We are made to known about his death on September 23, 2020. George Wegers was the former National president of the Bandidos and lived just across the line in Bellingham where the Bandidos host that large annual Oyster run which was cancelled this year due to Covid. [4], The United States is home to ninety-three Bandidos chapters, located in sixteen states. Not only had a member been killed, but the Bandidos were embarrassed that a much smaller club would dare to take them on . Apparently he was being tailed by federal agents at the time of the crash. And as far as we were concerned, the great outlaw of the state was not Sam Bass, John Wesley Hardin, or any of the other nineteenth-century gunslingers mentioned in our textbooks. And, there were some Bandidos members in those chapters who, when arrested, were found to have pictures of Osama bin Laden at their homes, DeGuerin said. "[12] By the early 1970s, the club had over one hundred members, including many Vietnam War veterans. [10][11], The Bandidos Motorcycle Club was founded by 36-year-old dockworker Donald Eugene Chambers on March 4, 1966, in San Leon, Texas. The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II will take place on Monday in London, in an occasion that will mark the world's farewell to Britain's longest-reigning monarch . [5] Patches denoting a member's rank and chapter are worn, as are various other patches which have specific meanings. Early on the morning of Wednesday, March 16, George tried and failed once more to reach his wife. and Rev. Ojemann said that on one occasion, Lammins was tipped off and didnt show up to where Ojemann and others would have pummeled him, or he was in places that were too public for an attack. In the decades since, a town has been split on what they think really happened Just a half dozen years ago,top CanadianBandidos grumbled about how they couldnt get a telephone audience with him. William Big G Ojemann, a Bandidos member from 2008 until 2013, said George Wegers, who was the Bandidos president from 1998 until his arrest in 2005, had his Bandidos patches revoked by his successor, Jeffrey Fay Pike, because Wegers appeared in a report about the club. He had introduced himself only as F.O., and he was one of the most intimidating-looking men Ive ever seen. The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation,[1] is an outlaw motorcycle club[6][7][8] with a worldwide membership. Pike, of suburban Houston, took the reins of the Bandidos until he and Portillo, who became vice president in 2013, were arrested in January 2016, according to testimony. The Houston Chronicle wrote in 2001 that at some meetings attendance was required, and chapters took roll calls. Obviously, said Rodriguez, Benesh didnt follow their advice. In Edward Winterhalders book, Out in Bad Standings (see the books section at the bottom of this article), he makes mention that Wegers was changing the direction of the club and had a heavyinfluence on how each of the individual chapters were run. When the hearse stopped, members of Chucos own San Antonio chapter carried his casket to the grave site. Are you starting to understand? he said. [56], In recent years the club has also expanded heavily into Spain, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, England and Ireland. They hit Johnstons successor, George Wegers, who lived in Washington State, and 27 other Bandidos and their associates in that area with a RICO indictment. Wegers suffered severe spinal damage while cruising alone on his Harley Streeton the afternoon of Sunday, September 27. But when I spoke to him, he still smiled brightly at the memory of those early days when Chambers came into his life. The police helicopter also showed up, circling clockwise, and an unmarked van with darkened windows stopped across the street. (To protect their privacy, Pike asked me not to name the school.) The one place where the Bandidos tend to draw attention to themselves are turf wars with other motorcycle gangs. [23] The American chapters began wearing a redesigned patch in 2011. George Wegers Death | Obituary | George Wegers Dead | Died | Funeral Plans - We heard about the great loss, that George Wegers is no more and has reportedly passed away. Weve got guys who own their own businesses, guys who work for oil companies, guys who are in the computer industry. Yet as they made abundantly clear at their gathering in San Antonio, the Bandidos are not remotely intimidated. Unrepentant, the Bandidos insisted that they had not shot the prosecutor or the judge and that the only reason they were being harassed was because of their anti-establishment posturing. Receive the next edition of "The One Percenter Throwdown" to your inbox. In the past couple of years alone, police around the country have arrested Bandidos for everything from drug dealing and kidnapping to possession of illegal weapons and trafficking in stolen vehicles. [36] Another requirement is that Bandidos must follow the philosophy "All members are your