Historic Outlaws Motorcycle Club president Harry (Taco) Bowman had a love life that ultimately interfered with his life as a fugitive. Bowman was arrested for racketeering and murder after almost two years of avoiding capture when one of his girlfriends turned him in because of her anger over his romantic dalliances while away from his hometown of Detroit on the run from the law. During his 22 months “lamb chopping it,” Bowman rose to No. 2 on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. This week marks the 20-year anniversary of his indictment, which was filed in Tampa, Florida. He was finally handcuffed following a federal raid of a Sterling Heights, Michigan home on the late afternoon of June 7, 1999 where he was found, long-haired, bearded and bronzed, surrounded by Detroit Outlaws brass who had converged on the modest suburban residence to have a BBQ with their fugitive boss. The legendary former Midwest biker don often wore three-piece business suits and appeared in public with short hair and a clean shave allowing him to seamlessly integrate himself into the legitimate world. Bowman, 67, was revered and respected worldwide in biker gang circles, reigning as the Outlaws international president from 1984 until his conviction at trial in Florida in 2001. One retired FBI agent wants to share the turning point in the government’s tireless quest to track down the elusive motorcycle club leader – Bowman is currently doing life in prison. “Taco was quite the ladies’ man and we eventually discovered a way to leverage it against him,” he said. “The guy had girlfriends all over the place. He had a wife and a main girlfriend in Detroit and then a bunch more spread out around the country. We got a sighting of him out west, out near Las Vegas a couple of months before we ended up nailing him. The state police out there pulled him over on the highway for speeding. They had no clue who he was when they stopped him and let him go on his way. He was in a convertible Benz, had a fake ID and a young blonde with him. Well, it took a little while for the tape from the camera in the police cruiser to make it to us in Michigan, but when we got our eyes on it, we realized there was a play there we could make. We printed out a close-up photo of Taco and this bimbo he had with him and went and found his No. 1 girlfriend in Detroit to show it to her….. She wasn’t happy, she started cursing him and gave him up in about five minutes. She let us know he was headed back to town the next week to meet up with his boys so he could relay orders to them in person (he was good with staying off the phone). The day he got to Michigan, she gave us the address of where he was holding the meeting at and we swooped in and got him.”
