This is my hood. Usually it was chains or sticks; knives and zip guns occasionally. You have your murderers, your rapists, your thieves. This is how I remember it because I was raised in El Barrio and in Washington Heights from the early 50s and 60s. Now they were even stronger, hardened by. Any girl that wasnt a virgin, if you went out with her you couldnt let her get away, because there werent many around. When wed fight with the black guys, it was more or less hit and run. I used to walk around with a gun every day. They help people out. His father was a building super. And sometimes it didnt. You push a guy up against a wall with a car, just push him till he hits the wall. All of a sudden wed start hitting each other. It got to a point where a gang called the Fordham Baldieswho were like the biggest Italian gang in the Bronxheard about us and came down and made us a brother club. From the sweaters we went to a shirt, and from the shirt we finally got to patches. The parents always got along, and we always respected their parents and they respected our parents. A lot of shit went on. Thats how the whole biker thing came about first. If you looked down the hill toward Evergreen Avenue, there was a schoolyard, and thats where all the black kids used to hang out. I carried guns for them if we had to go to a rumble or something because at the time the police wouldnt check the girls. Take on the world. It doesnt get any worse than that. THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF FORDHAM UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS Main Navigation Menu. To Manhattan, then back across the bridge, and once we got to Brooklyn they would just split off to their side and wed keep driving to our side, like it was nothing. I never wore Property of. In the gang, the girls used to have to wear Property of on their jackets. A Retired member described the Duckies, a gang featured in the Movie "The Wanderer": "The Ducky Gang (not just boys) lol. There were real gangsters around too. Bucks, the Gents and the Garrisons gangs. The balcony on 204th and the 'tunnels', and the whole area surrounding Twin Lakes was our turf! Lots of guys were fucking up, but all I wanted was to have our club, and for everybody to have bikes and go places together and ride. Most of us came from broken homes, or parents that had two jobs or alcohol and drug problems. We didnt mess with the people from the neighborhood. Rainy days, wed be inside watching TV. They said, Why should I buy drugs to sell when I can steal his and sell them? It happened all the time. The bullets were just whizzing by my ear. Robbing and stealing wasnt a big thing. Overdosed, stuff like that. Two friends of mine once had to fight at Coney Island because thats where the argument happened. Tvoz | talk 06:11, 30 January 2007 (UTC)Reply[reply], I agree with and understand all the changes. That was when the neighborhood was mostly German, Irish, and Italian. With us in the building, there was security. Before that, date rape was the usual. However, in this case below, the violence was actually with another white gang called the Fordham Baldies. You could see how things escalated. I remember them strutting their stuff on the boardwalk dressed in black bikini bathing suits with red piping. In the 1960s, among students citywide, truancy increased and socializing gained priority, whereby other high schools often issued diplomas once their requirements were met via Roosevelt's evening and summer . I was from one side of the Southside, and the Unknowns were from the other side. They were going back to the Bronx to pay the Baldies a visit they would never forget. We never really had any problem with the Hasidics. He used to shake when he walked and shit like that. That was the end of him. So wed take the apartment over. That was our block, so we had to protect everybody from other people who would come in and mess up the block. Read more about Bronx Gangs (1950s1960s): Popular Culture, who chained themselves to subways for the endless ride from Batteryto holy Bronx on benzedrine until the noise of wheels and childrenbrought them down shuddering mouth-wracked and battered bleak of brain and drained of brilliance in the drear light of Zoo,Allen Ginsberg (b. The Red Wings with Frank that June 1 were John Hall, Louis DePetris, Philip Bonnano, Jerry Santaniello and a girl only known as Bella. Like I remember coming home and having my sister-in-law crying, and I would walk in the house