MEREDITH HUNTER

'Meredith Hunter' (October 24, 1951 – December 6, 1969) described by friends as a flashy dresser with a big afro was swarmed by members of the Hells Angels and fatally stabbed directly in front of the stage at the Altamont Music Festival during the Rolling Stones' performance as they played "Under My Thumb". He died en route to the hospital. The killing itself was recorded in the documentary ''Gimme Shelter''. Alan Passaro, a 21-year-old member of the Hells Angels, was charged with the crime, but Passaro claimed he acted in self-defense after Hunter, probably as a result of being accosted and being high on methamphetamines, pulled a gun (as can be seen in the film). Passaro was acquitted.
There had been rumors, over the years, that a second, unidentified assailant had inflicted the fatal wounds, and, as a result, the police considered the case still open. On 25 May, 2005, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office announced that it was officially closing the stabbing case. Investigators, concluding a renewed two-year investigation, dismissed the theory that a second Hells Angel took part in the stabbing.^[1]
Perhaps because of early, incorrect reporting by Rolling Stone magazine, an urban legend holds that the song playing when Hunter was killed was "Sympathy for the Devil." This is false — while that song was part of the Rolling Stones' set at the show, they were performing "Under My Thumb" when Hunter was stabbed.
The death of Hunter and the Altamont Music Festival was later viewed as the end of innonence and the end of the sixties and hippidom and all the love peace and happiness that had been brought by the Woodstock festival some three months earlier.
Mr. Hunter was interred on December 10, 1969 at the Skyview Memorial Lawn in Vallejo, California.^[2]

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External links

References

1. Article on SFGate.com
2. [1]

External links

★ 1970 Rolling Stone article on the stabbing

★ imdb entry for ''Gimme Shelter''

★ SF360: A tour through Lot 63 Grave C