 | |
| Abbreviation | SSMC |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1966 [1] |
| Founded at | Shipley, England [1] |
| Type | Outlaw motorcycle club |
Region | Europe (29 chapters in England, Scotland and Germany) [1] |
| Website | satans-slaves.com |
The Satans Slaves Motorcycle Club (SSMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Shipley, England in 1966. [2] 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. [1] [3]
The Satans Slaves Motorcycle Club was founded in Shipley, West Yorkshire in 1966. [1] Additional chapters were subsequently formed in Devon and on the East Coast of England. [4] The club expanded into Scotland when a Fife chapter was established in Dunfermline. [5] The Satans Slaves' Tayside faction was created in October 1986 after three bikers from Dundee began "prospecting" for the Fife chapter the previous year. [4] The club was incorporated on 16 February 2004. [6] In 2017, the Aquila biker club in Plymouth "patched over" to join the Satans Slaves. [7]
The club is primarily based in Northern England and Scotland, with 17 English chapters and two Scottish chapters. [3] [8] There are also seven chapters in Germany, located in Gronau, Velbert, Metelen, Konz, Emsbüren, Langenfeld and Nienborg. [1]
The Satans Slaves' insignia consists of a skull sporting long hair, and the club utilises a black-and-white colour scheme. Members wear the Satans Slaves' insignia and other patches, such as those denoting each member's rank within the club, on their "colours", a black sleeveless leather vest. [1] The club uses the slogan "Slaves forever, forever Slaves", or "SFFS". [9]
Insignia and clothing commonly include Nazi and Schutzstaffel (SS) iconography and symbology, including use of the doppelte Siegrune (double sig runes) to denote the abbreviated club name (as seen in the eyes of the club logo's skull graphic), replacing the central swastika of the Parteiadler (Party Eagle) with the letters SFFS ("Slaves Forever, Forever Slaves") and various exact reproductions or similar versions of Totenkopf skulls used by the SS. [10] This practice appears to be less common among chapters in Germany, where the usage or public display of much Nazi iconography is illegal under Strafgesetzbuch section 86a.
The Satans Slaves have 29 chapters, based in England, Scotland and Germany. [1] Each chapter is headed by an officer corps, consisting of a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and sergeant-at-arms. The club is governed by strict hierarchies and rules, with mandatory requirements for membership including a motorcycle license. [1] The Satans Slaves have approximately 200 members in the United Kingdom. [3]
At a motorcycle event in Cookham on 19 September 1983 sponsored by the Windsor chapter of the Hells Angels, a fight broke out in a queue where bikers were lining up to gang rape a woman, pitting 24 members of the Satans Slaves' Manchester chapter against six members of the Road Rats of London. Two Road Rats bikers, Michael Harrison and Colin Hunting, were stabbed to death in a mass brawl involving axes, knives, chains, baseball bats and shotguns, but the remaining four were able to herd around twenty Satans Slaves into a barn, which they then set alight. The violence came to an end when the Hells Angels intervened. [11] The bodies of the two dead bikers were dumped at local hospitals and three people were hospitalised in stable condition. 46 men and five women were arrested and questioned at six local police stations in an investigation involving 70 officers. [12] A Satans Slaves member was among eleven bikers imprisoned for a total of 55 years. [5]
The Southampton Satans Slaves chapter was involved in a turf war with the Hells Angels' English Nomads chapter, which began after Hells Angels members Stephen Harris and Barry Burn were fired upon during a trip to Bristol. Nomads chapter president Harris was wounded in the arm while Burn escaped injury. [13] Another Hells Angel, David McKenzie, was stabbed eight times after being attacked outside a pub in Gloucester months later. [14] In April 1991, Stephen "Grumps" Cunningham, a leading member of the Nomads chapter and major amphetamine and cannabis dealer, lost his right hand when a car bomb targeting a Satans Slave biker exploded prematurely in Southampton. [15] [16] The Satans Slaves member targeted by Cunningham was the leader of a rival drug enterprise. [17]
Members of the Sheffield chapter of the Satans Slaves allegedly carried out a serious assault on a man and his girlfriend at the Vintage Rock Bar in Doncaster on 18 December 2010. [5] [18]
The largest ever seizure of illegal firearms in Cumbria took place when a dozen sawn-off shotguns, rifles and pistols and over 2,000 rounds of ammunition were discovered during searches of a house in Holme and a farm outbuilding in Milnthorpe as part of a joint operation carried out by the North West regional organised crime unit TITAN along with the Cumbria Constabulary and the National Crime Agency (NCA) on 4 November 2015. A rented property at Morecambe was also searched. [19] Paul Holmes, the alleged sergeant-at-arms of the Lancaster Satans Slaves chapter, pleaded guilty to fourteen charges relating to the possession of prohibited firearms and ammunition at Carlisle Crown Court on 6 June 2016. [20] On 1 August 2016, Holmes was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. [21]
A Satans Slave biker was involved in an altercation with a motorist following a collision between a group of club members on both English and German registered motorcycles and a Jeep Grand Cherokee in York on 12 August 2017. [22]
On 19 June 2021, a group of Satans Slaves assaulted a patron at the Malt Shovel pub in Castleford after he intervened when a row broke out between the bikers and the pub landlord over COVID-19 regulations. Satans Slaves member Mark Isherwood pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, at Leeds Crown Court in November 2022. [23]
George "Pussy" Ritchie, a member of the Fife chapter of the Satans Slaves, was convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in 1999. In October 2015, Ritchie was sentenced to eight years in prison and placed on the Violent and Sex Offender Register after pleading guilty at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh to various sex offences, including attempted rape, committed against his niece and two other girls in Glenrothes, Burntisland and Dunfermline between 1977 and 1982. [24]
A Satans Slaves biker was imprisoned in 1979 for brandishing a knife and confessing to plotting a £150,000 robbery. [5]
Dundee gangster George Kerr survived being shot three times by a Satans Slaves member in a drug dispute at the Cutty Sark pub in 1993. [5] The biker was also hospitalised as he was attacked after firing the shots. [25]
In 2011, the Satans Slaves were reportedly involved in a biker war with the Blue Angels on Tayside. [24]
A motorcycle procession of approximately 125 Satans Slaves members from across Scotland and England were travelling on the A7 road at Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, on 24 July 2021, when they began fighting with members of the Tribe, a support club for the Blue Angels. [26] Satans Slaves member Barry Smith was acting as a support driver for the convoy when he drove his van into a motorcycle being driven by Andrew Lamb, a Tribe biker. Lamb suffered debilitating injuries and required urgent hospital treatment. [27] Smith was convicted of attempted murder and breaching road traffic laws at the High Court in Edinburgh, on 10 July 2023. [9] On 21 August 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. [28] [29]
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 441 chapters located in 43 countries, and a membership of over 3,000, the club is also the third-largest in the world, behind the Hells Angels and the Bandidos. Outlaws members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the United States and eleven chapters in Australia, with chapters also located in 24 other countries worldwide. It was formed in 1986, by Salvatore Cazzetta and his brother Giovanni Cazzetta. The Rock Machine competed with the Hells Angels for control of the street-level narcotics trade in Quebec. The Quebec Biker War saw the Rock Machine form an alliance with a number of other organizations to face the Hells Angels. The conflict occurred between 1994 and 2002 and resulted in over 160 deaths and over 300 injured. An additional 100+ have been imprisoned.
