Showing posts with label Pagans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pagans. Show all posts
Monday, September 1, 2014
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Bikers 1965-1967
 |
| Pagans in Newark 1967 (Lil Jesus far right) |
 |
| Biker at Marlboro Raceway |
 |
| Bikers, cops, and others at Marlboro Raceway |
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Riot at the 1023 Club
The night in Anacostia in August 1966 has become legend among music historians and has been told by both Eddie Dean in the City Paper and Mark Opsasnick in his book “Capitol Rock”. On a hot night in August 1966, a rough bar called the 1023 Restaurant at 1023 Wahler Place, SE blared with the blistering rock and roll of Link Wray while rowdy bikers drank, danced and fought inside the club. The 1023 was a holdover of when Anacostia was a white hillbilly neighborhood resembling more of a backwater southern town than a part of the nation’s capital. The neighborhoods surrounding the 1023 had rapidly flipped in the early sixties turning Anacostia into a majority black neighborhood overnight. However, white bikers continued to gather at the bar snubbing the new residents of the neighborhood. A series of events led to an angry mob of black teenagers gathering outside the club and throwing rocks through the windows. One patron was stabbed outside and the teenagers stoned the ambulance as it came to take him away. Link Wray and many of the bikers at the bar that night had to fight their way out of the area and received no mercy from the angry local youths who pelted them with bottles and stones.
The story is certainly the stuff of legend, but it is much more complicated than the previous versions have let on. To understand the incident fully we have to look at the events surrounding it and put the 1023 in context. Looking back forties years later, there were a variety of factors that made violence in the neighborhood inevitable. The neighborhood had rapidly flipped from majority white to majority black in about a year, the police officers of the 11th Precinct were notoriously racist, and civil rights organizers had begun agitating for improved services to the neighborhood. These elements came together in front of the 1023 and changed Southeast forever.
According to Mark Opsasnick, author of Capitol Rock, the 1023 opened sometime in 1959 hosting country music singer/accordionist Stoney Rigsby into the early sixties. In 1964 the club switched to rock and roll featuring a Beatles-cover band called the Creatures. Link Wray started playing the 1023 in early 1965 and remained until the riot of August 1966. Link Wray had moved to the 1023 after playing for a time at Vinnie’s at 10th and H, NW and the gang members and bikers from Vinnie’s followed him to the 1023.
The Washington Highlands neighborhood around the 1023 changed rapidly and dramatically from almost totally white to totally black as the DC government converted a large number of local apartment buildings into public housing. Whites were already abandoning Washington Highlands and other parts of Anacostia partially because of white flight, but primarily because Bolling AFB and the Navy Yard scaled back operations significantly in the early sixties. This left a large number of vacant apartments to house black residents displaced by the clearing of alley dwellings and the construction of Interstate 295. In 1964, the DC government began converting the apartments into public housing moving large numbers of blacks into the neighborhood overnight. By early 1966, Washington Highlands was almost entirely black as the public housing sent more whites to Prince George’s.
Looking back, Washington Highlands was a terrible choice for public housing, but the DC government was desperately short of public housing so they had little choice. However, Washington Highlands was (and is) one of the most isolated neighborhoods in DC. Anacostia on the whole is isolated because of the river and 295, but Washington Highlands is surrounded on three sides by a swath of undeveloped land around Oxon Run. Prior to becoming Oxon Run Parkway, this area of land was a military training area called Camp Simms. There are very few ways out of Washington Highlands with the primary one being Wheeler Road. Add poverty to the geographic barriers, and you’ve got a real sense of alienation and isolation among residents.
In February 1966, a group of youths started an organization called Rebels with a Cause with the intention of organizing youth in the projects in Congress Heights and Washington Highlands to improve housing, schools, and recreation. At the same time a group of young married couples started a group called Band of Angels to win improvements in the public housing units. The two groups confronted the United Planning Organization (UPO), which is the DC human services organization, seeking funds to hire staff and work with youths in these neighborhoods. Eventually, the UPO relented and helped the Rebels hire 13 organizers to work in the neighborhood. Their primary focus was getting recreational facilities and they seemed to be on their way to gaining improvements, but trouble was brewing.
The officers of the 11th Precinct provided the spark that kids needed for the neighborhood to explode into violence. Some of the officers were accused by blacks of excessive force and a Washington Post reporter took pictures of white power carvings by officers in the 11th Precinct. Clearly, some of the officers were not happy with the changes to the neighborhood and the tension was rising. In May 1966 an African American named James McKnight was arrested as he left the 1023 for drunkenness. McKnight claimed that the police officer arrested him for dancing with a white girl inside the 1023. McKnight claimed Officer Tester said, “Nigger, don’t you know better than to dance with a white girl”. McKnight told the officer that he can’t arrest him for dancing with a white girl, but Officer Tester told him that he could arrest him for drunkenness. The tension with police was rising rapidly among black youths.
As an aside, this is a curious incident for the 1023 because legend tells us that it was a rough whites-only club and it makes me wonder if McKnight was a biker himself, and therefore accepted by the other bikers in the club. If the 1023 had lived up to its reputation McKnight would’ve left the club on a stretcher instead of his legs for dancing with a white girl. Clearly the club was integrated to some degree, but we can’t be certain to what extent. Six witnesses testified at McKnight’s trial that he appeared sober in the club. The judge threw out the charge.
That summer, the heat was intense and August 1966 saw a long string of sweltering days. Pools across the city were only allowing kids to swim in shifts because of the overwhelming demand, but Anacostia did not have enough pools for their kids. For many, all they could do was hang around outside and cook in the stifling air. Shortly before the riot, there were power outages in Anacostia from the amount of air conditioning being used.
In August 1966, racial tension exploded in Anacostia. Trouble started when a group of black “pick pockets” attacked Kennard Harford, a 65 year old white man, in the Wheeler Liquors parking lot on Wheeler Rd. Police arrested John G. Ford for the attack, but something about the arrest angered the youths gathering around the police. The officers dispersed the crowd, but apparently only momentarily. Seven hours later a small crowd attacked Wallace Poole as he left the 1023 Club and stabbed him several times. As the ambulance arrived a larger crowd gathered and began stoning the ambulance and the club smashing windows and cutting off power. The club’s bouncer, Carl Simpson, told the Daily News “There were about 100 of them…I was inside the restaurant and I heard the glass crash…they were throwing rocks, bottles, and paint cans through the windows.” Police broke up the crowd, which dissipated only to reappear at a shopping center a block away. The crowd focused on a bar they perceived as a whites-only establishment and two other businesses breaking the windows. One store-owner complained that this was the “third time in six months they have broken my windows.” He went on to say, “this place is getting a bad reputation…people don’t want to come here and it’s hurting our business.” Of course, he seems to imply the people no longer coming were whites and he didn’t seem interested in selling his services to the newer black residents. Youths indicated to UPO staff that they had attacked the 1023 because they felt the place discriminated against blacks and they were bitter about the “white motorcyclists who hang around two bars in the Congress Heights area … which endangered the citizens.” Again, it is interesting that McKnight was in the club dancing with a white girl unfettered, but many in the neighborhood considered the 1023 to have some racist symbolism.
