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In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s the San Bernardino, Redlands, Fon-tana areas known to the locals as the Inland Empire was a motor-cycle club hot spot. Clubs such as the El Diablos MC, Aztecas MC, Comencheros MC, and of course the first chapter of the Hells Angels all called the Inland Empire home. Although Lucky hung out with several different club members he managed to not ever get sucked into joining one. Lucky always found a reason not to join when asked, he liked most guys in the clubs, but there was always that guy or two that Lucky did not want to be associated with. Be it a junky or a drunk, or just a plain ol’ asshole, Lucky wanted nothing to do with someone who was not a stand up type guy.

There was one guy Lucky had met years back when he was about 16 years old that was the stand up guy that Lucky liked to surround himself with. Rudy Esparza, better known as “Puro” in the biker community was one of Lucky’s dearest friends back then, and remained one of his dearest friends until he passed away in late

So it Begins

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Rudy Esparza, better known as “Puro” in the biker community was one of Lucky’s dearest friends back then, and remained one of his dearest friends until he passed away.

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. . 4342 So it BeginsChapter 3

2013. The Spanish word “Puro” translates to “Pure” in English. When asked Lucky how Puro got his name he said, “Rudy was pure biker, pure badass, and a pure leader.” In 1962 Puro joined the Road Rebels MC but was not too happy with the direction of the club and some of its members. Puro was making moves to get out of the Road

Rebels and join up with another club when the Hells Angels steped up and patched over the Rebels they wanted and disband the rest of the club.

Puro made his exit without any trouble and began to hang out with another club called the Psychos MC, out of Redlands CA. Being the badass that Puro was, the Psychos MC members greeted him with open arms and let him in without prospecting. He quickly rose through the ranks and eventually became the clubs Vice Presi-dent. Things were going great for Puro and the Psychos members until the Heroine started making the rounds to 90% of the mem-bers. Puro was disgusted, he hated junkies and would vent to long time friend Lucky about it. Lucky shared Puros disgust for junkies and started telling him to get out. At the time, Puro wasn’t quite ready to just give up on his brothers, but as things got worse and the drug use got heavier it got harder and harder for Puro to stomach some of the guys he used to call brothers.

It wasn’t till Lucky decided it was time for him to stop the solo biker gig and join a club. But Lucky was not going to join just any club, he needed to know and trust all the guys he was going to share a patch with. So Lucky propositioned Puro, leave the Psychos and start a club with him. Puro’s first thought was “yeah right”, he knew Lucky was not the club member type guy… so he thought. Lucky already had been hand picking a few guys in his head and knew these guys would be down to start something up, especially if someone like Puro was involved. Lucky threw out a few names of guys he trusted and wouldn’t mind sharing a patch with to Puro, like Gil Carrasco, Tom Tom and Lucky’s Cousins Crazy John and Alex Estrada. This sparked Puro’s interest and he thought of a few guys he could trust and bring

in, like Little John, Whitey, and Psycho Freddie. Shit was starting to make sense to the two of them, so they pushed forward.

The next guy Lucky reached out to was Gil Carrasco. Another one of Lucky’s long time friends and fellow musician was an easy choice for a charter member. Gil was the most talented of the origi-nal 13 members says lucky. He was a custom car and bike painter around the same time legendary George Barris was making a name for himself. Gil gave George a run for his money with every paint job, yes… he was that good. Legend also has it that Gil was the guy responsible for teaching Denver Mullins how to paint. Gils Custom Paint was the shop he painted out of for many years, painting several cars and bikes that are still around today. Gil was a very underrated painter at the time, he just kept to himself and his little shop in Fon-tana. Gil was not only a talented painter he was one hell of a guitar-ist. Lucky shared the stage with Gil several times before the club was formed. The two of them played some of the famous Chicano hang outs like the unforgettable Latin Playboy in East Los Angeles. Gil even had the honors of backing up Mr. BB King himself a few times at the Royal Tahitian.

With Gil on board and ready to start a new MC, Puro and Lucky turned to brothers John and Alex Estrada, who happened to be Lucky’s cousins. “Crazy John” as he was known in the neighborhood would actually introduce himself as Crazy John; it used to throw people off. One look in his eyes, and there was no question why he bared the name Crazy John. Although he was only 17 at the time Crazy John was muscular and had a full moustache, Lucky says he looked like the actor Danny Trejo in the movie Machete. Crazy John was a tough son of a bitch that loved a good ol fashion fistfight; and at young age of 17, he had been in more fights than most of the other guys combined. But Crazy John was the “mel-low” one of the two brothers. Younger brother Alex was only 16 and had no fear what so ever. Actually his involvement in the Vagos MC was short lived. Three months after the club was an official MC, Alex

One look in his eyes, and there was no question why he bared the name Crazy John.

But Lucky was not going to join just any

club, he needed to know and trust all the

guys he was going to share a patch with.

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45. .44 So it BeginsChapter 3

shot his girlfriends dad. Luckily the gunshot wounds were not fatal and Alex only got 10 years in prison.

Now they were five, and Lucky had one more dude to bring to the table, a man known in the biker world as Tom Tom. Tom would introduce himself twice to everybody he met. “Hi I’m Tom…. Tom” nobody is sure if it was a nervous tick or he was just fooling around. Tom Tom was a somewhat quiet guy and did not have a reputation as a fighter. He did however have the ability to knock out of line douchebags with one punch. One of the most memorable things about Tom Tom was his old lady says Lucky. She used to love to fight, some would say more than Tom himself, and would often do some knocking out of douchebags herself.

