\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
In the spring of 1960, April 19 to be precise, some boys were playing basketball in the Williamsburg projects.\u00a0 It was 3:30 p.m. on a Tuesday.\u00a0 Perhaps the boys were playing a game right after being let out of school.\u00a0 The game was being played on Humboldt and Ten Eyck Streets which intersected near the middle of the projects.\u00a0 While the boys were playing, some visitors came by and they weren’t there for a friendly visit.<\/p>\n
One of the boys was black 17-year-old Fred Bronson, who police thought was a member of\u00a0 a gang called the El Quintos.\u00a0 He had a dark brown complexion, was 5’5″ tall and weighed 140 pounds.\u00a0 He had a round face with symmetrical features with a little fuzz of hair on his lip and some chin whiskers.\u00a0 His face adorned some small scars, the results of some childhood accidents.\u00a0 His small right finger was broken during a baseball game.\u00a0 Bronson lived on Siegel Street, some ten blocks away, so it was apparent that he and his friends were looking for trouble.\u00a0 One didn’t just trespass into other neighborhoods without expecting trouble.\u00a0 At least that was the case in New York City in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
![\"Facing](\"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/facing-south-on-Humboldt.bmp\")
<\/a>Facing south on Humboldt Street in Williamsburg in the Williamsburg Projects, 2011.<\/p><\/div>\n
Bronson and his pals stood watching the basketball game for a few moments.\u00a0 One of the boys who was playing was Stuart Mann, 16 who lived on 169 Ten Eyck Walk, very nearby.\u00a0 Mann was not affiliated with any gangs, unlike Bronson.\u00a0 He was a dedicated high school senior, a mathematics major with academic interests and a peaceful person, not known to be aggressive.<\/p>\n
As Mann was playing the game, and came near the perimeter of the play area, Bronson stopped him and asked if he was a member of a gang.\u00a0 Mann abruptly turned and said no, then continued with the game.\u00a0 All of a sudden, Bronson walked up to Mann, who was facing the other direction, with his back turned, and stabbed him in the back with a knife.\u00a0 Bronson then fled the scene of the assault.\u00a0 The next day, a Housing policeman (there were two police forces, one force for the precinct and one force for the various housing projects in the city), arrested Bronson at his home and booked him on assault charges.\u00a0 When asked why he assaulted Mann, Bronson said that he had never seen him before on the street and stabbed him because he “did not like his face.”\u00a0 Bronson then refused to give a further explanation.<\/p>\n
![\"Scene](\"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/scene-of-assault1.bmp\")
<\/a>Ten Eyck Street goes on a west\/east axis from Union Street to Buswick Avenue. The middle part of Ten Eyck strikes through the heart of the Williamsburg Projects. This is the intersection of Humboldt Street (which cuts through the projects on a north\/south axis) and Ten Eyck Street where a small park is still here today. There is a decent chance this could have been the scene of the assault, as the Williamsburg Projects are still here today.<\/p><\/div>\n
Who was Fred Bronson?\u00a0 Bronson was a Brooklyn-born only child who lived with both his parents on 258 Seigel Street, in a five room apartment in an apartment house.\u00a0 This area of Brooklyn was poor and had a mixed population of blacks and Puerto Ricans.\u00a0 The housing in this area was considered a slum.\u00a0 His parents were married in 1941, both having family roots in South Carolina.\u00a0 His Mom was an operator in a skirts and slacks factory and his father was usually employed as a chauffeur, although at the time of the assault was working at an electronics company.\u00a0 Bronson didn’t have any abnormal childhood sicknesses or diseases and always lived with his Mom and Dad.\u00a0 He went to school like any other kid, attending P.S. 147 and then J.H.S. 49 where he graduated from.\u00a0 He was an average student with satisfactory marks for attendance, conduct and scholarship.\u00a0 It was when he began attending Eli Whitney Vocational High School that he began to change.\u00a0 He was just passing his academic record, but when it came to his behaviour, the school had several reports of problems.\u00a0 Twice he got caught drinking liquor at school.\u00a0 As he got deeper into his teen years he became involved in a gang and compiled a reputation and record.<\/p>\n
Police thought him to be a member of the El Quintos gang, although Bronson denied he was.\u00a0 The fact Bronson asked Mann if he was in a gang before stabbing him, is telling though.\u00a0 His past history also gives evidence of gang-type activities.\u00a0 However, perhaps Bronson was telling the truth in that he wasn’t in the El Quintos.\u00a0 Perhaps he was a\u00a0 member of a different gang (see more about this at the bottom of the article).\u00a0 Here’s his past history: \u00a0 On January 21, 1959, Bronson and seven others were preparing for a gang rumble when they were picked up by police.\u00a0 On March 21, 1960, Bronson and some other youths were apprehended on Moore Street between Leonard Street and Manhattan Avenue.\u00a0 They were armed with radio antennas and ashcans for the purpose of assault.\u00a0 Less than two weeks before Bronson stabbed Mann in the back, he was “acting in concert” with 11 other boys on Boerum Street and Bushwick Avenue.\u00a0 They were horsing around, using “loud and boisterous language,” and were preventing pedestrians from using the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
![\"FBI](\"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/FBI-Card.bmp\" "\\"FBI")
<\/a>FBI Card for Fred Bronson<\/p><\/div>\n
A little over a month after Fred was arrested for stabbing Stuart Mann in the back (he spent two days in the hospital to recover from his injury), he was back at it again.\u00a0 On May 29, 1960, at about 6:00 p.m. on Varet Street and Graham Avenue, Bronson took a violent hold of Angel Santiago by putting his arm around Angel’s throat and cutting his right cheek with a knife.\u00a0 Bronson was arrested for this and charged with Assault in the 3rd degree, but in the end the case was dismissed.\u00a0 This is the last we hear of Bronson, nothing further on the record.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to Fred, Angel and Stuart and how their lives turned out.<\/p>\n
Originally I thought Bronson was in the El Quintos, but lately (April 2020), I received an email from a former member of the El Quintos who told me that Bronson was NOT in the El Quintos.\u00a0 Bronson must have been in a different gang from Williamsburg.<\/p>\n
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Before you get to the article\u2026 On February 23, 2018, my book on the Mau Maus and Sand Street Angels, who were two Brooklyn youth gangs from the 1950s, has been completed.\u00a0 It took 15 years of research and writing … Continue reading