Rockford

Nicknames	Glockford, Crackford
Settled by	Provide info
Year infiltrated	1969
Crime impact	Part
Worst areas	South side, west side
Suburban projects	Concord Commons, Fairgrounds, Brewington Oaks, Blackhawk Courts, Champion, Pierpont Greens, Valerie Percy, Orton Keyes

After nearly a decade of Chicagoganghistory.com I have finally decided to step outside of the Chicago metro area and do a piece on a more distant city from Chicago area located in the heartland of Illinois. This is a project I once considered to research Illinois’ rural cities and towns and report on the gang life in the heartland, but information has been painfully hard to come by when considering pages for Peoria, Decatur, Danville, Champaign/Urbana and Bloomington but over time I kept finding more on Rockford. A gentleman emailed me one day sharing invaluable articles about Rockford gangs and crime from the 60s to the 90s and this got me going. I then found an abundance of history on Rockford, hence, why I am here, putting this piece together. I have learned that Rockford is a struggling city with both ugliness and beauty. The city of Rockford was built on pride, and the many beautiful older homes are evidence of it. Clean streets and well-manicured lawns are of abundance as are blighted buildings, high crime and gangs. To simply make a statement that Rockford is completely amazing or is a downright ghetto is horribly flawed viewpoints but sadly, I see all over the internet people claiming either Rockford is amazing or is a total nightmare. I have mostly read over negative comments on forums and social media but there are some that claim Rockford is not all that bad. I decided to investigate it myself and discovered there are clear boundaries between Rockford’s dark side and Rockford’s successes. It is not just cut and dry that Rockford is either a bad place or a good place to be like I previously thought. Further inspiration for a Rockford page came to me as I was watching the YouTube videos of Chris Harden who took drives through Rockford showing the poverty and deterioration of Rockford and he cited off facts about the city. The comments below his posts I absorbed like a sponge and cross referenced them to uncover several truths to what people were claiming. Some people were offended by Chris’ videos and accused him of making Rockford look bad. With that being said, I am not here to make Rockford look bad, I want to clarify exactly what parts of Rockford are troubled and which areas are immune. With this clarification I hope to present what exact issues damaged which exact parts of the city and to clarify that Rockford can be an excellent place to live. I support what Chris Harden is doing and it should be understood that he means no harm at all and is trying to show us all utter failures and the damages it caused, his videos can perhaps push for action to improve Rockford. I am not trying to point any fingers or make anyone, or any city/town look bad, but I am also not here to sugar coat anything and/or tell lies. I am here to report, to inform, or to warn, I am not here to purposefully paint a certain picture of Rockford for any personal reasons, I am here to share as many facts as I can. Rockford has a story that needs to be told, I am blending gang development in with the known issues of poverty and crime in Rockford. The gangs of Rockford heavily coincide with Rockford’s economic collapse which is further evidence that neglect and greed breeds gangs.

The land that would become Rockford was originally sought after by a group of men from the east coast all seeking an ideal future in the west. In June of 1834,Thatcher Blake, a school teacher and farmer from Oxford, Maine, was in search of “Fortune and fame in the distant far west” according to the Rockford Housing Authority website ( https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://rockfordha.org/legacy-unveiled-lewis-lemons-journey-from-slavery-to-founding-rockford-illinois/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6Nzo1NDNlOmFhMDI0NjEyNGEwYTYzNzA2NDdlZDg5ZTVhMGNhNjJjNmRiZjJiMmRkOTU1N2RmOGEzOWI1NWYwN2ZjZjQxNDY6dDpUOk4). According to the Rockford Housing Authority website Blake had no destination in mind, he just wanted to head out west but was given a lead from veterans of the Blackhawk War. The veterans told tales of Rock River country, “extolling its beauty and the rapid accumulation of wealth in the Galena mines,” according to the Rockford Housing Authority’s site. Blake was not interested in the mineral mines of Galena, instead he sought fertile lands in Rock River country. Blake assembled a three-man crew after he somehow connected with Germanicus Kent of Alabama. Germanicus Kent was in possession of a slave known as Lewis Lemon. In the year 1822, Kent moved to Alabama and purchased the ten-year-old Lewis Lemon as a house slave from Lemon’s original master Orrin D. Lemon was relocated from North Carolina to Alabama. By the time Kent and Thatcher met, Lemon was known as, “Lewis Kent” all according to the Rockford Housing Authority site. In the summer of 1834, the three men ventured out west seeking promised land in the Rock River area. The men settled where Rock River and Kent Creek meet near the present-day intersection of Rock Street/Kent street and Main Street. These men were the original settlers of western Rockford in August of 1834. Because of the settlement of Louis Lemon, Rockford was historically settled by African Americans which establishes original roots of African Americans in Rockford. Lewis Lemon was also one of the original founders of Rockford and a developer of the city until he passed away in 1877 in Rockford. The men named this new community they founded in 1834 as “Kentville” honoring Germanicus Kent but was not named after Thatcher Blake for some reason. The men had also named Kent Creek after Kent and soon the men built a town. Lewis Lemon was able to purchase his freedom after establishing Kentville and establishing himself as a truck farmer. In the year 1835, Daniel Shaw Haight settled east of Rock River at the present-day intersection of State Street and Madison Street. State and Madison is presently within the middle of a marvelous section of Rockford’s downtown that is one of the many thriving areas of Rockford. Haight named his new town “Haightville.” At this time the area, that encompassed the two rival towns was known as “Midway” because it was halfway between Chicago and Galena. The Rock River area was also part of Jo Davies County until 1836 when Winnebago County was established. Haight and Kent had a rivalry convincing various settlers traveling in the mid-1830s to settle on their sides of the river. This foreshadows divided interests in Rockford dating back to the earliest settlement and a storied rivalry, according to the Midway Village Museum’s website (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.midwayvillage.com/pdfs/timeline-of-rockford-history.pdf___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6Nzo4NzhhOjZmZWZmODNjZWNlMmQ4ZjBjNzNmOTM4YjQ3MGYxMWEzN2RkZjU1NGRlMmZjMzg4M2Y0MWI5OWM5YmU0YWNjMjE6dDpUOk4). In October of 1835, Josiah Goodhue, the founder of Rush Medical College in Chicago, gave the name “Rockford” based on the rock ford that allowed settlers to cross the river, he then moved to Rockford in 1838. “Rockford” also meant excellent ford across from the Rock River. Even though the Haightville and Kentville names were gone the east side and west side rivalry remained that is often present today. Lewis Lemon remained Kent’s slave until 1839 when Lemon earned manumission papers, he then became a vegetable farmer (truck farmer) until his death. In the same year of 1839 Rockford was officially incorporated. Rockford had a strong New England settlement identity in the 1830s and 1840s which was the earliest foundation of Rockford as a foundation path for immigrants.

Rockford is heavily known for strong Republican beliefs, and this stems back to the 1840s when the earliest New England native Rockford residents followed abolitionist beliefs and were strong Republican supporters. Rockford was already a rather large town by 1840 as census results recorded 4,609 residents of Winnebago County which was vast majority Rockford (Fact source:https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockford,_Illinois___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6Nzo0YTUxOjcxNWExMWNmNGFjZTZhMmFkZmI1ZTMyMjljODNlZWJiODg3N2M3NTdiMjhmNGI5MjQxNTFkYzQ2Y2NlODVjNzM6dDpUOk4). Rockford likely had between 3,000 to 4,000 residents by 1840.

By the year 1840, Rockford was built enough to have its own newspaper. Rockford grew greatly during the 1840s and became a sizeable town by the late 1840s. Rockford had a significant population enough by 1847 because Rockford was chosen for the site of Rockford Female Seminary that would later become Rockford College in 1892. This college was located in the area of present-day College Avenue and Seminary Street. In the year 1852 Rockford was officially established as a city. 1852 was also the year the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad was officially opened through Rockford which steamrolled Rockford’s development by encouraging businesses (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.midwayvillage.com/pdfs/timeline-of-rockford-history.pdf___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzowZjNlOjVmZWQ0MjY5ODViMWY1MjcwOWI3ZGE5MWFkZjdiYzI4ODY1MmFhNmY2N2ZjYTA2YTZiY2UzZWY3NGVmMTI4ZTA6dDpUOk4). Mostly Irish and some Spanish settlers began moving into the new city in 1852. The population of Winnebago County was 11,773 in 1850. In current years Machesney Park is the second largest community in Winnebago County and did not become much settled until the 1950s; therefore, around 10,000 of the Winnebago County residents were likely from Rockford by 1850 which shows how greatly Rockford grew in early history. This gained Rockford attention by 1853 when John Henry Manny moved to Rockford with the goal of producing horse-drawn mechanical reapers for farmers that would then transport their products to the train. Swedish furniture cooperatives chose Rockford as a manufacturing base, this was the beginning of Rockford’s oldest economic powerhouse in the furniture manufacturing industry which would employ several Rockford residents. The Rockford furniture industry seems to have roots tracing to 1861 because this was the year John Erlander and Sven August Johnson partnered for a men’s clothing shop which would lead to an expertise is tailoring that would later grow into a large business. The Swedish furniture industry and the railroad brought several Swedish immigrants to Rockford starting in 1852 and continuing for a few decades. The Swedish neighborhood was around 7th Street and Madison Street area. All around that neighborhood is where those many furniture factories were built (Chuck Sweeny, Rockford Register Start, August 29, 2015).

By the 1860 census, Winnebago County now had 24,491 residents with Rockford being most of that population. In the year 1860 Winnebago County counted 3,985 for Lincoln as opposed to 817 for Douglas, the Democratic opponent of Lincoln, which proves the conservative roots were still strong in Rockford. During the Civil War in 1862 Rockford was chosen as the site of Camp Fuller which was a military training ground. By the year 1870, Winnebago County’s population soared to 29,301 which was mostly Rockford residents (Fact source:https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockford,_Illinois___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzozNmNjOjYzOTAzOGViYmM5ODk0MmVlY2IxYjMwYzc5YWYwMzdlYjdmZGVkMzFjMjgxMTlkMTYwZTE0NWY1NjIwZWE0NDI6dDpUOk4). Much of the growth in the later 1860s was due to Swedish settlement in Rockford.

In the year 1876 the Rockford Union Furniture Company was established that employed many Rockford residents and the large factory drove Rockford’s industry. Since 1870, Rockford had a small furniture manufacturing base but by the later 1870s it would become a large industry for Rockford. The 1880s was a time for the beginning of a major dominating industry in Rockford in the furniture making business. This was the first industry to employ many Rockford residents. These manufacturers began opening factories starting in 1871 and continuing well into the 20th century. Most of the furniture factories were located east of Rock River on the city’s southeast side in the mid-town neighborhood. Factories were also dotted around Seminary Street near the Rock River, many homes were built in this area on the southeast side in the later 19th century, many of these houses still stand.

By the 1900s-decade Rockford became known as “Furniture City” due to becoming known as the largest furniture manufacturer in the world. This was also the first phase of Rockford’s manufacturing backbone that later Rockford officials wanted to exclusively identify with. The Swedish furniture industry led Rockford into the wooden screws and nails industry as these components were needed to produce furniture. Rockford was still a leader in agricultural equipment but was now in the machine tool industry as well. According to the Baffler.com, by 1892, Rockford had twenty-six major factories and more companies would open in the next three decades to follow (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://thebaffler.com/salvos/screw-capital-of-the-world___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzpmZjkzOjJiMzA4ZjYzY2FlYWIzMjA5OTA1ZDNiYzk2MmFjOWM4MDkyN2NiZTA0NWJmZDhiYjZhZDIzNGIwNzJjNThkNTU6dDpUOk4).

