Harry Bowman

Harry Joseph Bowman (July 17, 1949 – March 3, 2019), also known as "Taco", was an American outlaw biker and gangster who served as the international president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club between 1984 and 1999.

During his tenure as president, the club had chapters in more than 30 cities in the United States and some 20 chapters in at least four other countries.

One of five children of Geraldine (née Kramp; 1922–2012) and Hiram Joseph Bowman (died 1970), he was born in Marysville, Michigan on July 17, 1949.

His mother worked as an accountant for the United States government.

Bowman was raised on a farm on Range Road in St. Clair Township and graduated from Port Huron Catholic High School.

Captain James Carmody of the Port Huron Police, who also attended Port Huron Catholic High, said of Bowman and his brothers: "They had a tough upbringing and they had a reputation as being tough guys".

Another former schoolmate remembered Bowman as being "quite friendly".

Bowman was arrested twice by Port Huron police for disorderly conduct in the 1960s.

He received the nickname "Taco" because of his dark complexion and resemblance to a person of Hispanic descent.

Bowman became the president of the Detroit chapter of the Outlaws in 1970.

A protégé of the Outlaws' Dayton, Ohio-based national president Harold "Stairway Harry" Henderson, he also served as leader of the club's "North" region and became the national vice-president in the late 1970s.

By that time, the Outlaws had become one of the largest motorcycle gangs in the United States and were involved in various illegal activities, although members also ran legitimate businesses.

Under Bowman's leadership, the Detroit Outlaws were the most senior of the approximately 35 biker gangs in the city, specializing in drug trafficking, prostitution, extortion, gambling and bombings.

The Detroit Partnership also began outsourcing enforcement work to the club, with Francesco "Frankie the Bomb" Bommarito acting as the Mafia's emissary to the biker milieu in Southeast Michigan.

In June 1975, an alliance was formed between the Outlaws and Satan's Choice, the largest biker gang in Canada.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Outlaws were the exclusive distributors in the United States of the PCP and methamphetamine manufactured by Choice members in Northern Ontario.

Another advantage of the alliance was a "fugitive exchange program", in which Outlaws members fleeing American law enforcement could be harbored by Satan's Choice in Canada, and Canadian fugitive bikers could take refuge with the Outlaws in the U.S. Bowman spent time hiding out with the Kitchener, Ontario Satan's Choice chapter under the mutual aid pact.

He was present at the Kitchener chapter clubhouse when Satan's Choice biker Lorne Campbell almost got into a fight with an Outlaws member from Nashville in a dispute over a mutual girlfriend.

Campbell threatened to throw the Outlaw down a staircase but, following biker protocol, sent for Bowman before doing so.

Bowman was able to mollify Campbell and save the Outlaw from harm.

Campbell later said Bowman was "a nice guy".

Bowman was instrumental in the Outlaws' development into an international club by "patching over" several Satan's Choice chapters.

He courted Garnet "Mother" McEwen, the Choice St. Catharines chapter president who advocated for "Yankeeization" of his club, during several visits by McEwen to the U.S. Members of the Detroit Outlaws were invited by McEwen to provide intimidation at a meeting in Crystal Beach, Ontario on July 1, 1977, at which eight of the thirteen Satan's Choice chapters defected to join the Outlaws.

According to Philip Reich of the Detroit Police Department motorcycle gang unit, who first encountered Bowman in 1980: "At the time, he lived in the Outlaws clubhouse [on the east side of Detroit], but he hung out in a topless bar called the Please Station, a little hole in the wall on Seven Mile, just west of Van Dyke. Taco went there quite a bit; in those days, a lot of the bikers were agents to the strippers."

Reich described Bowman as "a very interesting, bright guy" and said of him: "I can't say I admired what he did for a living, but I admired his leadership abilities."

In addition to illegal enterprises, Bowman and the Detroit Outlaws also ran a motorcycle repair facility and a T-shirt shop in the Eastern Market.

One popular T-shirt design that Bowman sold featured two pistols pointing at the Renaissance Center with the caption: "Visit Detroit, Murder City."

Another design worn and distributed by Bowman proclaimed "Snitches are a dying breed", an Outlaws motto.

On March 3, 1982, Bowman allegedly killed Arthur Allen "Good Old Speed" Vincent, a probationary member of the Dayton Outlaws, for "running his mouth".

Vincent's decomposed body was discovered in a wooded area on Old Tomoka Road in Ormond Beach, Florida, and an autopsy revealed he had died by homicide.

The murder remains unsolved.

Bowman succeeded Harry Henderson as Outlaws international president after his mentor resigned due to ongoing legal issues, and he was appointed the club's leader at a summit in Joliet, Illinois in February 1984.

He relocated the Outlaws' international headquarters from Chicago to Detroit and conducted his presidential activities from the Detroit chapter's fortified clubhouse on Warren Avenue, overseeing various matters, from setting the club's policies regarding rival motorcycle gangs to monitoring the activities of members.

Upon his ascendency to the Outlaws presidency, Bowman moved to the affluent Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms, where he lived with his wife and three children and enrolled his daughters, Kellie, Krystin and Kortney, in expensive local private schools.

Eschewing the stereotypical long haired, bearded biker image, he was generally clean shaven, sporting neatly-coiffed hair and was known to wear expensive suits.

Considered one the most notorious motorcycle gang leaders in U.S. history, Bowman escalated a biker war between the Outlaws and the Hells Angels in the 1990s.

He became the 453rd fugitive listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list after he was indicted on federal racketeering and murder charges in August 1997.

After 18 months as a fugitive, Bowman was apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) near Detroit in June 1999.

He was convicted in Tampa, Florida, in April 2001 of the murders of gang members, firebombings, racketeering, conspiracy and various drug and firearm offenses.

Bowman was sentenced to serve two life prison sentences plus 83 years.