HA Raymond 'Ray Ray' Foakes and HA Christopher 'Rain Man' Ranieri have been convicted, while a third biker has been acquitted. Foakes was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon and witness intimidation. Ranieri was convicted of murder conspiracy and racketeering. Both men face decades in prison.
It was a nearly identical trial to the 2022 RICO trial that put Russell 'Rusty' Ott, Jonathan 'Jon Jon' Nelson, and Brian Wayne Wendt away for the murder of Joel Silva.
Christopher 'Rain Man' Ranieri
Jonathan Nelson, right.
HA Jonathan 'Jon Jon' Nelson, Russell 'Rusty' Ott, and Brian Wendt were convicted of murder and RICO charges and sentenced to life.
Brian Wendt
Jonathan 'Jon Jon' Nelson, left.
A prospect for the Sonoma Hells Angels lived a double life as an FBI informant. He, along with two former HA members, were the most important of dozens of government witnesses in the racketeering trial. Defense lawyers called it an “unholy alliance” between “shady, disreputable hooligans” and cops desperate to take down the HAMC.
The club are a band of brothers who celebrate “freedom, a love of the open road and motorcycles”. The first two government witnesses were victims of beatdowns.
Five years ago the FBI rounded up nearly a dozen Hells Angels to face allegations of murder of their own.
Three of the defendants, including club chapter presidents in Fresno and Sonoma, went before a jury. Jonathan 'Jon Jon' Nelson, Russell 'Rusty' Ott, and Brian Wendt violated the federal RICO Act through their involvement in the HAMC. They lured former sergeant-at-arms Joel Silva to his execution. Silva was killed at the Fresno clubhouse. Wendt shot him in the back of the head. Silva binged on drugs, behaved unpredictably and attacked HA guests. He sealed his fate by threatening to kill a fellow Hells Angel named Sweeney, who was close to Boston/Salem president Christopher Ranieri.
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Jay Dobyns reveals HA rules
Jay Dobyns, 61, was working for the ATF from 2001 to 2003 when he took on the false persona of Jay Davis or "Jaybird" and posed as a gun runner and debt collector. "With regards to women, there's a hierarchy that takes place within the gang. There's old ladies who are the wives or girlfriends of members and they're off limits. You better not get caught trying to mess around with a member's wife or girlfriend, because there's a violent price to pay." Dobyns revealed that the bikers can sleep around with other women and that it wasn't an issue when members slept with the same one. "But there's also women who, they move from member to member to member".
He joined the Mesa, Arizona, chapter after staging the murder of a rival biker.
Strict rules come with interacting with other members, and these also came with violent consequences if they aren't followed. When you meet a Hells Angel and you have your sunglasses on, you better lift your sunglasses up and look that person in the eye. "I was told if I had riding gloves on, you better take your riding glove off when you shake hands with a Hells Angel. "Never touch a Hells Angel's patch, never slap them on the back. I made those mistakes and I was smacked for it. If you're out bad they will come and take back their cut. They will take back your motorcycle, that's their property in their eyes, and they'll take back tattoos."
Operation Black Biscuit resulted in 55 members of the Hells Angels and its associates being indicted, including 16 high-ranking members of the gang who were indicted on charges including murder, murder for hire, racketeering and drug trafficking.
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HA boss Joseph Lancia - 1 year in big house down, 4 to go
HA Rhode Island boss Joseph Lancia marked the first anniversary of his five year prison sentence for a 2019 shooting involving a former prospect. Lancia was sentenced in Feb 2022 to 15 years in prison with five to serve and the remainder suspended with probation.
The R.I. Supreme Court denied HA Joseph Lancia’s request for judges to weigh in on a judge's decision not to recuse herself from presiding over his case because her husband is a cop. Lancia, 30, fired a gun at a truck driven by former prospect Richard Starnino. Lancia argued for the judge's recusal. Prosecutors called Lancia’s request “absurd and condescending.”
Lancia was shot down twice to have his judge recuse herself. Lancia appealed to the state Supreme Court and lost. He dodged assault charges after a cop witnessed him in a bar fight while he was out on bail.
Russell Raymond Vannoy pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter of Michael Adam Morales and was sentenced to six years in prison. Vannoy, 63, a member of the Devils Diciples MC, was arrested on murder and gang charges in the stabbing death of Hells Angels prospect Morales in downtown Bakersfield. Guthrie’s footage shows the president of the Bakersfield HAMC shake hands with Vannoy before Morales enters and starts swinging.
Video evidence proved Vannoy acted in self-defense when he killed Morales. Morales swung a bar stool and had a handgun as he attacked Vannoy. Footage clearly shows the gun fall down and out of Morales’ pant leg.
Michael Adam Morales 32 was killed after being stabbed inside one of downtown Bakersfield’s most famous dive bars, Guthrie’s Alley Cat.
News of Morales' death spread fast through the local biker community. Morales affiliation with the Hell's Angels MC was prominent on his Facebook page. He had 3 young children.
The bar strictly enforces a 'no colors' policy, but some local bikers have begun to employ "subterfuge," the owner said, by wearing "soft colors" or covering gang colors or emblems only to reveal them later.
"No matter how nice the bikers appear to be, or how much they say they love your joint, stuff like what happened will happen," he said. "It will follow them every time. It's an iron law."