and make believe I didnt know why. Me and him got along because there was no competition and we really loved each other. I never believed in that, so I never did it. Eventually, if you hung out in that neighborhood you tried pills or pot, or whatever other crap came into town. The battle lines between opposing armies had already But I lived in the streets with them. Its something you die for, like a flag. I mean, I know I never did it. In fact, sometimes the girls would rumble with other clubs without the guys knowing. That freaked me out. You just couldnt believe it. They said, Youre not supposed to be on our block. He got killed a few years later. Hustle to get money for breakfast, eat, get high. Our big thing was buying cough medicine. So that kind of shit won over a lot of the tenants. We went down one night, had a fight with them, and Ill never forget it: We chased them all the way down Evergreen Avenue, and all of a sudden about 60 or 70 of them came out of a house. The Woodside Chiefs, teenage boys, were self funded. We were in the papers more than the president. He didnt see where I was shooting from, so I ran like two or three cars up and hid under the last one. Thats when we started realizing that we had lost the numbers. And we used to ride over to East 3rd in Manhattan, to the Hells Angels, and visit with them and whatnot. Their turf was around Jefferson Park, 116th Avenue and Pleasant Ave. When we were on Lee Avenue there was this black guy. I never wore colors. A lot of times, people would come back all beat up and bruised. That happened a lot. 42nd Street was like Mecca, where all the gangs would hang out on Friday night. What do you think?--rocketrye12 talk/contribs 04:55, 30 January 2007 (UTC)Reply[reply], Sorry, didn't see this discussion - I changed the name to Bronx gangs (1950s-1960s) because that is specifically what is being discussed. The Viceroys were a Puerto Rican gang from 103rd Street, between Park and Madison Avenues. It was an opportunistic thing. Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.32.229.106 (talk) 11:31, 7 September 2011 (UTC)Reply[reply]. Then they got out of the cars a second time and the guy ran away and Frankie ran after him. Nobody would fuck with us. It was a mixed group, Italians, Blacks and Irish boys who had grown up together. Me and a couple friends of mine went to a hooker. Eventually, though, it got to where you were lucky to get within a block of each other. If you drank that, it was like forget about it. Premieres in 64 minutes February 20 at 4:30 PM BRONX GANGS Of The 1960s - FORDHAM BALDIES Dusty Vision TV - DVTV 36.5K subscribers Subscribe 0 1 waiting Premieres Feb 20, 2023 Dusty Vision TV on. It was just that I started hanging out over here more than over at the other side. We had a clubhouse. You usually carried a knife, something to protect you. Each of us bought our own uniforms and equipment and we all chipped in for our bus fees for away games. Indeed, I started this at someone else's suggestion, with the understanding that s/he would pick up from there. So it was an epidemic, but an economic type of epidemic. But you gotta remember one thing: When we were kids, we didnt have to kill anybody. We had a gang that started in high school. "I was a member of that Ducky gang, did some streetsmart growing up with them. I personally didnt believe in jumping people. Some people were robbing other gangs for their drugs. It also made us brother clubs with the Redwings, who were in East Harlem. John Gotti, too. You see it firsthand, and its all bullshit really. She used to be a dispatcher for a car service. The Majestics started in the early 70s. Having an Active Minds Chapter in your school can be an important step in changing the conversation about mental health. The Unknowns used to be from Union to Rodney, Metropolitan to like South 4th. The father ended up getting most of them back after people started getting arrested with them, because he came home and reported them stolen. You had the Dirty Ones up by Graham Avenue. No matter where you went, even the toughest gangsfuckin Puerto Ricans, blacks, whateverthey wouldnt fuck with us. NYC Youth Gangs - 1950s. Back then you just hung out with the right people. Basically, the Dirty Ones was the only gang that was friendly with us. Click here to order your copy of Brooklyn Rumble today! In fact, you dont turn around for anybody either. Because we were like brothers. SM28, Mount Carmel Candy Store Home of the Best