There's absolutely a war going on,
and I think you can equate all of this back to the Twin Peaks massacre
in Waco, Texas.
Police Detective Steve Cook has investigated outlaw motorcycle gangs for
three decades.
He warns that escalating violence in a turf war between the Bandidos
and other motorcycle clubs may spill over onto innocent victims.
Hello, I'm investigative reporter Robert Riggs.
In this episode of the True Crime Reporter podcast,
I will take you inside the crime scene tape of a deadly war going on,
on the nation's highways in bars, and at biking events in the southwest.
A writing point is Detective Steve Cook.
You just heard from Cook Works on the front lines of this battle.
Steve, the, the Hollywood's version of an outlaw motorcycle gang, of course,
is Sons of Anarchy. Separate for me, if you will,
the fact from fiction of what they're really about.
Well, I mean, I think like anything that you, uh, see in Hollywood,
it's glamorized. You know,
they try to turn these guys into anti-hero type characters,
when in reality, you know, these guys are organized crime,
they're involved in a multitude of criminal activities,
and a lot of times the portrayals that we, you know,
just the general public get to see,
are completely inaccurate with the facts for people that actually have to deal
with them on a day-to-day basis.
Talk, if you will, about how the gang works, how they make money,
who gets the money, who runs the club,
how do you get in the leadership of the club and how do,
how do you become a member? Well.
I guess to, to break it down first and foremost from a,
a membership side is you're either recruited because you know somebody
that's already in,
or there are individuals that just kind of come in off the street that think
that they like the, uh, lifestyle, think it's something that they wanna pursue.
So they will access, uh, somebody who's in the,
the group somewhere in public, whether it's at a,
a bike night or a bar or what have you, maybe even at a dealership.
And they can express their intentions, if you will,
to maybe hang around a little bit, come around the group, if that's, you know,
reciprocated. If they, if they're okay with that,
then that kind of starts the journey for 'em. Uh, as far as getting up into a,
a leadership, uh, it's extremely political.
It's no different than any other organization, whether it be a,
a law enforcement agency or, uh, a large hospital or, or what have you.
You know, if you want to get into those upper echelon positions,
you're gonna have to do a fair amount of politicking.
It occurs in these groups as well. So, you know, in short,
as far as financially speaking, uh, I think a big misconception is,
is that the gang itself is making money.
The purpose for the gang is to enrich the individual members
of the organization through their membership in the organization.
And by that, pretty much everybody becomes enriched, you know,
so I, I think for, you know, a lot of times people think that, oh,
there's just this one person kinda like Oz sitting behind the curtain and
they're reaping all the, the benefits of this organization.
It really doesn't run like that. Now,
that's not to say that you don't have guys that get into leadership
positions that don't, uh, steal money, embezzle money from,
from the organization, you know, do things to enrich themselves.
But by and large, it's kind of a, uh,
a vehicle for the membership to commit crimes,
to be involved in criminal activity, and to have a, uh,
support system behind you. Uh, you gotta think about it in these terms.
If you're a drug dealer and somebody rips you off for a key of Coke,
they're ripping you off. But if you're a member of the Hell's Angels,
they're ripping off the Hell's Angels. At least that's their perception of it.
And most people aren't gonna go down that road to do that. So it,
it does play a big factor, uh, just having that patch.
So it's a deterrent, uh, being a drug dealer with a gang behind you, you,
you don't want that gang coming after you. Well.
Absolutely. You know, obviously drug addicts and,
and people that buy and sell and use and, and what have you,
they're gonna have s erratic behavior. But even those individuals,
I know their limitations and it's a lot easier to go rip off a nobody
than it is to come at these guys, try to rip one of them off,
and then it turns into a much bigger situation.
Do the gangs rule by actual violence or the reputation
or fear of violence?
Well, I mean, I think it's a little bit of both. When they go into an area,
they stake their claim.
A lot of times the initial step of that is to try to regulate any
existing motorcycle gangs that are in the area,
because obviously you don't want to compete with those people for that
territory. So I think, you know, that's a starting point definitely for it.
And then once you get that street credibility, that reputation out there,
a lot of people are not maybe so anxious to step to you because they know what
your capabilities are.
What are the, uh, typical criminal enterprises of gangs, in particular,
the Bandidos, they've been in the news here in Texas,
and then like a corporation,
do they just literally sit down and split up the proceeds each month yearly?
What.
Primarily, especially groups use the Bandidos, for example, drugs is a,
a big part of what they do. Now, as far as how that works,
a lot of times it can be on an individual chapter level.
