The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club which was founded in Fontana, California on 17 March 1948. It derived its name from a squadron of the Flying Tigers in which founding member Arvid Olsen had served during World War II, and early charters of the club were founded in San Francisco, Gardena, Fontana, and Oakland (the last one by Sonny Barger). In 1961, the first chapter outside California was founded in Auckland, New Zealand. The club became prominent within San Francisco's 1960s counterculture movement, and it was headquartered in the famed Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.
However, the gang was accused of racism, with Sonny Barger admitting that the club probably had enough racist members that no Black man would get into the club; as of 2000, the Hells Angels had no Black members. Barger also said that most white motorcycle riders wanted to join the Hells Angels and most Black bikers joined the East Bay Dragons, although the two gangs had a mutual friendship and often hung out and rode together. The Hells Angels came to have more than 100 chapters in over 29 countries, and, from 1994 to 2002, the Hells Angels engaged in the deadly Quebec Biker War with the Pagan's Motorcycle Club of the Northeastern United States, leaving 162 dead and over 300 injured.
Along with the Pagans, Outlaws Motorcycle Club, and Bandidos Motorcycle Club, the Hells Angels were one of the "big four" motorcycle gangs who carried out widespread violent and organized crime such as trafficking in stolen goods, extortion, and prostitution. In 2019, the Netherlands became the first country to ban the Hells Angels.