Two bikers killed execution style, and Kingsmen won’t help police
Kingsmen not providing information to police




By Dan Herbeck | News Staff Reporter | Google+
on October 6, 2014 - 7:17 PM, updated October 7, 2014 at 9:01 AM


Daniel “DJ” Szymanski, a fearsome-looking, heavily tattooed 350-pound biker described by friends and family as “a gentle giant,” showed up in mid-August for a charity event in Amherst.

“Sorry I’m late,” Szymanski told two friends. “We had some problems down in Jamestown. Another club was trying to take over our Jamestown clubhouse.”

Szymanski spoke that day about his devotion to the Kingsmen Motorcycle Club and its lifestyle.

“I’m the third-ranking member of our club in all of New York State,” the 31-year-old Getzville man proudly told one friend.

Less than three weeks later, Szymanski was dead.

He and another Kingsman – Paul Maue, a 38-year-old father of six – were slain outside the Kingsmen clubhouse on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda.

They were killed “execution style” – shot in the back of their heads at close range, police said.

The two men had been partying with other Kingsmen inside the clubhouse. They left the clubhouse about 3 a.m., and got into a car with Maue behind the wheel. They never made it out of the small parking area behind the clubhouse.

While no arrests have been made, investigators believe the two were targeted for assassination because of their biker activities. Both had held leadership roles in local Kingsmen chapters.

Although police say they are not yet certain of the motive, investigators told The Buffalo News they believe the killings may be linked to efforts by competing biker gangs to persuade other members of the Kingsmen to leave and – “patch over to” – other biker organizations.

So far, the small number of bikers and biker associates who were in the clubhouse early that morning have provided little help to investigators, according to North Tonawanda Police Chief William R. Hall.

“They’re not cooperating, and I’m disappointed,” Hall said. “There was a group of people there that night. It happened right outside their clubhouse. Obviously, someone saw what happened, but people are telling us they didn’t see a thing.”

Alicia Bouchard, who lived with Maue in Buffalo for the past 18 years and is the mother of his three youngest children, said she hopes someone will come forward and help police solve the crime.

“These are two guys who left behind a lot of friends and family members who loved them,” Bouchard said. “They were good guys, fun-loving guys. I can’t think of anyone who would hate them so much to do this to them.”

Trying to break up bikers


The Kingsmen have been one of the region’s most dominant biker organizations for four decades, with six local chapters with perhaps 100 members, police said,

But other biker groups are now trying to push the Kingsmen aside, scoop up their members and take over their clubhouses, one knowledgeable police official said. And that has sparked several confrontations over the past 18 months, authorities said,

“There has been some very serious stuff going on behind the scenes,” said one law enforcement official. “There have been hostilities, home invasions, break-ins, beatings, fights, thefts of weapons ... Some are reported to the police, some not.”

In addition, some disputes have erupted within the Kingsmen organization.

One incident that was reported to police happened at a Kingsmen clubhouse in Lockport on Aug. 31, 2013. At least four bikers broke into the clubhouse on North Transit Road, attacking a Kingsman who was sleeping inside the clubhouse with punches, baseball bats and the butt of a gun, Lockport police said. One of the intruders pointed a gun at the victim while his cohorts stole a Harley Davidson motorcycle, several rifles and shotguns, a quantity of ammunition, a cellphone and cases of beer and liquor.

The intruders also stole a video surveillance system “that would have captured the event from several camera angles,” police said.

The Kingsman who was attacked and beaten that night was treated for multiple injuries in a Lockport hospital. Police said he told them he was attacked by other members of the same Kingsmen chapter. Four men were arrested and all pleaded guilty, Lockport Police said.

The attackers were “ ‘old Kingsmen’ who used to run the chapter, and the victim was one of the ‘new Kingsmen’ who had taken over the chapter,” one police officer told The News.

“This was a very violent attack,” another officer added.

“The thing that surprised me the most is that they reported it to the police,” said Lockport Police Chief Lawrence Eggert, who has been dealing with Kingsmen in his city for 36 years.

What is to be gained by one biker organization taking over the territory of another?

