Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club (SOSMC) is a
one-percenter motorcycle club
A motorcycle club is a group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles. A motorcycle group can range as clubbed groups of different bikes or bikers who own same model of vehicle like the Harley Owners Group.
Ther ...
that was founded in
Niwot,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
in the United States in 1966.
History
The Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club was founded in
Niwot, Colorado
Niwot is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, Colorado Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Niwot post offi ...
in 1966 by Bruce Gale "The Dude" Richardson (August 22, 1939 – March 26, 2013) who was living in
Longmont
The City of Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder and north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
Longmont' ...
, Colorado after serving in the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
from July 1958 to February 1960.
[Longmont-area motorcycle clubs see benefit and benefits when taking to the open road](_blank)
Brett Callwood, ''Longmont Times-Call
The ''Longmont Daily Times-Call'', known under different combinations of these names, is a daily newspaper published for Longmont, Colorado, United States. It carries local, regional, national and world news and republishes most of its stories from ...
'' (June 5, 2016) The Sons of Silence's national headquarters were later moved to
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
. Another influential figure in the club's history is Leonard Lloyd "JR" Reed, Jr. Also a navy veteran who served from 1965 until 1969, Reed succeeded Richardson as the Sons of Silence's national president in 1977 and held the position for twenty-two years. In the 1990s, Reed and Richard Lester, an attorney and motorcyclist, formed the Colorado Confederation of Clubs, which improved communication between motorcycle clubs and provided a means to avoid conflict.
The first chapter outside Colorado was the
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
chapter which was founded in 1968, and an alliance with the
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporati ...
enabled the Sons of Silence to further expand.
[''Outlaw motorcycle gangs – USA overview''](_blank)
National Institute of Justice
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Juvenil ...
(1991) There are now American chapters in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The first international chapter was founded in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, Germany in 1998. In 2001, more German chapters were founded in
Freising
Freising () is a university town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the Freising ''Landkreis'' (district), with a population of about 50,000.
Location
Freising is the oldest town between Regensburg and Bolzano, and is located on the ...
,
Gangkofen
Gangkofen is a municipality in the county ("Landkreis") of Rottal-Inn in Bavaria in Germany.
Geography
The market town (Markt) Gangkofen lies in the valley of the river Bina along the federal highway B 388 about 17 km (11 mi) west of ...
and
Nurnberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...
. Branches in
Viernheim
Viernheim is a midsize industrial town on Mannheim's outskirts and is found in the Rhine Neckar agglomeration and economic area. It is the second biggest town in Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. Since 1994 it has also borne the title '' Br ...
,
Erding
Erding () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the rural district of the same name. It had a population of 36,469 in 2019.
The original Erdinger Weissbier is a well-known Bavarian specialty.
Erding is located around 31 kilometers nor ...
and
Pfarrkirchen
Pfarrkirchen is a municipality in southern Lower Bavaria Germany, the capital of the district Rottal-Inn. It has about 12,500 inhabitants and is an important school centre with about 10,000 pupils from all over Lower Bavaria. The town spreads ...
were established in 2007, 2010 and 2016, respectively.
Insignia
The Sons of Silence's logo – an
American eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...
superimposed over the letter "A" – is similar to, and taken from, the
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...
logo. The club's motto is "''donec mors non separat ''",
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "Death does not separate us". The logo is a patch that is sewn on the back of each full member's vests (known as
colors
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...
), along with assorted other badges.
Clothing
Motorcycle riders, including those in the Sons of Silence, wear clothing specifically for the practical purposes of riding a motorcycle. The raggedy and beat up look motorcycle riders typically sport is a product of riding a motorcycle at a high speed (such as on the interstate of highway) and the resulting dust and dirt that is bound to hit any rider exposed to the elements while flying down the highway. The long beards are not only a style choice. Facial hair helps protect riders from sunburn during long rides while exposed to the elements. The leather pants and jacket is a result of leather providing the best material protection from debris that may hit riders and protection from any falls from their motorcycle. The boots serve a similar purpose as the leather by providing more protection from debris and damage from pavement in the event of the crash, but are also of historical significance for all motorcycle riders (including riders not affiliated with outlaw motorcycle gangs). Older bikes require a forceful kick to startup which is made easier by the thick boot (rather than sandals or tennis shoes). Similar to how the military has utility uniforms (“cammies”) that are made for work, motorcycle riders dress for the dangers of riding. The rugged “uniforms” stem from the necessity of protecting motorcycle riders from the dangers of riding a motorcycle.
