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| chicago street gang history: The Gangs Of Chicago Herbert Asbury, 2016-07-26 This classic history of crime tells how Chicago’s underworld earned-and kept-its reputation. Recounting the lives of such notorious denizens as the original Mickey Finn, the mass murderer H. H. Holmes, and the three Car Barn Bandits, Asbury reveals life as it was lived in the criminal districts of the Levee, Hell’s Half-Acre, the Bad Lands, Little Cheyenne, Custom House Place, and the Black Hole. His description of Chicago’s infamous red light district-where the brothels boasted opulence unheard of before or since-vividly captures the wicked splendor that was Chicago. The Gangs of Chicago spans from the time “Slab Town” was settled to Prohibition days. The story of Chicago’s golden age of crime climaxes with a dramatic account of the careers of the “biggest of the Big Shots”: Big Jim Colosimo, Terrible Johnny Torrio, and the elusive Al Capone. |
| chicago street gang history: The Insane Chicago Way John Hagedorn, 2015-08-19 Police, the press, and the public all see the kind of violence that besets the inner city today as irrational and basically about turf, revenge, or drugs. Renowned criminologist and expert on gangs, John Hagedorn here tells a very different and little-known story centered on the dramatic rise and fall of a Mafia-like Latino organization in Chicago called Spanish Growth & Development. Hagedorn's main informant is 'Sal Martino, ' an Italian Mafioso who became intimately involved with the In$ane Family, one of the factions of Spanish Growth & Development. Through Sal's first-hand account, Hagedorn shows that the violence was not a result of disorganized crime but rather the outcome of SGD's prolonged demise. He gives us for the first time a detailed the history of SGD-the reasons for its creation, the uneasy alliances between gang families, the organization's reliance on bottom-up police corruption, and its ultimate collapse in a pool of blood at a 1999 peace conference. Revealing the hidden and riveting stories of Chicago gangs' efforts to build structures ostensibly to reduce violence and to organize crime, of the integration of gang and mafia history, and of the central role of police corruption in Chicago's gangland, The In$ane Chicago Way makes a powerful argument for the need to regard corruption as the bedrock of gang power. It dispels the notion that gang violence can be explained solely by ecological, neighborhood-based processes and sheds light on the current gang situation in Chicago by laying bare its history while raising disturbing questions for researchers, policy-makers, and the public. |
| chicago street gang history: Views from the Streets Roberto Aspholm, 2019-11-26 Views from the Streets explains the dramatic transformation of black street gangs on Chicago's South Side during the early twenty-first century. Drawing on years of community work and in-depth interviews with gang members, Roberto R. Aspholm sheds new light on why gang violence persists and what might be done to address it. |
| chicago street gang history: The Gang Book Franco Domma, Charito Romero, Elisabeth Saffell, 2018 A detailed overview of street gangs in the Chicago metropolitan area. |
| chicago street gang history: Compliments of Chicagohoodz JAMES JINX. O'CONNOR, Damen Vincenzo Corrado, 2019-04-30 Based on original research, Compliments of Chicagohoodz analyzes the unique visual language and graphics of Chicago's gangs, drawing upon decades of inter- views, documentation, and collecting of memorabilia, and featuring commentary from gang members and Chicago artists.The practice of creating and distributing gang business (compliment) cards was popular in Chicago for over fifty years. These displayed the organization and branch, its active and fallen members, and rivalries. This book tells the stories behind the names, bringing the reader closer to the individuals who created, owned, and added their personal touches to the card as it passed from hand to hand.James Jinx O'Connor's photographic documentation of gang graffiti and members captures a lost era of large-scale color promotional murals and an extraordinary style distinct within street art. The book also explores other forms of representation including varsity-style sweaters, patches, and drawings.Through these images, Chicagohoodz traces the development and consolidation of the neighborhood street organization from doo-wop to hip-hop, from greasers to gangster rap, from dances, bands, and softball teams to racketeering, narcotics trafficking, and domestic terror. |
| chicago street gang history: Views from the Streets Roberto Aspholm, 2020-02-04 Chicago has long served as a symbol of urban pathology in the public imagination. The city’s staggering levels of violence and entrenched gang culture occupy a central place in the national discourse, yet remain poorly understood and are often stereotyped. Views from the Streets explains the dramatic transformation of black street gangs on Chicago’s South Side during the early twenty-first century, shedding new light on why gang violence persists and what might be done to address it. Drawing on years of community work and in-depth interviews with gang members, Roberto R. Aspholm describes in vivid detail the internal rebellions that shattered the city’s infamous corporate-style African American street gangs. He explores how, in the wake of these uprisings, young gang members have radically refashioned gang culture and organization on Chicago’s South Side, rejecting traditional hierarchies and ideologies and instead embracing a fierce ethos of personal autonomy that has made contemporary gang violence increasingly spontaneous and unregulated. In calling attention to the historical context of these issues and to the elements of resistance embedded in Chicago’s contemporary gang culture, Aspholm challenges conventional views of gang members as inherently pathological. He critically analyzes highly touted “universal” violence prevention strategies, depicting street-level realities to illuminate why they have ultimately failed to reduce levels of bloodshed. An unprecedented analysis of the nature and meaning of gang violence, Views from the Streets proposes an alternative framework for addressing the seemingly intractable issues of inequality, despair, and violence in Chicago. |
