The Road Rats Motorcycle Club (RRMC) is an English outlaw motorcycle club established in London in the 1960s.[2] Arguably one of the "oldest and toughest motorcycle clubs in the country", the Road Rats are notorious for having fallen out with almost every motorcycle club in the United Kingdom and a few outside of the UK.[3] The club became notable for its clashes with the English Hells Angels chapter, including a shooting on Chelsea Bridge, the Satans Slaves, in which two Road Rats were killed, and for murdering one of the founders of the Cycle Tramps motorcycle gang.[4][5]
 | |
| Abbreviation | RRMC, the Rats |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960s[1] |
| Founded at | London, England[1] |
| Type | Outlaw motorcycle club |
Region | Greater London[1] |
| Website | roadratsmclondon.co.uk |
History
editThe Road Rats initially emerged as a London street gang in the early 1960s before evolving into a motorcycle club.[1]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a number of homegrown British outlaw biker clubs, in reaction to the international publicity of the Hells Angels in the United States, began adopting the Hells Angels' name and insignia without authorisation from the American club.[1] In 1970, the Road Rats turned down an offer to begin "prospecting" for one such "bootleg" Hells Angels club, the Essex Nomads, as they were unwilling to cede their North London territory.[1] The Road Rats became the leaders of an alliance against the Essex Nomads.[6] On 17 October 1970, members of the Road Rats, the Nightingales, the Windsors and the Jokers engaged in a gang fight against the Essex Nomads and the Chelsea Nomads on Chelsea Bridge.[7] Approximately sixty gang members armed with iron bars, motorcycle chains, maces and a shotgun participated.[8] Two visiting members of the legitimate Zurich Hells Angels chapter had their "colours" stolen in the melee, resulting in the Angels' international president Sonny Barger sending two enforcers from California to enquire whether or not the official London Hells Angels chapter should have its charter revoked. This incident reportedly caused a feud between the Road Rats and the Hells Angels.[1] On 2 November 1971, sixteen bikers were sentenced at the Old Bailey over the incident. Road Rats president Paul Luttman was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for the shooting of Essex Nomads member Peter Alan "Ginger Pete" Howson, who was wounded in the stomach with a shotgun. Luttman was acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm, and possession of offensive weapons.[9]
At a motorcycle event in Cookham on 19 September 1983 sponsored by the unsanctioned Windsor Hells Angels chapter, a fight broke out in a queue where bikers were lining up to gang rape a woman, pitting six Road Rats against 24 members of the Manchester chapter of the Satans Slaves. Two Road Rats bikers, Michael Harrison and Colin Hunting, were stabbed to death in a mass brawl involving axes, knives, chains, baseball bats and shotguns, but the remaining Road Rats were able to herd around twenty Satans Slaves into a barn, which they then set alight. The violence came to an end when the Hells Angels intervened.[10] The bodies of the two dead bikers were dumped at local hospitals and three people were hospitalised in stable condition. 46 men and five women were arrested and questioned at six local police stations in an investigation involving 70 officers.[11]
Road Rats member Patrick "Baby Rat" Boyle shot and killed Bruno "Brewer" Tessaro, the president of the Birmingham-based Cycle Tramps biker gang, outside the Carlisle pub on the Hastings seafront on 27 May 1989.[12] The killing of Tessaro was in violation of an agreement among motorcycle gangs designating Hastings as neutral territory.[13] Boyle was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder on 28 March 1990 and later committed suicide in prison.[14][15]
Currently there are other groups worldwide that represent the concept of Road Rat as a motorcycle club, for example, the Road Rat Riding Club RR18 https://roadrat.club created in 2006 and which has members in several countries in addition to Venezuela where it was created.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Biker Gangs and Transnational Organized Crime. Routledge. 17 October 2014. ISBN 9781317524113.
- ^ A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun: The Autobiography of a Career Criminal. Smith, Razor. Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN 1556525710
- ^ The One Percenter Encyclopedia: The World of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs from Abyss Ghosts to Zombies Elite. Hayes, Bill. MBI Publishing Company, 30 Dec 2011
- ^ Riders on the storm Melanie McGrath, The Guardian (12 February 1999) Archived 15 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Outlaws: Inside the Violent World of Biker Gangs, Thompson, Tony. Hachette UK, 2011
- ^ Myth and Reality in the Motorcycle Subculture p. 123, Ian Richard Harris, University of Warwick (1986)
- ^ What Was It Like To Be In A Biker Gang In 1950s-1960s London? Kyra Hanson, The Londonist (16 November 2018) Archived 15 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Secrets of Chelsea Bridge Zoe Craig, The Londonist (23 May 2017) Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Youths in court after gang war The Guardian (3 November 1971) Archived 15 November 2022 at archive.today
- ^ Thompson, Tony (28 February 2005). Gangs: A Journey into the Heart of the British Underworld. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9780340830529.
In 1983 a Hells Angels party in Cookham ended in violence after a fight broke out in a queue where bikers were lining up to gang-rape a woman who had been staked out in the a corner of the tent. The ensuing battle, chiefly between six members of the south London gang the Road Rats and some twenty-four members of the Manchester-based Satan's Slaves, involved axes, knives, shotguns and chains. Two Rats were killed but the remaining four fought on, stabbing and beating the Slaves and eventually herding around twenty into an old barn. They had just managed to set the building alight when the Angels intervened, wanting to know what was being done for the dead and injured.
- ^ 46 men and five women held Arthur Herman, United Press International (19 September 1983) Archived 15 November 2022 at archive.today
- ^ 1980 onwards hastingschronicle.net Archived 15 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Carlisle hastingspubhistory.com Archived 16 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Man charged with biker’s killing The Birmingham News (1 June 1989) Archived 15 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Patrick Boyle blackkalendar.nl Archived 15 November 2022 at archive.today