DISCLAIMER

Many of the names and some of the descriptions in this blog have been changed to protect the guilty.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The South End-Forest Park Gang Wars of the 1970s


Who knows how the South End-Forest Park gang wars of the 1970s started? Does it matter more than 40 years later? At the time, however, emotions were high as gang beatings fanned the flames of hatred between teenagers of the neighborhoods.


Both sections of the city were known for their gangs. The South End Gang had been there for years. Forest Park gangs popped up in the 1960s and 1970s: the X Gang, the Dairy Mart Gang (corner of Dickinson and Belmont), the Center Gang (Holy Name Social Center), the Circle Gang (Florentine Gardens), the Terrace Gang(s) (Trinity/Longfellow Terraces) the Johnny Appleseed Gang (Johnny Appleseed Park), and the Brown House Gang (the Rustic Pavilion and the green pavilion in Forest Park).

But the South End Gang gained a reputation for its viciousness when members attacked several youths from Enfield who pulled onto Main Street on May 11, 1968. Neighborhood teens (although one was from East Forest Park) exchanged words with the Connecticut boys, who jumped out of the car and chased the gang down the street. Paul M. Plath, 17, of Thompsonville, continued the pursuit into an alley and ran into a trap, getting hit in the head with a board. He died at Wesson Memorial Hospital:

The South Enders were also blamed as being some of the “outsiders” who helped instigate racial brawling outside Tech High School in September of 1971.












Again, it’s not clear what touched off the fighting between the South End and Forest Park, but the violence reached the newspapers in the fall of 1973:


In May of 1974 the brawling was the subject of a meeting between city officials and a lengthy article in the Springfield Union:



These battles were not the classic rumbles in which gangs agreed on a time and location and fought it out. Rather, they were ambushes:


A commenter on this blog from Forest Park, Classical ’75 Guy, agrees with the assessment that the problem was the South End Gang. A self-described “Purple Heart vet” of those wars says the South Enders were cowardly. “What I hated about those guys is they didn't fight fair,” he writes. “It was always 10 of them on one of you. Like fuckin’ ants they’d be all over someone before they even knew it, and they didn't mind kicking in the head and face either until you were near death. They loved it when they knocked someone’s nose to the other side of their face, that was the goal I think.”

However, South Enders at the time insisted that “Forest Park always starts it.”:


The hostilities between the groups went back years, according to the article:


The multi-generational beefs in the article fit Classical ’75 Guy’s description of older and younger versions of the gangs. For the X Gang, there was the “Big X” and the “Little X,” and the same was true for the South End.

The assaults got particularly nasty when girls were beaten as well. One attack took place in the Cathedral High School parking lot, and the other at the old Friendly’s in East Forest Park:


These were the typical South End beatings: savage and always outnumbering their targets, according to Classical ’75 X Guy: 
“They only did it when the victim was relatively defenseless, when it was just him and one or two other guys. They used to drive around in their cars with an ITALIA sticker in the center of the rear window. They’d wear Italia flags on their shirts, and a gold chain with a gold horn and gold fingers around their necks. You’d never see just one of them. They’d lean way over so it looked like they were driving from the middle of the front bench seat—the ‘gangster lean.’ We hated those SOBs, but we simply couldn’t exert the same level of brutality that they could. We did our best in one-on-one, well really 10-on-10, but mano y mano when the odds were relatively even. They were a bit pussyish when they didn’t have their friends behind them. And God forbid, you could never go down into their hood. If you did, the fathers, grandfathers, uncles, mothers, sisters, nieces and nephews would all be in the fracas.”


The subject dominated a City Council meeting, and Mayor William Sullivan scheduled a conference on the gang wars.


