mistrial when a jury failed to reach a verdict. As a result of his imprisonment, Barger was forced to relinquish his presidency of the Oakland chapter for the first time since its inception. According to police intelligence reports, he had designated San Jose chapter president Fillmore Cross as his international successor during a motorcycle run at Bass Lake prior to his imprisonment. Cross was also imprisoned, for possession of amphetamines in 1975, however, and Barger allegedly continued to lead the Hells Angels from his cell at Folsom State Prison. During his incarceration, a bikers' magazine ran a "Free Sonny Barger" campaign, selling T-shirts and bumper stickers, which helped pay his legal expenses. Barger gave a series of interviews, including one with Geraldo Rivera for his Good Night America television program, in which he portrayed himself as a model prisoner and said: "They got to let me out sometime." He also began studying sociology at Folsom. In April 1977, Barger won an appeal to face a retrial on a prior marijuana possession conviction. His acquittal in that case made him eligible for parole as the California Supreme Court ruled that a five-year waiting period – attached to his sentence due to the prior marijuana conviction – was unconstitutional. He was paroled on November 3, 1977, after serving four-and-a-half years of his sentence. On December 5, 1977, Barger opened the first Hells Angels chapter in Canada and awarded the Canadian Hells Angels national president Yves Buteau the right to wear a Hells Angels jacket with the word "International" written on the bottom – a great honor within the world of the Hells Angels where jackets normally list only the state in which the Hells Angel lives in. Barger was arrested on a parole violation charge of possession of firearms when police officers discovered a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, and a rifle after arriving at his Oakland home on March 27, 1978, to serve a subpoena and to conduct a parole search. The case was dismissed when Barger's wife Sharon testified that the guns belonged to her, not her husband. RICO trial Barger and his wife were among 33 members and associates of the Hells Angels' Oakland, San Francisco, Marin County, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Vallejo chapters indicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) statutes on June 13, 1979. He and fifteen others were arrested during