It could even be in a more regional level,
depending on who's dealing with who and, and what chapters and, and,
and so forth. Where you have to look at is, is that every member pays dues,
whether that's, you know, some groups, they pay 'em weekly, some pay monthly.
It depends on the organization. Basically how that works is,
is a portion of those dues goes to your national leadership, if you will,
your mother chapter, and they will determine what to do with those funds.
And there are a variety of things that can occur with that.
They can use it to throw a party, buy food and booze and,
and even drugs for some kind of event,
or they could use it for legal defense that a lot of guys get locked up in a,
a criminal matter of some sort.
They could use it to go to war with a rival gang to help support that as far as
guns, ammunition, bombs, you know, whatever it might be.
So ultimately, yeah,
these proceeds of crime do go to the mother chapter or the,
the hierarchy of the group. And that's why these groups are enterprises.
That's why, uh,
racketeering laws work so well against them because they do have a,
a ranking file, they have a structure, they have a leadership, they have bylaws,
they have rules and requirements for membership, a rite of passage, if you will,
to get in.
So that does make them elevated to just a standard
street gang, for example. Whereas you might have a Crip member in Dallas,
I can bet you money,
he doesn't know any Crips in Kansas City or Los Angeles or Minneapolis for
that matter, but I can guarantee you, if you have a Bandido in Texas,
he knows every bandido in Kansas City and vice versa,
because they are a connected organization.
They associate with each other, they attend events together, they,
they communicate with one another.
What's their source of drugs? Uh, do they manufacture,
do they sell at the street level or are they the middle group in the hierarchy?
I think things have, obviously they've changed over time. Uh,
I think at one point, you know, you look back into the, you know,
sixties and seventies especially, you know,
these groups were manufacturing methamphetamine. But now,
because Mexican meth is so plentiful,
the quality of it is so much better than it used to be. And the accessibility,
there's no point in trying to make your own.
That's not to say that you're not gonna have the isolated incident where someone
does,
but from a purely financial perspective,
it doesn't make sense to try to procure all these precursor
chemicals and go through this elaborate process, which, you know,
you could get caught pretty easily.
Or you could just go meet somebody who's got a cartel connection
and buy from them.
And are they pretty, uh, tightly connected to the Mexican cartels?
Well, I think most of these groups, uh, you know,
especially if you look at your larger outlaw motorcycle gangs, groups like the,
you know, hell's Angels, outlaws, Bandidos, you know, even the Pagans,
most of those groups, with the exception of the Pagans,
have international presence. You know, both the Hills, angels,
uh, well actually, Hills, angels, Bandidos, and now the Outlaws,
they all have chapters in Mexico.
The Angels have chapters in Columbia and Bogota and Cali.
So they use that to make connections
with other criminal enterprises.
That's a big part of putting this all together for them,
is to have people in other countries, other places,
that have the ability to make introductions,
make things happen for them.
So if they wanted to reach out from Texas to touch somebody in Australia for
either violence, drug sales, what have you, they get, they can do it.
Absolutely, they can. They've got a tremendous reach,
literally in a majority of the world. Now, the Bandidos, the Hell's Angels,
the Outlaws, all of them are in Russia. So it,
it's not that these are just groups that have this,
and I think that's a perception.
A lot of people think that they just have this local presence.
They're everywhere.
Reporters', notebook. May 17th, 2015,
the Twin Peaks restaurant, Waco, Texas,
nearly 200 members of the notorious Bandidos motorcycle gang,
crowded inside and outside on a patio among lunchtime patrons.
The Justice Department considers the Bandidos one of the eight most dangerous
motorcycle gangs in the United States. Judo, its links to drugs,
weapons, and human trafficking.
A gang threat assessment by the Texas Department of Public Safety has ranked the
Bandidos as a tier two gang,
or the second most dangerous classification alongside the
Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
So police were there and they watched from a distance.
Then members of a arrival motorcycle gang,
the Cossacks arrived and all hell broke loose
at 12:24 PM Gunfire erupted, police snippers,
armed with scope rifles zeroed in on the bikers who were shooting
and put them down.
Gunfire quickly stopped when the gun spoke, cleared after just three minutes,
nine bikers lay dead, 18 others wounded.
The shootout was the deadliest incident in the Waco area.
Since the Branch Davidian cult Siege in 1993,
Steve Cook says The deadly confrontation at the Twin Peaks continues
to fuel a violent territorial war among rival outlaw motorcycle
gangs across the Southwest.