The next morning, UPO staff organized an outdoor meeting hoping to cool tensions, but as the kids gathered, 11th Precinct officers arrived and arrested two men for stabbing Wallace Poole outside the 1023. When a UPO staffer asked the officers the reason for the arrest, they arrested him for interfering. This angered the kids and the crowd began to turn angry. The UPO workers convinced the kids to march on the 11th Precinct station and picket outside. The picketers began to thin out and some kids continued to mill around outside the station. Someone started throwing firecrackers and the police officers decided to act. Inexplicably, a police officer asked two security guards working nearby to bring their dogs and help guard the police station. These two guards, in cowboy hats, agitated the crowd further and it began to swell again. Some youths threw fire crackers at the guards and police decided to move on the crow. At first a few officers came out and tried to break up the youths to no effect, but then 50 officers showed up in riot gear and began attacking the crowd. Kids started throwing bricks and bottles at the police injuring one officer. The police were equally brutal slashing at kids indiscriminately with nightsticks. Police gained control of the situation by 1:30 AM and in the end 10 people were arrested.
The community was shocked at the violence in Southeast and the city began a series of hearings into its causes. Meanwhile, SNCC organizers saw the moment as an opportunity to further their movement in the northern cities. SNCC was schizophrenic in 1966 because one part of the organization preached nonviolence while the other part preached black power. In DC, (future-mayor-for-life) Marion Barry was director of SNCC and he tended towards the black power wing of the movement. In the first hearing, Barry led a leafleting effort to encourage black youths to join SNCC. However, the youths were already organized and SNCC had only a peripheral effect on the events in Anacostia. Stokley Charmichael gave a speech on black power that called on people in Anacostia to take control of their lives and institutions, but officials hastily scheduled a dance at the same time to try to reduce his audience. Charmichael was too late though, the Rebels had already taken control and the speech sounded out of place in the moment. Unlike disorganized black neighborhoods across the country, the Rebels had brought black power to southeast DC years ahead of others.
The hearings went on for months and were wracked by complaints about the lack of representation of kids from the neighborhood and refusals by police officers to testify. In the end the city concluded that everyone was to blame for the riot. In classic DC form, the report was more about CYA than resolving wider community problems.
Meanwhile, legend has it that the Pagans returned to the site of the 1023 and exacted some kind of revenge on black residents. However, I couldn’t find any concrete evidence that this actually occurred. As for the 1023 Club, it closed shortly after the riot and reopened in 1967 as a black nightclub called the Salt and Pepper Lounge before closing in 1968 and being replaced by another black nightclub called the Harlequin Lounge, which operated in 1969-70. The building was vacant until 1977 when it opened as a market and was torn down in 1998. Today a 314-unit housing development called "Wheeler Creek Estates" occupies the entire site and surrounding area. The exact location of the old 1023 now hosts a house marked 1007 Wahler Place SE.
The story is certainly the stuff of legend, but it is much more complicated than the previous versions have let on. To understand the incident fully we have to look at the events surrounding it and put the 1023 in context. Looking back forties years later, there were a variety of factors that made violence in the neighborhood inevitable. The neighborhood had rapidly flipped from majority white to majority black in about a year, the police officers of the 11th Precinct were notoriously racist, and civil rights organizers had begun agitating for improved services to the neighborhood. These elements came together in front of the 1023 and changed Southeast forever.
According to Mark Opsasnick, author of Capitol Rock, the 1023 opened sometime in 1959 hosting country music singer/accordionist Stoney Rigsby into the early sixties. In 1964 the club switched to rock and roll featuring a Beatles-cover band called the Creatures. Link Wray started playing the 1023 in early 1965 and remained until the riot of August 1966. Link Wray had moved to the 1023 after playing for a time at Vinnie’s at 10th and H, NW and the gang members and bikers from Vinnie’s followed him to the 1023.
The Washington Highlands neighborhood around the 1023 changed rapidly and dramatically from almost totally white to totally black as the DC government converted a large number of local apartment buildings into public housing. Whites were already abandoning Washington Highlands and other parts of Anacostia partially because of white flight, but primarily because Bolling AFB and the Navy Yard scaled back operations significantly in the early sixties. This left a large number of vacant apartments to house black residents displaced by the clearing of alley dwellings and the construction of Interstate 295. In 1964, the DC government began converting the apartments into public housing moving large numbers of blacks into the neighborhood overnight. By early 1966, Washington Highlands was almost entirely black as the public housing sent more whites to Prince George’s.
Looking back, Washington Highlands was a terrible choice for public housing, but the DC government was desperately short of public housing so they had little choice. However, Washington Highlands was (and is) one of the most isolated neighborhoods in DC. Anacostia on the whole is isolated because of the river and 295, but Washington Highlands is surrounded on three sides by a swath of undeveloped land around Oxon Run. Prior to becoming Oxon Run Parkway, this area of land was a military training area called Camp Simms. There are very few ways out of Washington Highlands with the primary one being Wheeler Road. Add poverty to the geographic barriers, and you’ve got a real sense of alienation and isolation among residents.
In February 1966, a group of youths started an organization called Rebels with a Cause with the intention of organizing youth in the projects in Congress Heights and Washington Highlands to improve housing, schools, and recreation. At the same time a group of young married couples started a group called Band of Angels to win improvements in the public housing units. The two groups confronted the United Planning Organization (UPO), which is the DC human services organization, seeking funds to hire staff and work with youths in these neighborhoods. Eventually, the UPO relented and helped the Rebels hire 13 organizers to work in the neighborhood. Their primary focus was getting recreational facilities and they seemed to be on their way to gaining improvements, but trouble was brewing.
The officers of the 11th Precinct provided the spark that kids needed for the neighborhood to explode into violence. Some of the officers were accused by blacks of excessive force and a Washington Post reporter took pictures of white power carvings by officers in the 11th Precinct. Clearly, some of the officers were not happy with the changes to the neighborhood and the tension was rising. In May 1966 an African American named James McKnight was arrested as he left the 1023 for drunkenness. McKnight claimed that the police officer arrested him for dancing with a white girl inside the 1023. McKnight claimed Officer Tester said, “Nigger, don’t you know better than to dance with a white girl”. McKnight told the officer that he can’t arrest him for dancing with a white girl, but Officer Tester told him that he could arrest him for drunkenness. The tension with police was rising rapidly among black youths.
As an aside, this is a curious incident for the 1023 because legend tells us that it was a rough whites-only club and it makes me wonder if McKnight was a biker himself, and therefore accepted by the other bikers in the club. If the 1023 had lived up to its reputation McKnight would’ve left the club on a stretcher instead of his legs for dancing with a white girl. Clearly the club was integrated to some degree, but we can’t be certain to what extent. Six witnesses testified at McKnight’s trial that he appeared sober in the club. The judge threw out the charge.
