The FBI has revealed a plot to assassinate Mick Jagger by a motorcycle gang Hells Angels after the Rolling Stones' infamous gig at a concert in California, an attempt which was thwarted as the boat of the would-be killers got swamped in a storm. According to former FBI Special Agent Mark Young, the Hells Angels had plotted to assassinate Sir Mick after he refused to use their services following a "death" incident at Altamont Speedway Free Concert in 1969 for which the gang provided security. "The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him. A group of them took a boat and were all tooled up and planned to attack him from the sea. They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his (New York) property from the garden. "The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard. All survived and there was not said to have been any further attempt on Jagger's life," British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph quoted Tom Mangold, who interviewed Young in BBC radio's series The FBI at 100 , as saying.
However, Sir Mick was never informed of the alleged assassination attempt. The incident at the concert involved the Hells Angels' role in the murder of Meredith Hunter, a 18-year-old black member of the audience, who was stabbed and kicked to death by a group of Hells Angels. The attack near the stage was clearly captured on film by three separate cameras. Alan Passaro, the killer, was arrested and tried for murder in 1972, but was acquitted after a jury concluded that he had acted in self-defence because Hunter was carrying a handgun. The murder at the Altamont concert in California came to be seen as the event that heralded the end of the hippie era of the "Swinging Sixties".
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