New York Egg Creams. They werent allowed to date outside girls. And the drugs? Mostly it was breaking into factories in Brooklyn. "When they were shooting the recruiting scene with the Fordham Baldies," Price recalled, "the actors were hanging out on the intersection of the Grand Concourse and Fordham Road right by Alexander's Department Store and Loew's Paradise, this massive Moorish movie palace. Not in my memory! I didnt take no shit from nobody. However, when they got there, the Fordham Baldies who had been frequenting Orchard Beach on a regular basis, found out the Red Wings were hanging out on Section 17 of the beach. So from being 30 guys with six jackets, we became a thousand just by hooking up with them. Youre walking down the street, you see somebody that you dont like, who isnt in your gang. There was a guy called the Baron and a guy called Bob the Queer, and theyd get us whatever we wanted. (2) Police busted up a rumble between two (South) Bronx gangs. First, five guys would go into a club and do a dance routine. So the guys said, If you dont do it, were gonna strip you. And thats where the war began. Baldies wounded.Fordham Baldies/Italian Red Wings Gang War. It was about territory. That was it. Little Italy was strictly Italian. Gang wars were very infrequent and when they did occur hardly ever was there any firearms used. My kid brother ended up dying. Back then, if a car sat for a day, wed strip it. If it aint from close range, you just have to wait for the pellets to come out later. The area between Pleasant and 1st, and blocks between1st and 2nd were predominately Italian. Sometimes after I got done kicking her ass, one of my girlfriends would come and, you know, kick her ass some more. Unless this was a separate incident, the gang was not the Redwings, but the Sinners. Some Red Wings attended near-by Benjamin Franklin High School. Id get up, go to my friends house at eight in the morning, and knock on his door. They knew it was my kid brother, but all the witnesses were saying it was me. Teenage "Jitterbugging" gangs from the 1950s, International & USA Book Order for Brooklyn Rumble, Chapters in My Climb to the Top of the Bottom, Jake LaMotta and (some of) his Early Years, The Bronx Noble Dukes and the Mysterious Five, Black Patch of the Jesters and the Pastor who tried to help him, Confiscated Contraband in New York State Reformatory 1962, Greene Avenue Stompers, Nits & Memorial Day Rumble, Marcy Ave Chaplains and Brief Description of the Immortal Sinners gang, Buccaneers and Marcy Chaplains March 1960, Memoir Excerpt from Efraim Ruiz of the Roman Lords, President Street Boy Colombos Back to Beginning, Sands Street, Brooklyn Diorama of Late 1940s Street Scene, Story Behind a Picture The Life and Times of the Jackson Gents, It was a rather hectic night at the 81st Precinct, Salvatore Mangiamelli and the Payroll Caper, A Friend is a Friend, No Matter What He Does, A Harlem Party, a Knock at the Door and a Smith & Wesson, Crime Scene Photos from a 1950s Youth Gang Homicide: Harlem Assassins and Sinners, Edward Falco of the Mayrose Lower East Side, Ground Zero Socialistic Dukes and Comanches Gangs (Harlem), Harlem Lords Gang Song (used on the way to rumbles), Little Known Youth Gang from Manhattan The Seven Saints, Profile of a Python Knight, an East Harlem Gang, Robert, The Sailor and a Manhattan Assault, Viceroy Alberto Torres vs. Judge Gerald Culkin, Court Records for NYC Youth Gang Homicides, Gang boys relationship with their fathers, New York City Italian Youth Gangs and the Mafia, Radio & TV sources for New York City Youth Gangs from the 1950s, Reports on JD and Interesting Film Project on Gangs, Zip Guns and Two Enterprising Entrepreneurs, Death of Bo Andrew Whalen a Jackson Gent, A little more about Bo, a former Jackson Gent, East Harlem Red Wings & Jefferson Park Killing, Newspaper Picture of Members of Red Wings Gang, You are Who Hang With And other Notes of Gang Warfare Involving the Viceroys, Details about my upcoming book about the Mau Maus, Book Cover for Brooklyn Rumble: Mau Maus, Sand Street Angels, and the End of an Era, Salvador Agrons Arrest & Notoriety of Case, Video Footage of Salvador Capeman Agron, 88th Precinct Police Confiscates Zip Gun and Machete from Fort Greene Gang 1950s, please visit James Hannons website, Lantern-Media where he shares some of his research on the Fordham Baldies as well as another period gang called the Duckys.. 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