.

♪

-Before I talk to you,

I mean, this isn't your first rodeo,

so you know I have to read you your rights, correct?

Um, so, before I ask you any questions,

it's my duty to advise you of your rights.

You have the right to remain silent.

Do you understand? -Yes, ma'am.

-Anything you say can be used against you

in a court or other proceedings. Do you understand?

You have the right to talk to a lawyer...

♪

Can you kind of tell me about yourself in 1984?

What was going on? What were you doing?

-A lot of things.

A lot of things I shouldn't have been doing.

So, me and my dad.

-Like, what was your job? What did you do?

Did you just do stuff for your dad or...?

-No, I -- Uh, landscaping, bodywork.

I find odd jobs, um...

Killing people.

♪

♪

I had a choice, but not really.

12 years old, 13 years old, what kid has?

-Yeah, right. -You know?

You know, I'm not proud of the things I did,

but, I mean, the only person that I really

was attached to was my father.

You know, he's the only one that seemed like the more bad

I would do, the more, you know, he liked me,

so I wanted somebody to like me. -Mm-hmm.

You said he was a Hells Angel? -No.

When I was a kid, I thought he was.

You know, he played the role as one,

but he was just, you know, one of their henchmen or --

or how -- how can you -- Flunky.

-Okay. -You know, that's basically --

-Like a hang-around kind of guy?

-Basically. Absolutely.

♪♪

-Who's your godfather?

-Tommy Padavick. Tommy Padavick is a Hells Angel.

-He was the president of Hells Angels back at that time.

-Yeah. -Okay.

♪

So, when your dad asked you to come along with him

to do murders, did you get anything for it?

-Oh, yeah, I got paid.

I got just a smiddling, a pittance of -- of the,

you know, whatever he made. -Okay.

-People went to my dad

because they knew my dad wouldn't talk.

That's what drew everybody to my father, okay?

Because he was -- he was a true one-percenter,

you know, that... -Right.

-...that the clubs, you know, look for.

♪

-Cleveland has as much of an organized crime,

as dramatic of an organized-crime history

as Chicago or New York.

And, of course, these guys are all birds of a feather.

You know, organized-crime associates, Hells Angels,

these are guys that are into drugs,

their reputation for violence, they're into making money.

-Cleveland, as a Hells Angel charter, had a reputation of,

"You don't want to [bleep] with these guys."

There was a lot of serious things going on back then.

There was a lot of police corruption.

They were corrupting the court system.

There was a lot of gambling, numbers rackets.

It was a very, very dangerous time.

The Hells Angels were definitely in the middle of it.

-So, in Cleveland, murder was really becoming second nature

to the Hells Angels.

But their objective is not to bring heat back on the club.

So they began to hire contract killers.

-That, in some cases, was more attractive of an idea

to use an outsider and pay them

than to use their own crew members,

so they would contract with outsiders.

-They're going to recruit meth addicts who are desperate

and, you know, sociopaths who are so used to killing,

it doesn't mean anything to them.

[ Motorcycle engine starts ]

This is who they're willing to get to do their dirty work.

It's a really easy way for the Hells Angels

to stay under the radar, to hide their criminal exploits,

because nobody really traces it back to them.

-Hells Angels were farming out contracts in the late '70s.

Contract killing can become very, very sophisticated.

When you're talking about an open contract,

there's no hierarchy associated with that.

The open contract can be picked up essentially by anybody.

They're essentially saying, regardless of how it's done,

get it done, and it doesn't matter who picks it up.

Of course, the individual that picks up an open contract

wants to be paid -- through an associate, usually --

so far down the line that it can never be traced back

to the nucleus of the organization.

♪

-There have been rumors for years that East Coast

Hells Angels, other club members,

have contracted out work for various hits.

True or not? I don't know.

But it certainly was a rumor

that circulated in the '70s and the '80s.

-Thank you. -Okay?

-Mm-hmm. -Thanks.

-My name is Tom Doyle, and I was a detective

in the Greater Cleveland area for 39 years.

♪♪

It's a complex and unique relationship

Donny and I have had over the years.

He's written me, and we've been in communication an awful lot,

and he told me about how he buried his first bodies

with his father when he was 10 or 11 years old,

and he was told that "If you tell anybody,

I will kill you and bury you, too."

♪

Where they buried the body,

he had to take a bus to school, and he went by that spot.

He could see it in the distance, and every day,

it was a reminder that he wanted to say something,

but he couldn't because he would be buried there, too.

