Young Harley Mechanic - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

duster340wdg · 09-25-2006, 08:27 PM

Does anyone remember the young man who restored an older Harley Davidson motorcycle and when taking it on a test run some bikers cornered him on some street and he dissapeared? I want to say this story appeared on UM in the early 1990's?

DarkDante · 09-25-2006, 08:49 PM

It aired in 1989 and was the case of Gus Hoffmann who was abducted and murdered in the garage of the leader of the motorcycle gang "The Forgotten Few" (I think that was their name) - The men who murdered him were John Stell, Michael Stevenson and Michael Hodges. Hodges and Stell were captured while Stevenson died in a police shootout before charges could be filed against him.

The point of the segment was to help Gus's mother locate her son's body. To this day it has not been found. I remember reading a small update on the case on a now defunct webpage where it mentioned that Hoffman's body had not been located but did go into some graphic detail on how he was killed.

duster340wdg · 09-25-2006, 09:39 PM

Thanks for the reply DarkDante. What city did this take place at?

Bazorro · 09-26-2006, 12:29 AM

San Diego maybe? somewhere in Cali I think.

they said they think they feed Gus's body to alligators.

DarkDante · 09-26-2006, 01:12 AM

Are you sure you aren't confusing that with the Amy Billig case who also is strongly rumored to have met her demise due to an encounter with bikers in Florida. The current rumor surrounding her death is that she died the day she vanished at a party with the bikers and they disposed of her remains to alligators.

UMfan77 · 09-27-2006, 09:02 AM

Gus Hoffman was killed by a biker gang. Gus's mom found out through an informant. The informant wouldn't tell where Gus's body was or who did it, but the informant did say that Gus was dead.

noah82 · 09-27-2006, 11:37 PM

This happened in San Jose, if you go into the San Jose Mercury(local newspaper) site and do a search under Gus Hoffman, there's a lot of articles on this case, but you have to pay for them.

kadrmas15 · 09-28-2006, 10:48 AM

Well I am wondering if Hodges and those other guys were ever found guilty of it?

DarkDante · 09-28-2006, 11:13 AM

kadrmas15, I checked out a few of those articles that noah82 mentioned and although I did not pull up the complete articles by reading the citations I gathered that at least one of the men (Richard Doller) was found guilty and sentenced to a long prison term which he has appealed at least once and lost.

He claimed he was not in the room when the "others" killed Gus Hoffman which leads me to believe that the "others" were also convicted as well.

kadrmas15 · 09-28-2006, 01:45 PM

Well that is good to hear, if Dollar is in prison then I imagine Hodges and that other guy are in prison as well. I know none of them are on death row. But Dollar probably got the lightest term out of the three. I imagine Hodges and the other guy were probably sentenced to life. What they did to Hoffman is sickening and I am glad they got some justice there. Without the death of Michael Stephenson it might not have ever happened. Apperantly everyone was just totally scared to death of the guy. Was Dollar convicted of a lesser crime like 2nd degree murder? Or the same charge as the others? I would be curious to see. Regardless they were sentenced according to 1978 sentencing guidelines so I am sure they are already parole eligible but California is by far the hardest state in the country to get parole in.

DarkDante · 04-28-2007, 10:40 PM

I found out a little more about what a special individual Michael Lee Stevenson is, most of this information is gleaned from a website of a man name Kenneth Gage who is looking to recieve a pardon for killing one of Stevenson's accomplices back in the early 80s. This may bring some of his accusations about Stevenson into question but given how UM portrayed Mr. Stevenson, I wouldn't be surprised if much of this is true:

- Ken Gage originally encountered Stevenson and his accomplice who Gage refers to as "Daweena Ajanian" (an alias in order to protect the privacy of her family and probably to protect himself from libel) in 1980 when he and his wife befriended Stevenson and Daweena Ajanian. Gage claims he was unaware the Stevenson and Daweena Ajanian were involved in distributing methamphetamine as well as several acts of fraud.

- Stevenson who was known as "Sick Mike" apparently bragged about his affliation to the "Hell's Angels" motorcycle gang (in the UM segment it was mentioned he was in a gang called "The Forgotten Few") and was basically just a nutcase who targeted his fellow neighbors for extortion and flashed around his impressive collection of automatic weapons. In an interesting note according to Gage, the Hell's Angels wanted nothing to do with Stevenson considering him to be a "wannabe nut" - Stevenson was so fascinated by motorcycle gangs that he would often flash pictures of himself along with people who he claimed to be in the Hell's Angels in order to boost his street cred.

- In 1978 Stevenson and Ajanian were involved in the abduction and murder of a Los Gatos teen in order to steal his motorcycle (obviously this is Gus Hoffman) - Other crimes included Stevenson kidnapping two girls and holding them in a closet as his sex slaves. In another incident, Stevenson and Ms. Ajanian apparently used Gage's home while he was on vacation to take a young couple and a child hostage.

