Donald Eugene Chambers

Donald Eugene Chambers (November 23, 1930 – July 18, 1999) was the American founder of the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle club, in 1966 in Houston, Texas. 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.

Life
Chambers was a Marine in the Vietnam War. 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. Chambers founded his own motorcycle club, the Bandidos, on March 4, 1966 in San Leon, Texas. He chose the club's colors, red and gold, after the official colors of the U.S. Marine Corps. 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 former 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.

Don Chambers is buried at a Houston cemetery beneath a large, flat grave stone inscribed with his name, affiliation with the Bandidos, and the quote, "We are the people our parents warned us about."