As the Swedish migration wave was slowing by the 1880s, Italian immigration started in 1878 and would take off beginning in the early 1880s. Italian people settled in the Downtown neighborhood, which is Whitman Street on the north, East State Street on the south, Rock River on west to Whitman Street/Longwood Street on the east. Italian settlement also came to the Central Terrace neighborhood area and River Oaks community along with from Montague Street to Kent River on the north was all a southwest side area where Italian immigrants built their homes and started their own community in the 1880s. Italian immigrants faced some harsh discrimination and were not allowed to live in a few subdivisions during the age of restrictive racial covenants that were once legal. Polish immigration came to Rockford around this time and the Polish neighborhood was around 15th Avenue and Christina Street. Lithuanians established their area in the same southwest side neighborhoods as the Italians but mainly in the Central Terrace neighborhood.

The European migration of the late 19th century and early 20th century is the root of Rockford’s toughness and rowdiness. It is a fact that immigrant groups had rivalries and the most discrimination was geared toward Italian immigrants. This rivalry and roughness began in the 1880s and was well-known by the 1910s especially as a stronger Italian migration wave came to Rockford in the 1900s and 1910s decades. Swedish and Italian teenagers fist fought at the downtown bridges usually over matters of someone was dating someone from the other ethnic group. The roughness of Rockford has roots back to the 1880s but would become larger as the decades passed. This doesn’t mean Rockford was ghetto and dangerous it just means there were quite a few rough and tough types, not even necessarily criminals but this foundation would later develop into something more which I will highlight as we go along (Chuck Sweeny, Rockford Register Start, August 29, 2015).

European migration had a significant impact on Rockford’s growth. During the 1870s, Rockford only grew very minimally as the Winnebago County population only grew from 29,301 in 1870 to 30,505 in the 1880 census. The 1890 Winnebago County census counted 39,938, which proves that the earliest Italian migration wave had a strong impact on the population of Rockford. By the year 1900, Winnebago county’s population saw a larger increase to 47,845 which was further enhanced by European immigration in Rockford. Winnebago county’s population then grew by 1910 to 63,153, this was due to not only the rise of the furniture manufacturing industry in Rockford but also due to a second wave of European migration, especially by Italians. In the 1920 census Rockford now had 90,929 residents which shows that the 1910s was the most intense decade of European migration but another addition to that number was the arrival of African Americans in Rockford.

African American culture in Rockford is over 100 years old and is deeply rooted in Rockford history. For decades African Americans were dedicated workers in the furniture and the screw and tool production industry. For decades African American workers who mostly resided on the west side commuted over the river to work in the many southeast side factories. African Americans also faced the harshest discrimination and were treated just like blacks in Chicago and many other cities, the same discrimination and the same boundaries; however, on Rockford’s west side, where most African Americans were moving, migrating southern whites also found the west side to be ideal. Many of these southern whites worked in the same factories and were sometimes just as impoverished as African Americans. In the year 1910, the African American population of Rockford was only few hundred. Beginning in the year 1915 more African Americans would arrive through the end of the decade but by 1920, there were only around 500 African Americans. What attracted African Americans to Rockford began in 1918 when Camp Grant was built on the far south side of town. Over 6,000 African American soldiers were staying in Camp Grant and this got them used to Rockford, when the war ended, many African American former soldiers chose to stay but this only enhanced the African American population to around 2,600 by 1930 while Rockford’s population was 117,373. Overall, Rockford experienced incredible growth in the 1920s. African Americans moved to the west side because land was more affordable for these impoverished migrants, but Rockford would soon require African Americans to stay on the west side due to restrictive racial covenants (Sarah Wolf, Rockford Register Star, Feb 23, 2018).

 

Across the United States, street gangs and extortionist black hand groups formed within Italian communities mixed in with the earliest Italian immigration to the United States. Black hand criminals appeared as early as the 1890s in major cities like Chicago. Chicago was very known for black hand groups in the 1900s and 1910s decades and Rockford would not be much different. Alongside Italian migration to the southwest side and the central-eastern downtown area came criminal black hand groups that threatened wealthier Rockford residents if they did not pay a certain amount demanded by the black hand groups. Like Chicago, the black hand extortionists had a strong propensity for violence. The roughness of Rockford that started as a simple cultural clash between Italians and Swedes now evolved into murderous extortionist. One of the earliest documented cases of black hand violence was a February 15, 1911, case involving Joseph Vitoli and his family. Vitoli lived at 711 Corbin Street in Rockford’s Italian southwest side neighborhood. The Haunted Rockford website managed to gather the exact details of this case along with some smaller info I found. Vitoli had been receiving threats from black hand extortionists, but he refused to pay and really couldn’t because Vitoli was out of work and living off renting out part of his property to transient men. Vitoli and his wife Rena had a son, and a daughter and Rena was 8 months pregnant with their third child. As the family slept together in the bedroom, black hand extortionists planted a bomb outside of the bedroom window. The explosion severely injured Rena which led to her death. Debris crushed Rena’s arm and head so badly it shocked many that she lived for hours after injury. The baby boy cradled in her arms suffered a broken arm. The most heartbreaking fact was that Rena was pregnant, and the unborn baby died along with her which destroyed Vitoli for the rest of his life. Rockford residents were outraged that such a crime happened in Rockford. Locals read newspaper articles about black hand activity in Chicago and were aware of the violence and were infuriated and worried it was now on the streets of Rockford. Regardless of the fear and outrage the Italian community did not cooperate with police for fears of corruption with the black hand extortion groups. Because of this the murder case was never resolved (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.hauntedrockford.com/category/homepage/page/3/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzpmNWZlOjkwYzhjMDE5ODMzNGRhMDczNjU4ODA2ZDNjNzhhODk0ZDdhMDYwODM1MGJiNTFmNWI1MDE2NzA2NmIwZDUzY2U6dDpUOk4, https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2015/05/lennerts-rockford-list.html___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86MmZmMTczYzQ2ODRlOTllMzkzZWJjNTZiOWJlYzQ3NmM6Nzo5YTlmOjA1MzY2NWZlM2Q3YjE0MzMxZGRjOTVmYWZhNjU1NDE5ZGNlMGZlMzZhOGU0ZDlkMDRkZmE2MGFmZGQyMGJkYTE6dDpUOk4___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTdjNDg2ZjIyMjUyMGU0N2YzYTU2NTQ4MmUxYzY3NDY6NzpmN2NmOjAxNTg1M2U3NzhkNmVmYmZhMzZmMGM1MzMzZTczY2MxMWJiZDU4MTk2MGZkYzM5NGE1ZjEzNzY4NDMyNzQzMWM6dDpUOk4___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86MDExZjVlMTA0OGYxMDAxZmM0YTk1MzRlNjUyYmQyYzk6NzozZTk4OjVkZDQ0MThlMTVmM2M1NGU1ODVmYjhmNjAwNWQyNDE3ZTJlMDY3MDRiNjY1ZDgwZDRlZTIzN2IwMDI2NTZhZmM6dDpUOk4). To clarify, the black hand was never an organization in and of itself, it is simply a criminal practice involving a small group of men that get together and research whom in the community is well-off financially then they craft threatening “offer you can’t refuse” letters for these citizens to pay up. The “offer you can’t refuse” phrase was invented by black hand extortionists in the 1910s that later became synonymous with Italian organized crime. Many black hand extortionists later became connected to the Italian mafia but were not mafiosos when they were black hand extortionists accept a few. Some black hand extortionists had business with La Cosa Nostra but in Rockford there is no evidence at all that black hand extortionists were connected to La Cosa Nostra in the 1900s and 1910s. Another black hand Rockford case was in March of 1916, when three black hands were swarmed by police as they attempted to meet up with a victim, they threatened to inflict violence on unless they paid cash, instead they were confronted by law enforcement which caused the men to resist and a shootout with police ensued. The three men were apprehended during the standoff, this was another piece of evidence of Rockford’s black hand activity. Another early piece of evidence of this criminal activity involved men that would later become official members of Italian Rockford organized crime. In the year 1917, future Rockford mobster Philip Caltagerone and Frank Zammuto were implicated for the murder of Giuseppe Tarantola. Zammuto’s brother Joe Zammuto would later become the Rockford mafia boss but at this time the men were Rockford crooks that were likely involved in black hand activities. Zammuto and Caltagerone were convicted then the crime was overturned or the sentence was dissvolved because they did no time behind bars (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2015/05/lennerts-rockford-list.html___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86MDExZjVlMTA0OGYxMDAxZmM0YTk1MzRlNjUyYmQyYzk6NzpiNWI3Ojc2MjFiOTRhMDczMjUwMWM3YmE1NjU5ZTYxMWY5ZmZkZTlhYTQ4YTU2NjQ4ZGVhNDk0ZDdjZGNhYTVkZTI4YzM6dDpUOk4___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTdjNDg2ZjIyMjUyMGU0N2YzYTU2NTQ4MmUxYzY3NDY6NzowNjdlOjYyNGIxNWNlZmRkNzg1YmZiM2EwMjFmMTk5YTYxYWY4OTVlZDc1ZjZiZDQxNDFmMDc4ODMwNGQwMWJjODFmOTQ6dDpUOk4).

In 1917, future Rockford mobster Philip Caltagerone was just a thug being arrested and charged for the murder of Giuseppe Tarantola, the case was acquitted. Once prohibition began in 1920, bootlegging became a major underground operation in Rockford. Rockford crooks and even honest citizens got roped into the illegal alcohol business but on the Italian southwest side, there were men becoming the leading distributors of illegal alcohol and these men would become noticed as time would pass.

Rockford’s organized crime roots date back to 1923, when bootleggers operated in groups in an organized manner. The strongest presence of organized bootleggers was in the Italian southwest side. This became a storied neighborhood for organized crime for decades. This was also the foundation of Rockford gang activity in 1923. On October 8, 1923, the first gangland murder happened when Louis J. Milani was found dead on Montague Street with his throat slashed, mutilated and with a rock on his chest. The murder was never solved (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.hauntedrockford.com/prohibition-and-early-mob-activity-in-rockford/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzoxODI5OjFjNmRiNmFkYmUzYTU4MWRkYzJlN2I0N2Y5NjMxZjVlYzYwNzNhMTNmYjgwMTU3N2ViOTdhMDdmM2QwZTcxZWM6dDpUOk4). This murder took place on the southwest side in the mostly Italian community. This was only the beginning of organized crime in this area of Rockford.

Antonio “Tony” Musso was born in Partinico, Sicily on February 11, 1893. At the age of 19, in 1912, Musso then went to live with relatives in Detroit. Later Musso would reside in New Orleans and Johnston, Illinois. During his time in New Orleans Musso met the sister of John Piro who was a big-time member of the Italian mafia in New Orleans, Musso Married in 1917 in New Orleans. Sources that I read online along with old Rockford police files are hesitant to claim where Musso became connected to the mob but I see the answer clear as day with his time in New Orleans and marrying a gangster’s sister, to me it is obvious and I will go out on a limb and say Musso got connected by 1917 at latest and he would eventually move from New Orleans to the St. Louis area but it is a fact he retained ties to Pito. Musso moved to St. Louis in 1918 and had arrests in 1918 and 1919. Musso then moved to Madison, Wisconsin in about 1920 and his connections to the mafia/La Cosa Nostra strengthened. Musso lived among Italian immigrants looking for work in the underworld and Musso took on a leadership role among them. In Madison, Musso again rubbed shoulders with the Italian mafia connected to La Cosa Nostra. Musso would eventually face legal issues and moved over the state line to Rockford in December of 1924 after facing possible murder charges after his associates killed a police officer(https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2015/05/lennerts-rockford-list.html___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTdjNDg2ZjIyMjUyMGU0N2YzYTU2NTQ4MmUxYzY3NDY6NzpiZTJlOjg2OGE2YTQ1MjBlZDE4ZmQ0MjM3NmVhYzQ5NWUyMGI3NjJmYWJlYzgyY2QxNTgyMzk0MDhlYjUzMzlmZTU4OTk6dDpUOk4).