| chicago street gang history: Explosion of Chicago's Black Street Gangs Useni Eugene Perkins, 1987 This commentary is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of Chicago's Black street gangs, nor does it purport to be based on scientific data. However, as one who has worked with and observed Black street gangs for over twenty-five years, I believe I do have some insight about them. Furthermore, I believe as a Black social practitioner my insight gives a perspective on Black street gangs that has not been provided by many white academicians and social scientists. What this commentary attempts to do is to trace the evolution of Chicago's Black street gangs and identify those factors that have made many of them the violent gangs they are today. In doing so, I have tried to separate myth from fact and list critical realities we must face if we are to have a significant impact on Black street gangs. Although I do not provide solutions to the Black street gang problem, I believe some strategies for remedying the problem can be extrapolated from my commentary.--Preface. |
| chicago street gang history: The Gangs of New York Herbert Asbury, 1928 |
| chicago street gang history: Gang Leader for a Day Sudhir Venkatesh, 2008-01-10 A New York Times Bestseller A rich portrait of the urban poor, drawn not from statistics but from vivid tales of their lives and his, and how they intertwined. —The Economist A sensitive, sympathetic, unpatronizing portrayal of lives that are ususally ignored or lumped into ill-defined stereotype. —Finanical Times Foreword by Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics When first-year graduate student Sudhir Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago’s most notorious housing projects, he hoped to find a few people willing to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty--and impress his professors with his boldness. He never imagined that as a result of this assignment he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade embedded inside the projects under JT’s protection. From a privileged position of unprecedented access, Venkatesh observed JT and the rest of his gang as they operated their crack-selling business, made peace with their neighbors, evaded the law, and rose up or fell within the ranks of the gang’s complex hierarchical structure. Examining the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, and often corrupt struggle to survive in an urban war zone, Gang Leader for a Day also tells the story of the complicated friendship that develops between Venkatesh and JT--two young and ambitious men a universe apart. Sudhir Venkatesh’s latest book Floating City: A Rogue Sociologist Lost and Found in New York’s Underground Economy—a memoir of sociological investigation revealing the true face of America’s most diverse city—is also published by Penguin Press. |
| chicago street gang history: The Almighty Black P Stone Nation Natalie Y. Moore, Lance Williams, 2011 Were the Stones criminals, brainwashed terrorists, victims of their circumstances, or champions of social change? Or were they all of these, their role perceived differently by different races and socioeconomic groups? -- |
| chicago street gang history: Renegade Dreams Laurence Ralph, 2014-09-15 Inner city communities in the US have become junkyards of dreams, to quote Mike Daviswastelands where gangs package narcotics to stimulate the local economy, gunshots occur multiple times on any given day, and dreams of a better life can fade into the realities of poverty and disability. Laurence Ralph lived in such a community in Chicago for three years, conducting interviews and participating in meetings with members of the local gang which has been central to the community since the 1950s. Ralph discovered that the experience of injury, whether physical or social, doesn t always crush dreams into oblivion; it can transform them into something productive: renegade dreams. The first part of this book moves from a critique of the way government officials, as opposed to grandmothers, have been handling the situation, to a study of the history of the historic Divine Knights gang, to a portrait of a duo of gang members who want to be recognized as authentic rappers (they call their musical style crack music ) and the difficulties they face in exiting the gang. The second part is on physical disability, including being wheelchair bound, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among heroin users, and the experience of brutality at the hands of Chicago police officers. In a final chapter, The Frame, Or How to Get Out of an Isolated Space, Ralph offers a fresh perspective on how to understand urban violence. The upshot is a total portrait of the interlocking complexities, symbols, and vicissitudes of gang life in one of the most dangerous inner city neighborhoods in the US. We expect this study will enjoy considerable readership, among anthropologists, sociologists, and other scholars interested in disability, urban crime, and race. |
| chicago street gang history: Gem of the Prairie Herbert Asbury, 1940 This classic history of crime tells how Chicago's underworld earned and kept its reputation. |
