Vintage Gang Cards: Almighty Popes, Playboys, & Gaylords
I’ve been devouring Richard Price‘s The Wanderers over the past few days, and have had old teenage street gangs (or, “clubs”) on the brain. This is back when being part of a gang didn’t necessarily mean constant rumbles, but could simply entail living on the same street or in the same neighborhood and just hanging out together. Imagine forming your entire identity from a single city block or playground.
One aspect of gang material culture I always found interesting was the use of “business cards.” They were used prominently in Chicago as a way to intimidate people, form alliances, or simply leave behind a message. Different sections of the gang would use different cards with their members’ names printed on them. While trolling the internet, I came across several galleries of old cards. There’s even one for sale on eBay. Here are some of my favorites.
I like that someone in the gang was just named “Weed.”
The Almighty Popes were huge in Chicago and rivals with the Gaylords. I’m assuming their “Insane Midgets” chapter was made up of middle school kids or their little brothers. In the top right corner is listed “Lil Larkin.” Larry Larkin was the head of the Popes in the early ’70s until his death in ’75.
More (offensive) cards after the jump! They get pretty intense.
May 21st, 2010 at 9:52 pm
This shit is so incredible. Such a HUGE and furious subculture that guys like me know nothing about. So totally fascinating. It makes me feel like a scientist and a pussy all at the same time.
May 21st, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Chicago gangs are fucking crazy. Along with the business cards the sweaters that they designed and patches they made were a big part of banging in the 60′s and 70′s. I have a great deal of friends who are Latin Kings, Vice Lords and Black P Stones. I mostly came up around LA gangs but the differences in how they function are pretty fucking cool. Chicago gangs always flip enemies names/symbols but in LA they cross them out. And yeah as you can see stuff was pretty much race related back then but that’s since changed.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:06 pm
I was checking out the sweaters and it’s pretty awesome how loud the colors could get. Taking a sweater from a rival gang was like taking a flag.
I also read that when a gang was at war or going out to bang, they would wear sweaters with inverse colors.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:08 pm
I’m 100% positive Greg posted this on the Bloglin 1 or 2 years ago.
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:50 am
Popes are a majority all white gang. They keep us very segregated in the chi. Race relations here are ok but could be better. When i say segregated its by street corner to street corner. Mexicans over here black over here white over here and everybody seems ok with that . Weird
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:48 am
Well, whoops Crook, I thought it was cool. Just delete the post next time.
@we_neutrons: The Popes are still a presence?
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:36 am
As a Chicago native this is even MORE crazy to me! I’ve only heard a little bit about a few of these gangs, great write up. It’s funny where you grow up in the city you know your area gangs/tags but some of them are such small time shit to bigger ones that you might never encounter. I think there were like 9 bootleg versions of the “Gangsta Disciples” on my block, all of them just kids I knew growing up, none of them ACTUALLY affiliated with the original gang.
ALSO my wife told me where she grew up in the city there were kid versions of the gangs that were sponsored by the actual gang. They’de use them to pass money/drugs/other shit cops might find on an adult/teen and paid them. That’s common but what I loved is the kid-version was just called the “Baby RANDOM GANG NAME”. So it’d be the “Baby Cobra’s” or something.
May 22nd, 2010 at 11:42 am
A lot has changed in Chicago over the years. Organizations like the Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords that were all black have opened their doors to other races, making them mega gangs. They really are no rules and once Larry Hoover (King of the GDN) got locked up and Willie Lord got shot everything kind of fell apart. The 60′s and 70′s were the heyday. 80′s shit got out of control in the Chi and also L.A. Crack meant money. Money meant greed, paranoia and expensive weaponry.
The “Lennie’s Storm Troopers” card is my favorite cause it shows a union of four gangs at that time each listed in a corner. The listing of “KKK” is such a funny shock move. None of those guys were involved in that.