You would be thrown out, if they ever found out. ''If you did any type of drug, you weren't in a club. Chute said, ''if you want to put it that way.'' By the late '80s, these groups had been replaced by the Latin Kings and Los Solidos, violent gangs known for drive-by shootings and selling drugs. ''A couple of the clubs, the Lords and the Earls, remained, and they changed their ethics,'' Mr. Not all of the groups disbanded, however. And that's when most of the clubs broke up.'' Chute said, ''Vietnam broke out, and a lot of guys went to Nam or into the service. Most of the members were teenagers at New Britain High or local trade schools. ''That was a very important part of high school.''
''You had to go see the girls,'' said Joseph Murphy, a former member of Theta Sigma who now lives in Wolcott. Others would chip in to rent cottages by the shore because that's where the girls they knew went. Some club members would sleep on the beach. Chute said, ''and in the summertime we'd all end up down at the beach, in Saybrook or Old Lyme, and we'd stick together and hold our turf against other clubs from New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.'' ''We had our fights against each other,'' Mr. ''In our day, we only fought with fists, and when we fought the next day we were friends.''Ĭombatant clubs could become instant allies when faced with out-of-town rivals. But these skirmishes involved few weapons of any kind, he said. ''We were always arguing and fighting at that time,'' Mr. ''So I graduated high school, and two days later I went into the Army.''Ĭonflicts were typically turf wars between local groups defending their own corners on Main Street, where they hung out to show off their muscles, menacing looks and D.A. The judge gave him a choice of spending 30 days in jail or being drafted. The second occurred in the spring of his senior year in high school.
The first time, the charge was thrown out of court, he said. Sahadi, another retired New Britain detective. ''I was arrested twice for fighting,'' said Mr. ''I remember coming home that night, and my dad said, 'Hear about the fight?' And I said, 'What fight?' '' Front page of The New Britain Herald,'' Mr. and the Lords in 1962, on the corner of Lafayette and Washington Streets. Particularly memorable was a big showdown between T.K. Some confrontations involved more than 100 youngsters. ''We were like 'West Side Story,' except we didn't sing that much.'' ''One guy would look at another the wrong way and then they'd go back to their club, and the next thing you know, we'd be rumbling,'' Mr. ''We had some of the toughest guys there were. ''We weren't candy salesmen, let's put it that way,'' Mr. We weren't really gangsters.''īut that doesn't mean they were choirboys. ''We weren't known as gangs back then,'' Mr. (short for Tap-a-Keg, one of the group's favorite pastimes). A longtime New Britain detective retired on disability, he fondly recalls the days when he walked on the other side of the law as a member of T.K. Chute, 53, now walks haltingly, with the aid of a knee brace. Like many former members of these once-menacing bands, Mr.
Chute is most eager to draw anyone who belonged to these groups while attending New Britain High School nearly a half-century ago.
They called and said, 'We're coming in.' '' ''We've had calls from Pennsylvania, Florida, California, New Jersey, New York. ''Our motto is 'Leave your chains, bring your canes,' '' said Gary Chute, the organizer of the event, who hopes as many as 400 people will attend. picnic grounds Saturday to eat, arm wrestle, settle (or maybe just discuss) old scores and show off grandchildren. Hundreds of members of former street gangs, including the Earls, the Lords, the Reebs and the Little Cobras, plan to gather at the town's V.F.W. Now in their 50's and 60's, these aging rebels have a new cause: a picnic reunion. IN the 1950's and 60's, a gathering in New Britain of young toughs meant a drag race or rumble.
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