The Gangs of Chicago established two unities: the People Nation and the Folk Nation.
The Gaylords have one of the fullest fighting schedules of any city gang; their gang engagement book must be crammed
with upcoming Imperial Gangster, Spanish Cobra, Latin Panthers, and Latin King bouts.
2 WHO RUNS CHICAGO:? Michael Kilian,Connie Flether,F. Richard Ciccone, St. Martin's Press. 1979, New York, p.165.
During World War II, you had the allies and the axis fighting each other. The axis contained countries like Japan, Germany, and Italy. The allies contained countries like America, England and France. You should remember this from your history books in school.
In the early 1980s, those same kind of unites were very well established on the streets of Chicago involving almost every street gang that was around at the time. Instead of the axis and allied groups of World War II, you had
"folk" and "People," the two unites were created in the late 1970s in the Illinois prison system by various larger street gangs as a way to develop security, ease tensions and create alliances that could benefit each gang in different ways.
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Take for instance, the Simon City Royals, the mostly white street gang, that was well noted for their burglary rings. They needed security for their members in prison, so they allied themselves with the group calling themselves the "Folks." It is rumored that they gave another larger gang of mostly black members an arsenal of guns to help secure this unity. The "Folks" grouping contained gangs like; Black Gangster Disciples, Maniac Latin Disciples, Ambrose, Satin Disciples, Orchestra Albany, Imperial Gangsters, Latin Lovers, Latin Stylers, Brazers, 26 Boys, Ashland Vikings, Latin Eagles, Harrison Gents, Spanish Cobras, La Raza, 22 Boys and many others.
See Spanish gangs.
The opposite force that opposed the Folk unity, was the "People" unity which contained many various groups such as the Latin Kings, Vicelords, Latin Counts, Spanish Lords, Stone Kents, Noble Knights, Insane Unknowns, Insane Deuces, Bishops, Villa Lobos, and The Four Corner Hustlers.
Now, after the Folk and people unites were established and strongly running, the leaders of the Kilbourn Park Gaylords were approached by members of Latin Kings, and Insane Deuces. They wanted a meeting of peace with them. The Latin Kings and Insane Deuces were attending school at Schurz High School at the time. Schurz High school was in Gaylord's hood.
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The Kilbourn Park Gaylords now found themselves being offered the olive branch of peace, and basically an invitation to ally themselves in the unity known as, People.
It was the early 1980s when this meeting of peace took place between the Gaylords, Latin Kings and Insane Deuces. Things were hectic on the streets of Chicago. There were so many Spanish and black gangs now, that they were now fully battling each other. After all, the White gangs were pretty much at the bottom of the food chain now. The many neighborhoods which once held White gangs, now were home to a new breed and culture.
The only major ally that the Gaylords had at the time, was the Jousters, and the Jousters seemed to be fading out at the time.
Most of the enemies that the Gaylords fought; Imperial Gangsters, Latin Lovers, Orchestra Albany, Latin Disciples, Spanish Cobras, Simon City Royals, had already sided themselves with the Folk unites. So, after much consideration, the Kilbourn Park Gaylords joined the People unity.
Now, when the Gaylords united with the Latin Kings under the people unity, this did not mean that some big happy arraignment was developed. On the contrary, some Gaylords sets were angered and extremely disappointed by the unification.
After the Gaylords officially allied themselves in the People unity, sets like, Seeley and Ainslie, Sayre Park, Sunnyside and Magnolia and Moffat and Campbell, did not like the new deal, and completely ignored it all together. There had been deaths on both sides, that were not easily forgotten.
Some of these Gaylord sets still had the Latin Kings, literally at their door steps and breathing down there necks, trying to move in with the immigration. It would take years for certain Gaylords sets, and the Latin Kings to even find a middle ground of understanding.
There are many who wonder why the Gaylords would join in unity with the Latin Kings. Well, first of all White gangs were almost non existent.
Second of all, it seems to be in the fact that most of their enemy, that they had more hatred for, had already sided with the Folk unity. For example, the Imperial Gangsters and Orchestra Albany had battled with the Gaylords since the early 1970s and these gangs were on the borders of two main Gaylords sets.
Also, an affilate of the Simon City Royals, had killed a Kilbourn Park Gaylord right before the unity and an older Gaylord from this set said, "There was no way in hell we were going to unite with those back stabbers!"
When it came to the Gaylords, and the People unity; like most gangs that joined the People unity, they did not realize till later, that the Folks outnumbered the People.
Most Gaylord sets were overwhelmed with the new number of forces against them. Some of these Gaylord sets were fighting with over three gangs all at once on their borders.
Take the Palmer Street Gaylords for instance. They were easily in control of their hood until the Folk gangs made their pact of unity. But Spanish immigration was coming on strong, and gangs such as Latin Lovers, Imperial Gangsters and Orchestra Albany were battling them eveyday.
The Gaylords at Palmer Street found their boundaries shrinking as they fought like Indian warriors trying to hold their village or ground. The battles were bloody and the Gaylords here found themselves under constant attack daily by many different Folk gangs. There was no rest for none as they put up a strong defense for years. After the costs and losses became too much, they made the difficult choice to abandon their set. An older Palmer Street Gaylord has said of the time: "No gang took Palmer Street from us. All the Folks try to say they took it, the police took it really when they put up that new 14 District Police Station. There are no Folks hanging on Palmer or Lyndale where we were."
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