Motorcycle Clubs or Gangs Research Paper

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Motorcycle clubs, that is, voluntary social organizations based on a common love of motorcycles and riding together, formed in the early 1900s. However, by the 1930s groups of displaced young men riding motorcycle grouped together in what were nascent gangs. These nascent gangs evolved into outlaw bikers and then into a subculture of bikers known as One Percenters aka Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. The One Percenters evolved into motorcycle gangs more into crime for profit than a common love of motorcycles and riding together. Today, these Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are national and international criminal organizations.

Are motorcycle clubs really clubs, that is, voluntary social organization built around the love of motorcycles, or criminal gangs whose members happen to ride motorcycles? There is no easy answer: some are and some are not. Some well-known criminal gangs, such as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) and other Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) aka one percent clubs (1%ers), vehemently argue that they are clubs and not gangs. Their behavior and the criminal history of their members do not support their argument. Therefore, we must examine the differences between conventional motorcycle clubs and criminal motorcycle clubs and how the 1 % outlaw motorcycle clubs/gangs fit in the motorcycle club grouping.

Motorcycle Clubs: Conventional And Criminal

Since the first American “motor-driven cycle,” the Indian, was built in 1901 Springfield, Massachusetts, motorcycle riders have formed clubs based on their common interest in riding the iron machines (Hayes 2010). The first clubs were composed of foolhardy men racing these dangerous and unwieldy machines, then; in 1903 the fledgling American motorcycle scene changed dramatically. In 1903, the Harley-Davidson Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin began building a motorized bicycle that changed the machines, the way the machines were used, and brought about a change in the riders and how they grouped together. Harleys began dominating sport motorcycle racing and then in the 1920s Harley’s became more a means of transportation and pleasure rather than racing (Davidson 2002). At the time, individual travelers had a limited range of transportation options; they could ride a horse or a horse drawn buggy, ride a bicycle, or walk. The adventurous of that day who desired to travel between cities or farther had to take the train. There were few highways and coast-to-coast was a challenge. Motorcycles made it possible to ride within cities, between cities, and across the country for transportation or pleasure. The sidecar also allowed for the entire family to share the motorcycle experience.

Motorcycle riders changed as women and other family members began riding motorcycles. The clubs they formed also changed. In 1924, the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) was formed and provided the main motorcycling racing sanctioning body and soon began promoting what was known as Gypsy Tours that were “state-wide, good-clean-fun, jamboree-picnic soirees, which proved to be the ground-seed for events like the Sturgis Rally (Hayes 2010, 43).” The AMA would play a huge role in the definition of outlaw motorcycle clubs. Following the formation of the AMA, groups of motorcycle riders organized clubs that are broadly classified as either conventional or outlaw clubs (Barker 2007). By the 1930s, the AMA had chartered 300 conventional motorcycle clubs (Fuglsang 1997). These clubs represented the “responsible” motorcycle riders and often had strict dress codes. Clubs that obtained a charter from the AMA were considered legal clubs; the others were classified as “outlaws” (Wolf 1999). The “outlaw” label in this case meant non-AMA, not criminal. However, the deviant label had consequences: outlaw clubs were not allowed to participate in AMA-sanctioned events.

The conventional clubs began a tradition of sponsoring mixers, charity events, and hill climbing contests and promoting responsible motorcycling as a family activity that still exists. Historically, the members of conventional clubs came from different social strata and dressed and acted differently from deviant club members.

At about the same time, groups of motorcyclists began to appear in the motorcycle-friendly weather of Southern California in the early 1930s (Barker 2007). Depression stricken “Okies” looking for work and riding motorcycles because they were cheap transportation, appeared on the scene. Although most were loners who rarely stayed in one town for long, some banded together in the squalid Southern California industrial districts and formed loose-knit “outlaw” motorcycle clubs. Riding together in groups, these outsiders worked menial jobs and lived a deviant lifestyle of drinking and rowdy behavior, with some dealing in stolen motorcycle parts and other criminal pursuits (Yates 1999). Harley-Davidson motorcycles were the most popular and abundant bikes at that time, so Harleys became the motorcycles of choice for these groups – for both possession and theft. These outlaw clubs were more gangs than clubs and different in dress and behavior from the AMA clubs. Their appearance and behavior foreshadowed the development of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and the one percent biker.

