Killing of Meredith Hunter
Meredith Hunter, a young black male, was stabbed and killed at the Altamont Free Concert in California on December 6, 1969, by Alan Passaro, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. The show, the final concert of the Rolling Stones' US tour, was jointly arranged by the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones, with the biker gang providing security. The Grateful Dead suggested them for that role, as they had previously provided security for Dead concerts.
Between 250,000 and 300,000 people attended the concert, which included performances by Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, in addition to the Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead had planned to play, but cancelled their set when they saw the violence during the concert. Many in the crowd had taken LSD from a tainted batch; the drug had been added to Red Mountain wine, which was being consumed freely. The Hells Angels injured several fans with fists or sawed-off pool cues, causing injuries requiring medical attention, and knocked out Marty Balin, lead singer of Jefferson Airplane.
Hunter was at the concert with his girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft. He had taken amphetamines and methamphetamines and was carrying a.22-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver for protection. He became involved in an altercation with the Angels and drew his revolver but then turned to go into the crowd, at which point Passaro jumped on his back and stabbed him multiple times. Other bikers joined in, hitting and kicking him. He died soon afterwards. Passaro was arrested for the murder in March 1970, while in prison on other charges. He admitted he had stabbed Hunter but said it was in self-defense. He was found not guilty.
Hunter's death, caught on camera by Albert and David Maysles, was included in their 1970 film about the tour and concert, Gimme Shelter. It is referenced in two songs: the Grateful Dead's "New Speedway Boogie" – which appeared as the B-side of "Uncle John's Band" – and Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie".
Background
Meredith Hunter
Meredith Curly Hunter Jr., who was black, was born October 24, 1951. After his father left the family in 1952, Hunter was raised by his mother and his sister, Dixie, who was eight years older than him. In 1962 he was imprisoned at a juvenile detention center for five months as an out-of-control youth. Six weeks after he was released, he was returned to detention for a parole violation. In October 1964, at thirteen, he was arrested and imprisoned on three counts of burglary. In January 1966, he was jailed for two counts of burglary; he was again imprisoned in April 1967 on another burglary charge, and then for parole violation the following year. His final term of imprisonment ended in May 1969.Hunter, nicknamed "Murdock", was a member of the East Bay Executioners street gang. He dealt and used drugs, including cannabis, benzedrine, and crystal meth. According to the writer Rich Cohen, Hunter "embraced violence with both fists. He was a badass motherfucker, ... known to traffic in amphetamines and carry a gun. ... his temper could click from mellow to crazy just like that".
At the time of the Altamont concert Hunter was a dapper dresser, with what the music critic Joel Selvin describes as "a cool line of patter". He had a white girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft, a seventeen-year-old Berkeley high-school senior. They had only been dating for a few weeks and had previously been to a concert by the Temptations at a club in San Francisco.
Hells Angels and the counterculture
The Hells Angels are a motorcycle gang that has been described by the police as a threat to public safety and order. Local groups of Hells Angels are "chapters"; the Oakland, California, chapter was formed in 1957 by Sonny Barger, the group's president. In the mid-to-late 1960s, the Hells Angels and the counterculture movement had much in common, including a rejection of authority and conformity. The Angels and members of the counterculture mixed frequently. When the writer Ken Kesey held an LSD party in October 1966, the Angels were invited. The organization was dealing LSD in San Francisco, distributing 50,000 hits a week by 1965. When San Francisco bands – including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company – held concerts, the Angels were asked to help with safety, crowd control and other arrangements. Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully was among the supporters of the bikers and told the Rolling Stones that "The Angels are really some righteous dudes. They carry themselves with honor and dignity."Alan Passaro
Alan Passaro was a white male who was twenty-two years old in December 1969. He wanted to become a lawyer, but after he finished high school in 1967, he went to barber college instead. He got a job as a barber and married his girlfriend; they bought a house in Milpitas, California, and had a son. He joined the San Jose chapter of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club, a group that soon merged with the local Hells Angels chapter.Passaro was arrested in 1963 on charges of car theft and was imprisoned at a juvenile facility. He was arrested for car theft again in May 1968 and was found in possession of marijuana; he was given two years' probation. In December 1968, he was arrested for assaulting a police officer, disturbing the peace, and resisting arrest, but he was acquitted. The following January he was imprisoned for a parole violation. He was arrested in July 1969 for grand theft, conspiracy, and possession of stolen goods, and shortly afterwards he was arrested for possession of marijuana; at the time of the Altamont concert, he was on bail from both charges.
