The Ritual Murder That Ended 1960s Counter Culture

How one ominous night of debauchery and violence epitomized the hippie movement.

The 1960s counter culture revolution came to a dark end with a violent, drug infused ritual murder in front of 300,000 attendees at a free concert that was held at California’s Altamont Speedway. A culmination of all the mysterious murders, covert ops and Satanic influence, the 60’s pop culture had reached a boiling point in the very last month of the decade.

Later known as the Woodstock of the West Coast, the Altamont free concert was planned in just 2 weeks with multiple venue changes in the process. The concert lineup had some of Laurel Canyon's most well known musical acts including Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and The Flying Burrito Brothers along with the Grateful Dead and headlined by the Rolling Stones.

Among the nearly non-existent infrastructure, the stage was only about waist high with no barricade and the Hell's Angels biker gang was paid in beer to do security, armed with pool cues. What could go wrong?

Copious amounts of drugs and alcohol were consumed and tension with the Hell's Angels caused the crowd to grow restless and increasingly violent. Stephen Stills was stabbed in the leg by a Hell's Angels member, causing the Grateful Dead to leave the venue. This created an empty 2 hour slot, making the crowd even more violent, stirring them into an uncontrollable frenzy. By the time the headlining Rolling Stones arrived, the crowd was so rabid that Mick Jagger was welcomed by a punch in the face from some deranged hippie on acid as soon as the Stones arrived in their helicopter.

At the end of the event, there were 4 deaths including 2 hit and runs, and one drowning during an LSD trip. But the most infamous death was Meredith Hunter who was stabbed to death by a Hell's Angel while the Rolling Stones were on stage performing "Sympathy for the Devil". The mainstream account that Hunter's murder occurred while the Stone's were playing “Under My Thumb”, comes from the film "Gimme Shelter", which intentionally shows the incident out of sequence.

The only other recording of Hunter's murder was stolen the next day in a home burglary at the cameraman's house, where only the 8mm film was taken and nothing else. One of the other cameramen was a young George Lucas, who is credited in "Gimme Shelter", although his camera jammed early and none of his footage ended up in the film.

One year after the incident, Don McLean in his famous song “American Pie”, an upbeat and catchy hit tune, wrote of the death of Hunter as a ritual murder with Mick Jagger portrayed as Satan. Fittingly, the song Sympathy for the Devil, which the Stones were playing during Hunter's murder, is written by Jagger from first person perspective of Lucifer.

Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So, come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the Devil's only friend
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

—American Pie by Don McLean