![]() | |
Founded | 1970 |
---|---|
Founded at | Perth, Australia |
Type | Outlaw motorcycle club |
Region | Australia, Norway, Germany |
Website | www.coffincheatersmc.org |
The Coffin Cheaters are an international outlaw motorcycle club that was formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 1970. [1] The Perth-based Coffin Cheaters amalgamated in 1999 with a previously unrelated club in Victoria called Coffin Cheaters, and later "patched over" two Norwegian gangs, Forbidden Few MC and Wizard MC, in 2004 and 2005 respectively. [2] The Coffin Cheaters were the first Australian gang to expand internationally. [1]
An unrelated US club, Coffin Cheaters MC, founded in the early 1960s in southern California has no connection to the Australian club. City Crew Mc is a feeder club . [3] [4] The US club is also unusual in not having "prospects" or probationary members and normally allows only blood relatives of existing members to join. [4]
In the 1980s Western Australia was home to four outlaw motorcycle clubs, Club Deroes, Gypsy Jokers, Gods Garbage and the Coffin Cheaters. All bar the Gypsy Jokers originated in WA. [5] In 1989 these four gangs combined forces to violently eject the New Zealand-based street gang, the Mongrel Mob which was attempting to establish itself in Perth. [6] [7]
Events escalated over a five-day period where Selwyn Wharepapa, one of the leaders of the Perth Mongrel Mob, was injured in the bombing of the Mongrel Mob's metalwork shop with two kilograms of gelignite and the Mongrel Mob retaliated with attempted explosion at a tattoo shop linked with the Gypsy Jokers. [8]
The following night police raided three homes, arresting seven people, including Wharepapa in possession of firearms, baseball bats and drugs. [8]
Two days later, Wharepapa was shot in the groin in the Perth suburb of Swan View. Gypsy Joker Paul Hugo and Gods Garbage member Ronald Scott were arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. It was enough to finally force the Mongrel Mob to leave Perth. [9]
The Mongrel Mob is an organised street gang and prison gang based in New Zealand. With a network of more than thirty chapters throughout the country and additional operations in Australia and Canada, the Mob is the largest gang in New Zealand. They are especially active in the King Country, Kawerau, Ōpōtiki, Waikato and Hastings. The Mongrel Mob's main rival is the Black Power gang; there have been several very public and violent clashes between the two gangs over the years.
There are numerous gangs in New Zealand, of varying criminality, organisation and ethnicity, including outlaw motorcycle gangs, street gangs and ethnically based gangs. A chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club was formed in Auckland in 1961, the first Hells Angels chapter outside the US. Soon after, the Mongrel Mob formed in Hastings and Wellington, developing into a predominantly Māori and Pacific Islander gang, and having the largest membership in the country. Through the 1960s and 1970s, other outlaw motorcycle clubs and ethnically based gangs formed, including another predominantly Māori gang, Black Power, which grew to rival the Mongrel Mob.
The Comanchero Motorcycle Club is an outlaw motorcycle gang in Australia and South East Asia. The Comancheros are participants in the United Motorcycle Council of NSW, which convened a conference in 2009 to address legislation aimed against the "bikie" clubs, their poor public image in the wake of several violent clashes and ongoing biker wars, and defusing deadly feuds such as the Comancheros' battles with the Hells Angels. The sincerity of these efforts to defend the battered image of the clubs has been met with skepticism.
The Finks are an Australian outlaw motorcycle club that was formed in Adelaide, Australia, in 1969 and now also has chapters in other states. The name comes from The Wizard of Id cartoon where the peasants, to his dismay, often proclaim, "The King is a fink!". The logo used by the Finks is of Bung, the king's jester. The pants worn by the jester used to differ in colour depending on the state the chapter resides in.
The history of gangs in Australia goes back to the colonial era. Criminal gangs flourished in The Rocks district of Sydney in its early history in the 19th century. The Rocks Push was a notorious larrikin gang which dominated the area from the 1800s to the end of the 1900s. The gang was engaged in running warfare with other larrikin gangs of the time such as the Straw Hat Push, the Glebe Push, the Argyle Cut Push, the Forty Thieves from Surry Hills, and the Gibb Street Mob.
The Road Knights Motorcycle Club is an outlaw motorcycle club that operates in the South Island of New Zealand with a presence in Invercargill, Dunedin, and Timaru. Since 2012, new chapters have been formed in Thailand, Netherlands and the United States.
The Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club (GJMC) is a "one-percenter" motorcycle club that was originally formed in San Bernardino, California on April Fool's Day, 1956. Though founded in the United States, the MC expanded successfully overseas and gained significant notoriety in Australia, the United States, and Norway.
The Rebels Motorcycle Club is an outlaw motorcycle club. At its peak in Australia, it had around 70 chapters and over 1,000 members and associates nationwide, making it the largest club in the country at the time. It was founded by Clint Jacks in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1969 and was originally named the "Confederates". Their insignia is a Confederate flag with a cap-wearing skull and 1% patch in the centre. The Australian government and law enforcement consider the Rebels to be a criminal organisation, but the club claims to be a group of motorcycle enthusiasts rather than gangsters.
The Nomads Motorcycle Club is an outlaw motorcycle club in Australia with a large number of chapters and members nationwide. It was founded in Newcastle in 1968. A number of countries have motorcycle clubs called "Nomads Motorcycle Club", e.g. Australia, South Africa and Germany, and there is a Nomads gang in New Zealand.
Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013, an act of the Parliament of Queensland, aims to combat "illegal activities of criminal gangs, including criminal [motorcycle] gangs," that is, significant types of organised crime in Queensland. The act was passed on 16 October 2013, and as of 17 October 2013, the Attorney-General of Queensland had indicated that the law had received Royal Assent and was in force. In 2016 it was repealed as part of the introduction of the Serious and Organised Crime Amendment Bill .
The Tribesmen are a prominent outlaw motorcycle club based in the North Island of New Zealand. They have a relatively large presence, having set up chapters in Ōtara, Northland, Rotorua, Murupara and Christchurch.
The Club Deroes Motorcycle Club or Club Deroes MC are an Australian outlaw motorcycle club that was formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 1971.
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is classified as a motorcycle gang by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in numerous countries. While the club has denied being a criminal organization, Bandidos members have been convicted of partaking in criminal enterprises including theft, extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking and murder in various host nations.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), an international outlaw biker gang, has been involved in multiple crimes, alleged crimes, and violent incidents in Australia. The Hells Angels are legally classified as a criminal organisation in the Australian state of Queensland, and there have been attempts to classify them as such in New South Wales. The Hells Angels have been linked with drug trafficking and production, as well as a host of violent crimes including murder, in Australia.
The Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club are an Australian "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club. Maintaining several chapters throughout the country, the club has been described by law enforcement as one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in the state of Victoria and are said to be among the wealthiest, if not, wealthiest of Australia's outlaw bikie groups.
The Hancock case was a famous criminal case in Western Australia concerning allegations that a well respected former policeman Don Hancock murdered a member of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club, William "Billy" Grierson, in 2000 and that in turn the Gypsy Jokers murdered Hancock in revenge in 2001. The American biker expert Thomas Barker wrote that the murder of Hancock was the most "notorious" biker-related crime in Australia since the Milperra massacre of 1984.