- Stevenson and Ms. Ajanian apparently convinced a lot of their victims to not to testify against them in court by threatening them with further violence, leveraging their victims to aide in participating in illegal acts with them and also claiming that they came from wealthy families who could hire top lawyers to get them out of any legal jam. Gage does conceed that both Stevenson and Ms. Ajanian were from "wealthy families".

- The reason Kenneth Gage is in prison to this day is because he murdered Ms. Ajanian after he found out that she and Stevenson were robbing him. Apparently Gage suspected the couple of stealing from him while he was on vacation (they claimed he was robbed by an unknown party) and began inquiring around about them. He learned of their sorted past which angered Ajanian. She threatened him and on 3-6-81, attacked him at his home following an argument - the two wrestled around the home, making a shambles of the inside of Gage's house while wrestling for Gage's revolver. Gage finally gained posession of the gun and shot Ajanian, killing her.

- Michael Stevenson was not involved in the altercation because he was still in jail for the hostage incident of which he was later freed. After his release he murdered a Stanislaus County man in a similar hostage related scheme and was himself killed in 1985 by one of his potential victims.

Kenneth Gage's petition for pardon can be found here:
http://freekengage.com/index.html

AVERMAN · 04-28-2007, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noah82

This happened in San Jose

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Zero · 04-29-2007, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AVERMAN

Do you know the way to San Jose?

I do.

Gangreen · 04-29-2007, 12:07 PM

I love this case! just the way the mom puts everything on the line to go undercover.

SiberianKiss · 05-01-2007, 07:24 AM

memo to bikers...your culture is stupid, you're all nothing but white trash who think you're real cool cause your lame ass motorycycles go vroom vroom! your women are ugly too. The whole biker scene is pathetic, always has been.

did anyone see A Bronx Tale? I loved the part when the bikers go into the mafia hangout/restaurant and order some drinks, but then act all rowdy and mean to everybody, so the mafia guys lock the doors and kick all their asses, HA! Showed them who's boss.

I hate bikers

09-25-2006, 08:27 PM	#1
duster340wdg Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jun 13, 2004 Location: WA State Posts: 13	Young Harley Mechanic Does anyone remember the young man who restored an older Harley Davidson motorcycle and when taking it on a test run some bikers cornered him on some street and he dissapeared? I want to say this story appeared on UM in the early 1990's?

09-25-2006, 08:49 PM	#2
DarkDante Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 1,569	It aired in 1989 and was the case of Gus Hoffmann who was abducted and murdered in the garage of the leader of the motorcycle gang "The Forgotten Few" (I think that was their name) - The men who murdered him were John Stell, Michael Stevenson and Michael Hodges. Hodges and Stell were captured while Stevenson died in a police shootout before charges could be filed against him. The point of the segment was to help Gus's mother locate her son's body. To this day it has not been found. I remember reading a small update on the case on a now defunct webpage where it mentioned that Hoffman's body had not been located but did go into some graphic detail on how he was killed.

09-25-2006, 09:39 PM	#3
duster340wdg Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jun 13, 2004 Location: WA State Posts: 13	Thanks for the reply DarkDante. What city did this take place at?

09-26-2006, 12:29 AM	#4
Bazorro Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 41	San Diego maybe? somewhere in Cali I think. they said they think they feed Gus's body to alligators.

09-26-2006, 01:12 AM	#5
DarkDante Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 1,569	Are you sure you aren't confusing that with the Amy Billig case who also is strongly rumored to have met her demise due to an encounter with bikers in Florida. The current rumor surrounding her death is that she died the day she vanished at a party with the bikers and they disposed of her remains to alligators.

09-27-2006, 09:02 AM	#6
UMfan77 Member Senior Member Join Date: Nov 28, 2003 Posts: 1,064	Gus Hoffman was killed by a biker gang. Gus's mom found out through an informant. The informant wouldn't tell where Gus's body was or who did it, but the informant did say that Gus was dead.

09-27-2006, 11:37 PM	#7
noah82 Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jun 15, 2006 Location: SF Posts: 17	This happened in San Jose, if you go into the San Jose Mercury(local newspaper) site and do a search under Gus Hoffman, there's a lot of articles on this case, but you have to pay for them.

09-28-2006, 10:48 AM	#8
kadrmas15 Retired from Board 03/03/11 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 11, 2006 Location: Minnesota Posts: 1,910	Well I am wondering if Hodges and those other guys were ever found guilty of it?