That summer, the heat was intense and August 1966 saw a long string of sweltering days. Pools across the city were only allowing kids to swim in shifts because of the overwhelming demand, but Anacostia did not have enough pools for their kids. For many, all they could do was hang around outside and cook in the stifling air. Shortly before the riot, there were power outages in Anacostia from the amount of air conditioning being used.
In August 1966, racial tension exploded in Anacostia. Trouble started when a group of black “pick pockets” attacked Kennard Harford, a 65 year old white man, in the Wheeler Liquors parking lot on Wheeler Rd. Police arrested John G. Ford for the attack, but something about the arrest angered the youths gathering around the police. The officers dispersed the crowd, but apparently only momentarily. Seven hours later a small crowd attacked Wallace Poole as he left the 1023 Club and stabbed him several times. As the ambulance arrived a larger crowd gathered and began stoning the ambulance and the club smashing windows and cutting off power. The club’s bouncer, Carl Simpson, told the Daily News “There were about 100 of them…I was inside the restaurant and I heard the glass crash…they were throwing rocks, bottles, and paint cans through the windows.” Police broke up the crowd, which dissipated only to reappear at a shopping center a block away. The crowd focused on a bar they perceived as a whites-only establishment and two other businesses breaking the windows. One store-owner complained that this was the “third time in six months they have broken my windows.” He went on to say, “this place is getting a bad reputation…people don’t want to come here and it’s hurting our business.” Of course, he seems to imply the people no longer coming were whites and he didn’t seem interested in selling his services to the newer black residents. Youths indicated to UPO staff that they had attacked the 1023 because they felt the place discriminated against blacks and they were bitter about the “white motorcyclists who hang around two bars in the Congress Heights area … which endangered the citizens.” Again, it is interesting that McKnight was in the club dancing with a white girl unfettered, but many in the neighborhood considered the 1023 to have some racist symbolism.
The next morning, UPO staff organized an outdoor meeting hoping to cool tensions, but as the kids gathered, 11th Precinct officers arrived and arrested two men for stabbing Wallace Poole outside the 1023. When a UPO staffer asked the officers the reason for the arrest, they arrested him for interfering. This angered the kids and the crowd began to turn angry. The UPO workers convinced the kids to march on the 11th Precinct station and picket outside. The picketers began to thin out and some kids continued to mill around outside the station. Someone started throwing firecrackers and the police officers decided to act. Inexplicably, a police officer asked two security guards working nearby to bring their dogs and help guard the police station. These two guards, in cowboy hats, agitated the crowd further and it began to swell again. Some youths threw fire crackers at the guards and police decided to move on the crow. At first a few officers came out and tried to break up the youths to no effect, but then 50 officers showed up in riot gear and began attacking the crowd. Kids started throwing bricks and bottles at the police injuring one officer. The police were equally brutal slashing at kids indiscriminately with nightsticks. Police gained control of the situation by 1:30 AM and in the end 10 people were arrested.
The community was shocked at the violence in Southeast and the city began a series of hearings into its causes. Meanwhile, SNCC organizers saw the moment as an opportunity to further their movement in the northern cities. SNCC was schizophrenic in 1966 because one part of the organization preached nonviolence while the other part preached black power. In DC, (future-mayor-for-life) Marion Barry was director of SNCC and he tended towards the black power wing of the movement. In the first hearing, Barry led a leafleting effort to encourage black youths to join SNCC. However, the youths were already organized and SNCC had only a peripheral effect on the events in Anacostia. Stokley Charmichael gave a speech on black power that called on people in Anacostia to take control of their lives and institutions, but officials hastily scheduled a dance at the same time to try to reduce his audience. Charmichael was too late though, the Rebels had already taken control and the speech sounded out of place in the moment. Unlike disorganized black neighborhoods across the country, the Rebels had brought black power to southeast DC years ahead of others.
The hearings went on for months and were wracked by complaints about the lack of representation of kids from the neighborhood and refusals by police officers to testify. In the end the city concluded that everyone was to blame for the riot. In classic DC form, the report was more about CYA than resolving wider community problems.
Meanwhile, legend has it that the Pagans returned to the site of the 1023 and exacted some kind of revenge on black residents. However, I couldn’t find any concrete evidence that this actually occurred. As for the 1023 Club, it closed shortly after the riot and reopened in 1967 as a black nightclub called the Salt and Pepper Lounge before closing in 1968 and being replaced by another black nightclub called the Harlequin Lounge, which operated in 1969-70. The building was vacant until 1977 when it opened as a market and was torn down in 1998. Today a 314-unit housing development called "Wheeler Creek Estates" occupies the entire site and surrounding area. The exact location of the old 1023 now hosts a house marked 1007 Wahler Place SE.
Monday, September 27, 2010
JJ's
JJ's had some unwanted notierity in the Johnny Battle incident at Godfather's in Georgetown. A crew of Pagans were celebrating mother club member Cheyenne Richter's birthday and they started out a JJ's and were kicked out after a fight broke out. They moved on to Godfather's where they enountred Johnny Battle's group and got into a street fight on Wisconsin Ave. Battle ended up stabbed to death and some Pagans went to jail for a long time. The case has come up lately because some of the Pagans were released based on some falsified testimony.
UPDATE: Prior to becoming JJ's this place was a topless bar called Ziggy's and was known as a rough place. Ziggy's neighbor, American Service Center, complained about vulgar customers and beer cans, which led to the it's closing.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
The RIA Incident
Usually I focus on Northern Virginia in this blog, but I found an incident worth writing about in NE DC.
In 1973 the DC chapter of the Pagans had a club house at 3423 Eastern Ave. in Mt. Ranier, MD. A few blocks away, in the Woodridge neighborhood, they had picked RIA at 3112 Rhode Island Ave., NE as their hangout after being banned from two other nearby bars. The bar sits right on the border between DC and PG County in a regular middle class neighborhood once known for its country music clubs. However, the area was decaying and transitioning from a majority white to a majority black neighborhood causing racial tensions.
The Pagans were no strangers to racial violence. In August 1966 they had a protracted battle with black residents in Southeast at the 1023 club (see Mark Opsasnick's book Capitol Rock). Link Wray was playing one night as locals attacked the club and assaulted patrons. During the 68 riots one member of the Pagans was arrested at 14th and U shooting at rioters from a car. By 1973 DC had been through a massive transition to "Chocolate City" and was rapidly loosing its white population. This was not unusual for cities at the time as white residents fled integration and cities devasted by the start of deindustrialization.
Residents of the neighborhood had been complaining about drug dealing and rowdiness going on at the club. One person alleged that a member of the Pagans had a needle in his arm in a car outside the club, but their usual trip was "beer, and lots of it". Some residents claimed the Pagans were threatening them with racial epithets and displaying guns.
The real trouble at RIA started in July 1973 when a white woman and black woman got into an argument inside the bar. The dispute moved outside and two Pagans came to her aid, then a group of black men joined on the side of the black woman. The brawl involved about 40 people. One black guy named Michael Edward Jones, 23 of 3124 Newton St., NE was there and got involved in the fight. He lived around the corner from the Pagans club house and two blocks from RIA and it was not his first encounter with them. About a week earlier he had been run over by a car driven by a member of the Pagans. As the brawl got heated, he somehow got a hold of a stop sign and cracked it over the head of Bob Brown, the DC Pagans president. Brown died from his injuries. Jones was arrested for the murder of Brown, but a grand jury refused to indict him.
