The true story of “The Bikeriders” – The Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club

The Outlaws were formed almost 90 years ago

While The Bikers Although “The Outlaws” documents the founding and rise of the fictional Vandals starting in the 1960s, the true story of the Outlaws began three decades earlier. According to the official website, the club was founded in 1935 as the McCook Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Motorcyclists formed the group outside Matilda’s Bar in McCook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. After years of limited inactivity during World War II, the organization held its first major rally at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1946.

Accordingly TimeThe war was a major catalyst for the rise of motorcycle culture in the United States. The resulting military surplus made motorcycles affordable, and returning veterans sought an adventurous escape from the boredom of civilian life. This led to the formation of other clubs, including the Hells Angels – the Outlaws’ main rival – in 1948 in Fontana, California.

Meanwhile, the Outlaws continued to attract riders from all over the Windy City, moving their headquarters from McCook to Chicago Outlaws in 1950. Around this time, the club adopted its distinctive skull and crossbones logo on shirts and jackets; the crossed pistons were added four years later.

By 1964, the Outlaws had established branches in Milwaukee and Louisville, Kentucky – and piqued the interest of a young driver named Danny Lyon.

Lyon joined the Outlaws to write his book

Lyon was a freshman studying history at the University of Chicago in 1959 when a fellow student introduced him to motorcycle culture. The owner of a Triumph TR6 motorcycle, he soon combined this new passion with his burgeoning journalistic skills.

But first, Lyon left Chicago in 1962 to document the civil rights movement. He was the official photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and became friends with key figures such as John Lewis and Julian Bond.

A year later he started his motorcycle project, which The bikers. Although Lyon said he underwent a very clean transformation in the new film – Faist, who plays his fictional double “Danny,” does not ride a motorcycle on screen – the photographer became a full-fledged member of the Outlaws in 1965. In the mainly beer-drinking club, he called himself a “stoner” and documented his fellow riders through photos and analog tape recordings.

Published in 1968, The Bikers The book received acclaim and is said to have served as inspiration for the 1969 film Simple driver starring Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. However, Lyon left the group and the biker lifestyle after the release. “I loved my job and loved what I did, but it was an issue for me,” Lyon said A rabbit’s foot“When I thought I had what I needed, I knew it was time to move on and I did.”

The film uses real footage from Lyon

The Bikers The film draws heavily on Lyon’s source material, using “word-for-word imitations” of his audio recordings, according to Bleak Beauty. Lyon spoke with Outlaws members Cal, Zipco and Cockroach, all of whom appear in the new film. The replication is particularly true of Comer’s character Kathy – modeled on the real-life Kathy Bauer – whose interviews form the narrative structure of the plot surrounding the fictional Vandals.

In 1966, Bauer, then 25, gave a glimpse into the Outlaws’ close-knit nature by describing her first encounter with a rider named Benny (played by Butler). She explained in detail how the group, including their leader Johnny Davis (Hardy), got Bauer to ride on Benny’s motorcycle. “He’s speeding off, running lights and everything, so I don’t jump off,” Bauer told Lyon. “And I wouldn’t have jumped off anyway because I was scared shitless; I’d never been on a motorcycle in my life.

“Johnny was really nice to me. He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m the president of this club and I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. They’re just having fun and this one guy wanted to go out with you,'” Bauer said. The unusual relationship worked, as Bauer and Benny later married. Their relationship is featured prominently in the film.

But while this warmth is illustrated by the outlaws’ representatives on screen, in the decades that followed the club became associated with far more antagonistic activities.

The outlaws of today are quite different from those in the film

A member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club rides a motorcycle during a 2018 rally in Ontario, Canada.

In the decades since then, the Outlaws have spread far beyond their Chicago center. The organization now has branches in at least 26 states and reaches countries such as France, Ireland, Japan and Russia. According to the Chicago ReaderIt is estimated that the Outlaws had over 1,500 members in 2014.

However, the club has acquired a treacherous reputation. Since November 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice has classified the Outlaws as one of 300 “Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs” or OMGs. These are described as “highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, arms trafficking, and drug trafficking.”

Much of this is due to the group’s ongoing feud with the Hells Angels. Chicago Sun-Times has reported that the two factions fought a violent turf war in the city in the 1990s — including a series of bombings, shootings and stabbings — before agreeing to an uneasy truce. According to TwinCities.com, the Outlaws reportedly use the coded acronym ADIOS, which stands for “Angels die in Outlaw States.”

In an interview with the Sun timesA former Outlaws member named Peter James said the Hells Angels’ presence in the Chicago area has become more influential and could lead to more conflict. But he said the modern Outlaws have turned away from crime and violence. “Times have changed. There’s no testosterone out there anymore,” James said. “It used to be that the boss’s word was law. He’d say, ‘Ride off the cliff,’ and the guys would ride off the cliff. The quality of the members has gone down.”

In any case, most drivers emphasized that the club merely represents an alternative lifestyle and is not an organized crime syndicate.

See The Bikers Now in cinemas

Director Jeff Nichols said The Bikers is not intended to be a documentary of the Chicago Outlaws, nor is it intended to be disrespectful to the club in any way. It simply hopes to give viewers a sense of the times and the social conditions that allowed the group to achieve its success.

“When you look at these guys, you can just ignore them if you want, but when you watch the film, you start to understand how their brains work and hopefully you start to identify with them a little bit,” he said A rabbit’s foot“The feeling of not belonging is something that everyone has. It should be a unifying feature.”

The film was released in theaters on Friday and stars Tom Hardy as Johnny, Austin Butler as Benny, Jodie Comer as Kathy and Mike Faist as Danny.

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Tyler Piccotti initially joined the Biography.com was hired as Associate News Editor in February 2023 and before that spent nearly eight years as a newspaper reporter and editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he’s not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, watching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.