Pagan's Motorcycle Club

• 1. The Fire Giant Patch

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  The Pagan's Motorcycle Club wears a giant from Norse myth on its back. The giant is Surtr, a fire-giant, shown sitting on a burning world and wielding a sword of flame. Beneath him, the club's name appears in red, white and blue. The artwork did not come from a tattoo shop or a design studio. It was taken from an illustration by Jack Kirby in issue 97 of the comic book Journey into Mystery. The club behind the patch is an outlaw motorcycle club in the United States, usually called simply the Pagans. Who were the first riders to wear it? Why does the club claim credit for the famous one percent badge? And how does a group that never lets members quit govern itself across much of the country?

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• 2. Maryland Beginnings

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  In Prince George's County, Maryland, a man named Lou Dobkin began gathering riders in 1957. The club was officially organized in 1958, with Dobkin as president and thirteen founding members. Early Pagans did not look like the outlaw bikers of later legend. They wore denim jackets with embroidered insignia instead of the three-piece patches most outlaw clubs used. Their machines came from both sides of the Atlantic, Harley-Davidsons alongside British Triumphs.

  By the 1960s the club wanted a structure that looked respectable, at least on paper. It adopted a formal constitution and built a governing hierarchy. It also chose a national president and paid him the same as the President of the United States, which worked out to $100,000 a year. The Pagans described the gesture as "a show of class."

  For years the Pagans stayed a fairly non-violent group. That ended in 1965, when a swelling mass of new members pushed the club toward life as an outlaw gang.

  A motorcycle race in Maryland became the turning point. After the Pagans gathered there, an incident followed, and local newspapers branded the riders "The 1% of motorcyclists whom caused problems." The Pagans say they invented the 1%er patch in response, a reference to those newspaper articles. The club treats it largely as a semantic gesture. Most other outlaw motorcycle gangs adopted the patch soon afterward.

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• 3. Thirteen at the Top

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  Thirteen is the number that organizes the Pagans. A board of directors called the mother club is made up of thirteen senior members. They set club policy, administer internal discipline and oversee the opening of new chapters. They also appoint the presidents and vice presidents who run those chapters. The mother club is never fixed in one location, though it has generally sat in the northeast, and the club's leadership has traditionally been based in Central Pennsylvania. Members of the mother club wear a distinctive black number 13 patch.

  Below the mother club sit the chapters, each with its own president. At times the largest chapter has been located in the Philadelphia area.

  Members wear blue denim vests called cuts or cutoffs. The patches on the front and back are known as colors. The Pagans historically wore no bottom rocker, the patch that names where a one percent club is based. Since then they have started wearing an "East Coast" insignia on their vests.

  Club bylaws bind every member. One rule demands that members ride only Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Another forbids anyone from quitting or retiring, so the only way out is expulsion. Grounds for expulsion include losing one's motorcycle or any piece of club property, colors included.

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• 4. Beyond the Northeast

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  Under the leadership of John "Satan" Marron, the Pagans grew to nearly 5,000 members in the early 1970s. They became dominant across the mid-Atlantic. In that region, and across a large part of the northeast, they were the only large outlaw motorcycle gang.

  Growth after that came slowly. Florida became a target in the 1990s, and chapters later appeared west of the Mississippi River. The club expanded partly through a natural cycle of attrition among smaller outlaw clubs. It also grew by patching over other chapters or entire clubs, a practice that was common from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Today the Pagans report more than 100 chapters and 5,000-plus members. They are active along the east coast, more recently on the west coast, and in Puerto Rico. In West Virginia they keep chapters in Charleston and Fairmont and are affiliated with a local gang called the Barbarians.

  For decades the club also looked north to Canada. In 2011, dozens of Pagans traveled to the province of New Brunswick to meet the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club. The Rock Machine was a Canadian-based international club with chapters around the world. It had fought the Hells Angels in several conflicts, including the Quebec Biker War, described as the deadliest motorcycle conflict in history. New Brunswick then had little outlaw motorcycle influence. The Pagans wanted to cement a friendship and test the province for expansion.

