# Boozefighters > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Boozefighters > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Boozefighters.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boozefighters > Source revision: 1351326972 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|International motorcycle club}} thumb|A member of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club in 2026 The '''Boozefighters Motorcycle Club''' (BFMC) [motorcycle club](/source/motorcycle_club) was founded in California after the end of [World War II](/source/World_War_II). {{CN|date=August 2022}} == Foundation: Wino Willie Forkner == Its founder was William Clyde "Wino Willie" Forkner Jr. had served in the military during [World War Two](/source/World_War_Two) and had a difficult time adjusting to civilian life after the war.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=14}}{{sfn|Diffords}} He had been a member of the 13 Rebels Motorcycle Club for two years prior to the [attack on Pearl Harbor](/source/attack_on_Pearl_Harbor). His nickname "Wino Willie" had come about at age 12 because he liked to drink [red wine](/source/red_wine).{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=14}} During the war, he had risen in the ranks of the [Army Air Corps](/source/United_States_Army_Air_Corps) and then fallen again as the result of a drunken incident in a bar.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=14}} After it ended, he re-joined the 13 Rebels. In 1946, he had his membership stripped from him by the other members after an incident at a quarter-mile race in San Diego where he got bored and drunk. He drove his own motorcycle through a wooden gate onto the racetrack, around the track, and eventually lost control.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=15}} Disillusioned, drunk, and angry, one evening he and three other former servicemen were drinking at the All-American Bar in Los Angeles. They decided to form a new motorcycle club themselves, taking the name from a shouted suggestion from a fellow bar patron named Walt Porter. They overheard their conversation to "Call it the Boozefighters."{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=15}} The four recruited another 16 members, all war veterans with one exception, Jim Morrison, a teenager, and applied for [American Motorcyclist Association](/source/American_Motorcyclist_Association) (AMA) membership, with C. B. Clauson, former paratrooper, as the club president.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=16}} Forkner later reported that the AMA president declined the application stating that "No goddamn way am I giving a name like that to a charter."{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=16}} The club began to grow, having three chapters (in Los Angeles, San Pedro, and San Francisco), by 1947.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=16}} Members of all three attended the [Hollister riot](/source/Hollister_riot) that year.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=18}} The L.A. chapter got drunk before it even arrived at Hollister, starting out on the Thursday before the weekend by drinking in the All-American Bar, driving to [Santa Barbara](/source/Santa_Barbara%2C_California), drinking there, driving to [San Luis Obispo](/source/San_Luis_Obispo) where they were too drunk to drive on that day and decided to sleep in a bus terminal, driving on the next day to [King City](/source/King_City%2C_California), buying more alcohol from a liquor store, and then driving on.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=18}} Wino Willie was mistakenly arrested at the riot, for purportedly inciting a riot and a jailbreak of other bikers who had already been arrested, when in fact he was trying to do the opposite and talk the mob out of staging a jailbreak.{{sfn|Barker|2014|p=19}} When racing, Wino Willie wore the colors of another motorcycle club, the Yellow Jackets, rather than Boozefighters colors.{{sfn|Hayes|2018|p=217}} == Later years == The movie ''[The Wild One](/source/The_Wild_One)'', which Wino Willie initially consulted on but eventually resigned from over the way that bikers were being portrayed, boosted membership of the club during the 1950s.{{sfn|Diffords}} Club membership then shrank, as members retired or died during the 1960s, only for its numbers to swell again because of the [Vietnam War](/source/Vietnam_War) as it was joined once again by ex-servicemen.{{sfn|Diffords}} By the 21st century it had grown to become an international organization, with chapters in various European countries, Canada, The Philippines, South Korea and Japan. {{sfn|Diffords}} {{expand section|date=April 2021}} == Cross-reference == {{Reflist|20em}} == Sources == {{refbegin}} * {{cite book|title=Biker Gangs and Transnational Organized Crime|chapter=Enter the One-Percenters|author1-first=Thomas|author1-last=Barker|edition=2nd|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=9781317524113}} * {{cite encyclopaedia|article=Yellow Jackets|encyclopaedia=The One Percenter Encyclopedia: The World of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs from Abyss Ghosts to Zombies Elite|author1-first=Bill|author1-last=Hayes|publisher=Motorbooks|year=2018|isbn=9780760360538}} * {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Diffords}}|title=A drinking club with a motorcycle problem|author=Jeff|work=Difford's Guide|url=https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclopedia/1201/people/a-drinking-club-with-a-motorcycle-problem}} {{refend}} == Further reading == * {{cite book|title=The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club|author1-first=Bill|author1-last=Hayes|publisher=[Motorbooks](/source/Motorbooks)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NL4UIEZohVwC|year=2010|isbn=9781616739911}} 288 pages. ==External links== *[https://bfmc50.com/ Website] {{Authority control}} Category:Motorcycle clubs in the United States Category:1946 establishments in California Category:Organizations based in Fort Worth, Texas --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Boozefighters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boozefighters) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boozefighters?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.