Bowman

June 8, 1999
Web posted at: 12:21 a.m. EDT (0421 GMT)

STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan (CNN) -- The fugitive leader of a motorcycle gang wanted for murder and attempted murder was captured Monday night near Detroit after more than a year as one of the FBI's most wanted men.

Authorities told CNN a tip led them to Harry Joseph Bowman, the suspected International President of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, who was taken into custody without incident.

Bowman, 49, was arrested about 9:15 p.m. EDT in a residential neighborhood of Sterling Heights, in Detroit's northern suburbs. He has been on the run since 1997 and was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in March 1998.

"We are always pleased to get a dangerous individual into custody," Sterling Heights Police Chief Tom Derocha said.

There was a $50,000 reward for information leading to Bowman's arrest. About 40 FBI agents, SWAT team members and Sterling Heights police participated in the capture.

Bowman, who goes by the nickname Taco, disappeared after being indicted in Florida on murder, bombing, drug trafficking and racketeering charges.

He is accused of killing two Outlaw members -- Arthur Allen Vincent, killed in Ormond Beach, Florida, in 1982; and Donald Fogg, in Indiana, in 1995.

Bowman is also charged with the murder of Raymond Chaffin, president of the rival Warlocks motorcycle gang, in Edgewater, Florida, in 1991. He stands accused as well of the 1994 bombings of the Warlocks' clubhouse in Orlando, Florida; and the clubhouse of the Hell's Henchmen, another motorcycle club in Cook County, Illinois.

The indictment also accused Bowman of distributing methamphetamine and opium.

The FBI had listed him as "considered armed, extremely dangerous and may be guarded by members of the Outlaws." The Outlaws operate in more than 30 cities in the United States and have about 20 chapters in Australia, France, Norway and Canada.