Cullerton Deuces
Cullerton Deuces

Cullerton Deuces

Founded Founded c. 1973 in or near Marshall Square (South Lawndale)
Founding story

Founded by the younger members of the Cullerton Deuce faction after they made Cullerton Deuce their official name in about 1986

Affiliations Insane (North Side) — 1994 – 2000 or later;
People Nation — 1980 – 1994;
Colors Black, Grey, White, and Green
Primary ethnicities Latino (Mexican)
Symbols Spade, II, Two Dots, Playing Card, and 2 of Spades
Status Active

With the recent release of the book Compliments of ChicagoHoodz: Chicago Street Gang Art & Culture it has brought me a great understanding of how the Morgan Deuces came to be.  I will now rewrite this Morgan Deuce history using some of the book as a reference because it totally makes sense what was said in the book and Jinx has credible resources to back in up.

The Cullerton Deuces were basically born out of the older Morgan Deuces street gang that started in the year 1959 in the Near West Side neighborhood and in Pilsen.  The Morgan Deuces were very active in the 1960s and 1970s and gained a good chunk of territory in the Pilsen and Marshall Square areas during those years.  One of the Morgan Deuce factions was the “Cullerton Deuces” that formed at Cullerton and Washtenaw down to 21st and Washtenaw in 1967.

The Marshall Square Cullerton Deuces were as notorious as the Pilsen chapter on 18th Street as Morgan Deuces of Washtenaw fought viciously against the Satan Disciples, Two Six, Ambrose and Ridgeway Lords.  The biggest arch enemy of the Deuces was the Satan Disciples as they were very close in proximity.

At some point in time in 1970s the Morgan Deuces of Washtenaw started to name their section the “Cullerton Deuces.”  As the younger generations joined heading into the early 1980s they got accustomed to that name.  In the year 1980 Morgan Deuce operation ceased entirely leaving the Cullerton Deuce identity as the recognized name.  Older Morgan Deuces that were in the Cullerton Deuces got the Deuces chartered into the People alliance in the prison system in the year 1980 listed as “Cullerton Deuces.”  In the year 1981, Pee Wee Cullerton Deuces now identified with the People alliance on the streets as they now had a tight relationship with Latin Kings, Stone Kents, Villa Lobos, Party Gents and Latin Counts in the area.

The Pee Wee Cullerton Deuces of the early 1980s were a force to be reckoned with and made a big name for themselves as they recruited heavily in the neighborhood.  These young Deuces fought viciously against the 24th and Rockwell Satan Disciples and 18th and California Satan Disciples.  Young Deuces also fought battles against Ridgeway Lords, Two Two Boys and Two Six.  Another big enemy of Cullerton Deuces was Ambrose because Ambrose killed a Deuce named “Shanker.”

These young Deuces were making a name even more for themselves when these young Cullerton Deuces managed to absorb a party crew called the “TNT Boys” who were known to be tough brawlers and a larger outfit making them desired by the Deuces to join their ranks.  “Bad Boy,” the leader of the TNT Boys made the decision for his crew to join the Deuces after problems with the Satan Disciples became a major issue. The absorption of the TNT Boys caused the Deuce’s turf to expand from California Ave to Rockwell Street and 19th Street down to Cermak Road but mainly at 21st and Washtenaw.  At the edge of their territory were the Two Two Boys at Cermak and California which the Deuces tried to claim that corner as their own as well this resulted in a bloody gang war in the 1980s between the two gangs.

 

In the mid-1980s the young Deuces had grown into older teens or young adult years and wanted to become more independent of the older former Morgan Deuces that ran the organization.  Although the Cullerton Deuce named now was the full time name the organization was more or less still tied to the inactive Morgan Deuces.  In the year 1986 the young adult Deuces had enough of the Morgan Deuce identity and severed all ties to it.  This was a rather painless process as older Morgan Deuces were ready to retire anyway.  The leadership of the Cullerton Deuces was now ran by the former pee wees of the early 80s.

By the late 1980s, the Deuces were well-known on their own and had established themselves very successfully as one of the prominent gangs in the Marshall Square/Little Village area.  The Satan Disciples badly wanted to expand westward through Marshall Square and Little Village but the Deuces of the late 80s and early 1990s made it extremely difficult for them to expand and brought them great grief as their war became legendary.