Antonio Musso tapped into the bootlegging racket of Rockford and within no time he assembled a crew to dominate the market. Another significant mafia connection Musso had was that of Tony Lombardo, the notorious bootlegger gangster of Chicago, Lombardo had married Musso’s younger sister Carmela. Musso also made a solid friendship with Al Capone of the Chicago Outfit and even invited Capone to Rockford and Capone gave full support to Musso in the bootlegging business and had hopes Musso would take over the racket. At this point Musso was highly connected to the mafia and La Cosa Nostra but he was either not yet a member of LCN yet or kept his LCN membership just within himself and there was no evidence of the LCN in Rockford prior to the 1930s. As Musso was becoming a recognized figure in Rockford in the later 1920s, Frank Zito was a rising star in the Springfield, Illinois syndicate which connected to St. Louis, Milwaukee and Dallas along with a lot of rural Illinois. Zito was a key contact for Musso and was likely a major contributor to his quick rise to power in Rockford into the later 1920s. In September of 1926, three of Musso’s men were arrested for the attempted murders of prohibition agents Alec Dotz and David Dotz, the men were later acquitted but this showed the power that Musso had now amassed in his less than 2 years in Rockford. Betweenn 1927 and 1928 Musso had officially organized several bootlegger groups under him.

Nicolo Licata was probably one of the most notorious gangsters in the Los Angeles syndicate. Licata was in multiple leadership roles in Los Angeles until becoming the boss from 1967 until his death in 1974. Before Licata had all this success he was cast out of Detroit in the late 1920s after offending the boss of the Detroit family at the time. Licata was then summoned by Al Capone to lend Musso a helping and in Musso’s takeover of the liquor business. The main concern was a powerful bootlegger named Paul Giovingo. Giovingo may not have had all the mafia connections Musso did, but he was Musso’s toughest competition and friction was growing between the two groups that resulted in some violence. Under bizarre circumstances Licata was shot in the presence of Giovingo, but Giovingo was associating with Licata, but Licata was working on assisting Musso with removing Giovingo. After this 1928 shooting, Licata moved to Los Angeles and met his storied fate. This was another example of a mafia connection that put Musso into power (https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2015/05/lennerts-rockford-list.html). Joe Giovingo resided on the southwest side on Harding Street which was the center of Rockford gangland at the time.

In the year 1930, the United States began suffering from the Great Depression and Rockford was no exception. Rockford’s agricultural tools and Swedish furniture industry could not push out the negative effects of the Great Depression. Many Rockford residents found themselves unemployed and in a state of poverty. This economic collapse steered some residents to get involved in the illegal alcohol industry. Rockford’s furniture industry was the largest employer of Rockford and during the depression years this industry stalled out and growth stopped and never returned. This was also the time for the rise of Antonio Musso. On August 14, 1930, Joe Giovingo was gunned down by Musso’s men at the corner of Main Street and Morgan Street in the Italian southwest side. Joe was the least of the threats among the Giovingo brothers, but he became targeted first. This showed that Antonio Musso was prepared to use extreme violence to push back on Paul Giovingo. While this was getting started a major illegal alcohol bust brought Musso, Giovingo and others into prison on alcohol charges. This cooled down gang wars in Rockford for a couple years until the men started getting out of prison in 1932. Paul Giovingo was released in October of 1932 and immediately went against Antonio Musso once again. Giovingo was still angry about his brother’s death making him have no respect for Antonio Musso and his men and this would cost him his life. On February 11, 1933, Paul Giovingo was found shot to death in his car on South Winnebago Street close to his home (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2015/05/lennerts-rockford-list.html___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTdjNDg2ZjIyMjUyMGU0N2YzYTU2NTQ4MmUxYzY3NDY6NzoyYTkzOmY4Yjc3NzJmMzQ5MTBmMTgwNDFmZThmYjRiYjYwNWMwYTIxYjExZjk3MTIzOTdkMWJlZTE5N2I2ODk0ZDZhYWM6dDpUOk4). Giovingo was from the southwest side Italian neighborhood. The Giovingo crime legacy ended with the death of Paul Giovingo and his later relatives still reside in Rockford, but crime was long removed from their family for over 90 years now.

After the death of Paul Giovingo, Musso had complete control of Rockford, and this is when he officially organized the Rockford mafia which was more known as the “Rockford family.” The Rockford family was officially tied to LCN (La Cosa Nostra). A blow to business profits would come later that year when the Volstead Act was being repealed and liquor would be legal again. The Rockford family then got in the business of armed robbery and auto theft. After the death of Walton Wheeler, the city’s biggest loan shark, in 1934, Musso’s family took over most of the loan shark racket. It took until around the end of the 1930s for Musso to completely take over the whole criminal underworld in Rockford that included all illegal alcohol manufacturing, prostitution, load sharking and gambling. By the early 1940s the Rockford gangsters ran it all and Musso was more powerful than ever. On December 22, 1937, a murder of the biggest horse bookmaker in Rockford, Charles Kalb who was shot to death, was significant. Kalb was the final boss in the way of Musso and with him eliminated there was no stopping Musso (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.com/2015/05/lennerts-rockford-list.html___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTdjNDg2ZjIyMjUyMGU0N2YzYTU2NTQ4MmUxYzY3NDY6NzphMGFhOjdhNWI2ZjllNTUzYzExYmFkYzEwZWMyM2YxYmFiOTJjNmY5MGQ2ODc5MGM5NTVjMjZhMzAwNmFhMzljNWM1MzA6dDpUOk4).

Beginning in 1942, Rockford began to change as the furniture business was slowly dissolving while precision cutting tools, fasteners (nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc.), aerospace components, machine parts, and automobiles, were the new industry of Rockford. The second world war made much of this new manufacturing possible and would pull Rockford out of the Great Depression by the time the war was over. In 1945, Rockford was the 5th most industrialized per capita in the world and was the fastener and tool and die capital of the country. With this booming new industry came heavy demands for employment in manufacturing and there were not enough employees to take on these roles, this is when companies appealed to the southern United States to the white southern culture along with the African American communities in the south.

Most of the newly arriving African Americans moved to the west side of Rockford from Kilburn Avenue and West State Street to the city limits on the west and from the railroad tracks that divided the west side from the southwest side all the way north into the Auburn neighborhood. This area became increasingly populated with hard-working African Americans from the south. Many of these families came from Alabama and Mississippi and took up employment is either the growing parts manufacturing industry or in the furniture business. Housing was cheapest on the west side and many older homes were converted into tenement apartments run by slumlords which was, sadly, all that the newly migrated African American families could afford. To make extra money on the side some African Americans began operating policy wheels, gaming machines, illegal gambling dens and unlicensed taverns. These buildings were scattered around the west side and almost all the known buildings no longer exist and had been removed decades ago. There was the 620 Club that operated at 620 Lexington Avenue. There was the Quality Club that operated on the west side at 1100 S. Pierpont Avenue. The Globe-Post Policy Wheel at 905 Newport Avenue. These were just some examples of west side Rockford policy wheels and illegal taverns. The policy racket swept several major cities across the United States, and it came to Rockford in the 1940s alongside this newest African American migration wave. Similar to the south side of Chicago, the policy racket was key to African American communities because it provided employment in businesses owned by racket bosses, and it kept African Americans paid on the side while doing favors for the policy bosses. There is not any record of the policy racket’s operations in the 1940s and most of the 1950s as this racket operated smartly and discreetly catching little to no law enforcement attention. The policy racket was no threat to Antonio Musso and Musso never muscled in on this racket likely because he had no knowledge of it (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://gangstersinc.org/2015/11/10/the-rockford-mobs-takeover-of-the-negro-policy-racket/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzoyNzQzOjE5NDI1NDZiNWM3OTdlOTg2ZTVkZjI0MTcyNDE2Njc2Nzc1YmFkNDc5NDdmOWIyODQzZGM5NmIxODkxYjAzN2U6dDpUOk4).

Antonio Musso retired in wake of suffering from health issues from cancer that eventually killed him in 1958. Joe Zammuto took over as the new Rockford family boss after Musso in 1957 after Musso fell ill. It was Joe Zammuto that moved in on the African American illegal liquor and policy rackets following a September 1, 1959, local article describing a police raid on Policy Kings John Head and Lee Walker. These two men operated the 620 Club which was the policy headquarters. James Collins, Curtis Ivey, James Higginbothom, Wilbur Jones, Amos Hearns, and Anne Mae Raye were all policy writers arrested in this raid as authorities learned of this operation that collected $60,000 to $70,000 of profits regularly. After reading about this, Zammuto summoned Charles Vince, who was a fixer and gambling expert for the Rockford mafia since the 1930s. Vince found an opening after learning that John Head and Lee Walker were operating Mid-States Vending which serviced the gambling machines in the African American community. Out of the Rockford mafia was Stateline Vending that was created in 1959 and operated out of the Aragona Club at 320 Kent Street which was the headquarters of the Rockford mafia for decades. Because of Stateline Vending it gave the Rockford mob the ability to declare all business owners must give the Rockford mafia a cut of their profits to Stateline Vending or purchase Stateline Vending products and services. This caused Head and Walker to go into business with the mob and is how the Rockford mafia slowly took over the African American policy racket which brought more police attention to the policy by the late 1960s which caused much of it to go out of business, but the policy racket would continue until 1982 when a final raid by authorities closed the doors forever.

As I read through the stories of the Rockford Crime Family, I continued to encounter several crimes these mobsters committed and the charges would magically go away, even if it was murder. I have given some examples above of murder and other crimes these gangsters got away with even before they were LCN. Sure, these organized crime figures are smart with their operations and likely hired the best lawyers, but I still find it interesting that these gangsters got away with so many crimes and little is talked about with police corruption. Police corruption in Rockford is very real and was a severe problem in past decades. There also was a big issue with Rockford being able to afford enough police officers that were needed for this city. The lack of officers was a big problem in decades past in Rockford and easily could have been the reason these Rockford mobsters got away with so much crime in the older decades. Corruption in Rockford was not only at the law enforcement level but also in the local government for decades. Rumors of corruption and visible disorganization have plagued Rockford, and this led to devastating decisions Rockford officials made in decades past that still cause social problem presently.

One of the first bad decisions by Rockford officials was the decision in 1958 on where to allow Interstate 90 tollway to be placed through the city. The original idea was to allow the tollway to cut through Rockford from east to west which would allow Rockford to build businesses and housing equally through the village. This way, more professional workers could reside in east and west Rockford and commute to their jobs. The tollway going east to west would also bring shopping traffic off the tollway which could have helped Rockford completely thrive. I don’t know all the exact reasons for the decision to place the highway on the far east side near city limits, but many say this was decided for racial reasons and I can’t help but to agree about this, especially since Rockford officials also canceled any plans to develop the west side and instead new housing and business was offered to the east side exclusively. It was basically decided to starve out the west side making this part of Rockford dangerously dependent on the furniture and parts manufacturing industries. The west side’s African American population was significantly growing by the end of the 1950s and this alone could have been justification for not building the tollway through the city. Even if one can’t believe it was racially motivated one must agree that this was poor planning that had disastrous consequences.

In the year 1960, the I-90 tollway was completely open through the state of Illinois and Rockford’s divide now was clear between east side and west side. New subdivisions and shopping centers were planned in east Rockford while not much was planned west of Rock River. Beginning in the same 1960 year, the F.B.I began intensive investigations into the Italian mafia and the Rockford mob was no exception in these investigations. Rockford original gangsters were now in retirement or near retirement age and began to settle down their violence in the southwest side. Some gangsters began to move east of the river. I did not find much information on youth gangs in Rockford prior to the late 1960s but like most other suburbs and cities in Illinois in the 50s and 60s Rockford likely had greaser type of gangs. The only street gang information I encountered from news articles was that of the exploits of the “Latin Counts” of Rockford. Between 1963 and 1964 the “Latin Counts” were in Rockford area newspapers known as a teen gang of mostly Italian teenagers causing terror in Rockford. These issues with the “Latin Counts” were documented in 4 articles with the Rockford Morning Star in and around 1964. As the Rockford mob was quieting down on the southwest side by 1964, the Latin Counts were just getting started. I read these articles closely and although they did not say these are the same Latin Counts from Chicago, I will say they are.

