Two Clubs, One Name: Read This First
Almost every mistake made about the Warlocks starts in the same place. There are two unrelated motorcycle clubs using the name, and news reports, forum posts and reference sites mix them constantly.
| Florida Warlocks MC | Pennsylvania Warlocks MC | |
|---|---|---|
| Center patch | Phoenix, also called the Warbird | Harpy, a bird figure with a human face |
| Colors | Orange, red and gold on black | Red and white |
| Formed | 1967, per club history | February 1967, per published accounts |
| Base area | Lockhart and Orlando, Florida | Southwest Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania |
| Federal description | ”Warlocks outlaw motorcycle gang” in ATF and prosecution filings | ”Warlock motorcycle gang” in Eastern District of Pennsylvania prosecutions |
They do not share leadership, bylaws, patches or history. Each disputes the other’s claim to the name. Sections below that concern only one of them say so explicitly.
Most of this article covers the Florida club, because that is what the majority of Warlocks searches are looking for. The Pennsylvania club gets its own section further down, sourced separately.
A note on what this article does not do. It is a one-percenter club profile written as history, not as current intelligence. We do not publish current rosters, officers, clubhouse locations, event schedules or chapter maps for any club, and every figure below carries the year it comes from.
The Florida Warlocks: Founding Account
Secondary histories set the Florida club’s origin aboard the USS Shangri-La, a US Navy aircraft carrier, and connect Thomas “Grub” Freeland to the first Florida chapter in 1967. The accounts do not agree on every detail, including the number of sailors involved and the exact year discussions began.
No Navy record or contemporaneous document cited here establishes the founding roster, the first discussion aboard ship, or the later claim that every participant intended to create a separate chapter. This page therefore treats the carrier account as a secondary founding narrative rather than a verified chronology.
Treat the details of that account with care. It is consistent across the sources that repeat it, but it traces back to the club and to people close to it, not to Navy deployment records or any contemporaneous document. Even the founding city is not fully settled: most accounts say Lockhart or Orlando, while at least one reference work lists Jacksonville Beach. Where a founding story is this specific and this thinly documented, the honest label is club history.
Several major American clubs formed around men coming out of military service, including the Outlaws MC in its post-war Chicago period. The available sources do not establish why the Warlocks name was chosen or what it signaled to the founders.
The Name Dispute with Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania club’s position is that the name was taken from them, and that Florida members picked it up while visiting the Philadelphia Navy Yards in the late 1960s. The Florida club rejects that account and says it chose the name independently aboard the Shangri-La.
No document settles it. Both clubs were formed around the same year on opposite ends of the East Coast, both accounts come from the clubs themselves, and no court has ruled on the naming question. What is not in dispute is that the two are separate organizations with separate patches, and that neither recognizes the other’s claim.
We are stating that as an unresolved dispute on purpose. It is repeatedly written up online as settled fact in one direction or the other, and it is not.
Warlocks MC Patch and Colors
The Florida Warlocks center patch is a Phoenix, sometimes referred to as the “Warbird,” rendered in orange, red and gold against black. The Pennsylvania club uses a different emblem, which is one practical way to avoid confusing the two organizations.
The Phoenix is a rebirth symbol in Greek and Roman mythology, but the available sources do not establish why the founders selected it or what meaning the club assigns to it.
The patch is worn as a traditional three-piece back patch:
- Top rocker: “Warlocks” in an arched banner
- Center patch: The Phoenix or Warbird emblem
- Bottom rocker: The chapter location
The club’s colors are orange, red, gold and black. Beyond the description of the patch itself, we do not publish this club’s rules about who may wear it or what happens to those who misuse it. Those rules are internal, they differ between clubs, and the versions in circulation are a generic template with a club name attached. Our guide to what biker patches actually mean works through why that generalization keeps producing wrong information.
Where the Florida Warlocks Have Been Documented
Available court, agency and news records provide dated snapshots rather than a reliable current chapter map. Enthusiast reference sites publish exact totals, but those figures are not used here because they cannot be traced to a court filing, agency report or contemporaneous news archive.
Here is what can actually be sourced, with dates attached.
July 2003, from contemporaneous reporting. A two-year undercover ATF investigation ended in a coordinated sweep across Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, Maryland and South Carolina. Reporting described 34 arrests and nearly 50 searches across the investigation. Authorities reported recovering more than 120 firearms, over $25,000 in cash, body armor and quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. Those are investigation-wide totals, not convictions or a current membership count.
2014, from Canadian reporting. Members of a Warlocks chapter were arrested in Drayton Valley, Alberta, which places the club in western Canada at that date.
2024, from Florida police. Titusville Police reported arrests after a confrontation involving a person it identified as a Warlocks member and three people it identified as Mongols members. The report documents a Florida presence at that date, not the size or structure of the organization.
Together, those sources document activity in six US states in 2003, Alberta in 2014 and Florida in 2024. None establishes a current chapter count, country list or territory map.
Independent gear, no club affiliation. Bobber Brothers is not connected to the Warlocks or any motorcycle club. Our patch and accessories collection and biker tees carry our own artwork and do not reproduce any club’s colors or insignia.
Structure: What Is Sourced and What Is Assumed
Outlaw motorcycle clubs generally use a chapter officer set of president, vice president, sergeant-at-arms, road captain and secretary or treasurer, with a probationary period before a member wears full colors. Federal court opinions describe that pattern for several clubs, and the 2003 reporting on the Florida Warlocks refers to a national president, which confirms a national tier above chapter level.
Beyond that, we are not going to describe this club’s internal chain of command, its bylaws, its prospecting requirements or which chapter holds authority over which. Those specifics circulate widely and none of them are traceable to an authenticated club document or a court record. Reproducing them would mean presenting the generic outlaw-MC template as verified fact about one named organization, which is exactly the error this page is being corrected for.