An enterprising Post reporter covering the story, gained admittance to the Pagans club house to interview members, but encountered a man named "tireiron" and thought better of it. He did interview a biker named Richard Sebastian two doors down who claimed not to be a member, but he did offer a warning that the Pagans were "stone crazy". He said everyone carried a gun in the area and "something has to be done over Bob Brown's death. He was righteous cat -- he had to be, he was the president".
The tension got the attention of the FBI, which was worried about retailiation and racial violence. The FBI issued a bulletin tha the Pagans had purchased guns and explosives in Florida and were planning to retaliate in September. PG Police raided a members home in September in Beltsville and found a cache of weapons, narcotics, and a copper still.
After the incident a group of white men shot at a group of black youths from a station wagon and two Pagans assaulted a black man in Woodridge. The shooting was never linked to the Pagans and the assault victim didn't show up to court. Residents fought the renewal of the liquor license for RIA, but the owner, Robert Pluebell, prevailed and gained his liquor license.
In 1973 the DC chapter of the Pagans had a club house at 3423 Eastern Ave. in Mt. Ranier, MD. A few blocks away, in the Woodridge neighborhood, they had picked RIA at 3112 Rhode Island Ave., NE as their hangout after being banned from two other nearby bars. The bar sits right on the border between DC and PG County in a regular middle class neighborhood once known for its country music clubs. However, the area was decaying and transitioning from a majority white to a majority black neighborhood causing racial tensions.
The Pagans were no strangers to racial violence. In August 1966 they had a protracted battle with black residents in Southeast at the 1023 club (see Mark Opsasnick's book Capitol Rock). Link Wray was playing one night as locals attacked the club and assaulted patrons. During the 68 riots one member of the Pagans was arrested at 14th and U shooting at rioters from a car. By 1973 DC had been through a massive transition to "Chocolate City" and was rapidly loosing its white population. This was not unusual for cities at the time as white residents fled integration and cities devasted by the start of deindustrialization.
Residents of the neighborhood had been complaining about drug dealing and rowdiness going on at the club. One person alleged that a member of the Pagans had a needle in his arm in a car outside the club, but their usual trip was "beer, and lots of it". Some residents claimed the Pagans were threatening them with racial epithets and displaying guns.
The real trouble at RIA started in July 1973 when a white woman and black woman got into an argument inside the bar. The dispute moved outside and two Pagans came to her aid, then a group of black men joined on the side of the black woman. The brawl involved about 40 people. One black guy named Michael Edward Jones, 23 of 3124 Newton St., NE was there and got involved in the fight. He lived around the corner from the Pagans club house and two blocks from RIA and it was not his first encounter with them. About a week earlier he had been run over by a car driven by a member of the Pagans. As the brawl got heated, he somehow got a hold of a stop sign and cracked it over the head of Bob Brown, the DC Pagans president. Brown died from his injuries. Jones was arrested for the murder of Brown, but a grand jury refused to indict him.
An enterprising Post reporter covering the story, gained admittance to the Pagans club house to interview members, but encountered a man named "tireiron" and thought better of it. He did interview a biker named Richard Sebastian two doors down who claimed not to be a member, but he did offer a warning that the Pagans were "stone crazy". He said everyone carried a gun in the area and "something has to be done over Bob Brown's death. He was righteous cat -- he had to be, he was the president".
The tension got the attention of the FBI, which was worried about retailiation and racial violence. The FBI issued a bulletin tha the Pagans had purchased guns and explosives in Florida and were planning to retaliate in September. PG Police raided a members home in September in Beltsville and found a cache of weapons, narcotics, and a copper still.
After the incident a group of white men shot at a group of black youths from a station wagon and two Pagans assaulted a black man in Woodridge. The shooting was never linked to the Pagans and the assault victim didn't show up to court. Residents fought the renewal of the liquor license for RIA, but the owner, Robert Pluebell, prevailed and gained his liquor license.
Apparently, the bar closed sometime later, but the building is still standing and was recently the offices for a surveying company.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
John McClure
In NOVA’s redneck past, there are many colorful figures, but few have been as colorful as John C. McClure who was a paratrooper, Nazi, Pagan MC member, and a jail breaker. McClure was born in 1939 in West Palm Beach, FL and was an imposing presence with a full beard and shaggy red hair. He was in the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville in 1958 when he was arrested for narcotics possession and given a 3 year suspended sentence.
In 1962 he arrived in Arlington, VA to become a full-fledged member of the American Nazi Party after reading some of George Lincoln Rockwell’s literature. He went through several months of training in Arlington before heading back to Florida in February ’63 to lead an effort to set up an American Nazi Party (ANP) branch office. After training in Arlington, he moved his wife and three kids to Miami to open up the southeast division of the ANP. The effort caused a huge controversy in the newspapers in South Florida. McClure immediately gained notoriety when he and his cohorts got involved in a brawl while protesting outside a pro-Israel meeting. In March he was hauled into court because police found him with a handgun which his narcotics possession conviction precluded him from having. While in jail his cellmates beat him, but police claimed he fell off of the top bunk. The judge gave him a choice of serving time or leaving Dade County forever and he chose the latter. As he left the courtroom an unidentified woman slapped him and said it was because she had been in a concentration camp and couldn’t bear seeing a Nazi.
Undeterred, McClure opened an office in West Palm Beach to the dismay of residents. In an article he declared that if the ANP came to power “negroes would be sent back to Africa” but the party hadn’t yet decided what to do with the Jews. Evidently folks back at Nazi HQ weren’t happy with his progress because George Lincoln Rockwell decided to throw McClure under the bus and announced that McClure had no authority to set up anywhere but Miami (because that’s “where the enemy is”). Rockwell pointed out that McClure was not very high in the party echelon and went on to say that he was coming down to personally supervise setting up a Miami office. Politicians are politicians no matter how nutty and they will eat your left nut if they need to.
By 1965 he was back in the Washington area counter protesting the anti-Vietnam war protests. Around this time, he joined the Pagans and it seems likely that he was present for the founding of the club. His nickname among his Pagan brothers was “Big John”, but this seems like a weird moniker because he was only 5’11” and 140 pounds. My guess is the name referred to his big presence and he probably punched above his weight.
In 1968, while living at 5414 S. 8th Pl. in South Arlington, McClure was involved in an incident at the Georgetown Peoples Drug Store at Wisconsin and O Street. The Georgetown Peoples was a popular spot for bikers and the parking lot was a meeting place for hippies, bikers, and drug dealers. From what I can gather in the newspaper reports, the problem arose from a drug deal between two groups and McClure was aligned with one of the groups.