In the early 1960s Latin Counts opened territory in the Little Village neighborhood that still had a strong Italian identity at the time. Italian youths in Little Village found conflict with African American gangs from North Lawndale and this brought in recruitment from a Mexican gang from the neighboring Pilsen neighborhood called the “Latin Counts.” The Latin Counts of Pilsen found common ground with Italian youths in Little Village and recruited them. This was first documented in the Chicago Tribune in 1961. Because of this recruitment drive it proves Italian youths were highly accepted into the Latin Counts’ organization outside of Pilsen. The Latin Counts of Rockford were almost all Italian and were in existence in 1963-1964 which was just following the Chicago Tribune articles of the early 60s. Another piece of evidence from these news articles linking the Chicago Latin Counts to the Rockford Latin Counts is the November 2, 1963, Rockford Morning Star article that “three members of a teenage gang known as the Latin Counts” were arrested after a teenager was attacked by three members of the Latin Counts with baseball bats at the Skeet Drive In located at Rockton Avenue and Auburn Street. Phillip J. Leombruni, age 17, Joseph F. Masseti, age 19 and Ricardo Leombruni, age 16 were arrested and charged for attacking Jerry Duglar of 2430 Auburn Ave by smashing all the windows of his car out and hitting him once with the bat as he tried to stop the damage. Duglar claimed he did not know why the boys attacked him. The clue that this was the Chicago Latin Counts that attacked Duglar is the fact that two members were found to have gang cards when the police searched the three boys. The gang cards were described to have 10 gang member names on them along with their phone numbers (Rockford Morning Star November 2, 1963). The gang card were described as “fancy membership cards” in the article which is a feature of Chicago street gangs and in Chicago gang cards were already getting “fancy” by the early 60s, but a city like Rockford would not produce such cards in this complexity which proves these Rockford Latin Counts were born out of the Chicago Latin Counts that are presently known as “Almighty Insane Latin Counts.” Phillip J. Leombruni resided at 723 North Madison Street which was in the oldest Italian downtown area, his house no longer exists. The newspaper stated Leombruni was known as “Moco.” Phillip Leombruni likely was related to Ricardo Leombruni whose address was 2325 Rose Avenue which is on the southwest side Italian neighborhood, his nickname was “Stovepipe” according to the article. Joseph Massetti was addressed to 1010 Ogilby Road which was just around the corner from Ricardo Leombrini in the same southwest side neighborhood. The article also stated the cars used by Latin Counts had license plates that traced to Mary Alfano of 1120 Kent Street and Frank Falzone of 1515 Montague Street. Both addresses are in the Italian southwest side neighborhood. (Rockford Morning Star November 2, 1963).

Three more articles about the Rockford Latin Counts surfaced in 1964. In a January 29, 1964, Rockford Morning Star article, that described the efforts of Rockford law enforcement in their pursuits of the “Latin Counts.” The article described how Latin Counts were driving up and down Van Wie Avenue which is in the Edgewater neighborhood of Rockford. The article stated how the Latin Counts were looking to pick on any teen youths they could find and attack them. The article said these Latin Counts made a habit of splitting into groups and patrolling the Van Wie area every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night looking for victims. The article described an attack the Latin Counts made on a car they curbed, and they beat one youth with a car door handle and struck the other youth with a beer bottle. The article also described how 5 more members of the Latin Counts were arrested but no names or addresses were given but they were described as “Most members of the gang have records. All are tough as long as they have the advantage in numbers and are equipped with bottles, knives or other weapons. The Manner in which they operate shows how cowardly they are” (Rockford Morning Star January 29, 1964). These crimes along Van Wie and the attack on Jerry Duglar and Jerry Duglar’s address were all within the Edgewater/North Rockford areas.

Latin Counts seemed to have issues with youths in the North Rockford and Edgewater areas and this is more apparent in an August 29, 1964, Rockford Morning Star article that described the stabbing of Frank Munday, a 22-year-old from 1414 Wallace Avenue in Edgewater. Munday was stabbed during “a series of teen-age gang fights in Loves Park on Aug.22.” Munday claimed he heard about a rumble in the parking lot of the Sherwood Lodge in Loves Park and somehow Munday was encountered by five other youths that attacked him by stabbing him in his side as he was in the company of his four friends. It seems like the article is trying to say Munday and his friends were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Latin Counts arrested were Lawrence Cassioppi, 17 years old, of 1515 Victoria Avenue. Cassioppi resided in the southwest side Italian neigborhood. Dennis Ferraro, 17 years old of 404 Fairview Boulevard which was on the east side which is puzzling. John Bartelli, 17 years old from 429 South Independence of the west side which was also out of Count territory. Louis Soporito, 17 years old of 1516 Victoria Avenue who was right across the street from Cassioppi on the southwest side. Richard Hernandez Junior was also arrested and was 20 years old and from 901 Kent Street on the southwest side in the Italian community (Rockford Morning Start August 29, 1964).

The final 1964 Latin Counts article was from September 11, 1964, when the Rockford Morning Star reported the arrest of two Latin Counts who admitted membership in the gang and broke into an apartment at the Eastridge apartments that are located near the intersection of East Drive and Alpine Road. Louis Sassali, 17 years old at the time, was charged for break in with grand theft charges. Sassali’s listed address was 2604 18th Avenue which is within the east side of Rockford which is puzzling. These charges were given to him on top of charges he was already in custody for minor drinking and assault and battery during a fight with another group of youths by the State Street bridge. During the fight Sassali pointed a “chrome plated pistol” at another youth and threatened him. When police arrived Sassali tossed the pistol into the river. Police identified Sassali as a member of the “Latin Counts.” Sassali admitted to taking a gun from the apartment at 4400 Eastridge Drive. This was a firearm collection consisting of a shotgun, a rifle, an antique flintlock pistol and two other handguns. The other youth involved was Stephen M. Gregg, 17 years old from 511 Brown Avenue. Gregg resided in the Edgewater neighborhood. police said he claimed membership in the gang and was involved in both the fight and the burglary (Rockford Morning Star, September 11, 1964).

 

These four Rockford Latin Count articles are very important to Rockford gang history and shows clear evidence that the Almighty Insane Latin Counts were the first Chicago gang to infiltrate Rockford; however, their presence was short lived, and the busts of their members seems to have broken up the gang. This old Latin Count group appears to have no affiliation with the later Latin Counts group that came to Rockford in the 1990s to present years. Although these 1960s Latin Counts are the same organization as the present-day Latin Counts, they are not connected. From what I gather from these articles, these Latin Counts had conflict with youths from North Rockford and Edgewater while having at least one member living in Edgewater. The three articles about Latin Counts tangling with these northern Rockford youths all seem to make the victims look entirely innocent. I find it hard to believe the victims of the Latin Counts as completely innocent because all the attacks and addresses are all in the Edgewater and North Rockford areas which indicates to me there was a rival gang in North Rockford/Edgewater the Latin Counts were opposing that was acting innocent to the police. It just happened to be that the Latin Counts were tougher and more ruthless, and the opposing gang was cooperative with police while Counts were not as much cooperative besides Louis Sassali and Stephen Gregg. The articles completely ignored any possible gang rivalry, and I can almost be certain these boys were not simply looking to victimize innocent teens like the articles implicate, I believe this was gang rivalry, but the Latin Counts were not favored by police. Because most addresses listed of Latin Count members and vehicles used in the crimes traced to the southwest side, it seems clear the Latin Counts of the early-mid 60s resided in the same neighborhood the Rockford mafia started in. It is highly likely these Latin Counts were heavily inspired by the Rockford Mafia and joined the Latin Counts to get a reputation that may have hopefully landed them a recommendation into the Rockford mafia. It is a fact that Italian youths looked up to mob figures in the Chicago area during these decades and these Rockford Latin Counts were likely seeking recognition from the Rockford mafia. One gang that developed out of a boy’s club in Machesney Park was the “North Park Raiders.” The North Park Raiders were mentioned in a November 6, 1970, issue of the Register Republic for causing a disturbance in school that resulted in the attack on female students and a teacher. A girl’s gang was involved called “God’s Gals.” The article mentioned that the North Park Raiders were once a boys club turned gang. I can’t say for sure the North Park Raiders were the targets of the Rockford Latin Counts or not, but the Counts definitely had beef with kids from northern Rockford and Loves Park and the North Park neighborhood in Machesney Park is in the path of this conflict being on the far west side of Machesney Park. Even if it wasn’t the North Park Raiders, this still shows there was youth gang activity in Machesney Park/Loves Park which would have easily extended into North Rockford and down to south Rockford.

The Rockford Latin Counts likely ceased existence because of the legal issues reported in these articles in the Rockford Morning Star as nothing else was reported or found after September 1964. I must thank an anonymous contact that gave me these articles, it has been a major help in this research. I also did extra research on these original Latin Counts of Rockford and found info on some of them. Louis Sassali lived until December 4, 2023, as he passed at age 76. Sassali lived the rest of his life in Rockford. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Northern Illinois University in journalism. His obituary also describes how he loved nature, especially cats. Sassali was a loving husband, father and grandfather, his life with the Latin Counts was seemingly long behind him. I could not find anything on Stephen M. Gregg. I could not find anything on Richard Hernandez Junior who I think was the Rockford Latin Count founder due to his age being oldest among the boys. Louis Soporito passed away in 2011 and was known to be a good car salesman and avid sports fan. Soporito’s obituary said he had the potential to play in professional sports, but “Circumstances” did not allow for this to happen. Soporito lived in Rockford his whole life and was a husband and father. I could not find anything on John Bartelli or Dennis Ferraro. Lawrence Cassioppi remained in Rockford until his death in 2003. Joseph Massetti passed away in 2012 who was a father of 4 children and was into fishing according to his obituary. Phillip Leombruni lived to age 70 in 2016. Phillip Leombruni remained in Rockford his whole life and became a Reverend. Ricardo Leombruni passed away in 2019, he lived in Florida and was a father to a daughter and a grandfather. This is evidence one should not judge former gang members for their past unless they committed terrible crimes, these boys did not such thing and became good men and loving family men, but the legacy of the original Latin Counts of Rockford should be told.

The Latin Counts indeed deserve the title of being Rockford’s first Chicago street gang but not as Rockford’s oldest Chicago gang because the group died out in 1964 once the boys faced legal consequences. The first Rockford Latin Counts are a shining example of how individuals deep into gang life can turn themselves around and lead normal lives. The men that once wore these colors ended up becoming good citizens of Rockford as they raised families and carried on successful careers. These Latin Counts were the product of being teens growing up in a mafia influenced community that mixed it up with cliques of board teens in other parts of Rockford. I am pretty sure there were more teen gangs in all of Rockford but none of them appeared to make enough noise to end up in the newspaper. The Rockford Counts were ready to use weapons and get down with some heavier violence, this is why I am almost totally sure this is not some other Latin Counts group made up in Rockford and the “fancy” gang cards they were caught with is evidence of this to me that this is an extension of the Chicago (18th Street) Latin Counts.