Basically,
what you had happen at Twin Peaks is the Bandidos historically have
controlled Texas. That's been their kind of power base.
And they had a coalition of clubs that they were, uh, you know,
kind of running, for lack of better terms,
which is pretty common in different states. Some call it coalition,
some call it a confederation, uh, of clubs. But basically what it is in short,
is it's a way to keep a thumb on other groups
in the state and to, uh,
maintain some sort of control over what goes on within the motorcycling
community in that state. So in this situation,
the Cosics didn't want to be a member of this coalition.
They just were kind of independent, wanted to do their own thing. The Bandidos,
of course, that wasn't acceptable to him.
The Coex had also put on a Texas bottom rocker.
There's quite a bit of dispute, if you will,
on whether that was authorized or not.
Some say that a Bandido had given them permission to do it.
Others say that they didn't. So, uh, you know, that,
that's kind of up for speculation, I guess you could say.
But the bottom line is,
is the Bandidos had had a coalition meeting planned somewhere else that day,
I believe, in the Dallas area, and they decided to come to Waco,
and it was intentional. Waco was, you know, the Cossacks area.
So they came there and all hell broke loose.
Main reason for that is, is the cossacks weren't afraid of it.
They stood their ground. There were a lot of unnecessary deaths that occurred.
Nine, I believe, when it was all said and done. A lot of people injured.
But what really was accomplished out of that, if you wanna use that term,
is it exploited the Bandidos. It showed others that, Hey,
you know,
maybe these guys aren't as strong as they lead everyone to believe they are in
Texas. A lot of groups, you know, around the nation hadn't heard of Coex.
They didn't know who these guys were, and they thought, wow,
these guys stepped up to them in a big way. Why not us? Why,
why don't we go down there and plant our flag? Which is what's happened?
So suddenly there was a chink in the armor of the Bandidos and I,
but it sounds like this is all about turf and who controls what
part of, uh, the state and the sales of drugs and other activities.
At the end of the day, it's all about turf.
And what goes along with turf is controlling certain aspects of crime.
And there is a certain, you know, component of it that is just plain and simple,
toughest kid on the schoolyard, machismo, you know,
who's the baddest kid on the block? We wanna be the toughest spike gang around.
No, we wanna be the toughest spike gang, you know? And, and sadly enough,
there's a lot of stupid that goes along with that,
because you give people fueled with drugs, making irrational decisions.
Some of these guys, uh, you know, you especially see this with the angels,
a lot of steroid use and things like that.
So you get a lot of these guys that, uh, they get pumped up and,
you know, they, they buy into the hype, uh, of what this lifestyle is about,
and they're willing to go out and kill somebody over, uh, a piece of fabric.
That piece of fabric is the patch,
the gang colored insignia with a bandido name proudly and
boldly worn by members to make their presence known.
They ride in large groups and seek to turn public sentiment to their favor
by organizing frequent charity runs. According to the Bandidos legend,
a 36 year old Vietnam War veteran in Houston,
dock worker started the club in the 1960s.
It adopted the red and gold colors of the US Marine Corps.
The one percenter sign on the patch refers to a saying that was coined in the
1950s by the American Motorcyclist Association.
They were saying that 99% of motorcycle riders were law abiding,
upstanding members of society,
but 1% of motorcycle riders are criminals and give the whole
group a bad reputation.
This saying was specifically directed at clubs like The Hell, hell's Angels,
who at the time were seen as being involved in various crimes.
The saying was adopted by the clubs themselves,
who sometimes call themselves one percenters with pride.
Do they always have on the jacket in the patch so you know they're amongst you?
Or often are they in civilian clothes?
Well, if they're on their motorcycle, they should have their patch on. Uh,
that's pretty standard. But most of these guys,
even if they aren't,
have something on 'em because they're proud of who they are, you know,
this is a accomplishment, if you will mm-hmm.
for them to get into these types of organizations.
So they're gonna have, uh, what we call soft colors, which is a t-shirt, uh,
with their patch screen printed on it, or a belt buckle or a necklace,
or rings, definitely tattoos. So, you know,
if you know what you're looking for,
you're gonna be able to pick them out in public.
So if I walk into a restaurant and I see some of these things,
maybe I should pick a different table or a different restaurant.
Well, I, you know, like I say, you know, I don't know that, uh,
I personally want to go and sit down at a table next to four or five of these
guys, not because I'm worried that they're gonna do something,
but I don't know who's gonna ride by and see their bikes in the parking lot and
decide to ambush 'em when they walk out the door.
