Education
He chose the club"s colors, red and gold, after the official colors of the United States. Marine Corps.
He chose the club"s colors, red and gold, after the official colors of the United States. Marine Corps.
He was a Marine Vietnam veteran who created his club after his return. He was convicted of murdering two drug dealers in 1972 and served a life sentence until his parole in 1983. Chambers was a Marine in the Vietnam War.
Chambers founded his own motorcycle club, the Bandidos, on March 4, 1966 in San Leon, Texas.
In 1968 Chambers created the second Bandidos chapter in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1972, Don Chambers, Jesse "Deal" Fain and Ray Vincente abducted two drug dealers in El Paso, Texas.
The dealers, Marley Leon and Preston LeRay Tarver, had sold baking soda to the Bandidos, claiming it was methamphetamine. The Bandidos drove the two dealers into the desert north of the city.
There, the dealers were forced to dig their own graves, after which the bikers shot them with shotguns and set fire to their bodies.
Chambers, Deal and Vincente were all convicted of these murders, with testimony given by an eyewitness to the event. They all received life sentences. With Chambers in prison, Ronald Jerome Hodge, commonly known as Ronnie Hodge, another ex-Marine, was elected the club"s new national president
Hodge was known previously as "Mr.
Prospect," because he had earned his full colors in only a month, but once elected he went by the street name "Stepmother", in reference to Chambers street name "Mother". In 1983, Chambers was paroled and retired from his club
He settled in El Paso, Texas, until his death on July 18, 1999.
Bandidos Motorcycle Club]
When he came back to Texas after the war, he became a member of many motorcycle clubs, but he found them too tame for his tastes.