| chicago street gang history: Organized Crime in Chicago Robert M. Lombardo, 2012-12-30 This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of organized crime in Chicago. Tracing the roots of political corruption that afforded protection to gambling, prostitution, and other vice activity in Chicago and other large American cities, Robert M. Lombardo challenges the dominant belief that organized crime in America descended directly from the Sicilian Mafia. According to this widespread alien conspiracy theory, organized crime evolved in a linear fashion beginning with the Mafia in Sicily, emerging in the form of the Black Hand in America's immigrant colonies, and culminating in the development of the Cosa Nostra in America's urban centers. Looking beyond this Mafia paradigm, this volume argues that the development of organized crime in Chicago and other large American cities was rooted in the social structure of American society. Specifically, Lombardo ties organized crime to the emergence of machine politics in America's urban centers. From nineteenth-century vice syndicates to the modern-day Outfit, Chicago's criminal underworld could not have existed without the blessing of those who controlled municipal, county, and state government. These practices were not imported from Sicily, Lombardo contends, but were bred in the socially disorganized slums of America where elected officials routinely franchised vice and crime in exchange for money and votes. This book also traces the history of the African-American community's participation in traditional organized crime in Chicago and offers new perspectives on the organizational structure of the Chicago Outfit, the traditional organized crime group in Chicago. |
| chicago street gang history: Lords of Lawndale Michael Scott, 2009-04-01 When we both made it to the other side of Fullerton, the swarm of Gangsters were off-running for their lives, far out of our reach. I was pissed. Fullerton traffic had delayed me and it gave these guys time to get away clean. Regardless of the distance, I pulled the trigger anyway, and opened up with the shotgun... Based on actual events, this soul-gripping tale is an account of survival in the urban jungle of Chicago, in the 1980s. While embarked on his own street-journey, Michael Scott enters a world in which a band of brothers are locked in a desperate engagement, an Alamo-like siege of their hood. Amidst turbulent conditions, the narrator gives us all a ticket to ride next to him on this roller coaster ride, with its twist and turns of horror and frustration, suspense and humor. Following in the tradition of profound gang tales such as The Outsiders and West Side Story, this must-read book goes beneath the hardcore surface to show the struggle of the human spirit. |
| chicago street gang history: The Insane Chicago Way John M. Hagedorn, 2015-08-19 “His account of relationships between street gangs of this period and Chicago’s Outfit, the legacy of Al Capone and others, is especially important.” —James F. Short, author of Poverty, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime In The Insane Chicago Way, John M. Hagedorn’s lively stories of extensive cross-neighborhood gang organization, tales of police/gang corruption, and discovery of covert gang connections to Chicago’s Mafia challenge conventional wisdom and offer lessons for the control of violence today. The book centers on the secret history of Spanish Growth & Development (SGD)—an organization of Latino gangs founded in 1989 and modeled on the Mafia’s nationwide Commission. It also tells a story within a story of the criminal exploits of the C-Note$, the “minor league” team of the Chicago’s Mafia (called the “Outfit”), which influenced the direction of SGD. Hagedorn’s tale is based on three years of interviews with an Outfit soldier as well as access to SGD’s constitution and other secret documents, which he supplements with interviews of key SGD leaders, court records, and newspaper accounts. The result is a stunning, heretofore unknown history of the grand ambitions of Chicago gang leaders that ultimately led to SGD’s shocking collapse in a pool of blood on the steps of a gang-organized peace conference. The Insane Chicago Way is a compelling history of the lives and deaths of Chicago gang leaders. At the same time it is a sociological tour de force that warns of the dangers of organized crime while arguing that today’s relative disorganization of gangs presents opportunities for intervention and reductions in violence. “An intricate tale of violence, mafia influence, and police corruption.” —Chicago Reader |
| chicago street gang history: THEE ALMIGHTY & INSANE Brandon Johnson, 2019-04-23 Back due to popular demand, another volume-Thee Almighty & Insane: Chicago Gang Business Cards from the 1960s & 1970s. Same format, but with all new content including a selection of older and rarer Chicago gang compliment cards from the North and West Sides made during the 1960s & (mostly) 1970s. This book documents a collection of historical ephemera from a period of time in which city-orchestrated displacement, the loss of industry, and racial antagonism created socioeconomic conditions that led to the formation and expansion of gangs in the streets, parks, and schools of Chicago. Once again, 70+ enlarged reproductions of original compliment cards listing members, territories, slogans, and declarations of loyalty/animosity, are brought to the forefront for examination and interpretation. |
| chicago street gang history: My Bloody Life Reymundo Sanchez, 2007-04-01 Looking for an escape from childhood abuse, Reymundo Sanchez turned away from school and baseball to drugs, alcohol, and then sex, and was left to fend for himself before age 14. The Latin Kings, one of the largest and most notorious street gangs in America, became his refuge and his world, but its violence cost him friends, freedom, self-respect, and nearly his life. This is a raw and powerful odyssey through the ranks of the new mafia, where the only people more dangerous than rival gangs are members of your own gang, who in one breath will say they'll die for you and in the next will order your assassination. |
| chicago street gang history: Mean Streets Andrew J. Diamond, 2009-06-10 This title focuses on 20th-century Chicago from the era of the race riot to cast a new light on Chicago's youth gangs and to place youths at the centre of the 20th-century American experience. |
| chicago street gang history: The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation David Brotherton, Luis Barrios, 2004 How a notorious street gang became a social organization providing leadership to New York City's Latino/a youths. |
