Former Hells Angels leader reveals the chilling consequences he faced for QUITTING the violent biker gang after 40 YEARS - as he lifts the lid on what it was really like to live as an outlaw

A former leader of the Hells Angels has revealed why he chose to walk away from the biker gang once and for all - while opening up about the chilling changes he saw the notorious club undergo during his time inside it.

George Christie, 77, who joined the group when he was in his late 20s, has spoken out about his departure from the group during A&E's new Secrets of the Hells Angels docuseries.

He explained that he resigned from his position as president of California's Ventura Charter in 2011 after becoming disillusioned.

But George said he was stunned to be immediately excommunicated with other members of the 'brotherhood' banned from speaking to him from that moment on. 

George Christie, now 77, has spoken out about his departure from the group during A&E's new Secrets of the Hells Angels docuseries

George (pictured in 1984) bought his first motorcycle for $200 in 1966 and began hanging out at local clubs

George bought his first motorcycle for $200 in 1966 and began hanging out at local clubs.

'I think America has a romance with outlaws – they always have, and they always will,' he told Fox. 'As a young kid, I always identified with the outlaw guys. 

'And when I got out of the Marine Corps, I was still looking for that camaraderie. I drifted into the outlaw motorcycle world and ultimately wound up riding with the Angels.'

He became a full patch member of the gang in 1976 and, just two years later, moved up to president and club leader of his own charter. 

The Hells Angels, which were originally founded in California in 1948, is said to still have around 3,500 members and 475 charters across 62 countries.

But the group is still considered to be an outlaw gang involved in criminal activity.

Its website states: 'When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets.'

In 2001, during his time in the group, George was arrested with a 59-count indictment. 

He explained that he resigned from his position as president of California's Ventura Charter in 2011 after becoming disillusioned (pictured in Ventura County Jail)

In 2001, during his time in the group, George (pictured in court) was arrested with a 59-count indictment

He spent a year in solitary confinement before he was offered a plea bargain for time served.

Elaborating further about his experience, George told the outlet that he saw the Hells Angels transform from a brotherhood to a group waging war on all sides.

'I walked into the outlaw motorcycle life because it was a live and let live society,' he said. 'A lot of things had changed.'

He explained: 'I walked into the meeting, and I told everybody what I was going to do. It was a very difficult decision. I said we have become the people we rebel against, and I'm walking away. It's time for me to move on.

'I thought, foolishly, that I would be able to walk away because of my position in the club and the 40 years I had given to them. But the bottom line is you're either in or you're out.'

But there would be yet a further twist in the tale for George because just weeks after his resignation he was approached by authorities with an indictment for a 2006 conspiracy to firebomb two tattoo shops in Ventura.

He told the court that he accepted responsibility for 'poor leadership' but had never actively directed anyone to raze the stores.

He spent two years on house arrest, while he recovered from a double hip replacement, before spending the following year in a Texas federal prison. 

George, who released from custody in 2014, admitted: 'I miss the good times. I even miss the bad times. But I'm a realist...

'I walked away when I thought it was an appropriate time to do so. And I think I am where I'm supposed to be in life right now.' 

'I don't miss going to prison,' he lightheartedly concluded. 

Elsewhere in the series, investigators revealed how the Hells Angels were inspired by the Mafia - with new joiners required to commit murder in order to be accepted into the notorious biker gang.

There would be yet a further twist in the tale for George because just weeks after his resignation he was approached by authorities with an indictment for a 2006 conspiracy to firebomb two tattoo shops in Ventura

George, who released from custody in 2014, admitted: 'I miss the good times. I even miss the bad times. But I'm a realist'

Former cop Tom Doyle, from Eastlake Police Department, Ohio, explained how The Godfather - a crime novel about fictional Mafia family headed by headed by Vito Corleone - had formed the basis of the biker gang's code of conduct. 

Explaining how the law of Hells Angels came about, Doyle said: 'While in jail, someone obtains a copy of The Godfather and it's read and passed around.

'To become a "made" member of the Mafia, you have to commit a murder. [The Hells Angels] sit there and look around the cell block and they realize "we've already done that."

'Then they realized if you have an organization where everyone is bonded by murder the person who commits the murder is not going to turn on the club - that ensures silence and that ensures loyalty.' 

Similarly, Jay Dobyns, an undercover cop who infiltrated the biker gang for two years, also appeared in the documentary before speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com about the dark underbelly of the biker group.

He described the operation as a 'life and death experience' during which time he saw that 'the Hells Angels were willing to kill their own' and 'just how violent they can be.'

Jay, who worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), explained how the organization's interest in the Hells Angels had started to ramp up after two 'key events that were the cornerstones of the investigation.' 

The first was the murder of Cynthia Garcia who Jay said was 'beaten to near death in the Hells Angels clubhouse in Massa, Arizona.'

He continued: 'And, when she wasn't dead yet, they stuffed her in the trunk of a car and they drove her to the desert near Apache Leap in Arizona and they cut her throat. They tried to cut her head off.' 

The former cop said that the other flashpoint had been the public riot at a casino in Laughlin, Nevada, which saw the Hells Angels in a bloody clash with rival group the Mongols.