Piney Winston

Piney Winston
First appearance	"Pilot" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	"Family Recipe" (episode 4.08) (Murdered by Clay Morrow)
Created by	Kurt Sutter
Portrayed by	William Lucking
Information
Nickname(s)	Piney
Gender	Male
Occupation	Founding member of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, mechanic and Army Veteran.
Title	Vice President (1967-1991)
Family	Ellie Winston (granddaughter) Kenny Winston (grandson)
Spouse(s)	Mary Winston (ex-wife)
Children	Harry "Opie" Winston (son; deceased)
Nationality	American

Piermont "Piney" Winston is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, played by William Lucking.^[1][2] He was a member of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club and was one of the Club's founders, along with John Teller.

Character biography

Winston was in his late 60s and served as a Soldier in the U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. When he returned to his hometown of Charming, California, in 1967, he felt ostracized by the same society he had just risked his life for. He eventually co-founded the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club with fellow war veteran John Teller as a form of social rebellion and freedom. He was JT's vice president until he was diagnosed with emphysema in 1991. He then suffered from severe emphysema and had to carry an oxygen tank with him at all times, which prevent his going out on runs, but he still attended "Church". Despite his age he proved to be just as tough as his younger club brothers. Piney is the father of Harry "Opie" Winston, Jax Teller's best friend and another member of the Sons of Anarchy. Piney was the only contemporary SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original) member to wear the original Sons of Anarchy denim kutte.^[3]

Season One

At the beginning of Season One, the Mayans stole the Sons' weapons and torched their storage facility. When a meeting was called, Piney attended and proved to be a commanding figure amongst the gang's hierarchy despite his health. Later on, his son, Opie, came to him and asked to borrow money. Piney refused and told him to "grow a dick". Piney did, however, tell Opie to join Clay Morrow and Bobby Munson on a protection run to make some extra cash.^[4]

Jax and Piney sold five AK-47s to Piney's old war buddy, Nate Meineke, and Meineke's right-wing militia. The militia then used these guns to ambush a prison convoy and free one of their members, Frank Cison. A police officer and two civilians were killed during the assault. Meineke dropped his cell phone at the scene, and his last calls had been from the Teller-Morrow Automotive Repair shop. When the ATF found the phone, they arrested Clay and raided the clubhouse. Clay was later released because no evidence was found. Meanwhile Jax, Piney, and Opie decided to kill Meineke and his gang to stop them from "snitching" if they were apprehended by the authorities and because they had killed innocent people in the prison convoy ambush. The Sons pretended to sell Meineke's group more weapons, but the boxes of guns were actually filled with explosives, and the militia loaded their trucks with them. All of the militia were killed when the bombs were detonated.^[5]

Piney, Bobby and Tig started a brawl at a local bar, to distract the police, giving Jax and Opie a chance to break into the police station to pass a message to Luann from Big Otto and free Cherry, who had been arrested.^[6]

In the Season One finale, Piney was enraged that the club was doing nothing to avenge the murder of Donna Winston, his daughter-in-law, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He travelled into Oakland and went to a One-Niners bar, where he took a hostage and demanded to know who killed Donna. Half-Sack Epps followed him, however, and called Jax and Chibs Telford for help. They got Piney out alive, and Laroy, the Niners leader, told them it wasn't his gang who killed Donna. It was later revealed that Piney had a copy of JT's diary, which he passed on to Jax at Donna's funeral.^[7]

Season Two

Throughout Season Two, Piney and Jax continue to search for answers about Donna's death, although both remain convinced that Clay was somehow involved. Losing faith in Clay, and becoming disenchanted with the club, Piney barely makes a presence in any of the recent club activities. However, he proves that he still has a bit of pride left in him, when he rallies his brothers together and bravely helps rescue Tig from a group of bounty hunters.

Piney was extremely upset when he discovered Jax planned to go nomad. He voted yes on Jax's request and then immediately left to return to his cabin.

Piney's suspicions were proven true when Tig eventually admitted to killing Donna. Piney calmly said goodbye to his ex-wife and retreated to his cabin, where he stored away his kutte and gathered his old Army uniform and M1911 pistol. He went to the clubhouse and tried to shoot Clay, but he missed. Opie insisted that Piney only attempted to kill Clay for fear that Opie would do it himself, and Piney didn't want his son to ruin himself. Knowing the motorcycle club is all Piney has, Clay forgives him by telling him to never return to the clubhouse again without his kutte.

Season Three

In Season Three, Piney is shown to be more active in the club. He runs the Teller-Morrow garage while his fellow members are out looking for Jax's kidnapped son Abel and Gemma is on the run from the law. When SOA members Bobby and Happy need to get medicine for family members Piney leads them his friend (Frances Fisher), who is in the pharmaceutical drug trade. They arrive at her house while she is being robbed, and they shoot it out with the robbers. Because the Sons are outgunned they end up captured but are rescued by the rest of the SOA, thanks to a call for backup by Happy. When the club needs money for their trip to find Abel they decide to sell the pharmaceuticals supplied to them by Piney's friend.

While the club is in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Piney stays behind. He and the other SAMCRO members who stayed behind have their hands full with Jacob Hale's using Hector Salazar (former President of the Calaverez MC) to push out one of their most loyal supporters for a land development deal. When the Sons get information from Darby, Piney and Tig go to share it with Unser and ask him to investigate it, but Unser - who has been distant from the club - disregards the information. So Piney and the remaining SAMCRO members who aren't in Belfast look for Salazar but don't find him at his house. Salazar calls the club to tell them he has kidnapped Tara, and he wants the club to kill Alvarez and take $250,000 from Alvarez's home safe. The club gets Alvarez to pretend, for 24 hours, to be dead, but they can't get the money. ATF Agent June Stahl decides to help get Tara back by providing the ransom money, but the drop is compromised when some kids steal the money. The next day the rest of SAMCRO comes home, and they look for Tara. In the Season Three finale the club celebrates Abel's return, and the rest of the day the club works to tie up loose ends, which includes killing Jimmy O'Phelan. SAMCRO takes Jimmy from the Russians, but the ATF captures Jimmy at the garage, where they find out that Jax made the deal. Many SAMCRO members are arrested to face their gun charges. Piney, Opie, and Chibs are the only ones not subject to these charges and are assigned to ambush and kill Stahl and Jimmy with the help of Kozik, a Tacoma member who has been helping SAMCRO and wants to transfer to the Charming charter, and Unser. They successfully get the job done and drive away.

Season Four

In Season 4, Piney voices his disgust with Clay's decisions following the agreement to run drugs for the cartel, and he creates a rift in the club culminating in Bobby's call for a change of presidency vote. The vote is interrupted by attacks on SAMCRO and the Mayans, after which Piney goes to the cabin to clear his mind. It's also revealed that Piney is privy to the contents of some letters written by John Teller (which Tara found when she unwrapped and read the package of letters Maureen Ashby had secreted in Jax's bag and described to Piney). In these letters, JT related his concerns about the direction the club had taken, his plans to stop the gunrunning for the IRA, and his fears that he was losing Gemma and that Clay would kill him. Piney believes the latter is what eventually happened and threatens Clay that he will share those letters with Jax and the club, unless Clay pulls out of the cartel deal. Clay goes to the cabin looking for the letters and questions Piney about them, after which Clay murders Piney. Clay then stages the scene to look like a hit by the cartel. Piney is the third member of SOA's First 9 to be executed by Clay.

References