At 2 AM on a Sunday morning two groups of youths got into some kind of brief dispute in the Peoples parking lot. A few minutes later McClure joined one group and went with them to their car and a bit later the two groups confronted each other again and McClure shot one person dead and wounded another with a .22 caliber pistol. The two guys shot down by him, were recent Wilson High School graduates who came to Peoples from a post-graduation party. Something strange happened among this group of people and it seems like the two guys shot by McClure were monkeying around during a drug deal. McClure claimed self defense in the shooting and apparently thought the other group was some threat to him.
McClure went on the lam and the FBI produced a wanted poster. The poster describes him as:
“a former member of a motorcycle gang, usually wears boots and blue
jeans, may have upper front tooth missing. McClure is being sought for
Murder in which victim was shot with a .22 caliber revolver. Considered
extremely dangerous.
It lists his past crimes as AWOL from the military, narcotics possession, and the Georgetown murder. After the manhunt, in which McClure was almost placed on the Ten Most Wanted list, he was arrested in Providence, RI. He had shaved his beard and cut his hair to try to lay low. The WaPo notes that Big John appeared frail in court, which makes me wonder if he was involuntarily detoxing in jail during the trial. The trial was chaotic as two of Big John’s Pagan brothers, Aurin “Little Jesus” Little and Earl “Moochie” Swicegood made some gesture and comment that scared some folks in the courtroom. Swicegood was held in contempt of court for threatening a witness because he allegedly made a comment that a prosecution witness was lying and he was going to blow him away. The charge was later overturned by another court.
McClure was convicted to ten years in jail. In 1972 he and a fellow inmate, Francis Fletcher, escaped Lorton and went on the run. Fletcher was a notorious thug in South Arlington with multiple convictions including gunning down a gas station attendant during a robbery. A few days after the escape Fletcher got into an accident on Columbia Pike and took off running. A cop and a citizen took him down and his escape was done. The Post seems to drop the story at this part because I can’t figure out when or if police caught up with McClure. Lorton at the time was in the midst of a rash of escapes and would soon face a riot by inmates.
After this incident, I lost the trail of McClure. By the late 80s he was in Texas or Louisiana and he died in 1993 in Kenner, Louisiana.
UPDATE: McClure was also a mechanic at Crossroads Cycle in Baileys Crossroads in the late sixties.
UPDATE 2: In researching the hippie scene around Dupont Circle I came across a new article about Mcclure. In 1967 police raided an apartment at 1629 19th St. NW in DC and found pot, .30-caliber carbine, and a sawed-off shotgu with a bayonet attached. Mcclure and Elizabeth Mechline were inside the apartment. Mcclure identified himself as a member of the Pagans and former president of the Huns. The Huns MC were a local club that patched over to the Pagans sometime in 1967.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Massage Parlors and Old Newspaper Code
During the early to mid-seventies, massage parlors were very controversial in NOVA. In 1973 C&P changed their practices for advertising such establishments by doing away with suggestive pictures and sexual language. C&P had seen an explosion in ads going from 3 pages in 1971 to 10 in 1974. Falls Church tried to impose strict regulations to run them out of business, but was overruled by the courts. In 1974 Arlington invoked a rarely used bawdy house law to charge Ronald E. Kennedy for operating lewd establishments. According to a newspaper article he ran Inga's Superstar (1114 Wilson) massage parlor and Paramount Health Club (1100 Wilson). The article is a bit evasive about what went on in these places, but I guess we can all imagine. It's weird reading old newspaper stories and sensing the reluctance to talk about what was really going down at these joints.
Interestingly, a search of old phone books revealed that Mr. Kennedy also operated Honeybee Escort Service out of the 1114 Wilson Blvd. location. Also, the phonebooks show that most of these massage parlors were concentrated in certain areas. They all advertised their proximity to National Airport, but the area on Rte. 1 near the airport had a particularly high concentration. Rosslyn had a lot of massage parlors too, which isn't surprising because it was quite seedy back in the day.
One interesting parlor is Jenna's at 1134 N. Hudson St., which was next door to the famous Keyhole Inn. Rednecks need their chili, beer, and girls.
According to Senate testimony, the Pagans supplied the women to many of these massage parlors and served as bouncers. Sound like wholesome family establishments, no?
Below is a list of some of my favorites from the phone books:
Tiki-Tiki: 1073 Broad St. and 3219 Columbia Pike Arlington
Wolf's Den: 4613 Duke St. Alexandria
Alexandria's Shangri-La: 121 S. Henry Alexandria
Godfather I (with International Staff!):1801 N. Oak Arlington
Zodiac: 3520 Lee Hwy Arlington
Jenna's: 1134 N. Hudson (next door to the Keyhole Inn!)
Aphrodite: 3603 Wilson Blvd. Arlington
Interestingly, a search of old phone books revealed that Mr. Kennedy also operated Honeybee Escort Service out of the 1114 Wilson Blvd. location. Also, the phonebooks show that most of these massage parlors were concentrated in certain areas. They all advertised their proximity to National Airport, but the area on Rte. 1 near the airport had a particularly high concentration. Rosslyn had a lot of massage parlors too, which isn't surprising because it was quite seedy back in the day.
One interesting parlor is Jenna's at 1134 N. Hudson St., which was next door to the famous Keyhole Inn. Rednecks need their chili, beer, and girls.
According to Senate testimony, the Pagans supplied the women to many of these massage parlors and served as bouncers. Sound like wholesome family establishments, no?
Below is a list of some of my favorites from the phone books:
Tiki-Tiki: 1073 Broad St. and 3219 Columbia Pike Arlington
Wolf's Den: 4613 Duke St. Alexandria
Alexandria's Shangri-La: 121 S. Henry Alexandria
Godfather I (with International Staff!):1801 N. Oak Arlington
Zodiac: 3520 Lee Hwy Arlington
Jenna's: 1134 N. Hudson (next door to the Keyhole Inn!)
Aphrodite: 3603 Wilson Blvd. Arlington
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Moral Panic in Northern Virginia
I’ve been doing a lot of reading about sixties motorcycle gangs in NOVA during the mid and late sixties. Reading the WaPo’s coverage from 1965-70 is reading a classic example of the media molding a moral panic out of youthful disturbances. The WaPo especially takes aim at the Pagans as the motorcycle gang grew from a few young men to a huge regional club. The coverage culminated with the murders of Newland and Hartless in 1970.
The first article to mention the Pagans that I’ve found is from late 1965. Warner Ray Cockerille was arrested at the Social Circle dance hall in Centreville for his involvement in a brawl. The article mentions as an aside that he was part of the “pagan motorcycle club”. This article lays the first building block in the construction of a moral panic by alleging Cockerille fought a group of girls despite his 6'9" stature. In constructing a moral panic, it is critical to show them as living outside the norm and showing them in extreme deviancy such as fighting a group of girls.
In April 1966 the Fairfax City Times had an article about a gang fight in Fairfax City. The article describes the conflict between the “greasers”, “collegiates”, and the “pagans”. It’s interesting to see the use of the word greaser, which was a hidden national subculture among blue-collar kids from the 1950s-70s (see the Outsiders). Greasers typically had a fifties look, were into hod rods and motorcycles, and despised hippies. The “pagans” were described as an outside group, but were actually the beginnings of the Pagans coalescing into a gang in Northern Virginia. The article describes the groups in the typical language of moral panics in which they are described as engaging in deviant behavior that is contrasted with the “good kids” that warned police of a huge brawl behind the A&P across from the old Fairfax High School (now Paul VI) with the usual outrage from the adult squares.