Besides mafia activity and some tough guy groups here and there, the woes of Rockford did not truly begin until the later 1960s. The east side of Rockford was new and those moving to this part of Rockford were not reliant on the manufacturing industry especially since they had all the major highway access and could afford to commute to other communities for work. By the later 1960s, Rockford’s poor decisions to expand their revenue sources outside of manufacturing began to have devastating effects. The planning for I-90 was one of the first poor decisions, another was rejecting Rockford as the site for the new Chrysler manufacturing plant that was going to employ 4,500 people and add so much revenue to the community that would have especially helped the west side and south side. On November 14, 1963, Chrysler Corp announced considering Rockford area for the new assembly plant but that was quickly deferred to nearby Belvidere on November 26, 1963 and by 1965 the plant was completed in Belvidere and history was made (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___www.Rockfordillinois.com___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6Nzo0M2RmOjJlMjg1NTJjODI1NjU2NDBmZjZlNTFiM2NlYTJjYTc4ODIzZTA1NmFiYmMxMGNkZTVhZDhmZWU2YjI3NmFjYWU6dDpUOk4). I have also heard that Rockford was chosen as the site for a new women’s prison decades ago, but Rockford officials denied the prison because it would bring in a “bad element,” this was another missed economic opportunity. Another story I had heard of is the Cherryvale Mall was originally supposed to be placed more in the heart of Rockford along with other mall ideas, but all were rejected, and Cherryvale Mall was decided upon and placed on the far southeast side far away from the downtown, south side and west sides in 1973. A hog processing plant was proposed long ago and was rejected for concerns of “bad smells.” An incinerator factory was also supposed to be built but was rejected for “pollution concerns.” There was once a proposal for riverboat gambling which would have been in downtown, this was allegedly rejected because it would “tear away at the moral fiber of Rockford.” The “Woodruff Expressway” (I-39) was supposed to branch into downtown which would have brought many travelers to support the local economy, but this highway never happened. This highway plan of the 1960s was a disaster not only for western Rockford but for all of downtown. In the 60s the plan was to tear down 160 houses for this new highway but only the houses were removed but the highway never got off the ground which would have provided key access from the eastern part of Rockford into downtown and into the western part of Rockford (Rockford Register Star, April 26, 2017, Chuck Sweeny). Rockford planning of the late 50s and early 60s was to have an open or “Walking mall” type of downtown where residents would walk around the whole area instead of driving through, this was a poor choice as it encouraged crime because residents were more vulnerable on foot and police access was harder as well. By 1967, there were only two trains running to and from Rockford as many of the train stops that could bring passengers to and from the southside and west side were now defunct. Overall, Rockford’s historically strong conservative beliefs may have been the downfall of about half of the city. The conservativism I am talking about is the irrational side that effects economics. Some say there were racial reasons for cutting off economics and public transit from western Rockford because the area had a higher African American population than over east. There is no exact solid evidence of this racism that I can find; therefore, much of it seems like rumor. Even if it is just rumor it does not take away from the fact that these processes to change Rockford in certain ways while rejecting other key changes could easily make a racially motivated case for this planning. All these plans of rejecting industry after industry while planning public transit away from west of the river. Most of this poor planning has been chalked up to disorganization as if those that made these plans are free of malice, but it is too coincidental that the older part of Rockford was suddenly deprived of development while the newer east side got all the benefits. It just so happened, that the area of Rockford that was devoid of 1960s and 1970s planning happened to also be the home of most Rockford African Americans since the first world war. Even if there was no malicious intent planned to starve out the west side it is still an atrocity that still hampered certain minority groups much more, primarily African Americans.

In the late 1960s, Rockford’s major furniture manufacturing powerhouse closed their doors as most factories were now defunct. This mainly resulted in job loss for west siders and homeowners on both the west side and south sides began selling their homes in favor of nearby suburbs. These families had the means to move even if they lost their jobs because they had a savings. Others left simply because they feared an inevitable economic devastation brought on by collapsed industry. Although the furniture industry collapse was harmful it did not destroy Rockford’s economy especially since Rockford’s many other manufacturing outlets were still thriving very well.

Since African Americans settled in Rockford, many had lived close to or below the poverty line. Historically, African Americans were paid less wages and had unequal access to education. Rockford’s first African Americans migrated from the southern United States from Alabama and Mississippi especially. In these areas of the country many African Americans lived in extreme poverty, living mostly off the land and in substandard housing, much of this was attributed to low and unequal wages. A lack of access to public education whether financially or racially kept African Americans living with underclass wages. Many of these southern families came to Rockford not only looking for higher wages but also some were looking for better education so either they could develop themselves or so their children could. Many other families were not interested in higher education due to the concept of burnt generations. In the burnt generations concept, one lives just as their parents and extended family does. As an example, if one’s parents and most of their family made an income from unskilled work then one will follow suit and enter the same industry, this creates a generational disinterest in obtaining higher education/skills for the work force. This is a phenomenon often mistaken as laziness; however, when there is generational self-esteem issues and/or constant exposure to substandard living and wages one will adopt to this lifestyle as well that was originally forced upon the original ancestors. This was much of what was seen in Rockford which is not much different from most other cities in our country. Many African American families originated in the south where opportunity was lacking for generations and through the generations, children learned this was the best way to live and they did not feel they were capable of anything better. Because of this phenomenon arriving African Americans from the south continued in this pattern of poverty in Rockford. With so many abundant manufacturing hubs in Rockford, there were more than enough unskilled job positions to find that generally paid more than southern wages. For many early Rockford African Americans this was an uplift compared to how they lived in the south. Rockford poverty was not just for African Americans, many impoverished west siders were white as well, but the African American population was so much smaller yet more impoverished.

By the year 1950, Rockford’s population had grown significantly as did the African American population. In Chicago and all over the country the U.S. faced a housing shortage for lower income Americans following the second world war. Many migrating families ended up living in the streets or building themselves makeshift homes like shacks etc…while others rented property in bizarre circumstances such as renting an abandoned bus to house one’s family. These were practices shared across our country and Rockford was no exception. The west side was full of marvelous homes that were spacious; however, these were homes owned by families and were not available to rent and a lack of hotels and apartments became an issue for west siders, and this creates a housing problem. The demand in manufacturing will draw more migration from other regions but if a city cannot provide enough housing for workers, industries may leave the city or push back on city officials, this is why housing for workers is important.

In the year 1950, Rockford City Council became interested in providing housing for returning war veterans effected by the second world war and the Korean War. Across our nation, thousands of men were returning from war finding that they could not afford anywhere to live because of housing shortages for those on the lower income scale. This was a big issue in the northern cities because during the war many manufacturing companies enlisted the help of thousands of southerners to travel to the north to take on employment. Jobs were in high demand because more material was needed for the war effort and more people were needed to manufacture these products during war time and with millions of men enlisted or drafted to serve in our military and women raising children at home, there was a major void in employment. Companies found that many African Americans from the south were not participating in the war as much due to discrimination or a general lack of interest in fighting for a country that left them living unfairly. This was a gold mine for manufacturers because not only would they be able to fill all these jobs they could also offer lower pay than before and to the desperately poor African Americans from the south who realized those wages were still much higher than they made in the south. Northern cities did not plan for the lower income housing crisis that would follow these employment drives in the south. Rockford would be no different than other northern cities and just like Chicago or other cities, the Rockford City Council made the decision to build an apartment complex near downtown in the southeast side at 338 15th Avenue at 15th Avenue and Spring Court. This complex was built in 1950 and was for active-duty military personnel serving at Camp Grant. These apartments were named “Blackhawk Courts” which consists of 196 units in a low-rise apartment complex. Shortly, following this project for veterans, the Rockford Housing Authority was officially established July 11, 1951 (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://rockfordha.org___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzpiOWU1OjYyZjJjNDlhYzQ0ZTZiMTYyOWEyYTIwNmYxZTIyNGZmNzRkMWNhMGFkYzhmNDdkMTY4MjYxMzUyMjFhZjBkNjM6dDpUOk4) and Blackhawk Courts was the first public housing complex served in Rockford.

Many older locals of Rockford will attest that Rockford was a completely safe and well-off city prior to the late 60s, it is still a fact that by July 1967, 9% of all houses were dilapidated or did not have all plumbing facilities, that number was 12% in 1960 (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/scanned/scan-chma-RockfordIL-1967.pdf___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzpmMmQxOjMwMzE3MTVhNjAzZTRlODJkMWQyNjFkNDI5MzY5ZDZmNTdmODAwNzA4Y2IzYjU5ZDllNjQzZGRkYzIxYTM4MDM6dDpUOk4). This proves a long history of deteriorated housing in Rockford which was a motivator for the Rockford Housing Authority to act on this housing crisis in 1967. Although the dilapidation and poverty were around before the late 60s, it was mostly functional in the Rockford community as the only stories I have heard of violence and gang activity centered only around the Rockford Mafia crime family.

The first public housing project in Rockford extends quite far back in time. In October of 1941, the No-Co-Mo Heights housing project was built to serve military personnel from Camp Grant. This was an 80-unit complex on the southeast side in the Kishwaukee Street and Ranger Street area. For some reason I could not find, the project was abandoned by the late 60s and was demolished shortly after. Once Nocomo was vacated the Rockford Housing Authority began the construction of the Orton Keyes Court subdivision in 1967 which was another of the Rockford Housing Authority’s older projects and was built within a block or two away from the Nocomo project (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/scanned/scan-chma-RockfordIL-1967.pdf,https://rockfordha.org/rha-gorman-company-official-ribbon-cutting-at-orton-keys/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6NzpmMDM5OjU3YWNmNTA1MDBiOTEyMTEwMGI0YzUzZmQ4ODcxMDQzZWMwZjExMTUwMDE0NzZhYWVkZWFmNmY5MDI4NmU1ZjU6dDpUOk4).

The Rockford Housing Authority got to work in the late 1960s now that the furniture industry completely collapsed. Crime was now rising on the west side and if you are to ask long-time locals from the west side or close, they will almost all say that they began noticing crime in the late 60s. I have heard this from multiple sources that the beginning or Rockford’s crime issue on the west side traces back to the late 60s. Crime was not out of control at that time, it had been more explained to me that people on the west side just needed to be a little cautious about being out late at night. One of the solutions to the growing crime and homelessness was for the Rockford Housing Authority to begin providing public housing. To put this manufacturing dependency in perspective, out of Rockford’s approximate 146,300 population in 1967 (1970 Rockford population 147,370) 57,125 Rockford residents were employed in manufacturing which means about 39% of Rockford was manufacturing workers. This number is also out of 104,750 wage earners in Rockford which means 55% of wage earners were in manufacturing (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/scanned/scan-chma-RockfordIL-1967.pdf___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86YTcxZDNhMGUxNmJhM2I0Y2Y4YmY3MGU3YmNiMmE5ZTA6Nzo0NzFhOjVlY2RhYmQ5YTcxNDNmNGE3Y2U4ZWQ2YjViYjEyYjAzYjFlYThmOTlmNjQ1ZDg3ZDRiYmM3Y2Q2NWM3MjYzNWE6dDpUOk4)

In the downtown area of Rockford, the original site of the old Rockford College campus that closed in 1964 was now an area of interest for the Rockford Housing Authority. David L. Pattis of the Hartford Construction Company, Chicago, was interested in building a project on the vacant 16 acres of land. The developer planned on building two high-rise towers with 418 units for the elderly and 84 units for families, this planning began in March of 1968 (Moline Daily Dispatch, March 8, 1968). This apartment and townhouse complex was purchased by the Rockford Housing Authority for $7,673,646. This location was ideal because of the close approximation to Rockford’s bustling business center and access to hotels and buses (Mattoon Journal Gazette, March 13, 1965). According to the Morris Daily Herald, this project was the nation’s largest “turn-key” housing project, which is when a private firm buys the property, builds the project, then sells to the housing authority, this, in turn, saves money on construction costs by 10-15% which also allows the project to build faster. The project consisted of two high rise buildings being called Campus Tower North and Campus Tower South, named after the old college, that once stood where these projects once stood (Morris Daily Herald April 2, 1968). These projects would eventually be renamed “Brewington Oaks,” and I have not found anything negative about these projects when they first opened or within the next decade after opening the project. These projects were open for vacancy in 1969 and by then the Rockford Housing Authority was ready to open several new project complexes near downtown and on the west side. The Brewington Oaks location was on the southeast side in the downtown area near the intersection of College Avenue and Seminary Street, the projects were addressed on Seminary Street.

Another downtown area public housing project became planned on the border of the downtown/central area and the west side. This project would become known as “Fairgrounds Valley Apartments” and would have the address of 1015 West Jefferson. This project consists of 210 units of low-rise, two-story buildings constructed on both sides of the railroad tracks which was an unusual design to have railroad tracks, and a creek cut through the middle of the complex. When these projects were first built in 1969, they were within proximity to manufacturing and from what I have heard about, these projects were functional and not heavy on crime in the 1970s.

