Talk:Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club

Possible sources
To anyone interested in expanding, there are literally hundreds of news stories on the club/gang. See Google news archive for example. Additionally, a couple hundred book hits are available: Google books search. --ThaddeusB (talk) 05:54, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Membership estimate
Please explain how these membership numbers are arrived at. Where in The Brotherhoods Veno does it say 850? --Dbratland (talk) 16:16, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I am going to agree with your edit summary when you said the real #s are pretty unclear and, as such, we probably should leave the field blank. --ThaddeusB (talk) 03:23, 18 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's probably better blank. There are some estimates in some sources covering one country or another, but no totals that you could add up and have them make sense.--Dbratland (talk) 04:07, 18 October 2009 (UTC)


 * As of today, the opening paragraph of this article ends with the sentence "They have about 40-150 members per chapter." Per CHAPTER??? Even though three references are cited immediately after that sentence, the sentence itself is unbelievable, or, at best, unbelievably vague. Most outlaw biker clubs have about 6 - 30 members per chapter (by members I mean full patch, probationaries, and prospects, or strikers, not hangarounds and associates). Anything much more than that is unmanageable, and usually additional chapters are formed if an individual chapter grows that much. I could see 40 - 150 per state, or per country, maybe. But a very vague sentence either way. Why not just say "They have about 5 to a million members per chapter?" Anyone care to defend this sentence as it stands or shall I slice it and dice it once I've double-checked the sources? Garth of the Forest (talk) 21:10, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Can you find a reliable source to back up your estimates? tedder (talk) 21:13, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * It looks like the claim of 40-150 per chapter was there when the page was created, although awkwardly worded.  It was unsourced and created by an editor who was blocked for uncited and misleading edits.  This edit reworded it to state in plainer words that there are, supposedly, 40-150 per chapter.Veno (2003) says a total of 120 full memebers in all of Australia, while MSN says 120-150 in that country, and I think they're basing that on Veno anyway.  The third source, from Oregon, doesn't estimate how many Gypsy Jokers there are.  Isaacs gives a rough estimate.  That is where I got my infobox edits.As I said in my edit summary at the time, I'm comfortable with deleting all mention of membership numbers unless better sources are available, or else just using very general round numbers without being too precise. --Dbratland (talk) 21:57, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I have removed the estimates since there isn't really anything reliable to post, as per the consensus in this thread. --ThaddeusB (talk) 02:34, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Use of Hunter Thompson as a source
Stumbled across this article and I wondered: GJMC is prominently featured in Hunter Thompson's Hells Angels. Though the material obviously dates to the early to mid-60s, it's a goldmine on the subject, and probably the best source on the early days of outlaw mc's. Has anyone thought to distill down the material and include it in this article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.16.19.142 (talk) 08:56, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

-- No, because the Gypsy Jokers of 1960s California are a totally different MC in a different country and era. The Australian bunch had formed a club and appropriated the name, it is said, after seeing an article about American MCs.

Dwayne "DOG" Chapman???
Isn't "The DOG" the most famous/notorious of all the ex-Gypsy Jokers??? I believe that he stated on one of the episodes on his now canceled TV show that he could not get the Gypsy Joker tattoo on one of his arms removed, so he had to have another tattoo placed over top to hide it. Is this important or no??johncheverly 00:25, 18 September 2012 (UTC)johncheverly — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johncheverly (talk • contribs)

Mandamas MC
Adelaide, South Australia. Friendly amalgamation between Mandamas MC and Gypsy Jokers MC in 1986.

This is a link to a sketch of their patch http://i.imgur.com/ipjYeba.png Description: Burning cross in front of a burning skull turned side on and facing left, with flames streaming to the right/rear.

They wore MANDAMAS in red on the top rocker and MC on the bottom. No town, no city, no state, no Australia, just MC.

Mandamas (originally a part of Iroquois MC) originally consisted of members that split from the Iroquois and joined with another local club, Filthy Few MC in 71 to form Mandamas MC. Former Filthy Few members wore a tiny FF in the top left corner of their patch. Mandamas wore the same red text on their top and bottom rocker as Hells Angels (without affiliation) until the formation of Hells Angels Adelaide from the mid 80's amalgamation of Iroquois MC and Barbarians MC. Mandamas then switched to black text (the colour that Filthy Few had previously used) for their top and bottom rockers for a few months prior to their own friendly amalgamation with the Jokers in 86. Prior to the Mandamas/Gypsy Joker amalgamation, Australian Gypsy Jokers MC were not officially affiliated with the American Gypsy Joker MC. The final President of Mandamas MC (Stewie) became the first president of the newly amalgamated Mandamas and Gypsy Jokers. The club was now nation-wide across Australia and officially affiliated with the American Gypsy Joker MC.

