George Gus Christie Jr. (born April 26, 1947) is an American author and former outlaw biker who served as president of the Ventura, California charter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club between 1978 and 2011.
[8] Another pivotal moment in Christie's early life which caused him to develop even more of an outsider mentality was when he was accused of cheating on an intelligence quotient test in high school.
"[7] Six months after becoming a full-fledged member of the LACO charter, which was initially based in Glendale before relocating to North Hollywood, he was elected the chapter's president, succeeding "Old Man" John Nobel.
[8] On 11 March 1977, Christie was one of nine Hells Angels members who were involved in a mass brawl with a large group of Mongols at a motorcycle swap meet in Anaheim, the first skirmish in the feud.
The biker war led to an escalation in violence and resulted in the deaths of four Mongols members and an innocent fifteen-year-old boy, in a series of shootings and bombings in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas between July and September 1977.
[30][31][32] He was cheered on by "hordes" of members of the Hells Angels, Crucifiers and Heathens motorcycle clubs as he arrived with the torch in a remote pea field, outside Point Mugu, in Ventura County, in the culmination of the 15,000 miles (24,000 km) cross-country relay.
[24] Kennedy Shriver corresponded by letter with Christie, informing him of a longstanding policy under which funds are distributed on a 50/50 basis between the Special Olympics headquarters in Washington, D.C. and state chapters, rather than directly to local programs.
[35] In 1986, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched a sting operation against Christie, assigning Michael "Slim" Mulhern, a senior Mexican Mafia member and FBI informant, to make Christie an offer to have the Mexican Mafia kill Thomas Arthur Chaney, a former Ventura Hells Angel who had cooperated with the government and provided federal authorities with information on the Hells Angels' drug-dealing activities.
[40] Mulhern was an unsavory career criminal and a heroin addict, and Christie's lawyer portrayed him to the jury as a man willing to tell any lie to gain money to support his substance abuse.
[42] He further stated: "We have a structure in place for negotiating commercial licensing arrangements and we would be perfectly amenable to working with any enterprise interested in using Hells Angels trademarks within the guidelines we've established.
[35] Law enforcement in Ventura had a different opinion of Christie with one policeman, Ken Corney, saying: "We'd see the continual criminal influence in our city, the intimidation, the beatings and the drug dealing.
We arrested little users all the time and small-time dealers who wouldn't give us any names but who readily admitted the methamphetamine and marijuana were from the HA [Hells Angels].
[27] Christie owned a tattoo parlor on Main Street, the Ink House, along with a martial arts studio, a bail bonds firm, and a pornographic company, Erotic Images.
[45] Christie fils was a member of the Pierpont Rats, a group of "rich little white kids", as one policeman put it, who spent their time surfing and skateboarding.
[47] The recruitment of young men who dressed in a skateboard style, wore their baseball caps backwards, listened to rap and hip-hop music, and had a "punk attitude" led to complaints from the older Hells Angels.
[47] One Hells Angel from Arizona told the undercover policeman, Jay Dobyns, about the younger members of the Ventura country chapter: "That's fucking bullshit!
[54] The District Attorney of Ventura, Michael Bradbury, gave orders to have Christie "prosecuted whatever it takes" and assigned a new team led by Jeffery Bennett and Mark Pachowitz for that task.
[58] An indictment filed by the Ventura County District Attorney stated that the Hells Angels sold Vicodin and Valium to the Outfit between June 1997 and January 1999, with the intention "to sell and distribute to minors".
[59] Photographs seized by the police showed a number of teenage girls wearing tight shorts and T-shirts drinking at parties at the Ventura country clubhouse.
[61] The Sheriff's office were able to pressure one member of the Ventura chapter, Paul Wilson, to turn state's evidence in exchange for a lighter sentence after he was arrested for drug possession.
[64] In April 1999, the Sheriff of Ventura County announced in a press conference that nine Hells Angels had been arrested on charges of selling Vicodin, Valium, cocaine and methamphetamines.
[64] On 23 February 2001, Christie was arrested and was charged with 57 counts of theft, fraud, tax evasion, drug sales to minors and the use of a street gang in a criminal conspiracy.
[67] Sher and Marsden described Christie's living room as typical of a cultured haute-bourgeois businessman full of books, such as a retrospective of the work of Claude Monet and The Yale Shakespeare along with DVD collections of The Sopranos TV show and The Godfather films.
[67] Christie does admit that his chapter's association with the Outfit and allowing teenagers to attend parties at his clubhouse were errors, as he declared: "I never thought in a million years that the police would take this allegation of selling drugs to kids, latch on to it and just beat it into the ground".
[65] The investigation and prosecution of Christie costed millions, and many in Ventura County were unhappy that the case ended with a plea bargain given the vast sums of money that had been spent.
[65] The way that the police and prosecutors involved in the Christie case were caught up in ego-driven feuds and dysfunctional working relationships did much damage to the reputation of law enforcement in Ventura.
[66] Sher and Marsden wrote that the biggest losers in the Christie case were the countless teenagers who became addicted to Vicodin who ended up dropping out of the middle class into poverty owing to their substance abuse.
[73] Christie pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce[70] and on September 2013, was sentenced to 10 months in prison[73] which he served in Texas at the Federal Correctional Institution, La Tuna.
[35] In September 2016, Christie published a memoir, Exile on Front Street, in which he portrayed Bargar as an abusive husband and father who beat his wife and children[35] and who would call the police for help when faced with difficulties, which was a violation of the outlaw biker code.
[35] Christie's memoir, Exile on Front Street, was described in a review as offering a near-mythic portrayal of the outlaw biker lifestyle that, while amusing, downplayed the criminal allegations against him.