Death of Meredith Hunter
| Meredith Hunter | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Meredith Curly Hunter October 24, 1951 Alameda County, California, U.S. |
| Died | December 6, 1969 (aged 18) Altamont, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Stabbing |
| Occupation | Student |
Meredith Curly Hunter, Jr. (October 24, 1951 – December 6, 1969) was an 18-year-old African-American man who was killed at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by The Rolling Stones, Hunter approached the stage, and was violently driven off by members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club who had been contracted to serve as security guards. He subsequently returned to the stage area, drew a revolver, and was stabbed and beaten to death by Hells Angel Alan Passaro.
The incident was caught on camera and became a central scene in the documentary Gimme Shelter. Passaro was charged with murder. After an eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated for 12 and a half hours, following 17 days of testimony, Passaro was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Hunter, an 18-year-old arts student from Berkeley, California, was nicknamed "Murdock" and described by friends to be a flashy dresser with a big Afro. Hunter, his girlfriend Patty Bredehoft, and another couple traveled from Berkeley to attend the Altamont Free Concert.
The Hells Angels had been hired to provide security for the concert in a deal that involved $500, about US $3,345 adjusted for inflation to 2017, and free beer. They stood directly in front of the bands in an effort to keep people off the unusually low stage set up at the bottom of a low slope.
As the Hells Angels became intoxicated and the crowd became restless and unpredictable, the drunken Hells Angels began hurling full cans of beer from their stockpile and striking concert-goers with sawn-off, weighted pool cues and motorcycle chains to drive the crowd back from the stage. 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 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 during their set and suffered a skull fracture and needed emergency surgery.
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