In June 1966, the WaPo hit moral panic paydirt when the greasers (now called the Avengers) and the Pagans had a shootout behind Safeway at the Lee-Harrison Center in Arlington. The event had all the trimmings that the community needed for a full-blown moral panic. The adult squares saw out of control marginalized young men, strangely dressed, with no regard for the community’s norms. Add to that the allure of motorcycles, guns, and gang symbols and you’ve got a recipe for a sensational story. The result was the usual investigations by the County Board, the letters to the editor, and the conversations about what to do about these delinquents. While the rumble between the Avengers and Pagans established the Pagans as the dominant gang in Northern Virginia, it also began to change the nature of the gang. On that day, it began as transition away from a hard drinking, brawling, fun-loving group of young men towards the criminal enterprise it is today. Unfortunately, moral panics in the media often fuel the fire and the media coverage attracted new members to the Pagans. The interesting contrast in these articles was the “fruits”, which an Avenger girlfriend assures us does not mean homosexual, but refers to the kids that care about college. Again, this coverage of moral panics needs a bearing for the squares to establish the deviancy of the Pagans and the “fruits” served this purpose.
Following the Arlington rumble, the WaPo did a number of profiles of the Pagans. They ranged from the bizarre to the sinister, but they added to the allure of the gang and solidified the Pagans as the folk devils of Northern Virginia. In one article they profile Earl “Moochie” Swicegood and the article tries to reconcile the look and attitude of bikers with the squares’ world. At one point Moochie declares that he believes in paganism and then a policeman asks him if his swastika symbolizes anti-semitism which Moochie denies. The reporter also asks Moochie if the Pagans are basically hedonistic; you can hear the snickering by the reporter coming through the newsprint as he writes that Moochie scrunched up his face and didn't understand the word. When the reporter explained the word, Moochie said “Yeah its one big party baby”.
From this point forward, anytime a Pagan was involved in trouble, the media covered it and mentioned the Pagans. Occasionally the media gave readers a review of all the crimes committed by Pagans to make sure they understood the deviancy of the organization. This solidified the Pagans as NOVA's folk devils and merely mentioning in an article that someone was a Pagan was enough to feed the moral panic. The media coverage couldn't see any nuance in the Pagans and tended to protray them as monolithic and uniform in beliefs and behavior. For exampel, the Pagans that intimidated Vietnam protesters got a brief mention without analyzing how this behavior was at odds with the paper's strict portrayal of Pagans as deviants.
As I wrote in an earlier post, in 1970 a group of Pagans murdered members of a rival gang called the Saints. The Saints were an outgrowth of the Avengers, so this was a continuation of the early rumbles in Fairfax and Arlington. By now, the Pagans were huge and had become a much different gang than they were four years earlier with many members involved in drug dealing, prostitution, and other criminal activities. After the murders of Hartless and Newland, you can see a transition in leadership in the Pagans. One of the original Pagans, Richard Scarborough, declared himself retired because the gang had moved away from its origins of a group of guys attending races with their wives. This is probably an overstatement by Scarborough. The coverage of the murders further solidified the Pagans as a murderous,deviant and sinister gang by the media. Therefore, any trouble where Pagans were involved confirmed them as a threat to polite society and usually those involved were assumed guilty.
This was shown in the 1974 court case involving a late night fight in Georgetown between members of the Pagans and a group of African-Americans. Two Pagans were sentenced to long prison terms based on false testimony that was never questioned because the squares assumed that Pagans were inherently violent, racist, and deviant. The two Pagans were recently released when irregularities in the trial came to light including false testimony by an ex-girlfriend.
The point of this post is not to declare the Pagans as an entirely innocent organization. No doubt they were hard drinking roughnecks that had some members involved in criminal activities since at least the late sixties. However, there has been a long tradition of young men being hard drinking roughnecks and involved in criminal activities, which made the Pagans seem a bit more normal than the media portrayed them. In many early articles Pagans said they did not seek trouble, but just wanted to live their lives free of the shackles of regular society. The media couldn’t read this as a subtle request to butt out and let them live by their own code good or bad.
The first article to mention the Pagans that I’ve found is from late 1965. Warner Ray Cockerille was arrested at the Social Circle dance hall in Centreville for his involvement in a brawl. The article mentions as an aside that he was part of the “pagan motorcycle club”. This article lays the first building block in the construction of a moral panic by alleging Cockerille fought a group of girls despite his 6'9" stature. In constructing a moral panic, it is critical to show them as living outside the norm and showing them in extreme deviancy such as fighting a group of girls.
In April 1966 the Fairfax City Times had an article about a gang fight in Fairfax City. The article describes the conflict between the “greasers”, “collegiates”, and the “pagans”. It’s interesting to see the use of the word greaser, which was a hidden national subculture among blue-collar kids from the 1950s-70s (see the Outsiders). Greasers typically had a fifties look, were into hod rods and motorcycles, and despised hippies. The “pagans” were described as an outside group, but were actually the beginnings of the Pagans coalescing into a gang in Northern Virginia. The article describes the groups in the typical language of moral panics in which they are described as engaging in deviant behavior that is contrasted with the “good kids” that warned police of a huge brawl behind the A&P across from the old Fairfax High School (now Paul VI) with the usual outrage from the adult squares.
In June 1966, the WaPo hit moral panic paydirt when the greasers (now called the Avengers) and the Pagans had a shootout behind Safeway at the Lee-Harrison Center in Arlington. The event had all the trimmings that the community needed for a full-blown moral panic. The adult squares saw out of control marginalized young men, strangely dressed, with no regard for the community’s norms. Add to that the allure of motorcycles, guns, and gang symbols and you’ve got a recipe for a sensational story. The result was the usual investigations by the County Board, the letters to the editor, and the conversations about what to do about these delinquents. While the rumble between the Avengers and Pagans established the Pagans as the dominant gang in Northern Virginia, it also began to change the nature of the gang. On that day, it began as transition away from a hard drinking, brawling, fun-loving group of young men towards the criminal enterprise it is today. Unfortunately, moral panics in the media often fuel the fire and the media coverage attracted new members to the Pagans. The interesting contrast in these articles was the “fruits”, which an Avenger girlfriend assures us does not mean homosexual, but refers to the kids that care about college. Again, this coverage of moral panics needs a bearing for the squares to establish the deviancy of the Pagans and the “fruits” served this purpose.
Following the Arlington rumble, the WaPo did a number of profiles of the Pagans. They ranged from the bizarre to the sinister, but they added to the allure of the gang and solidified the Pagans as the folk devils of Northern Virginia. In one article they profile Earl “Moochie” Swicegood and the article tries to reconcile the look and attitude of bikers with the squares’ world. At one point Moochie declares that he believes in paganism and then a policeman asks him if his swastika symbolizes anti-semitism which Moochie denies. The reporter also asks Moochie if the Pagans are basically hedonistic; you can hear the snickering by the reporter coming through the newsprint as he writes that Moochie scrunched up his face and didn't understand the word. When the reporter explained the word, Moochie said “Yeah its one big party baby”.