And hopefully you're not walking out the door at the same time. It happens, but,
uh, you know, yeah, it's, it's not good for business.
And a and a lot of places know that I go down to Daytona Beach a lot for Bike
Week, and most of the bars down there have signs, you know, uh,
that you can't wear colors, uh,
or any kind of support gear inside their establishment because they know what it
brings with it. They can't afford to lose the business.
When we come back after this message,
Steve and I will talk about the ongoing war that stems from the Twin Peak
Shootout
reporters' notebook. Saturday, April 2nd, 2022,
2:00 PM four Bandidos and seven members of the Rival
Home's.
Outlaw motorcycle gang traded insults at a gas station on Main Street
in Madisonville, Texas. It's a small town located between Dallas and Houston.
On Interstate 45,
the home ethos cranked up their motorcycles in circle back,
opening fire on the bandidos in the parking lot.
Bystanders hit the ground for cover as dozens of nine millimeter bullets
ricocheted around them. While there were no serious injuries,
at least one round struck a bandidos motorcycle,
and police found a bullet hole in a car parked more than 400 yards away.
Police arrested three members of the home, mitos,
and including its 28 year old president from Oklahoma is
36 year old Vice President from Kansas City,
and 28 year old Eric Oberholser,
the gang's president of its Oklahoma City, chapter
reporters notebook. April 1st, 2023,
11:00 PM almost exactly a year after Ober Holzer
was charged with opening fire on a group of Bandidos in Madisonville, Texas.
The Bandidos surrounded the Whiskey Barrel Saloon in Oklahoma City,
where the Ho Vidos hung out.
Ober Holzer and another member of the Unidos traded insults with a group of
bandidos near the patio entrance.
A security cabr recorded a bandidos shooting one of the MDOs twice
in the back, Oberholser Lido of the MDOs,
and a member of the rival Bandidos shot it out and killed each other.
When the gun smoke cleared two Unidos and one Bandido laid dead
reporters' notebook. April 14th, 2023,
three Bandidos driving to the funeral of the fellow club member killed two weeks
earlier in Oklahoma City are shot dead on Interstate
45 2,
died on the side of the highway near a colossal six story tall white
statue of Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas,
an eyewitness who tried to give First aid said of one victim.
I've never seen anything like that. His eyes were open, wide and empty.
Well, now we've seen this escalate into, uh, you know,
Bandidos being shot off their bike in Huntsville, Texas, on the interstate,
you know, which is the home to the te prison system in Texas,
and then an outbreak in Oklahoma and then New Mexico. What's going on?
Well, I think what's happened is you've had a couple things go on. One,
the Twin Peaks incident, definitely,
but you've also had a lot of disruption within the bandidos themselves,
the young, against the old.
You have a lot of the old time Bandidos,
many of of whom I know that weren't happy
with the trajectory that the group was on.
They didn't like how these young members were coming in gang bangers,
not really interested in riding their motorcycles.
They were more interested in partying in violence, things like that.
Some of the older time bandits, they didn't want that.
They wanted to ride their bikes. They, you know, sure,
they wanted to party a little bit, get high, but by and large, you know, it's,
you guys do your thing, we do ours, and we'll leave each other alone. You know,
we just don't need it. We've, we've, we've lived through it.
So you had a lot of guys break away to the Kin folk,
which started some immediate violence from that time. You've had,
uh, several bandidos and,
and support club members become Mongols in the state of Texas,
which has created a lot of adversity. And then you've got, uh, two other groups,
the, uh, brothers East known as the Beast and the Uhs.
And both of those groups have, you know, not all,
but they both have some former bandidos within those groups.
So what you have is, is you have a lot of hostility.
You have a lot of animosity, if you will,
unfortunately for the Bandidos, you know,
now with the Pagans being in the state of Texas,
the Bandidos have a lot of issues. They're kind of on an island, if you will,
within their own home state down there,
because they're surrounded by people that don't like them.
Reporters notebook. May 28th, 2023,
5:00 PM Memorial Day weekend,
thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts converged at Red River,
New Mexico for the 41st annual motorcycle rally.
A fight broke out and then gunshots between members of the Bandidos and the
Water Dog's Motorcycle Club.
It stemmed from a wedding photo posted on a Facebook of the Water Dogs
President, standing with two members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club,
a hated rival of the Bandidos,
the California based Mongols set up in Mexico.
Without getting required permission from the Bandidos,
according to the F B I,
the Bandidos saw the photo and likely felt disrespected.
Two Bandido members were killed along with one of the water dogs.