Police say some – not all – bike club members are involved in lucrative criminal activity, including the sales of drugs and weapons.

Granted, law-abiding people ride with the gangs and party with them, said Steve Cook, a police detective and biker gang expert from Kansas.

“But many of the outlaw gangs and their subordinates are involved with criminal activity,” he said. “Biker clubs are constantly poaching members from other clubs.”

Settling things ‘their way’


When conflicts occur, bikers like to take care of problems themselves.

Former Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark, who retired in 2008, remembers bikers giving “very little cooperation” to police after two biker gang leaders were slain during a brawl and shootout at Lancaster Speedway in October 1994. More than 100 shots were fired during that a battle between members of two of the nation’s biggest biker gangs – the Outlaws and the Hells Angels.

Guns, knives, bulletproof vests, brass knuckles and other weapons of gang warfare were recovered at the race track. Dozens of people, at least, witnessed the hostilities, but no one was ever convicted of the killings.

“The sense we got was that these guys did not want to help the police, even though close friends of theirs had been killed in broad daylight,” Clark recalled. “The sense we got was, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of things ourselves.’ ”

Buffalo defense attorney Thomas J. Eoannou has represented several Kingsmen bikers over the past 20 years.

“My experience with them has always been that they don’t cooperate with the police. They just don’t,” Eoannou said.

And Kingsmen have been targeted for violence before – long before the incidents in North Tonawanda and Lockport.

Martin Burke, president of a local Kingsman chapter, was shot and killed in June 1992. Police said it was an argument over drugs in a parking lot near the Lockport clubhouse.

Years later, a Kingsman from Wyoming County pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case.

Four years after that, police said a brawl between Kingsmen and rivals from the Chosen Few broke out along the State Thruway in Silver Creek. After the brawl, three bikers ended up in the hospital, but all three declined to press charges.

In September 1997, a gun fight outside a West Seneca bar between Kingsmen and rival bikers ended with one biker being shot in the chest; he survived.

In May 2005, a local Kingsman leader survived a shooting by a rival biker on Connecticut Street, on Buffalo’s West Side.

In May 2008, another Kingsman was dragged off his Harley Davidson in Buffalo and beaten with fists and clubs. An informant for the FBI, wearing a recording device, was riding with the attackers that night.

But while police have had informants in the gangs, the gangs have had help within police departments.

Laurie Staley-Stone, a former Hamburg police detective, was accused of providing police computer information about a local Kingsman leader and his family to the rival Chosen Few.

The information was wanted to plan an attack on the Kingsman, federal prosecutors said.

Staley-Stone was convicted and sentenced to four months in federal prison in 2009.

Looks can be deceiving


The Kingsmen clubhouse on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda is located in a working class neighborhood near several bars, two funeral homes, a couple of auto repair shops, and many middle-class homes, some just steps away from where the two Kingsmen were slain.

Neighbors said the bikers are good neighbors, and they were not aware of any previous violence at the clubhouse.

“Their reputation kind of intimidates people, but I have never known Kingsmen to cause any trouble in this neighborhood,” said one man who has operated a business near the clubhouse for more than 20 years.

“They’re pretty nice guys,” said Peter Witt, owner of Witter’s sports bar and restaurant a few doors away from the clubhouse. “It’s not like what you see on TV with the Sons of Anarchy. We run a $3.99 spaghetti special on Wednesdays, and they like our spaghetti. They’re good with our customers, and good with us.”

Witt said the Kingsmen he knew were quick to offer themselves as volunteers for neighborhood litter cleanups and charity events. He called the shootings a “tragedy,” and said the crime was unsettling to him and others who live or work nearby. “It’s shaken people up around here,” he said. “It makes you nervous.”

Several sources said North Tonawanda police are making progress in the investigation, and they are being assisted by other agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security and state police.

North Tonawanda police have videotapes from the Kingsmen clubhouse security cameras, obtained through a court order hours after the slayings. according to law enforcement officials.

Families distraught


Barbara and Sigmund Szymanski say they don’t know anything about feuding biker gangs. What they do know is their son was taken from them.