| chicago street gang history: Lady Q Reymundo Sanchez, Sonia Rodriguez, 2010 Reymundo Sanchez, a former member of the Latin Kings street gang, recounts the experiences of Sonia Rodriguez, a young girl who became a powerful leader of the Latin Queens, and explores the devastating impact gangs can have on a young girl's life. |
| chicago street gang history: Ballad of the Bullet Forrest Stuart, 2021-05-04 Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork and over 150 interviews with gang-affiliated youth in the Taylor Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Ballad of the Bullet reveals that those coming of age in America's poorest neighborhoods are developing new, creative, and online strategies for making ends meet. Dislocated by the erosion of the crack economy and the splintering of corporatized gangs, these young people exploit the unique affordances of digital social media to capitalize on an emerging online market for urban violence (or, more accurately, a market for the representation of urban violence). In the past, violence functioned primarily as a means of social control, allowing urban youth to compete in illegal street markets and defend the social statuses otherwise denied to them by mainstream society. Today, with the rise of platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, violence has become a premier cultural commodity in and of itself. By amassing millions of clicks, views, and followers, these young people convert their online displays of violence into vital offline resources, including cash, housing, drugs, sex, and, for a very select few, a ticket out of poverty -- |
| chicago street gang history: The Street Casino Simon Harding, 2014-06-11 Gang violence is a continual problem in urban neighborhoods around the world. But most of our understanding of the violence and its causes comes through the lens of policing and crime control, with little attention to the role played by the structure, organization, and social makeup of a gang. The Street Casino offers new insight on that front, drawing on an extensive ethnographic study of gang members and community residents in South London. Simon Harding uses this new data to propose a new theoretical perspective on survival in violent street gangs, a constantly fluctuating life built on the accrual of street capital. |
| chicago street gang history: Wounded City Robert Vargas, 2016 Through an ethnographic case study of Chicago's Little Village, Wounded City demonstrates how competition for political power and state resources undermined efforts to reduce gang violence. Robert Vargas argues that the state, through different patterns of governance, can contribute to distrust and division among community members. |
| chicago street gang history: Brown in the Windy City Lilia Fernández, 2014-07-21 Brown in the Windy City is the first history to examine the migration and settlement of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in postwar Chicago. Lilia Fernández reveals how the two populations arrived in Chicago in the midst of tremendous social and economic change and, in spite of declining industrial employment and massive urban renewal projects, managed to carve out a geographic and racial place in one of America’s great cities. Through their experiences in the city’s central neighborhoods over the course of these three decades, Fernández demonstrates how Mexicans and Puerto Ricans collectively articulated a distinct racial position in Chicago, one that was flexible and fluid, neither black nor white. |
| chicago street gang history: Building the Black Metropolis Robert E. Weems Jr., 2017-08-10 From Jean Baptiste Point DuSable to Oprah Winfrey, black entrepreneurship has helped define Chicago. Robert E. Weems Jr. and Jason P. Chambers curate a collection of essays that place the city as the center of the black business world in the United States. Ranging from titans like Anthony Overton and Jesse Binga to McDonald’s operators to black organized crime, the scholars shed light on the long-overlooked history of African American work and entrepreneurship since the Great Migration. Together they examine how factors like the influx of southern migrants and the city’s unique segregation patterns made Chicago a prolific incubator of productive business development—and made building a black metropolis as much a necessity as an opportunity. Contributors: Jason P. Chambers, Marcia Chatelain, Will Cooley, Robert Howard, Christopher Robert Reed, Myiti Sengstacke Rice, Clovis E. Semmes, Juliet E. K. Walker, and Robert E. Weems Jr. |
| chicago street gang history: The History of Street Gangs in the United States James C. Howell, 2015-06-09 This book is an historical account of the emergence of youth gangs and the transformation of these into street gangs in the United States. The author traces the emergence of these gangs in the four major geographical regions over the span of two centuries, from the early 1800s to 2012. The author’s authoritative analysis explains gang emergence and expansion from play groups to heavily armed street gangs responsible for a large proportion of urban crimes, including drive-by shootings that often kill innocent bystanders. Nationwide, street gangs now account for 1 in 6 homicides each year, and for 1 in 4 in very large cities. In recent years, the number of gangs, gang members, and gang homicides increased, even though the U.S. has seen a sharp drop in violent and property crimes over the past decade. The author’s historical analysis reveals the key contributing factors to transformation of youth gangs, including social disorganization that occurred following large-scale immigration early in American history and urban policies that pushed minorities to inner city areas and public housing projects. This analysis includes the influence of prison gangs on street gangs. The first generation of prison gangs emerged spontaneously in response to dangers inside prisons. The second generation was for many years extensions of street gangs that grew enormously during the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in large urban areas in which public housing projects have served as incubators for street gangs. The third generation of prison gangs is extremely active in street-level criminal enterprises in varied forms, often highly structured and well managed organizations that are actively involved in drug trafficking. In recent years, returning inmates are a predominant influence on local gang violence. Now, prison gangs and street gangs often work together in street-level criminal enterprises. This book identifies the most promising ways that gang violence can be reduced. The best long-term approach is a combination of gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies and programs. Targeted suppression of gang violence is imperative. Street-workers that serve as violence interrupters can break the cycle of contagious gang violence. |