  It did not last. In 2018, Pagans member Andrew "Chef" Glick said the club had dropped its northern plans. He pointed to Canada's anti-biker laws and to the reputation of the Canadian Hells Angels for violence. "In Canada and Australia, that's where the heaviest (toughest) one per centers are," Glick said. New Jersey bikers are tough, he added, but "not near as violent as what I've seen and read (about) in Montreal and Toronto."

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• 5. The Big Four

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  Law enforcement agencies in the United States place the Pagans alongside the Bandidos, the Hells Angels and the Outlaws as one of the "big four" motorcycle gangs. The Pagans are traditionally considered the smallest of the four. They are also the only one based solely in the United States, with no presence abroad. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives categorizes the club as an outlaw motorcycle club, and it is known to fight over territory with the Hells Angels and other clubs.

  The Department of Justice classifies the Pagans as an outlaw motorcycle gang. It contends that members distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana and PCP. It also alleges violent crimes aimed at rival gangs, including arson, assault, bombing, extortion and murder. According to the source, the club uses puppet clubs, affiliated street gangs and female associates to carry out retail drug distribution.

  The club has also been linked to La Cosa Nostra crime families in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and New Jersey. In Pennsylvania, Anthony "Rocky" LaRocca was a Pagan and the nephew of Pittsburgh mafia boss John LaRocca. He acted as a liaison between the club and the LaRocca crime family. In 1973, he and another Pagan were charged with assaulting an ATF agent. In 1990, he and Francis "Rick" Ferri were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of John Heatherington. From prison, LaRocca kept running his cocaine network through family contacts in organized crime and members of the club. He was indicted again and given an additional 20 years.

  In January 1985, the club's national vice president, Daniel "Danny the Deacon" Zwibel, was indicted on RICO charges. His co-defendants included James Burke and Eugene "Nick the Blade" Gesuale, described as the infamous "Pittsburgh connection" in the movie Goodfellas.

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• 6. Turf Wars

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  On the 24th of March 1974, a gunfight broke out between Pagans and members of the Breed at the Philadelphia Custom Car, Speed and Cycle Show. Two Pagan bikers, Michael Watson and George Coons, were injured, along with a bystander named Thomas Connelly. In 1982, the Pagans attacked members of the Wheels of Soul in Philadelphia to halt that club's expansion.

  On the 17th of July 1994, at least eight Pagans appeared at a charity picnic fund-raiser run by the Tri-County MC in Hackettstown, New Jersey. They meant to pressure local clubs into aligning with them, building a power base to keep the Hells Angels out of the state. A fight began with fists and escalated to knives and guns. Pagans Glenn Ritchie and Diego Vega were shot dead. Pagan Ron Locke and Tri-County member William Johnson were shot and wounded, and Tri-County member Hank Riger had his throat cut.

  On the 19th of November 1995, Pagan Andrew Bobyak and his accomplice Bradford Maynard planted a pipe bomb on a car outside the Blue Moon Tattoo Shop in Easton, Pennsylvania. The shop was reportedly owned by Hells Angels bikers, and the bomb was meant as a warning that this was Pagan territory. It failed to explode. Bobyak was convicted in June 1998 and sentenced to four to ten years in state prison. Maynard also pleaded guilty.

  On the 23rd of February 2002-73 Pagans were arrested on Long Island after appearing at an indoor motorcycle and tattoo expo called the Hellraiser Ball. They had come to confront Hells Angels who were there. Dozens of Pagans rushed the doors and were met with violence. Ten people were wounded, and a Hells Angel shot and killed a Pagans member. Two weeks later, a Pagans-owned tattoo parlor in South Philadelphia was firebombed.

  In 2005, Pagans allegedly opened fire on the vice president of the Hells Angels' Philadelphia chapter as he drove his truck on the Schuylkill Expressway, killing him. Later that year the Hells Angels closed their Philadelphia chapter.