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Maine HA pick wrong granny
On May 14, 2022 seven bikers were stabbed in a brawl. HA descended on the clubhouse of the Pagans at 1375 Pleasant St. FBI raided two Hell’s Angels properties in Westport in July 2022.
The Pagans clubhouse involved in a melee with the Hells Angels that left 7 stabbed was shuttered by the city for building code violations.
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Vallejo Hells Angel Dennis Killough Jr. in the chit again
Kenneth Caspers Jr., Dennis Killough Jr., Jaime Alvarez, and Michael Mahoney.
HA Michael Mahoney, 30, pled guilty and he's off to the pen for a mandatory minimum of 5 years. A search warrant at his home found a .38 and a 12-gauge shotgun with a sawed off barrel. HA Dennis Killough Jr., 51, pleaded guilty in federal court to being a felon in possession of a firearm and faces as much as 10 years in prison when sentenced.
Cops entered Killough’s home as part of an investigation into a brutal beating at the Vallejo chapter’s clubhouse.
In October 2021, two different victims, both members of puppet clubs of the Hells Angels, were beaten by Killough and two other club members. A Taurus G2C 9 mm compact pistol and a Taurus model PT 745 Pro handgun were found by cops. Killough has prior felony convictions, including previous firearm convictions. In 2013 Killough was busted with his wife, then a CHP dispatcher. He tried to sell stolen military equipment to an undercover cop, including AR-15 assault rifles. He was also nailed for selling meth.
HA Jaime Alvarez, 52, of Vallejo, pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony crime. HA Michael Mahoney has pleaded not guilty to two felony firearms charges. The Vallejo chapter was long considered the enforcer for the Oakland chapter — founded by the late Ralph “Sonny” Barger. It was notorious for involvement in an Oct. 5, 1986, mass murder of a family of four, including two children, ages 5 and 17, in Fort Bragg. It was a heinous crime that made national headlines.
Jaime Alvarez
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Bikers appear for killing Pagan Jonas Padilla
Jonas Padilla, 37, was shot off his bike New Year's Day in Raleigh. Martinus Starks, Vidaul Reed, Anthony Cheever, David Stephens and Tyler Grissom are each charged with murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy robbery with a dangerous weapon. The men are connected to the Red Devils MC.
All men face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. None have bond.
A rock marked with “I love you dad” sits outside a small memorial near Bayberry Lane in the Valley Estates neighborhood. There is also a freshly-painted sign that says, “lefty," and the letters “GFPD.” (God forgives, Pagans don't.)
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5 HA busted for California killing
Logan Winterton, 37, is charged with murder.
Cops say the bikers were involved in 3 incidents at the Shoreline Amphitheatre over the course of the evening. In addition to the murder, the group beat an off duty cop leaving serious injuries. The bikers then dissuaded a witness from talking to police. Hells Angels were gathered near the Stage Right Cafe when a man walked through their group. Security footage showed Logan Winterton looking at the victim and waving his hands in his direction. The man “walked directly towards” a woman who was the girlfriend of HA Dominic Guardado. The man touched the woman’s shoulder. Juan Gonzalez, 41, of Bakersfield was punched in the back of the head by Logan Winterton and fell face-first on the concrete. Another biker poured beer over the victim’s head and said, "This is what you get motherfucker, for talking shit."
Dominic Guardado, Julio Moran, David Wiesenhaven and Raymond Cunanan
Gonzalez was taken to hospital with a traumatic brain injury where he was taken off life support and died. Five bikers were arrested in connection to a murder and a serious assault on an off-duty cop in Mountain View, California. On the night of June 18, cops were called to the Chris Stapleton concert due to a report of an unresponsive man near the stage.
The victim, Juan Gonzalez, died from his injuries about a week later. Cops learned over the next several days that the involved parties knew one another and were associated with the HAMC. Search warrants were served on the homes of each and at the Hells Angels clubhouse in San Francisco.
Busted real good are tuff guys Logan Winterton, 37, Dominic Guardado, 33,
Julio Moran, 43, David Wiesenhaven, 38, and Raymond Cunanan, 42.
HA clubhouse on Tennessee Street in San Francisco.
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HA Jason Blasingame wanted for murder
In the early hours of May 1, Steven Buchan Jr., 45, was severely beaten and left to die outside a bar in Clements, a rural town about 12 miles east of Lodi, California. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office found Buchan in the area of Highway 88 and Mackville Road around 1:55 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Lloyd Strack, 43, and Aaron Davis, 39, are in custody charged with murder. Its thought the HAMC is helping hide Jason C. Blasingame, 36.
Buchan Jr. had no connection to bikers. Its believed he was beaten to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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HA affiliated bikers shoot rival off bike in South Carolina
The men are members of the Red Devils MC, primary support club of the HA. They were busted cold through video.
Four men, including three members of a Hells Angels affiliated motorcycle group, were arrested for the murder of another biker in front of a Lexington County Waffle House.
Shane Andrzejewski, Joshua Allen Dutton, Casey Thomas Goodson and William Douglas McGathen Simpson were charged Nov. 8 with shooting and killing Timothy Harold Brock, 57, while he rode his motorcycle.
The four men were each charged with with one count of murder, one count of conspiracy and seven counts of attempted murder.
The four men allegedly drove up to Brock on their motorcycles and opened fire. He was struck multiple times and died at the scene.
