South Brooklyn Boys

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
South Brooklyn Boys (SBB)
Founded1950s
Founding location
Italian-American Mafia
Tanglewood Boys
Ozone Park Boys
Gallo Crew (early)
RivalsThe Jokers, Untouchable Bishops, The Mau Maus, The Fort Green Chaplains, The West Street Boys, Supreme Team

South Brooklyn Boys (abbreviated as SBB) is a famous

Italian American
membership.

At the time of its origin, SBB consisted of several smaller neighborhood

Gowanus, and Boerum Hill
sections of Brooklyn. Some of the gangs that made up the original South Brooklyn Boys were the South Brooklyn Devils, the Garfield Place Boys, the SB Angels, SB Diapers, the Wanderers, the Degraw St boys, the Sackett St Boys, the Butler Gents, the Gowanus Boys, the Kane St. Midgets, The Little Gents, and the Young Savages. The label South Brooklyn Boys represented the loosely connected affiliation that all of these neighborhood gangs associated under.

In practice, these gangs sometimes had bitter disputes and fought with each other. The main body, simply referred to as "South Brooklyn" by many, was located in and around 3rd Street Park, which back in the 1950s was predominantly Italian. A small but fierce gang known as the "Jokers" was a bitter rival, led by a man known as "Cannonball." The two groups fought many times. The Jokers junior set was featured in Bruce Davidson's "Brooklyn Gang" book. Also bitter enemies of SBB were the Puerto Rican Gangs, The Untouchable Bishops, and the Apaches, and the African American gangs The Mau Maus, and the Chaplains.

The 1962 book, All the Way Down: The Violent Underworld of Street Gangs by Vincent Riccio and Bill Slocum, featured real accounts of the Gowanus Boys. The gang was located in the Gowanus section of South Brooklyn, and was one of the earlier neighborhood crews that would evolve into the larger, loosely affiliated South Brooklyn Boys street gang.

Reputed

Italian-American Mafia
throughout its history to the present, but it is not an official Mafia crew.

Since the 1970s, South Brooklyn Boys has represented not only the original 1950s gangs, but many generations of kids growing up in the traditional

. The term South Brooklyn Boys has not only been used as a gang association, but also as a loosely connected affiliation for which many neighborhood kids felt a kinship. From the 1980s to the present, a new incarnation of the South Brooklyn Boys has been very active (source?).

Gang sets

The South Brooklyn Boys has consisted of 10 different gangs throughout its history.[3]

  • South Brooklyn Boys (HQ: 3rd Street Park and 5th Ave) - Parkslope
  • South Brooklyn Angels
  • South Brooklyn Diapers (5th Avenue & Carroll Street) - Parkslope
  • Degraw Street Boys (Degraw Street)-
  • Sackett Street Boys (Sackett Street )
  • South Brooklyn Devils (Union Street and 4th Ave.)- Park Slope
  • Garfield Place Boys (Garfield Place and 5th Ave.)- Park Slope
  • Butler Gents (Butler Street and Douglass St, between 3rd and 7th Avenues) Park Slope
  • Little Gents (5th Avenue between Union Street & President Street)

References

  1. ^ Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, by Selwyn Raab, Page 470
  2. ^ The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia By Guy Lawson, (Page 147)
  3. ^ StoneGreasers.com Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine - South Brooklyn Boys

External links