In 1982, Ross broken the Comancheros into two chapters with one remaining under his leadership while Spencer became the president of the new Birchgrove chapter.
By this point, Spencer was complaining that Ross – whom he had once revered – was treating him like a child in need of his strict supervision.
Ross attempted to enter a Kings Cross pub while clearly intoxicated and was refused admittance by the pub's Maori bouncers.
When Ross tried to force his way in, he was beaten up.
Ross demanded that all of the Comancheros join him in seeking revenge for the beating, and was enraged when Spencer refused to have the Birchgrove chapter involved.
Relations between the two chapters started to go into a rapid decline.
In one of his first acts as a chapter president, Spencer visited the United States to buy parts for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which were both difficult and expensive to obtain in Australia at the time.
The trip to the United States was Spencer's first visit outside of Australia as until then he had lived his entire life in New South Wales and Queensland.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Spencer met Ronnie Hodge, the president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club whose headquarters are in Houston, Texas.
When Hodge told him that he was willing to open a pipeline for selling both legitimate and stolen motorcycle parts in Australia, Spencer jumped at the chance and took him up on his offer.
In return, Hodge wanted Spencer to export chemicals legal in Australia to the United States.
At the time, P2P, one of the chemicals necessary for manufacture of amphetamines, was legal in Australia, but not in the United States.
The Bandidos wanted an alliance to have P2P smuggled into the United States to assist with manufacturing amphetamines, the market for which they dominated in Texas.
Peter John Hill, the president of the Hells Angels Melbourne chapter, had been shipping P2P to the American Hells Angels, and Hodge wanted to copy that arrangement.
Hodge offered to teach Spencer how to make amphetamine.
Hodge had once served in the United States Marine Corps, and formed a strong rapport with the former sailor Spencer, who admitted to him that he found Ross to be too overbearing.
Upon his return to Australia, Spencer was already talking about joining the Bandidos.
1983
In November 1983, the Birchgrove Comanchero chapter under Spencer broke away to form the first Australian chapter of the Bandidos.
Ross demanded the return of the former Comanchero "colours", a demand that was only partially met as a number of the Comanchero colours had been mailed off to Texas, which proved to be the source of much ill-will.
Spencer appointed Colin "Caesar" Campbell to be his sergeant-at-arms.
1985
Anthony Mark Spencer (1955 – 28 April 1985) was an Australian outlaw biker noted for his role in the Milperra massacre of 1984.
Spencer was born into a broken home, and was not even certain if Anthony Mark Spencer was his birth name as he grew up in a series of foster homes in the Sydney area.
He never knew his father while his mentally ill mother committed suicide.
As a "throw-away kid" whom no-one ever really cared about, he was a sad, lonely child who desperately sought love and affection, which he never received.
While he was "in care" at an Anglican boys home at the age of 11, he was seized by the other boys who forced his head into a full bathtub in an unsuccessful attempt to drown him.
The incident left Spencer with an intense aquaphobia (fear of water).
A barely literate boy, he took to writing out his feelings in a diary full of spelling mistakes, a habit that was to endure for the rest of his life.
Spencer alternated between moments of intense depression where he would cry for hours and a stoic acceptance of his "fate to be a boy to be despised".
In an attempt to conquer his aquaphobia, Spencer joined the Royal Australian Navy at the age of 17.
Spencer was so unused to affection that he was known to break into tears of joy when any of the other sailors showed him any kindness.
During his brief career in the navy, Spencer took to heavy drinking and marijuana use, both of which proved to be lifelong habits.
After his discharge from the navy at the age of 19, Spencer joined the Comanchero Motorcycle Club led by "Jock" Ross.
He was so desperate to join the Comancheros that he lied about his military service, claiming to have served in the Australian Army and to have fought in the Vietnam war, claims that had no foundation in reality.
Spencer came to see the Comancheros as a surrogate family and "Jock" Ross as his surrogate father who gave him the love that he had never received from the father he had never known.
His biker name was "Snodgrass" or "Snoddy" for short.
Spencer's relations with Ross started to decline when he was not invited to Ross's wedding.
Ross's bride, Vanessa Eaves, had vetoed having Spencer at the wedding under the grounds that: "Snoddy is always stoned and you know how stupid he gets. I'm not going to have him ruin my wedding".
Spencer was greatly hurt at being excluded from Ross's wedding.
Spencer formed a common-law relationship with his girlfriend, Lee Denholm.
Having a stable relationship also weakened his loyalty to Ross as he no longer needed his approval to feel loved.