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.
Philip "Crazy" Boudreault is a Canadian former boxer, outlaw biker and member of the Ontario Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
The Mongols Motorcycle Club, also known as the Mongol Brotherhood or Mongol Nation, is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Originally formed in Montebello, California, in 1969, the club is headquartered in Southern California. Although the Mongols' main presence lies in California, they also have chapters nationwide in 14 states and internationally in 11 countries. Law enforcement officials estimate approximately 2,000 "full-patched" members are in the club. The Mongols are the fifth-largest outlaw biker club in the world, after the Hells Angels, the Bandidos, the Outlaws and the Pagans.
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.
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 charters 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 gang 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.
The Nordic Biker War was a gang war that began in January 1994 and continued until September 1997 in parts of Scandinavia and Finland, involving the Hells Angels and Bandidos outlaw motorcycle clubs. The conflict is also known as the Great Nordic Biker War or Second Biker War to distinguish it from the earlier Copenhagen Biker War, which took place between 1983 and 1985.
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.
The Road Rats Motorcycle Club (RRMC) is an English outlaw motorcycle club established in London in the 1960s. Arguably one of the "oldest and toughest motorcycle clubs in the country", the Road Rats are notorious for having fallen out with almost every motorcycle club in the United Kingdom and a few outside of the UK. The club became notable for its clashes with the English Hells Angels chapter, including a shooting on Chelsea Bridge, the Satans Slaves, in which two Road Rats were killed, and for murdering one of the founders of the Cycle Tramps motorcycle gang.
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 human trafficking 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.
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 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 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 Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, an international outlaw biker gang, has been involved in multiple crimes, alleged crimes, and violent incidents in Canada. The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) has designated the Hells Angels an outlaw motorcycle gang. Hells Angels MC have been linked with drug trafficking and production, as well as many violent crimes including murder, in Canada.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, an international outlaw biker gang, has been involved in multiple crimes, alleged crimes, and violent incidents in the United Kingdom. According to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), the British Hells Angels are involved in cannabis and amphetamine trafficking, as well as contract killing, extortion, prostitution, money laundering and credit card fraud. The NCIS called the Hells Angels "the fastest-growing organised crime group in the world" and also accused the club of being responsible for more assaults and murders than any other gang in the country.
In 1983 a Hells Angels party in Cookham ended in violence after a fight broke out in a queue where bikers were lining up to gang-rape a woman who had been staked out in the a corner of the tent. The ensuing battle, chiefly between six members of the south London gang the Road Rats and some twenty-four members of the Manchester-based Satan's Slaves, involved axes, knives, shotguns and chains. Two Rats were killed but the remaining four fought on, stabbing and beating the Slaves and eventually herding around twenty into an old barn. They had just managed to set the building alight when the Angels intervened, wanting to know what was being done for the dead and injured.
The car-bomb attack came amidst a fierce battle between the Nomads and the Southampton chapter of the Satan's Slaves. The fighting had begun a few months earlier when Nomads chapter president Stephen Harris, a motorcycle salesman, and fellow member Barry Burn, a mechanic, were shot at during a trip to Bristol. Harris was hit in the arm but Burn escaped without injury.
A few months later another member of the gang, David McKenzie, was stabbed eight times in an attack outside a Gloucester pub. Rescued by fellow Nomads, McKenzie, was taken to the grounds of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and stripped of his 'colours' — the patches that identified him as a Hells Angel — before being taken in for treatment. Within a few days McKenzie had discharged himself.
This particular Stephen Cunningham was a man better known to the police as 'Grumps', a leading member of the Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Cunningham had a dubious level of notoriety in April 1991 when he travelled to Southampton and attempted to a bomb under a car belonging to a member of a rival biker gang. As Cunningham moved the device into place it detonated early, tearing off his right hand.
Stephen Cunningham was a major amphetamine and cannabis dealer and the man whose car he attempted to blow up was not just the member of a rival biker gang but also the head of a rival drugs outfit that had been attempting to flood Cunningham's turf with cheap supplies of cannabis, amphetamine and cocaine.