When his father gets angry,

his father physically abuses him.

Donny talks about being knocked out by his father

when he's like 12 years old and being --

having his face crushed into the gravel on a driveway.

Donny talks about how much he hated his father for that,

and he talks about an occasion

where he tried to shoot his father

and the gun misfired, because of the abuse.

♪♪

Between the ages of 10 and 12,

Donny talks about a bar his father would frequent,

and he hated going there

because his father would take money from men,

and he would have to go into the men's room

and orally copulate them.

He didn't want to do it,

but if he didn't, his father would beat him.

So, in Donny's mind,

he's all mixed up with love and hate, respect and fear.

It was obvious that he was controlled by his father.

Donny started telling about a murder

that he and his father had done in Lake County, Indiana,

and it was arranged through the Hells Angels.

♪

-My dad knew all kinds of other clubs.

You know, he did things for the Angels against the other clubs,

and I believe this was one of them.

This here was -- was a, uh --

This guy died because of the Hells Angels.

♪

So we get to this guy's house, whose name's Bobby.

That's all I know. The guy, Bobby, gives me a gun.

He hands Ted a sawed-off -- a sawed-off shotgun.

Bobby says, "When I say 'knucklehead,'

Donny, you shoot." -Mm.

-He said, "Don't shoot until I say 'knucklehead.'"

♪♪

-Ted was taking contracts to kill these people.

They would be fearful and apprehensive

if they would see a person like Ted approaching them.

♪

Donny was younger, slight build,

and he would be disarming to approach them.

And that's what happened in this instance in Indiana.

-Going in the guy's garage.

So the guy turns around, he's like,

"What are you looking for?"

That's when dude said, "A knucklehead."

I automatically pulled the gun I got in my back pocket,

and he sees me as he's going, but he goes to turn around.

My gun catches him right dead square

in the middle of the chest.

I couldn't tell you if Ted fired his shotgun or not.

I have no clue because I was emptying my gun into him.

And that's all I was concentrating on.

On the way home,

Ted hands me $500, and that was that.

♪

-According to Donny, they killed the guy

because he had shorted some bikers on methamphetamine,

and the Hells Angels wanted revenge.

♪

-Over the years, I've learned an awful lot about Ted Soke.

I believe he was taking contract murders,

being paid to go and kill people for the Hells Angels.

♪

Ted was a close associate of the Hells Angels.

He would be on their runs. He would be at the clubhouse.

He described himself to his then-girlfriend

that he was a brother of the Hells Angels.

♪

-I was at a bar and seeing this guy,

I asked somebody who he was. They said he was Ted Soke.

Somehow we ended up having a conversation.

He took me for a ride on his Harley.

I came back to the bar.

People kept telling me, "Stay away from him."

He was bad.

They just said he was always in trouble, in and out of jail.

I thought he was a nice-looking guy who said nice things.

Very polite. I didn't see any problems.

I didn't see any crazy warning signs.

♪

I actually felt sorry for Donny

because his mother was gone already.

By then, she had died.

You know, kid wanted love.

Sometimes Ted seemed like he liked him,

and sometimes he would tell him to leave him alone,

get the hell away from him.

Donny just tried and tried to get Ted to like him.

Donny would do anything for Ted.

-The murder of 32-year-old Karen LaSpina in October 1985.

She'd apparently surprised burglars

and was knifed to death.

[ Ringing ]

-Good friend of mine, Tom Doyle from Eastlake Police,

and a bunch of fellow Eastlake police officers

were at a little bar down the street from where I live.

[ Pagers beeping ]

And when I'm sitting there, uh,

suddenly everyone's pager in the bar goes off,

all the cops, all at the same time.

Tom looked at me, he says, "We got to go,"

and they all jumped out of the bar into their cars

and started speeding off, and I followed them.

♪♪

I could tell immediately which house it is

because there's cops all over the place.

And I run into Detective Doyle, and he says, "Follow me, John."

♪

I have no idea what I'm gonna be seeing,

but I follow him, go up these little steps,

and I'm hearing this calm voice counting like 21, 22, 23.

I have no idea what they're counting for.

And I look off into the living room,

which is at the front of the house,

and I'm seeing three cops

kneeled next to this woman lying on her back.

And I noticed there are marks on, like,

a sweater she's wearing, like dashes.

Then I realized they're counting stab wounds.

♪♪

-The murder of Karen LaSpina had a more personal impact

than others have had on me.

It was something that should never happen to a human being.

Karen was totally innocent.