From this point forward, anytime a Pagan was involved in trouble, the media covered it and mentioned the Pagans. Occasionally the media gave readers a review of all the crimes committed by Pagans to make sure they understood the deviancy of the organization. This solidified the Pagans as NOVA's folk devils and merely mentioning in an article that someone was a Pagan was enough to feed the moral panic. The media coverage couldn't see any nuance in the Pagans and tended to protray them as monolithic and uniform in beliefs and behavior. For exampel, the Pagans that intimidated Vietnam protesters got a brief mention without analyzing how this behavior was at odds with the paper's strict portrayal of Pagans as deviants.
As I wrote in an earlier post, in 1970 a group of Pagans murdered members of a rival gang called the Saints. The Saints were an outgrowth of the Avengers, so this was a continuation of the early rumbles in Fairfax and Arlington. By now, the Pagans were huge and had become a much different gang than they were four years earlier with many members involved in drug dealing, prostitution, and other criminal activities. After the murders of Hartless and Newland, you can see a transition in leadership in the Pagans. One of the original Pagans, Richard Scarborough, declared himself retired because the gang had moved away from its origins of a group of guys attending races with their wives. This is probably an overstatement by Scarborough. The coverage of the murders further solidified the Pagans as a murderous,deviant and sinister gang by the media. Therefore, any trouble where Pagans were involved confirmed them as a threat to polite society and usually those involved were assumed guilty.
This was shown in the 1974 court case involving a late night fight in Georgetown between members of the Pagans and a group of African-Americans. Two Pagans were sentenced to long prison terms based on false testimony that was never questioned because the squares assumed that Pagans were inherently violent, racist, and deviant. The two Pagans were recently released when irregularities in the trial came to light including false testimony by an ex-girlfriend.
The point of this post is not to declare the Pagans as an entirely innocent organization. No doubt they were hard drinking roughnecks that had some members involved in criminal activities since at least the late sixties. However, there has been a long tradition of young men being hard drinking roughnecks and involved in criminal activities, which made the Pagans seem a bit more normal than the media portrayed them. In many early articles Pagans said they did not seek trouble, but just wanted to live their lives free of the shackles of regular society. The media couldn’t read this as a subtle request to butt out and let them live by their own code good or bad.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Photo from Whitey's in Arlington
Whitey's was a great bar at the inersection of Pershing and Washington Blvd.
This photo is from Facebook.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
How did NOVA become redneck? Pt. 2
The DC area was a sleepy backwater town untl the thirties. During the mid-1800s the city experienced an influx of immigrants, mostly Irish. The area didn't experience the turn of the century immigration like Chicago, Detroit, and New York. However, southerners did flock to the city starting in the thirties. This migration was a gush at first and then became a trickle until it stopped in the early seventies. The large numbers of "hillbillies" turned the area's nightclubs into honky tonks and the area came to have a much more southern feel.
DC and surrounding areas had significant (possibly majority) southern sentiments during the civil war, so the addition of southen migrants just added to the southerness of the city. The migrants settled in Southeast DC, Prince Georges County, and Northern Virginia, but grappled with huge housing shortages. This led to enormous, almost ramshackle, housing developments populated almot exclusively by southern whites. For example, Pimmit Hills in Tysons is a huge neighborhood of homes that look identical and are quite small. Way back the legend told that the Fairfax police were too afraid to go into the neighborhood so it was some kind of hillbilly free for all. I doubt that was really the case.
Nonetheless, these newcomers wanted nightclubs to themselves and they got their wish. Across the area, including NOVA, there were nightclubs hosting legendary country artists playing to their kin folk. This was how the DC area was until things began to shift in the nineties. The redneck nature of the area disappeared almost overnight and has been washed from the area as if it were never there.
DC and surrounding areas had significant (possibly majority) southern sentiments during the civil war, so the addition of southen migrants just added to the southerness of the city. The migrants settled in Southeast DC, Prince Georges County, and Northern Virginia, but grappled with huge housing shortages. This led to enormous, almost ramshackle, housing developments populated almot exclusively by southern whites. For example, Pimmit Hills in Tysons is a huge neighborhood of homes that look identical and are quite small. Way back the legend told that the Fairfax police were too afraid to go into the neighborhood so it was some kind of hillbilly free for all. I doubt that was really the case.
Nonetheless, these newcomers wanted nightclubs to themselves and they got their wish. Across the area, including NOVA, there were nightclubs hosting legendary country artists playing to their kin folk. This was how the DC area was until things began to shift in the nineties. The redneck nature of the area disappeared almost overnight and has been washed from the area as if it were never there.
How did NOVA become redneck?
Sitting in Arlington now, it's hard to believe how redneck the DC area used to be. DC has always been a magnet for people looking for better opportunities. Economic downturns are always blunted by government spending. Nowadays, folks come here to work for government contractors, but back in the middle of last century there were a ton of unskilled jobs available and they were primarily related to the federal government.
1950 marked the first census in which a majority of Americans lived in metropolitan areas. The DC area grew during this time from the expansion of the government during the depression and World War II. By 1960 DC joined the top ten metropolitan areas in population. Looking at the population numbers show the explosive growth: Arlington grew from 6430 in 1900 to 135,449 in 1950; Fairfax grew from 18,850 in 1900 to 40,929 in 1950; and Alexandria grew from 14,520 in 1900 to 61,787 in 1950. Meanwhile, Appalachia was experiencing difficult economic times and the people living in that region began migrating to find better jobs. In some cases they ended up as coal miners, but many came to cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and DC. In fact DC was the second largest recipient of Appalachian people. The folks that came were among the poorest in the nation and often came to cities directly competing with African Americans and immigrants for jobs.
These folks were called hillbillies back then and reports show they did not fit into their new communities. People wrote about them being disorderly, clannish, untamed, with an affinity for alcohol and violence. We all know when people arrive in large numbers to a new area, these reports are typical and probably overblown.
The wonderful thing they brought to DC was their music and made the DC area the major hub for Appalachian music which was evolving into Bluegrass and Country. Thank god for that.
1950 marked the first census in which a majority of Americans lived in metropolitan areas. The DC area grew during this time from the expansion of the government during the depression and World War II. By 1960 DC joined the top ten metropolitan areas in population. Looking at the population numbers show the explosive growth: Arlington grew from 6430 in 1900 to 135,449 in 1950; Fairfax grew from 18,850 in 1900 to 40,929 in 1950; and Alexandria grew from 14,520 in 1900 to 61,787 in 1950. Meanwhile, Appalachia was experiencing difficult economic times and the people living in that region began migrating to find better jobs. In some cases they ended up as coal miners, but many came to cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and DC. In fact DC was the second largest recipient of Appalachian people. The folks that came were among the poorest in the nation and often came to cities directly competing with African Americans and immigrants for jobs.