Although boys will be boys, it gets dangerous when things escalate:


There were no deaths from the South End-Forest Park gang wars, but in the coming years, there was some tragic fallout from this kind of hooliganism. In 1975, the South End guy from Marble Street who involved in the Friendly’s beating described in the article above became embroiled in a violent feud with a group from East Springfield. This continuous bar fighting between the South End and East Springfield gangs resulted with him losing an eye in a gang fracas in the Viking Lounge. While he was in the hospital, his friends tried to ambush one of the East Springfield assailants at his job at a package store, but the East Side guy pulled a gun and shot two of them, killing one.

Then, in 1976, as more Hispanic families were moving into the South End, there was unrest in the summer as Italian and Puerto Rican gangs fought. As a result, 20 Hispanic families moved out of the neighborhood to escape the violence. On July 3, 22-year-old Gary Galland from Locust Street was shot in the back as he walked out of a doorway on Saratoga Street. They never found the shooter. For all we know, he had not been part of the violence until then—but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and police believed the murder was related to the area’s race problems.

That same summer, when the South End Gang invaded one of the many keg parties thrown at Camp Seco in Forest Park, a Forest Park teenager suffered brain damage from a beating he took. “I haven’t seen him in years,” wrote the Classical ’75 X Guy. “But the last time I did, he had slurred speech and wasn’t quite all there, kind of like a stroke victim.”


Okay, folks, who were the true “bad guys” in this lengthy neighborhood conflict? I realize that I only have a Forest Parker’s point of view in this post, so there is a risk of bias. Indeed, South Enders insisted in the original Springfield Union article that Forest Park was the instigator. I know that there were accounts of South End outnumbering their victims, but I also know that Forest Park kids also had a habit of ganging up on people back in the day. If anyone growing up in these neighborhoods has something to add, by all means, LEAVE A COMMENT!

Granted, I know I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of this feud, and I have been accused of screwing up the facts in the Brown House-Johnny Appleseed conflict (as well in as the Sixteen Acres Gangs of the 1990s post), so please feel free to chime in.

7 comments:

abner kravitz said...

My friends and I were not involved in any of this stuff but couldn't help but observe some of it. From my point of view, the South End kids were scumbags who started most of the trouble. Interestingly, 40 years later you still read about some of these punks, getting indicted on RICO charges and whatnot. Little gangster wannabes turned into inept big gangsters.

Anonymous said...

class of 74 classical here,
I was lucky, I could show my face at the dolphin or the orange or the parker house, limelight, dory, dial tone, lancer, etc and survive with teeth intact. At one time or another several of these gangs covered my back. I never figured out whether it was a family thing or just my sparkling personality. But there was never any doubt the south-enders were sociopaths and very mostly the aggressors. There favorite move was to pull someones sweater or sweatshirt over their heads so the person was relatively helpless, and then beat the snot out of him. Come on guys admit. I saw it frequently. I'm italian and i'm proud to say that my family included some federal case, RICO mobsters. The difference was that they were real mobsters and not some "let's go jump on teenagers" wannabe's. I even recall at points where the true crime figures would grab the "junior mafia" and slap the shit out of them for bringing undue attention and publicity that hindered the daily business. I so i know the mindset and crimes and violence were definitely not discouraged by family, they were more likely applauded. These guys called themselves the junior mafia way before biggie took the name. They were very proud of being reprobates.
I also recall THE X GANG, seniors got to wear black leather coats, but until you made the grade, you could only wear brown. I eventually spent most of my time in the acres/circle because we were most loyal to the spirit of altered consciousness, but I definitely remember the night riders from the south end arriving in carloads for the dance of the bricks and bats and pipes.
I also have my rockadundee road story. My house had been raided by the police and at my first opportunity me and a friend took my hidden pot plants out of the house and drove out deep into the lawn-like roads where nobody ever went, especially at 3 am. After hiding these plants and out of nowhere (I'm a man of science so I dismiss the occult) from deep in the woods we both heard the voice of a women laughing loudly, yes, like a crazy person. exit with haste.
ahhh, the bullet-proofiosity of youth

Hell’s Acres said...