On the west side of Rockford an explosion of public housing projects ensued between 1969-1972. The west side was in the most need of public housing but so was the city of Chicago. The west side public housing projects were heavily colonized not only by mostly African American Rockford residents but also by thousands of African Americans from Chicago. The late 1960s plan called for four public housing projects in the Washington Park/Champion Hills area of the far west side. By the late 1960s this area of the west side had become slightly higher crime and moving into a state of poverty as some properties became vacant and/or deteriorated, this became ideal land for city planners and Rockford Housing Authority planners to place these three-story apartment complexes. These projects were originally built to combat the growing poverty and deterioration of the west side. This decline was linked to the I-90 highway decision.

As I did my research on these Rockford public housing projects, I found substantial information about the downtown and southeast side area projects like Brewington Oaks, Fairgrounds Valley, Blackhawk Commons, Orton Keyes and the west side Concord Commons projects. I have read about gangs and crime issues in these projects but when I dug into additional information on Concord Commons, I happened upon info on a project mostly forgotten, the Champion projects from Washington Park area which led me to find additional info on this forgotten project. It took much more digging to find two other projects from the Washington Park area that were even longer forgotten, the Pierpont Greens projects and the Valerie Percy projects, both from Washington Park area. These projects have become long forgotten but I am here to dig up the past on those because those old projects are key projects in the decline of the west side and key projects surrounding Rockford street gang history, these projects need to not be forgotten.

In the year 1969, the Valerie Percy public housing project was opened and was formerly located at the intersection of Pierpont Avenue and Green Street. To be more precise, these projects were in the exact area of Green Street on the north to just south of Addison Avenue on the south and from Pierpont Avenue on the west to Vista Terrace on the east. These projects once had 190 units and were likely the same design as the Concord Commons projects. This area is now the present-day Lincolnwood Estates subdivision that was built in the early 2000s. This is why many homes in this area are newer because these grounds were once the grounds of Rockford’s largest public housing project. I am not positive on why the name “Valerie Percy” was chosen as the name, but I highly suspect the project was named after Valerie Percy, the daughter of former U.S. Senator Charles Percy. Valerie Percy was viciously stabbed 14 times as she lay asleep in her Kenilworth, Illinois home, the case was never solved. I strongly believe the project was named after this murder victim which is quite eerie especially given what happened with the Valerie Percy projects. According to the Rockford.gov website, the Valerie Percy projects “gangs” and criminal activity set in as soon as the doors opened in these projects. The local Rockford government website stated that Valerie Percy projects accelerated the already declining west side. Gang issues and high crime led to higher levels of vacancy and turnover which led to “cash flow” problems. These projects were an utter failure from the start. With further digging I came across an old court case from December 3, 1976, which was the case of People vs. Fort which was a case where Ronald Fort’s burglary case was being reviewed. Ronald Fort along with two other men, only identified by last name in the court case as “Fricks” and “Nelson” were charged and sentenced for the burglary of the apartment of Ace Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s younger sister, 16-year-old Geraldine, witnessed the three men break into Hawthorne’s Valerie Percy apartment on November 15, 1973. Geraldine testified that she knew the three men and that they hung out at an apartment next door often and were members of the “Disciples” street gang. In the court case, Geraldine testified that Sandra Wishburn, who also knew the Disciples and was about to marry one of them asked Geraldine if she was going to testify against the “D’s.” When Geraldine said she was going to, Sandra stated, “You know, what can happen to you if you testify against the D’s” (People Vs. Fort). If this is all not clear-cut evidence of gangs in Victoria Percy, then I don’t know what is. The “Disciples” being referred to in this court case is the Black Gangster Disciples (Gangster Disciples or GDs), although the case did not state this, I can tell you, without a doubt, this is the Black Gangster Disciples. According to the January 13, 1984, issue of the Jacksonville Courier, the “Disciples” had “operated” in Rockford since the late 60s. Since official documentation from the Rockford government says that gang problems were a problem in Valerie Percy projects since it opened in 1969 and since the “Disciples” were mentioned in the People vs. Fort case as present in Valerie Percy, this gives guaranteed and certified proof the Black Gangster Disciples were in Valerie Percy as early as 1969. The Gangster Disciples are Rockford’s largest gang and have been the largest since the beginning of Rockford Chicago area gangs, this is because of deep history and there is no way possible that there was some other “Disciples” gang that was mentioned in early newspapers, no this is the GDs they talked about. The failure of the Valerie Percy projects brought the GDs to Rockford, which is now their permanent home, although Valerie Percy is no longer in Rockford its GDs remain. As Venita Hervey of the Rockford Register Star said it, “Valerie Percy became so dangerous that all of its residents fled, and the site eventually was torn down.” Not only was Valerie Percy disorganized and deteriorating, but it was also dangerous. It is ironic the project was named after a woman that was brutally murdered in her own home, just like how the people of Valerie Percy projects suffered in their own homes.

The Valerie Percy projects were not the only project on the west side to experience early gang activity. I don’t know what year the Pierpont Greens were built of when gangs started there but it was likely all by 1970 at latest. Pierpont Green was named after the intersection they were located at which was right across Green Street from the Valerie Percy projects in Washington Park. This was a large complex with 792 units. There is currently a well-kept vacant lot at that intersection where Pierpont Green once stood. The project was north on Green Street and east of Waveland Avenue but likely was built over where Waveland Avenue currently is. These projects were also west of Vista Terrace, the project was north of the intersection of Green and Sheffield Avenue. My research on these projects did not turn up many results but these projects were also shuttered in the 70s for the same reasons as Valerie Percy and were likely almost as dangerous as Valerie Percy, problems with this complex happened very early in the complex’s history because these projects were short lived as well.

In the year 1969 or 1970, the Champion public housing projects were built in the Washington Park area along Ashley Avenue between Delaware Street and Chestnut Court. The projects once stood on the east side of Ashley Avenue and there was once a Chestnut Court on the east side of Ashley Ave that can still be seen on Google Maps until you click on the street view then it vanishes and is just manicured lawn. The Champion projects were named after George Champion, a former Executive Director of the Winnebago County Housing Authority’s Washington Park. As soon as these projects opened, they were in immediate chaos and full of gangs and crime. The Black Gangsters Disciples (GDs) also opened in these projects when they opened. Violence was first reported on July 8, 1970, edition of The Register Republic when some Freeport youths were visiting the Rockford project seeking companionship from Rockford females. This led to conflict between the Freeport youths and west side youths who gathered on a rooftop at the 338 Chestnut Court project building and delivered deadly sniper gun fire that killed two of the Freeport youths and wounded one other. The two shooters involved had west side addresses but neither of them was from the Champion projects which proves this was gang related. The fact that two kids from another neighborhood go to another neighborhood, go on the roof of a building they don’t live in, then start shooting at kids from another town screams gang related. The GDs had controlled Champion projects until they were razed in 2002, hell this was the origin area of the legendary Wacko’s GD crew that would surface in later years. The shooters wanted to show these Freeport youths that coming to Champion projects looking for girls in Disciple territory will get you killed. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s April 15, 1982, report, “The project’s location and its proximity to another project plagued by gangs made it difficult to attract tenants, especially minorities.” Although this does not mention which project was causing conflict with Concord Commons it was likely from the Champion projects that were nearby (Duplicative and Unnecessary Renovations Made in the HUD-Subsidized Concord Commons Apartments in Rockford, IL April 15, 1982).

The Concord Commons remain in existence and is the only Washington Park area public housing project to still stand presently. The Concord Commons were built in the year 1970 and are located at address 3552 Elm Street. These projects were recently renamed in 2024 as the Rockford Ridge Apartments which was the first name change the projects would undergo. In my research I have found that these projects had problems dating back to the early 1970s. In their April 15, 1982, report on Duplicative and Unnecessary Renovations Made in the HUD-Subsidized Concord Commons Apartments in Rockford, IL, HUD pointed to the woes of Concord Commons being partially due to gangs from a nearby project (Champion projects) pressuring youths in Concord Commons to join. The Concord Commons youths ended up joining the Black Gangster Disciples as early as 1970 and the Wackos would eventually be found in these projects as well in later years. The Disciples/Black Gangster Disciples/Gangster Disciples have had control of the west side projects since 1969, and I am not sure if the Vice Lords had any piece of these projects.

The Gangster Disciples were birthed in Rockford thanks to the flawed and dangerous public housing projects on the west side and this is their origin/motherland. Most of these projects were razed leaving only Concord Commons standing but the GDs branched outside the projects onto the nearby streets during and after the projects came down so the damage was already done, Rockford public housing brought in Chicago families that had ties to the Disciples of Chicago and the Disciples recruited here and have stayed and likely will be in Rockford forever. Rockford’s west side was beginning to become a higher crime area by the early 1970s and much of it was contributed to the new public housing projects. It is rumored that Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley arranged for the export of Chicago gang members, other criminals and some of Chicago’s impoverished African American residents was planned around 1969 but I could not find any solid evidence to support that theory but I can say it is a strong possibility due to the fact that west side projects were plagued by violent Chicago gang activity right after construction. The Disciples branched out of Chicago in 1969 and there is a strong possibility the Conservative Vice Lords were brought the Rockford as early as 1969. There certainly was gang activity and violence in the early 70s and it was either the Disciples were fighting with a Rockford made gang or with another Chicago gang. The Conservative Vice Lords have always been known as Rockford’s second largest gang and have been known about at least since the early 1980s. The Vice Lords may or may not have been in the west side projects in the late 60s and early 70s but they were for sure on the city’s southwest side by 1969. Island Avenue in Rockford’s southwest side has been the territory of the Conservative Vice Lords for generations and still is today. As the furniture industry began to collapse in the late 60s, many southwest side residents began to move out of the old Italian community alongside a white flight pattern. This is when the Conservative Vice Lords settled onto Island Avenue in 1969 as the first Chicago street gang to settle Rockford’s west side. Vice Lord activity was first documented in a December 29, 1969, article with the Morning Star that described the beating of two truck drivers as they turned onto the 900 block of Island Avenue. The article stated that “Two men told police they were dragged from a truck, beaten with clubs and robbed by 25 to 30 young Negroes in the 900 block of Island Avenue early Sunday morning.” The robbers only got $11.25, a lighter and key to one of the two men’s car. Although the article did not mention any gang names it is still clear it was the Vice Lords because how else can that many youths gather to simultaneously commit this crime if they were not in a gang? Also, how would a group that large just come to be for an unplanned attack? They were already gathered at the intersection and spontaneously jacked that truck which is gang activity. As I said, Island Avenue is historic Vice Lord turf and maybe the motherland of Rockford CVLs. The jacking mentioned in the article is at Island Avenue and Clifton Avenue intersection or nearby as far down as Island and Holland Street.

By the year 1974, Rockford’s west side had endured higher crime and now heavy gang activity. Although the original cause of the beginning on the collapse of the west side was the tollway decision, it was also because of the public housing projects. This issue had the strongest impact on the African American population of Rockford’s west side. The Black Gangster Disciples and Conservative Vice Lords exclusively recruited African American youths. I had not found any information on if white youths were active in gangs on the west side in the 1970s or prior, I only know of the white gang activity on the north side and southwest side in the early to mid-60s. The west side public housing projects were of deep concern for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the mid-70s. The Rockford Housing Authority did not even manage or own these west side projects; at the time these were privately owned but management and ownership was failing severely leaving residents in poor living conditions despite the fact these were new buildings. In the summer of 1974, HUD forced the owners of the Valerie Percy projects to surrender ownership which began the evacuation of the Valerie Percy projects. In 1975 HUD took possession of the mortgage on Concord Commons after the owners, a group of private investors, defaulted on a $3.5 Million HUD insured mortgage. Major problems cited by HUD for the project’s failure were: Poor management and maintenance as well as problem tenants, caused expenses to exceed cash flow. The project’s location and its proximity to another project (Champion projects) plagued by gangs made it difficult to attract tenants, especially minorities. A shopping center adjacent to the project closed after suffering from the nearby crime caused by the projects (Duplicative and Unnecessary Renovations Made in the HUD-Subsidized Concord Commons Apartments in Rockford, IL April 15, 1982). By 1977, Valerie Percy and Pierpont projects were completely vacant and sat abandoned for years as the deserted property damaged the land the buildings sat on over time. In September of 1977, HUD fully seized Concord Commons and began renovations. I am not certain if the Champion projects underwent changes in the mid-70s, but I found nothing to support that.

