{"id":2178,"date":"2016-03-27T19:52:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T23:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/?page_id=2178"},"modified":"2020-03-16T22:35:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T02:35:40","slug":"bishops-invade-flatbush","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/?page_id=2178","title":{"rendered":"Bishops Invade Flatbush"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bishops were a fearsome and powerful black gang that were one of the most well-known of the gangs in New York City.\u00a0 With a base out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, they waged vicious battles with their arch nemesis, the Chaplains gang.\u00a0 Ruthless and aggressive, their violent escapades found their way into the newspapers and to this day, their name is still remembered.<\/p>\n

Leading up to July 12, 1960, the Bishops had been making forays into far-off Flatbush, at least 36 blocks from their home turf from Bed-Stuy.\u00a0 Flatbush was a mainly white neighborhood and it is quite a distance in terms of gang warfare.\u00a0 Most gangs fought in their neighborhood or the one adjacent to it, so it was curious to me as to why the Bishops were traveling all the way to Flatbush, or how they would even know the youth there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whenever they invaded Flatbush, the Bishops terrorized several black youth that were living in the Lott and Beverly street area.\u00a0 They crashed parties, administered beatings, turned over garbage cans, broke automobile antennas and even stabbed one of the boys in the neighborhood, John Collier.\u00a0 They also threatened the boys with bodily harm if they attended a summer school at Erasmus Hall High School located in Flatbush.\u00a0 As usual, looking at some of the facts of the case one can make a solid hypothesis as to why the Bishops were traveling such a big distance when no doubt they probably had their hands full with their enemies in Bed-Stuy.<\/p>\n

Although a predominantly white neighborhood, there was a black enclave that lived on several blocks in Flatbush who had been there for several decades.\u00a0 Generally these black families came from a higher socio-economic level than their black counterparts in Bedford-Stuyvesant.\u00a0 It is implied that there was jealousy over this difference in backgrounds from the Bishops.\u00a0 It seems odd that the Bishops had threatened the Flatbush boys from attending Erasmus Hall High, a school that was in the Flatbush neighborhood.\u00a0 The one thing about schools that differed from gang warfare was that although someone could live in one neighborhood, they could travel very far to attend a school elsewhere in Brooklyn or even into Manhattan.\u00a0 It is likely that at least one of the Bishops may have attended Erasmus and resented the Flatbush boys, perhaps for their better standard of living.<\/p>\n

By July 12, 1960, one of the Flatbush boys heard from a friend of a friend that the Bishops were coming down on them for a rumble in a Sears Roebuck parking lot.\u00a0 Sears had it’s location on the Beverly and Lott streets, taking up a huge amount of the block.\u00a0 In fact, Sears is still there.\u00a0 Like many gang rumours, nobody knew if the Bishops were really indeed coming, but Lorenzo Register, one of the boys in the group who was the kind of boy who wanted to impress his friends took matters into his own hands.\u00a0 None of the boys were into gang warfare and in fact, this was a loose collection of friends and acquaintances, with no familiarity with fights and rumbles.\u00a0 But Lorenzo had once lived in the Marcy Projects, home to some very aggressive and violent gangs such as the Buccaneers and the Marcy Chaplains.\u00a0 There he remembered seeing a Molotov cocktail used in a fireworks display.\u00a0 Molotov cocktails were especially well-known from World War II, when Finnish soldiers used them against the Russian invaders.\u00a0 Perhaps the boys could make a Molotov cocktail to scare off the Bishops if they came down and in a perfect world, maybe even scare them badly enough where they would never come back?<\/p>\n

A couple of blocks away from where Lorenzo Register lived on Beverly Road there was a garage run by “Pete,” who fixed motorcycles.\u00a0 Pete had various tin cans laying around the shop with small amounts of gasoline in them.\u00a0 This was perfect for the home made bomb, so Register got his hand on a Pepsi-cola bottle and put some gasoline in the bottle.\u00a0 Stuffing a rag through the opening, which served as a wick, the bomb was now ready, rudimentary and hopefully enough to thwart the Bishops.<\/p>\n

During the 1950s, police would sometimes confiscate Molotov cocktails which were often part of a gangs’ weapons stash, although it wasn’t too common that they were actually used.\u00a0 I did have a chance to interview a member of the East Harlem Dragons and he described a time when he came on the wrong end of a thrown Molotov cocktail.\u00a0 One day he noticed some members of an enemy gang called the Demons who were high up on a tenement roof.\u00a0 Seeing their enemy below, one of the Demons tossed a Molotov cocktail onto the street where it exploded on impact, a few feet away from the Dragon.\u00a0 Although the bomb didn’t hit him, he was near enough that hot liquid splashed onto his leg, which caught fire.\u00a0 It also hit him under his eye.\u00a0 The pain was excruciating.\u00a0 For three months he was in pain and it took a total of 6 months to heal.<\/p>\n

\"Molotov<\/a>

Molotov Cocktails confiscated from Red Hook teens in 1953<\/p><\/div>\n

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When Lorenzo finished making the Molotov cocktail, he was ready.\u00a0 Collecting some of the guys from the neighborhood, they were now ready for the Bishops.\u00a0 There were seven of them – Robert Brown, John Collier, Frank Heyward, Nathan Orr, Lorenzo Register, Esaw Kelly and Julius Thompson.\u00a0 They decided to meet in the Sears Roebuck parking lot, the supposed place where the rumble would take place.\u00a0 The boys brought along a bottle of burgundy wine to consume (liquid courage?) while they waited for the dreaded Bishops.<\/p>\n

