What Is the Oldest Biker Gang?

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, founded in 1935 in the Chicago suburb of McCook, Illinois, is widely regarded by historians and law-enforcement sources as the oldest continuously operating outlaw “biker gang.” While earlier motorcycle clubs existed, the Outlaws are generally identified as the earliest still-active club to fit the modern “one-percenter”/outlaw profile, a term that distinguishes non–AMA-sanctioned clubs often portrayed—fairly or not—as outside mainstream motorcycling culture.

What “Oldest Biker Gang” Means—and Why It’s Contested

“Biker gang” is a media shorthand with fuzzy edges. Many motorcycle clubs predate World War II, but most were social or sporting organizations aligned with the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). In contrast, “outlaw” or “one-percenter” clubs are those that historically operated independent of the AMA and developed a distinct subculture, sometimes intersecting with criminal activity according to authorities. This definitional line matters: the oldest motorcycle clubs are not necessarily the oldest outlaw biker groups.

The Outlaws MC: 1935 Origins and Continuous Operation

According to club histories and corroborating scholarship, the Outlaws MC traces its origin to 1935 at Matilda’s Bar on old Route 66 in McCook, Illinois. The club’s distinctive “Charlie” skull-and-pistons insignia and Chicago-area roots are well documented, with a postwar reorganization in 1946 helping catalyze growth. By the 1950s and 1960s, the Outlaws expanded across the Midwest and later into the South and Europe, becoming a flagship “one-percenter” club and a principal rival to the Hells Angels. Law enforcement agencies and academic researchers commonly cite the 1935 founding date when describing the club’s seniority among outlaw motorcycle organizations.

Older Motorcycle Clubs Exist—But They’re Not “Gangs”

Before identifying other early outlaw clubs, it helps to note that some of America’s oldest motorcycle organizations are not considered “biker gangs” at all. They were, and often still are, AMA-affiliated riding or racing clubs central to the sport’s development.

• Yonkers Motorcycle Club (New York): Established in 1903, often cited as the oldest continuously operating U.S. motorcycle club.
• San Francisco Motorcycle Club (California): Founded in 1904, among the nation’s longest-running clubs.
• Jackpine (Jack Pine) Gypsies (South Dakota): Founded in 1936 in Sturgis; instrumental to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally’s origins.

These clubs illustrate that American motorcycling’s organized history stretches back more than a century, but their missions and reputations differ markedly from the outlaw subculture typically implied by “biker gang.”

Other Early Outlaw Clubs Often Mentioned

Several postwar clubs are frequently named in discussions of “oldest biker gangs” because of their early formation dates and roles in shaping outlaw biker culture after World War II.

• Galloping Goose MC (Southern California, usually dated to 1942): Among the earliest outlaw-styled clubs; present at seminal postwar runs.
• Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington (POBOB) (California, 1945): A pivotal early club; members later influenced the formation and culture of other outlaw groups.
• Boozefighters MC (California, 1946): Founded by WWII veteran “Wino Willie” Forkner; associated with the 1947 Hollister event that popularized the outlaw image, though the club today stresses a riding brotherhood rather than criminal identity.
• Hells Angels MC (California, widely dated to 1948): Emerged in the late 1940s in the San Bernardino/Fontana area and later coalesced under strong leadership in Oakland in the 1950s; now one of the world’s best-known outlaw clubs.
• Pagans MC (East Coast, 1959) and Bandidos MC (Texas, 1966): Not as old as the Outlaws or Hells Angels but significant in the development of the “Big Four” U.S. outlaw clubs.

These dates help frame the postwar evolution of outlaw motorcycling: the Outlaws precede the widely recognized wave of late-1940s and 1950s clubs that came to dominate the global scene.

Why There’s Room for Debate

Ambiguity persists due to patchy early records, wartime interruptions, and later reorganizations. Some researchers argue that a hiatus or rechartering complicates claims of uninterrupted existence. Others stress the distinction between an AMA club with a long history versus a club embedded in the “outlaw” milieu. Despite these nuances, the 1935 Outlaws founding date remains the most commonly accepted answer when the question specifically targets the oldest active outlaw biker group.

Timeline: Key Early Milestones

The following timeline highlights foundational dates commonly cited in histories of motorcycle clubs and the outlaw subculture, placing the Outlaws’ 1935 origin alongside other early milestones for context.

1. 1903: Yonkers Motorcycle Club founded (oldest U.S. MC; not an outlaw club).
2. 1904: San Francisco Motorcycle Club established (early, non-outlaw club).
3. 1935: Outlaws Motorcycle Club formed in McCook, Illinois (earliest widely recognized outlaw MC still operating).
4. 1936: Jack Pine Gypsies founded in Sturgis (AMA club linked to Sturgis Rally origins).
5. 1942: Galloping Goose MC commonly dated to this year in Southern California.
6. 1945: Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington formed.
7. 1946: Boozefighters MC founded by “Wino Willie” Forkner.
8. 1947: Hollister event popularizes the “outlaw biker” image nationwide.
9. 1948: Hells Angels MC emerges in Southern California; later expands globally.
10. 1959–1966: Pagans (1959) and Bandidos (1966) established, rounding out major U.S. outlaw networks.

While each date is informative on its own, taken together they underscore how the Outlaws’ 1935 founding predates the postwar surge that shaped outlaw biker culture in the public imagination.

Sources and How the Claim Is Substantiated

The Outlaws’ 1935 founding is cited by the club’s own historical accounts and has been echoed in criminology research, law-enforcement briefings, and academic studies of biker subcultures. Comparative timelines in reputable histories of motorcycling, AMA club registries, and works by journalists and scholars covering the Hollister era and postwar club expansion further support the Outlaws’ seniority among outlaw groups. Because early club records can be fragmentary, serious treatments typically cross-reference club archives, period newspaper accounts, AMA archives, and government assessments to establish continuity and founding dates.

Summary

The oldest biker gang, in the commonly understood outlaw/one-percenter sense, is the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, founded in 1935 in McCook, Illinois. Earlier motorcycle clubs exist—some dating to the early 1900s—but they are not “biker gangs” in the outlaw sense. The Outlaws’ prewar origin, followed by postwar growth, positions them as the earliest still-active standard-bearer of the outlaw motorcycle subculture, ahead of other influential clubs that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s.