Opinion ID: 6934950
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the outlaws — structure and operation5

Text: The Outlaw Motorcycle Club (the “Outlaws”) is one of the four largest national “one-percenter” motorcycle clubs. 6 Witnesses testified that the term “one-percen-ter” — usually depicted by the symbol “l%er” — is motorcycle gang parlance meaning that the club is comprised of the one percent of the overall biker population who maintain total independence from society, and who are known to cause the most trouble, or “raise the most hell.” The Outlaws was established sometime in the mid-1960s, and operates on a national, regional, and local level. There are several chapters of the Outlaws in Canada as well. The local chapter that is involved in this case is the South Florida chapter of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club (“South Florida Outlaws” or “South Florida chapter”). Appellant Nolan established the South Florida chapter of the Outlaws around 1969. Nolan served as president of the South Florida Outlaws for many of the years relevant to this case, and he also served as president of the regional organization for part of that time. After an aggressive membership drive in the early 1970s, Florida eventually had the largest concentration of Outlaws in the United States. To become an Outlaw, a prospective member has to be sponsored by a “patehwearing” member of the Outlaws. A “patehwearing” or full member of the Outlaws wears various patches, which are also referred to as the member’s “colors.” One patch proclaims the Outlaws’ status as a “l%er” club, and another patch bears the Outlaws’ “Charlie” logo consisting of a skull and crossed pistons. Outlaws are instructed to guard their patches with their lives, and no item bearing the Charlie logo is allowed to touch the floor. A sponsored prospective member is known as a “probate” and identified by a mandatory probationary “patch” consisting of a cut-off denim jacket that says “Probationary Outlaws” on the back. The Outlaw members must agree by unanimous vote before a probate can become a full-fledged patehwearing member. Only white males are allowed to become members of the Outlaws. Each Outlaw member is required to own an American-made motorcycle and to maintain it in good operating condition. The club holds weekly meetings, known as “church” meetings, and all patehwearing members are required to attend. In addition, members are required to attend national, regional, and local “runs,” which are motorcycle trips and parties that may last several days. National runs are held three or four times a year, regional runs occur between five and twenty times a year, and local runs usually occur weekly. Members pay monthly dues, and also have to pay fees for each run. If an Outlaw is in need of legal assistance, each member is usually assessed a fee for that purpose. Most of the South Florida Outlaws’ activities revolve around their clubhouse. The clubhouse is a house or trailer where the Outlaws hold their meetings and socialize. Armed club members guard the clubhouse twenty-four hours a day. One witness testified that the South Florida Outlaws’ clubhouse is equipped at all times with an arsenal of guns and explosives, which are kept in the “toy box.” Each chapter of the Outlaws has elected officials — a president, vice-president, seere-tary-treasurer, and an “enforcer.” 7 During Nolan’s presidency, no member of the Outlaws was allowed to retire from the club. Even after Nolan’s reign, a member who attempted to leave the Outlaws was threatened with harm to himself and his family. One of the most salient characteristics of the Outlaws is their attitude toward women. Not only are women not allowed to be members of the Outlaws, but a woman who associates with an Outlaw is known as his “old lady” and is deemed to be his property. If an old lady is “patched” it means that she can wear a patch identifying her status as the property of her Outlaw boyfriend. Some are designated as property of the club as a whole. Outlaw members often keep more than one old lady at a time, and the member ranks his old ladies by their respective levels of responsibility and privilege. The old lady with the most responsibility, and ostensibly the most privilege, is designated his “number one old lady.” The members sometimes buy and sell their old ladies amongst themselves. It is the responsibility of the number one old lady to educate a new old lady as to her duties. Those duties are to work and give her money to her Outlaw man, to do whatever any Outlaw tells her to do with no questions asked, to refrain from taking drugs unless given permission by an Outlaw, and to stay out of trouble in general. In addition to her other responsibilities, the number one old lady gathers family information about a new old lady which can later be used to threaten the woman should she attempt to run away. Most old ladies are required to work either as nude dancers or prostitutes to support their Outlaws. Sometimes old ladies can obtain their freedom from the Outlaws by buying their way out. One method the Outlaws employ to maintain control over an old lady is to provide her with a steady supply of drugs. This, coupled with the small amount of money that the old ladies are allowed to keep, and the rule that they may not take drugs without permission, leads to their total dependency on the Outlaws. If an old lady withholds her earnings from her Outlaw, or tries to run away, or breaks the rules in any other manner, the Outlaws employ several forms of punishment. The Outlaw who owns the old lady may beat her or threaten to sell her to another Outlaw; or, if the misbehavior is deemed more serious, she may be subjected to “training.” This training may include sending her to a prostitution “lock up” at one of several truck stops. She is on call for prostitution twenty-four hours a day for as long as she remains there, which could be for weeks at a time. The money she receives is divided between the truck stop owner and the Outlaw who owns her. Other forms of “training” that are inflicted on errant old ladies include beatings with an axe handle, and gang rape by all of the Outlaw chapter members. Although at first the South Florida Outlaws did not deal in drugs, a decline in prostitution income in the mid-1970s caused Nolan to expand the Outlaws’ activities into narcotics trafficking as an additional source of income. In narcotics, Outlaws mostly deal with other Outlaws in order to reduce the risk of detection. If an Outlaw deals with an outsider, he makes his association with the Outlaws known to the outsider in order to intimidate him into remaining silent. The Outlaws deal drugs directly from the clubhouse as well as while they are on regional, national, or local runs. In addition, when a member of the Outlaws is imprisoned, the other members supply him with narcotics for personal use or for sale to other inmates. Old ladies assist the narcotics trade by counting and repackaging the narcotics prior to resale, and sometimes by smuggling drugs into prison. The Outlaws have used the proceeds from the sale of narcotics to purchase at least one of their clubhouses.