An international motorcycle gang with a long record of violent and drug-related criminal activity has set up shop in Johnstown.
And the bikers have done so in a high-profile way, moving into a former Coopersdale bar along Route 403 under a black sign bearing the letters “AOA” – American Outlaws Association.
While a club leader is not talking, local authorities are taking notice of gang members who wear a skull-and-pistons logo and advertise a succinct motto: “God forgives, Outlaws don’t.”
“We’re aware that they’ve established a club at that location,” city police Chief Craig Foust said. “We’ll be keeping an eye on it for any suspicious activities.”
Also known as the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, the group has a history in this area: In January 1981, seven Outlaws members were convicted of assaulting three undercover state troopers at a Jackson Township bar the previous summer.
It is not clear whether there is any connection between that incident and the club’s re-emergence here. The group has established itself in the former Chocolate City bar in the past few weeks.
It now appears to be a fully functioning bar, and an Outlaws logo adorns a side wall. A club representative working behind that bar earlier this week said he could not comment.
The Outlaws website lists a Johnstown chapter along with five other Pennsylvania chapters – Central PA, West Penn, Philadelphia, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
A state police spokesman said those are six of an estimated 176 Outlaws chapters worldwide.
There are about 1,700 members, said Sgt. Anthony Manetta, a public information officer based in Harrisburg.
State police are well aware of the gang: Manetta said members of the Wilkes-Barre chapter were charged as part of a cocaine-distribution network in March 2009, while Philadelphia-area Outlaws were arrested as part of a crystal-meth investigation in August of that year.
“It’s mostly drug offenses,” Manetta said. “However, they’re also known for other criminal activity. They’ve been involved in arsons, assaults, homicides, intimidation, kidnapping, robbery, theft. It really runs the gamut.”
The federal government takes a similar view. A 2009 Justice Department report lists the Outlaws as one of seven “outlaw motorcycle gangs” and the most-dominant such gang in the Great Lakes region.
The report says Outlaws “produce, transport and distribute methamphetamine and transport and distribute cocaine, marijuana and, to a lesser extent, MDMA” (Ecstasy). It’s also noted that the group competes with the Hells Angels for members and turf.
The gang has made news lately: Jack Rosga, the American Outlaw Association’s national president, was sentenced in April to serve 20 years in federal prison. The 53-year-old, known as “Milwaukee Jack,” had been convicted in Virginia of conspiring to engage in racketeering activities and conspiring to commit violence in aid of racketeering.
A U.S. attorney at the time said Rosga “led an outlaw motorcycle gang that was violent at its core.”
The Outlaws organization does not shy away from that characterization: They are proud “1%ers,” a reference to motorcycle advocates’ declaration that 99 percent of bikers are law-abiding.
One American Outlaws Association logo features an extended middle finger.
The club’s website says the organization was founded in 1935 at a suburban Chicago bar.
The club grew steadily, adopted its motto in 1969 and founded its first chapter outside the U.S. in 1977.
A support organization known as the Black Pistons Motorcycle Club was formed in 2002. The Outlaws now claim they are “one of the largest motorcycle clubs worldwide.”
While their intentions in Johnstown are not known, club members have moved into a notorious building. The Chocolate City bar generated many citizen complaints: In early 2006, court papers showed that police had responded to the location 37 times since 2002.
Also in 2002, a Johnstown man was seriously wounded outside the bar when he was shot by a New York man who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to state prison.
In 2006, the bar’s operator pledged in court that he would shut Chocolate City. The facility later reopened as “Club 21,” but police ordered it shut because the business did not have a cabaret license.
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