Killing of Meredith Hunter

Meredith Hunter
Hunter shortly before his death, as seen in the 1970 film Gimme Shelter
Born
Meredith Curly Hunter Jr.

(1951-10-24)October 24, 1951
Alameda County, California, U.S.
DiedDecember 6, 1969(1969-12-06) (aged 18)
Altamont, California, U.S.
Cause of deathStabbing
Resting placeSkyview Memorial Lawn, Vallejo, California
OccupationStudent

Meredith Curly Hunter Jr. (October 24, 1951 – December 6, 1969) was an American man who was killed at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by the Rolling Stones, Hunter approached the stage, and was driven off by members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club who were providing security and had agreed to prevent members of the audience from mounting the stage. He subsequently returned to the stage area, drew a revolver, and was stabbed and beaten to death by Hells Angels member Alan Passaro.

The incident was caught on camera and became a central scene in the Maysles Brothers documentary Gimme Shelter. Passaro was charged with murder and tried in 1971. Following 17 days of testimony, an eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated for 12 and a half hours before Passaro was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.

Altamont

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Hunter was an 18-year-old from Berkeley, California, nicknamed "Murdock" and described by friends as a flashy dresser with a big Afro. Hunter, his girlfriend Patty Bredehoft, Ronnie Brown (nicknamed "Blood"), and Brown's girlfriend Judy traveled from Berkeley to attend the Altamont Free Concert. His sister Dixie warned him about the still prevalent racism in the outer reaches of Alameda County, which prompted Meredith to take a .22 Smith & Wesson revolver for protection.[1][2][3]

The Hells Angels had agreed to prevent members of the audience from getting onto the stage, in exchange for $500 (equivalent to $4,154 in 2023) worth of beer.[4] They stood directly in front of the bands in an effort to keep people off the unusually low stage, which had been set up at the bottom of a low slope. They parked several of their motorcycles in front of the stage to act "as a kind of bulwark against the crowd".[5]

As the Hells Angels drank the beer and became intoxicated and the crowd became restless and unpredictable, the drunken Hells Angels began hurling full cans of beer from their stockpile and striking concertgoers with motorcycle chains and sawed-off, weighted pool cues to drive the crowd back from the stage and the Angels' motorcycles. By the time the Rolling Stones took the stage in the early evening, the mood had taken a decidedly ugly turn, as numerous fights began to erupt between Angels and crowd members. Denise Jewkes (née Kaufman) of local San Francisco rock band the Ace of Cups, six months pregnant at the time, was hit in the head by an empty beer bottle thrown from the crowd and suffered a skull fracture that warranted emergency surgery.[6]

Lead singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones (who had been punched by a concertgoer within seconds of emerging from the Stones' helicopter)[7] urged the audience to "just be cool down in the front there, don't push around." Within the first minute of the Stones' third song, "Sympathy for the Devil", a fight erupted in the front of the crowd at the foot of the stage. After another appeal for calm, the band restarted the song and continued their set with fewer incidents until the start of "Under My Thumb". At this point, Hunter climbed on top of a speaker box next to the stage. A Hells Angel grabbed Hunter by his ear and hair and pulled him down from the speaker box, "thinking it was funny, you know, kind of laughing", according to a nearby audience member. The Hells Angel struck Hunter in the face after Hunter "yanked away from him".[8] Hunter was knocked to the floor and retreated further into the crowd, as four additional Hells Angels followed. An assault ensued, culminating in one Angel stabbing Hunter in the back as he continued to retreat. Hunter then produced a weapon from his jacket and pointed it in the air. After being disarmed from the side, Hunter was beaten and stabbed while on the floor.[9][10]

A conflicting account from Gimme Shelter producer Porter Bibb states that Grateful Dead associate Rock Scully noticed Hunter in the crowd, concluding that “I saw what he was looking at, that he was crazy, he was on drugs, and that he had murderous intent. There was no doubt in my mind that he intended to do terrible harm to Mick or somebody in the Rolling Stones, or somebody on that stage."[11]