At first, outlaw clubs were not much of a threat to conventional motorcycle clubs or the image of motorcycle riders in general, but this changed in the late 1940s. Following World War II, outlaw clubs began disrupting AMA-sanctioned events and the label “outlaw” motorcycle clubs took on a new meaning and changed the public image of motorcycle riders. “Wino Willie” Forkner has come to be representative of the change and the men who brought it about.

A hard-drinking young motorcyclist “Wino Willie” Forkner joined the 13 Rebels Motorcycle Club, an AMA conventional club, and rode with them for 2 years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, the dipsomaniac Forkner joined the Army Air Corps and was soon manning a 0.50 caliber machine gun on a B-24 Liberator for the next 30 months (Reynolds 2000). In the summer of 1945, the hell-raising Wino Willie returned to California and rejoined the 13 Rebels. It was not long before Wino Willie’s hell-raising behavior, possibly intensified by his wartime experiences, and the conventional behavior of the 13 Rebels clashed.

Forkner, according to his widow, Teri, was like many of the returning veterans “back from the war and letting off steam (Bill Hayes Video Interview: The Original Wild Ones, 2003).” “Letting off steam” for these veterans meant riding their bikes and drinking together. In the summer of 1946, Forkner and his drinking buddy and fellow 13 Rebels’ member, Blackie, were “letting off steam” in their favorite watering hole, the All-American Bar, when they decided to show up at 13 Rebels sponsored quarter-mile race in San Diego after an all-night drinking session (Reynolds 2000, 34–36). Thoroughly plastered and frustrated, Wino Willie decided to liven up a boring race. Forkner drove his bike through the wooden gate leading from the parking lot onto the track. The drunken Forkner burst onto the track in a shower of shattered wood and loud applause from the audience who shared his view of the race. Forkner roared down the straightaway and made four laps around the track before losing control and turning his bike over. The subdued whirling dervish was promptly arrested and hauled off to jail. After a weekend in jail, Forkner pleaded guilty to trespassing and being drunk and disorderly. He hitchhiked back to Los Angeles and faced an enraged group of 13 Rebels members. The club members demanded his 13 Rebels sweater and threw him out of the club. The unrepentant Forkner reportedly returned the sweater after defecating on it (Reynolds 2000, 36). The evolution to one percent biker clubs/gangs had begun.

The angry Wino Willie decided to put the 13 Rebels and the raceway fiasco behind him by drinking and sulking at the All-American Bar (Reynolds 2000, 36–38; Barker 2007). Forkner began drinking with three former servicemen. The four inebriated bikers decided to form a new motorcycle club but could not come up with a name. Overhearing the animated discussion, an All-American regular named Walt Porter lifted his head off the bar and called out “Call it the Boozefighters.” The four inebriated bikers thought that was a perfect name. During the following weeks, Wino Willie and his fellow Boozefighters recruited 16 other members. The Boozefighters even applied for AMA membership but were turned down by the AMA president, who allegedly said: “No goddamn way I am giving a name like that a charter (Forkner 1987).” By 1947, three charters of the Boozefighters MC had formed in Los Angeles, San Pedro, and San Francisco.

The Boozefighters MC was not the only out-law club formed by ex-servicemen “letting off steam.” World War II veterans joined outlaw clubs and called themselves the Galloping Gooses, the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington, Satan’s Sinners, and the Market Street Commandoes. Conventional clubs used simple and innocent-sounding names like the Road Runners, the Glendale Stokers, and the Side Winders. On occasion, these conventional clubs engaged in reckless street races, but their behavior was harmless compared to the sometimes violence-prone behavior of the new outlaw clubs (Yates 1999). To further distinguish themselves from AMA clubs members who wore ties and racing caps, the outlaw veterans were unkempt in appearance and rowdy in behavior. The stage was set for the creation of a new label – Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. One event is considered to be the incident that changed the social definition of outlaw clubs: The Hollister Motorcycle Incident/Riot in 1947.

