The Breed Motorcycle Club was a one-percenter motorcycle club that was formed in Asbury Park, New Jersey in the United States in 1965. The club disbanded in 2006 after numerous prominent members were indicted on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.
History The Breed Motorcycle Club was founded by Salvatore DeIulio in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1965.Gangland season 5, episode 10 transcript allreadable.com The club was originally known as the New Breed, but the full title didn't fit properly on the colors.The Breed wears its colors with pride Myrna Gray, Asbury Park Press (September 8, 1968) The Breed patched over the Riverside, New Jersey–based Aces and Eights Motorcycle Club and the Elizabeth, New Jersey–based Branded Motorcycle Club in 1983 Due in parts of the efforts of Jim "Irish" Power who was known as "Irish Prez". He was known for his efforts to expand the club with minimal violence and his desire to make the club more profitable and larger in members. Power's efforts took The Breed to a level of profit and members that made the MC become a large force not to be underestimated or taken lightly by its rival clubs.Profile of Organized Crime: Mid-Atlantic Region : Report United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (1984) At its peak in the 1970s, the Breed was the most prominent outlaw motorcycle club in the state and also had chapters in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, with a membership of between three- and four-thousand.
Conflict with the Angels and Pagans In March 1971, the club engaged in a confrontation with the Hells Angels in Cleveland, Ohio which resulted in the deaths of five people. During the following two decades, the Breed were continuously attacked by the Hells Angels, including a hand grenade attack on the house of the Breed national president in Plainfield, New Jersey. The conflict with the Hells Angels, as well as infighting, law enforcement efforts and a rivalry with the Pagans, led to the Breed decreasing in numbers to approximately nine-hundred members by 1990, and in a reduced territory comprising Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Central and South Jersey. In 1989, the Breed had two chapters in New Jersey – the mother chapter operating out of Middlesex County and the South Jersey chapter operating out of Riverside run by Jim "Irish" Power with most operations of the club being run out of The White Eagle Bar in Delran, NJ and a Pennsylvania chapter in Bucks County. Membership was estimated at forty in 2000. This number however was greatly underestimated as it was based on arrests that were made rather than the actual number of members estimated to legitimately be closer to five hundred.
The Breed, along with their rival Pagans, became the most prominent distributors of methamphetamine in New Jersey,New Jersey Drug Threat Assessment U.S. Department of Justice (May 2001) and were reportedly infamous among outlaw motorcycle clubs due to their propensity for recruiting expelled members of rival clubs as well as for cooperating with law enforcement. The Breed was said to have gone defunct after being dismantled by a law enforcement operation against the club in 2006 which led to the imprisonment of nineteen members for drug trafficking and racketeering. The club was the subject of the 2009 Gangland episode "Evil Breed".
Organizational structure The Breed Motorcycle Club was led by an executive board, consisting of chapter presidents, which determined club policy. The executive board was ultimately headed by a national president. Each club chapter consisted of a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary and sergeant-at-arms. Membership of the club was restricted to white males who would first serve a prospecting period before being voted in and awarded their colors. Prospective members were required to carry out illegal activities, such as car theft and armed robbery, and turn over the proceeds of these crimes to the club.Profile of Organized Crime, Mid-Atlantic Region United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (1983) In addition to regional chapters, the Breed also operated a nomad chapter, made up of members not bound by geographical location, which served as an elite element within the club.Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (1989)
The club's insignia consisted of a Betsy Ross flag with a Breed banner above. This insignia would be sewn onto the back of a sleeveless denim cutoff jacket, which was forbidden from being washed. Various other patches, including a "1%" patch, would also be worn.
Criminal allegations and incidents The Breed are designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the U.S. Department of Justice. The club engaged in organized criminal activities including the production and distribution of methamphetamine, larceny, robbery, extortion, auto crime, weapons violations, intimidation, assault, rape and murder, and also operated legitimate businesses such as tattoo parlors and transport companies, which could serve as fronts for illegal activity. The Breed was involved in conflicts with rival motorcycle gangs, such as the Hells Angels, Pagans and Warlocks.
