orlandosentinel.com
By Henry Pierson Curtis and Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel
Outlaw bikers have been around Central Florida longer than Walt Disney
World.
For more than 40 years, local bikers blew up rivals' headquarters, sold guns and dope and shot at one another. The heyday for violence appeared over in the 1990s, after federal investigations and prosecutions resulted in numerous convictions of Warlocks, Outlaws and members of other "outlaw motorcycle gangs."
That calm ended a week ago in Seminole County with the killings of three members of the Warlocks at a charity fundraiser in Winter Springs, a typically quiet Orlando-area bedroom community.
Police reports blame the killings on members of the "Philly" Warlocks who opened fire on Warlocks from Orlando, Lake County and a visiting member from Louisiana. Yet many questions remain about who shot first and why the four men charged with murder immediately waived their Miranda rights and spoke to police about the shooting. What they said remains a mystery.
And there's no explanation yet for the rift that prompted former Warlocks President David "Tin Man" Maloney and others charged with murder to form the splinter group wearing a different "Philly" Warlocks patch to challenge bikers once considered their brothers.
Most past biker violence in Central Florida has involved gang rivalries and rare crimes against victims outside the biker life.
The worst example involved Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano of Orlando, who terrorized Central Florida decades ago.
A member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, Spaziano was suspected of killing at least eight people. Now 67, he remains imprisoned for life for raping and mutilating a woman and for the 1973 murder of Laura Lyn Herberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk. Her body was found next to the unidentified remains of another teenage girl in an Altamonte Springs dump.
Back then, biker violence rarely drew media attention outside Orlando, Daytona Beach and Melbourne, where it happened. And law enforcement stepped in whenever outlaw bikers known as "one-percenters" appeared to threaten residents.
In 1977, the Orange County Sheriff's Office formed an eight-man squad of volunteer deputies to combat increasing motorcycle-gang activity, then-Undersheriff Leigh McEachern recalled last week.
"We targeted known hangouts — all licensed liquor establishments. … Upon entering the front door — all deputies in full uniform & with rifles at port arms — all patrons lined against the wall for personal age identification & 'pat-down' search. No significant resistance was encountered — no injuries incurred to anyone — no successful court challenges to our actions — AND no further problems with motor-cycle gangs for several years," McEachern wrote in an email to the Sentinel.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, the Warlocks and Outlaws chapters in Central Florida were decimated by the arrests of more than 40 members by undercover agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other agencies.
Targeting gun sales, drug dealing and bomb making, agents infiltrated the gangs so thoroughly that ATF Agent Steve Martin was named president of a new Warlocks chapter in Fort Lauderdale that he staffed with other ATF agents. In one Orlando case, agents bought 26 machine guns, 84 homemade bombs and two silencers from members of the Warlocks.
Orlando remains the Warlocks' "Mother chapter" where the club was founded in 1967 in Lockhart, northwest of the city limits. Today, the Warlocks have more than 100 members nationally, according to Gregg Etter, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Missouri.
By comparison, the Outlaws have more than 900 members. And the Hell's Angels remain the largest motorcycle gang, with about 2,000 members.
The victims in the Sept. 30 killings were Harold "Lil Dave" Liddle of Lake County; Peter "Hormone" Schlette, 50, of Louisiana; and David "Dresser Dave" Jakiela of Orlando.
Charged with their deaths are Victor "Pancho" Amaro, 41, of Orlando; Robert "Willy" Eckert, 38, of Pennsylvania; David "Tin Man" Maloney, 52, of Longwood; and Paul Smith, 47, of South Carolina. Each faces three counts of murder, and all remain held without bail in the Seminole County Jail.
Based on the small amount of information about the Winter Springs killings released so far by police, Etter said he doubted the violence will spread. It appears to be an internal Warlocks struggle prompted by Maloney's unexplained 2010 expulsion that police records show was followed by at least two shooting incidents.
"I don't see it opening into a general biker war. You've got an internal political squabble within the chapters," Etter said. "It may be a one-time isolated incident. ... I don't see it as any long-term, lasting."
In recent years, sporadic cases showed continued police surveillance of Central Florida motorcycle gangs.
Last year, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings' staff dipped into secret motorcycle-gang intelligence files to lobby against a bill that would have allowed concealed-weapon-permit holders to openly carry their firearms in Florida.
For more than 40 years, local bikers blew up rivals' headquarters, sold guns and dope and shot at one another. The heyday for violence appeared over in the 1990s, after federal investigations and prosecutions resulted in numerous convictions of Warlocks, Outlaws and members of other "outlaw motorcycle gangs."
That calm ended a week ago in Seminole County with the killings of three members of the Warlocks at a charity fundraiser in Winter Springs, a typically quiet Orlando-area bedroom community.
