Founded | 1954 [1] [2] |
---|---|
Founded at | Detroit, Michigan |
Type | Outlaw motorcycle club |
Region | Midwestern and Southern United States [1] |
The Highwaymen Motorcycle Club is a one-percenter outlaw motorcycle club. The club was formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1954. [1] [2] The club has undergone a number of large-scale police and FBI investigations, most notably in 1973, 1987 and 2007. [2] In the early 1970s several members were convicted of bombings and raids of the homes and the clubhouses of rival motorcycle clubs. [3]
The club is the largest in the Detroit area, with over four hundred members, [4] and chapters in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. [2] [5] Their insignia is a winged skeleton wearing a motorcycle cap and leather jacket, and their colors are black and silver. Their motto is, "Yeah, though we ride the highways in the shadow of death, we fear no evil, as we are the evilest 'mother fuckers' on the Highway." ("H.F.F.H.").[ citation needed ] James Blake Miller, the "Marlboro Marine", is a member of the Kentucky Highwaymen, many of whom, like Miller, are veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. [6] [7] The Highwaymen are banned from the Detroit Federation of Motorcycle Clubs, which was created in the 1970s to resolve motorcycle gang turf wars. [2]
In 1955, the Highwaymen were actually listed as an American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) sanctioned club, [8] a form of mainstream respectability which outlaw motorcycle clubs would, over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, come to reject as the very definition of 'outlaw' and 'one-percenter,' just as much as the AMA rejected outlaw clubs from their midst. [9]
On May 5, 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 40 members and associates of the Detroit chapter of the Highwaymen on a number of charges including racketeering, murder for hire, assault, police corruption, cocaine trafficking, vehicle theft, and mortgage and insurance fraud. Twenty-nine illegal firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns and handguns, were also found when FBI agents raided homes and the chapter's clubhouse. The investigation into the club lasted two years and involved wiretaps and two informants, one of whom was eventually murdered. [2] the other was James Wallace III.
High-ranking Highwaymen member Randell Lee McDaniel was arrested for running a chop shop in Lansing, Michigan on June 13, 2007. The investigation by the Monroe County Auto Theft Enforcement began in October 2006 and served several search warrants on properties owned by McDaniel. He was charged with conducting a criminal enterprise, operating a chop shop, motor vehicle theft and possessing a controlled substance. [11]
Four police officers and a member of the Highwaymen were indicted on March 12, 2008 by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges stemming from the 2007 investigation into drug trafficking. Highwaymen member Sean Donovan, who was already incarcerated on stolen property charges, was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and Vicodin. The four police officers were also jailed for corruption. [12] [13]
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is a gang active primarily in the United States as well as internationally. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954. The Latin Kings are one of the largest Hispanic and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide.
Pagan's Motorcycle Club, or simply the Pagans, is an outlaw motorcycle club formed by Lou Dobkin in 1957 in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The club rapidly expanded and by 1959, the Pagans, originally clad in blue denim jackets and riding Triumphs, began to evolve along the lines of the stereotypical one percenter motorcycle club.
An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a biker club or bikie club, is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the biker group.
Harry Joseph Bowman, also known as "Taco", was an American outlaw biker and gangster who served as the international president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club between 1984 and 1999. During his tenure as president, the club had chapters in more than 30 cities in the United States and some 20 chapters in at least four other countries.
Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club is an American motorcycle club founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1965. The club is primarily active in the Southeastern United States and only accepts Harley-Davidson riders.
The United Blood Nation, also known as the East Coast Bloods, is a street and prison gang active primarily in the New York metropolitan area. It is the east coast faction of the California-based Bloods street gang. Their main source of income is the trafficking and sale of illegal drugs.
The Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club (SOSMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Founded in Niwot, Colorado in the United States in 1966, the club has a membership of over 250, with 35 chapters based in 12 U.S. states and in Germany. The Sons of Silence are the sixth-largest motorcycle club in the world, behind the Hells Angels, the Bandidos, the Outlaws, the Pagans and the Mongols.