The events, real, imagined, and contrived of the Hollister Incident “riot”, that took place in the small California town of Hollister during the 1947 July 4th weekend led to a staged photo-graph, which inspired a short story that led to a movie, which influenced a genre of biker movies and media publicity that ultimately constructed a new social definition of outlaw bikers. The West Coast town of Hollister, California was chosen as the site for a gypsy tour and would draw in bikers from across the country. Hollister was [and still is] a big motorcycle town in the 1940s, with 27 bars and 21 gas stations. However, the town had only six police officers. Hollister held its first gypsy tour in 1936 and held regular motorcycle races and hill climbs. The residents were not expecting any trouble at the 1947 rally.

Members of all three Boozefighters MC chapters made plans to attend the motorcycle rally. The Los Angeles members, including Wino Willie, met on Thursday evening at the All-American to prepare for the ride to Hollister. Preparation included drinking at the All-American, riding to Santa Barbara for more drinks, and then riding to San Luis Obispo, where they became too drunk to go on. The Los Angeles Boozefighters “slept it off” in a bus terminal for 3 h and roared off to King City, where they stopped at a liquor store to finish “preparing” for the ride into Hollister. By the time they arrived in Hollister, several thousand motorcyclists were already there and thoroughly “prepared.” It wasn’t long before intoxicated bikers turned the blocked-off main thoroughfares into drag racing strips and stunt-riding exhibitions.

Conventional club members were at the nearby Bolado Racetrack, which was filled to capacity for the scheduled races. The hard core bikers of Wino Willie’s new club, the Boozefighters, and the other hell-raising outlaw clubs were driving the town’s six police officer’s crazy. Soon the jail was filled to capacity withdrunken motorcyclists, including Wino Willie. While the commotion was going on, a photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle decided to take a picture of a drunken motorcyclist. For some reason, he staged a photograph even though there were plenty of drunken motorcyclists available. The photographer sat a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on top of a pile of beer bottles and persuaded an intoxicated biker in a leather jacket to sit astride the bike. The picture never appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, but it would become one of the most famous pictures in motorcycle history after the Associated Press picked it up and printed it in Life magazine.

On Sunday night the Hollister police officers called for help from the California Highway Patrol (CHP). Forty CHP officers arrived at dusk. The CHP lieutenant in charge began moving the compliant bikers toward the end of town. The lieutenant spotted a group of musicians unloading their instruments for a dance and ordered them to set up in the street on a flatbed truck and play for the crowd. The crowd started dancing and continued dancing into the night under the watchful eyes of the CHP. While the drunken bikers danced, the local Chief of Police went to all the bars and had them closed at midnight, 2 h early. The “riot” was over, but the exaggerated and distorted publicity of the incident was just beginning. The media blitz that followed the alleged Hollister “riot” would create a new moral panic and “folk devil” – the outlaw biker. The next motorcycle “riot” would forever solidify outlaw bikers as folk devils.

A 1948 Memorial Day weekend gypsy tour rally in Riverside, California, attended by more than 1,000 drunken motorcyclists recreated the scene that had occurred at Hollister – this time with violent consequences. While they were drag racing and partying, an Air Force officer and his wife, trying to get through, honked at the pack of drunks blocking the street. The mob smashed the car windows, punched the driver, and manhandled his frightened wife (Reynolds 2000, 60). While this was occurring, one of the drunken riders wiped out on his bike, killing his girlfriend, who was riding with him. Boozefighters were in the area but not involved in the incident. However, local newspapers reporting the incident carried pictures of two Boozefighter members drinking beer and sitting on their bikes. The caption under the picture read that they were members of the same group who “started the Hollister Riot the previous year (Reynolds 2000, 60).” The national story coming on the heels of the Hollister “riot” led to a motorcycle short story that created a genre of low-budget exploitation biker films that would cement outlaw bikers as folk devils and a part of modern pop culture.