09-28-2006, 11:13 AM	#9
DarkDante Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 1,569	kadrmas15, I checked out a few of those articles that noah82 mentioned and although I did not pull up the complete articles by reading the citations I gathered that at least one of the men (Richard Doller) was found guilty and sentenced to a long prison term which he has appealed at least once and lost. He claimed he was not in the room when the "others" killed Gus Hoffman which leads me to believe that the "others" were also convicted as well.

09-28-2006, 01:45 PM	#10
kadrmas15 Retired from Board 03/03/11 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 11, 2006 Location: Minnesota Posts: 1,910	Well that is good to hear, if Dollar is in prison then I imagine Hodges and that other guy are in prison as well. I know none of them are on death row. But Dollar probably got the lightest term out of the three. I imagine Hodges and the other guy were probably sentenced to life. What they did to Hoffman is sickening and I am glad they got some justice there. Without the death of Michael Stephenson it might not have ever happened. Apperantly everyone was just totally scared to death of the guy. Was Dollar convicted of a lesser crime like 2nd degree murder? Or the same charge as the others? I would be curious to see. Regardless they were sentenced according to 1978 sentencing guidelines so I am sure they are already parole eligible but California is by far the hardest state in the country to get parole in.

04-28-2007, 10:40 PM	#11
DarkDante Member Senior Member Join Date: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 1,569	I found out a little more about what a special individual Michael Lee Stevenson is, most of this information is gleaned from a website of a man name Kenneth Gage who is looking to recieve a pardon for killing one of Stevenson's accomplices back in the early 80s. This may bring some of his accusations about Stevenson into question but given how UM portrayed Mr. Stevenson, I wouldn't be surprised if much of this is true: - Ken Gage originally encountered Stevenson and his accomplice who Gage refers to as "Daweena Ajanian" (an alias in order to protect the privacy of her family and probably to protect himself from libel) in 1980 when he and his wife befriended Stevenson and Daweena Ajanian. Gage claims he was unaware the Stevenson and Daweena Ajanian were involved in distributing methamphetamine as well as several acts of fraud. - Stevenson who was known as "Sick Mike" apparently bragged about his affliation to the "Hell's Angels" motorcycle gang (in the UM segment it was mentioned he was in a gang called "The Forgotten Few") and was basically just a nutcase who targeted his fellow neighbors for extortion and flashed around his impressive collection of automatic weapons. In an interesting note according to Gage, the Hell's Angels wanted nothing to do with Stevenson considering him to be a "wannabe nut" - Stevenson was so fascinated by motorcycle gangs that he would often flash pictures of himself along with people who he claimed to be in the Hell's Angels in order to boost his street cred. - In 1978 Stevenson and Ajanian were involved in the abduction and murder of a Los Gatos teen in order to steal his motorcycle (obviously this is Gus Hoffman) - Other crimes included Stevenson kidnapping two girls and holding them in a closet as his sex slaves. In another incident, Stevenson and Ms. Ajanian apparently used Gage's home while he was on vacation to take a young couple and a child hostage. - Stevenson and Ms. Ajanian apparently convinced a lot of their victims to not to testify against them in court by threatening them with further violence, leveraging their victims to aide in participating in illegal acts with them and also claiming that they came from wealthy families who could hire top lawyers to get them out of any legal jam. Gage does conceed that both Stevenson and Ms. Ajanian were from "wealthy families". - The reason Kenneth Gage is in prison to this day is because he murdered Ms. Ajanian after he found out that she and Stevenson were robbing him. Apparently Gage suspected the couple of stealing from him while he was on vacation (they claimed he was robbed by an unknown party) and began inquiring around about them. He learned of their sorted past which angered Ajanian. She threatened him and on 3-6-81, attacked him at his home following an argument - the two wrestled around the home, making a shambles of the inside of Gage's house while wrestling for Gage's revolver. Gage finally gained posession of the gun and shot Ajanian, killing her. - Michael Stevenson was not involved in the altercation because he was still in jail for the hostage incident of which he was later freed. After his release he murdered a Stanislaus County man in a similar hostage related scheme and was himself killed in 1985 by one of his potential victims. Kenneth Gage's petition for pardon can be found here: http://freekengage.com/index.html

04-29-2007, 12:07 PM	#14
Gangreen Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Sep 09, 2005 Posts: 65	I love this case! just the way the mom puts everything on the line to go undercover.

05-01-2007, 07:24 AM	#15
SiberianKiss Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Mar 08, 2006 Posts: 204	memo to bikers...your culture is stupid, you're all nothing but white trash who think you're real cool cause your lame ass motorycycles go vroom vroom! your women are ugly too. The whole biker scene is pathetic, always has been. did anyone see A Bronx Tale? I loved the part when the bikers go into the mafia hangout/restaurant and order some drinks, but then act all rowdy and mean to everybody, so the mafia guys lock the doors and kick all their asses, HA! Showed them who's boss. I hate bikers