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.

Editor's 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.)