Tuesday, October 2, 2012

FLORIDA - Warlocks v. Warlocks

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
The Los Angeles Times and the Winter Springs, Florida police are saying today that the fatal shooting in a VFW parking lot yesterday resulted from a confrontation between the two Warlocks Motorcycle Clubs. Both clubs were founded in the late 1960s.
The smaller of the two clubs was founded in 1967 by members of an Upper Darby, Pennsylvania fraternal organization called the Warlords. Upper Darby is in the general vicinity of Southwest Philadelphia. Those Warlocks wear a mythological, Greek monster called a Harpy on their backs. That club has maintained generally cordial relations with both the Pagans Motorcycle Club and the American Outlaws Association.
The larger of the two clubs was founded aboard the aircraft carrier Shangri-La in 1967. The bigger club’s mother chapter is in Orlando, Florida and those Warlocks wear a War Eagle on their backs. They have had multiple nationally known disputes with the Outlaws. The Orlando based Warlocks have been the subject of at least two major ATF investigations in Florida and Virginia in the last ten years. The lead agent in the Florida investigation was Deputy Assistant Director Steve Martin. The lead agent in the Virginia investigation was Special Agent Darrin Kozlowski.
There are multiple one percenter motorcycle clubs in Florida including the Warlocks, Outlaws, Mongols and Pagans.
According to published reports, the Harpy Warlocks established a chapter in Seminole County, Florida last Spring.
The Shooting
The violence broke out about 10:40 Sunday morning at a VFW Post in Winter Springs where the War Eagle Warlocks and friends of that club were assembling for a charity ride. Winter Springs is about 15 miles from Orlando. A reported six members of the Harpy Warlocks rode into the VFW parking lot and a gunfight almost immediately erupted. Police said “at least 30 shots were fired.” Witnesses described as many as 50 shots.
Police do not know who shot first. “We are still ascertaining who is affiliated with what,” Winter Springs Lieutenant Doug Seely said at a press conference this morning. “We’re still trying to sift through that.”
Two men named Harold Liddle and Peter Schlette were killed and another man named David Jakiela was seriously wounded. Jakiela is in critical condition at the Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Police seized 13 guns, 13 knives, multiple motorcycles and one SUV at the crime scene. At today’s press conference Lieutenant Seely said four men had been arrested for suspicion of homicide and attempted homicide. Those men are named Victor Amaro, Robert Eckert, David Maloney, and Paul Smith. Smith is a member of the Florence, South Carolina chapter of the War Eagle Warlocks. The Aging Rebel has not determined the club affiliation, if any, of Amaro, Eckert or Maloney or of any of the three victims.