On this day, June 14, in 1966, a motorcycle gang shootout between the Maryland-based Pagans and the Virginia Avengers rocked an Arlington shopping center in what police then called the worst violence in the county since the Civil War.
The Pagans were founded in Prince George’s County by Lou Dobkins, a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health, and was trying to become an East Coast model of the Hell’s Angels.
The Pagans wore denim vests depicting a fire-giant wielding a flaming sword. The Avengers’ colors featured a big Maltese cross and skull.
At a parking lot on Lee Highway, the Pagans ambushed the Virginia group. One youth was injured, 16 were arrested and a cache of bolt-action rifles and pistols were confiscated.
— Scott McCabe