In 1951, Harper’s Magazine published a short story by Frank Rooney entitled “Cyclists Raid.” The story an exaggerated account of the Hollister incident would have been forgotten except for the movie it inspired – The Wild One. The short story’s plot is about an unnamed motorcycle gang taking over and terrorizing a small town somewhere on the West Coast. Filmmaker Stanley Kramer read “Cyclist Raid” and decided to make a movie based on the story. He, writer Ben Maddow and film star Marlon Brando spent 3 weeks interviewing ex-Boozefighters before filming started (Stidworthy 2003). The resulting screen adaptation ushered in a new genre of biker movies. The 1954 movie The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando became a cult movie and solidified the image of outlaw bikers as folk devils and spread their cultural lifestyle and dress throughout the world. After the film’s release, hundreds of American bikers would emulate Brando and costar Lee Marvin in dress and behavior. Biker expert Arthur Veno asserts that motorcyclists across the Western world “saw the Hollywood version of an outlaw motorcycle rebel” and copied their attitudes, clothes, disrespect for society, and the way they treated women (Veno 2002, 30). According to Veno, motorcycle clubs in England, Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, and Italy mimicked the screen outlaw bikers. The next evolution of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs comes with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.

Hells Angels Motorcycle Club And The One Percenters

After the Hollister incident, the World War II veterans outlaw motorcycle club, the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington, had disbanded, partly because of the bad publicity spin-off from the sensationalized Hollister “riot.” Reynolds (2000) contends that Arvid Olsen, a former squadron leader with the WWII “Flying Tigers,” of China suggested the name “Hell’s Angels” for a new motorcycle club that he, Otto Friedl, and several other former Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington decided to form in 1948 in San Bernardino, California. The new members chose as a logo a grinning skull wearing a pilot’s helmet with attached wings. A decade later the name and logo would be adopted by a group of motorcycleriding young toughs and thugs in Oakland, completing the one percent bikers aka Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs’ progression.

During the next decade, Hells Angels Motorcycle Club chapters formed throughout California as nomadic members moved from one city to the next. The 1957 Sacramento Hells Angels chapter was formed out of the Hell Bent for Glory Motorcycle Club started by two teenage toughs, James “Mother” Miles and his younger brother Pat, breaking the connection between World War II veterans and the establishment of outlaw motorcycle clubs. These Hells Angels chapters were more like separate clubs operating autonomously and independent of each other, often not knowing of the others. One man, Ralph “Sonny” Barger is credited with bringing the chapters together and creating the largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world.

Barger grew up in the blue-collar jungle of Oakland, California, and joined the Army in 1955 with an altered birth certificate (Barger & Zimmerman 2000). Less than a year later, the Army discovered his actual age and discharged him. When he returned to Oakland, there were numerous motorcycle clubs, like the Oakland Motorcycle Clubs, that were conventional clubs, and there were also “freewheeling clubs” like the Oakland Panthers. Barger joined the Panthers but soon left because they did not provide enough action.

Barger found a new wild bunch of motorcyclists with whom to ride. The wild group had no name but was searching for a common identifier. One of Barger’s riding buddies “wore a modified Air Force-like patch he’d found in Sacramento, a small skull wearing an aviator cap inside a set of wings (Barger & Zimmerman 2000, 30).” The young “outlaws” thought the patch was cool and decided to name their club Nomad Hells Angels after the patch. In April 1957, the club had patches made based on the design (which later became the easily recognizable copyrighted HAMC death’s head). Sometime later Barger met another biker wearing the very same Hells Angel patch. This Angel filled Barger in on the history of the club formed in San Bernardino in 1948, including the other chapters and the rules, regulations, and procedures for becoming a Hells Angel chapter. Angels from the SoCal (Southern California) chapter visited the quasi-Hells Angels in Oakland. A series of meeting later and the Oakland Hells Angels Chapter came into being. In 1958, Sonny Barger became president of the Oakland Chapter; he then became President of the National Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and changed the HAMC forever. Although the basic organization was in place when Barger took over as Oakland president, under his leadership and guidance new rules were added pertaining to new members, club officials, and induction of new charters/chapters. With Barger at the helm, the HAMC would expand into the largest and most well-known outlaw motorcycle club in history. They would also become a criminal gang rather than a motorcycle club and spread its criminal tendrils all over the world.

