The Grondalski family murders by the Hells Angels occurred on October 5, 1986, in Mendocino County, California, in the United States.
Background William "Billy" Grondalski was a worker at an oil refinery in Martinez and a "wrencher" (slang for a mechanic). He married Patricia "Patty" Kast, a receptionist at a beauty salon who had a teenage son, Jeremy, from a previous marriage. Together, the couple had a daughter, Dallas, born in 1981. In 1982, Billy Grondalski joined the Vallejo chapter of the Hells Angels. The working class Grondalski seems to have joined the Hells Angels out of the belief that it would make him into a wealthy man. Instead, Grondalski engaged in substance abuse as he drank heavily and became addicted to methamphetamine. Grondalski had a tattoo of the Hells Angels death's head logo on his arm. A number of Hells Angels frequently visited the Grondalski household and knew the Grondalski children well, most notably Charles "Chuck" Diaz. Debroah "Debbie" Kast, the sister of Patty, recalled about Dallas: "She was just a smart little girl for her age." In 1985, Patty Grondalski filed for divorce under the grounds that her husband spent more time with the Hells Angels than with her.
In April 1986, a Hells Angel from the Oakland chapter, Terry Dalton, was expelled for stealing, and Sonny Barger, the Angels leader, forbade the Angels from having any social contact with him. On May 14, 1986, Barger issued a photograph of Dalton to Hells Angel chapters saying that Dalton had been expelled and some of the chapters, especially the Vallejo chapter, were "fucking up" by continuing to talk to Dalton. In July 1986, Barger summoned the entire Vallejo chapter to the clubhouse of his Oakland chapter where the Vallejo chapter president, Derrick Kualapi, and several others were beaten for continuing to talk to Dalton. Grondalski seems to have been horrified about the beatings he witnessed. Grondalski had maintained ties with Dalton and was selling drugs on the territories of other Angels, which led him to fear that he likewise might be beaten or worse. After the witnessing the beatings, Billy Grondalski told his estranged wife that he wished to leave the Angels, which led to a reconciliation. Billy told his estranged wife while she was visiting her father in the hospital "I'm out of the club", which led her to say "I'm so glad". Grondalski showed her a new tattoo he added under his Hells Angels death's head tattoo reading "84 In 86 Out". On August 21, 1986, Barger appointed Gerry "Butch" Lester as the new president of the Vallejo chapter. On September 27, 1986, Lester reported to Barger: "Billy has, uh, since become the, uh, in bad standing. Tattoos need to be covered, and notify Vallejo if anybody sees him. We wanna talk to him, and that's it basically". The fact that Grondalski had not covered his Hells Angels tattoos up after leaving was a source of much rage in the Hells Angels. Patty told her sister Debbie that she was afraid for her life as she told her "It's not over. It's not".
The Grondalski family lived like fugitives, and moved to a new house in Fort Bragg on October 1, 1986. Most notably, Billy and Patty only moved their furniture at night. Debbie Kast, the sister of Patty, noted that Billy "seemed nervous" the last time she saw him on October 4, 1986, during a visit to her house. Later that evening, Billy received a phone call and suddenly said: "Come on, we're getting out of here!" On the same day, the Hells Angels were holding a run in Sonoma County where two Hells Angels, Gerry "Butch" Lester and Charles "Chuck" Diaz, borrowed a truck from another Angel, Michael "Little Mike" Tankersley. Lester and Diaz stated that they needed a vehicle to go to Fort Bragg as Grondalski had been found. Tankersley was a man with a long criminal record for assault. Another Hells Angel present at the run was Charlie Haas, who just returned from Germany where he had served eight years in prison for stabbing a man to death. The Hells Angels were angry at Grondalski for still wearing his Hells Angels tattoos despite having left the club "in bad standing".
The massacre At 10:23 am on October 5, 1986, Billy purchased some fishing gear and light bulbs from a Payless store and then returned home. The purchased products were found in his car by the police. Lester and Diaz arrived at Grondalski house shortly after he returned home. Lester pointed a .45 pistol at Billy and claimed that the gun accidentally went off. Billy took a bullet straight though the head, killing him instantly in his kitchen.
Lester and Diaz then decided to kill the entire family to silence any witnesses. Patty screamed and raised her arms. A bullet went through her arm and into her chest. As she attempted to flee bleeding into the hallway, she was shot down and killed. Jeremy raced to protect his five-year-old half-sister, Dallas, and was likewise shot down. As Dallas Grondalski held on to her favorite toy, a Matchbox car, and screamed, Diaz pulled out a knife and stabbed her. He grabbed Dallas by her ponytail and stabbed her in the ear, her cheek, her neck and finally severed her spinal cord. As Dallas was still alive, Lester complained "this is taking too long" and shot her dead. Diaz and Lester cut off Billy's Hells Angels tattoos.
