Sympathy for the Devil

In one of the first major Satanic music events in America, 300,000 anonymous bodies gathered together over the weekend on December 6, 1969. They were there to see some of their favorite rock bands creating an instant pop-up city at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California. A dusty little town located deep in the inland desert in-between San Francisco and San Jose long before the Techno-Titans of Silicone Valley arrived.

Most of the young people in attendance were openly consuming hard-core drugs and alcohol, while people ran around nude, openly having sex in front of total strangers before the first band hit the stage. Makeshift fences surrounded the concert area as cheap bottles of red wine spiked with bad LSD, and mescaline made their rounds.

When someone asked what was in the wine, a freaky big blonde guy with a fat mustache, tight blue jeans, and wire-rimmed glasses said, “It’s got two tabs of mescaline in it. Organic. Good stuff, too. We put it in this morning,” as he took a big swig of the Red Mountain Vin Rose.

Many of the concert-goers were upset the wine was spiked with hard drugs. They had not intended to take their minds to another planet, but it was too late. Once they swallowed the first drink, they were already traveling deep into the organic abyss within minutes.

It was just after noon on Saturday as the bands were starting to arrive in their chartered helicopters on a temporary runway on the asphalt pit area of the Altamont racetrack. Finally, at about a quarter to 3 pm, a helicopter carrying the Rolling Stones along with their entourage touched down.

A confused blonde chick running towards the chaos said in her raspy voice to her girlfriend, “Who is it? Who is it?’ Her teen friend, barely able to contain herself, exclaimed in religious type fervor, “It’s Mick Jagger! It’s Mick Jagger!”

Immediately, the doped-up crowd of approximately 500 people went into a complete frenzy. Within seconds, they turned into a dangerous mob who had quickly scaled a hill and nearby fence, rushing toward the copter, almost crushing one of the Stones and some of his escorts. Their security team tried to fend off the mad horde, but the band and their crew were swallowed in a sea of mayhem.

But not everyone was so happy to see the Stones.

Some guy on a mission quickly broke through the sea of panting females shouting, “I hate you, I hate you!” and reared back, punching the singer right in the face. Jaggers Great Welcome to Satanic America and set the stage for one of the craziest nights in rock and roll history.

Ronnie Schneider, the Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour manager, had said after the event, “We’re walking off the helicopter, and a guy jumps up and punches Mick [Jagger] in the face. The guy was just out of his mind, punched Mick in the mouth, and I wanted to kill the guy. And Mick’s like, ‘Don’t hurt him, don’t hurt him.’ That’s when we knew we had a problem.”

Yes, it was complete chaos, but as they say, the show must go on.

The stage was only about 3 1/2 feet high, and Jefferson Airplane’s performance was soon engulfed by a chaotic crowd of more than 300,000 who were held back by the Hells Angels, who viciously guarded the stage with pool cues, fists, and their boots. Hell, they had a bunch of people high on LSD like this naked fat man who tried to work his way up to the stage, stepping on grossed-out people, while under the guise of dance.

One of the opening bands, Jefferson Airplane, was unprepared for the violence that was unfolding. Apparently, the singer, Marty Balin, pissed off one of the Hells Angels on stage, who then grabbed the singer dragging him down into the crowd as he and other Angels ruthlessly beat him unconscious.

 When Crosby Stills and Nash hit the stage, the crowd’s energy and violence were reaching its peak. Again, the singer would do something to upset the Angels, which would result in Stephen Stills being stabbed multiple times in the leg.

“We did a partial set because [co-lead singer] Marty Balin got dragged into the audience and pummeled by one of the Hells Angels,” said Casady. “We were trying to keep it together as our lead singer was on the ground getting beat up. There was pushing and shoving going on during our set by various elements onstage. There was no protection onstage. It had gotten so out of hand and chaotic … but we played a number of songs before we stopped.”

According to former Angels Los Angeles President and author, George Christie, said that Hells Angels Paul “Animal” Hibbits knocked out Airplane singer Marty Balin who had disrespected him.

Christie had written Instagram;

“Some people should leave their clothes on in public. (In reference to the photo above) It quickly spun out of control, Rock Scully Grateful Dead manager told me Jagger insisted that the Jefferson Airplane play early in the day with several band performances between each of their sets, there was a concern they would outperform the Stones.

