South Brooklyn Boys
Encyclopedia
South Brooklyn Boys is a famous New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 street gang that was formed some time around the 1950s in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, NY. The gang has a mostly Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...

 membership.

At the time of its origin, SBB consisted of several smaller neighborhood greaser
Greaser
Greasers can refer to:* Greaser , a derogatory term for a Mexican on drugs.* Greaser , a subculture that developed in the United States in the 1950s....

 gangs that were located in the South Brooklyn
South Brooklyn
South Brooklyn is a region or composite neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, encompassing areas of Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Gowanus, Park Slope, and Boerum Hill. Thus it is roughly encompassed by Brooklyn Community Board 6, which in turn approximates the southern half of the 18th...

 area of Brooklyn made up of Carroll Gardens
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. The area is named for Charles Carroll, a revolutionary war veteran who was also the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence...

, Cobble Hill
Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Cobble Hill is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. Bordered by Atlantic Avenue on the north, Hicks Street to the west, Smith Street on the east and Degraw Street to the south, Cobble Hill sits adjacent to Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights with Carroll Gardens to the south...

, Park Slope
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Park Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...

, Red Hook
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Red Hook is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 6. It is also the location where the transatlantic liner, the , docks in New York City.- History :...

 and Boerum Hill
Boerum Hill
Boerum Hill is a small neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn that occupies 36 blocks bounded by State Street to the north, 4th Avenue to the east, Smith Street to the west, and Warren Street to the south. Commercial strips line Smith Street and Atlantic...

. Some of the gangs that made up the original South Brooklyn Boys were The South Brooklyn Devils, the Garfield Boys, The SB Angels, SB Diapers, The Wanderers
The Wanderers (1979 film)
The Wanderers is a 1979 greaser film based on the novel by Richard Price .-Overview:...

, the Degraw St boys, the Sackett St Boys, The Butler Gents, The Gowanus Boys and the Kane St. Midgets. The label South Brooklyn Boys represented the loosely connected affiliation that all of these neighborhood gangs associated under.

The 1962 book, All the Way Down: The Violent Underworld of Street Gangs by Vincent Riccio and Bill Slocum, featured real accounts of the Gowanus Boys. The gang was located in the Gowanus section of South Brooklyn, and was one of the earlier neighborhood crews that would evolve into the larger, loosely affiliated South Brooklyn Boys street gang.

Reputed Lucchese mobster, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso was a famous member of the early South Brooklyn Boys.

Since the 1950s, South Brooklyn Boys has represented not only the original 1950s gang, but many generations of kids growing up in the South Brooklyn
South Brooklyn
South Brooklyn is a region or composite neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, encompassing areas of Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Gowanus, Park Slope, and Boerum Hill. Thus it is roughly encompassed by Brooklyn Community Board 6, which in turn approximates the southern half of the 18th...

 area, most specifically the Italian section of Carroll Gardens. The term has not only been used as a gang association, but also as a loosely connected affiliation for which many neighborhood kids felt a kinship. From the 1980s to the present, a new incarnation of the South Brooklyn Boys has been very active.
Currently about 50 members ages 17 to 28 years of age.

Gang sets

The South Brooklyn Boys consisted of 10 different gangs.
  • South Brooklyn Angels
  • South Brooklyn Diapers
  • The Wanderers (featured in the film The Wanderers
    The Wanderers (1979 film)
    The Wanderers is a 1979 greaser film based on the novel by Richard Price .-Overview:...

    )
  • Degraw Street Boys
  • Sackett Street Boys
  • South Brooklyn Devils (Union Street 4th Ave.)
  • Garfield (Garfield Street and 5th Street)
  • Butler Gents
  • Gowanus Boys
  • Kane Street Midgets
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