James Thomas Nolan (also known as "Big Jim"; born c. 1943) is an American outlaw biker and gangster who founded and served as president of the South Florida chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. In 1989, Nolan was convicted for numerous violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, including ordering several murders, extortion, and narcotics and prostituting offenses, and sentenced to fifty years in federal prison.
Early life Nolan was born in New Jersey and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1955.The Motorcycle barbarians George Nobbe, Sunday News (December 3, 1967) He attended South Broward High School in Hollywood, Florida and completed two years of college.Biker leader gets 50-year sentence; judge to recommend full term for Outlaw Sun Sentinel (October 24, 1989)
Outlaws Nolan founded the Iron Cross motorcycle gang in West Palm Beach in the early 1960s and was president of the gang when the Chicago-based Outlaws dispatched a representative, Donald "Deke" Tanner, to Florida in the spring of 1967 with the assignment of founding a chapter in the state.Outlaws Homecoming: Florida Outlaws MC Sees One Member Die, Two More “Reborn” With Return To The Streets Scott Burnstein, GangsterReport.com (April 8, 2017) Nolan began an association with Tanner and assisted him in merging various Florida biker gangs — including the Iron Cross, the Cossacks, the Half-Breeds, and the Outcasts — to form the Outlaws' South Florida chapter, with the "patch over" ceremony taking place at Kitty's Saloon, a roadside bar on State Road A1A in Juno Beach, in July 1967.Brutal Attack On Young Florida Woman Put The Outlaws MC On The Map A Half-Century Ago Scott Burnstein, GangsterReport.com (April 30, 2017) The South Florida chapter initially used Kitty's Saloon as a clubhouse, and its members resided in a dozen cabins behind the saloon, which they rented from the saloon's owner, Bertha "Kitty" Randall.
Nolan was described by the Sun Sentinel as "an intelligent and charismatic leader" who sported "long, wavy brown hair well below his shoulders and a full beard". He originally served as vice president of the South Florida Outlaws, with Tanner leading the chapter as president. The Outlaws were quickly implicated in prostitution, narcotics, car theft, stolen credit cards, grand larceny, assaults and other crimes, but it was an incident on November 14, 1967, in which five Outlaws members crucified an 18-year-old woman, Christine Deese, by nailing her to a tree in Jupiter after she failed to turn over $10 demanded by the bikers, that gained the chapter most of its notoriety and resulted in Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr. vowing to drive the club out of the state. In an interview with George Nobbe of the Sunday News in December 1967, Nolan dismissed allegations against the Outlaws as "hogwash", and said: "So we have long hair and beards. Well, so did Jesus Christ and he's been around a lot longer that Governor Kirk. He's a lot of mouth."
The South Florida Outlaws chapter relocated to Fort Lauderdale after a campaign of police harassment forced them out of Palm Beach County. The chapter was headquartered from a clubhouse located in an unincorporated neighborhood southwest of Fort Lauderdale and had approximately 200 members and associates at its peak.13-year hunt end in arrest; extradition sought for biker wanted in deaths of 3 rivals Sun Sentinel (June 9, 1991) Nolan served as president of the Fort Lauderdale chapter and as regional president of the Outlaws in Florida for over ten years.United States v. James Walter Starrett, Timothy Kevin Duke, Michael Lee Cave, Donald Joe Sears, James Thomas Nolan, Frederick Joseph Hegney FindLaw (June 27, 1995) Biker historians have credited Nolan with convincing the Outlaws' leadership, headquartered in the Midwest, of the importance of taking control of the Southern United States, and the state of Florida specifically. The crime reporter Scott Burnstein described him as "the Outlaws overall patriarch in the Sunshine State and the South Florida chapter's revered Godfather". Nolan was instrumental in the Outlaws' rapid expansion throughout the state during the 1970s, as the club amalgamated various smaller motorcycle gangs, such as the Regents in Jacksonville and the Iron Cross in Orlando.FBI agent describes history of Outlaw gang Bruce Vielmetti, Tampa Bay Times (May 5, 1995) Due to the aggressive membership drive in the early 1970s, Florida eventually had the largest concentration of Outlaws in the United States. During Nolan's presidency, Outlaws members were forbidden from retiring from the club under threat of violence.
The South Florida Outlaws initially derived the majority of their income from sex trafficking, prostituting women known as "old ladies" who were deemed to be property of Outlaws members. The women were supplied to topless bars along Florida's Gold Coast to work as dancers and prostitutes. The bikers maintained control over these women using various methods, including gathering information on and threatening the lives of their families, and would occasionally buy and sell their old ladies amongst themselves. Under Nolan's leadership, the Outlaws shifted their focus in the mid-1970s from sex rackets, due to a decline in prostitution income, to illegal gambling and narcotics trafficking at a time when the demand for party drugs was at an all-time high at the peak of the disco era. Describing the bikers' motivations behind switching primarily from pimping to drug dealing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe said: "There are problems with old ladies. And drugs don’t talk back".Closing comments describe Outlaws' bond of violence Sun Sentinel (January 11, 1989) The Florida faction of the Outlaws gained power and influence within the club by forging links with Colombian and Cuban drug suppliers, sourcing cocaine being imported into the state from Colombia, which they then distributed to chapters in the Midwest and on the East Coast.1986 Report of the Organized Crime Consulting Committee National Criminal Justice Reference Service p. 6 (1986) In addition to cocaine, the Outlaws also sold wholesale quantities of methamphetamine and heroin in Broward County.