New Jersey Fred "Sheik" Nichlos, the Breed's South Jersey chapter president, was shot dead after being dragged from his home in Jackson Township by two men on August 30, 1968. Thomas G. Russomanno Jr pleaded no defense to Nichlos' murder on February 5, 1969, and testified that he and Patsy Truglia had gone to Nichlos' home to retrieve a motorcycle in Nichlos' possession that they believed had been stolen from Truglia, and that a gun that he was holding to threaten Nichlos had fired accidentally.Widow of murder victim angry at no defense plea Asbury Park Press (February 8, 1969)
On August 13, 1976, during a robbery by two gunmen of a check-cashing business in Kearny, one of the gunman killed Newark police officer John Snow.Matthew J. Salzman, Exemption 7(d) of the Freedom of Information Act - the Evidentiary Showing the Government Must Make to Establish a Source is Confidential, United States Department of Justice v. Landano, 113 S. Ct. 2014 84 1041, 1050 (1993). A Hudson County grand jury indicted Allen Roller, Bruce Reen, Victor Forni and Vincent James Landano for felony murder and armed robbery, along with other offenses.State v. Landano, 637 A.2d 1270, 1271 (N.J. Super. Ct. L. Div. 1994). Roller was president of the Breed's Staten Island, New York chapter, Reen was also a Breed member and Forni was a club associate, while Landano was of friend of Forni.Prisoner fights murder convixtion Philip B. Taft Jr., The New York Times (February 10, 1985) The state believed that Roller and Forni planned the robbery, but that only Landano and Roller actually participated in the crime.Landano, 637 A.2d at 1272. Two accomplices and three eyewitnesses identified Landano as Snow's murderer, and he was sentenced to fifteen-years-to-life in prison for the crime in April 1977. Landano was acquitted of murder in a retrial in 1998 and died at the age of sixty-three on November 11, 2002.Vincent J. Landano, 63; Cleared in 1976 Murder of Newark Officer Ronald Smothers, The New York Times (November 13, 2002)
Breed members Kalani Lopa and Thomas Heilman were arraigned on two counts each of kidnaping after abducting club member John McGurk and Patricia McDevitt from McGurk's Bordentown home in an attempt to collect a $1,200 debt on August 17, 1977.Two are arraigned on kidnaping charges The Philadelphia Inquirer (August 20, 1977)
John Belowsky and James R. "Axl" Fleming – both identified as Breed members by authorities – and a third man, Pasquel Varona, were arrested during a raid on an apartment in Asbury Park which led to the seizure of handguns and almost $5,000 worth of cocaine on January 25, 1995. The three men were charged with drug and weapons offences.Cocaine, guns found in raid of apartment Nancy Shields, Asbury Park Press (January 28, 1995)Breed motorcycle gang not on law's A list Neil A. Sheehan, Asbury Park Press (August 2, 1995)
Eugene "Gene" Bernardo, president of the Breed's Monmouth County chapter, was charged with conspiracy to distribute almost five-hundred grams of methamphetamine in a one-count federal indictment on January 6, 1998. He was convicted of the charge on May 26, 1999.Ex-Breed leader guilty in drug case Asbury Park Press (May 27, 1999) Bernardo had acted as a middleman in a drug sale made by Carl Chianase to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant Kalani Lopa in January 1997.United States of America v. Anthony Valletto (February 12, 2003)
On September 9, 1998, two Breed members, Edward "Cheeks" Papendick and Michael Schwab, stabbed two Pagans, Michael "Tattoo Mike" Hare and Stephen "Snake" Smith, at Bacio Tattoo and Piercing Parlor in Trenton. After a period of negotiations between the national president of the Breed and a New Jersey State Police detective, Papendick and Schwab surrendered to police on September 18, 1998. The bikers were each charged with three counts of aggravated assault and one count of weapons offenses.State police negotiate surrender of tattoo-parlor stabbing suspects Home News Tribune (September 20, 1998)
Ten members of the Breed, including national president Salvatore "Old Man" DeIulio, were indicted on charges of extortion and sexual assault on January 28, 2000.8 Breed members face rape, extortion charges Amy Zurzola, Asbury Park Press (January 28, 2000) The club was allegedly running protection rackets on strip clubs, tattoo parlors and other businesses in Long Branch. The sexual assault charges were brought after four women, who danced at the clubs, complained to the Howell Township police. One woman claimed to have been chained to the floor for several days, forced to engage in oral sex with several men and beaten severely. David Snyder, a strip club owner and former Breed member, was allegedly assaulted after attempting to reduce the number of sexual assaults on the dancers. On November 4, 2000, five Breed members were acquitted of extortion conspiracy.Jury Acquits 5 Bikers of Charges They Schemed to Take Over Bar The New York Times (November 4, 2000) In June 2001, a Superior Court jury in Monmouth County acquitted Delulio of aggravated assault in a case in which he allegedly beat and sexually assaulted a nude dancer. However, a hung jury was declared on six other charges, including aggravated sexual assault and weapons possession.Indictments handed down for 2002 assault Sherry Conohan, Greater Media (July 4, 2003)
Breed members Sanford Gorzelsky, Scott Lear and Frederick M. "Guido" DeCapua were indicted in July 2003 and charged with robbery, aggravated assault, hindering apprehension, weapons possession and retaliation against a witness.Long Branch man was allegedly beaten by members of Breed The trio allegedly attacked former Breed member Arne "Ole" Olsen at a bar in West Long Branch on October 5, 2002, in retaliation for his testimony in a court case involving other club members.Accused biker claims self-defense Karen Sudol, Asbury Park Press (May 6, 2005) On May 11, 2005, Gorzelsky was convicted of aggravated assault, and Lear was found guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and retaliation, while DeCapua was acquitted of all charges.Biker club members guilty of assault Karen Sudol, Asbury Park Press (May 12, 2005)
New York On April 10, 1971, thirteen Breed members and associates, including Albert Doerbecker, the president of the Long Island chapter of the Breed, were arrested on weapons and narcotics charges after the Nassau County Police Department raided a party at the Long Island chapter clubhouse in Roosevelt, seizing guns, dynamite and drugs. 44 men and 16 women were also released without charge.Police Wrecked Club, Cyclists Say Laura Blackwell and Bob Wyrick, Newsday (April 12, 1971)