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First Generation Gangs
Foreign, non-American countries began to export their most proficient criminals, ensuring that the United States had a steady supply of Tommygun purchasers. Gang bosses from Ireland and Italy began to take over the "mean streets" of New York, Chicago, and to a lesser extent, downtown Beloit. Many gangsters chose colorful and intensely stupid nicknames like "The Nose," "Crazy Legs," and "Sticky Fingers" because their last names (which were highly foreign) sounded goofy. -
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History of Street Gangs in America
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Second Generation Gangs
The second generation of true gangster criminals began, and they proceeded to get a lot wussier. While previous generations wore coal-infested rags or snappy business suits, the criminals of the mid 1950's chose to wear plain white shirts and jeans. Also, since they were born and raised in America, they had more traditional American names like "Stevie" and "Ernie" and "Frankie". -
18th Street Gang
he 18th Street gang formed around 1959 in the Pico Union area.With 50,000 members in Central America, tens of thousands in the U.S., and believed by some to be operating in 37 states and 10 foreign countries, the 18th Street Gang is organized, disciplined and sophisticated, and depending on which expert you believe, it is even better organized than its primary rival, MS-13 -
Aryan Brotherhood
Dating back to 1964, the Aryan Brotherhood has a huge presence in the U.S. federal prison system, particularly in California. They are well-organized, well-connected in and out of prison, and they lack the one card authorities could play against them: fear of punishment. What more can you do to a guy on a life sentence with no parole? Not even the death penalty carries any weight. Consequently, the AB have become extraordinary killers. -
Wah Ching History
Wah Ching makes themselves known in America dating back to the mid-1960's. their criminal activities are highly diversified, making them extraordinarily good at one thing in particular: making money. -
Crips Beginning
They were founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969 mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams. What was once a single alliance between two autonomous gangs is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another. -
Blood Gang Beginning
The Bloods gang was formed initially to compete against the influence of the Crips in Los Angeles. The origin of the Bloods and their rivalry with the Crips dates to the 1970s, where the Pirus street gang, originally a set, or faction, of the Crips, broke off during an internal gang war, and allied with other smaller gangs to found the gang that would eventually become known as the Bloods -
Third Generation Gangs
Known by historians as "The Era of the Pimp," the streets in the 1970's ran rampant with hustlers who had more gold inside their mouth and around their neck than Fort Knox. Instead of peddling drugs and booze, they now peddled women. And drugs. And booze. The gangsters of this era are generally known as being much cooler than the ones of the previous generation, whose toughness was demonstrated mainly by combing their hair backwards. -
Crips Color Blue
Williams recalled that a blue bandanna was first worn by Crips founding member Buddha, as a part of his color-coordinated clothing of blue Levi's, a blue shirt, and dark blue suspenders. A blue bandanna was worn in tribute to Buddha after he was shot and killed on February 23, 1973, which eventually became the color of blue associated with Crips -
MS-13's
The Mara Salvatrucha gang originated in Los Angeles, set up in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants in the city's Pico-Union neighborhood who immigrated to the United States after the Central American civil wars of the 1980s.
Originally, the gang's main purpose was to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other, more established gangs of Los Angeles, who were predominantly composed of Mexicans and African-Americans. -
Third Generation Gangs
When the mid-80's rolled around, gang members began to get less greasy but they also started wearing flamboyantly homosexual neon colors and jeans with the knees cut out, so it all balances out on the grand scale of horridness. Prostitutes, which were also known as "hos" back then, were under heavy demand. -
Current Street Gangs
The present generation of gangsters. According to the news reports and television shows, which are never ever ever wrong in any form, all of them are black and Hispanic.
