The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, is an outlaw motorcycle club with a worldwide membership. Formed in San Leon, Texas, in 1966, the Bandidos MC is estimated to have between 2,000 and 2,500 members and 303 chapters located in 22 countries, making it the second-largest motorcycle club in the world behind the Hells Angels.
The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, incorporated as the American Outlaws Association or its acronym, A.O.A., is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Founded in McCook, Illinois in 1935, the Outlaws MC is the oldest outlaw biker club in the world. With a membership of over 3,000 and 416 chapters located in several countries, the club is also the one of the largest in the world, behind their arch rival, the Hells Angels.
An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a biker gang or motorcycle gang, 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. Considered one the most notorious motorcycle gang leaders in U.S. history, Bowman escalated a biker war between the Outlaws and the Hells Angels in the 1990s. He became the 453rd fugitive listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list after he was indicted on federal racketeering and murder charges in August 1997. After 18 months as a fugitive, Bowman was apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) near Detroit in June 1999. He was convicted in Tampa, Florida, in April 2001 of the murders of gang members, firebombings, racketeering, conspiracy and various drug and firearm offenses. Bowman was sentenced to serve two life prison sentences plus 83 years.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Common nicknames for the club are the "H.A.", "Red & White", "HAMC", and "81". With a membership of over 6,000, and 467 chapters in 59 countries, the HAMC is the largest "outlaw" motorcycle club in the world.
The Blue Angels Motorcycle Club (BAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1963. The Blue Angels MC is the oldest outlaw biker club in Europe, and one of the largest and most powerful clubs in the United Kingdom. The club has chapters in Scotland, England, Belgium and Spain.
Yves Trudeau, also known as "Apache" and "The Mad Bomber", was a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and contract killer. A former member of the Hells Angels North chapter in Laval, Quebec, Trudeau was the club's leading assassin and a major participant in multiple biker conflicts throughout Canadian history, including the Popeyes–Devils Disciples War, the Satan's Choice–Popeyes War and the First Biker War. Frustrated by cocaine addiction and his suspicion that his fellow gang members wanted him dead, he became a Crown witness after the Lennoxville massacre. In exchange, he received a lenient sentence – life in prison but eligible for parole after seven years – for the killing of 43 people from September 1973 to July 1985.
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 operations. 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. Members of the club have been accused of crimes and/or convicted in many host nations.
Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club (SCMC) was a Canadian outlaw motorcycle club that was once the dominant outlaw club in Ontario, with twelve chapters based in the province, and another in Montreal, Quebec, at its peak strength in 1977. Satan's Choice grew to more than 400 members by 1970, making it the second largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world, behind only the Hells Angels.
Wolodumir "Walter" Stadnick, also known as "Nurget", is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster who was the third national president of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Canada. Stadnick is generally credited with turning the Hells Angels into the dominant outlaw biker club in Canada. The journalists Michel Auger and Peter Edwards wrote that much about Stadnick is mysterious, ranging from what is the meaning of his sobriquet "Nurget", to how a unilingual Anglo Canadian from Hamilton became the leader of the then largely French-Canadian Hells Angels. In 2004, the journalist Tu Thanh Ha wrote that Stadnick is "a secretive man little known to the public", but "he is one of Canada's most pivotal organized-crime figures."
The Popeye Moto Club, also referred to as the Popeye(s) MC, and often shortened to simply The Popeyes was a French-Canadian outlaw motorcycle club and criminal organization based across the province of Quebec. At the group's peak, they were believed to be the largest club in Montreal and the second-largest outlaw motorcycle club in Canada, behind Satan's Choice. They were also the largest of the French-speaking clubs in the country.
The Loners Motorcycle Club (LMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada in 1979. It has seventeen chapters in Canada, eleven chapters in Italy, eleven in the United States. They also possess several chapters in other countries across the world. The club was established by two prominent Italian-Canadian bikers, Frank Lenti and Gennaro Raso.
The Satan's Choice–Popeyes War was the first major outlaw motorcycle club conflict in Canada's history, involving the country's two largest Motorcycle Clubs; the Satan's Choice from Ontario, and the Popeyes from Quebec. The conflict lasted from 1974 until 1976 and saw the two motorcycle clubs battle for dominance in the country. The conflict misleadingly known in Canada as the "First Biker War" would begin a year later in 1977.
From 1977 to 1984, the Hells Angels and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club fought what came to be known in Canada as the First Biker War. The Angels emerged victorious. As the Outlaws retreated into their Ontario stronghold, the Angels began consolidating their activities and expanding, moving into port cities Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, British Columbia. The conflict is known in Canada as the "First Biker War", but the first large conflict between bikers in Canada, was the Satan's Choice-Popeyes War which occurred from 1974 to 1976.
The Satans Slaves Motorcycle Club (SSMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Shipley, England in 1966. The Satans Slaves MC is one of the largest outlaw biker clubs in the United Kingdom and has 29 chapters in England, Scotland and Germany.
Richard Vallée is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster. A drug trafficker and member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, Vallée was extradited to the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 for the 1993 car bomb murder of New York State Police drug informant Lee Carter.
