Outlaw Nation
The Outlaw Motorcycle Brotherhoods · 1935–Present

Born to be Outlaw

Three decades after the first cutoff denim "colors" appeared in a California bar, roughly one percent of motorcyclists had built a global subculture with its own laws, its own wars, and a body count that spilled far past its own ranks. This is the history of the one-percenters — the clubs, the men who ran them, and the conflicts that defined them.

◆ Enter the History ◆

The term "one-percenter" was a gift from the establishment. After a rowdy 1947 rally in Hollister, California, the American Motorcyclist Association is said to have declared that ninety-nine percent of motorcyclists were law-abiding citizens — and that the trouble came from the other one percent. The outlaws embraced the insult, stitched a "1%" diamond onto their vests, and turned a slur into an identity.

What began as restless World War II and Korea veterans looking for the speed and brotherhood they'd lost in peacetime hardened, over the following decades, into disciplined organizations that ran territories like corporations and defended them like armies. This site traces that arc across four countries and seventy years, organized several ways: a master timeline, a set of club profiles, a roster of named members, the wars between them, their global spread, and the code and language that hold the whole world together.

"When you walk into their territory and the door locks behind you, you're all alone. Cop or no cop, badge or no badge, there is no cavalry coming to save you."From Angels of Death, on ATF agent Jay Dobyns's first lesson
1948
Hells Angels Founded
4
"Big Four" U.S. Clubs
150+
Dead in Quebec's Biker War
28
Books Behind This Site
Start Here

The Major Clubs

A handful of organizations dominate the outlaw world. In the United States the federal government names four as the "Big Four"; abroad, the Hells Angels and Bandidos became true multinationals while a web of rivals and "puppet" clubs filled the spaces between.

Founded 1948 · Global

Hells Angels MC

The death's-head winged skull is the most recognized outlaw emblem on earth. From a San Bernardino bar to hundreds of charters worldwide, the Angels set the template every other club copied or fought.
Founded 1935 · USA / Europe

Outlaws MC

The oldest of the major clubs, born in a bar outside Chicago. "Charlie" — the skull and crossed pistons — became the Hells Angels' bitterest American enemy. ADIOS: "Angels Die In Outlaw States."
Founded 1966 · USA / Global

Bandidos MC

The "Fat Mexican" was raised in Texas by a Marine veteran of Vietnam. The Bandidos grew into the Angels' chief global rival and the other pole of the outlaw world outside North America.
Founded 1959 · USA East Coast

Pagans MC

Maryland-born and fiercely regional, the Pagan's never went international — but for decades they owned the Eastern Seaboard and warred constantly with the Angels along the way.
Founded 1969 · USA Southwest

Mongols MC

Founded by Latino riders shut out of the Angels, the Mongols seized the California "California" bottom rocker by force and humbled the Hells Angels on their home turf.
Canada · 1965–Present

The Canadian Clubs

Satan's Choice, the Rock Machine, the Outlaws and the Angels turned Quebec and Ontario into the deadliest outlaw battleground in the Western world.
How to Read This

Three Ways In

Chronological

The Timeline →

1935 to today as a single arc — founding eras, the patch wars, the law-enforcement counteroffensive, and the global expansion.
The People

The Members →

Detailed profiles of the presidents, enforcers, informants and undercover agents — from Sonny Barger to Mom Boucher to the cops who brought them down.
The Violence

The Wars →

Lennoxville, Milperra, the Quebec biker war, the Shedden massacre — the conflicts that turned brotherhood into bloodshed.
A note on sourcing. Every claim on this site is drawn from a library of 28 published books — insider memoirs by former presidents and enforcers, undercover-agent accounts, investigative journalism and court-record histories. Where accounts disagree, the disagreement is noted. See the full bibliography.