Sons of Anarchy saw a lot of betrayal between the members of the club, and some of the most shocking and heartbreaking ones came from Clay, who killed three of the nine original members of the club – here’s who and why. Created by Kurt Sutter, Sons of Anarchy premiered on FX in 2008 and came to an end in 2014 after seven seasons and a lot of drama between its main characters. Sons of Anarchy was very well received by critics and viewers from the beginning, who praised its tone, the performances of the main cast, and its exploration of themes like racism and corruption.
Sons of Anarchy follows Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam), VP of the motorcycle club Sons of Anarchy in the fictional town of Charming, in California. The events of the series are kickstarted when Jax finds a manifesto written by his late father, John Teller, one of the founding members of the club, which leads Jax to question the club’s path and history, his relationships, family, and himself. During Jax’s time as VP, the President of the club was Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), his step-father and best friend of John Teller, as well as one of the original members of the club but not a founding one – and the man who killed three other original SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club) members.
The original members of the Sons of Anarchy MC are known as the “First 9”, and as such wore a patch with that legend, but not all of them helped in the creation of the club. The first 9, in order of arrival, were John “JT” Teller, Piermont “Piney” Winston, Lenny “The Pimp” Janowitz, Keith McGee, Wally Grazer, Thomas “Uncle Tom” Whitney, Chico Villanueva, Otto “Lil” Killer Moran (not to be confused with Sutter’s character Otto “Big Otto” Delaney), and Clay. Out of all of them, only JT and Piney are co-founders of the club, and by the end of the series, the only one of the “First 9” still alive was Lenny Janowitz (Sonny Barger), who was serving a life sentence at Stockton State Prison for killing three ATF agents, and the rest died under different circumstances – except for JT, Piney, and McGee, who were killed by Clay.
The death of John Teller is one of Sons of Anarchy’s biggest mysteries, with only a couple of rumors here and there hinting at what happened to him. It’s eventually revealed that JT’s death wasn’t exactly an accident, as Clay, with Gemma’s help, sabotaged his bike, leading to JT’s death after he was hit by a semi-truck. Their reason to kill him was that JT was looking to get the MC out of a gun deal with the IRA, and Clay and Gemma weren’t on board with that. Clay’s next victim was Keith McGee, who served as President of the club’s charter known as Sons of Anarchy Belfast, in Ireland. McGee got involved in a partnership with Jimmy O’Phelan and Liam O’Neill, who wanted to push the mother charter out of the True IRA gun smuggling business so they could retire and take a greater share of the profits. Although he didn’t want to hurt the club, he was put in a tough spot by O’Phelan, and once the Sons learned of his betrayal, they cornered him on a roof, where he confessed, and Clay took his “First 9” patch before he pushed him off the roof.
Last but definitely not least is Piney, who never really trusted Clay and only stayed in the club to keep an eye on him once he was named the new President. The tension between them grew in season 4 as Piney didn’t agree with the club’s plans to run drugs for a cartel, which along with him knowing too much about Clay, JT, and what happened to the latter led to Clay killing him at his cabin and framing the Lobos Sonora cartel. Piney’s death was the push that his son Opie needed to go after Clay, who ordered his murder back in season 1 and ended up killing his wife, and Clay finally met his fate in season 6, when he was killed by Jax. While fans still debate whether Clay was a better President than Jax or not, truth is that he was a dangerous man who never hesitated in killing those closest to him, though that also made him one of the most memorable characters in Sons of Anarchy.