The Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club (SOSMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Founded in Niwot, Colorado in the United States in 1966, the club has a membership of over 250, with 35 chapters based in 12 U.S. states and in Germany. The Sons of Silence are the sixth-largest motorcycle club in the world, behind the Hells Angels, the Bandidos, the Outlaws, the Pagans and the Mongols.Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs Deputy John Williams, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (2008)
The United States Department of Justice has designated the Sons of Silence a criminal organization.
History
The Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club was founded in Niwot, Colorado in 1966 by Bruce Gale "The Dude" Richardson, who was living in Longmont after serving in the U.S. Navy from July 1958 to February 1960. Richardson later left the club and died of natural causes in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on March 26, 2013.Bruce Gale Richardson obituary The Lusk Herald (April 3, 2013) The Sons of Silence's national headquarters were moved to Colorado Springs.Biker Gangs and Organized Crime Thomas Barker (2014) Another influential figure in the club's history was Leonard Lloyd "J.R." 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.Funeral of Leonard Lloyd Reed Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post (June 26, 2003) 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. Reed died at the age of 55 in Denver on June 20, 2003 and was given a club funeral featuring a large funeral procession of motorcyclists on Interstate 25.Leonard Lloyd Reed Jr FamilySearch
The club is based primarily in the Mountain states and the Midwest. The first chapter outside Colorado was the Iowa chapter which was founded in 1968, and an alliance with the Hells Angels enabled the Sons of Silence to further expand.Outlaw motorcycle gangs – USA overview National Institute of Justice (1991) There are now U.S. 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, Germany in 1998. In 2001, additional German chapters were founded in Freising, Gangkofen and Nurnberg. Branches in Viernheim, Erding and Pfarrkirchen were established in 2007, 2010 and 2016, respectively.
Insignia
The Sons of Silence's insignia features an American eagle superimposed over the letter "A". The emblem is similar to, and inspired by, the Anheuser-Busch logo.The One Percenter Encyclopedia: The World of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs from Abyss Ghosts to Zombies Elite Bill Hayes (2011) This insignia is worn as a patch that is sewn on the back of each full member's cut-off jacket (known as "colors"), along with assorted other badges featuring symbols and phrases. The additional patches worn by Sons of Silence members commonly include the "1%" emblem and Totenkopf imagery.
The club's motto is "donec mors non separat ", a Latin phrase meaning "until death separates us".
Membership and organization The Sons of Silence organization is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The club has 30 chapters located in 12 U.S. states and another five chapters in Germany, with a combined total membership estimated at between 250 and 500. Each chapter maintains a self-governing hierarchy, which typically consists of a president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, and sergeant-at-arms.North Dakota Drug Threat Assessment National Drug Intelligence Center (May 2002)
Sons of Silence members must be at least twenty-one years old and own a Harley-Davidson or Indian motorcycle.World of Silence The Indianapolis Star (September 26, 1982) Members pledge oaths of loyalty and secrecy.United States of America v. Timothy R. Fairchild, Jeffrey Paul Gruber Justia (January 12, 1999)
Criminal allegations and incidents
The Sons of Silence are classified as an outlaw motorcycle gang by the United States Department of Justice and have traditionally been considered part of the "big five" biker gangs, along with the Bandidos, the Hells Angels, the Outlaws and the Pagans. The club has since been surpassed in membership size by the Mongols, however. The Sons of Silence are involved in numerous criminal activities, including murder, assault, drug trafficking, intimidation, extortion, prostitution operations, money laundering, weapons trafficking, and motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft. The club is allied with the Hells Angels and the Iron Horsemen, and is a rival of the Outlaws.
Colorado The Sons of Silence are among the most active motorcycle club in Colorado. The club maintains a number of chapters in the state, including in Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, Grand Junction, and two in Denver. The Sons of Silence are involved in the distribution of methamphetamine at wholesale and retail levels in Colorado, obtaining the drug from Mexican drug cartels and also producing it themselves in Weld County. The Coloradan chapters of the club also transport and distribute methamphetamine to other states, including North Dakota.
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 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.Gang fight involved local Sons The Gazette (March 10, 1972)
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 Ruger rifle that he had been making alterations to at the Sons of Silence clubhouse in Commerce City on October 3, 1982.The People of the State of Colorado v. Brian Karl Young Justia (June 13, 1985)
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 on January 23, 1983 to Denver. 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.United States of America v. Dennis Swingler, Jack E. Houser, Jr., Ralph W. Vicory, James D. Jahnke, Jerald W. Richardson, Larry Lee Richardson Justia (March 20, 1985)
A Sons of Silence member was charged with the murder of a member of the Diablos Lobos gang who was killed in an Aurora bar amidst a turf war involving the groups in 1983.Feds 'dismantle' motorcycle gang Mike McPhee and Erin Emery, The Denver Post (October 9, 1999)
Another bar fight involving the Sons of Silence and the Invaders motorcycle gang at a Denver tavern resulted in a series of sporadic shootings. Sons of Silence biker Ron Bemis was shot to death in his driveway by Invaders member Alfred H. "Crazy Al" Mills, who was subsequently convicted of murder.Bikes 'n drugs Mark Kiesling, The Times of Northwest Indiana (May 10, 1990)
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.Man kills 2, wounds 5 in bar shooting spree United Press International (April 18, 1993) Baylis, who was armed with an AK-47 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.Man killed in Colorado shootout acquitted in 1993 shootings The Denver Post (May 30, 2018) 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 (BLM) officers in May 2018.Grand Junction man killed in shootout with BLM had opened fire in Colorado Springs bar in 1993 Ellie Mulder, The Gazette (May 29, 2018) The shootout at Jim and I's was the subject of "The Outlaw", episode 10 of season 6 of the Investigation Discovery documentary series Homicide Hunter.
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,Former Sons of Silence leader found guilty of drug possession Kathryn Sosbe, The Gazette (April 20, 1995) 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, 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. 37 arrested in raids on Sons of Silence/ Undercover investigation leads to drug trafficking and weapons charges Danielle Nieves, The Gazette (October 9, 1999) Among those arrested were the club's national president Leonard Reed and vice-president Steven Kressin.Sons of Silence boss denied bail/ ATF agents `joined' gang Debra Franco, The Gazette (October 15, 1999) 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 on April 17, 2012. Glade and Jeske are allegedly former club members who were expelled.2 Arrested After Violent Attack On Man In Longmont CBS Denver (April 18, 2012)
Indiana The Sons of Silence, along with the Diablos, are the primary wholesalers of methamphetamine in Vigo County, transporting the drug into the area via the Southwestern United States.Indian Drug Threat Assessment National Drug Intelligence Center (April 2001)