As the boys were passing time, Patrolman Calvin Helfer, an officer of the 67th Precinct, received a confidential tip that there was bad blood between the teens in Flatbush and the Bishops and a rumble was about to take place.\u00a0 Taking a car load of plainclothes policemen, they observed the boys in the parking lot huddled and gathered around an abandoned automobile.\u00a0 Descending upon the unsuspecting Flatbush boys, the police lined them all up to search them.\u00a0 They didn’t find anything and were about to let them go, when the Molotov cocktail was discovered.\u00a0 This was serious because now the boys were in possession of a weapon – a felony.\u00a0 All of them were taken to the 67th Precinct and questioned there at length.\u00a0 All of them were charged with Unlawful Assembly as well as CDW (Carrying a Dangerous Weapon).<\/p>\n

\"Sears<\/a>

Sears Roebuck Flatbush Brooklyn<\/p><\/div>\n

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The police themselves didn’t view the boys they arrested as hard youth.\u00a0 In fact it really did appear that the boys banded together to protect themselves and they weren’t using it as a convenient excuse.\u00a0 Two men who were prominent citizens in Flatbush also stood up to vouch for the boys: Allen Fagin Jr., a Youth Program Director of the newly organized Flatbush Civic Community and it’s President, Raymond Jackson.\u00a0 Both men felt that the local boys had no choice but to organize themselves for protection against the marauding Bishops.\u00a0 Fagin and Jackson both contended that there was not one single instance of delinquency of any consequence reported in the community.<\/p>\n

While it was true the community wasn’t known for gang fights, most of the boys did have records.\u00a0 John Collier was the only one of the seven boys who did not have a record and was able to get out on bail.\u00a0 Robert Brown was involved in a burglary, Frank Heyward had broken into parking meters, Nathan Orr was caught in possession of burglar’s tools and was involved in a shakedown, Lorenzo Register was also involved in a shakedown and Julius Thompson had a record for attempted rape.\u00a0 Kelly had the longest legal history among all the boys with several arrests.<\/p>\n

Even with these records, some of the boys had shown promise in becoming law-abiding citizens.\u00a0 For example, Brown had excellent leadership qualities and was the assistant basketball coach as well as chairman of an entertainment committee.\u00a0 Collier (the only one who had no record) was relieved the police caught them because it meant there could be some resolution against the Bishops.\u00a0 He was the one who was stabbed and was fearful of another attack.\u00a0 Heyward was a very quiet and well-behaved youngster.\u00a0 Even though Register made the Molotov cocktail, he was a follower and craved the favour of his peers.\u00a0 Orr was active in the Flatbush Boys Club and had a good reputation with the adults in the neighborhood.\u00a0 The two boys that could be considered trouble makers were Julius Thompson and Esaw Kelly.<\/p>\n

Julius Thompson was considered the “dullest” of the group and was only mildly tolerated by the group of boys.\u00a0 When questioned by the police, he denied knowing about the bomb even though Register showed everyone.\u00a0 Esaw Kelly had a lengthy legal history beginning in 1955 when he was caught for skipping school.\u00a0 In 1956 he was picked up for annoying storekeepers, breaking into parking meters, and then arrested for malicious mischief.\u00a0 This was followed by several arrests in 1957, including burglarizing a home, attempted burglary, smoking on trains, stealing another boy’s school pass and throwing an open-blade knife at a teacher’s head.<\/p>\n

Despite these issues, for the most part the records of these boys wasn’t of a generally violent nature, especially in regards to gang fights.\u00a0 The boys didn’t view themselves as a gang, and when Register was being questioned by the Judge in court, the following exchange happened:<\/p>\n

Judge:\u00a0 What is the name of the gang or the club?\u00a0 Let’s call it a club.<\/p>\n

Register:\u00a0 There is no club.<\/p>\n

Judge:\u00a0 The social worker calls it a social club.\u00a0 You must not call it a gang because you might hurt the poor little dears.\u00a0 They call it a club.\u00a0 What is the name of the little social club of which you are a member?<\/p>\n

Register:\u00a0 It was just the fellows that live around my way.<\/p>\n

Judge:\u00a0 What is the name of the club?<\/p>\n

Register:\u00a0 There is no name.<\/p>\n

Judge:\u00a0 Just a social gathering?<\/p>\n

Register:\u00a0 Just the fellows that live around my way.<\/p>\n

The boys had the bad luck of getting the Honorable Samuel Leibowitz as the presiding judge.\u00a0 Leibowitz had a reputation as a very tough judge, raining down thunder from his seat.\u00a0 When it came to the plea, he let Collier go free on bail because he had no record and had a steady job.\u00a0 The rest of the boys were sent to Elmira Correctional Centre and had a charge of Unlawful Assembly added to their rap sheets (the CDW was dropped).<\/p>\n

So, in the end the Bishops emerged victorious and they didn’t even have to go down for a rumble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bishops were a fearsome and powerful black gang that were one of the most well-known of the gangs in New York City.\u00a0 With a base out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, they waged vicious battles with their arch nemesis, the Chaplains gang.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2250,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/Pdrj3O-z8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3313,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2178\/revisions\/3313"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}