brothers and your family", and must "not fear authority and have a general disdain for the rules of society". Let me tell you one thing, my friend, said a Bandido who had seen me standing quietly by the funeral homes front door taking notes. Hi, how are you? I said to a Bandido wearing a bandanna and dark sunglasses. Or consider the Bandidos initiation rites. Ojemann said most Bandidos appeared to back Pike, who also called for a new patch to represent the club, but there was a faction who didnt, including John Galveston John Lammins, who was president of a chapter in Costa Rica, and Ernest Morgas, an El Paso chapter president. The Bandidos have many Hispanic members, while blacks appear non-existent. Wed go flat out on our motorcycles all day long, eighty to ninety miles an hour, and then at night, wed hold our parties far out in the woods so the cops wouldnt find us. Chester Weger was convicted for the murders of three women in an Illinois state park but he insists on his innocence. Would they say, All police officers commit crimes, the way they tell reporters like you, All Bandidos commit crimes? Although the particular meaning of each patch is not publicly known, various law enforcement agencies have identified Bandidos patches which they believe are related to criminal activity. George Wegers is Dead : Death, Obituary, Cause of Death, Memorial, Funeral 360NG totally feeling remorsed to announce the death of a loved one 'George Wegers '. In the past, he had been a member of other Houston-area motorcycle clubs, but they had bored him. We are Bandidos forever, forever Bandidos, he said. The FBI went so far as to buy a biker bar in Dallas, bringing in as the owner a New York agent who tried to find out what the Bandidos were up to. If he wishes to do something illegal, thats his choice. Pike, however, did not seem the slightest bit defensive when I mentioned the cops theories. This is the one and only official Facebook page for George Wegers, the former National and International President of the largest motorcycle club. Youd be surprised. I tagged along in my rental car. SEATTLE (AP) _ The president of the Bandidos motorcycle club was sentenced to 20 months in prison Friday in a deal that will allow him to retain his position in the organization. on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 11:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Youre going to let me come to your housethe head of the Bandidos? I asked. Loved to say "top left", meaning "from the heart.". And that, Pike and Portillos lawyers argued, could leave Ojemann facing a sentence closer to two years, maybe even probation. 'George Wegers ' has Passed Away. To this day, I can remember the first time I saw his photo: a mug shot, printed in a newspaper, that had been taken after he had been arrested. He was dressed in blue denim shorts, a white T-shirt, and tennis shoes with white socks. [57][58], In 2001, the Bandidos were established in Thailand via a merger with the Diablos Motorcycle Club in Pattaya. The European Bandidos proved themselves to be just as aggressive as their American counterparts, setting off a turf war with Europes Hells Angels and at one point firing anti-tank grenades at two Hells Angels clubhouses in Denmark. Dont you fing wish you were a Bandido? said F.O., which I later learned stood for F Off; then he introduced me to two women whom he described as my two Old Ladies: Meja, a blond beauty who has been with him for 26 years, and Crystal, a brunet college student who has been with him for 4 years. It was the Bandidos founder, Donald Chambersonly he rode a Harley instead of a horse. My father, a straitlaced Presbyterian minister, took our family to Galveston for a vacation. The penalty is a far cry from what George Wegers, 53, was facing when the government charged him and 25 other Bandidos in June 2005 with a long list of crimes that included kidnapping, drug trafficking, extortion and witness-tampering. A Houston dockworker and Vietnam vet started the notorious Bandidos motorcycle gang in the mid-1960s. George Christie unhappily confronts Sonny about breaking a cardinal rule of the Hells Angels organization in this scene from "Sonny vs. George."Subscribe for. We talked about Bandidos carrying bombs with them on their motorcycles, which they used to blow up gas stations that refused to serve them. Don wasnt looking for people who fit into what he called polite society, said one of Chamberss first members, Royce Showalter. While much of the testimony to date has come from Bandidos from San Antonio and focused largely on Portillo, Ojemann is the first ex-Bandido from the Houston area to testify. [37], The Bandidos have an estimated membership of between 2,000 and 2,500 worldwide. [15][12], In 1989, the club was established in Europe when a chapter was formed in Marseille, France. These so-called outlaws are the remaining 1 percent. A minister read a poem about a dead biker (Can you feel the wind in Heaven, while the men hold back the tears?), and