New York, NY (March 22, 2019) BTN — The Hells Angels have been vacating their East Village clubhouse and residence in recent days, an exodus
spurred by the apparent transfer of their six-story building to a buyer. The new owner, Nathan Blatter, president of the Whitestone
Realty Company in Brooklyn, said he was not available for immediate comment.
A pickup truck parked across the street from the Hells Angels clubhouse this past weekend
So where are the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club heading on
their motorcycles after 50 years at 77 E. Third St.?
“We don’t know,” said a lean, member of the famed motorcycle club. As he moved packing material out through the clubhouse
door over the weekend, he shielded his face from this reporter’s camera. Two
motorcycles belonging to the Hells Angels were parked outside. Across the street was a pickup truck with and the words
“Hell Bound” on its tailgate.
Last Thursday, The Villager rang the bell on the clubhouse
door repeatedly after learning the Angels were leaving. Finally, a muscular
biker of middle age came outside, his face nearly covered by a sock cap and
huge sunglasses.
“No pictures,” he said, declining a request to pose for a
photograph. “But you can take photos of the clubhouse if you want.” Was he going to miss it? “Of course, I’m going to miss it,” the black-clad biker
replied as he walked west toward Second Ave.
The building has some distinctive touches. The ground
floor’s red-brick facade bears the Angels “death’s head” insignias. There’s
also plaque commemorating deceased club president “Big Vinnie” Girolamo, along
with his motto, “When in doubt, knock ’em out.” The rotund biker died in 1979 before he could stand trial
for allegedly throwing his girlfriend Mary Ann Campbell off the roof of the
clubhouse to her death, reportedly because he believed she was an F.B.I.
informant.
The federal government tried for years to shut down the
clubhouse under a 1984 law that allows seizure of properties used for drug
trafficking. In 1985, it was one of 12 “H.A.” hangouts raided by F.B.I. agents
across the country. The G-men arrested 15 New York City members and confiscated
drugs like cocaine.
The incident and the resulting convictions became part of an
unsuccessful 1994 civil lawsuit by the government to take over the East Village
clubhouse. All that, of course, was a long time ago. Several newcomers
to the East Village seem to revere the Angels as heroes.
Three teenage female students who live in a dormitory run by
the New York City Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts, at 81 E. Third St., said
they would miss the bikers’ presence on the block. “I won’t be able to tell my friends anymore that I live next
door to the Hells Angels,” one said, plaintively.
Nina Holton, 18, a Barnard student who was photographing
Angels motorcycles on Saturday, said her mother lives on E. Third St. “She’s upset and sad that they are leaving,” Holton said.
“She feels they added character to the neighborhood and now they’ll be replaced
by some developer who’ll build condos.”
Holton believes the Angels helped keep the neighborhood safe
and provided a sense of community. “I’d pass the clubhouse late at night, and a couple of them
would be outside and they’d nod,” she recalled. “They were like eyes on the
street.”
Others on the block are clearly terrified of them.
“They’re known for being menacing and they cultivate that
image,” said a longtime block resident who asked only to be identified as a
community activist. She claimed the Angels had “assaulted” a friend of hers and
her boyfriend’s.
“I try to stay as a far away from them as possible,” she
said. “It’s a myth that they make neighborhoods safe.” The woman noted that the Angels have become known recently
for “ridiculous disputes over parking spaces and their stupid cones” used to
reserve public spaces as their own.
“One of them shot someone in the stomach over a parking
cone,” she said. She was referring to now-deceased Angel prospect Anthony
Iovenitti, who was accused of shooting David Martinez, 25, in the early-morning
hours of December 2016. A rumble erupted erupted after Martinez had gotten out
of his Mercedez- Benz to move an orange cone blocking his car’s way. Assault
and weapons possession charges were dismissed against Iovenitti after he died
at 52 of an aneurysm during a motorcycle trip in 2017.
Captain John L. O’Connell, commanding officer of the Ninth
Precinct, said there were “no interactions” with the club since his arrival
last year “except for one short fight.”
In that instance, a 22-year-old
deliveryman was sucker-punched in the face for parking in front of the
clubhouse in late December 2018, according to the Daily News. O’Connell noted
that his cops have taken away the Angels’ cones “because they’re not allowed to
reserve spots on a public street.”
Criminal defense lawyer Ron Kuby has represented members of
the club for years. He dismissed claims by some in law enforcement that the
Hells Angels are into rackets and operate like organized crime.
“Think of it as a church,” he said of the group. “Members of
clergy who violate the law don’t make the church a criminal enterprise.”
The New York City Hells Angels are actually incorporated in
New York State as the Church of the Angels, a nonprofit religious organization.
That name was used when club members purchased the property in 1977, for a
reported $1,900. The moniker was used again last year in a preliminary
memorandum of contract to sell the property to 77 East Third LLC, a
limited-liability company linked to the aforementioned Nathan Blatter, EV
Grieve reported last month. A 2013 court dispute over a deceased Angel
president, Sandy Alexander, who had held title to the deed, was settled last
year, apparently leading to a sale.
Kuby said he doesn’t know the buyer or the club’s current
president “and I have no authorization to speak to the press with regard to the
business sale.” He also couldn’t provide a “nose count” on the number of
members in the club. He only said that most of them are just “looking to be left
alone and to ride motorcycles with their colleagues.”
Photos: Mary Reinholz
