Gypsy Joker Outlaw Club members get life in federal prison.

KCBS Radio San Francisco
Motorcycle gang leaders get life in prison for torturing and murdering ex-member
Members of the “Gypsy Joker Outlaw Motorcycle Club” were sentenced to life in federal prison Thursday for kidnapping, torturing, and murdering a former club member, according to the Department of Justice.

Mark Leroy Dencklau, 61, of Woodburn, Oregon – who served as president of the club’s Portland, Ore., clubhouse from 2003 to his arrest for this crime in 2018 – and 51-year-old member Chad Leroy Erickson of Rainier, Ore., were convicted of murder at a December 2021 trial before they were sentenced.

According to evidence presented during that trial, former Gypsy Joker Outlaw Club member Robert Huggins 56, was found dead in a Clark County, Wash., field July 1, 2015. He had previously been stripped of his club membership for allegedly stealing from Dencklau. After Huggins’ alleged robbery, Dencklau reportedly ordered other members of the club to find Huggins.

Dencklau and others kidnapped Huggins the evening of June 30, 2015, according to trial testimony. They brought him to a rural property in Southwest Washington where, over several hours, they allegedly severely beat and tortured Huggins.

As he was tortured, Huggins sustained injuries to his head and face, including a fractured skull. There were also lacerations of his chest and torso and Erickson allegedly stabbed him in the leg. While taking part in the torture, Erickson slashed Huggin’s tattoo with a knife.

He also helped load Huggins’ body into a vehicle that brought him to the field where he was discovered. A medical examiner ruled that Huggins’ death was caused by multiple blunt and sharp force injuries.

Documents presented at court characterize the Gypsy Joker Outlaw Club as “a criminal organization wherein members and associates maintain their position and status in the organization by participating in, directly or indirectly, various acts of violent racketeering activity including murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, narcotics trafficking, and witness tampering.”

According to the website onepercenterbikers.com, the club is a one-percenter motorcycle club founded in San Francisco, Calif., in 1956. One-percenter clubs are identified as the 1% of “outlaw clubs by the website, whereas it claims 99% of motorcycle clubs are “law abiding citizens.”

The Portland Police Bureau and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case with assistance from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), U.S. Marshals Service, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State Police and the Oregon and Washington State Crime Labs.

 

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