Footage from the documentary shows Hunter, easily identifiable in a lime-green suit, drawing what appears to be a long-barreled blue steel .22 caliber revolver from his jacket and pointing it in the air.[12] The film shows what might be an orange flash at the muzzle of the revolver in one frame. However, because of the film's low fidelity, it is impossible to determine whether the flash is a gunshot, a reflection, or a film defect. The Angels did not report any discharged cartridges in Hunter's revolver.[13] The film then shows Hells Angel Alan Passaro, armed with a knife, running at Hunter from the side, parrying the gun with his left hand and stabbing him with his right. Sources vary regarding which of the Maysles Brothers' camera operators shot the footage of the stabbing. Albert Maysles attributed it to cameraman Baird Bryant, while other sources have also credited Eric Saarinen.[14][15]

In the film sequence, lasting about two seconds, a six-foot (two-meter) opening in the crowd appears, leaving Patty Bredehoft in the center. Hunter enters the opening from the left, his hand rises and the silhouette of a revolver is clearly seen against Bredehoft's bright crocheted vest. Passaro is seen entering from the right and delivering two stabs as he pushes Hunter off screen. The opening closes around Bredehoft. Passaro was reported to have stabbed Hunter five times in the upper back. Witnesses also reported that Hunter was stomped on by several Hells Angels while he was on the ground. The gun was recovered and turned over to police. Hunter's autopsy later confirmed his girlfriend's report that he did have methamphetamine in his bloodstream at the time of his death.[2][13]

Aftermath

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Passaro was arrested and charged with murder for Hunter's death, but he was acquitted on grounds of self-defense after the jury viewed the footage from the concert showing Hunter drawing the revolver and pointing it toward the stage[16][17][18] or in the air.[12][19]

Over the years, there have been rumors that a second, unidentified assailant had inflicted the fatal wounds; as a result, the police considered the case still open. On May 25, 2005, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office announced that it was officially closing the case. Investigators, concluding a renewed two-year investigation, dismissed the theory that a second Hells Angel took part in the stabbing.[2]

The Rolling Stones have stated that they were unaware that a killing had taken place during their set; in the Gimme Shelter documentary, Jagger notices the commotion in the crowd and threatens to end the performance until a stagehand pulls him aside and informs him about someone with a gun. The film then cuts to Jagger viewing raw footage of the killing, apparently for the first time.

In December 1969, Rolling Stone magazine reported on the concert, putting partial blame on the band for the killings (and the general chaos). Up until this point, the two organizations had been very closely intertwined and friendly, with the magazine's name even being partially inspired by the band. After reading the piece, Jagger was infuriated, writing in a telegram "rightly or wrongly, we no longer trust you to quote us fully or in context." Eventually, Jagger and the band understood and two years later, allowed writer Robert Greenfield to spend time with them while on tour.[20]

In 1995, Jagger commented on Hunter's death in an interview with Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who asked, "After the concert itself, when it became apparent that somebody got killed, how did you feel?" Jagger replied, "Well, awful. I mean, just awful. You feel a responsibility. How could it all have been so silly and wrong? But I didn't think of these things that you guys thought of, you in the press: this great loss of innocence, this cathartic end of the era ... I didn't think of any of that. That particular burden didn't weigh on my mind. It was more how awful it was to have had this experience and how awful it was for someone to get killed".[21]

Shortly after Hunter's death, his mother, Altha May Anderson, requested that Altamont Raceway be turned into a public park to "prevent any more wrongful deaths at Altamont". Alameda County officials later voted to allow the raceway to continue to host races, but barred future concerts there and restricted the number of attendees to 3,000.[13]

Passaro drowned in Anderson Lake in southern Santa Clara County on March 29, 1985; police said "the death is kind of suspicious",[22] though foul play was never confirmed. He is buried at Los Gatos Memorial Park in San Jose, California.

In 2006, filmmaker Sam Green released a short documentary titled Lot 63, Grave C, which revolves around the last day of Hunter's life and the unmarked grave in which he was buried on December 10, 1969, at the Skyview Memorial Lawn cemetery in Vallejo.[23] After the film was screened widely at film festivals, several people sent donations to the cemetery to buy Meredith Hunter a headstone, which was installed in 2008.