Membership
Sons of Silence members must be at least twenty-one years old and own a
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depressi ...
motorcycle.
[World of Silence](_blank)
''The Indianapolis Star
''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the ''Indianap ...
'' (September 26, 1982) Members pledge oaths of loyalty and secrecy. Membership of the club has been estimated at between 250
and 500.
[Les gangs de bikers les plus dangereux des États-Unis](_blank)
Noomen Ben Mustapha, '' Vanity Fair'' (21 June 2016)
Criminal allegations and incidents
The Sons of Silence are designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) and
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
(DOJ), and at one point were considered one of the "big five" motorcycle gangs along with the
Bandidos
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, is an outlaw motorcycle club with a worldwide membership. Formed in San Leon, Texas in 1966, the Bandidos MC is estimated to have between 2,000 and 2,500 members and 303 chapters, l ...
,
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporati ...
,
Outlaws and
Pagans Pagans may refer to:
* Paganism, a group of pre-Christian religions practiced in the Roman Empire
* Modern Paganism, a group of contemporary religious practices
* Order of the Vine, a druidic faction in the ''Thief'' video game series
* Pagan's ...
. Members have been implicated in numerous criminal activities, including murder, assault, drug trafficking, intimidation, extortion, prostitution operations, money laundering, weapons trafficking, and motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft.
The Sons of Silence are allied with the Hells Angels
and
Iron Horsemen
The Iron Horsemen Motorcycle Club is an American outlaw motorcycle club that was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1967. Their insignia is a winged, metallic horse's head and their motto is "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if it weren't for the Iron H ...
,
and are rivals of the Outlaws.
Colorado
Six members – Scott Bennigsdorf, John Barnard, Bobby Mann, Art Miller, Mark Wagar, and national president Bruce Richardson – were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and jailed for their involvement in a bar brawl in
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
on March 5, 1972. The brawl involved a total of twenty-two participants and was the result of a power struggle between the Sons of Silence and two other motorcycle clubs, the Dead Men and a group known as Philtown. Some of the Sons of Silence members arrested were involved in an alleged conspiracy to kill police and kidnap the children of police officers earlier that year.
Sons of Silence member Brian Karl Young was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a sixteen-year-old girl who was killed when Young accidentally discharged a
.22 caliber .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm).
Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO.
.22 inch is also a popular ...
Ruger
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and Pr ...
rifle that he had been making alterations to at the Sons of Silence clubhouse in
Commerce City
The City of Commerce City is a home rule municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 62,418 at the 2020 United States Census, a 35.95% increase since the 2010 United States Census. Commerce City is the ...
on October 3, 1982.
Six members of the Sons of Silence – Jack E. Houser, Jr., James Dean "Jimmy" Jahnke, Jerald W. Richardson, Larry Lee Richardson, Dennis Raymond Swingler and Ralph W. Vicory – were convicted of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine after Houser, Jahnke, Swingler and Vicory were arrested on
I-80 in Wyoming while transporting thirty-six pounds of the drug as well as a mobile drug lab obtained from Cecelia Martinez – wife of the imprisoned Barhoppers Motorcycle Club president Glen Gary – in
Modesto, California
Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...
on January 23, 1983 to
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. The convictions followed an FBI investigation into the Colorado Sons of Silence which commenced in September 1981 and was aided by FBI informant Beth Fisher, the divorced wife of club member Robert Fisher.
A Sons of Silence member was charged with the murder of a member of the Diablos Lobos gang who was killed in an
Aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
bar amidst a turf war involving the groups in 1983.
[Feds 'dismantle' motorcycle gang](_blank)
Mike McPhee and Erin Emery, ''The Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...
'' (October 9, 1999)
Sons of Silence member Paul Robert "P.K." Klein was shot and killed by Eugene Herbert Baylis at Jim and I's Star Bar in Colorado Springs, where Klein was the bar manager, on April 17, 1993. Bar patron Steven Fairfax was also killed and five others were wounded. Baylis, who was armed with an
AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...
assault rifle and four hand grenades, only stopped his shooting spree after he was shot and wounded by a police officer. Baylis claimed that Klein had shot him with a pellet gun earlier that day and that he had gone to the bar to detain him until police had arrived. He was acquitted of murder and other charges in 1995 after his attorneys argued that he fired in self-defense. Baylis would later be sentenced to three years in prison on federal weapons charges, and was killed in a shootout with
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
(BLM) officers in May 2018. The shootout at Jim and I's was the subject of "The Outlaw", episode 10 of season 6 of the
Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...
documentary series ''
Homicide Hunter
''Homicide Hunter'' (also known as ''Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda'') is an American crime documentary television series which aired on the Investigation Discovery (ID) television network for nine seasons, totalling 144 episodes. The series show ...