right after he said amen, a friend of the Bandidos pulled up in a pickup with a keg of beer strapped to the bed. Conversely, if he was in a car, he had to take it off.) But I know he loves it so much that I would never ask him to quit., When Lenny was out of earshot, I asked Nicole what she thought about the allegations that the Bandidos were a criminal enterprise. I started meeting Bandidos. Unlike the Hells Angels, who have tried to finesse their public image with toy runs and other charity stunts, wrote the Canadian journalist Julian Sher, who has spent years covering motorcycle gangs, the Texas-based Bandidos have never shied away from flaunting their brutal pedigree. The Houston FBI agent who investigates us has called me so many times that Ive got his number on my speed dial. Like the Elks, the Bandidos had their own clubhouses, and like the Masons, they had their own initiation rites. And even if you do know who they are, you could very well have trouble believing they still exist. His nickname was Spook. See the Crime / In The Media section below for further information. One was a black 1988 Softail Custom. Ojemann, who was 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 420 pounds while he was national sergeant at arms, said he and other Bandidos members carried out beatings or intimidation of rivals or wayward Bandidos on direct or indirect orders from Pike and Portillo. said. For instance, Ojemann said he attended a meeting in 2011 at the Mason Jar restaurant in Houston in which Pike and other national members talked about Pikes proposal to split the Bandidos from chapters in Europe and Australia. But were not out there shooting people, for Gods sake. He has also covered immigration, minority affairs and legal affairs as part of the projects team here and for other print, TV and radio outlets. He was turning off Interstate 5 in Skagit County, Washington State, near his home when his bike spun out of control. But thats where the comparisons ended. The Rev. I know theyre trying to pin everything on us, he said. The other members of his chapter then urinated, vomited, and defecated on it. As part of his role as the Bandidos International President, or El Preisdente, as it is often referred to within the Bandidos, he decided to move the clubs headquarters from Texas to Bellingham, Washington, although the Bandidos will always be considered as a Texas outlaw motorcycle club. A former national ranking member of the Bandidos testified Friday that the groups latest president kicked his predecessor out of the biker club for appearing on a television documentary. For a few moments, the Bandidos stood there, unmoving. It circled the Double Deuceonce, twice, then three times. George (Bandido George) Wegers, once the most powerful Bandido in the world, lies today in a nursing home, broke and without any status in the club. But its not only the Bandidos rivals who are getting killed. . George Wagers Obituary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. 2006 - Jeff Pike is questioned by Canadian law enforcement in relation to the deaths of 8 Bandidos MC members, known as the No Surrender Crew and based out of Ontario, Canada, who were shot in the head by another Bandidos member on 8 April, 2006, the event was known as the Shedden Massacre.Law enforcement were attempting to determine if this was a killing ordered or organized by by the . "Bandidos" redirects here. They obviously had their own business to discuss. [28] For example, police have reported that the "Expect No Mercy" patch is awarded to those who have committed murder on behalf of the club, while the "TCB" ("Taking Care of Business") patch is worn by club officers and nomads. 'George Wegers ' has Passed Away. You got him, he said, shaking my hand and giving me a confident grin. As they swapped stories about the old days and guzzled beer, one message could be heard over the roar of their Harleys: Bandidos forever. But the Bandidos kept right on growing, opening new chapters throughout the country. And then, as if given a silent cue, several of them lifted their hands in unison and flashed their middle fingers toward the sky. 20 talking about this. Ojemann agreed with that, and with DeGuerins assertion that Pike was disappointed with Ojemann for his involvement in drugs. Pike, whos divorced, told me that although he would be living in it alone, he wanted it to be big enough that his two kids would have a place to stay when they came to visit him from college. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Undercover operations in the eighties led to arrests over almost one hundred Bandidos in eight states, including most national officers. NU Nuggets. