The major players and key figures in the Hells Angels
THEY’RE the men behind the world’s biggest and baddest outlaw bikie gang. The colourful characters who have kept the Hells Angels in the headlines.
Behind the Scenes
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THEY’RE the men behind the world’s biggest outlaw bikie gang.
The past and present members who have kept the Hells Angels in the headlines.
Here are some of the key players in the brutal gang.
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PETER “SKITZO” HEWAT
EAST County chapter’s most notorious member, Hewat runs a transport company and remains an ominous player in the towing industry.
Hewat acquired a new heavy-haulage tow truck — despite not owning a heavy-haulage licence — and intimidates rivals, sources told the Herald Sun.
In 2016 Hewat was jailed after police uncovered the engine of a car, along with other parts, in a tow truck at Hewat’s Mickleham home in October 2013.
Hewat pleaded guilty to three charges of dealing with the proceeds of crime, worth almost $250,000 combined and was jailed, but able to walk free in four months on time already served.
DEREK WAINOHU
FORMER Sydney chapter member Derek Wainohu took on NSW anti-bikie laws in 2011 and won.
He boarded a flight from Melbourne in 2009 and ran into rival Comanchero boss Mick Hawi, and when they landed members of both clubs descended en masse. One man was killed in the brawl that then erupted in the departures hall.
Wainohu worked for years as a RTA safety expert in NSW.
PETER ZERVAS
FORMER Hells Angel Peter Zervas had his nose bitten off in an attack outside a Sydney unit complex in June 2014.
Mr Zervas is the brother of Anthony Zervas, who was bashed to death during a brawl between the Hells Angels and Comanchero at Sydney Airport in 2009.
A friend of Mr Zervas told the Daily Telegraph at the time the former Hells Angel was now on the “straight and narrow” and had cut ties with the bikie gang.
“He has had his Hells Angels tattoos and things removed. He is married now, he has a good business,” he said.
CHRISTOPHER WAYNE HUDSON
CBD shooter Hudson is serving 35 years’ jail for murdering Melbourne lawyer Brendan Keilar and seriously injuring three others during a violent bender in 2007.
Hudson had defected to the Hells Angels from the Finks the year before.
When Finks members tracked him to a Gold Coast kickboxing tournament in 2006, they shot him in the face and back as a vicious brawl erupted in full view of 1800 spectators.
TERRENCE TOGNOLINI
A FORMER president of the Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels.
The vicious standover man is suspected of being involved in the contract killing of Bendigo mother Vicki Jacobs, who was shot dead while sleeping beside her young son in 1999.
In 2007 other Hells Angels inked over his tattoos and bashed him after learning he was the subject of child sex allegations.
He is now serving eight year’s jail for blackmail, assault and the sex offences.
CHRIS “BALL BEARING” COELHO
FORMER founding Hells Angel member Chris “Ball Bearing” Coelho died in a road crash near Kew earlier this year.
He gained his “Ball Bearing’’ nickname during his early years as an outlaw bikie, when he wore a chrome helmet.
Coelho lived through an internal Hells Angels split that turned violent over the production of speed.
Aged 68 Coelho retired from the Hells Angels in 2012 after 42 years membership of the world’s most infamous outlaw motorcycle club.
RALPH “SONNY” BARGER
ONE of the original Hells Angels and founder of the Oakland, California chapter of the bikie gang, Sonny Barger remains of its most prominent members.
Barger has written five books about the gang and appeared in several movies.
Despite battling throat cancer in 1983, Barger continues to be an active member of the gang and is considered by some as its unofficial national president and spokesman.
Barger has his own website, Twitter and Facebook pages where he promotes the gang and books and movies about it.
He spent time in jail in the late 1980s-early 1990s on charges relating to a plot to kill members of the Outlaws MC.
Barger appeared as a witness to a racketeering case involving top Bandido leaders in May and denied there were any problems between the Bandidos and Hells Angels.
HUNTER S THOMPSON
AMERICAN journalist Hunter S Thompson spent a year riding with the Hells Angels San Francisco and Oakland chapters after writing an article for The Nation magazine about the gang.
Thompson rode with Barger and other gang members who openly spoke to him about the gang.
He rode with the gang for about a year before he had a falling out with some of them and was severely beaten.
He published the book Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga in 1967.
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