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<\/a>1634 Dean Street P.S. 83<\/p><\/div>\n
I imagine his heart was racing as he went through the building to see what was missing.\u00a0 He checked different rooms and saw that a window near the main office was smashed and that four classrooms on the second floor had been entered and messes made.\u00a0 The science room got it really bad – glassware was smashed.\u00a0 It was obvious the culprits did not like science.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Golden, who was the Principal of P.S. 83, came to the scene of the crime and found out from the teachers that 90 cents had been taken from a desk in one room, $3.00 from a desk in another, as well as a radio and record player.\u00a0 He figured that after the bandits broke in, they went to the second floor where his office was and smashed the window to get the set of master keys which were hung up on a board.\u00a0\u00a0 Principal Golden called the police and Detective Paul Code who was attached to the 77th<\/sup> Squad was assigned to the case.\u00a0 Not only was the school broken into that weekend, but there had been a number of similar complaints weeks earlier.<\/p>\n About two weeks passed before Detective Code was able to crack the case.\u00a0 On May 28, 1959, he and his partner rounded up a number of juveniles who were throwing rocks at windows in the P.S. 83 schoolyard.\u00a0 After they questioned the boys, some names came out about the theft of the radio and phonograph from P.S. 83 earlier that month.\u00a0 They were \u201cRed,\u201d \u201cBonehead\u201d and a juvenile named Julius. Code picked up all three and took them to the police station for questioning.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for Red and Bonehead to spill the beans.\u00a0 They had been playing stickball in the schoolyard of P.S. 83 on the afternoon of May 10, 1959 (Sunday) when they noticed the screen to a window of the building was unlocked.\u00a0 They climbed on top of a ledge, opened the window and went inside with Julius.\u00a0 Later this story changed to they were playing stickball and somebody hit the ball onto the roof.\u00a0 All three clambered onto the roof to retrieve the ball and while they were up there, they noticed a skylight was broken.\u00a0 From there the three boys broke into the school.\u00a0 The boys admitted that they agreed to steal the phonograph and record player, but before they did, they finished their stickball game.\u00a0 They stashed the stolen property in Red\u2019s older brother\u2019s place and asked an older acquaintance to pawn the items off for their pay day.<\/p>\n In the interrogation Red and Bonehead admitted to breaking the window to get into Principal Golden\u2019s office, but denied ransacking the classrooms or taking the money \u2013 although they conceded they took the keys with them and later threw them into a hallway.\u00a0 Not only that, they also entered the school on May 17 and 24, 1959 (both Sundays) but didn\u2019t take anything.<\/p>\n Their older acquaintance sold the record player for $7.00 to a junk shop which he shared with Red and Bonehead.\u00a0 However, when he tried to pawn the radio off at Fulton Pawn Brokers, he was unsure of himself and the owner \u2013 no doubt a predator looking to score off an easy mark \u2013 smelled an opportunity to rip him off.\u00a0 So he took the radio and refused to pay for it (this came back to haunt him later when he was arrested for possession of stolen property).<\/p>\n Red of the Corsair Lords<\/p><\/div>\n Red was a member of the Corsair Lords, a black gang that had its turf in the Kingsborough Houses and only two blocks away from P.S. 83.\u00a0 Like a politician denying the truth, Bonehead vociferously denied being a member of the gang.\u00a0 However, Red said that Bonehead was<\/em> in the gang and that he even participated on two or three occasions in rumbles against the Jonquils, enemies of the Corsair Lords.\u00a0 Both he and Bonehead carried knives, sticks and stones to the rumbles.<\/p>\n Red was the most truthful of the three boys and said that they used the money to purchase liquor.\u00a0 Bonehead, who blamed Red for \u201cshooting his mouth off\u201d to juveniles in the neighborhood, said that he wanted \u201ca little money in his pocket.\u201d\u00a0 Later they recanted their previous confession and said they never entered the school on May 17 and 24 as well as ransacking the classrooms.\u00a0 Red showed little remorse for his actions and shrugged it off as a prank.\u00a0 However, he knew punishment was coming and that he was \u201cready to take my medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n The police recovered the record player which was a Sonocraft valued at about $30.00 as well as the radio, a Granco, FM\/AM radio valued at $32.00.\u00a0 The $3.90 was never recovered, probably used to buy liquor.\u00a0 The set of master keys were found lying on the floor and the damage in the science room came to $7.00 for all the smashed beakers, test tubes and other glass paraphernalia.\u00a0 The glass window for Principal Golden\u2019s office cost $5.00 to repair.