''.
Sons of Silence president Leonard Ray Shipley was arrested by
Colorado Springs police following an undercover operation in August 1993. Shipley was convicted in April 1995 of distribution and possession of methamphetamine, possession of a grenade simulator and being a special offender for having both a deadly weapon and illegal drugs, and he was later sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.
On October 9, 1999, thirty-seven Sons of Silence members were arrested on drug trafficking and illegal weapons charges after one of Colorado's largest federal undercover operations. The
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided a number of homes and properties in Colorado Springs, Commerce City and
Fort Collins
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
, and seized twenty pounds of methamphetamine, thirty-five guns, four hand grenades, two suppressors, cash and motorcycles. The investigation began in 1997 and involved two undercover agents infiltrating the club.
Among those arrested were the club's national president Leonard Reed and vice-president Steven Kressin. The club was featured in a 2009 episode of ''
Gangland'', which included interviews with one of the undercover agents who infiltrated the club.
Two men – Stanley B. Glade and Justin W. Jeske – were arrested after assaulting and robbing a Sons of Silence member at his home in
Longmont
The City of Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder and north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
Longmont' ...
on April 17, 2012. Glade and Jeske are allegedly former club members who were expelled.
Indiana
The Sons of Silence's push into
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
in the 1970s was spearheaded by Michael "Righteous Mike" Ramsey, a former Outlaws member who went on to serve as the Sons of Silence's national president. The club's presence in Indianapolis prompted friction with the Outlaws and, after a period of infrequent fighting in which members of the rival clubs would try to physically take the
colors
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...
from opposing bikers, a war erupted following the July 1978 near-fatal stabbing of Outlaws member Dale "Dummy" Larque during a bar fight. The conflict lasted until the early 1980s and resulted in a number of murders, including those of two girlfriends of Sons of Silence members. Outlaws national vice-president Thomas Walter "Satan" Reeves was shot dead with an automatic rifle at the club's Indianapolis chapter headquarters on March 5, 1980. Authorities suspect Sons of Silence Indianapolis vice-president Steven Wayne "Crescent Wrench" Kressin of the murder. Lisa J. Reimer, the girlfriend of a Sons of Silence member, was shot in the back of the head and killed during a shootout on an entry ramp to the
I-465 while riding as a passenger on a motorcycle on October 4, 1980. The murder remains unsolved, although police theorized that the shooting was caused by an Outlaws ambush and that the intended target was Daryl W. "Wino" Sturges, president of the Indianapolis Sons of Silence chapter from June 1978 to October 1980. Sturges' girlfriend, Lynda C. Massingale Rice, was stabbed to death on December 31, 1980. On November 15, 1981, Outlaws member John "Big Jack" Slater was left paralyzed after being shot with a
.38 caliber
.38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearms and firearm cartridges.
The .38 is considered a large firearm cartridge; anything larger than .32 is considered a large caliber.Wright, James D.; Rossi, Peter H.; Daly, Kathleen ...
pistol by Sons of Silence member Eric "Doc" Lewandowski outside the Sons' clubhouse. Slater was then bundled into a van and killed with a 12-gauge shotgun by another Sons of Silence member, Hendrick "Savage" Jansen. Lewandowski was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, while Jansen was acquitted as he testified that he believed Slater was already dead when he shot him.
Bruce Birk Eastman was killed with a shotgun as he answered the door of the Sons of Silence Indianapolis clubhouse on 30 May 1984.
On February 24, 1991, a large group of Outlaws were attacked by several members of the Sons of Silence at a motorcycle swap meet at the
Indiana Convention Center
The Indiana Convention Center is a major convention center located in Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The original structure was completed in 1972 and has undergone five expansions. In total, there are 71 meeting rooms, 11 exhibit halls, and th ...
in Indianapolis. Shots were fired, three people were wounded, and two Sons of Silence members were arrested. Twelve guns and numerous knives were seized by police.