With Lucky binging in the four guys and Puro they were now six. Both Lucky and Puro knew that was not enough heads to start a club. A Motorcycle Club with only six members would most likely get swallowed up by another club or possibly be disbanded by a more

established club in the area, and there wouldn’t be much they could do about it. Lucky turned to Puro and asked him whom he thought would make good club brothers. Puro did not hesitate to throw out four names of some solid dudes that would be down for their cause.

First on Puro’s list was his Psychos MC brother Freddy Ruiz, better known as Psycho Freddy. He was one of the only guys Puro trusted in the Psychos, and was the only one who split from the club to help Puro and Lucky start up the Vagos. Don’t let the name fool ya, Psycho Freddy’s nickname didn’t come from a 5150 diagnosis. The 31-year old mild mannered biker was a truck driver by trade and a pretty decent Harley mechanic on the side. The name simply came from him being a former member of the Psychos MC.

Next up was Moose; Lucky couldn’t remember his real name. He called him Moose for so long it simply who he was. There could have been a better nickname given to anyone in the club. Moose was just that, a freakin’ Moose! Standing 6’ 5” and pushing 300 pounds, he was one of those big guys that really never had to actually fight. One look at this behemoth and his leather wristband with a built in dagger and people just walked away, didn’t bother to challenge him, whether it was out of fear or respect nobody fucked with him. Moose was great says Lucky, whenever one of the guys got into a brawl with someone he would stand back and watch the door and all parties involved to make sure it was a fair fight. Moose might have been huge, but he was really a big ol teddy bear. He used to consider himself an artist and often drew moto related cartoons similar to the stuff you’d see in early Easyriders magazines, he definitely had a soft side to him.

Even though all the guys rode old choppers and knew how to work on them Puro realized they should have a true Harley Mechanic in the club. Enter Whitey, a Spanish speaking white boy that knew his way around a Harley better than anyone else he knew. Whitey, a for-mer Diablo MC member, had a nice knucklehead chopper and would ride the shit out of it, and was the clubs wheelie expert. Especially when he had his old lady on the back for the extra weight and traction.

With Lucky binging in the four guys and Puro they were now six.

Moose might have been huge, but he was really a big ol teddy bear.

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Whitey could get that front end up on his chopper and ride it through an intersection and totally freak out the squares. Whitey was a stand up guy says Lucky, so much that he ended up getting voted in as Sec-retary/Treasurer during the first go around of officer voting.

The last guy Puro brought to the table was a 16-year-old kid they called Little John. Although he was young, it never stopped him from hanging in the bars and throwing a few back with some of the more

seasoned guys. He was the youngest of 3 brothers and the only one of them that had a passion for choppers and the biker lifestyle. Funny thing about Little John’s brothers, they wanted nothing to do with choppers or the club life till after he helped start the Vagos and was fully immersed in the club life. John’s older brothers started

noticing the attention he would get from some of the biker mamas that would do just about anything to get a ride on a sweet Panhead chopper. Little John’s Panhead chopper was legendary in the neigh-borhood. A few of the old timers that he hung out with helped John put together one badass scooter that was the envy of many club mem-bers in the Inland Empire.

If you have been keeping track, the soon to be Vagos MC was now at 10 people that were ready to commit themselves to a brand new brotherhood. The other 3 original members were at the right place at the right time. Both Lucky and Puro knew Harley Hog, Squirrel, and Animal from various biker runs and the local bar scene. When rumors started floating around the San Bernardino area that Puro and Lucky were forming a new club these three stepped up to the plate and wanted in. Back in the 60’s the Motorcycle Clubs were not a big threat to the local or federal police so the thought of a law informant infiltrating the brotherhood was not even a thought yet. If you were down for the cause, you could prospect or as in this case, become a charter member without going through all the background checks members are put through these days. For this reason, Harley Hog, Squirrel, and Animal were accepted with open arms into the soon to be Vagos Brotherhood.

Jesse, or Harley Hog Jes as he was known was quite the charmer and party animal. Harley Hog took pride in his American Made Iron and would let you have it if you rode a Jap or Brit bike. It was this pride and arrogance that got him the name Harley Hog. Although he stayed away from all the free flowing drugs of the ‘60s, the guy could drink like a fish. Luckily for everyone around, he was a happy drunk, had more and more fun with every drink. The only thing that really used to set him off was when people asked him “what tribe he was from”. Ya see, Harley Hog looked a little Native Ameri-can, and for some unknown reason hated being mistaken for one. He used to scream that he “AINT NO WAGON BURNER”. Besides that, he was that one guy in every group that everybody loved and wanted to be around.

Harley Hog was the only guy of the 13 that did not live in the immediate area. He lived in La Quinta California, about 100 miles east of the San Bernardino area. He had no problem making the trip on his 1960 something Harley Davidson Panhead. That soon

The soon to be Vagos MC was now at 10 people that were ready to commit themselves to a brand new brotherhood. The other 3 original members were at the right place at the right time. Both Lucky and Puro knew Harley Hog, Squirrel, and Animal from various biker runs and the local bar scene.

...Harley Hog, Squirrel, and Animal were

accepted with open arms into the soon to be Vagos Brotherhood.

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