That performance would end the friendship between the Angels and the Airplane when Sweet William challenged Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane on stage when he complained to the audience that Hells Angels Paul “Animal” Hibbits knocked out Airplane singer Marty Balin who had disrespected him,” Christie said.

After seeing the bloodshed, the Grateful Dead refused to go on stage due to safety concerns.

The concert management decided to postpone the Rolling Stones for a few hours until the evening, which only caused more alcohol and drugs to be consumed as the tension grew higher. But, unfortunately, no one knew that the worst was still to come.

As the night rolled in, small fires lit up the night sky blazing from trash cans as the shadows of people danced against the landscape reminiscent of the old fires of Baal. With the stench of smoke rising from the rotting trash permeating the night air, like demons rising from the depths of hell, the Rollin Stones would hit the stage with Jagger dressed in a black and red cape as if he was some Satanic High Priest giving a sermon on the Devil as the young girls listened intently.

By then, some of the Angels were also high out of their minds on bad acid and few others appeared to try to keep their fellow gang members in check.

As soon as the Stones hit the stage, it caused another massive crowd frenzy with Jagger’s sexual magnetization magic mixed in with his singing, putting many women under his creepy spell.

An eyewitness said he saw a young mother in a blue blouse and skirt pushed violently through the crowd carrying her baby, who must have been only a few months old in one hand well ahead of her husband as if a demonic spirit possessed her. She was there to see her favorite idol, Mick Jagger, the singer of the Rolling Stones.

The mother was probably high on drugs and possessed by her idol’s dark energies, becoming unaware of reality as she unknowingly dropped her baby onto the ground amidst the crowd of stomping feet. A Hells Angel attempting to manage the sea of doped-up maniacs and protect the stage had inadvertently stepped on her poor baby’s head with his oil-stained biker boots. She didn’t even notice, nor lose stride. The baby would allegedly survive the incident, but many other people wouldn’t be so lucky.

When the mayhem broke out, Keith Richards was unprepared for the violence of the American crowd who seemed to make their British rock counterparts look relatively tame. Richards had said of the event;

“The violence just in front of the stage was incredible.

Looking back I don’t think it was a good idea to have Hell’s Angels there. But we had them at the suggestion of the Grateful Dead. The trouble is it’s a problem for us either way.

If you don’t have them to work for you as stewards, they come anyway and cause trouble. But to be fair, out of the whole 300 Angels working as stewards, the vast majority did what they were supposed to do, which was to regulate the crowds as much as possible without causing any trouble.”

Richards concluded, “But there were about 10 or 20 who were completely out of their minds — trying to drive their motorcycles through the middle of the crowds. Really, the difference between the open-air show we held here in Hyde Park and the one there is amazing.

I think it illustrates the difference between the two countries. In Hyde Park, everybody had a good time, and there was no trouble. You can put half a million young English people together, and they won’t start killing each other. That’s the difference,” he said.

After the Stones opened with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” the crowd went into a total frenzy. Jagger had pleaded for the audience to “be cool,” but it fell on deaf ears. Meanwhile, Meredith Curly Hunter, Jr. (nicknamed Murdock), an 18-year-old African-American with a big Afro from Berkeley, CA, attending the concert with his white girlfriend — tried to push his way onto the stage.

As the Stones played “Under My Thumb,” Hunter perched himself on a speaker box next to the stage when the confrontation had begun.

Hunter was violently pushed back from the stage by the Hells Angels. He became furious over the incident, so he stupidly pulled a gun.

A 21-year-old Hells Angel named Alan Passaro standing behind the melee had seen Hunter pull his gun. He quickly pulled a hidden knife from his boot and plunged into his back as he grasped his other arm holding the gun.

Almost immediately, several other angry Angels pounced on Hunter, striking him all about the body and head unmercifully.

Within seconds, Hunter bled to death just twenty feet in front of the stage where the Stones were performing “Under My Thumb.”

Hunter was stabbed at least four times and repeatedly kicked in the head. As he lay dying, he reportedly told his attackers that he did not intend to shoot anyone.

The killing was caught on camera and video.

One of the members of the Hells Angels tells the story to Joel Selvin, an investigative journalist and author of The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day.

“Hunter gets pushed back down by a Hells Angel, and he gets back up in the Hells Angel’s face. That’s when he starts getting his ass kicked — several Angels beat on him — and he falls back and comes up with a gun in his hand. Several feet away, Alan Passaro, who’s a San Jose chapter member, sees all this going down, he grabs a knife out of his ankle scabbard, and he stabs Hunter in the neck and back four times.”

