History Lesson: The Grim Reapers Motorcycle Clubhouses

Daniel Smith
Special to the Courier & Press
Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club members outside their clubhouse in Newburgh, Ind. in the late 1970's.

The Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club was originally founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1965. The Reapers are considered an outlaw club, as they are not sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association.

A local chapter originally organized in Warrick County in the mid-1970’s. At the time, the club’s only requirements for membership is that applicants be a white man and own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, according to the club's president, quoted in an April 11, 1981, Evansville Press profile.

After meeting in several other locations in Warrick County, the Reapers rented a clubhouse in downtown Newburgh, in a former antique shop on State Street.

Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club members outside their clubhouse in Newburgh, Ind. in the late 1970's.

After fielding complaints from local residents and business owners about the club, Newburgh authorities condemned the clubhouse, claiming the building had been condemned for more than a year after a fire in a nearby building and that space should not have been rented to the Reapers.

The club claimed that the decision to condemn the building was biased and meant to drive the bikers out of downtown. 

Ultimately, town offices would only allow a total occupancy of 15 people and only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. 

Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club members inside their clubhouse in Newburgh, Ind. in the late 1970's.

In a May 24, 1977, article in the Evansville Press about the clubhouse controversy, member John Bush said, “We like to ride and we like to party. We’re not different than anybody else except we have a club.”

Due to the restrictions, the Reapers moved their headquarters to a building on the riverfront in downtown Newburgh, near what is now the Edgewater Grille.

After visiting the group’s clubhouse, Evansville Press Warrick Bureau Chief Jay Hamburg profiled the organization in April 1981. He described the walls of the clubhouse as covered in “mostly obscene” graffiti. He also noted a vending machine filled with beer, which club members unlocked and opened rather than filling with coins.

In this profile, Club Secretary Bob Peppiatt, also known as “Mr. P,” was quoted saying, “You know as well as I do that people are afraid of anything they don’t understand.”

Bob "Mr. P" Peppiatt in the Grim Reapers' clubhouse in April 1981.

The profile noted that 15 of the 18 club members were fully employed, most as construction workers and machinist. Eight members were Vietnam veterans. 

Local police continued to field complaints from local residents about the Reapers. In September 1981, Warrick County sheriff’s office organized a raid of their riverside clubhouse.

Two undercover officers were sent to walk near the club carrying a radio transmitter. After they were “verbally assaulted” by two bikers, Warrick County Prosecutor Anthony Long and the other police listening in on the radio gave the go-ahead to move in.

Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club members inside their clubhouse in Newburgh, Ind. in the late 1970's.

Twenty-five officers, including members of the Newburgh and Indiana State Police, raided the clubhouse and conducted a search after detecting the odor of marijuana.

The search resulted in the confiscation of a small amount of marijuana, 187 cans of beer and several weapons. They arrested 15 members of the club, although ultimately the charges would be dropped for all but two of the men.

Shortly after the raid, Larry Hessler, Newburgh’s town manager, minced few words in an interview with the Evansville Courier.

“I would like to see them gone, “ he said, “I don’t think they’re good for the town and I don’t think you will find anybody who can say anything positive about them.”

The Reapers sold their Newburgh headquarters in June 1982.

Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club members outside their clubhouse in Newburgh, Ind. in the late 1970's.

The club ultimately moved to Evansville. They purchased a house on Indiana Street near First Avenue in June 1983, according to an article in the June 3, 1983, edition of the Evansville Courier and the Vanderburgh County Assessor’s records. The Indiana Street clubhouse would serve as their headquarters until September 2017.

Currently, the motorcycle club occupies the former Exotic She Lounge on East Diamond Avenue.

Photos by Evansville Press Staff Photographer Greg Smith in May 1977, and by Press Staff Photographer Jeff Widener April 1981. 

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