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THE HISTORY An new prospect's perspective In the beginning there is always blood ... and then there are bodies. Rain pelted the streets outside my Upper Darby home, one block south of Linden Avenue in a working-class neighborhood once commandeered by the Pagan Motorcycle Club. The media trumpeted the group's close association with La Cosa Nostra and described the Pagans as the "fiercest of the outlaw biker gangs with 900 members in 44 chapters between New York and Florida." Founded in 1959, the Pagans with all the other "outlaw clubs," according to the American Motorcycle Association (AMA), supposedly comprised the 1 percent of American motorcyclists who were considered to live outside the rule of law. But true outlaws were not criminals at all. They were conformists, a club of misfits who followed their own code of ethics, dress, and rules. The Pagans have a long, sordid, and bloody history. Formed in 1959 in Maryland by Lou Dobkin, a Navy veteran and motorcycle enthusiast from Prince Georges County, Maryland, the Pagans are less notorious to the general public and receive far less attention than their rival Hells Angels. Dobkin was revered as a god in the Pagan world. Pagans respect their history, and members, as well as prospects, have to know the organization's past. Anyone caught talking negatively about Dobkin or not showing the proper respect was dealt with violently, particularly prospects. As I prepared to prospect, one of my top priorities was studying the Pagans. I was required to know the history of the club, memorize the rules, and know every detail of the organization from the meaning of each patch to the riding formations to the protocols on planning trips and getting gas. Wrong answers to questions from members had serious, often violent consequences. The Pagans, by definition, is a motorcycle club and a nonprofit organization. In reality, it's a criminal gang. Clubs host bake sales and meat raffles. Pagan members sold crystal meth and guns, brutalized rivals, and extorted businesses. The rules were strict and comprehensive. They were well organized. Nothing happened involving any club member that wasn't known by the President, Vice President, Sergeant At Arms, or others. It was a strict brotherhood. One thing I learned early was what racists they were. The Pagans were a white supremacist group. They strictly prohibited blacks from becoming members. They joined the Aryan Nation when in prison, and an unsettling number of members wore white power slogans and Nazi insignias on their colors, including swastikas and SS lightning bolt-style symbols. The Pagans are broken down into individual chapters mostly based in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas. Local chapters range from five members to as many as fifty or more. The Portland chapter, when I was beginning to prospect, had ten members. All chapters report to the Mother Club, a well-organized and tight-knit group of longtime Pagans who oversee the whole gang, including approving promotions and new members and setting the rules and agenda for the gang. Each member kicks up payments monthly to the Mother Club. A portion of these payments are used by the Mother Club to support Pagans in prison and their families. Putting money in the commissary account of an incarcerated member was another way they showed they were a brotherhood, but it also helped ensure loyalty. It's common practice for organized crime figures to support the families of incarcerated gangsters and send money to them in prison for that very reason; to buy loyalty and, more importantly, silence. THE PAGANS, A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION Delegating criminal activity is common practice in the outlaw biker world. Law-enforcement estimates suggest that at any given time, full-patch members of the outlaw clubs have anywhere from five to thirty prospects and hang-arounds at their disposal to do everything from menial housework to running their criminal enterprises. This latter activity keeps the bikers insulated from the threat of prosecution, while the ever-present threat of violent retaliation keeps any prospect or hang-around who is arrested from talking. All outlaw motorcycle gangs are clandestine and difficult to penetrate, but the Pagans were the gold standard. Their entire brand was based around never having been infiltrated by cops, and it was well known that they did painfully exhaustive background checks on potential new prospects. They did comprehensive surveillance. They surprised prospects at home or at work. They popped into the local bar to check out prospects' stories. They questioned prospects' friends and family. They questioned their every move and questioned them again over several weeks about the same thing. If answers weren't consistent, prospects were called out on it. It was mental warfare, at all times. In the nineties, the Pagans saw its ranks grow, along with its violence. In New Jersey in 1994, two Pagans were murdered and three others were seriously wounded in the bloody culmination of a turf battle with the Hells Angels. The infamous Hellraisers Ball melee in New York touched off a war with the Hells Angels. Two weeks after the deadly 2002 clash, a Pagans tattoo shop in Philadelphia was firebombed. Three years later, the Philly Hells Angels Vice President was executed by Pagans as he drove his truck on a highway. The Hells Angels closed their Philadelphia chapter after the slaying. In 2007, federal agents and state cops raided several Pagan stash houses in New York and seized automatic weapons, homemade bombs, and dozens of guns. All of them had been stockpiled for a potential war with the Hells Angels. A BRIEF LOOK AT PAGANS IN SAN ANDREAS In recent years, it's been noted by several Law Enforcement agencies that the Pagans have aligned themselves in an agreement with the Mongols MC to foster the expansion of both clubs across the West and East coasts respectively. The Mongols have traditionally had a strangle-hold on the Southern San Andreas territory, whereas the Pagans have mostly stuck to the Eastern seaboard. Both clubs have bargained a deal where the Pagans would allow the establishment of new Mongol chapters in Eastern states, while the Mongols MC would allow the Pagans to continue their surging expansion march Westward towards the Pacific. This was commonly known within the Pagans as "The Blue Wave". In early 2022, the Pagans MC made their first attempt at establishing themselves in SoSan, however after a stint of only a few months, internal politics and power struggles within the fledgling chapter led to it's ultimate demise. More recently in May of 2023, a very small contingent of Pagan Nomads has been seen throughout Los Santos and Blaine County. Although their presence is small, it's alleged that they've been flying under the radar and beginning to make moves from the shadows. It's purported that this could be the second attempt at establishing a permanent presence in the city of Los Santos. SUPPORTYOURLOCALPAGANSMC