These folks were called hillbillies back then and reports show they did not fit into their new communities. People wrote about them being disorderly, clannish, untamed, with an affinity for alcohol and violence. We all know when people arrive in large numbers to a new area, these reports are typical and probably overblown.
The wonderful thing they brought to DC was their music and made the DC area the major hub for Appalachian music which was evolving into Bluegrass and Country. Thank god for that.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Where did the Pagans start?
I've been doing a bit of research about the Pagans Motorcycle Club; trying to figure out their origens. All over the internet folks claim they were started by Lou Dobkin in 1959 in Prince Georges County, but I don't agree with this.
In Wikipedia comments, Lou Dobkin's wife (or someone who claims to be) says he was born in 1943 and the club was started in 1963. Another commenter claim the club originated in Vienna. There is some other evidence about their origins. The first mention of the Pagans is from a Washingon Post article in 1965 about Ray Cockerille getting in a dustup at a Centreville dance hall and Cockerille was from Vienna. Another Post article from 1966 claims they were based in White Oak, MD (in Montgomery County). In other articles I've read from the mid sixties, they seem to have a heavy Virginia membership. I believe they started in 1963 in Virginia and the belief that they started in PG is because the first run-ins with police was at the races in Upper Marlboro.
Update: John Hall's book about The Pagans asserts they started in Fruitland, MD, which is south of Salisbury. I think that is highly unlikely.
In Wikipedia comments, Lou Dobkin's wife (or someone who claims to be) says he was born in 1943 and the club was started in 1963. Another commenter claim the club originated in Vienna. There is some other evidence about their origins. The first mention of the Pagans is from a Washingon Post article in 1965 about Ray Cockerille getting in a dustup at a Centreville dance hall and Cockerille was from Vienna. Another Post article from 1966 claims they were based in White Oak, MD (in Montgomery County). In other articles I've read from the mid sixties, they seem to have a heavy Virginia membership. I believe they started in 1963 in Virginia and the belief that they started in PG is because the first run-ins with police was at the races in Upper Marlboro.
Update: John Hall's book about The Pagans asserts they started in Fruitland, MD, which is south of Salisbury. I think that is highly unlikely.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Old photos of Pagans MC
This flickr site has some great old photos from the 60s. Most of them look like they are from the NJ/PA area.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Pagans MC members linked to double murder in 1970
I've expanded and updated this article.
Growing up in NOVA, you knew about the Pagans. NOVA was their birthplace and the source of the bulk of their original members. They established themselves as the toughest biker gang in the area during the late 60s and early 70s. By 1970, they had fired a hundred shots at a rival gang in the Safeway parking lot at Lee Hwy and Harrison St. in Arlington; had participated in a huge brawl with police in Newark; and were known as a bunch of serious roughnecks.
One thing The Pagans didn't like was people forming independent biker gangs and would attempt to intimidate the rival gang into joining The Pagans or disappearing. This was taken to a whole new level in 1970. Some guys in Alexandria formed a biker gang called The Saints and immediately became a rival for The Pagans. Two of these guys were Lewis Hartless and Richard Newland. Newland lived at 330 N. Columbus St. in Alexandria and Hartless also lived in Alexandria. Both had roots in Roanoke. Some kind of dispute broke out near Newland's home that resulted in Hartless firing a gun and wounding a Pagan.
The Pagans got their revenge on March 26. They abducted Newland at gunpoint in downtown Alexandria and broke into Hartless' motel room on Rte. 1 in Alexandria. They drove them to their headquarters at the home of Richard Allen Scarborough of 2145Pimmit Drive in the Pimmit Hills neighborhood near Tysons Corner. Once inside the house the Pagans tortured Hartless and Newland for several hours. Then they drove them to the intersection of Rte. 7 and Lewinsville Rd. where they stabbed and shot Hartless and Newland.
Police managed to get one of the Pagans to talk and charged ten of them. Alexander "Head" Akers and Bradley "Lucifer" Hinckley were eventually convicted for murder and sent to prison.
Growing up in NOVA, you knew about the Pagans. NOVA was their birthplace and the source of the bulk of their original members. They established themselves as the toughest biker gang in the area during the late 60s and early 70s. By 1970, they had fired a hundred shots at a rival gang in the Safeway parking lot at Lee Hwy and Harrison St. in Arlington; had participated in a huge brawl with police in Newark; and were known as a bunch of serious roughnecks.
One thing The Pagans didn't like was people forming independent biker gangs and would attempt to intimidate the rival gang into joining The Pagans or disappearing. This was taken to a whole new level in 1970. Some guys in Alexandria formed a biker gang called The Saints and immediately became a rival for The Pagans. Two of these guys were Lewis Hartless and Richard Newland. Newland lived at 330 N. Columbus St. in Alexandria and Hartless also lived in Alexandria. Both had roots in Roanoke. Some kind of dispute broke out near Newland's home that resulted in Hartless firing a gun and wounding a Pagan.
The Pagans got their revenge on March 26. They abducted Newland at gunpoint in downtown Alexandria and broke into Hartless' motel room on Rte. 1 in Alexandria. They drove them to their headquarters at the home of Richard Allen Scarborough of 2145Pimmit Drive in the Pimmit Hills neighborhood near Tysons Corner. Once inside the house the Pagans tortured Hartless and Newland for several hours. Then they drove them to the intersection of Rte. 7 and Lewinsville Rd. where they stabbed and shot Hartless and Newland.
Police managed to get one of the Pagans to talk and charged ten of them. Alexander "Head" Akers and Bradley "Lucifer" Hinckley were eventually convicted for murder and sent to prison.
Monday, January 11, 2010
I moved to Northern Virginia in the late 70s from Prince Georges County. My neighborhood felt like the end of the line. If you continued west through Burke, the roads became winding country roads with signs of the old south all around. I was part of the vanguard of inner suburbanites pushing sprawling suburbs outside the beltway and encroaching on a land long occupied by farmers. The result was rednecks and government workers coexisting to create a community that had shopping malls and pool halls next to each other.
I moved the Burke as a youngster and I remember a house down the road that supposedly housed the local Pagans MC chapter right next to the local library branch. Muscle cars pulling up next to Mercedes on Burke Lake Rd. It was a weird world between the redneck past and yuppy future.
The housing boom killed most of this in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax. Any piece of land was snapped up by the well off and blue collar folks sold their inflated property or were priced out. They headed south and west to places like Stafford and West Virginia.
I've found myself reminiscing about that lost past so I hope to find those lost fragments of the past. I hope to find the real Northern Virginia.
I moved the Burke as a youngster and I remember a house down the road that supposedly housed the local Pagans MC chapter right next to the local library branch. Muscle cars pulling up next to Mercedes on Burke Lake Rd. It was a weird world between the redneck past and yuppy future.
The housing boom killed most of this in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax. Any piece of land was snapped up by the well off and blue collar folks sold their inflated property or were priced out. They headed south and west to places like Stafford and West Virginia.
I've found myself reminiscing about that lost past so I hope to find those lost fragments of the past. I hope to find the real Northern Virginia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)