The Cossacks Motorcycle Club was founded in Tyler, Texas in 1969 by a group of six bikers: Earl Swift, Charles Hanks, Butch Cheatham, Paul Henley, Tom Eliason and Carl Blair. The club was named after historical Cossack horsemen of Ukraine and southern Russia. Membership eventually grew in number, with many chapters currently established across the state of Texas and other states in the US. We are still growing and going strong. The Cossacks Motorcycle Club or Cossacks MC are an American outlaw motorcycle club. Said to be one of the largest outlaw biker groups in the state of Texas, they are best known for their conflicts with the rival Bandidos Motorcycle Club - most notably, the 2015 Waco shootout which left seven members of the group dead. The Cossacks MC are allegedly the second-largest biker club in the state of Texas.
On May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas, United States, a shootout erupted at a Twin Peaks restaurant where more than 200 persons, including members from motorcycle clubs that included the Bandidos, Cossacks, and allies, had gathered for a meeting about political rights for motorcyclists. Law enforcement, which included 18 Waco Police Department officers and four Texas Highway Patrol troopers, had gathered to monitor the restaurant and meeting from outside, and, according to police, "returned fire after being shot at". Nine bikers were killed, 18 others wounded or injured, and 177 individuals were ultimately arrested and initially detained in connection with the shootout, most for alleged participation in organized crime. According to The New York Times, "the response by prosecutors was widely criticized as brazen overreach". According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, the shootout led to a "four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions."
The Cossacks were getting tired of being pushed around and pretty much 'called it' on the Banditos. There wasn't violence that was going on, but it was kind of building up," Queen explained. "And they were there to kind of talk about this thing at that coalition meeting, and it led from a parking space dispute to full-fledged gun battle.
