Edward Winterhalder is a former Bandidos MC member, best known for coordinating the patching over of Rock Machine MC to the Bandidos at the end of the Quebec Biker War. Edward is also an author with multiple published works.
Edward Winterhalder Early Life / Personal Life
Edward Winterhalder was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in the summer of 1955. He was given up for adoption the day after his birth and six months later adopted by Warren and Helen Winterhalder, who lived in Hamden, a suburb of New haven, Connecticut.
In 1972 Edward joined the army, where he trained to be a tank turret mechanic at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. He is deployed to a base in Germany next to the town of Kirch Goens, located 100km north of the city of Frankfurt.
It was in around 1974 when he bought his first Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Edward Winterhalder Bandidos MC
His connections with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club began when he joined the Rogues Motorcycle Club in the mid 1970s and became an associate of the Bandidos. He would hold this association for three decades before finally joining the Bandidos.
In 1997 it was approved for a new Bandidos chapter in Tulsa, Oklahoma to be created. Edward was selected to become the Bandidos President for this chapter.
Within the Bandidos he was known by the name of “Connecticut Ed”.
In 2001 he was sent to Canada to lead the Bandidos MC assimilation of Rock Machine MC, after the long running Quebec Biker War. During these proceedings he was arrested, with the Canadian authorities attempting to deport him. The Rock Machine chapters became Bandidos chapters, but ultimately the assimilation would be seen as a failure over the following years.
In 2003 Edward left the Bandidos and was listed as “Out Bad”. Edward Winterhalder claims that he left the club as he had family commitments as well as a construction business to run and that he simply couldn’t do it all as well as be a Bandido at same time. Another possibility is that George Wegers had recently entered the role of Bandidos El Presidente and that he had a strong idea of how each of the chapters should be run. These ideas conflicted with how Winterhalder wished to run his chapter.
Edward Winterhalder Life After Bandidos
Since leaving the Bandidos he has been involved in the writing of several books, is a producer on multiple television shows, as well as been interviewed as an expert by several different television shows, according to his website these appearances include “Fox News (the O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly & America’s Newsroom), CNN, Bravo, Al Jazeera, BBC, ABC Nightline, MSNBC News Nation, Good Morning America, History Channel, Global, National Geographic, History Television, AB Groupe, and CBC.”
On his Amazon author profile he claims to be “the world’s leading authority on motorcycle clubs and the outlaw biker lifestyle”.
It has also been suggested that the character of Jax in the television show Sons of Anarchy was based on Edward Winterhalder. However, Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter had said that this is not the case.
Edward Winterhalder Books / Media
Book – The Assimilation: Rock Machine Becomes Bandidos: Bikers United Against The Hells Angels by Edward Winterhalder and Wil De Clercq. Find out more on Amazon (link opens in a new tab).
Book – Out In Bad Standings by Edward Winterhalder.
It is worth noting that this book has been split into two parts. View Part 1, View Part 2 (links open in a new tab).
Some of his other titles (all links open in a new tab):
- All Roads Lead To Sturgis: A Biker’s Story (Fiction)
- Biker Chicks: The Magnetic Attraction of Women to Bad Boys and Motorbikes
- Biker Chicz of North America
Read More:
- List of One Percenters Motorcycle Clubs
- Outlaw Motorcycle Club Books
- Historic Outlaw Biker Events and Massacres
- Famous Bandidos MC Members
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