n in 1948, Riverside, California, was terrorized by rioting and destruction following American Motorcycle Association motorcycle runs. The Riverside Police Chief blamed "visiting outlaws" for the violence, and the term has been associated since then (McGuire, 1986).
The motion picture industry is also credited, in part, with glamorizing the "uninhibited good times and general lawlessness" of the emerging OMGs with the 1953 release of "The Wild Ones," starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin (McGuire, 1986; Hopper and Moore, 1990). McGuire (1986) describes the period of 1947-1967 as being the "formative years" of OMGs:
They spawned imitators: major clubs absorbed smaller ones--or pushed them aside; roaming members of chapters, called "nomads," carried the seeds of new chapters and formulated gang alliances. Formal organizational structures were put into place; leaders developed.
But, while the gangs were, even then, capable of significant criminal activity, there was a certain lack of focus to that activity. They were primarily a headache for local law enforcement agencies.
Official estimates have placed the number of OMGs between 300 to more than 800, with membership between 5,000 and 7,000, and as many as an additional 10,000 male "hangers-on" (who are allowed to "party" with the gangs, but not to attend meetings), plus up to 8,000 women (Penn, 1984; McGuire, 1986; Thomas-Lester, 1991; Serwer, 1992). These numbers are exceeded perhaps only by the Mafia and Asian gangs in the United States (Serwer, 1992).
At least four OMGs have attained either national or international stature: the Hells Angels, with at least 33 U.S. and 18 foreign chapters (Serwer, 1992, claims more than 70 chapters worldwide); the Outlaws (Chicago, 1959), 25 U.S. chapters in the mid-west and on the east coast, and six Canadian chapters; the Pagans (Prince George County, Maryland, 1959), 44 chapters principally among the mid-Atlan...