Early outlaw clubs like the Boozefighters were formed by veterans, later outlaw clubs, particularly the one percent clubs, would not be veteran centered and would be in the tradition of the Sacramento Hells Angels chapter formed by young toughs and criminals or those with criminal tendencies.

George Wethern, the Oakland Hells Angels Vice President, describes a historic meeting that was “sort of like the Yalta conference” in 1960, held at the home of Frank Sadilek, the president of the San Francisco Hells Angels chapter (Wethern and Colnett 1978). At the meeting were Hells Angels leaders from across the state and former warring California biker club leaders – of the Gypsy Jokers, Road Rats, Galloping Gooses, Satan’s Slaves, the Presidents, and the Mofos. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss police harassment, but discussion soon turned to recent hostile comments by the AMA.

“To draw a distinction between its members and us renegades, the AMA had characterized 99 % of the country’s motorcyclists as cleanliving folks enjoying pure sport. But it condemned the other one percent as antisocial barbarians who’d be scum riding horses or surfboards too (Wethern and Colnett 1978, 54).” The clubs decided to accept the one percent label (1 %) as a tribute and not as insult and adopt the “1 %” patch to identify themselves as righteous outlaws. Wethern and Sonny Barger were the first to get the “1%” tattoos. From this day forward Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs would also be known as one percent (1 %) clubs/ gangs.

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs: The One Percenters (1 %Ers)

In the 1960s, the formerly hell-raising and nonconforming outlaw motorcycle clubs such as the Hells Angels moved into criminal activity, particularly drug dealing, and became more like gangs (organized for crime as profit) than clubs of motorcycle enthusiasts (Barker 2007). There is no accurate count of the number of 1 % clubs/gangs. However, Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1 %er clubs) can be categorized into the Big Five Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs), Puppet/Support OMGs, Independent OMGs, and Black/Interracial Gangs.

Big Five Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

The designation of Big Five Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs is, in many ways, an arbitrary judgment, first made by law enforcement authorities in the form of the Big Four (Hells Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws and Pagans) to designate the criminal potential of the gangs. The Sons of Silence were added later becoming the Big Five Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs – the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws, Pagans and the Sons of Silence.

Hells Angels – Barger, in his autobiography, admits that he sold drugs and got into a “lot of shit” in what he describes as the “gangster era” of the Hells Angels (Barger & Zimmerman 2000). It appears that the Hells Angels are still in their “gangster era.” The US Department of Justice (DOJ 2011) estimates that the HAMC has between 2,000 and 2,500 members in 27 US states and 26 foreign countries. Internationally, the HAMC is a criminal threat on six different continents. The DOJ reports that the OMG is involved in the production, transportation, and distribution of marijuana and methamphetamine. The international criminal gang is also involved in the transportation and distribution of cocaine, hashish, heroin, LSD, ecstasy PCP, and diverted pharmaceuticals.

Bandidos MC – As a testament to the criminal nature of the Bandidos Motorcycle Gang, starting with the founder, Donald Chambers, every national president of the Bandidos MC has been convicted of a felony, usually drug trafficking, and sentenced to prison. Since its founding in 1966, the Bandidos have expanded throughout the USA and internationally. The gang’s first European expansion was in 1989 when the Bandidos “patched over” [assimilated] the Club de Clichy Marseille, France, igniting a war with the Hells Angels. The DOJ (2011) estimates that there are 2,000–2,500 Bandido members in the US and 13 other countries. According to law enforcement authorities, the Bandido MC is involved in transporting and distribution of cocaine and marijuana and the production, transportation, and distribution of methamphetamine.

Outlaws MC – According to their national website, http://www.outlawsmc.com/, the Outlaws MC is the oldest Outlaw Motorcycle Club, having been established in 1935 as the McCook Outlaws Motorcycle Club “out of Matilda’s Bar on old Route 66 in McCook, Illinois just outside of Chicago.” This motorcycle club was quite different from the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang of today. The DOJ (2011) estimates that this OMG has an estimated 1,700 members in 20 US states and 12 foreign countries. As is common with all OMGs, the Outlaws are involved in the production, transportation, and distribution of methamphetamine. They are also involved in the transportation and distribution of cocaine, marijuana, and to a lesser extent, ecstasy. The HAMC and the Outlaws MC are bitter enemies and have a long history of violence toward each other.