| chicago street gang history: From Disgrace to Dignity Clemens Bartollas, 2019-01-14 From Disgrace to Dignity: Redemption in the Life of Willie Rico Johnson examines the life of Rico Johnson who became the head of the Conservative Vice Lords, one of the largest street gangs in the United States. In addition to highlighting his life, this work considers how redemption has affected his life. In addition, Minister Rico is identified as a Godfather. Much like the Godfathers found in organized crime families, Rico sees himself as providing a positive force to Vice Lords' gang members. On one hand, what this involves is taking care of their needs (he feeds 150 families a day) and, on the other hand, providing guidance and direction for members' lives. |
| chicago street gang history: Al Capone's Beer Wars John J. Binder, 2017 Based on 25 years of research using all available sources, this is the definitive history of organized crime in Chicago through the end of the Prohibition Era-- |
| chicago street gang history: Reducing Youth Gang Violence Irving A. Spergel, 2007-03-01 In this book, Irving Spergel details the efforts of his Chicago youth gang project, a comprehensive, community-based model designed to reduce gang problems, including violence and illegal drug activity. He offers an in-depth description of the Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project, revealing the successes and failures of intervention at each level: individual youths, the gang itself, and the community at large. Spergel relates how a coalition of criminal justice, neighborhood, and academic organizations_along with a team of tactical officers, probation officers, former gang leaders, and a neighborhood organization_developed strategies for dealing with hardcore violent male youths from two gangs: the Latin Kings and Two Six. This well-known project has become the model for a series of national initiatives. Policymakers, criminologists, and gang researchers will find this model valuable for assessing gang programs and reducing gang violence. |
| chicago street gang history: The Mafia Encyclopedia Carl Sifakis, 2006 More than 500 alphabetical entries provide information on the people, places and events associated with the Mafia. |
| chicago street gang history: People and Folks John Hagedorn, Perry Macon, 1998 This expanded edition offers provocative new insights into race and class, challenging accepted theories with fresh data from one of the most extensive studies ever undertaken of street gangs in a single city. The author questions prevailing assumptions about gang violence, drug use, and the cultural differences between the inner-city underclass and the suburban middle classes. He explores the nature of gender for both male and female gang members and examines the differences between male and female gangs. |
| chicago street gang history: Black Gangsters of Chicago Ron Chepesiuk, 2014-04 Not as famous as Al Capone, but perhaps even more vicious, are John 'Mushmouth' Johnson, Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover from the Chicago underworld. Ron Chepesiuk reveals, for the first time, the stories of these African-American gangsters who were every bit as powerful, intriguing and colourful as the Windy City's more famous gangsters of the mid-to-late 20th Century. Each page is more exciting than the previous as Chepesiuk exposes never-before-known facts about the black gangsters who once ruled Chicago streets. |
| chicago street gang history: Power on the Inside Mitchel P. Roth, 2020-11-05 Power on the Inside is the first book to examine the historical development of prison gangs worldwide, from those that emerged inside mid-nineteenth-century Neapolitan prisons to the new generation of younger inmates challenging the status quo within gang subcultures today. Historian-criminologist Mitchel P. Roth examines prison gangs throughout the world, from the Americas, Oceania, and South Africa to Southeast Asia, Europe, and beyond. The book examines the many variables that influence the evolution of prison subcultures, from colonialism and population demographics to prison architecture and staff-prisoner relations. Power on the Inside features eighty historical and contemporary images and will inform professionals in the field as well as general readers who want to know more about the realities of prison gangs today. |
| chicago street gang history: The Kosher Capones Joe Kraus, 2019-10-15 The Kosher Capones tells the fascinating story of Chicago's Jewish gangsters from Prohibition into the 1980s. Author Joe Kraus traces these gangsters through the lives, criminal careers, and conflicts of Benjamin Zuckie the Bookie Zuckerman, last of the independent West Side Jewish bosses, and Lenny Patrick, eventual head of the Syndicate's Jewish wing. These two men linked the early Jewish gangsters of the neighborhoods of Maxwell Street and Lawndale to the notorious Chicago Outfit that emerged from Al Capone's criminal confederation. Focusing on the murder of Zuckerman by Patrick, Kraus introduces us to the different models of organized crime they represented, a raft of largely forgotten Jewish gangsters, and the changing nature of Chicago's political corruption. Hard-to-believe anecdotes of corrupt politicians, seasoned killers, and in-over-their-heads criminal operators spotlight the magnitude and importance of Jewish gangsters to the story of Windy City mob rule. With an eye for the dramatic, The Kosher Capones takes us deep inside a hidden society and offers glimpses of the men who ran the Jewish criminal community in Chicago for more than sixty years. |