Members and associates of the Indianapolis and
Terre Haute
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
chapters of the Sons of Silence were indicted in October 2011 following an FBI investigation into the club's activities known as "Operation Saw Mill". Twelve people were convicted for participating in a methamphetamine ring that operated from approximately May 2010 until the arrests of most of the members of the organization on August 6, 2011. Phillip Mannebach, a member of the Terre Haute chapter, was also convicted of orchestrating the abduction of his stepson which was carried out with the help of club hangarounds. The victim of the abduction had stolen approximately $5,000 in currency from Mannebach, who was sentenced to life in prison on April 8, 2013.
Sons of Silence members had a conflict with members of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club in a business parking lot in
Crawfordsville on April 27, 2014. Firearms, knives and bats were used, and injuries were reported.
Iowa
Sons of Silence
enforcer
Enforcer or enforcers may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Comics
* Enforcer (comics), a Marvel Comics character
* Enforcers (comics), a Marvel Comics team
* New Enforcers, another Marvel Comics team
Film and television
* ''The Enforcer ...
Ronald Merrill "Bad Ron" Gruber was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for rape and assault in
Black Hawk County
Black Hawk County is a county in the northeastern part of U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 131,144, making it Iowa's fifth-most populous county. The county seat is Waterloo.
Black Hawk County is part of the Water ...
in October 1977. While in
Iowa State Penitentiary
The Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) is an Iowa Department of Corrections maximum security prison for men located in the Lee County, Iowa, community of Fort Madison. This facility should not be confused with the Historical Iowa State Penitentiary, w ...
, he and another inmate were sued by two guards whom they assaulted. After being released, Gruber was one of a number of club members convicted on a 1994 federal racketeering charge. As a prisoner at
FCI Greenville in Illinois in August 1996, Gruber was charged with the shotgun murder of Penny Jean Sternquist Weitzel, who was killed in
Boone on November 30, 1984. In May 1997, Gruber pled guilty to second degree murder in her death and was sentenced to fifty years in prison. He was paroled in 2012.
Sons of Silence member Clark Joseph Cook was convicted of possession of methamphetamine after he was found to be carrying a bag of the drug during a traffic stop by the
Iowa State Patrol
The Iowa State Patrol (ISP) is the state patrol organization in the state of Iowa. Currently, there are just over 267 officers in the patrol, roughly 183 troopers short of their authorized strength of 455. The State is broken int16 Districts Thei ...
on September 5, 1993.
Fourteen members or former members were indicted in
Cedar Rapids in November 1994, charged with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy and committing violence in aid of racketeering. Twelve were immediately arrested and eventually pleaded guilty or were convicted. Two others, Jeffrey Paul "No Mind" Gruber and Robert "Bronc" McAlister, remained fugitives until being apprehended in Washington state in July 1996. David Fairchild, who was one of the twelve convicted in 1995 and who received a twenty-five year prison sentence, began to cooperate with the government after his conviction and testified against
Cedar Falls/
Waterloo chapter ''de facto'' leader and national vice-president Gruber, who was sentenced to life in prison.
Six members of the Boone Sons of Silence chapter – Russell John Schoenauer, Robert Lee "Skunk" Norman, Gary Lee Walker, Daniel Lee Burns, Barry Craig Scarcello and Steven Lowell Henry – were arrested by the ATF on April 4, 2001 on the charges of trafficking cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, as well as firearms, throughout the state of Iowa. Two others, Pelayo Jose "Tattoo Joe" Cuervo and William John Furlong, were also later apprehended. Cuervo, Norman and Schoenauer – the Sons of Silence's national treasurer – were convicted of numerous narcotics and firearms offenses related to a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances that lasted from 1978 through 2001. Norman was sentenced to twenty-nine years' imprisonment, Cuervo was sentenced to twenty-two years' and Schoenauer was sentenced to seventeen years'.
Justin Carlson, age 38, from Sheffield, Iowa, who was the enforcer for the Northern Iowa Chapter of the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison. He received the prison term after a March 19, 2021 guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
In the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings, Carlson admitted that on April 5, 2020, Carlson, a convicted felon, and other members of the Sons of Silence and another affiliated group confronted a motorcyclist, who was an off-duty police officer, claiming the officer needed permission from the Sons of Silence to wear one of the patches on the back of the motorcyclist’s jacket. In a subsequent search of Carlson’s home in Sheffield, Iowa, officers recovered Carlson’s Sons of Silence motorcycle vest, which had a brass knuckles in the pocket, numerous items of Sons of Silence paraphernalia, and two firearms.