Pagans MC – The Pagans MC, a fierce 1 % biker gang with ties to organized crime groups in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and New York, did not start out as a 1 % club. Lou Dobkins, a biochemist at the National Institute of Health, established the club in 1959 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Tradition says that the original 13 members wore white denim jackets with Surt the pagan Fire Giant carrying a flaming sword, logo on the back. The original members rode Triumph motorcycles. Their benign beginning did not foreshadow what the club would evolve into. During the 1970s, the fierce fighting club became an extremely violent criminal organization under the leadership of John Vernon “Satan” Marron. The Department of Justice reports that the Pagans are involved in the distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine, and PCP (DOJ 2011). The Pagans MC are the only Big 5 Outlaw Motorcycle Gang that does not have any chapters outside the United States, although there are rumors that they are attempting to establish a presence in Canada.

Sons of Silence MC – The Sons of Silence MC (SOSMC) also did not start out as a 1 % biker gang. The club was founded by Bruce, “The Dude Ruchardson” in Niwot, Colorado, in 1966. The club appears to have been formed as a “drinking” social club. As the club evolved into a gang, Richardson left the club. Today, the DOJ (2011) reports that the SOSMC is an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang with 30 US chapters and 5 chapters in Germany. Club members, according to the DOJ, have been involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including drug and weapons trafficking.

Puppet/Support 1 % Clubs

Puppet/Support Clubs are Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs affiliated with a dominant OMG. The puppet/support clubs do the biding of dominant clubs, serve as potential recruiting sources, and provide cannon fodder in the club wars. The OMG puppet/support clubs give a portion of their illegal gains to the dominant OMG. The larger OMGs will handle the wholesale distribution of the drugs and the puppet clubs will handle the more dangerous retail sale, thereby insulating the dominant club members from prosecution. On occasion if the subordinate club member is caught committing a crime and demonstrates that he “has class” [keeps his mouth shut and takes the fall], he will be rewarded by becoming a “prospect” for the dominant club.

The Red Devils MC is a well-known puppet/ support club for the HAMC, and the Black Pistons MC and Forsaken Few are puppet clubs for the Outlaws MC. The Outlaws MC and the Bandidos MC list their puppet/support clubs on their national websites.

Independent Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

Independent Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are considered to be those who are not listed in the Big 5 and are not a puppet/support club of a Big 5 club. Because of the jealously of their territory by Big 5 clubs, it is not easy to be an independent club. Independent clubs operate in areas where there are no Big 5 Clubs or in the same area with permission of the dominant club. They are on friendly or tolerated terms with the larger club but remain independent of them.

Other independent clubs, such as the Mongols MC (national and international), operate in the same areas due to their ferocity and willingness to use violence. The Mongols MC and the HAMC fought a 17-year war over the wearing of the California bottom rocker. Other major independent clubs include the Vagos MC (national and international), Warlocks MC (national and inter- national), and the Iron Horsemen MC (regional and national) and the smaller independents such as the Avengers MC, the Breed MC, and the Renegades MC who operate in limited geographical areas.

Black or Interracial One Percent OMGs

There are numerous one percent bikers that vehemently insist that there are no black 1 % bikers, insisting that like women, blacks are not welcome in the one percent subculture. It is true that the one percent subculture is basically sexist (women cannot be patch-holders in any 1 % club) and racist, with some clubs/gangs being more racist than others; however, it is not true that there are no black 1 % bikers or clubs. The Oakland, California, Eastbay Dragons MC is an all-black 1 % club (Levington & Zimmerman 2003). The Wheels of Soul MC’s website says that they are “an Outlaw Motorcycle Club, founded in 1976 and is the only one of its kind.. ..we have a makeup of black white, Latino and Asian members (www.wosmc-trenton.com/history.html).” The Ching-a-Lings MC in Queens, New York City, are also interracial. Winterhalder reports there is a black, nationwide one percent club, the Hell’s Lovers (Winterhalder 2005).

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