{"id":965,"date":"2012-12-23T05:25:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T05:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/?page_id=965"},"modified":"2018-03-02T22:48:51","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T03:48:51","slug":"mau-maus-and-sand-street-angels-1959","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/?page_id=965","title":{"rendered":"Mau Maus and Sand Street Angels, 1959"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before you get to the article\u2026<\/p>\n

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 to complete Brooklyn Rumble: Mau Maus, Sand Street Angels, and the End of an Era.\u00a0 <\/em>This book is roughly 6\u2033x9\u2033 and has 370 pages and includes a look at the characters in the Mau Maus and the details of a gang killing that happened in February 1959 in front of the iconic Brooklyn Paramount Theater (now Long Island University).\u00a0 If you want to buy a copy, click here and this link will take you to an online ordering page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

——-<\/p>\n

I am currently writing a book on two gangs from Brooklyn in the 1950s:\u00a0 the Mau Maus and Sand Street Angels.\u00a0 Both gangs have long since departed from the neighborhood, but in the 1950s they were both active and dangerous.\u00a0 The book will centre on a killing between these two gangs that took place on a cold winter\u2019s day on February 23, 1959, that happened near the iconic Brooklyn Paramount Theatre (now Long Island University).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sand Street Angels were an Italian gang that staked its turf in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn and had been there since the late 1940s.\u00a0 It was rumoured that the Sand Street Angels had ties to organized crime and it was their hostilities with the Black and Puerto Rican gangs in the area that set up an unavoidable clash that culminated in the death of one of their members.<\/p>\n

To the southeast of the Navy Yard was the infamous Fort Greene Projects, a sprawling, massive housing project the City of New York built in World War II to house the workers who toiled away in the construction of warships in the Navy Yard.\u00a0 Unfortunately, as the war ended and the 1940s gave way to the 1950s, the building boom and high employment rate dropped.\u00a0 The lack of jobs and high turnover of families in the Fort Greene Projects did not lend itself to creating a community.\u00a0 Instead, it became a haven for youth gang activity.<\/p>\n

By 1957, the Fort Greene Chaplains, a Black gang, and the Mau Maus, a Puerto Rican gang, ruled the projects supreme.\u00a0 Together they protected themselves from the outside enemy and went looking for trouble to protect and advance their name in a never-ending quest to build a \u201crep,\u201d or a reputation for being a \u201cdown\u201d club \u2013 the gang vernacular for being bad or tough.\u00a0 With the reputation of the Mau Maus and the Sand Street Angels, the Fort Greene and Navy Yard area had one of the highest juvenile delinquency rates in New York City.<\/p>\n

Although the Sand Street Angels and Mau Maus didn\u2019t have troubles with each other at the out-set, it was almost inevitable that they eventually clashed the way they did in 1959.\u00a0 The reasons for this and for the lead-up to the death of Anthony Lavonchino will be explored and dissected in my book.<\/p>\n

Anthony Lavonchino was known in the neighbourhood as a tough, swaggering member of the Sand Street Angels.\u00a0 At some point in early 1959, Anthony, under the encouragement and watch of his uncle Genaro Filosa, beat up some kids from the Fort Greene Projects.\u00a0 The Mau Maus, defending their neighbourhood, could not let this stand.\u00a0 So it was, on February 23, 1959, Carl Cintron, Israel Narvaez, Melvin Torres, Carlos Reyes and \u201cMaximo,\u201d avenged the beatings of the boys from their neighbourhood by shooting Anthony in the head \u00a0and killing him.<\/p>\n

Anthony was shot in front of the Brooklyn Paramount theatre sometime around 8:20 p.m., right when theatre-goers were streaming out after their show was completed.\u00a0 Carl Cintron was the one who did the shooting and in short time the police nabbed him and three of the other boys, detaining them all.\u00a0 What happens next will be part of my book as well as what eventually happened to the participants in the killing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Here is an ad for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” played at the Paramount Theatre. The Paramount Theatre was well-known for hosting popular shows like Alan Freed’s Rock & Roll Show<\/p><\/div>\n

My research will not only look at the gang hostilities between the Sand Street Angels and the Mau Maus, but also examine the history of the Navy Yard and Fort Greene Projects, which will hopefully give a glimpse into the youth gang phenomenon that made New York City famous (or infamous) enough that West Side Story still lives with us today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

L-R: Carl Cintron, Carlos Reyes, Melvin Torres & Israel Narvaez<\/p><\/div>\n

If you lived in the neighbourhood from this time or knew any of the people involved, feel free to email me at newyorkcitygangs@mail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":317,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","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-fz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/965"}],"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=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2794,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/965\/revisions\/2794"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}