1861 - 1869

Problems continued to increase until the beginning of the Civil war in 1861. At the end of the war in 1865, the founding year of the Ku Klux Klan, gang problems rapidly resurfaced. The Whyos Gang was created by former members of the Chichesters Gang. They consisted of several hundred members and were believed to be the most vicious and terrifying of the time. They were so brazen in their criminal activity that they printed up a list of services, "Punching - $2, Both Eyes Blackened - $4, Nose & Jaw Broken - $10, Jacked Out (knocked out with a blackjack) - $15, Ear Chawed Off - $15, Leg Or Arm Broken - $19, Shot in The Leg - $25, Stab - $25, Doing the Job ( murder) $100 and up." Several years later the gang required all prospective members to have committed a murder before receiving admission into the group.

Following the Civil War many soldiers returned home addicted to morphine because of their wartime injuries. Drug abuse was a common problem among young and old. Most gangs recognized the needs of the public and quickly took advantage of the demand for drugs. There was easy access to morphine, cocaine and laudanum, a popular depressant. These drugs quickly stripped away what little values, ethics or remorse that a gang member had. Jacob Riis, a photographer and journalist of the time, documented an incident in which two members of the Montgomery Guards Gang were arrested for murder. Reiss said that after the two young suspects robbed a Jewish peddler, they bragged how they tried to cut off the victim's head. When questioned about the attempted decapitation, the suspects smugly replied that it was "just for fun."

1870 - 1890

The first Boys Club of America was founded in 1870 to help "pavement children" like the young members of the Nineteenth Street Gang. The all Catholic gang had the reputation of preying on shopkeepers, disabled people and children. The gang, consisting of all teenagers under 16-years-old, was blamed for several attacks on Protestant missions and schools. As gangs continued to expand in inner-city areas, membership in rural areas grew as well. It was during this time the government recognized the need of a law enforcement organization that would span the entire nation. Shortly later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation started with just one employee. In 1887 the Red Sash Gang was notorious for numerous acts of murder and cattle-rustling. Each member of the gang wore a red sash to show their affiliation to the group. That same year the Burrows Gang robbed dozens of trains and stagecoaches.

1891 - 1899

In the summer of 1895 in the Arkansas-Oklahoma territory Rufus Buck and his friends started a gang. The young teens began their criminal reign with the murder of a deputy sheriff who they believed was looking at them suspiciously. They later found a widowed woman and after gang-raping her, they killed her. The young teens then did a home invasion robbery. After raping the woman of the home, they murdered her husband and children. The gang was soon caught after a shootout with police and were later hung.

1900 - 1910

In the early 1900s, keeping up with technological advances, the organization level of gangs took a dramatic increase. In one city, the Car Barn Gang posted a sign on every street-corner reading, "Notice-COPS, KEEP OUT! No policemen will hereafter be allowed on this block. By order of the Car Barn Gang." They had such control of the neighborhood that police had to move through the streets in squads of at least six men to avoid showers of bricks and attacks from gang members. Patrolmen who did enter this forbidden area were commonly stabbed or beaten with blackjacks. By the early 1900s, Irish citizens were no longer considered second-class citizens and Italian and Jewish controlled gangs were in nearly every large city. Gangs were no longer just a problem among the Irish community. Drunkenness and immorality plagued the entire country.

continue to part 3