The Breed Motorcycle Club was a one-percenter motorcycle club that was formed in Asbury Park, New Jersey in the United States in 1965. The club disbanded in 2006 after numerous prominent members were indicted on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.
The Devils Diciples Motorcycle Club (DDMC) is an outlaw motorcycle club that was founded in Fontana, California in 1967. Such clubs are not sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and do not adhere to the AMA's rules. The club originally had six members, there is a misconception that the word "disciples" was intentionally misspelled to distance themselves from any type of religion. However, in the early days of the club, some founding members went to Mexico to have their patches made, and the misspelling was unintentional, but stuck. Their insignia is a motorcycle wheel with two tridents crossing over it. In the United States, the club has chapters in Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, and Ohio.
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.
El Forastero Motorcycle Club (EFMC) is a one-percenter motorcycle club which was established after being turned down for a chapter by the Satan Slaves MC. The El Forasteros are well known for their criminal activities, and are considered by law enforcement to be among the many second-tier, after the "Big Four", outlaw motorcycle clubs.
The Florencia 13, also known as South Side Florencia 13,Florence Gang, F13 is an American criminal street gang based in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican-Americans. The gang is named after the Florence area of Los Angeles County, controlled by the Mexican Mafia. They are involved in drug smuggling, murder, assault and robbery.
The Red Devils Motorcycle Club (RDMC) is an international 1% outlaw motorcycle club and the principal support club of the Hells Angels. The club is not to be confused with the now-defunct Original Red Devils Motorcycle Club that was founded in Canada in the late 1940s.
The Wheels of Soul Motorcycle Club are a multiracial one-percenter outlaw motorcycle club. Although they are active nationwide in the United States, they are primarily based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With chapters in at least 25 states across the US, the group claims to be the country's largest mixed-race outlaw motorcycle club.
The Sin City Deciples Motorcycle Club, also known as Sin City Nation, is a mixed race one-percenter outlaw motorcycle club. As one of the most well-known and oldest black outlaw motorcycle clubs in the United States, they have multiple chapters across the nation and have an additional presence in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. Additionally, the organization has many support clubs in across the U.S. in select states.
Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and prostitution rings. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the individuals who carried them out and not the club as a whole.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the Department of Justice. Based primarily in the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region, the Mid-Atlantic and New England, there are an estimated 92 Hells Angels chapters in 27 U.S. states, with a membership of over 800. Due to the club's designation as a "known criminal organization" by the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, the United States has a federal policy prohibiting its foreign members from entering the country. The Hells Angels partake in drug trafficking, gunrunning, extortion, money laundering, insurance fraud, kidnapping, robbery, theft, counterfeiting, contraband smuggling, loan sharking, prostitution, trafficking in stolen goods, motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft, assault, murder, bombings, arson, intimidation and contract killing. The club's role in the narcotics trade involves the production, transportation and distribution of marijuana and methamphetamine, in addition to the transportation and distribution of cocaine, hashish, heroin, LSD, MDMA, PCP and diverted pharmaceuticals. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the HAMC may earn up to $1 billion in drug sales annually.
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club has been designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the U.S. Department of Justice. The club is involved in drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, explosives violations, motorcycle and motorcycle-parts theft, intimidation, insurance fraud, kidnapping, robbery, theft, stolen property, counterfeiting, contraband smuggling, murder, bombings, extortion, arson and assault. The Bandidos partake in transporting and distributing cocaine and marijuana, and the production, transportation and distribution of methamphetamine. Active primarily in the Northwestern, Southeastern, Southwestern and the West Central regions, there are an estimated 800 to 1,000 Bandidos members and 93 chapters in 16 U.S. states.
The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, also known as the American Outlaws Association, or A.O.A., is classified as a motorcycle gang by various law enforcement agencies internationally. The Outlaws have been implicated in various organized crime activities, including drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution rings, weapons trafficking, and violent acts directed at rival motorcycle clubs. Members of the Outlaws have continuously denied that the club is an organized crime syndicate, asserted that the organization is simply a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who live a nonconventional lifestyle, and described allegations by investigators and prosecutors as exaggerated.
Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and prostitution rings. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the individuals who carried them out and not the club as a whole.