Sept. 9, 1964 - California law enforcement agencies began a top-level investigation yesterday of the activities of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club following charges of criminal attacks by club members on two teenage girls at a Monterey area beach early Monday.
Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch, as one of his first official acts since his appointment last week, instructed the California Department of Justice to:
— Prepare a criminal dossier of the statewide group who have had brushes with the law.
— Ask sheriffs and police to submit arrest records of Hells Angels members, records of “rumbles” in which the cyclists have tangled with police in the last 17 years, and to submit their recommendations on how best to cope with emergencies when the club membership decides to “tear up a town.”
— Assure State Senator Fred Farr (D-Carmel), whose protest about the Monterey criminal attack triggered the statewide investigation, that a full report will be made.
Monterey officers arrested four men in connection with the alleged gang rape of a white girl, 14, and a Negro girl, 15. They were Ceylon Cross, 23; Marvin Gilbert, 22; John Tracy, 24; and James Miles, 28.
Lynch assigned the investigation to Arlo Smith, director of the Department of Justice, and to Deputy Director John Kenney, and to the Criminal Investigation and Identification Division.
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