Bikie Wars: Both Iroquois and Mandamas were once one club called Iroquois MC and had originated from an earlier pre-1%er club from the Northern suburbs of Adelaide in the 60's - Elizabeth MC (Elizabeth being a city to the North of Adelaide). The reason Iroquois MC and Mandamas MC split was due to regional differences. Iroquois was a Southern and Western Suburbs club of Adelaide. Mandamas was formed from the Northern suburbs portion of that club. Their common meeting ground was the City of Adelaide, but both groups preferred their own local areas. Unlike those that remained Iroquois, most Mandamas were ex servicemen from Vietnam and/or of recent British and other Western European origin living in the Elizabeth area (10 miles North of Adelaide). The current Hells Angels clubhouse 5 miles South of Adelaide is the former Iroquois MC clubhouse, as was/is the club property at Ponde in the South Australian countryside. After the split, the two separate clubs had their own "bikie war". The first known gun shots fired in anger in an Australian bikie war were fired on a remote Adelaide beach in 1972 as Mandamas and Iroquois and their supporting clubs battled it out. Mandamas members often referred to this as the "Indian War". Individual members of Mandamas and Iroquois remained friends throughout the bikie war and some worked together amicably at the General Motors Holden plant in Elizabeth. The same pattern with much more deadly consequences was to be repeated with the Commanchero/Bandido split in New South Wales (Australia) in the 80's.

Some of this is verified in Appendix 1: A Brief History and Genealogy of Adelaide Motorcycle Clubs by Arthur Veno, PhD, Monash University, School of Social and Political Studies, which is stored on the Australian Parliament House website at http://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/wopapub/senate/committee/acc_ctte/completed_inquiries/2008_10/laoscg/submissions/sub10att1_pdf Veno gets some of it wrong.

Prominent members over the years were Goat (President), Punchy, Pig Pen, Joe Cool (died while a member of Vietnam Veterans MC), Snots, Doc Campbell (Sgt at Arms), Snake, Carrot, Louis the Fly, Snow and Stein. Punchy and Doc had sons who were the second generation of the club. All listed refused to join the Gyspy Jokers.

Doc's son, (also a former soldier and known virulent racist and anti-Semite) Cailen Cambeul later helped to found the White Supremacist group, the Creativity Alliance in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Britain, Europe, Russia, South America and the USA, and currently heads that group with chapters across the globe. For that reason, the Creativity Alliance creativityalliance.com could be said to be an offshoot of Mandamas MC. The Creativity Alliance does not have any affiliation with any motorcycle club, although it has been publicly stated by Cambeul that many members of the Creativity Alliance are former outlaw motorcyclists, including (amongst many) "Reverend" Joe Esposito, formerly of Hells Angels MC New York, whom currently holds the title of Imperator of Prisons within the group. Cambeul privately claims that without Mandamas, there would be no Creativity Alliance.

Update: Joe Esposito is now the Pontifex Maximus of the Creativity Alliance - Church of Creativity. Information at https://creativityalliance.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.42.16.42 (talk) 03:20, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090306035229/http://www.thewest.com.au:80/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=128305 to http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=128305
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070826091206/http://www.kgw.com:80/news-local/stories/kgw_082207_news_gypsy_joker_suit.5e62557b.html to http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_082207_news_gypsy_joker_suit.5e62557b.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 23:06, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20091007001253/http://news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,25656799-2862,00.html to http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,25656799-2862,00.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 21:00, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

GJMC actually unknown in Germany
This outlaw MC is virtually unknown in Germany - there are only two chapters according to the website gypsyjoker.de which was last updated in 2018. and the presence on FB is similar deserted. Probably the author has mistaken the Gypsy Jokers with the Gypsy MC which is probably a straight MC but like the GJ almost extinct, too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:560:427F:A200:B810:B788:D945:82C6 (talk) 18:57, 20 February 2021 (UTC)

Richard rose
Nephew would like to talk about his 2607:FB91:3EA6:C911:AD2:CC57:65FC:5DF2 (talk) 04:39, 12 September 2023 (UTC)