| chicago street gang history: Chicago Based Gangs Joe Sparks, Gabe Morales, 2015-03-20 Covers the historical development of Chicago gangs, their roots, their politics, and their propaganda. Provides essential insight, often through personal experiences of the authors, into the pathways of these gangs and their violence, to help younger cops and communities learn more. |
| chicago street gang history: The Gang Frederic Milton Thrasher, 2013-03-27 While gangs and gang culture have been around for countless centuries, The Gang is one of the first academic studies of the phenomenon. Originally published in 1927, Frederic Milton Thrasher’s magnum opus offers a profound and careful analysis of hundreds of gangs in Chicago in the early part of the twentieth century. With rich prose and an eye for detail, Thrasher looked specifically at the way in which urban geography shaped gangs, and posited the thesis that neighborhoods in flux were more likely to produce gangs. Moreover, he traced gang culture back to feudal and medieval power systems and linked tribal ethos in other societies to codes of honor and glory found in American gangs. Thrasher approaches his subject with empathy and insightfulness, and creates a multifaceted and textured portrait that still has much to offer to readers today. With handsome images that evoke the era, this unabridged edition of The Gang not only explores an important moment in the history of Chicago, but also is itself a landmark in the history of sociology and subcultural theory. |
| chicago street gang history: Lords of Kilbourn Michael Scott, 2008-06-11 .If I did venture up there, I would need a gun in case it was a setup or something. I didn't know if the suspicious intruders would turn out to be playing a game of entrapment. They lure you in and then the game is all over for you. A compelling story, based on actual events, of one young man's struggle to survive the urban nightmare of gang life in Chicago. Starting by giving the reader a crucial look into the often disturbing history of the gang he was a member of, Scott goes on to narrate the gripping story of his life as a gang-member. Whether you live in a city or not, whether you have kids or not, this book is a mustread. Violence, poverty, drug abuse, and frustration combine to fuel the undercurrents of gang culture that affect us all! |
| chicago street gang history: The Barbary Coast Herbert Asbury, 2022-08-17 The history of the Barbary Coast properly begins with the gold rush to California in 1849. Owing almost entirely to the influx of gold-seekers and the horde of gamblers, thieves, harlots, politicians, and other felonious parasites who battened upon them, there arose a unique criminal district that for almost seventy years was the scene of more viciousness and depravity, but which at the same time possessed more glamour, than any other area of vice and iniquity on the American continent. The Barbary Coast is the chronicle of the birth of San Francisco. From all over the world practitioners of every vice stampeded for the blood and money of the gold fields. Gambling dens ran all day including Sundays. From noon to noon houses of prostitution offered girls of every age and race. This is the story of the banditry, opium bouts, tong wars, and corruption, from the eureka at Sutter’s Mill until the last bagnio closed its doors seventy years later. |
| chicago street gang history: Street Gang Michael Davis, 2008-12-26 Now an acclaimed documentary from Screen Media, the New York Times bestselling account of the story behind one of the most influential, durable, and beloved shows in the history of television: Sesame Street. “Davis tracks down every Sesame anecdote and every Sesame personality in his book . . . Finally, we get to touch Big Bird's feathers.” —The New York Times Book Review Sesame Street is the longest-running-and arguably most beloved- children's television program ever created. Today, it reaches some six million preschoolers weekly in the United States and countless others in 140 countries around the world. Street Gang is the compelling, comical, and inspiring story of a media masterpiece and pop-culture landmark. Television reporter and columnist Michael Davis-with the complete participation of Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the show's founders-unveils the idealistic personalities, decades of social and cultural change, stories of compassion and personal sacrifice, and miraculous efforts of writers, producers, directors, and puppeteers that together transformed an empty soundstage into the most recognizable block of real estate in television history. |
| chicago street gang history: The North Side Gang: The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Mob That Fought Al Capone for Control of Chicago Charles River Editors, 2019-03-20 *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading I hope, when my time comes, that I die decently in bed. I don't want to be murdered beside the garbage cans in some Chicago alley. - Bugs Moran 20th century Chicago was an ideal breeding ground for organized crime. A buzzing circuit board dotted with towering skyscrapers, brick buildings, worker's cottages, and an eclectic collection of greystone manors, the Windy City was further decked out with electric entertainment districts, the theaters, clubs, brothels, restaurants, and niteries that lined its streets. The city was illuminated by dazzling marquees and light-up signage, and enlivened by the muffled medley of midnight chatter and big band music seeping out of the nightspots. Those who ambled along the boardwalks flanking the Chicago River were greeted by moored commercial fishing boats bobbing in the water, as well as bustling stalls stocked with trout, salmon, and rainbow smelt. The rise of Chicago's gangland can be attributed to a number of factors. First, there was the sudden explosion in its population, which saw an influx of immigrants - mainly from eastern and southern Europe, as well as