<\/p>\n Red got bail which is surprising because he already had two other brushes with the law, one of them for when he broke into a garage owned by the \u201cTastee Bread Company,\u201d at 1674 Atlantic Avenue in search of cake and donuts.\u00a0 The other situation was when he, Givens and three others climbed through the window of some girls they knew and got into a fight with the mother and daughters, hitting them and pushing them around.\u00a0 They broke a bathroom window and threw garbage into the hallway.\u00a0 This case was dismissed, so perhaps that\u2019s why Red got out on bail.<\/p>\n Red\u2019s freedom didn\u2019t last long.\u00a0 While he was out on bail, he was collared by Patrolman Monahan of the 77th<\/sup> Precinct on the corner of Utica Ave and Dean St.\u00a0 Red was caught red-handed with a .22 caliber revolver fully loaded with six shells.\u00a0 He had the gun in his hand, and when Patrolman Monahan approached him, Red put the revolver in his pocket but changed his mind and threw it to the ground.\u00a0 The serial number had been filed off and it was impossible to figure out the make of the revolver.\u00a0 Red pointed out that he had found the revolver and that it didn\u2019t have a trigger.\u00a0 But a triggerless gun didn\u2019t matter: bail was over.<\/p>\n Red was sent to Elmira Reception Center where he was analyzed to figure out what reformatory to send him to.\u00a0 During one of his meetings with prison authorities, he had to go back to Brooklyn for a few hours to face the weapon possession charge, he didn\u2019t want to go.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s twice as good here \u2013 I\u2019m out of the cell every day,\u201d he said.\u00a0 Red\u2019s home life was quite sad and his school situation was just as bad.\u00a0 Things were so bad back in Brooklyn that life in Elmira was preferable to him!<\/p>\n When Red was examined at Elmira, this was one of their observations:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026he is a rather smooth customer, not troubled by anxiety or remorse, who is very adept at sizing up social situations and to then manipulate them towards his own ends.\u00a0 Despite overt compliance, he wants things pretty much on his own terms and has the attitude that he will change his modus operandi when he wants to do so and not because others feel he should do so.\u00a0 Principles or learning have little meaning for him and he would evidently act rather than think about the situation in which he finds himself.\u00a0 He is markedly egocentric, lacks insight, and lacks consideration for others.\u00a0 The social prognosis seems rather poor.\u201d<\/p>\n However, despite this report, Red\u2019s behavior at the reformatory was decent and the only disciplinary report against him was that he fixed his shoe without permission, which sounds ridiculous to me that this was an issue.<\/p>\n Red got out of the reformatory on March 27, 1961 and from here I don\u2019t know what happened to him.\u00a0 Like many other gangs, drugs became a big problem and in the case of the Corsair Lords it was their downfall.\u00a0 Guys sold dope and then started using their own product, first snorting, then skin popping and then mainlining.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s what happened to Red, but it\u2019s possible he went down this path like other Corsair Lords.<\/p>\n Red\u2019s co-defendant \u201cBonehead,\u201d was an example of a Corsair Lord that went down the poison path of drugs.\u00a0 On Mar.20, 1963, he sold drugs to an undercover Patrolman with the Narcotics Bureau, going down as one of Bonehead\u2019s more boneheaded actions.\u00a0 He was charged and at his arrest admitted what he did and said he was selling between \u201c4 to 5 decks of heroin per day\u201d to support his habit.\u00a0 He earned $200 to $250 per day and required as many as ten decks of heroin to keep his habit going.<\/p>\n In 1959 when Bonehead was arrested for breaking into P.S. 83, he denied using drugs.\u00a0 That changed in the spring of 1962 when he started using drugs and could not explain the reasons why he did this.\u00a0 At first he felt he could always discontinue the use of drugs at any time, but by the winter of 1962, he knew he was hooked.\u00a0 From that point on he returned to using drugs every time he was released from a penal institution and built up his habit to six bags of heroin every day.\u00a0 He wanted to quit, but didn\u2019t do anything about it, spending most of his leisure hours hanging out at the Green Rooster Bar on Pacific Street and Utica Avenue where he drank beer, liquor and took drugs.\u00a0 Most likely \u2013 and tragically \u2013 he nodded himself to an early death.<\/p>\n Did Bonehead\u2019s likely drug demise happen to Red too?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 But I sincerely hope it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On May 8, 1959, the custodian of P.S. 83 at 1634 Dean Street in Crown Heights, (just south of Bed-Stuy), locked the doors at for the day 5:00 p.m.\u00a0 It was Friday evening, but the custodian went to work the … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Red-of-the-Corsair-Lords.jpg?resize=640%2C391&ssl=1\")
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