“There was warmth and goodness in our son,” said Barbara Szymanski, bursting into tears several times during an interview with a reporter.

DJ Szymanski was a Williamsville North High School graduate who also attended classes at Canisius College and played football at both schools. Although their son was an imposing figure, standing well over 6 feet tall, weighing 350 pounds and full of biker tattoos, he was sweet and gentle with friends and family, his parents said.

Szymanski could bench press 475 pounds, and he played both offensive and defensive line for his high school team, his father said.

His son also was a self-taught computer wizard who worked in information technology for a company in North Buffalo, his father added.

“When you looked at DJ, he scared some people because of his size, but he was a big teddy bear,” he said.

Sigmund Szymanski said he doesn’t know anything about his son’s role with the Kingsmen, but said his son loved his motorcycle and the friendships he made in the Kingsmen.

“On a nice day, he’d get on his bike, head off into the country, and ride hundreds of miles. He loved riding,” Sigmund Szymanski said. “He loved his friends in the Kingsmen. If one of them got hurt or sick, he’d be the first to the hospital to visit. The Kingsmen gave him a way to express his feelings.”

Maue was an auto mechanic who had six children, ranging in age from 3 to 20, said Bouchard, who lived with him.

Maue and Szymanski were “very good friends” who spent a lot of time together, she said.

According to Bouchard, Maue had no criminal record other than a pending driving-while-intoxicated charge. She said that, to her knowledge, neither Maue or Szymanski had any record of violent crimes.

With Maue dead, she now must raise their three children – ages 3, 7 and 10 – by herself. Bouchard said her youngest child keeps asking her when daddy is coming home.

“Paul was a quiet, fun-loving guy. If somebody had no coat, no food, he would try to help them. Last year, he was out getting donations of turkeys for the food bank at Thanksgiving,” she said. “He and DJ were not horrible people. They weren’t bad guys.... I keep asking myself why this would happen to these two guys.”

You wanna dress up like a tough guy all tatted up big and bad in your leather fag vest, then you get your wig split and your family is like "he never did nothing to no one!" Lol

Peg said it was jax

Fuck.

Two bikers dead. Pass the Kleenex. Or don't.

+1 VegasMike.
Bullshit family sympathy. Who are they kidding?
Themselves at best.

What other mcs are in that area? It says they are getting pressure to merge with other clubs.

vicious guys those bikers, mob guys wont even fool with them.

When I lived up there the mail club was the Road Vultures, but I think the Hells Angles took over them. Kingsmen were also big up there. There were other smaller clubs as well. With all the snow, I would think they would move out of there. ALso, That Kingsman clubhouse on Oliver street used to be the Road Vultures clubhouse.

Probably the Outlaws behind this, they have been expanding there territory on both sides of the Falls.

That would be my guess also, that incident where Taco had those florida christian bikers beat-up and thier patches pulled were caught-up in a Buffalo Hell Angels-Outlaw beef; I think that was about the drag-race speedway shoot-out and the funerals thereafter as the problem? Likely trying to force a patch-over or become a support club in this case. Things get ugly when the big boys come in to town and start forcing 1%ers to join a big league team.

These bikers are crazy. I guess new chapters are supposed to get permission to start up in NY. So there was a group starting up in poughkeepsie, NY recently. I don't know why this happened, but one day a bunch of hells angels came to town, walked right into a bar where 4 of those other guys were drinking, and beat them to bloody piles of shit with bats and clubs then rode off like nothing happened. I hear those guys didn't get permission.

I lived in Rochester, partied in Buffalo and went to school in Syracuse.

Rochester's bad-ass bikers are The Brotherhood. They work with NYC Hells Angels.
They all wear Mjolnirs (Thor's hammers). They're nice guys if you're white.
All I gotta say though is that having a niece I forever despise MCs now that I know that they (at least the ones who work with the Hell's Angels) are involved with underage prostitution

All this talk makes me want to look up the alliance between the Italians and the AB in Lewisberg


Great thread Scorsese

Now youse can't leave