Documented Inter-Club Conflict
This page previously described a Warlocks rivalry with the Pagans MC based on geographic overlap. Proximity is not proof of a rivalry, and no incident-level source cited here establishes that claim, so it is not presented as fact.
The public record does establish other conflicts. The 2001 racketeering conviction of Outlaws international president Harry Bowman included the bombing of Warlocks clubhouses among the proven racketeering acts. The 2024 Titusville police report documents a confrontation involving people identified as Warlocks and Mongols members.
Those records concern specific incidents and named defendants. They do not support a permanent alliance or rivalry map. Our roundup of the best-known American motorcycle clubs uses the same dated, source-specific approach.
The Florida Warlocks and Federal Law Enforcement
The most fully documented federal action against the Florida club is the July 2003 sweep described above: a two-year undercover investigation, 34 arrests and nearly 50 searches across six states. ATF led it, and federal searches were also executed against Hells Angels members in Maryland as part of the wider investigation.
Two framing points belong here. Charges are allegations until a court resolves them, and a member’s conviction is a finding about that person, not about everyone who wears the patch. The club’s own position, like that of most clubs described this way, is that it is a motorcycle club rather than a criminal organization.
Limits of the Public Record
The sources cited here do not establish riding requirements, mandatory runs, attendance rules, charity activity or whether members must ride a particular motorcycle brand. Those claims often appear as a generic one-percenter template rather than as documented rules of this club.
The 2003 federal action establishes a national leadership title and activity across several states at that date. It does not establish how members are expected to behave, what the club currently requires of them, or what it does in its communities.
The one-percenter identity itself is better documented than any individual club’s internal life, and it is the right place to start if you want to understand what the diamond patch signals rather than what any one organization requires of its members.
The Pennsylvania Warlocks: A Separate Club, Sourced Separately
Everything above concerns the Florida club. This section concerns the other one, and none of it should be read across.
The Pennsylvania Warlocks are centered on southwest Philadelphia and Delaware County, and they wear a Harpy, a bird figure with a human face out of Greek and Roman mythology, in red and white. Published accounts place the club’s formation in 1967, the same year the Florida club dates itself to, which is the root of the naming dispute described earlier.
Unlike most claims about either organization, this club’s presence in the Philadelphia area is documented in court records with names and dates.
Federal drug case, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Andrew Carr, 59, of Upper Darby, described by prosecutors as a member of the Chester chapter of the Warlocks, was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and sentenced to 132 months in prison by US District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno. Prosecutors described him as the collector for a trafficking operation selling in the Philadelphia and Delaware County area, and said he wore his Warlocks jacket while making collections. Eight members and associates of that operation were convicted. The FBI led the investigation.
State murder case, Philadelphia. In August 2023 the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced the conviction of Michael DiMauro, identified as a Warlocks member, on first-degree murder, conspiracy, abuse of corpse and firearms charges in the 2017 killing of David Rossillo Jr., whose remains were left in a Mount Moriah Cemetery crypt. A second member, Michael DeLuca, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in a related killing, and further co-defendants pleaded guilty to helping dispose of the bodies.
Those are convictions of named individuals for their own conduct. They establish that this club existed in those places at those dates and that these members did these things. They do not establish a chapter count, a territory, or anything about the membership at large, and this page does not extend them that way.
We are also not publishing a chapter list, a current membership figure or a territory map for the Pennsylvania club, for the same reason we do not publish one for the Florida club. No primary source we could reach supplies one.
What Recent Records Establish
The 2023 Philadelphia conviction documents a Pennsylvania Warlocks member. The 2024 Titusville police report documents a Florida Warlocks member. Those records establish activity involving people identified with each organization at those dates. They do not establish current leadership, membership totals, chapter counts or international reach.
If you want to read the East Coast outlaw world in context, compare the dated records for the Warlocks with those for the Outlaws and Pagans. The wider motorcycle culture these clubs came out of is better documented than any current club-wide census.
Sources
- Warlock Motorcycle Gang Member Convicted of Drug Trafficking - US Attorney, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Source for the conviction of a Chester chapter member and the description of the trafficking operation
- Warlock Motorcycle Gang Member Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison - US Attorney, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Source for the 132-month sentence, the sentencing judge and the total of eight convictions in the case
- Warlocks Gang Member Convicted of First Degree Murder - Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, August 2023. Source for the DiMauro conviction, the charges and the related guilty pleas
- Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs - Archived Justice Department overview of outlaw motorcycle gang classification, used for the classification claim and its archived status
- 3 Arrested in Md. in Probe of Biker Clubs - Washington Post, July 2003. Contemporaneous account of the six-state ATF sweep, undercover investigation and arrests
- Biker Gang Probe Nets 34 Arrests in 6 States - Baltimore Sun report republished by Police1. Source for the 34 arrests, nearly 50 searches and reported seizures
- Members of Warlocks outlaw motorcycle gang arrested in Drayton Valley - Global News, March 2014. Source for the dated Alberta presence and arrests
- Multiple Motorcycle Gang Members Arrested - Titusville Police Department. Source for the 2024 confrontation and the club identifications made by police
- United States v. Bowman - Eleventh Circuit opinion, used only for the proven bombing of Warlocks clubhouses in the Outlaws racketeering case
- A Brief History of the Warlocks Motorcycle Club - Secondary overview used only for the founding accounts and the Florida versus Pennsylvania distinction, not for chapter counts or current reach
- Barker, Thomas. Biker Gangs and Organized Crime. Anderson Publishing, 2007 - Academic overview of outlaw club structures, used for general organizational patterns rather than club-specific claims
If you want the wider picture of club types, patches and terminology, our motorcycle clubs complete guide covers it end to end.