The Rolling Stones
are a British rock band formed in 1962. Although it was internationally popular through the 1960s, by 1969 the band members were nearly bankrupt because their manager, Allen Klein, controlled the band's income tightly and only released a small percentage to them. They decided to select a new manager and tour the US to raise funds.In July 1969 the group played a free concert in Hyde Park, London, before an audience of up to 500,000 people. The British branch of the Hells Angels provided security, something that the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards called "beautiful". The British Hells Angels thought of themselves as closely related to their American counterparts, but the two organizations were unrelated and very different. Some of the Angels at the show were senior citizens who spent much of the time socializing, drinking tea, and leaving the security work to the police.
Ronnie Schneider, the band's financial manager on the tour, introduced a new business model that demanded fifty percent of the band's fees from local promoters in advance. According to journalists, he raised ticket prices by fifty percent or sometimes double their normal levels, and the tour sold over $1 million worth of tickets. The rise in ticket prices led to criticism in the press, most notably from Ralph J. Gleason, a co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. In the latter publication he wrote:
Paying five, six and seven dollars for a Stones concert at the Oakland Coliseum for, say, an hour of the Rolling Stones seen a quarter of a mile away because the artists demand such outrageous fees that they can only be obtained under these circumstances, says a very bad thing to me about the artist attitude toward the public. It says they despise their own audience.
Schneider rejected the criticism of the price hikes, pointing out that the Rolling Stones were charging only slightly more than bands like Blind Faith and the Doors. Regardless, the column was reprinted in full in Rolling Stone. After Mick Jagger, the lead singer of the Stones, read the column, the band decided to counter the negative publicity by holding a free concert in San Francisco at the end of their tour.
Planning the concert
In a discussion with the Rolling Stones, Scully, the Grateful Dead's manager, suggested they put on the free concert at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Other bands soon signed to play at the concert, which was organized jointly by the Stones and the Dead, including Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. In late November, the application for a license to use the park was denied by the San Francisco city government; at a press conference on November 25, Jagger was asked whether the free concert was going ahead. He told reporters, "It's going to be on December – er – sixth in San Francisco. But it isn't going to be in Golden Gate Park. It's going to be somewhere adjacent to Golden Gate Park and a bit larger."To offset the costs of staging the concert – and to make a profit – the Rolling Stones commissioned Albert and David Maysles to film the concert. They also shot some footage at Madison Square Garden and two other concerts during the tour. The band gave the filmmakers $14,000 to cover the costs of filming at Madison Square Garden and $120,000 for the Altamont concert.
Three days before the scheduled concert date, the search was continuing for a suitable venue. An offer was made by the owners of the Sears Point Raceway to hold the concert there, and Chip Monck, the stage manager for the event, began to move equipment there as negotiations proceeded. The lighting towers were erected, and the top of a hill on the site was bulldozed to construct a stage. Twenty-four hours before the start of the concert, the raceway owners demanded either the distribution rights to the film or a $100,000 payment up front, plus another $100,000 to be held in escrow to cover any potential damage to the site. Schneider refused to negotiate over the film rights and 24 hours before the start of the concert, the negotiations collapsed. Soon after the news broke, businessman Dick Carter offered his venue as an alternative: the Altamont Speedway, a racetrack east of San Francisco. Carter said he did not want any payment for the use and thought the free publicity would be lucrative enough.
Monck and his team moved the equipment to the new venue and began setting up the lighting towers. With only 24 hours until the concert, they reused the low stage they had built at Sears Point. It was only high, intended to be situated at the top of a slope; at Altamont it sat at the bottom of a depression. As the stage was so low, a rope was set up in front of it to keep the crowd back, but the rope was knocked down by the surging fans.
Philip Norman, a Rolling Stones biographer, writes that "exactly who first had the idea of hiring Hell's Angels as a security force, no one can remember now". Based on the advice of the Grateful Dead, Sam Cutler, the tour manager for the Stones, met with Pete Knell, a member of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels. Cutler described the meeting as "good politics", as "the free concert would be held on their turf". Knell explained that the Angels would not police anything, something Cutler agreed with, saying they had enough police for the event; Cutler and Knell came to an agreement that the Angels would be there and that the bands would provide them with $500 worth of beer. Cutler later said:
The only agreement there ever was, basically, was the Angels, if they were going to do anything, would make sure nobody fucked with the generators, but that was the extent of it. ... But there was no "They're going to be the police force" or anything like that. That's all bollocks, media-generated bullshit.