Somebody came in, for whatever reason, entered that house --

we suspected burglary -- and then they butchered her.

This happened in October.

By the end of the year, we were coming up empty.

We had a composite of a young person

seen running from the scene,

and we published that in the paper,

hoping that we would get something out of that,

and we didn't get anything.

-My name is Allen Wayne Filkins Sr.,

better known as "Stinky."

I'm a lifelong friend of Donny Soke.

Grew up with him.

Spent a lot of time with him in the younger days.

I'd say probably second, third time we ever met,

we became what we call today,

a lot of guys that's been in prison,

we'll call each other brothers.

Donny's always been, like, a burglar,

to my knowledge, uh, a thief.

He could only have been led into that kind of life with his dad,

Ted Soke.

You know, there's even a rumor that Ted was grooming

Donny from the giddy-up, from child,

to be a stone-cold-blooded killer

and part of the H.A.'s -- Hells Angels.

♪

I was incarcerated in Lake County Jail

and they brought Donny in one night.

Donny had, uh -- had clothes on and had, uh --

looked -- looked to me like blood on his shoes.

And he made the comment to me, "I [bleep] up, bro, big-time."

I said, "What are we talking about?"

He says, "You remember seeing the news earlier,

that lady on there, Karen LaSpina?"

He says, uh, "I might've killed her, bro."

♪♪

-The informant's story

was that, at the time of the LaSpina murder,

there was a prisoner who looked like the composite

that was the suspect of the murder.

When they saw that drawing, this individual shaved his head

and he started tattooing a large spider web across his face.

We looked at a photograph of what he looked like

before he started the tattoos and stuff,

and he looked similar to the composite that was in the paper.

Then I make some phone calls to the Lake County Jail,

and they knew exactly who it was.

So we made plans to go see him.

He was claiming not to have been involved in the crime.

I was trying to build a relationship with him.

I had the impression that he wanted to tell us the truth

about the LaSpina murder.

But there was some things that we found were truthful

and some things were just not truthful.

♪

[ Cassette tapes clattering ]

[ Button clicks ]

He went from, "I know the people

who did the murder," to, probably the third time

or the fourth time, he was willing to place himself there,

but he didn't do the murder. He saw it done.

♪♪

-It was interesting because when we saw that his father

was a associate of the Hells Angels,

everybody in the jail knew that.

We suspected it could be for the Hells Angels

who wanted it done or to impress them.

Ted came to the police department a number of times.

I would take him back to the area in the jail

where the visiting was.

He acted unemotional with Donny.

He acted wary with me.

Donny was obviously pleased to see his father,

but Donny seemed nervous with his father's presence.

You could tell there was admiration for him,

but there was no affection shown from Ted to Donny.

There was no hugging. There was no handshake.

There was -- There was no "How you doing?"

and, "Everything's okay," and, "We're gonna get you a lawyer."

That type of stuff wasn't happening.

♪♪

-I never even believed Donny killed anybody

or knew anything about a murder.

And, you know, so the story I'm hearing,

that he may have been involved in the stabbing itself,

you know, that's a lot of stabs for one guy to do,

so kind of does make sense

if Donny and Ted both stabbed her.

-Says, "Donny, who is so important in your life

that you would lie to protect?"

And I'm looking at him, and I say, "It's your father."

He erupted like a rocket, coming right up out of the chair.

"My father's a saint. My father's a good man."

I was -- I was sure at that point that --

Wow, that was -- We were onto something here.

♪

So when I'm gathering information on Ted,

I approach his ex-girlfriend.

Marianne was a victim of Ted.

She tells me a number of horrendous things.

♪

-When I moved in with Ted, it got pretty bad pretty quick.

♪

Ted got physical, and then the name-calling.

♪♪

Ted had knocked me down the stairs, busted my eardrum.

Always had a black eye.

Um...a busted rib.

He beat me so bad, I had blood running out of my nose and ears.

♪

He raped me and, um...

kept me and the kids in a corner...

for a couple days.

And that's when I said I had enough.

He was gonna kill us. He was gonna kill us.

So I knew I had to get out of there.

They tracked him down, arrested him, put him in jail.

During my rape trial, on a recess,

we were watching the news, and the newscasters

were talking about charges being brought against

Ted Soke and his son, Donny Soke,

in connection of the Karen LaSpina murders.

♪

♪

-Donny's found guilty,

and he's sentenced to 30 to life.

-Donny told me the reason he did was because

Ted would killed him on the spot.

That he would probably killed him right there.