The shootout brought the annual motorcycle rally to a screeching halt.
Yeah, the Die in Red River is a complete fiasco,
sadly enough is there are a lot of good people that have went to that event
for a lot of years, and now it's done.
I don't know that it comes back from a liability standpoint.
How do you allow it to come back? And I think the saddest part of it is,
is a lot of this stuff is preventable.
But in the law enforcement circles in a in a lot of places,
this is not deemed a priority. I, I cannot wrap my head around it.
I think a lot of the problem is,
is there's a lot of people over the years that have put out a lot of bad
information to young cops and have scared them,
uh, of these guys. And, oh, you know, you shouldn't stop these guys. You,
you can't pull these guys over cuz they're gonna do X, Y, and Z.
It's ridiculous. I've been doing this for 30 years.
I've stopped hundreds of these guys. I've stopped groups of, you know,
10 plus Hells Angels by myself. Okay?
The job is inherently dangerous. If you didn't know that,
you probably should have figured it out before you signed on to do it.
A lot of these places that you see this activity just running rampant,
it shouldn't be happening like this.
If law enforcement collectively would put a foot down on this,
you could probably solve a lot of these issues, prevent 'em from happening.
And a lot of it is just as simple as having a dialogue,
being able to talk to these individuals.
I spend a lot of my time talking to leadership
in different al Motorcycle gangs for that very reason,
because we don't want this kind of stuff happening. Not for anybody.
I may not like how these guys live their lives and, and what they represent,
but I don't want 'em dead.
So a lot of this can be addressed by just sitting down,
getting at the table with somebody and saying, Hey guys, knock this off.
This is what's gonna happen if this continues on.
And if that's what you guys want. If you want prison,
we sell that stuff every day. We, we can definitely accommodate you,
but how about you guys just pick your bar and let them pick their bar and
everybody go on about their business.
I do know, you know, when you come up on them in the, on the interstate,
they're an intimidating presence about, do I pass? Were they going?
That sort of thing.
Yeah, they absolutely are. And they, uh, they feed off that, that's,
that's built, you know, pumps the ego and, uh, helps 'em, uh,
beat their chest a little bit harder of who they are.
And they want that respect, they want that fear.
They want people not to try to cross 'em.
Well, considering the recent spike in violence,
what do you think is next more paybacks coming?
Well, you know,
I think the violence is gonna keep going until somebody puts a stop to it.
And again, a lot of that from a, a resource side,
that's kind of a obligation to the federal government. Uh, there are several,
uh, federal agencies that have the capability to,
uh, prosecute these types of crimes until that changes, I,
I don't know that it does change,
but I can tell you what you will see is there are a lot of East Coast
based bike gangs and international based bike gangs
that are playing their flags in the United States.
You've got groups like the dirty ones, the unknown bikers, the thug riders,
you know, that are pretty prominent on the East Coast,
and they're starting to branch out to the Midwest and, and out west.
So all that's gonna do is create more violence and more problems because
groups that have traditionally held areas, uh,
that they consider to be theirs,
are now going to have to defend that territory.
Why should the law-abiding public be concerned?
What is there to be concerned about? Well.
I think just like we saw in the Twin Peaks case, though,
is it would be one thing if this was just something that these guys hashed out
amongst themselves out in a field somewhere.
But unfortunately that's not the case. Uh,
people were being shot off their bikes on interstates, killed at bars, uh,
different public venues. And anytime something like that happens,
that obviously opens up the possibility of a stray round
hitting an innocent bystander, which is something that nobody wants.
And I'm sure it's not something these groups want either,
but they are creating the situation where that can occur.
So it, it's one of those things is we're past a point,
at least in this culture, where people can say, well,
I don't go to biker bars, I don't hang around with these types of guys,
so this doesn't affect me because these guys are everywhere and they go to the
same places you go to, they go to restaurants, they, you know, go to Walmarts.
You know, they,
they go to places that everyday citizens frequent.
So it's not a situation anymore of avoidance.
In closing, here's my reporter's recap and reflections.
The violence could have stopped eight years ago after the Twin Peak shooting,
but no one was ever held accountable. The deaths of nine bikers,
the case turned into a prosecutorial fiasco and collapsed.
The leader of the Bandidos blamed the cossacks and was acquitted of organizing
the confrontation.
All charges were dropped against 155 bikers.
No end to the violence is in sight.
You've been listening to the True Crime Reporter podcast, stay true,
stay safe, and stay tuned for more stories from inside the crime Scene tape.
This is Robert Riggs reporting.