Afterwards, Lester and Diaz returned the truck to Tankersley and causally told him that they had just killed the entire family. Tankersley along with Lester's wife, Sammie Lester, used a blowtorch to melt down the guns used in the murders. Sammie Lester and Tankersley were ordered to burn down the Grondalski house, but could not bear to see the sight of the murdered family and aborted their mission. Lester went to the RV of another Hells Angel associate, Dick Roach. Roach's wife, Mary Anne, was a woman whom it was said was "so tough she'd be a Hells Angel if she had a dick". Lester soaked his hands and arms in coffee brewed by Mary Anne Roach to remove gunpowder residue. Mary Anne assisted with the clean-up by asking a Hells Angels associate who ran a port-a-potty business to flush the severed skin that had Billy Grondalski's Hells Angels tattoos. Mary Anne Roach burned the skin in a barrel and then had the ashes flushed out. Another Hells Angels, Charles Haas, who just been released from a prison in Germany, was sent to Fort Bragg to burn down the Grondalski house. Haas soaked the house in gasoline and set a fire with a gasoline-soaked rag and a set of matches. The fire incinerated the corpse of Billy and Patty, but the corpses of Jeremy and Dallas largely escaped the fire.
The investigation On October 6, 1986, Detective Sergeant Philp Pintane of the Mendocino County police department received a phone call that a house in Fort Bragg had been burned down and the family inside had been the victims of homicide. Pintane told the Canadian journalists Julian Sher and William Marsden in 2005: "It's the case that will never go away. You can't help thinking of Dallas". Debbie Kast told the police that she had no doubt that it was the Angels who killed her sister. Because the house had been burned done on Monday, October 6, 1986, the police long assumed that the murders had taken place that day and all of the Hells Angels had alibis for where they were that day. A neighbor told the police that she had seen Patty Grondalski washing dishes in her kitchen on the evening of October 5, 1986. Haas had a burn scar on his hand, but he claimed it was because of an accident.
Pintane, who took charge of the case in 1988, interviewed witnesses, but failed to find any leads. In 1993, Haas was convicted of drug possession with the intention to sell in Arizona. Facing 30 years in prison, Haas had his sister contact the Mendocino police to say he had some information about "a murder", which he was willing to trade for a reduced sentence. Pintane went to Arizona to meet Haas, whom he described as an unruly giant of a man. For the first hour, Haas revealed nothing of value about the Grondalski murders while he kept demanding a shorter prison sentence. When Pintane told him that he would be returning to California as he provided no information of value, Haas mockingly told him: "You do know these murders happened on a Sunday, don't you? You didn't know, did you? How could you not know? With a pathologist and all that, you couldn't tell?" Intrigued, Pintane spoke with Susan Massini, the district attorney of Mendocino county, who agreed that if Haas turned state's evidence, she would press the Arizona authorities to reduce his sentence. In June 1994, a deal was struck and Pintane returned to Arizona to record Haas's statement.
Pintane told Sher and Marsden: "We had no evidence at that time that the murder had occurred on Sunday other than his statement." Pintane started to review the evidence and re-interviewed various witnesses. Pintane learned that Lester and Diaz had borrowed a truck on October 5, 1986, to go to Fort Bragg, which was tentative evidence in support of Haas's statement. Pintane further noted that Dallas Grondalski did not show up for school on Monday, October 6, 1986, with no explanation provided by her parents to the school. He also noted that the fishing gear and the boxes of light bulbs that Billy Grondalski had purchased on the morning of Sunday, October 5, 1986, was found still in the back of his car on the next day, which he suggested he never had a chance to take the fishing gear and lightbulbs into his house, which supported the date of October 5, 1986 as the time of the murders. Finally, he noted that on Sunday two phone calls from made from the Grondalski house to a Hells Angel leader, which seemed odd given that Billy had moved to Fort Bragg to escape the Angels, which led Pintane to deduce that it must had been the killers that made the calls.
Pinate interviewed the neighbor who said she saw Patty washing dishes on Sunday evening, who admitted that her memory had failed her, and she had not seen Patty that day at all. In May 1995, Pintane arrested Lester and Diaz on charges of first-degree murder. On 8 May 1995, David Eyster, the county's supervising deputy district attorney told the media: 'It would be fair to say members of the Hell's Angels have been less than candid and cooperative with us. They are relying on their code of silence and have certainly not been of full assistance."
Trials Fritz Clapp, a lawyer for the Hells Angels, intervened in the case to ask that the name of the Hells Angels not be mentioned under the grounds that killing a five-year old girl was damaging to their reputations. The judge dismissed his motion. The state of California had as its star witness, Haas, a man who been convicted of murder in Germany, whom Pintane admitted was an unsavory and unlikable witness. At a preliminary hearing in late 1995, the judge ruled there was enough evidence to bring Lester to trial, but not Diaz. Massini told Sher and Marsden: "We had to put it back together".