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. Having once infiltrated the Bandidos for three years in a landmark police operation, Alex Caine is uniquely positioned to reveal the untold story of the Hells Angels' fiercest rivals. They might do a burglary here and there. [47] The first European chapter opened in Marseille in France in 1989. Some of them downed beers, ignoring the handwritten signs on the church doors that read Please, no drinking on church property. One Bandido, pretending he had a rifle in his hands, aimed at the police helicopter and fired off a few imaginary rounds. Chambers named the club in honor of the Mexican bandits who lived by their own rules, and he recruited members from biker bars locally in Houston as well as in Corpus Christi, Galveston, and San Antonio. People who worked in the nearby stores and businesses rushed outside to get a better look. Under cross-examination, Ojemann admitted being involved in drug trafficking with another Bandidos member. They kept coming and coming, their wind-burned faces grim and purposeful. George Wegers Death | Obituary | George Wegers Dead | Died | Funeral Plans - We heard about the great loss, that George Wegers is no more and has reportedly passed away. Shop Now. And in the middle of each card was the phrase Bandido by profession, Biker by trade, Lover by choice, You have just had the honor of meeting , which was followed by that particular members signature. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of George Wagers (Manchester, Kentucky), who passed away on December 3, 2021 at the age of 71. Standing before the home was a handsome, strapping man. History. There was always someone stumbling into the bonfire and someone else shooting a pistol into the air. A hospital representative said she would not release Weger's medical status. In 1985, after a long undercover investigation, hundreds of federal agents and local police officers in eight states arrested nearly one hundred Bandidos and their associates on charges of narcotics trafficking. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Then Chambers and the other Bandidos had set their bodies on fire before burying them. They promised us there would be no trouble, he said hesitantly as the Bandidos parked their bikes and began hugging and kissing one another on the mouththe traditional Bandido greeting. Nat'l Geographic did a documentary on the gangs and the criminal investigations into them. Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering: Kidnaping (VICAR), Anthony Snodgrass Spencer (Bandidos Australia President), Jeff Pike (Bandidos International President), Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering Assault, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana and Methamphetamine, Carrying a Firearm During and in Relation to a Drug Trafficking Crime, Conspiracy to Traffic in Certain Motor Vehicles and Motor Vehicle Parts. Copyright 2010, Peter Edwards. We were so crazy back then its amazing we are alive, said Showalter. Hasnt the motorcycle world been taken over by lawyers, doctors, and advertising executives, all those self-proclaimed chromosexuals who pull back their hair in neat ponytails and don designer sunglasses and expensive black leather jackets so that they can take leisurely rides through the countryside on sunny weekend afternoons? It was a patch-pull offense., RELATED: 'Hundreds of condoms' destroy pipe. Kaiser-Wiegers Funeral Home. David J. Phillip/AFP via Getty Images Updated 7:28 p.m. [35] The club also has nomad chapters, made up of members not bound by geographical location, which are responsible for security, counterintelligence and internal discipline. In 2005 the feds made their next assault on the Bandidos empire. . George Weger passed away. Investigators speculated that the victims had been killed by a team of hit men as part of an internal cleansing ordered by the Bandidos leaders. Wearing high heels and miniskirts, they passed out flyers and free drink tickets, telling the Bandidos that they ought to visit later that night to watch them perform. And the truth is that I sometimes do get jealous of all the time he spends with the club. [6][64][65][66] These groups usually wear reverse colors (gold border with red background rather than the Bandidos' red-borderandgold background). Bandido Chuco, who had died at the age of 65 from liver cancer. The coffin was lowered into the ground, and a mariachi band sang Te vas, ngel mo (You Leave, Angel of Mine). The priests and brothers who staff Niagara University are known as Vincentians, a name derived from their founder, St. Vincent de Paul. However most original recruits came from the Greater Houston area, including Chambers, his right-hand man Ronnie Hodge and another founder Robert "Grandpa Bob" Shields. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was used to indict Bandidos in 2005. Loved by many, loved by few. One member was nicknamed Log Cabin because he loved drinking whiskey from a Log Cabin syrup bottle. As I got in my rental car, I heard the familiar whomp-whomp-whomp of the police helicopter. We are made to known about his death on September 23, 2020. Friends and families of the deceased are mourning the passing of their loved and cherished George Wegers . 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