The Hell's Angels are very definitely a lower-class phenomenon, but their backgrounds are not necessarily poverty-stricken. Despite some grim moments, their parents seem to have had credit. Most of the outlaws are the sons of people who came to California either just before or during World War II. Many have lost contact with their families, and I have never met an Angel who claimed to have a hometown in any sense that people who use that term might understand it. Terry the Tramp, for instance, is "from" Detroit, Norfolk, Long Island, Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento. As a child, he lived all over the country, not in poverty but in total mobility. Like most of the others, he has no roots. He relates entirely to the present, the moment, the action.

Thompson severed his ties with the Observer after his editor refused to print his review of Tom Wolfe's 1965 essay collection The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby and he moved to San Francisco immersing himself in the drug and hippie culture that was taking root in the area. invasion of Grenada but would not discuss these experiences until the publication of Kingdom of Fear 20 years later. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism.

He subsequently joined the United States Air Force before moving into journalism. Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18 1937 – February 20 2005) was an American author and journalist. The work he remains best known for is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972) a rumination on the failure of the 1960s counterculture movement.