A former high-ranking gang member of the Hells Angels in California, USA, is sentenced for having disposed of bodies in the network called the “pizza oven”.
That’s one of the details that emerged in a trial that ended this week.
When charges were filed against 54-year-old former Hells Angels boss Merl Hefferman in Fresno, California, several sordid details about the network’s practices emerged.
He was suspected of disposing of the body of another member who disappeared in 2014 – but during the investigation, evidence showed that a funeral director was threatened and also disposed of up to four bodies of former members suspected of having been murdered.
Undertaker Levi Phipps, who was called as a witness in the trial that ended on Thursday, spoke of the threats he endured for years.
Forced the funeral home
It started in 2014 when Hells Angels member Joel Silva disappeared. Levi Phipps at the funeral home Yost and Webb received a call that year from the Hells Angels asking him to stay at the crematorium after closing, and leave the “doors to the hangar open”, writes The Guardian citing The Fresno Bee.
After closing, the Hells Angels came there and forced him at gunpoint to supervise the cremation of a body. After that, he testifies that he received another call in which he was threatened into silence.
Four bodies were illegally cremated
But it didn’t stop there. The following year, another member of the Hells Angels disappeared – and the undertaker received another call. He was forced to carry out the procedure again, he says during the trial.
Within the Hells Angels, the crematorium must have gone by the name “pizza oven”. According to the indictment, the criminal network must have used the funeral home to dispose of four bodies.
“The only reason Hefferman wanted access to the crematorium was that he wanted the bodies to disappear without a trace,” the prosecutors write in the indictment.
Admitted a case
Last December, former Hells Angels boss Merl Hefferman admitted to disposing of the body of Hells Angels member Joel Silva.
On Thursday, Hefferman was sentenced to four years in prison for involvement in the disappearance of the bodies of four former gang members.
The funeral home has chosen not to provide any comments to The Guardian. Neither did Hefferman’s defense attorney comment further on the indictment or the verdict.