Police reports blame the killings on members of the "Philly" Warlocks who opened fire on Warlocks from Orlando, Lake County and a visiting member from Louisiana. Yet many questions remain about who shot first and why the four men charged with murder immediately waived their Miranda rights and spoke to police about the shooting. What they said remains a mystery.
And there's no explanation yet for the rift that prompted former Warlocks President David "Tin Man" Maloney and others charged with murder to form the splinter group wearing a different "Philly" Warlocks patch to challenge bikers once considered their brothers.
Most past biker violence in Central Florida has involved gang rivalries and rare crimes against victims outside the biker life.
The worst example involved Joseph "Crazy Joe" Spaziano of Orlando, who terrorized Central Florida decades ago.
A member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, Spaziano was suspected of killing at least eight people. Now 67, he remains imprisoned for life for raping and mutilating a woman and for the 1973 murder of Laura Lyn Herberts, an 18-year-old hospital clerk. Her body was found next to the unidentified remains of another teenage girl in an Altamonte Springs dump.
Back then, biker violence rarely drew media attention outside Orlando, Daytona Beach and Melbourne, where it happened. And law enforcement stepped in whenever outlaw bikers known as "one-percenters" appeared to threaten residents.
In 1977, the Orange County Sheriff's Office formed an eight-man squad of volunteer deputies to combat increasing motorcycle-gang activity, then-Undersheriff Leigh McEachern recalled last week.
"We targeted known hangouts — all licensed liquor establishments. … Upon entering the front door — all deputies in full uniform & with rifles at port arms — all patrons lined against the wall for personal age identification & 'pat-down' search. No significant resistance was encountered — no injuries incurred to anyone — no successful court challenges to our actions — AND no further problems with motor-cycle gangs for several years," McEachern wrote in an email to the Sentinel.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, the Warlocks and Outlaws chapters in Central Florida were decimated by the arrests of more than 40 members by undercover agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other agencies.
Targeting gun sales, drug dealing and bomb making, agents infiltrated the gangs so thoroughly that ATF Agent Steve Martin was named president of a new Warlocks chapter in Fort Lauderdale that he staffed with other ATF agents. In one Orlando case, agents bought 26 machine guns, 84 homemade bombs and two silencers from members of the Warlocks.
Orlando remains the Warlocks' "Mother chapter" where the club was founded in 1967 in Lockhart, northwest of the city limits. Today, the Warlocks have more than 100 members nationally, according to Gregg Etter, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Missouri.
By comparison, the Outlaws have more than 900 members. And the Hell's Angels remain the largest motorcycle gang, with about 2,000 members.
The victims in the Sept. 30 killings were Harold "Lil Dave" Liddle of Lake County; Peter "Hormone" Schlette, 50, of Louisiana; and David "Dresser Dave" Jakiela of Orlando.
Charged with their deaths are Victor "Pancho" Amaro, 41, of Orlando; Robert "Willy" Eckert, 38, of Pennsylvania; David "Tin Man" Maloney, 52, of Longwood; and Paul Smith, 47, of South Carolina. Each faces three counts of murder, and all remain held without bail in the Seminole County Jail.
Based on the small amount of information about the Winter Springs killings released so far by police, Etter said he doubted the violence will spread. It appears to be an internal Warlocks struggle prompted by Maloney's unexplained 2010 expulsion that police records show was followed by at least two shooting incidents.
"I don't see it opening into a general biker war. You've got an internal political squabble within the chapters," Etter said. "It may be a one-time isolated incident. ... I don't see it as any long-term, lasting."
In recent years, sporadic cases showed continued police surveillance of Central Florida motorcycle gangs.
Last year, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings' staff dipped into secret motorcycle-gang intelligence files to lobby against a bill that would have allowed concealed-weapon-permit holders to openly carry their firearms in Florida.
The agency caused a minor uproar in the National
Rifle Association by handing out photos to state legislators of bikers with
legal weapon permits. State law prohibits identifying any of Florida's nearly 1
million concealed-weapon permit holders.
This year, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force renewed attention on Central Florida bikers by arresting members of the St. Cloud-based Kavallerie Brigade, a neo-Nazi motorcycle club, on charges ranging from drug possession to plotting a murder and planning to blow up an Outlaws clubhouse in Osceola County, records show. Members of the Orange County Sheriff's Office founded the Kavallerie Brigade to investigate links between bikers and white-supremacy groups.
hcurtis@tribune.com or 407-420-5257. apavuk@tribune or 407-420-5735.
This year, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force renewed attention on Central Florida bikers by arresting members of the St. Cloud-based Kavallerie Brigade, a neo-Nazi motorcycle club, on charges ranging from drug possession to plotting a murder and planning to blow up an Outlaws clubhouse in Osceola County, records show. Members of the Orange County Sheriff's Office founded the Kavallerie Brigade to investigate links between bikers and white-supremacy groups.
hcurtis@tribune.com or 407-420-5257. apavuk@tribune or 407-420-5735.
