RIDING WITH THE BANDITO MOTORCYCLE GANG
Note: Police say The Bandito Motorcycle Gang in Texas is the same as the Hell's Angels Motorcycle
Gang in California.
Editoršs Note: Daughter looking for Bandito Father
Comments: Hello I do not know if you can help me but you may be a key to the link I am looking for.
I know that you had spent some time with the Banditos in Houston and Galveston, Texas.
I am trying to locate a man by the name of Lynn Hooker out of Houston, Texas. The reason I am
trying to locate him is that my aunt (now Deceased) was affiliated with him in the 1970 and into
the 1980's. My niece her Daughter is now 28 yrs old and cannot get a birth certificate because
the office of vital statistics has no record of her birth on file.
All we know is that her mother and Lynn Hooker who was a member of the banditos were supposedly
together on and off through the 70's and the 80's.
My grandmother always said that Autumn was named after this man Lynn Hooker and that she
remembered Carla wanting to name Autumn after him. See, my Aunt was a drug addict and Autumn was
given to my grandmother at 2 months of age and raised by her . Carla was murdered in August of 1994
when autumn was 14 yrs old .Now Autumn is with me in Arkansas and is trying to get her birth
certificate and find out her who her father is, we believe that this Lynn Hooker may be him
but since we can not get a birth certificate for her we need help in contacting this Lynn Hooker
to see if he can shed some light on the past for her . Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thank you Marilyn Birge.
If you have information please use the contact page and send me a message. - Judd - Filed May 08, 2008
DOES ANYONE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THE BANDITO MOTORCYCLE
GANG?
It was May TV sweeps time once again. The Bandito
Motorcycle Gang was on my sweeps list. Lots of good pictures and sound
bits. That is, if
they would let me ride with them. You don't ride with them undercover if you plan to live
after the story airs.
I had to meet with the President of the gang to get
official approval.
The meeting was at his home, a run down rental in the
Pasadena, Texas area. The yard was filled with Harleys and their leather covered riders.
I explained that I wanted to do an accurate five-part
series on the motorcycle gang. The president responded that every TV and newspaper
reporter lied about them and made them out to be criminals and drug dealers. He said that
was not the true nature of the Banditos. I promised that I would
only report on what I saw and that I had final editorial control. (Well, sort of).
My three months of riding on the weekends and some weeknights with the Banditos had begun.
The station rented me a Honda 750cc
motorcycle and
this was my first time to ride a bike that big.
Most of the video for the report came on a weekend ride
from Houston to Galveston. There were 14 Banditos on Harleys, then me on a
Honda and
photographer, Don Benskin, in an unmarked white van. I had to ride at the end of formation
because I was not a Bandito and I was not on a Harley, but on what they called a
"jap" bike. (Most of the gang members were U.S. Vets and did not like Japanese
bikes.)
It was a rather typical ride for the gang
members with the
exception that they had to be good because a TV camera was following them. Well, they
didn't follow that rule.
The local police radios crackled with reports that the
Bandito Motorcycle Gang was moving south on the Interstate from Houston to Galveston. The
Banditos loved all the attention from the local police. Plus the small town cops seemed to
enjoy chasing around after the Banditos. It was like a Bandito and Police
dance with the
police radios and the motorcycle engines providing the music. At times, a police officer
would stop them and demand to know what they were doing. The president, who was always
the spokesman for the Banditos, would smile and say, "We are veterans on a picnic run. Would
y'all like to join us?" The cops would write them a ticket for too much noise and send
them on their way. The Banditos Inc. of Pasadena would always pay the tickets.
The gang members traveled in formation, two by two. Your
order in the formation depended on your rank and seniority in the gang. I was at the
end
and photographer Don Benskin was behind me in the van.
As we traveled down Oceanfront Boulevard in
formation, Banditos on bikes would stop traffic at intersections to let the formation of
bikes pass through the intersection. (Just like they were cops on bikes.) A man
,with his wife, in a red pickup decided he didn't want to follow the formation, so he tried to pass
and had to pull into the middle of the formation because of oncoming traffic.
When he did, he slammed on his brakes and two
Banditos hit the rear of
his truck. They were thrown from their bikes to the pavement.
Before I could get off my bike, the two
Banditos sprang from
the pavement and dashed for the truck. Benskin and I were right behind them. As Don shot
film the Banditos pulled open the door of the truck cab and started pounding on the driver.
The Bandito president, realizing this was not going to look good on TV, ordered the two
Banditos pulled off the driver. I was on the other side of the cab on the running board.
Immediately after the two guys were pulled off the driver, he looked at me and said,
"What should I do?" I said, "I would get the
hell out of here." He mashed the gas petal to the floor and the truck,
fishtailed up the street. I had to jump for my life.
There was a fancy seafood restaurant right across the
boulevard from the bar that the Banditos headed for. The Banditos parked their bikes in order at
the curb in front of the seafood restaurant. The restaurant manager came out and told the
Bandito President that they could not park there. The Bandito protested, saying it was a
public street and they could park there. The manager said the street parking was for his
restaurant customers only. The Bandito President said ok, and ordered all his gang members
to go into the fancy restaurant and sit down as customers. The manager
panicked and
begged the president to please ask them to leave and be his guest for parking on the
street. (They left; they wanted beer and pizza.)
The five-part Bandito Gang sweep series was a May book
success. (In fact, I know of at least one other reporter who used the video to get a job
at a station in Florida.) Also, Heraldo Rivera paid me to help him re-produce the story
for ABC's 20/20.
Postscript, The Banditos will never identify a dead member
of their gang. So, for the next six months or so the Harris County Coroner's office would
ask me to come to the morgue and identify bodies of Banditos. I only knew them by their
street names. One of the bodies I identified was that of the oldest Bandito in my series.
He was 62 years old and a Marine Vet. He had been stomped to death; I have no idea why.
(By the way, some of the Banditos did sell dope and were criminals, and that was in my
series.)
They had an unusual message on their answering machines. It
said, "This is _______ the President of The Banditos Inc. of Pasadena. If you have
been arrested and are in jail, leave your name, the name of the jail, and where our bike
is in storage. Our Attorney will get back to you." (By the way, the bikes were
registered in the name of The Banditos Inc. of Pasadena. That way, if a member was held in
jail, they could still claim the bike.)
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