Hells Angels murders A feud between the Outlaws and the Hells Angels began when two members of the Aliens biker gang in New York City — Sandy Alexander and Peter "Greased Lightning" Rogers — went separate ways, with Alexander joining the New York Hells Angels and Rogers leaving to become a member of the Chicago Outlaws. When Rogers returned to New York to attend a New Year's Eve party in Manhattan in 1973, he was severely beaten by Alexander after allegedly raping the Hells Angel's wife.Outlaw Leader Ordered Killings, Sheriff Reveals Chuck Crumbo and Dave Casey, Fort Lauderdale News (May 6, 1978) To save face, Rogers told his fellow Outlaws that he had been attacked by a dozen Hells Angels. In the spring of 1974, Nolan learned that three members of the Hells Angels' Lowell, Massachusetts chapter were traveling to South Florida. Two of the bikers — "Whiskey" George Hartman and Edwin "Riverboat" Riley — were visiting the state to supervise the covering up of gang tattoos belonging to Albert "Oskie" Simmons, who had relocated to Orlando to operate a motorcycle shop after leaving the Lowell Hells Angels a year or two earlier.3 Dead Men Were Hell's Angels Pensacola News Journal (May 4, 1974) Lowell rites planned for 2 slain cyclists David S. Richwine, The Boston Globe (May 5, 1974) Police believe Hartman and Riley were also in Florida to source narcotics.Indictment links Outlaws to 11 killings Sun Sentinel (September 6, 1986) Nolan called a club meeting to discuss what course of action the Outlaws should take regarding the presence in their territory of the "maggots" who had beaten their "brother" Peter Rogers.
After receiving information that Hartman, Riley and Simmons would be at the Pastime Bar, a Fort Lauderdale tavern, on April 30, 1974, Nolan and other members of the South Florida Outlaws went to the bar and began discussing their differences with the Hells Angels before suggesting they take the discussion "off the street". The Outlaws then lured the three bikers to their clubhouse under the guise of a drug deal, promising no harm would come to the Hells Angels.Legendary Hells Angels-Outlaws Biker War Can Be Traced Back To 1974 Triple Murder In South Florida Scott Burnstein, GangsterReport.com (April 23, 2017) When the Hells Angels arrived at the Outlaws' clubhouse, however, Nolan ordered several fellow club members to take the rival bikers to a deserted area and "make sure they don't come back"․ Four Outlaws — Henry "Funky Tim" Amis, William "Gatemouth Willie" Edson, Norman "Spider" Risinger, and Ralph "Lucifer" Yannotta — then forced the Hells Angels into the back of a van at gunpoint, bound them with pink clothesline and drove them to a quarry in the Everglades of southwest Broward County near Andytown, where Risinger killed each of them execution-style with a 12-gauge shotgun. The bodies of the trio were weighed down with eight concrete cinder blocks and submerged in a flooded, twenty-feet-deep rock pit. The murders were discovered on May 1, 1974, after one of the corpses dislodged and floated to the surface, where it was seen by Stanley McElroy, a passing motorist.Three Bodies Found Near Fort Lauderdale The News Herald (May 3, 1974) The other two were found by police divers. Hartman, Riley and Simmons were identified by their fingerprints and tattoos.3 Executed, Dumped In Pit Fort Lauderdale News (May 2, 1974) Three Executed Fort Lauderdale News (May 2, 1974)
Edson was arrested in Canada for an unrelated crime in 1976 and subsequently turned state's evidence when he was extradited back to the United States, naming himself, Amis, Risinger and Yannotta as those who committed the triple homicide on the orders of Nolan.Bikes 'n drugs Mark Kiesling, The Times of Northwest Indiana (May 10, 1990) In 1977, the Hells Angels attempted to resolve the feud between the clubs by sending Sandy Alexander, along with Oakland, California chapter members Sergey Walton and Gary Popkin, to meet with Nolan and other Outlaws leaders in Durham, North Carolina. Nolan and his contingent did not show at the "sit-down", however. Along with Amis, Edson, Risinger and Yannotta, Nolan was indicted by a grand jury in connection with the killings in April 1978, charged with three counts of first-degree murder. At the time of his indictment, Nolan was being held in county jail while he appealed a five-year prison sentence he had received earlier that year on state drug charges and for threatening the life of a Hollywood, Florida policeman by threatening to sick his dog, a 150-pound Great Dane, on the officer.