♪

Because there had been other things that Donny

had done with Ted

that Donny did out of fear of dying, is what he told me.

♪♪

-Because Donny had backed out

from testifying against his father,

the prosecutor makes a strategic decision

to dismiss the charges against Ted.

♪

When the prosecutor dismissed the charges, I was crushed.

I know he's involved. I know he did it.

The information we're receiving is somebody wanted her dead,

and Ted did it as a contract. I've had several people tell me

how it came through the Hells Angels,

and I said, because I couldn't get Ted for the LaSpina murder,

he's going to answer for the crime in another way."

[ Indistinct talking ]

-Donny had confessed to the murder,

and although the prosecutor dismissed

the charges against Ted,

I believe that it was a murder-for-hire

and that Ted was being paid to go

and kill people like Karen LaSpina.

Ted now, at this point, had got himself in prison

for the rape and kidnapping of Marianne.

So we started going to the prisons,

talking to people who were in the same cell blocks

or cellies with him.

♪

We learned that Ted talked about the murder,

that he's the one who killed Karen LaSpina.

But they also gave us statements about other murders

that occurred in other places.

They said that he also killed

The Plain Dealer newspaper reporter in Cleveland.

-While both Porter and his wife were stabbed to death,

no murder weapon was found at the scene last night.

No valuables were taken.

There was no sign of a struggle. Not a usual burglary.

But who would want to kill a retired editor and his wife,

and why?

♪

-From talking to the various inmates,

we learned that, allegedly, this was done

to silence The Plain Dealer,

because of what they were printing,

negative things about the Hells Angels.

♪

-There were some stories in The Plain Dealer

covering the Hells Angels trials.

There are any number of them.

♪

And then some of them, they didn't have

bylines on them.

That's where it says "by..." certain reporter.

And maybe that's because they were afraid

that there would be some kind of retaliation against them.

They realize these people are dangerous.

-In 1981, Butch Crouch turned himself in

and told of the crimes he'd committed with the Hells Angels.

[ Cell doors unlock, open ]

♪

♪

-39 years ago, in May of 1985,

Ted Soke and his son, Donny,

six months before they killed Karen LaSpina in Eastlake,

killed Philip and Dorothy Porter in that house.

♪

-It sounded like a burglary that went bad

because the burglars didn't realize the couple was home.

Just killed them because they were witnesses.

Nobody had made a connection between his work

at The Plain Dealer that had anything to do with

the Hells Angels.

♪♪

-Since Donny had been to prison,

he had continually written me.

Sometimes he would write me two letters in a week,

and sometimes I'd get one letter in four months.

But this letter that comes,

he's telling me he could help us with other crimes.

So we make arrangements to have Donny

brought back from the prison where he's at.

As we're driving back,

Donny told us he wants to help us with the Porter murders.

He wanted to trade his information

for time off of his sentence.

♪♪

When Donny's testifying.

Ted's sitting there, watching him.

It's not a father looking at his son.

He's looking at him with hatred,

trying to intimidate him with his --

with his glare.

Donny, in the beginning, was hesitant

and was emotional about testifying.

-Um...

-As the testimony went longer, he got more angry --

you could see he was angry -- and defiant

and staring back at his father.

The first thing that struck me

when I learned about the Porter murders

was that it was the same day as Donny's birthday,

his 18th birthday.

And I thought, "Wow, what a coincidence."

During the course of the trial,

Donny says that his father told him,

"You have to show heart."

According to Donny, Ted takes Mrs. Porter

and hands her to Donny, says, "You have to do her."

It's his 18th birthday. This is a rite of passage.

♪

♪

Over the years, Donny has apologized

for the crimes he's committed, said he was sorry,

and, at other times, he has claimed we framed him,

his father's an innocent man.

I understand that -- I realized he is a manipulator,

and he's -- he's a liar.

Although Donny had changed his testimony,

we accumulated a number of inmates

that were in prison with Ted who were giving us information.

We used probably 7 or 8 at the trial

to testify against Ted Soke, that he had told them

that he killed the Porters to impress the Hells Angels,

or because the Hells Angels wanted it done.

♪♪

The jury voted for death,

and the judge gave him the death penalty.

-50-year-old Ted Soke made that brief statement

in court this morning, but it made no difference.

-Theodore A. Soke, I hereby sentence you

to die in the electric chair on May 17, 1993,

for the brutal and senseless murders

of Philip and Dorothy Porter.

♪

-Ted Soke never told us anything other than,

"I have nothing to say to you."