A concertgoer who was a witness to Meredith Hunter’s death, Paul Cox, was standing right beside him before he was killed. He was a witness at Passaro’s murder trial. Author, Stanley Booth’s 1984 Dance With The Devil, later republished as The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, had told about what Paul Cox witnessed to the grand jury at Passaro’s murder trial and Rolling Stone magazine. Here is Paul Cox’s eyewitness testimony;

“An Angel, he’s hassling this Negro on the side of me, reached over and shook this Negro by the side of the head, thinking it was funny, and I knew something was going to happen. The next thing I know he was flying in the air, just like all the other people it happened to.

He scrambled to his feet and he’s backing up trying to run and all these Angels jumped off the stage, and his girlfriend was screaming to him not to shoot because he pulled out a gun, and his girlfriend is like on him and pushing him back and he’s trying to get away and these Angels are coming at him and he turns around and starts running.

And then some Angel snuck up from right out of the crowd and leaped up and brought his knife down in his back. And then I saw him stab him again, and while he’s stabbing him the guy is running. This Negro boy is running into the crowd and you could see him stiffen up when he’s being stabbed.

The Hell’s Angel grabbed onto both of his shoulders and started kicking him in the face and he fell down. He grabbed one of those garbage cans, the cardboard ones with the metal rimming, and smashed him over the head with it and then he kicked the garbage can out of the way and started kicking his head in. Kicked him all over the place.

And then the guy that started the whole thing stood on his head for a minute or so and then walked off. And then the one I was talking about, he wouldn’t let us touch him. He said, “Don’t touch him, he’s going to die anyway, let him die.”

We turned him over and ripped off his shirt, rubbed his back up and down to get the blood off so we could see and there was a big hole on the side and there was a hole in his spine and there was a big hole in his temple. All of us trying to help were drenched in blood,” Cox said.

Unaware of the murder, the Stones completed their set, bringing an end to a live blood ritual that also saw three accidental deaths and four live births.

Alan Passaro was the only Hells Angel arrested and charged with murder. However, Passaro never went to prison. The jury ruled that he’d acted in self-defense due to the fact that Hunter pulled a gun on the Hells Angels.

To stupidly pull a gun on one of the most violent gangs in the world was not only a suicide mission; it was self-sacrifice to the Sympathy Symphony of the Devil.

Hunter was rumored to be a member of a “street gang” called the East Bay Executors and a drug user. Methamphetamine was found during the autopsy in his bloodstream. It is no surprise he made such devilish choices because he had an extremely rough childhood.

Hunter’s mother was a prostitute that had schizophrenia, according to Joel Selvin. Hunter was named after his father, a Native American who abandoned the family when he was young. Due to his mother’s mental illness, his older sister took responsibility for raising him. Sevin had written that he started getting in trouble with the law when he was 11, and spent much of his teen years in juvenile hall.

Joel Selvin had also written that Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones had a big part in managing the event, and it was their arrogance, greed, ignorance, and naivete caused the mayhem and deaths. Selvin claimed that Jagger wanted to keep all proceeds from a video documentary film of the event called Gimme Shelter, which he reportedly hoped would make their band bigger than the Beatles.

According to Selvin, Jagger had vetoed playing at a much safer venue made for such events in Sonoma County, where he wouldn’t be able to retain all the film’s distribution rights, so they decided to hold it at the Altamont Race Track. Selvin said the Rolling Stones had used the film, Gimme Shelter to help absolve themselves of any wrongdoing while demonizing the Hells Angels and barely mentioning any involvement by the other bands like the Grateful Dead.

In the ensuing days after the concert, the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger had attempted to deflect attention from themselves by claiming they never hired the Hells Angels as security and vowed that he would never use them again. However, in searching this claim, I have found several original posters of the concert that list the Hells Angels as security, so Mick Jagger was lying to save face due to the media scrutiny.

In fact, many of the original posters online have been changed with the newer versions having no mention of the Hells Angels.

Understandably, the Hells Angels were outraged with the Stones, knowing that Jagger had sold them out to the media, they had vowed to settle the score. Former FBI agent Mark Young had claimed in an interview they intended to get their revenge by killing Jagger. Not just once, but on four separate occasions. (BBC The FBI at 100 via the New York Times)