Wow great detail, especially the black jacket/brown jacket ranking. Classic.

I can remember the South End Gang being very visible in ‘80-‘81–they were in their 20s by then—but in the summer of ‘83 I lived on Margaret Street in the South End and I saw much less of them.

It’s interesting you hung around the circle/Acres. I always knew there were a couple of forest Park guys in the circle but the only one I knew of was Keith Sikes.

Anonymous said...

As a past member of the notorious 'Brown House Gang', all that I will say here is, "Don't believe everything that you read in the newspapers." The 'Republican' was biased then as they are now. I do know, because I was there.

Anonymous said...

Never saw much of this. Warner School, Kennedy, Classical 76. Lived on the edge of 16 acres. When the mall got built it kind of became Eastfield. Did know Danny C. His house was right behind the fence walking up the ‘back way’ to Warner school. He was younger than me and a punk but certainly did not deserve what transpired.

Didn’t see much mentioned on Parker Drug Store. That place was awesome. magazine rack mini restaurant and pharmacy in back. Crazy what we remember from our youth!

Other great memories, camp wilder and my buddy Whitney A. 16 acres library where I would spend countless hours studying for the CPA exam eastfield mall and spencer gifts and the fox theatre that I snuck into to watch r rated black sexpoltation flicks.


Anonymous said...

I remember when the Plath murder happened … his brother Bob struggled with mental illness after that.

para59r said...

Description of the South Enders is fair. I had a chance to reignite the race war that had spilled over from Boston on my first week at Classical High School. A Pine Point girl I knew from Duggin Jr High now at Classical also came to my Home Room. She told me some guy and his friends were bothering her. I followed her out into the hall and she pointed out one guy in particular to me sitting with his friends as they were sitting in another class room. So there I am looking at him and he and his friends are staring back at me. I told her I'd talk to him and went back to my Home Room to wait for the bell to ring. Bell rings and there's a pack of them waiting for me out side the door. I see there's going to be no talk and put my attention to the one guy, thinking whatever's happening is between him and me, but then I get suckered punched by someone on the side, then more punches but I kept my focus on the guy and took him down on to the ground, then teachers break it up. Exact same thing happens the next day, same way, same order, only difference is when I get to my first period class, Art. The girl's there and she's with a black girl. The girl is tall, pretty and smart. She asks one question. Do I want some help? Now I am the kind of guy who could use some help. I didn't have any friends in school except one he wasn't going to be much help. All my other friends were in Tech, Commerce and Trade. I can see there's a few large black guys in the class watching for my answer, actually I'm pretty sure they weren't part of the Art class, but had arrived for my answer. This is all happening before the bell rang and class began, so there's still a lot of milling about. I knew I was dealing with South Enders, I knew they were Italian. I also knew the year before I ever got to High School that the blacks and whites still had the spill over problem from Boston, but that was a year ago, supposedly settled but I was basically being asked to reignite that. Five or six second decision, I said thank you but I'd handle it myself. Long story short, nothing happened after that. I met the guy in the stair way alone and he scampered away. Next the gym teacher teams me up with him during wrestling and he's pinned. Nothing for a good few months, then I'm walking to dentation and one of his friends, the one who suckered punched me from the side twice is accosting a guy I think is my cousin's friend. I hand my books off to some one and sucker punch him in the face. He was surprised by that, turned on me and let loose with a punch of his own but he missed and then sails over my back and slams into the floor and he asks me from there what I did that for. I shrugged mentioned something about the other guy being a friend of my cousin and got my books back and went to detention. Now there was a girl who said she witnessed all that, I think she may have, not sure, but she made some moves and wanted me to come visit her in Forest Park so we could swim in her pool. That was pretty far from sixteen acers so I declined. Not sure what that was about, but I really did want to go. Also I think I figured out that Forest Park was right there by the South End and I'm fairly sure she was Italian.