But he was bragging to the various inmates

that he did it for the Hells Angels,

and that's what caused him to get convicted.

-In prison, Ted was bragging about how he killed

the Porters to ingratiate himself to the Hells Angels,

and he thought this might help him

get -- become a member of the Hells Angels.

-There are people that go to extreme lengths

to impress the Hells Angels, which you have to consider

when you're looking at someone like that

for a possible membership is if they're doing it for you,

they're gonna do it eventually for the public,

and that becomes a liability.

So you have to be very careful as you vet these guys,

if you will.

Are there any measures that, uh,

weed out complete sociopaths, psychopaths,

uh, whatever you want to call them?

Perhaps they disappear.

♪

-Ted was never coming out of prison.

He was going to die there.

Found out later that when Ted was in prison,

the prison officials knew from talking to inmates

that there was a contract for Donny's life put out by Ted.

-Ted was upset that Donny had testified,

and rather than what a normal parent would do

if you're upset with a child,

Ted took a contract for his son, and he wanted him killed.

♪

Any inmate that wanted to could carry out the contract

and kill Donny, and there would be favors,

rewards, coming from Ted through the Hells Angels.

The typical way is to be stabbed to death,

a shiv, or to be beat to death,

have some type of weapon and beat him to death.

-When we got off the, uh... -The Interstate?

-...of the Interstate...

-Well, Donny's missing part of his hand from being stabbed

and fighting off people with knives.

He's been stabbed other times.

I know his jaw has been broken about 7 or 8 times.

♪

-My daughter called me and said, "Guess what.

I got a great birthday gift for you.

Ted's dead."

I was fine about it.

He did a lot of damage to a lot of people.

Innocent people that...

♪

He just hurt a lot of people.

♪

-Within a week of Ted dying,

Donny had gotten ahold of me by telephone

and expressed sorrow that his father died.

At the same time, in the same conversation,

he was glad he was dead.

Again, there's a dichotomy there

that's -- that's hard to understand.

How could anybody do this with their children?

We hurt enough people by --

by just our thoughtlessness and misfortune.

That you would go do this on purpose to your child,

how could you do this?

♪

He hates what his father did, and he --

He's said, at times, "I hate my father,"

but there's still that -- that thing there.

♪

-Me and Donny had numerous talks when we was

in Eastlake jail together. Uh...

He said one of the things

he regrets is he never killed his dad.

Said he always wanted to.

He said, you know,

"Now that I don't ever get the chance to do that,"

he says, "It hurts."

He said, "'Cause I was gonna kill that son of a [bleep]"

and I can see why.

-Yeah, my dad groomed me. -Yeah.

-That's what I was told by my --

I talked to a psychiatrist. -Right.

-And he was grooming me. -Yeah.

-I believe he was grooming me for whatever.

I had no clue. -Mm-hmm.

-You know? -Okay.

-Well, to kill people. -Right.

♪

-So many times in Donny's young life,

if somebody would have stepped up and done the right thing,

he would not be in prison.

And that's not the shame of it.

The shame of it is, other people would be alive.

♪♪

-I'm not lying about nothing else no more.

Okay? So it's time to get the truth out,

let people rest, you know?

Let the families of these people,

you know, rest, so... -Mm-hmm.

-Everything, rumors, and, you know,

Ted Soke being involved, it kind of leads one to think

the H.A.'s are behind these hits.

♪♪

Donny tells me he was --

he took these contract killings out.

He knew -- he knew somebody higher up.

He didn't say where.

It broke his heart not to tell me back in the day,

but he could never tell me because it would have led

to his death, him being killed.

♪♪

-Ted and Donny were being paid to go

and kill people for the Hells Angels.

If they weren't directly for the Hells Angels,

the murders were arranged through the Hells Angels.

-So many contract murders go unsolved for many, many years

because there isn't any direct link back to the Hells Angels.

There were no repercussions for it.

♪

-Don Soke's a cold -- stone-cold-blooded killer,

could do that to females, old people.

He's definitely where he needs to be.

And that's -- I love him. I love him to death, but...

some things you just don't do,

or, if you do, you pay the price.

-I said to him at that point, I said, "Donny, you're never

coming out of prison."

And that's when he cried.

And I got up, and I walked around, and I'm holding him.

I put it -- he's leaning against my side,

and I got my arm around him, and, uh...

He said, "I wished -- I wish you'd have been my father."

So it's hard not to feel something kindly towards him.

Yeah, I think that he didn't have a chance,

but at some point, you're responsible to walk away.

♪