The Outlaws MC

This is a paper I wrote on the Outlaw Motorcycle Club. 

Before we get into the misadventures and activities of the Outlaws MC world wide and over the decades, we would be well served to get a handle on who they are and what drives them to be that. As you will see the mould created was not entirely of their own doing, the media and the cops played a large part in shaping the image of the 1-% er biker. All the Outlaws had to do was to live up to it.

Daniel Sanger wrote about popular culture and how it has long been intrigued by outlaw bikers ever since they first rode out of California and Chicago shattering the complacent calm of post war America. This fascination hasn’t been reflexed with it’s fair share of serious examination. The reasons he gave are obvious and self-explanatory. Few self-respecting outlaw would let a researcher get that close to the inner workings of his club. Outlaw gangs are notoriously secretive. Their members bound together as much by a contempt and mistrust of straight society as anything else.

So for the longest time this inaccessible culture has been open to us thru stories and media reports. Neither one of these prove reliable. This is changing due to police operations and infiltrations into the murky world of Bikers. Police operations leave paper trails of testimony and first hand knowledge. Another strong knowledgeable source are bikers themselves. Those that turn and work as agents and informers for the police often write books on their life inside the club. So the veil of secrecy is lifted. This exposure has been a double edge sword. We often see the “Wizard” as he truly is. Much of the romance has been replaced with distaste and repugnance. The police raids and the millions made on drugs and other aspects of organized crime has spared no one. Not just the Bargers and the Bowmans, or the leaders of the second tier gangs who are also going down. From Billy Wade Smith of the Devils Deciples MC to Joseph Whiting of the Highwaymen MC no one is immune to the dreaded RICO charge. The lure of big money and crime syndicates attracted everybody and drew a different type of man to the biker leadership.

If you want to go back to the “old-fashion” biker you need to read guys like William Dulany or some of the old stand bys like Hunter S. Thompson and Daniel Wolf but be prepared they are dated and not in keeping with the “new” biker and after awhile start to be same-old. They do however give you a sense of the bikers before all the colors turned “mint” green.

Sonny Barger with the help of the Zimmermans, Keith and Kent (The life and times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club) is also popular but dated. A second problem unfortunately is that Sonny writes mostly about Sonny and sometimes uses the club only as a backdrop. In the book Sonny does try to usurp the one fact the Hell’s angels have had to live with. They weren’t first. The Outlaws proceeded them by over a decade. Sonny’s arguments goes along these lines. He contends that the “McCook Outlaws”, the “Chicago Outlaws” and the present “Outlaws MC” cannot be looked at as a single ongoing entity. The winged motorcycle of the early years is a long way from “Charlie”. Different name, different patch … different club! He contends that using the straight line then you would have to include the POBOB as part of the Angels history, which of course we don’t. This argument is strong but has a major flaw.

The creation and beginnings of the Hells Angels is certainly no clearer than anyone elses. The Hells Angels were originally formed in 1948 in Fontana, California.through a coming together of former members from different motorcycle clubs, such as but not exclusively The Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington. The name "Hells Angels" was believed to have been inspired by the common historical use, in world War II, to name squadrons or other fighting groups by a fierce, death-defying name. Several military units used the name Hells Angels prior to the founding of the motorcycle club. The “Booze-Fighters” had been around for several years before along with the galloping Goose long before the “Angels”

Not only is the early history of the HAMC not clear, accounts differ. According to Sonny who was the founder of the Oakland chapter, early chapters of the club existed in San Francisco, Gardena, Fontana, and other places independent of one another, with the members usually not really caring about “the others” some didn’t even know others had taken that name. Using Sunny’s own agruement, does that show continuity?

Some sources claim that the Hells Angels in San Francisco were originally organized in 1953 by Rocky Graves, a Hells Angel member from San Bernardino. This implies that the "Frisco" Hells Angels at least were very much aware of their forebearers. According to another account, the Hells Angels club was a successor to "P.O.B.O.B." Motorcycle club, The "Frisco" Hells Angels were reorganized in 1955 with thirteen charter members; Frank Sadliek, who designed the original death's head logo, was named President. The Oakland chapter, at that time headed by Barger, those angels used a larger version of the patch nicknamed the "Barger Larger" which in 1959 became the club standard.. That’s when we can start looking at the Angels as we do today. Prior to 1959 there wasn’t one leader but several. Of course it’s all academic at this point but makes for interesting reading.

The Outlaws, on the other hand, had a membership that didn’t change because of relocation or change over the years. The same founder and leader, John Davis, led the club off and on until his death in the early seventies, killed by another Outlaw during a power struggle. The upstarts wanted to set the club on a new direction. The shooter was a Vietnam Veteran. Mark Ciacchi, a west coast peacnik wrote a somewhat interesting piece in 2003 where he compares 1%er bikers to returning American Vets suffering from PTSD. That implies bikers are somehow sick and in need of psychological help. Reasonably presumptuous on his part I would say. The type of theory that can open some ugly doors.

An interesting fact is that even if Sonny Barger’s argument is to be believed that still wouldn’t make the Hells Angels the first club. Even Women had a large club that has existed non stop through the years “The Motormaids”. An all female club started in 1940 and still holding an original charter from the AMA. Still in existence today with the same charter and rules they had over sixty years ago. They have 1200+ members in the US and Canada. They still have national runs and rallies all across North America including 2010.

Although informative, a lot of what’s out there is sometimes dry and scholastic or single event driven with only a cursory look at the history. With more and more people developing an interest in the genre authors are beginning to rise to the challenge. There’s of course Daniel Sanger an award winning journalist from Montreal. An expert on the biker war in Quebec that took so many lives. As the author of “Hells Witness” Sanger uses the death and destruction as a vehicle to explore the inner recesses of his protagonist’s mind. His work greatly influenced my knowledge of that period. I myself was working on a different case at the time and was not on that front line.