Missouri
Milton Charles "Barbwire" Wilson, the president of the Sons of Silence's
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
chapter, was charged in May 2014 with transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution, along with Kayla "Foxy" Pinkerton. Wilson transported Pinkerton and the victim to various locations in Missouri and Kansas in December 2013. Both plead guilty to the crime on April 1, 2015. In September 2015, Wilson was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment and Pinkerton was sentenced to sixteen months'.
New York
In August 1984, Sons of Silence founder Bruce "The Dude" Richardson was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to hiring Robert Leslie Konitski to organize the May 1984 abduction of Dr. Michael Roark from a
Buffalo hotel. It was claimed that Roark owed Richardson's wife, Patricia Stranahan, approximately
$260,000 after a failed business venture and that the abduction was an attempt to retrieve some of this money after court proceedings to recover the funds had failed. As well as Stranahan, three others are sentenced in connection with the abduction, Michael Rattley, Robert Jordan and Ariel Falcon.
North Dakota
The Sons of Silence are alleged to have ordered the murder of
Williston rancher Jack Sjol who went missing in April 2013 and whose body was found in rural
Williams County the following month. Ryan Lee Stensaker was convicted of Sjol's murder on December 17, 2014 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Billy Joe Herman, an enforcer for the Sons of Silence but not a member of the club, pleaded guilty in April 2019 to the October 12, 2015 murder of Amanda Stach Engst, who was killed on the
Spirit Lake reservation. Herman strangled Engst and put her in the trunk of her car with the help of Crystal Johnson, his then wife. After beating Engst with a shovel, he dumped her tarp-wrapped body, which was tied to cinder blocks, into the
Sheyenne River
The Sheyenne River is one of the major tributaries of the Red River of the North, meandering U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 8, 2011 across eastern North Dakota, Uni ...
. Her body was found on February 4, 2016. Herman was sentenced to life in prison for Engst's murder, and Johnson was sentenced to twenty years in prison for her part as an accomplice.
A fire at a home in
Fargo on October 31, 2019 was connected to a feud between the Sons of Silence and Hells Angels, according to law enforcement.
South Dakota
A Sons of Silence member shot an Outlaws member in a bar fight in which two other Sons of Silence bikers were stabbed in
Sturgis in August 1990.
While travelling to an annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 5, 1997, seven Sons of Silence and Iron Horsemen members were stopped by
South Dakota Highway Patrol
The South Dakota Highway Patrol is the state police agency for South Dakota, which has jurisdiction everywhere in the state except for sovereign Native American reservations. It was created to protect the lives, property and constitutional rights ...
troopers as they travelled north on
I-29
Interstate 29 (I-29) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern United States. I-29 runs from Kansas City, Missouri, at a junction with I-35 and I-70, to the Canada–US border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba P ...
after police received reports of a group of motorcyclists running a car off the road. A subsequent search of the bikers and their motorcycles uncovered cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and loaded pistols. Ralph W. Durke and Heather Cook, a passenger on Durke's motorcycle, were charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, and concealment of a weapon with intent to commit a felony, while Steven Taylor was charged with possession of methamphetamine.
Wyoming
Sons of Silence members Cory Rutherford, Matthew James Wedgewood and Nicholas B. Hanson pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an incident at a bar in
Rock Springs in which they beat and robbed Bradley Chrisman, a member of the rival Bad 7 motorcycle club, of his colors on April 10, 2017. The trio received suspended prison sentences in October 2017.
Wedgewood Sentenced In Motorcycle Gang Robbery
Wyo4news.com (October 19, 2017)
References
External links
*
Sons of Silence Germany website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sons Of Silence
Organizations established in 1966
1966 establishments in Colorado
Boulder County, Colorado
Gangs in Colorado
Gangs in Indiana
Gangs in Iowa
Gangs in Missouri
Gangs in Minnesota
Gangs in North Dakota
Gangs in South Dakota
Gangs in Wyoming
Motorcycle clubs in the United States
Organizations based in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Organized crime groups in the United States
Organized crime in Louisiana
Organized crime in Minnesota
Outlaw motorcycle clubs
Organised crime groups in Germany
Transnational organized crime