Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (or OMGs, in police shorthand) have a reputation for violently protecting their turf, upholding their rules, and punishing those who step out. When multiple clubs who live by these credos bump up against each other, things can turn bloody and that's exactly what happened in these most brutal and violent biker gang fights in history.
In the six decades since the first motorcycle gangs formed, different groups have fought each other over turf, respect, perceived slights and sometimes just as a result of everyone being really drunk. Other incidents have involved members who ran afoul of club rules or tried to start their own branches - with members brutally killing bikers who they'd normally be riding with. Some of these fights, such as brawls at charity events, can seem humorous and ironic. Others, like the execution of dissenting members or the shooting of bystanders, are nothing to joke about.
Here are some of the most well-known and infamous biker brawls, shootings, and stabbings in history.
The Most Intense Biker Gang Fights in Recent History,
Lennoxville Massacre
A rare case of inter-chapter violence, the Lennoxville Massacre saw the Quebec branch of the Hells Angels brutally purge their northern chapter, ostensibly because its members were wild and out of control. When the Hells Angels think you’re too wild and out of control to be a Hells Angels member, things probably won’t end well for you.
For five members, including the founder of Hells Angels Canada, they didn’t - they were shot dead, execution style, with their bodies wrapped in weighted sleeping bags and thrown in the Saint Lawrence River. Four of the shooters got life sentences, though all were released early.
The Waco Shootout
The pitched battle between the Bandidos and Cossacks that broke out in Waco’s Twin Peaks “breastaurant” in May 2015 had been simmering for several years. Issues over patches and respect had resulted in numerous violent incidents. This led to the clubs attempting to broker a peace agreement over beer and wings – and it ended with countless bullets fired, nine bikers dead, 480 weapons recovered (151 guns, plus assorted knives, brass knuckles, batons, hammers, just everything), 20 injured, and over 177 arrested.
According to newspaper reports, the Cossacks believe the Bandidos set the smaller club up for an ambush – an account that can’t be verified, but is consistent with the events of the day.
In October 2015, surveillance footage from the shootout was released. You can see chairs toppling, men firing handguns, and people running in horror. Unbelievably, prosecutors have yet to change anyone for the deaths.
Great Nordic Biker War
Many of the biggest biker conflicts in history have taken place outside the United States. Probably the longest running of these was the “Great Nordic Biker War” lasting three and a half years and involving OMGs in four countries. Over a decade of tension between clubs in Scandinavia (related mostly to the drug trade) finally turned violent when Hells Angels and Bandido members opened fire on each other, killing one Hells Angel. The Bandidos turned things up a notch by firing an anti-tank rocket at a Hells Angels clubhouse, and the Angels retaliated by killing the president of a Bandidos support club.
The two clubs kept fighting for three years, using guns, explosives, rockets, and car bombs. Finally, the presidents of the two clubs' European chapters shook hands on live TV and put the thing to rest - but not before there had been 12 deaths, nearly a hundred injuries, and countless arrests.
The Riverside Riot
A smaller, less-well known riot took place in Riverside, CA about a year after Hollister. According to witnesses, about 1,000 drunken bikers (including more Boozefighters members), tramps, and hooligans tried to recreate that famous incident. There are even stories that a motorcyclist’s girlfriend was killed when their bike wiped out. However, as with Hollister, much of the reporting of the time was sensationalized, playing up the emerging moral panic of “biker hoodlums.”
Both Hollister and Riverside became grist for a series of low-budget biker exploitation movies, and one classic, the Marlon Brando biker epic The Wild One.
Altamont Free Concert Killing
While not a biker vs. biker fight, the Hells Angels behavior at the 1969 Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway in northern California is almost certainly the most well known incident of violence in biker gang history. As the short version of the story goes, the Rolling Stones wanted to put on a free concert to celebrate the “Summer of Love” vibe, as well as to protest what they felt were inflated ticket prices. On the recommendation of the Grateful Dead, they hired the Hells Angels to provide security - or at least make sure nobody got murdered.
Various accounts of what happened before and during the concert are all over the map, but one thing is certain - the Angels, blasted on speed and free beer, spent the day beating concert-goers with fists and pool cues, attacking performers, and protecting their bikes from being attacked. When it was over, concert-goer Meredith Hunter had been stabbed to death after attempting to pull a gun on Angels who were harassing him, and dozens of other people had been badly injured.
The Hollister Riot
It’s the biker fight that kicked off the entire biker gang moral panic, and it continues to help define the public perception of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs even today. The Gypsy Tour motorcycle rally was set to take place in Hollister, CA from July 3 through 6, 1947. Motorcycles had exploded in popularity since the end of World War II, and the tiny town wasn’t prepared for the horde of 4,000 bikers (equal to the entire town’s population) who descended on the place. Four biker gangs, including the Boozefighters and the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington, began drinking heavily, racing, riding around, looting, and fighting and within a day, the town was in full riot.
By the time it was over, there were over 50 arrests and 60 reported injuries, several of them major. A few weeks later, Life Magazine published a sensationalized version of what happened - along with a now iconic photo - and an urban myth was born.
Hells Angels vs. Vagos Starbucks Brawl
Two years of tension between San Jose chapters of the Hells Angels and Vagos broke out over, of all things, who would get the right to congregate at the local Starbucks in sleepy Santa Cruz. When it all died down, a war that started over a coffee klatch had left dozens arrested and two people dead in different incidents, including a murder on the floor of a Sparks, NV casino.
The deputy police chief of Santa Cruz summed it up blithely, saying, “It was all about who would be allowed to hang out at the Starbucks downtown... Only in Santa Cruz would you have biker wars over who's going to control pumpkin spice lattes.”
Milperra Massacre
On September 2, 1984, hostilities between the Bandidos and Comancheros over members leaving one club to join the other exploded on the streets of Sydney. A fight broke out when the Comancheros sprung an ambush on the Bandidos. What began as fisticuffs turned brutal, with members bashing and kicking each other. A shot was fired, guns were drawn and gunfire was exchanged between both sides.
Multiple men on each side were blasted with shotguns, others were shot with a rifle, and tragically, a 14-year-old girl who happened to be a bystander was hit in the face by a bullet and died at the scene. Six bikers were killed, including the vice-presidents of both clubs. Afterward, over 200 convictions for murder or manslaughter were handed down.
Shedden Massacre
In June 2006, eight Bandido members were taken to a barn in rural Shedden, Ontario and executed - by fellow Bandidos, no less. The motive for the massacre remains unclear, but it’s thought that the killers wanted to expand the club into other parts of Canada, and the victims stood in their way. Six men, including the owner of the decrepit barn, were found guilty of murder in the aftermath.
Warlocks vs. Warlocks Triple Murder
Three members of the Warlocks were shot dead outside a VFW hall in Winter Springs, FL in September 2012. The killers were, theoretically, their club brethren. But the situation was more complicated than that, as they were actually members of a different Warlocks chapter, the one based in Philadelphia, which had been trying to set up shop in South Florida.
Four Philly Warlocks were arrested and all were charged with murder.