Ricky Chapman, the former Bandido-bikie vice president who died overnight at a Rio Tinto location in far north WA, crammed enough into his 32 years.
In December 2020, he landed in WA’s biggest crime story in decades, sitting next to his quasi-father-in-law Nick Martin when the rebel boss was fatally shot by a former soldier with a sniper rifle.
Chapman was there because he was dating Martin’s stepdaughter Stacey Schoppe, and the incident also indirectly put the ex Bandido back in jail for violating his parole.
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As Ben Harvey explains in Up Late, Chapman’s life was full of drama and violence.
“He was on parole while at the Perth Motorplex on the night of December 12, 2020,” Harvey said.
“In 2015, he had had five and a half years to sell meth to an undercover cop.
“And he sat next to Martin because he was dating Martin’s stepdaughter, Stacey Schoppe.
“After bullet fragments were removed from his arm, Ricky walked out of the hospital and almost immediately back into prison after violating his parole by dealing with bicycles.”
But Chapman appeared to have turned a new leaf on his release from prison, making his untimely death even more tragic.
“He claimed he changed his life when he got out of prison last April,” Harvey said.
“It’s very hard to go all the way straight when you’ve lived a life like Ricky Chapman.
“He was a vice president of the Bandidos and he was a key figure in one of Australia’s most infamous bike dust-ups.
“The Broadbeach bikie brawl as it came to be known broke out on the Gold Coast in 2013.
“Chapman, who was only 23 at the time, was part of a lynch mob of 20 Bandidos who hunted an associate of the Finks bikini gang, Jason Trouchet.
“Trouchet was a rival to Bandidos bike boss Jacques Teamo.”