In the year 1992, the cousin gang to the Cullerton Deuces the Insane Deuces flipped alliances joining the Folk Nation which caused a riff between both Deuce organizations, some even say there was a war, however, both gangs were on opposite sides of the city, for two years these hard feelings were felt until events went down in 1994 that brought the two back close together.  The truth is there was no war just hard feelings during these two years.

“Artie” was in charge of the Deuces in the early 90s and into 1994.  The Cullerton Deuces had a tight relationship with the Latin Kings even as the Insane Deuces from up north were at war with Latin Kings, the Cullertons were all good and they shook hands with each other.  In 1994, the Latin Kings and Deuces started to have tension between each other that perhaps was very minor but enough to cause tempers to flare.

In April of 1994, the Latin Kings and Cullerton Deuces started to have altercations about a girl from 25th and California.  25th and California was Latin King turf.  The dispute carried over at a bar at the corner of 21st and Washtenaw and it would change the history of the Cullerton Deuces forever. Cullerton Deuces Kaos, Chagoya and possibly Artie had an altercation with the Latin Kings outside the bar and this escalated into the Cullerton Deuces pulling out baseball bats and beating the Latin King to death.  The Deuces involved were arrested but beat the case in court.

After the beating death of the Latin King, the Deuces added more injury to the Latin Kings as 15 year old “Demon” and “Drak” of the Cullerton Deuces wondered over to Latin King territory at 21st Place and California and began spraying graffiti all over Hammond Elementary School (2819 W 21st Pl, Chicago, IL 60623).  Latin Kings took notice and went over to attack the two youths but Drak pulled out a gun on the Latin Kings and threatened to shoot them if they tried to intervene.  Drak kept holding the gun at the Latin Kings while Demon kept spraying the graffiti, the Latin Kings were unarmed at this time.  After this happened the Latin Kings marked Demon and caught him a short time later on his front porch and shot him dead at 21st and Fairfield.

After all this violence the Latin Kings aggressively pursued Cullerton Deuces from all angles and came into Deuce territory shooting and attacking many members, this was a problem for Deuces because the Latin Kings are the strongest organization in Little Village and the Deuces had no allies left and were surrounded by enemies.  Artie made the decision to get help from the Insane Deuces up north but this would come at a cost; the Cullerton Deuces would have to join the Folk nation, not only that, they would have to join the Insane Family from up north and even become a section of Insane Deuces, losing all their original identity.  Several older members of the Deuces walked out and flipped to Latin Kings while others kept their membership and accepted being Folks especially Artie made the decision.  In 1994, the Cullerton Deuces were officially a part of the Folk nation, the Insane family and a section of the Insane Deuces.  The colors of the Deuces were changed to black and green to follow suit with the Insane Deuce nation they were now part of.

The new alliance with the Folk nation squashed their wars with Ambrose and Two Two Boys at first, wars with Satan Disciples would continue.  Many older members (half the gang) were very upset about the Folk nation change and refused to be a part of this mainly because of a new alliance with Ambrose which they viewed as dishonoring Shanker (Artie’s brother) since Shanker was killed by Ambrose.  The Cullerton Deuces had no issue filling in for the members that flipped to Latin Kings and their numbers grew more quite a bit and the new members were thirsty to shoot and/or flash gang signs at any Latin Kings they saw; the organization soon became a little larger than before they turned Folks.

The gangbanging caught up with the Cullerton Deuces as many members got locked up for murder and drugs depleting their numbers.  Many of the older members that didn’t get locked up flipped to other gangs (not Latin Kings, these ones flipped to other groups).  Artie himself fled to Texas in the later 1990s and eventually the organization became full of mostly younger members that were more scarcely seen than in the mid-1990s at their peak.  The territory shrank until the Deuces were just left at 21st and Washtenaw.

Please send in old school pics from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.   1970s pics will be especially appreciated!

Questions:

  1. What were the timeline of leaders up to 2000?

Known sections of the Cullerton Deuces past and present

Marshall Square neighborhood Established 1980-present years

Sections of Marshall Square

19th to Cermak, Rockwell to Fairfield (Mad Town) Established 1980-present years