Puerto Rican Stones

The story of the Puerto Rican Stones begins in the summer of 1966.  This was an explosive summer as civil rights issues which brought two major riots to Chicago area including the Division Street riots in West Town and Humboldt Park.  During these riots Puerto Rican and black people came together because of the racial strife they were facing.  Newspaper reports talked about Puerto Rican and black youth gangs coming together as allies shaking hands and hanging out together.  Puerto Rican youths began hanging out with the biggest black gangs in the city like the Devil’s Disciples and the Blackstone Rangers.  One group of Puerto Rican youths that hung out with Disciples ended up creating the Maniac Latin Disciples. Another group from the same East Humboldt Park neighborhood attached themselves to the Blackstone Rangers.  This group of kids played softball in Humboldt Park and lived near Lemoyne and California.  Many Puerto Rican youths played in this area and the Gaylords street gang would often prey on Puerto Rican youths attacking them in the park.  This is when Angel (Fingers) started the Puerto Rican Stones alongside the Blackstone Rangers.  The Puerto Rican Stones were to be strong allies with the Rangers but did not become a direct part of the Blackstone Rangers and were not made to be a brick in the 21-brick pyramid.  The Puerto Rican Stones were looser affiliates with the Rangers but were still tied in certain ways as P.R. Stones adopted Ranger symbols of the pyramid, sun and the eye.

Within a short time, the Puerto Rican Stones ended up getting into a vicious rivalry with the Latin Kings from that neighborhood during the 1966 Latin King conquests.  Latin Kings wanted to dominate West Town and Puerto Rican Stones wouldn’t have it which resulted in a very costly war for the Stones.  The Stones were the only Hispanic gang in West Town that fought against Latin Kings and survived elimination.  The Stones were likely the toughest Hispanic rival for the Latin Kings. This section went extinct by the early 1970s.

Danny Valez  Tito Saprio and James Santana started Barry and Sheffield in 1968 in the Lakeview neighborhood.  At this corner many young pre-teen age youths in the area joined the P.R. Stones between 1968 and 1969 and they began congregating in the Kenmore Playlot at 3141 N. Kenmore Ave.  The first enemies of these Lakeview P.R. Stones were the Simon City Royals who also arrived in the neighborhood in 1968 and the Latin Eagles because Velez declared war on them.  By the early 1970s the Stones were battling the Aristocrats as well, especially since the Stones were opening territory at Belmont and Clifton, Wilton and Barry and Wellington and Kenmore.

In 1973 Puerto Rican Stones opened a new branch on the more southern part of the city in the Marshall Square neighborhood at the intersection of 21st and Marshall Boulevard.  This branch wore the Puerto Rican flag colors of red, white, and blue instead of black and orange.  These P.R. Stones hung out with the “Kents” in the area and made friends with the “Artistics” as well.  In 1980, the Artistics, Kents and P.R. Stones merged to become the “Artistic Stone Kents.”

In 1975, Danny Velez went on to conquer territory at Lawrence and Kimball in the Albany Park neighborhood.  The Stones would also open in the Logan Square neighborhood at Diversey and California where they built up a solid stronghold until 1992.  In Albany Park Puerto Rican Stones were very large in the 1970s and the earlier 1980s.

In April, 1978 when the People Nation alliance was created the P.R. Stones were invited to join which brought them back into an alliance with Black P Stones.  This would also ally the Stones with Latin Kings because back in the 1970s Latin Kings and P.R. Stones were not friends but instead rivals.

On Saturday March 10, 1979, the P.R. Stones made a name for themselves when they gunned down the leader of the Latin Eagles in broad day light in the middle of a busy shopping area.  On this day Ignace Kholl A.K.A Walter Knapp “The Iceman” who was known to be a Latin Eagles enforcer that just got promoted to becoming the leader a few months before was shot to death around 1 in the afternoon out in front of Goldblatt’s Department Store at 3149 N. Lincoln Ave (near the six corners intersection of Lincoln Ave, Ashland and Belmont) in the Lakeview neighborhood.  A young member of the P.R. Stones walked up behind him with a nickel plated revolver and shot him in the back of the head then calmly walked off and disappeared into the crowd (Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1979 P. 1). A few years later in 1982 the P.R. Stones from Leland and Kedzie were accredited for killing the Simon City Royal’s leader “Dillinger” in the Albany Park neighborhood as the two gangs disputed each other for power in the neighborhood.  Once again, the P.R. Stones were known for cutting the head off the snake.

By 1987 the Puerto Rican Stones were upset once again with their allies the Latin Kings.  The P.R. Stones hated the Latin Kings for the first decade of the Stone’s existence and were forced to get along with the Kings once the Stones joined the People Nation, but now Latin Kings were moving in on drug territory controlled by P.R. Stones and it was angering higher ranked members, this is when the Stones held a meeting with the Insane Deuce leader “Blade” and Ghetto Brothers Organization members to discuss declaring war on the Latin Kings together, but the plan ended up not going through.

The P.R. Stones slowly moved into retirement in the later 1980s as youths were more geared toward joining the Future Stones instead of P.R. Stones and P.R. Stones were no longer big on recruiting anyway, then by the early 1990s recruitment completely stopped and members were retiring left and right.

the P.R. Stones went inactive by the mid-1990s and instead assimilated with the Familia Stones to create one big family that combined P.R. Stones, Future Stones and Familia Stones under one umbrella, but only the Familia Stone name would remain on the streets.

The P.R. Stone last big piece of attention was a Brown’s Chicken shooting incident in the Palatine, Illinois suburb on January 8, 1993, at 168 W. Northwest Highway.  Gang members Juan Luna and Joseph Degorski shot and killed 7 employees including the two owners during a robbery of the restaurant.  The case was unsolved until 2002 when both were arrested and convicted. Both men were alleged members of the P.R. Stones.  That was the last heard of the P.R. Stones.  Most members retired or went to prison.

Please send in 1960s and 1970s pics?

Questions:

1. What happened to Danny Velez?  What year was he out?
2. What is the timeline of leaders before the year 2000?
3. What year did Albany Park open?
4. What year did Logan Square open?
5. Why did the P.R. Stones and Latin Kings not get along in the 1970s before the People nation?

Known past sections of the Puerto Rican Stones

Albany Park neighborhood Established 1975-1980s

Sections of Albany Park

Lawrence to Sunnyside, Kimball to St. Louis Established 1975-1980s

Leland & Troy

Sunnyside to Montrose, Francisco to Kedzie

East Humboldt Park neighborhood Established 1966-early 1970s

Sections of East Humboldt Park

In the area of Lemoyne & California

Lake View neighborhood Established 1968-1992

Sections of Lake View

Belmont to Wellington, Clifton to Halsted/Clark (Kenmore Playlot) Established 1968-1992

Logan Square neighborhood 70s, 80s

Sections of Logan Square

Diversey to Schubert, Fairfield to California 70s, 80s

Marshall Square neighborhood Established 1973-1980

Sections of Marshall Square

21^st & Marshall Established 1973-1980