"The shootout is the latest and perhaps goriest chapter in a long history of violence involving motorcycle gangs in America...."

"The Bandidos began almost 20 years after the Hell�s Angels, but the two gangs soon became bitter rivals."

According to the motorcycle club�s legend, founder Donald Chambers was bored with other bike clubs. �Chambers started the Bandidos in March 1966, when he was 36 years old and working on the ship docks in Houston,� Skip Hollandsworth wrote in a 2007 profile of the gang. �He told his friends that he was naming his club the Bandidos, in honor of the Mexican bandits who refused to live by anyone�s rules but their own...

�Don wasn�t looking for people who fit into what he called �polite society,'� one of the group�s first members told Hollandsworth. �He wanted the badass bikers who cared about nothing except riding full time on their Harley-Davidsons. He wanted bikers who lived only for the open road. No rules, no bullshit, just the open road.�...

�These guys are organized crime but they are also domestic terrorists,� [said undercover cop Steve Cook]. �These guys are heavily involved in methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, motorcycle theft. Those are all primary businesses for them. The thing is, these guys want to put on this appearance, �Oh we�re just motorcycle enthusiasts and we just like to ride bikes.� The evidence is quite to the contrary.