Americans from neighboring and faraway states - teem into the city in search of promising job opportunities and a better life. The abrupt inundation of permanent citizens rendered the already suffering policeman to civilian ratio out of kilter, and the authorities' control of the city became further unzipped. Moreover, children and impressionable youths were regularly exposed to the overwhelming and unblushing presence of organized crime, meaning that the transitions of petty thieves and minor-league thugs to career crooks and full-time gangsters were only natural segues. The privileged pursued politics, medicine, law, and other respectable professions, but the poor folks, set several steps back by their limited resources, turned to crime. Plenty were desperate to feed their families and cheat the unjust system. In the midst of it all, the Chicago Outfit, one of the longest-running criminal organizations in the land of the free, was perhaps the most notorious of them all. The baleful brotherhood bore a terrifying brand defined by cutthroat competitiveness, sadistic torture tactics, and excessive bloodshed, among scores of other despicable acts. On February 14, 1929, members of the North Side Gang arrived at a warehouse on North Clark Street in Chicago, only to be approached by several police officers. The officers then marched them outside up against a wall, pulled out submachine guns and shotguns, and gunned them all down on the spot. A famous legend is that one of the shot men, Frank Gusenberg, dying from 14 gunshot wounds, told police that nobody shot him. Though Gusenberg's statement is probably apocryphal, nobody opened their mouths. Nobody was ever convicted for the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, the most infamous gangland hit in American history, but it's an open secret that it was the work of America's most famous gangster, Al Capone. While the North Side Gang is not as infamous as Capone's mob, the fact that the North Siders were the targets indicate just how powerful Capone's rivals were. Indeed, members like Bugs Moran would carry on a rivalry with Capone that lasted upwards of a decade. The North Side Gang: The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Mob that Fought Al Capone for Control of Chicago profiles how the group rose in the criminal underworld, and all the controversies that ensued. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the North Side Gang like never before. |
The Fracturing of Gangs and Violence in Chicago: A Research …
The nature of gang violence in Chicago has been changing, but policies and practices toward it have not. This was the main conclusion of “The Fracturing of Gangs Conference,” held at the Great …
The Rise and Fall of the 1969 Chicago Jobs Campaign: Street …
On the morning of August 12, 1969, a crowd of more than a hundred Black youth attempted to force their way onto the construc-tion site of a multi-million dollar research facility on the University of …
LATIN KING HISTORY - Gang Enforcement Company
LATIN KING HISTORY The Latin Kings are the oldest (1940’s) and largest Hispanic-led street gang in Chicago. They were founded in South Chicago in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and the …
Gangland Killings in Chicago, 1919-1933 - HOPLOFOBIA.INFO
According to the Chicago Crime Commission (CCC), 729 people were slain gangland style in Cook County, Illinois—which contains the city of Chicago and the surrounding area—from 1919 to 1933.
“Are we a family or a business?” History and disjuncture i n the …
Crack cocaine had arrived in the city and, with it, lucrative pro¢ts for a twenty- and thirty-something class of young black men living in the poorest neighborhoods.
Race Not Space: A Revisionist History of Gangs in Chicago
Indeed, the history of Chicago's gangs can be divided into six periods that reflect the traditional factors of immigration, poverty, or social disorganization; and at the same time, reveal the …
The Weberian Gang: A Study of Three Chicago Gangs and New ...
I propose that urban street gangs often resemble and reflect the actions of the Weberian state in their communities and that this makes them inherently political, even if they do not make …
Book Review | The Insane Chicago Way: The Daring Plan by …
The gang alliances of Chicago and Los Angeles—the United States’ street gang capitals —have received a lot of popular and scientific study, but Hagedorn is the first to address Chicago’s …
From Gang-Bangers to Urban Revolutionaries: The Young …
Orlando Davila and six others founded the Young Lords in Chicago in 1959.12 Davila served as the Lords' chairman until the mid 1960s. For the first seven years they were just one of Chicago's …
“Crime that is organized”: A Case Study on Gangs in Chicago’s ...
The history of criminal organizations in Chicago dates far beyond the days of Al Capone, and such legacies resonate in contemporary gangs far beyond the fall of mafia-style organizations.
APRIL 2019 CITY OF CHICAGO OFFICE OF INSPECTOR …
Chicagos communities, police, and elected officials are engaged in an ongoing discussion about how CPD collects, maintains, uses, and shares gang-related data. Public forums, media …
Street gangs have a long history in American cities (Thrasher …
The seminal text, and to this day the most comprehensive study of street gang activity in one city, is Thrasher (1927). Thrasher observed the practices and organization of over 1,000 street gangs in …
History of Gangs in the United States - SAGE Publications Inc
Midwest Region (mainly Chicago) First period: 1860s–1920s · Chicago’s first street gangs developed among White immigrants along ethnic lines in the 1860s— particularly Irish, German, …
Violent Gangs in Chicago - JSTOR
AA model of the development of two types of violent gangs is presented. Data on. the scope and seriousness of the gang problem in Chicago, community characteristics associated with the …
'Are We a Family or a Business?' History and Disjuncture in the …
Crack cocaine had arrived in the city and, with it, lucrative profits for a twenty- and thirty-something class of young black living in the poorest neighborhoods.
