Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Wednesday they have identified the suspects responsible for the 1979 murders of five people in an Outlaw gang clubhouse on Allen Road in northeast Mecklenburg County.
The July 4, 1979, massacre was the worst mass killing in Charlotte’s history.
The shootings prompted police to beef up investigations of the bikers, and agencies across the state began sharing information.
“I think it gave birth to Charlotte waking up and saying, ‘Hey, we can have major problems here,’” Ron Guerette, the first lead investigator on the case, told the Observer in a 1999 interview.
Outlaw leader William “Chains” Flamont found the gruesome clubhouse scene.
Found shot to death were William Allen, 22; William “Mouse” Droneburg, 31; Bridgette “Midget” Benfield, 17; Leonard “Terrible Terry” Henderson, 30; and Randall Feazell, 28.
Police said they’ve identified the two suspects in the killings, Gregory Scott Lindaman and Randy Allen Pigg, who are long since dead.
Police said Wednesday the killings stemmed from a dispute between one of the shooters and one of the victims.
At the time of the killings, police identified Pigg and Lindamen as persons of interest, but police said they lacked enough evidence to arrest them, and they were never charged.
On July 13, 1979, Lindaman, who had fled to San Bernardino, Calif., was arrested on an unrelated murder warrant issued by what was then the Mecklenburg County Police Department. He was returned to Charlotte and interviewed by police about the killings.
Police found Pigg in Charlotte and interviewed him, too, at the time.
Over the years, CMPD detectives continued to work leads they’d received from the public.
On Oct. 15, 1990, Lindaman was killed in a car wreck in Houston, Texas, police said.
Pigg suffered from several medical ailments and died of liver failure on Oct. 5, 2007, police said.
On Wednesday, police announced that they’ve cleared the five murder cases by “Death of Offender.”