Why wasn’t the Angels story published in LIFE, after Bill Ray and Joe Bride spent so much time not merely reporting the story, but literally risked life and limb getting inside this notoriously insular, diehard gang. According to Bride, “George Hunt [LIFE’s managing editor] said he didn’t want to run a piece on ‘those smelly bastards.’” Bill Ray, meanwhile, recalls that “a lot of stories were killed back then because of one remark by an editor who didn’t like the idea. George said we weren’t going to run it, and that was that. I wasn’t in the meeting when the decision was made,” he adds with a laugh. “I wasn’t invited! Editors went to great lengths to keep photographers out of discussions like that. They knew the argument would never end.” Above: An unlikely Bakersfield citizen casts what appears to be an appraising eye over the Hells Angels’ Harley-Davidsons, 1965.