And then there’s Billy! A walking contradiction with a foot in both worlds. I’m talking about William Dulaney. Eight year Outlaw. The people of Chicago may know his bike if not him. He drives around on a 1953 Panhead. The man is also a visiting professor at the Western Carolina University. He has been writing extensively and accurately about life as an Outlaw. Specializing in the historic aspect and the 1-%er designation clubs have adopted. In his dissertation he separated the Motorcycle club development in three sections

1. Preformative period: 1901-1944
2. Formative period: 1945-1957
3. Transformative period: 1958 to present

In the first part he deals with the development of the motorcycle, interesting but doesn’t serve our purpose. The Formative period touchs on what we’re looking at insofar as the power of the AMA and the rules on not just racing but image and seeking to make motorcycle racing into a family-friendly hobby. Which goes a long way in explaining the backlash of the 4-th of July, 1947. Although that incident was relatively small and would barely be noticed had it not been reported as it was by Life magazine.

The real incident caused a little bit of storefront damage and one biker arrested for indecency. A far cry from what was carried and close to being the “attack” the magazine boosted it up to be. When the 115 word article came out first in the Chronicle then picked up by Life for their July 21 edition, it was accompanied by a giant photo taken by Barney Peterson. If a picture ever said a thousand words, this one did. Peterson, thru his own admission had staged the picture of a drunken biker leaning back on a knucklehead with a beer in each hand and empties all around him. Under the title “ Cyclist’s Holiday: He and Friends Terrorize Town”. When “True Detective” wrote a total fictional and sexually orientated story about the town and the incident, it just took off. You can well imagine, it’s a lot more fun to read about scantly clad “motorcycle-mamas” then some drunk biker pissing in public. It now had all the necessary ingredients for Hollywood and as they say: “The rest is history!”

While mainstream bikers and biker groups like the AMA were working overtime to distance themselves from the bad press, clubs like the Outlaws, POBOB and the Booze-fighters loved it. It gave them the notoriety and an image they would aspire to live up to. Reynolds wrote: “ So the birth of the outlaw motorcycle club was the result of a siege that never took place and the expatriation from an organization to which they never belonged.” Once the whole thing became myth everyone settled into their respective roles things quieted down, for a while. But a monster had been born. Newspapers did the math, Bikers sell papers. Politicians went on crusades to clean the streets and police asked for and got bigger budgets. The Galloping goose was laying golden eggs. Bikers were becoming a opportunity. The Bikers wearing “Nazi regalia” and having names with Satan, the Devil and other negative shock elements didn’t help their cause. The World War was still fresh in peoples’ mind and Christian society saw it all as the Devils work along with Rock and Roll. Attention demands action and Bikers were getting a lot of attention.

In 1964 the authorities got their chance, and they pounced.

The AG for the state of California rose to the challenge. The Lynch Report was law-enforcement’s first concerted effort to get in (cash in) on the Biker phenomenon. The whole thing came out of an exaggerated report on biker activity. In the summer of ’64 two Hells Angels were charged with raping two women at a bike rally in Monterey, California . The two bikers were soon released for lack of evidence but it was too late. The media had gotten a hold of the story and ran with it. Not just local media, check this out.

The New York Times, March 16, 65

Time: 26 March, 65

Newsweek: 29 March, 65

The Nation: may 17,65

The New York Times: June 20,65

Life: July 2,65

Newsweek: July 5,65

The Saturday Evening Post: November 20,65

In today’s jargon we say that the story went “viral”

These articles ran with names like “Threat on Wheels” (LA Times). Can you think of a better recruitment tool for every mal-content in the country. The publicity also gave police and politicians a chance to step up. California State Senator Fred Farr, a man who loved the limelight, demanded an investigation into biker activities. So the Attorney General Thomas Lynch, always glad to oblige the boys upstairs, started a state-wide investigation. It became known as the “Lynch |Report” and it was full of Urban legends, stories of small town takeovers and desert orgies abounded under the title of “Hoodlum Activities”. As absurd as it all was it had served it’s purpose. The bikers were now considered a national threat, and the war was on. It’s the Lynch Report that set Hunter Thompson on his quest to write about the Bikers from within. By the time his book came out most of the stories had been discredited.

Clubs were forming all over the country, the Bandidos, Sons of Silence, Mongols, the list goes on and on. The “Outlaws” under John Davis not only survived all of this, it thrived. It was the time of their greatest growth. Men were joining in droves and chapters were opening throughout the east coast.

So the transformation period that Dulaney talks about was brought on by the media and the public’s insatiable appetite for sensational and exploitive news. The Outlaws and other groups were only living up to their image.

Works Cited:

Barger, Zimmerman and Zimmerman’s “Hells Angels; The life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. New:HarperCollins 2000

Ciacchi “Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs and the American |Vets. 2003

Dulaney, William L. “Moving Forward with Visual Symbols, Looking Back at Outlaw MC’s” National Communication Association, Chicago. Oct. 2004

Daniel Sanger: “Hells Witness” Penguin 2005

Motormaid.org “history”

Tom Reynolds “Wild Ride”: How Outlaw Motorcycle Myth Conquered America” New York: TV Books, 2000

“History of the Rally.” Hollister Independence Rally Committee, 2005

Hunter Thompson’s : “Hell’s Angels:A Strange and Terrible Saga” New York: Ballantime, 1966

Special Thanks to William Dulaney and his “A brief History of “Outlaw” Motorcycle Clubs” International Journal of Motorcycle Studies 1 (November 2005): http:/ijms.nova.edu/novenber2005/IJMS_Artcl.Dulaney.html.