A documentary that aired on BBC in 2008 claimed that, subsequent to the concert, members of the Hells Angels tried to murder Mick Jagger.[24]

References

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  1. ^ Austerlitz, Saul (2018). Just A Shot Away: Peace, Love, and Tragedy With The Rolling Stones at Altamont. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-1250083197.
  2. ^ a b c Lee, Henry K. (May 26, 2005). "Altamont 'cold case' is being closed Theory of second stabber debunked by Sheriff's Dept". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  3. ^ McKeen, William; Guralnick, Peter (2000). Rock and Roll is Here to Stay: An Anthology. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 287. ISBN 0393047008. LCCN 99031759.
  4. ^ ""Storm thwarted Mick Jagger murder attempt". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011.
  5. ^ ""Darkest day in rock history: How violence at Rolling Stones' Altamont festival went beyond infamous Hells Angels murder". Daily Mirror.
  6. ^ Bangs, Lester; Brown, Reny; Burks, John; Egan, Sammy; Goodwin, Michael; Link, Geoffrey; Marcus, Greil; Morthland, John; Schoenfeld, Eugene; Thomas, Patrick; Winner, Langdon (January 21, 1970). "The Rolling Stones Disaster at Altamont: Let It Bleed". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  7. ^ Gimme Shelter (Motion picture). December 6, 1970.
  8. ^ Bangs, Lester; Brown, Reny; Burks, John; Egan, Sammy; Goodwin, Michael; Link, Geoffrey; Marcus, Greil; Morthland, John; Schoenfeld, Eugene; Thomas, Patrick; Winner, Langdon (January 21, 1970). "The Rolling Stones Disaster at Altamont: Let It Bleed". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  9. ^ Bangs, Lester; Brown, Reny; Burks, John; Egan, Sammy; Goodwin, Michael; Link, Geoffrey; Marcus, Greil; Morthland, John; Schoenfeld, Eugene; Thomas, Patrick; Winner, Langdon (January 21, 1970). "The Rolling Stones Disaster at Altamont: Let It Bleed". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  10. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha. "The Chaos of Alamont and the Murder of Meredith Hunter". The New Yorker. March 28, 2019.
  11. ^ Curry, David. "Deadly Day for the Rolling Stones". The Canberra Times. December 5, 2009.
  12. ^ a b Tim, Purtell (December 1, 1995). "Last Rite for the '60s". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 20, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  13. ^ a b c Burks, John (February 7, 1970). "Rock & Roll's Worst Day: The Aftermath of Altamont". Rolling Stone. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 14, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  14. ^ McCreadle, Marsha (2008). Documentary Superstars: How Today's Filmmakers Are Reinventing the Form. New York: Allworth Press. p. PT35. ISBN 978-1581157208.
  15. ^ "Baird Bryant". Los Angeles Times. November 16, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
  16. ^ "Case closed in 1969 Altamont concert slaying". San Diegio Union-Tribune. Associated Press. May 27, 2005. Archived from the original on April 7, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  17. ^ Van der Leun, Gerard (2009). Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixties. Hachette UK. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-446-55833-4.
  18. ^ Egan, Sean (2013). The Mammoth Book of the Rolling Stones: An anthology of the best writing about the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world. Hachette UK. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-78033-647-3.
  19. ^ Bangs, Lester; et al. (January 21, 1970). "The Rolling Stones Disaster At Altamont: Let It Bleed". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  20. ^ Browne, David (September 8, 2017). "50th Anniversary Flashback: The Rolling Stones in Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  21. ^ Wenner, Jann (1995-12-14) "Jagger Remembers: The Rolling Stone Interview" Rolling Stone
  22. ^ "National News Briefs". United Press International. April 10, 1985. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  23. ^ Green, Sam (April 12, 2006). "Sam Green: a tour through "lot 63, grave c"". sf360.org. Archived from the original on July 2, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  24. ^ "Hells Angels plotted to kill Mick Jagger". March 2, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
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