Remembering a Gang War in Arlington
On the night of June 14, 1966, a gun battle between two rival motorcycle “gangs” took place in the Safeway parking lot at the corner of Lee Highway and Harrison Street.
On the night of June 14, 1966, a gun battle between two rival motorcycle “gangs” took place in the Safeway parking lot at the corner of Lee Highway and Harrison Street in Arlington. At the center of the drama was Wayne Hager – a young man who never backed down from a fight enjoyed his motorcycles, and cherished his 1965 Chevrolet Impala; it was that Impala that ignited a night of terror in Arlington that made national news.
Arlington police and Virginia state troopers, stationed nearby after having been tipped off in advance, would swoop in and arrest nearly a score of 17- 23-year-old denim-jacketed members of rival gangs called the Pagans and the Avengers. The officers would impound eight cars and confiscate dozens of weapons, including rifles, pistols, blackjacks, sawed-off shotguns, and a baseball bat studded with nails.
In the words of Arlington County Police Chief William G. Fawver, "It was the most serious outbreak of mass violence this county has ever seen." The melee drew front-page coverage in all the area dailies: "Rival Hot Rod and Cycle Clubs Have Gun Battle in Arlington; 18 Youths Held," blared the headline in the Washington Daily News.
Astonishingly, not a single participating gang member or passerby was killed or seriously injured. But fears that placid Arlington was now threatened with a severe gang problem rippled across the county as political leaders, law enforcement professionals, and neighborhood residents joined a debate over whether the hair-raising event should have been prevented.
The tensions that ignited the 1966 shootout were born a good four years earlier, according to Wayne Hager, who, at the time the bullets flew, was a 25-year-old meat cutter employed by Safeway. The Pagans had a rule that no one could "go to church without colors," which meant no one but proven members could attend Pagan meetings. Flouting this, Hager rode his cycle to many of the same motorcycle race tracks but resisted pressure to join the club, he says.
In the following days, a raucous debate unfolded on editorial pages and within the Arlington County Board. A Washington Post editorial thundered
about the "appalling ineptitude" of Arlington police for failing to head off the shootout.
Two days after the shooting, newspapers ran photographs of a line of both Pagans and Avengers handcuffed together and being led to the Arlington
courthouse. The hearings would draw an overflow crowd of 200 as Commonwealth's Attorney Hassan and police officers sought to make the disorderly conduct charges stick. The two juveniles charged were freed to the custody of their parents under the supervision of Judge Berton V. Kramer.
On June 22, representatives of the gangs met to try to disarm and reach a "cold war," which would mean none would carry weapons or wear colors in the other's territory. The wife of one Pagan told the Daily News that playing with guns was so disgusting she wanted to burn the gang's jackets.
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