Howard Street Greasers: Legendary Rogers Park Gang
Their hangouts were the Big Pit on Clarke & Howard and the Howard Street Bowl. Their clubhouse was Wolcott Ave, between Howard Street and Birchwood, one block from Clark Street, one and a half blocks from Howard Street Bowl and a few blocks from the Howard Street EL & bus station. Ace was the President of the club, Casper, Mr. Duffy, Duke, Turk, Red, Dago, Lil Mike, Punky Pete, to name a few. It was the unwritten rule to stay on this side of Howard Street.....unless of course there was a group of people all together....
On a Monday, April 23rd 1979, in a rumble between the Howard Street Greasers and the Howard Street Latin Kings, a Howard Street Greaser stabbed a Latin King to death with a cane-sword that contained a 30 inch blade, in an area that was called Juneway Terrace, or known as the 'Jonquill Jungle'..
I grew up on Howard Street and I remember the Howard Street Greasers. They were aligned on Howard Street with another white gang called the Howard Street Lords. This was? 75' or 76', to this day I still think about these young brothers out there on the corner "campaigning" as we call it in Chicago. The Howard Street Lords(Hst.L) originally clicked up with the Howard Street Greasers(HSG) because both were the only white gangs on Howard Street. They eventually came under the five when they began clicking up with the Latin Kings from H/A, Howard and Ashland. I remember Hst.L's named "J.J", "Tony", "Lil BurnOut", "Lil DJ", and "Lil Hitler" I also remember The L-K's from Howard and Ashland, "Taco", "Cucko", "Alechio", and "Ricky'. I only? knew one HSG, this one dude named Barry.
A Retired Stone Greaser had this to say: "The Howard Street Greasers started in the late 60's. They formally disbanded in approx 1976 not long after Ace the pres went to Pontiac. Some of them did join the Royals. Some joined the Satan Disciples. Some of them joined the Popes. And some joined up with what was left of the TJO's. All I can say was that they were down when I hung out with them. I first met some of them by the El tracks at Howard St Station. I had just got off the train and some vicelords jumped me. I pulled my knife and was fighting back, next thing I know there's about 8 or 9 Stone Greasers backing my play. Vl's took off faster than light. They told me they were Howard Street Greasers and welcomed me to the hood."
A Greaser had this to say: "I lived around Howard St. in the 1970's. I remember the club actually being called 'Howard Street Grease,' and the members were 'Howard Street Greasers.' I don’t know if they were still officially organized, but I remember running into a few at the Big Pit, the burger joint on Clark St., as late as 1979. They were already almost legendary by that time. The sword-cane murder happened in '79. That neighborhood was heavily Irish at one time, almost impossible to imagine that now. I do know a few Greasers became Royals. I think it was some of those same guys who started the Touhy-Ridge branch of SCR around 1975. That whole branch retired when the Folks thing became official around 1979."
Howard Street Greasers
A Sullivan High School graduate from Rogers Park had this to say: I remember them. Those were the days when gangs carried knives instead of guns. I hung around with Glenn Dewlow for a while and his side-kick CoCo. But then some girl called me up and told me she would kill me if I kept hanging around with Glenn(!) I remember they wore those wrap sweaters that tied in front, white with a black pattern on them. And they had a symbol, which I have somewhere on a notebook that I kept. They used to hang out on the stairs at the corner of North Shore and Bosworth after school, which was right across the street from my house. I remember Yahne, Donny, Jody too. And my older brother was in The Patch (St. Ignatius grade school alumni "gang").