 

The January 13, 1984, Jacksonville Courier article about Rockford gangs acknowledges the Disciples in the late 60s and early 70s but does not acknowledge the Disciples or any other gangs active in the mid-70s or later. The article was worded as if gangs had made a recent resurgence after being dormant, primarily the Disciples. I have heard of no gang stories from the later 70s; therefore, it seems as if closing Pierpont Green and Valerie Percy removed most of Rockford’s Chicago gang activity. Gangs were still left in Concord Commons and Champion, but it seems as if most of it was in Pierpont and Percy which could explain a decline of gang activity and police losing track of gangs. The gangs were not extinct by any means, but they were just less active.

Despite the crime, poverty and gang issues on the west side, residents of Rockford were mostly satisfied with their surroundings, even on the west side. Although crime was now an issue on the west side. West siders learned to live with it and watched out for themselves and their families and mainly kept their children out of the streets at night. Rockford’s major decline began in 1979 and has not improved much on the south side or west side since then. Around the country, all regions of our country were in the earliest stage of a major recession that would kill much of the manufacturing industry and eliminate millions of unskilled manufacturing jobs that were now being sent overseas. Rockford was no exception for a manufacturing collapse and this new era began in 1979. The decline started softly in 79 as some jobs were eliminated and fear drove a new white flight pattern not only on the west side but also on the south side. Long time Italian and Lithuanian residents on the southwest side and Southeast side Polish and Swedish residents began to pack up and leave for nearby suburbs like Machesney Park and Loves Park while their old homes were sold to landlords not concerned with good upkeep and were willing to rent to anyone including criminals. These landlords would flip larger houses and convert them into apartment buildings that housed four families or more, many of these landlords did not screen tenants. Most of these new Rockford residents hailed from Chicago and among them were known criminals and gang members from Chicago. This practice took place in the west side’s Auburn neighborhood, Washington Park, Champion Hills, Hope VI, and Mulberry Forest. On the southwest side, this practice took place in Central Terrace and all through the southwest side. The south side was already experiencing white flight and increased poverty since the late 60s but was now accelerated in the early 80s. On the southeast side this practice took place in Midtown North and all the southeast side south of East State Street, west of 20th Street and north of U.S. Route 20. Many parts of downtown began to decline by these same landlord practices as the professional district and upper income middle classes began moving out in the late 70s and early 80s. One of the central neighborhoods effected by this decline was in the Downtown neighborhood near 2nd and Jefferson which was one of the first Italian neighborhoods. Other central Rockford/downtown areas beginning decline from slumlord practices were the south side of the North Rockford neighborhood south of Auburn Street (including Signal Hill), Seventh Street District, and St. Paul’s Place.

Section 8 applications now flooded Rockford official’s desktops beginning in 1979 and all through the early 80s. Many of these applicants were from Chicago and the applicant system was so overwhelmed, details regarding criminal backgrounds and some of the poorest applicants were approved in a frenzy. This is one of the sources that brought more Chicago gang members to Rockford as they slipped through the screening processes by the housing authority and by section 8 offices. Rockford housing dropped in price as did rent which made housing more affordable to the most impoverished Chicagoans which creates a loss of neighborhood wealth. The main problem with so many impoverished people in one neighborhood is a loss of wealth and tax revenues for neighborhoods which leads to property value loss which can drive more residents to move out of the community which continues a vicious cycle of an overall loss of community value. Rockford already had an issue with Chicago gangs prior to 1979 but not only would Rockford’s oldest gangs like the Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords grow larger from this new migration wave. Beginning in 1979 several more Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords arrived or would be recruited after moving to Rockford from Chicago.

1979 was the beginning of a new Hispanic migration wave in Rockford and the south side neighborhoods were the most ideal for the newly arrived Hispanic community. Many Hispanic families came to Rockford via section 8 vouchers while many others came to Rockford with no public assistance, and many had newly migrated from Mexico and even spoke little English. The Italian and Lithuanian culture of the southwest side began departure in the late 60s then more intense by the early 80s years as Hispanics replaced them. Even the Rockford Mafia was no longer in operation on the southwest side, instead most of their operations expanded more east and even in the suburbs like Loves Park.

In all my studies on Chicago gangs and their migration, I have learned that 1979 was a key year not only for migration of Hispanic and African American people in new parts of the Chicago area but also for gang migration. This was a simultaneous phenomenon that is hard to ignore and organizations like the Latin Kings and Gangster Disciples where some of the main organizations that branched into other cities and suburbs in the exact year 1979. This was not planned by any of the gangs it just became a way the gang began to operate without any organization planning or ties to the gang’s structure which shows the men in these gangs migrating were just trying to be like everyone else in the neighborhoods they lived in, trying to start a new life in a new town/city but many times coinciding this move with illegal activities. There is no complexity to this move, it just happened, but because it happened simultaneously with migration patterns, we must highlight this and study it because these families migrated because they were steered into these suburbs and cities that faced immediate collapse which is an injustice. When any organization steers a certain race of people into one area of any city or town simultaneously that is a malicious and intentional act to economically depress a certain community while steering in a certain race into that area that is targeted for collapse and Rockford was no different. This plays hand in hand with a corruption that is often nameless but is a process with many working parts that is hard to trace. 1979-1980, I have found was a key time for steering and I was surprised this process reached this far outside of Chicago but now I see Rockford was a targeted site on the city’s west side and south side. This is often why cities and towns have “bad neighborhoods” because they are systematically forgotten and neglected while common people argue with each other over which race is to blame for the collapse. The reality is, racism draws profit and institutions thrive on racisms and divide, one of the biggest profiters was real estate. The concept of block busting deliberately encouraged white middle classes to depart from targeted areas while encouraging Hispanic and African Americans to move into those same areas. Then the banks come into play and redline these community areas allowing economic drain. In the aftermath arguments ensue among the common people about which race of people is to blame. The white man is blamed for white flight, the black and Hispanic man is blamed for turning these neighborhoods into ghettos and organizational greed counts on your arguments, stop falling for it! Stop arguing! Unite! Power to the people!

I can’t exactly pinpoint exact years for the foundation of Rockford’s second wave of gangs, but it is between the years 1979-1982 and no later. Everything I read and every story I was told or read about pinpoints “late 70s and early 80s” to the beginning of a new wave of gangs in Rockford. The late 60s Gangster Disciples was documented as a wave all through the early 1970s with law enforcement seemingly loosing track of the GDs in the mid-70s period. The truth is the GDs never died out they just lost they’re some of their motherland in the Percy and Pierpont projects. The Vice Lords were also in Rockford in the late 60s, they never died either, they just went more dormant like the GDs. Both gangs resurged in 1979 and blossomed in the early 1980s much stronger than ever and have not been removed from Rockford since then making them permanent staples in Rockford. The Conservative Vice Lords are the exact oldest Vice Lord group in Rockford, but Rockford would eventually gain more Vice Lord mobs. When the 1979 to early 80s new gang wave began the Vice Lords and GDs were not just on the west side, they now began operating in downtown in the public housing projects. Now the Fairgrounds projects had GDs on the west side of the tracks around School Street on the north to Jefferson Street on the south and from Underwood Street on the west to the tracks/North Fork Kent Creek on the east. The Vice Lords had the east side of Fairgrounds from School Street on the north to Acorn Street on the south and from the tracks/North Fork Kent Crook on the west to Kilburn Avenue on the east. The gangs would often fight by the tracks and would clash on the bridge that led Leather Court to Mulberry Street. These projects now became crime infested and dangerous in a sense, however, they were also community areas that many cherished and wished they were safer, but many families made the best of it and made cherished memories.

GDs and Vice Lords made their way into the Brewington Oaks projects and Blackhawk Courts apartments starting in 1979, but I don’t have specific stories yet, but in time, I hope I will, and I will update this page when I get it.

On the south side of Rockford, economic collapse was in the making and the older Italian, Lithuanian and Polish residents were not going to stay around and endure this collapse. As 1980 ushered in the collapse was in full force as one factory began closing after another and other companies were forced to downsize as hiring freezes were in a frenzy. 1981 was worse than 1980 and 1982 Was worse than 1981 and by 1982 Rockford was completely devastated, mainly the west side and south side. The white flight phenomena was already going on in the west side for decades but was very slow but gained momentum in the 1970s after the furniture manufacturing collapse but now would be in overdrive beginning in the early 80s. For an example, Gunite Corporation alone laid off almost 1,000 employees in the early 80s and became Accuride, a Rockford company that would never again be able to employ much more than 200 employees at a time. In 1982, Rockford was on the top 20 list of the nation’s most jobless cities. By November of 1982, Rockford’s unemployment rate hit a staggering 24.8% which is like the Great Depression when one in four people were out of work (Rockford Register Star Jan 6, 2009, Alex Gary). Big employers like National Lock (closed 1982), Atwood Industries and Elco Tool employed more than 27,000 employees and now were closing. This motivated many Rockford residents to move out of Rockford completely as they headed for suburbs like Loves Park, Machesney Park, Roscoe, Rockton, Cherry Valley, Byron, Stillman Valley and unincorporated Winnebago and Boone counties. Some moved looking for work while others became afraid of losing housing value and moved to these suburbs in a white flight wave. Don’t blame the people for this move, these families were doing what was best for their own and they made the correct decision, and don’t blame those that moved in after them because they were the victims of steering poverty into certain zones, blame institutional greed, I can’t stress that enough. This was a major disaster, and many impoverished youths and young adults took to selling drugs to get by or began using drugs to cope with economic depression. This motivated the Emmanuel Episcopal Church to serve up soup kitchens beginning in 1981 that had long lines. Applications for public aid exploded and cheaper housing was more sought after than ever. Real estate and banks were reaping profits as foreclosures, abandonments and short sales of property made them busy as they sold the homes at rock bottom rates to greedy slumlords who converted those buildings into apartments. Rockford is a mecca of beautiful 19th century and early 20th century houses that encase the entire city, and it became heartbreaking that so many of these amazing houses became shuttered and deteriorated because of this era. If one is to drive through the southside and west side, you can still see the architecture of these fine homes if you look beyond the deterioration and boarded windows. This says to me these former manufacturers that built this town made very good wages and above average living for their children and it is shame these structures are rotting and so many have been torn down. Even though Rockford somewhat rebounded in 1983, the damage was already done and became unfixable.