The Emergence of Gangs in the United States— Then and Now …
• Explore gangs from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles as they first emerged. • Identify the differences and similarities between each region’s growth of gangs. • Examine the emergence of …
Nine Alleged Members and Leader of Gaylords Gang Faction in …
CHICAGO — Nine suburban and Wisconsin residents, including the alleged leader and members of the Almighty Gaylord Nation street gang faction in Addison were charged with federal firearms …
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DIVISION No. 17 …
The LAFA Street Gang had been engaged in a longstanding and violent feud with other Chicago street gangs, including the “Merrill Park Gangster Disciples,” among others.
Chicago Street Gang Members https://doi.org/10.1177
gang masculinities from adolescence may be reformed during adulthood to varying degrees, and we highlight how structural disadvantage reverberates through the long-term consequences that …
DIR-013-17 Cartel and Gangs in Chicago - Unclassified
Chicago is home to several street gangs that are heavily involved in drug distribution, violent crime, and other criminal activity.
The Fracturing of Gangs and Violence in Chicago: A Research …
The nature of gang violence in Chicago has been changing, but policies and practices toward it have not. This was the main conclusion of “The Fracturing of Gangs Conference,” held at the …
The Rise and Fall of the 1969 Chicago Jobs Campaign: Street …
On the morning of August 12, 1969, a crowd of more than a hundred Black youth attempted to force their way onto the construc-tion site of a multi-million dollar research facility on the …
LATIN KING HISTORY - Gang Enforcement Company
LATIN KING HISTORY The Latin Kings are the oldest (1940’s) and largest Hispanic-led street gang in Chicago. They were founded in South Chicago in the Humboldt Park neighborhood …
Gangland Killings in Chicago, 1919-1933 - HOPLOFOBIA.INFO
According to the Chicago Crime Commission (CCC), 729 people were slain gangland style in Cook County, Illinois—which contains the city of Chicago and the surrounding area—from …
“Are we a family or a business?” History and disjuncture i n …
Crack cocaine had arrived in the city and, with it, lucrative pro¢ts for a twenty- and thirty-something class of young black men living in the poorest neighborhoods.
Race Not Space: A Revisionist History of Gangs in Chicago
Indeed, the history of Chicago's gangs can be divided into six periods that reflect the traditional factors of immigration, poverty, or social disorganization; and at the same time, reveal the …
The Weberian Gang: A Study of Three Chicago Gangs and …
I propose that urban street gangs often resemble and reflect the actions of the Weberian state in their communities and that this makes them inherently political, even if they do not make …
Book Review | The Insane Chicago Way: The Daring Plan by …
The gang alliances of Chicago and Los Angeles—the United States’ street gang capitals —have received a lot of popular and scientific study, but Hagedorn is the first to address Chicago’s …
From Gang-Bangers to Urban Revolutionaries: The Young …
Orlando Davila and six others founded the Young Lords in Chicago in 1959.12 Davila served as the Lords' chairman until the mid 1960s. For the first seven years they were just one of …
“Crime that is organized”: A Case Study on Gangs in Chicago’s ...
The history of criminal organizations in Chicago dates far beyond the days of Al Capone, and such legacies resonate in contemporary gangs far beyond the fall of mafia-style organizations.
APRIL 2019 CITY OF CHICAGO OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
Chicagos communities, police, and elected officials are engaged in an ongoing discussion about how CPD collects, maintains, uses, and shares gang-related data. Public forums, media …
Street gangs have a long history in American cities …
The seminal text, and to this day the most comprehensive study of street gang activity in one city, is Thrasher (1927). Thrasher observed the practices and organization of over 1,000 street …
History of Gangs in the United States - SAGE Publications Inc
Midwest Region (mainly Chicago) First period: 1860s–1920s · Chicago’s first street gangs developed among White immigrants along ethnic lines in the 1860s— particularly Irish, …
Violent Gangs in Chicago - JSTOR
AA model of the development of two types of violent gangs is presented. Data on. the scope and seriousness of the gang problem in Chicago, community characteristics associated with the …
'Are We a Family or a Business?' History and Disjuncture in …
Crack cocaine had arrived in the city and, with it, lucrative profits for a twenty- and thirty-something class of young black living in the poorest neighborhoods.
The Emergence of Gangs in the United States— Then and …
• Explore gangs from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles as they first emerged. • Identify the differences and similarities between each region’s growth of gangs. • Examine the emergence …
Nine Alleged Members and Leader of Gaylords Gang Faction …
CHICAGO — Nine suburban and Wisconsin residents, including the alleged leader and members of the Almighty Gaylord Nation street gang faction in Addison were charged with federal …
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DIVISION No. 17 …
The LAFA Street Gang had been engaged in a longstanding and violent feud with other Chicago street gangs, including the “Merrill Park Gangster Disciples,” among others.
Chicago Street Gang Members https://doi.org/10.1177
gang masculinities from adolescence may be reformed during adulthood to varying degrees, and we highlight how structural disadvantage reverberates through the long-term consequences …
