Chapter 2: The Guns of Bad News
October 18. 2007
“What was his question again?”
“Josh’s question was how did the Mafia dominance of previous decades in New York City transfer into the Gang Era of the 1960s and early 80s?” answered the pompous-looking moderator.
Robert Lee Dougherty straightened up in his chair. Q&A sessions always make him nervous, especially those conducted at colleges. He’ll suffer a bit more for the extra bread he’ll earn from this.
“Well Josh, its pretty complicated story, like everything else. But to simplify what I wrote in my book, basically we must remember from the 1930s into the 1960s, the powerful families of the Italian-American Mafioso were either directly or indirectly behind all the major illegal activities of the city. Then came the Black Panther militias of the 1960s, we know about them. But difference between the Panthers in New York and the other similar bands in the other major American cities is their choice of battle.”
Robert took a drink from his water bottle.
“The Black Panthers elsewhere, especially on the West Coast, went to war against the unfair racist system, which usually meant the police. However, while the Black Panthers in New York shared the ideology, they directed their efforts against who they perceived as the wrongful system: The Mafia. Those white Catholic Sicilians dominated the drug and prostitution rackets in Harlem. Black money was going into white pockets. Before they could successfully break away from the white government, they needed the consolidation of financial capital and underworld dominance-”
The Moderator interrupted him. “But how did that lead to say the Gramercy Riffs, the Turnbull ACs, and of course your Warriors?”
Dougherty wanted to smack him hard. Why not read the damn book before asking silly questions that the book answered? Oh well. At least Larry King and Jon Stewart had the courtesy of at least acting like they had actually read the book.
“Well, the Black Panthers in New York knew that if they were to take the Mob out of Harlem, it would be temporary. The Mafia could re-organize, and invade back into their domain. Something else must be done. The Mob must be broken within the city, and driven out. The Black Panthers didn’t have the arms or manpower to do that. So they did what seemed contradictory to the ideology of their fellow BP brothers in America: They formed coalition alliances with gangs and syndications of other ethnic groups. The Chinese, the Irish, the Jews, and so forth. They and the blacks were rivals for generations, but they all had something in common. They resented the domination by the Sicilians.”
“So they joined forces to take down the Mafia in New York?”
“They did. The Sicilians were outnumbered 5 to 1 ultimately. It took years, but by the 1970, the Mob was cornered into Queens. By ’72, they were forced to retreat and encamp in New Jersey. Without the common enemy, the coalition broke apart, but what remained was this undisputable fact: With the Black Panthers breaking up into independent groups, they remained the most powerful criminal outfits in the city. This was the beginning of the so-called Gang Era, or as I think it should be correctly called, “The Bopper Era””
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October 17, 1979
5:13 PM
Ajax took several deep breaths. The driver’s window of Snow’s Mustang is down, letting the smoke flow away from Ajax’s first free cigarette in months. Snow has his passenger window down for his own smoke.
“Yo Ajax, speed it up. We should be home by now.”
“Relax man, I aint giving the pigs an excuse to send me back into the joint tonight. Better safe than sorry.”
Snow is shocked. “Are you Ajax, or did like the Body Snatchers replace you back at Riker’s?”
Ajax rolls his eyes. Snow is right. Ajax isn’t conservative. He’s all for boom or bust. That’s his personality. But Ajax made an oath to himself last night in his prison cell. He’s never coming back. He’ll die before he goes back to jail. He swore it.
“Yeah, well it’s not much of a choice. Get switched by the space pods or have some big guys toss my salad around. ”
They both laughed.
“Snow, turn the radio on. That’ll kill time for us.”
Snow’s eyes widen up.
“Oh crap, what time is it?”
“I don’t know, 10, 15 past 5?”
Snow didn’t reply. His fingers jumped to the radio dial. Ajax wonders what the hell is going on.
“Ahh, I almost forgot about it!” He turned the radio onto “the” station, hoping its not too late.
The last sounds of some disco tune is winding down, when “the” female voice breaks through.
“Hello Boppers, we’ll get back to your music in just a minute, but I’ve got a message to relay from the boys down in Coney, The Warriors. Boppers know of the Warriors. We remembered when they started their feud with the Destroyers over Coney. We remembered when the Destroyers were, well, destroyed in the spring, and the Warriors conquered the Island under the giant W. We especially know of their already-legendary war path back home through the city’s armies of the night after they were wrongly accused by the Rogues of assassinating Cyrus….”
Ajax slightly smiled. A lot of tragedy happened that night, but she’s right. The Warriors owned everybody that dared to bump them off. Too bad the police got him.
“…what boppers are starting to forget is, there were three casualties that night for the Coney company. Their warlord and fore-father of the Warriors, Cleon, was killed by the Riffs shortly after Cyrus was shot. The Riffs are still slightly stained in the eyes of many boppers, who dare not to say it out loud, that the Riffs fell for the obvious lie of the actual killers, the Rogues. But, accidents happen.”
Snow and Ajax slightly frown in silent sorrow after Cleon’s name was mentioned.
“Then there was The Fox, the so-called best scout in Brooklyn. He unfortunately engaged the boys in blue at a brawl at a subway station when he was tossed in front of a train.”
Snow felt awful for his other fallen comrade. Ajax was less woeful. He thought the Fox was a punk kid that didn’t know not to screw with him. With the Fox and the “new” Warlord, they were the only brothers within the Warriors fold that Ajax hated. One less to rage against.
“But the third and last casualty of that night for the Warriors didn’t perish in the mayhem. He was busted and sent up to Riker’s by the Boys in Blue. That POW brother was Ajax, and he was let out of jail today. Ajax the Mighty, as his fellow Warriors now call him, is a sturdy and reliable pillar of strength and courage for Coney. Based on accounts of the Warriors and from a few anonymous members of the High-Hats outfight, it was Ajax the Mighty that, with just his fists, silenced their leader Chatterbox once and for all back in June. The Warriors also claim, though unconfirmed, that Ajax and his small band of Warriors hit a homerun when they wrecked the Baseball Furies and their Warlord, Cobb over at Riverside.”
Ajax’s ego grows.
“There is no brawl he will run from, no matter the scenery or the numbers against him. If the Prince of Darkness challenged him to a rumble, Ajax would give him one hell of a fight. The Warriors want to welcome back their brother Ajax the Mighty, and dedicate to him his favorite song on this station. Boppers, here’s The Clash with “Tommy Gun” from their most recent album, "Give 'Em Enough Rope."”
The opening drum tapings of the tune open up, drubbing out Ajax’s face. There is a tear on the inner-corners of his eyes.
He doesn’t face Snow. “That was beautiful. Who wrote it?”
“Stonewall, man.”
“Who?”
Snow realized that Ajax didn’t know the news yet. “Bobby.”
“What?!?”
“Yeah, your cat Bobby. He got initiated into the Warriors weeks ago.”
Ajax slapped his steering wheel. “I knew it! I told you guys through the lawyer that Bobby, err, Stonewall was a damn good writer.”
Snow took his smoke out of his mouth. “Yeah you did. Hey, what’s that up ahead?”
Ajax peered forward. He sees guys up ahead on the street. Yellow dreads. Blue Jeans. Several of them are standing in the car’s direction.
The Jones Street Boys.
Ajax just realized their identity when the Boys open fire their guns into the Mustang’s windshield.
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Next Chapter: The Falldown
thats the best fan fic i read and i dont think im gonna read any better (Dont be sad writters i still like ur ones hehehe)