  In September 2010, nineteen Pagans were arrested in Rocky Point, New York, for allegedly conspiring to murder Hells Angels. Charges also covered assault, distribution of cocaine and oxycodone, conspiracy to commit extortion and weapons offenses. Two federal ATF agents had infiltrated the gang, and one rose to sergeant-at-arms, the second-highest position. Members were heard plotting to use homemade hand grenades.

  On the 13th of October 2016, as many as 70 Pagans and Hells Angels brawled in the parking lot of the Pennysaver Amphitheater in Farmingville, New York, during a classic car show. Police dispersed the bikers, and two people went to hospital. Robert "Hellboy" DeRonde was later convicted of beating Hells Angels member Jeffrey Shank with a baseball bat at a Newark gas station on the 24th of April 2018. He was sentenced to four years in prison in July 2019.

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• 7. Raids and Indictments

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  In 1976, a federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Pagans national sergeant-at-arms Kirby "Bear" Keller. He was accused of operating a five-state drug ring. On the 21st of March 1985-42 members and associates of the Pagans and the Iron Coffins, a gang based in Erie, Pennsylvania, were indicted on drug sales charges. The arrests followed a three-year investigation into the distribution of LSD, PCP and amphetamines.

  On the 9th of May 2007, more than 60 officers from state, local and federal agencies, with a bomb disposal robot, arrested Pagans leader Jay Carl Wagner in Washington County, Maryland. Police recovered seven handguns, two alleged explosive devices and 13 rifles. Wagner pleaded guilty on the 5th of March 2008 to being a felon in possession of a firearm. On the 8th of August 2008, U.S. District Chief Judge Benson E. Legg sentenced him to 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

  On the 6th of October 2009, police raided the Myersville, Maryland, home of national president David "Bart" Barbeito and arrested him on firearms charges. In June 2010 he pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges and received thirty months of confinement. That same year of 2009 saw a much wider sweep. Fifty-five Pagans members and associates were arrested across eight states, including West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida. The charges ranged from attempted murder and kidnapping to drug dealing and conspiracy, and seven defendants had pleaded guilty so far.

  In 2018-49 people, some of them Pagans, were arrested in the largest bust in Rhode Island history. Police seized 53 illegal guns, including a rocket launcher, along with a large quantity of marijuana, crack, cocaine and heroin. The case ended a 12-month investigation by the Rhode Island State Police with help from the state Attorney General's office, the ATF and the FBI.

  On Wednesday the 9th of December 2020, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted 30 members and associates of the club on narcotics trafficking and firearm charges. Agents seized 12 firearms, significant quantities of drugs and $28,000 in cash and jewelry. FBI agents tapped 10 phones during the investigation.

  On the 26th of February 2021, national president Keith "Conan" Richter was arrested after a police stop in East Windsor, New Jersey, where a loaded pistol was found in the vehicle he rode in as a passenger. In June 2021, Patrick Rizzo, vice president of the Pittsburgh chapter, pleaded guilty to illegal firearms possession. On the 8th of April 2022, associate Jason Evans was sentenced to 57 months for his role in a drug trafficking operation in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Prosecutors called him a close associate of a fully patched Pittsburgh chapter member and said he served as an enforcer.

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• 8. Florida Cases

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  On the 5th of March 1974, seventeen-year-old Amy Billig disappeared near her home in Coconut Grove, Florida. Her fate remained unknown for at least 24 years. In 1998, Paul Branch, a former Pagans member, made a deathbed confession. He said that on the day she vanished she had been abducted, drugged, sexually assaulted and murdered. According to Branch, her body was dumped in the Everglades. It has never been found. The case drew national media attention, including features on Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted.

  On the 15th of May 2021, the Pagans got into a bar room fight with locals at Stripes Bar and Grill in Navarre, Florida. Two days later, a motorcycle belonging to the Rich Urban Bikers was set on fire in front of the bar. The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office opened an investigation, and at least five Pagans and locals were arrested or wanted.

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