Dan Frosch and Nathan Koppel, Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2015

The biker brawl in Waco, Texas, that left nine dead and 18 others injured on Sunday served as a reminder that motorcycle gangs remain a force in the U.S., an outlaw subculture steeped in its own mythology.

The Justice Department estimates there are still more than 300 outlaw motorcycle gangs in the U.S. One of the gangs involved in the Texas melee, the Bandidos, is among the country’s largest, along with the Hells Angels. Each has more than 90 chapters and 800 members in the U.S. according to authorities.

“These guys have never gone away. I’m shocked that people are shocked that this happened,” said Carlos Canino, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Los Angeles, who was part of an undercover team that investigated the Hells Angels in the early 2000s.

“They pride themselves on living outside of society’s norms. They pride themselves on adhering to their own rules. And the currency of that subculture is violence,” Mr. Canino said.

Outlaw gangs are particularly active in the mid-Atlantic, southwest and northwest U.S., where they are still considered a “significant threat” by law enforcement, according to a 2013 gang report by the federal National Gang Intelligence Center.

But despite Sunday’s clash at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, which escalated from brass knuckles and knives into a deadly gunfight, only a small percentage of motorcycle clubs are considered outlaw gangs that engage in criminal conduct, said law enforcement experts.

Club members stressed that point after Sunday’s bloodbath, which they worry will exacerbate already tense relations with law enforcement. Some bikers said they had long been unfairly harassed by police, and they emphasized that the hard-living lifestyle immortalized in movies such as “Easy Rider” primarily was about a love of the open road, not crime and violence.

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Outlaw motorcycle clubs and gangs emerged in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, often formed by military veterans who struggled to readjust to society. The groups began referring to themselves as one-percenters, a reference in their case not to wealth, but to an apocryphal story where an American Motorcyclist Association president said that 99 % of bikers are law abiding citizens.

Some, though, grew into organized criminal enterprises, engaging in drug and weapon sales, extortion, and occasional violent conduct, according to law enforcement experts, who say the overall U.S. membership in such groups is impossible to quantify.

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Editor’s Note: This is a list of 133 names of people charged in the Waco motorcycle gang shoot out. Names with hyperlinks lead to mugshots. Twenty-one of the names are Hispanic, and there appear to be at least one or two blacks. There is a collage of mugshots after the list of names.

William Chance Aiken

Ray Arnold Allen

John Arnold

Ronald Atterbury

Colter Bajovich

Jeff Battey

Michael Don Baxley

Timothy Todd Bayless

Richard Benavides

Burton George Bergman

Ronnie Bishop

Mitchell Bradford

Brian Joseph Brincks

Robert Clinton Bucy

Salvador Berber Campos *

Richard Cantu, Jr.

Kenneth Robert Carlisle

Aaron Baker Carpenter

Jason L. Cavazos *

Rene Cavazos *

David Cepeda *

Nathan Champeau

Michael Chaney

Matthew Alan Clendennen

Lindell Floyd Copeland

Roy James Covey

John Franklin Craft

Bohar Lee Crump, Jr.

James Albert David, Jr.

Dalton Davis

James Michael Devoll

Jason Alan Dillard

Brian Clark Eickenhorst

Morgan Jane English

James Brent Ensey

Nate Christian Anders Farish

Matthew Ryan Folse

Juan Garcia *

Lance Alan Geneva

Mario Alberto Gonzalez, Jr. *

James Laray Gray

Nathan Clark Grindstaff

Valdemar Guajardo Jr. *

Bryan Tackitt Harper

Jim Harris

Arley Lester Harris III

Raymond Hawes

Jarron Ray Hernandez *

Michael Scott Herring

Tommy Keith Jennings

Daniel Carol Johnson

Edgar E. Kelleher

Laurence Wayne Kemp

Michael Ray Kenes

Jeremy King

Richard Martin Kreder

Cody Keith Ledbetter

Jarrod Lehman

Brian Dwight Logan

Narciso Luna, Jr.

Jonathan Michael Lopez *

Richard Olen Luther

Michael Lynch

Sandra Erler Lynch

Noble C. Mallard

Josh Logan Martin

Terry Scott Martin

David Martinez *

Eleazar Martinez *

John Anthony Martinez *

Joseph P. Matthews

Wesley A. McAlister

Dustin James McCann

Billy Jason McRee

Tom Modesto Mendez *

Rudy T. Mercado *

Marshall Mitchell

Michael Doyle Moore

Jason Jesse Moreno *

John David Moya *

Doss Barron Murphy

Robert Leon Nichols

Diego Nerio Obledo *

Dusty Alan Oehlert

Melvin Michael Pattenaude

Julie Elaine Perkins

Marcus Ryan Pilkington

Larry E. Pina *

Jerry Lee Pollard

Jimmy Lee Pond

Kevin Gene Rash

David Stephen Rasor

Clayton Dewayne Reed

Jacob C. Reese

Owen Lee Reeves

Rolando Reyes *

Sergio Reyes *

Kristoffer Lance Rhyne

Robert Liewellyn Robertson 100

Boyce Ray Rockett

Craig E. Rodahl

George Earl Rogers

Jorge Daniel Salinas

Bobby Joe Samford

Timothy Shayne Satterwhite

Trey Alston Short

Jimmy Dan Smith

Seth A. Smith

Kyle Smith

Jimmy Dayton Spencer

Christopher M. Stainton

Blake Scott Taylor

Michael Glenn Thomas

Christian Valencia *

Jose Andrew Valle

Royce R. Vanvleck

John Phillip Vensel

Justin Nash Waddington

Glenn Allen Walker

Steven Walker

Ronald Warren

Reginald Weathers

Ester Sandy Weaver

Walter Thomas Weaver

Mark Allen White

John Samuel Wiley

Jacob Ryan Wilson

John Robert Wilson

Ricky Wayne Wycough

Lawrence Raymond Yager

Gage Andrew Yarborough