Moving day for NY Hells Angels - revisted

After 50 years at 77 E. 3rd St., the club sold the building and moved to the Bronx in 2019. The 6 story building received a reno and now houses 22 apartments. No bikers live there, apartments start at $3,599 per month.

The HA have vacated their East Village clubhouse. The bikers are leaving behind a plaque commemorating “Big Vinnie” Girolamo, along with his motto, “When in doubt, knock ’em out.” The biker died in 1979 before he could stand trial for throwing Mary Ann Campbell off the roof of the clubhouse to her death. He believed she was an informant.

After 50 years at 77 E. Third St. where are they going? “We don’t know” said one. Criminal defense lawyer Ron Kuby has represented the club for years. He dismissed claims 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 deed was transferred from one of Alexander’s heirs to the HA in 2018, paving the way for a sale.

A contract was drawn up between the HA and a corporation listed as 77 East 3rd Street LLC. That firm is linked to Nathan Blatter of Whitestone Realty Group, a commercial real estate investor. No sale price was included. The Angels bought the building for a song back in the 1970s. In 1983, then-president Sandy Alexander changed the building’s deed to name himself and his family as rent-free tenants, and stipulated that his heirs “shall receive half of the proceeds” from any sale. Alexander went to jail for selling cocaine, got kicked out of the club in the ‘90s, and died in 2007.

There has been much drama there. A verbal war broke out over a bench installed outside of the building. There was a 2016 shooting and a 2018 beating of a deliveryman, both over the parking spaces outside.