Chicago street gangs moved in among the former manufacturing hub of Rockford especially now that the Rockford Mafia was more than willing to do business with street gangs mainly through the sales of cocaine and heroin. One of the biggest drug lord Rockford Mafia members was John S. Leombruni. I’m not sure if he has any relation to the Leombruni brothers that were implicated in the 1960s newspapers as Latin Counts but perhaps I will find out if there is a connection or not. I will say though, the Leombruni boys that were Latin Counts in the 60s appear to have turned their lives around. The Rockford Mafia saw a new hustle and soon turned away from the African American ran policy racket and now worked with African American and Hispanic gangs on distributing drugs. The Rockford Mafia established several pizza parlors in the Rockford and Loves Park communities which were often fronts for mob activities. Joe Zammuto stepped down as the Rockford Mafia boss which put Frank Buscemi into power in 1973, under Buscemi is when the Rockford mob moved into the drug business. It is still alleged that Zammuto was still running it secretly though. Buscemi also had an illegal monopoly over bars and taverns and used his legit beverage, vending machine and jukebox business as leverage to control these taverns while collecting extortion payments. Buscemi also ushered in Sicilian/Italian gangsters straight from the homeland that were called “cousins.” This is how the “pizza connection” began as these immigrants worked in these pizza places giving them legitimacy while the pizza places moved countless amounts of heroin throughout Rockford, the surrounding suburbs and over the state line into Wisconsin, this is much of the origin of how Rockford got so bad on drugs. The heroin came from Turkey and southwest Asia and was smuggled into Sicily then stuffed into San Maranzano tomato cans. Cocaine was smuggled in from South America. The cash was then cleaned from cooperating local banks. When this trafficking first got busted in 1984, part of the bust nationwide was part of the Donnie Brasco case. According to FBI files, Joe Zammuto officially declared in a series of meetings at his Ft. Lauderdale home that he would start trafficking drugs in February of 1980. Joe Maggio expressed his resentment for this decision and two days later Maggio’s daughter was beaten badly by a drug dealer that had family relations to Zammuto. Maggio then wanted revenge on the drug dealer until Zammuto likely had him killed in his car at Meridian Road and Safford Road who was shot in the side of the head with a .25 caliber pistol on April 9, 1980. The pizza racket was so guarded that they didn’t even take kindly to competition from outside the mob. On December 18, 1983, a little Caesar’s pizza chain restaurant wanted to open down the street from Sam’s Pizza at 1031 Harlem Road in Machesney Park. Because of this closeness, the mob blew it up two days before it opened because Sam’s was a mafia front. Sam’s is still in business currently, but the current ownership has no ties to the past, so go and enjoy the pizza but don’t look for stories because the owners likely know nothing. Two bombs were lobbed into the building causing extensive damage two days before their opening (Gangstersinc.org). The resilient Little Caesars opened their doors anyway and remains in business today. It likely opened following the take down of the April 1984 bust of the pizza connection business.

The mafia-controlled drug business was beginning in 1980, coinciding with new Chicago street gang settlement. According to former Rockford Police Chief Dominick Lasparro, Chicago gangs came to Rockford when local men incarcerated in Illinois prisons befriended Chicago gang members and were recruited by them in the 1970s (Rockford Register Star December 15, 2013, Georgette Braun). This matches the legend I heard surrounding the birth of Rockford Latin Kings. According to the Rockford Latin King legends a Rockford man joined the Latin Kings in prison in the 70s and went back to Rockford to recruit, this happened between 1979-1981. It could have happened in 1979 when the economic collapse began and when Hispanic migration first started, or it could have happened in 1981 when Illinois began releasing several prisoners during a program to thin out Illinois prisons. In any case the Latin Kings of Rockford date back to at least 1981, I hope to get an exact year eventually because it is important not only for sociological reasons but to also pay full tribute to the legacy of the Rockford Latin Kings, no matter how ugly the history is. I don’t know exactly where the Latin Kings settled but I know it was on the southwest side in the old Italian neighborhood which would have given them connections to the old school Italian mafiosos which roped the Latin Kings heavily into the drug trade. The Latin King territory is in the Booker Park area of the southwest side roughly from Main Street to Central Avenue and from Montague Street up to Cunningham Street. These are the same streets where Rockford Mafia figures lived and were killed during the Black Hand years through prohibition. Although Italian people were moving out of this area replaced by mostly Hispanics, many Italian families remained for quite some time after. The Latin Kings got big in this area and even dealt with racial issues against Hispanics while recruiting several white members. The Latin Kings would soar to becoming Rockford’s third largest gang but if one was to separate the various Vice Lord mobs into categories, the Latin Kings would rank second largest. The Rockford Latin Kings became a hardened and serious group from the start since their inception in the early 80s.

According to F.B.I files, in February of 1980 Joe Zammuto began the Rockford Mafia’s involvement in the drug trade (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://gangstersinc.org/2016/05/19/profile-rockford-crime-family-mobster-salvatore-galluzzo/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86MmZmMTczYzQ2ODRlOTllMzkzZWJjNTZiOWJlYzQ3NmM6Nzo3MzViOjdhMTU5Y2U1YzU3YTI5ODRlYTc3N2Y2NzQyMWIyOTA0MjU2ZWNlMWM3NzE5ODFmMzQxNWU3MjMzNjY4NzU1OTk6dDpUOk4). Since the distribution of the drugs would be sold within much of the Hispanic, African American and impoverished white community on the west side and south side, the mafia needed to use the street gangs to move the drugs (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://gangstersinc.org/2015/11/10/the-rockford-mobs-takeover-of-the-negro-policy-racket/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86MmZmMTczYzQ2ODRlOTllMzkzZWJjNTZiOWJlYzQ3NmM6NzpiZWI1OjNjNmE5ODEyN2QwMjc2NWViM2QxNzU4MjZkYjMxZGM2MGMwMDcwNzIwN2I4ZTI1OTA3NjBkN2EzMjI1NTMzMjQ6dDpUOk4). This is the origins of how drugs became rampant in Rockford and the origin of the drug trade of the street gangs. Prior to 1980, the mafia dealt with African American controlled policy rackets but now those were replaced by the drug trafficking business with African American drug dealers and most of those dealers were gang members part of Chicago gangs. The Gangster Disciples would delve into the drug trade the deepest but Latin Kings took over most of the former mafia-controlled neighborhood and would also connect with this drug trafficking. The Gangster Disciples would take most of the drug trade on the west side while Latin Kings mainly ruled it on the southwest side. This is also what makes Rockford street gangs so hardened with many hard-core members because original members tapped into the drug business with the mafia which causes membership to become hardened to protect such key drug distributions. The Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples and Latin Kings were the only Chicago gangs in Rockford leading up to the mid-80s and because they were first to the drug trade and the first to recruit, they are the most solidified and largest gangs in Rockford.

By 1982, the Rockford original gangs were fully fortified and fully settled in Rockford as now the gang list was Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, Conservative Vice Lords. Layoffs in manufacturing was sky high and longtime residents were fleeing in terror after losing their jobs or fearing the neighborhood they lived in would collapse from this economic devastation. Soup kitchen lines were long, unemployment lines were long, public aid services lines were long. Public housing was in higher demand than ever, but Rockford’s public housing system was downsizing after the Pierpont projects and the Valerie Percy projects closed in 1977 and now in 1982, the only progress for public housing was the demolition of those former projects. The land where those projects once stood soon became overgrown, littered with trash and became an eyesore and hotbeds of crime. Homelessness was on the rise which sadly led to drug addiction as the newly homeless began coping with their issues through a heroin needle. One out of four Rockford residents was unemployed, and this made for some tough neighborhoods. After several families went broke during the early 80s layoffs their former houses were often foreclosed, abandoned or condemned causing these properties to either sit decaying for several years then razed or the properties were purchased by those that had no desire to live in the community. These landlords bought formerly beautiful large houses and mansions on the south side, west side and converted them into multifamily apartments. These apartments were poorly maintained and often completely neglected by slumlords. Residents endured this issue because they could not afford anything better. These buildings became visibly deteriorated which pulled down the value of all the homes surrounding them which caused more panic from homeowners leading to more evacuation of these communities and more abandonment and a vicious cycle continued. The Rockford Housing Authority struggled to place residents in scattered site housing to keep the poor from living on top of each other in apartment complexes and public housing projects, but this put these residents in the hands of slumlords. Slumlord neglect caused the surrounding community to take notice of the low-income houses because of the visible deterioration and the cycle of neighborhood change was fed.

To make matters worse for Rockford residents of the southeast side, certain areas succumbed to pollution in the water due to the closing of some of the factories. An example is near the Orton Keyes public housing project and along Kishwaukee Street which became a “superfund” site, which is term for pollution causing natural resources to become poisoned. I have learned about this on the far south side of Chicago where old factories that closed in the early 80s had leaks of pollution due to the neglect of the old buildings, the old Sherwin Williams factory was an example. The Rockford Products Screw Factory closed in 2016 but experienced several layoffs before then. Industrial solvents were dumped down the drain which contaminated the drinking water as an example. In the year 1989, the National Priorities List added southeast Rockford because private wells were found contaminated with chlorinated industrial solvents. A superfund site was identified at Alton Avenue and Marshall Street on the southeast side in a lower income area. At 23rd Avenue and 9th Street is another site which is again on the southeast side in a low-income area. At 23rd and 9th is the site of many operating and closed factories which is right within a residential area. 11th Street and Harrison Avenue is another southeast side superfund area and is where Rockford Products once was along with many other open and closed factories, this is within yet another low-income area. I found this information across multiple sites including the EPA itself so no need to cite the source, please Google it, sometimes citing sources can be overwhelming, apologies. The common factor often discussed both officially and unofficially is that these areas where this dumping was allowed in the 70s and 80s just so happens to be one of the areas of Rockford with the most racial minorities and lower-income residents. This may have caused slow action to rectify this issue that dragged into the 1990s and 2000s but the damage was already done as residents were drinking this water for many years and the peak of the pollution was at the same time as the loss of manufacturing and the racial and income change of the area, meaning most of those poisoned over the longest duration were lower-income whites, Hispanics and African Americans. These poisons cause liver damage, kidney damage, cancer and even neurological damage. Unofficially speaking, this could have maybe led many to become mentally ill, homeless (caused by mental illness), drug addicted or even express violent tendencies.

It is alleged that Rockford suffered from governmental and police corruption for decades. As much as I would like to report on this issue, I could not find much information on Rockford corruption; therefore, I cannot confirm there was actual corruption, especially police corruption. Even though I cannot confirm anything, it is a fact that local government was very disorganized and was too conservative in the far past. I am not an advocate for politics, nor will I say anything foul about conservative and republican beliefs, but the hard-lined conservative beliefs of Rockford’s early politics partially led to the destruction of Rockford’s south side and west side which is something even conservatives can agree on. These beliefs led to a reluctance to explore new progressive economic opportunities and that is a fact. Decision makers only wanted a manufacturing image and when that collapsed there was nothing to fall back on. I do not pin this on Republican support or standard conservative ways because Rockford specific conservative ways were to blame for this collapse. In most cities, Democratic policies are the blame for the deterioration of neighborhoods, like in Chicago, but here it was the right side instead of the left. This proves that no political party should be blamed but instead on a form of corruption that is rooted with racism and other forms of prejudices. The prejudice toward progressiveness was to blame for the lack of new industry to replace manufacturing. Rockford officials in the 1960s and 1970s did not want to see their city known for shopping and possible office professional development. The lack of I-90 being built through the west side suffocated the black community from working eastward to keep blacks out of eastern Rockford completely and this prevented travelers from using the west side for potential shopping or any other consumer support. This is a form of corruption which is a deliberate set of planning under the disguise of incompetency. Much of Rockford’s poor decision making and lack of planning is often blamed on incompetency; however, the underlying cause will often be someone or some individuals stalling on funding and planning until a project dries up, this is what seems to be the backbone of Rockford’s corruption and is likely why there isn’t many official reports about corruption and very few have been led away in handcuffs. Even though I don’t have much to present to identify corruption in detail, it is obvious there was corruption given the severity of Rockford’s decline on the south side and west side. There are rumors that the Rockford Mafia had the Rockford police on their payroll for decades, although there is no solid evidence for this, all one must do is look at how Rockford gangsters were treated since the 1910s. Every single mob boss in Rockford never faced incarceration and got away with murder figuratively speaking and literally speaking and those facts can be found as I presented some of them above. This can only be the result of some law enforcement corruption or severe “incompetency.” I quote “incompetency” because it is often used as a disguise for corruption and Rockford officials have been experts at this type of corruption for generations. Rockford officials over the decades could perhaps win awards for hiding corruption from federal investigators but that is all I will say on this subject because I have no solid proof, but I will call out the devastation that is fully documented. Hopefully, most of Rockford’s corruption is in the days passed and this city is going to progress but as of now there is no strong signs of positive change for the south side and west side.

The 1980s were turbulent times for Rockford as parts of the city were undergoing a tolling and negative change that damaged so many lives. The 80s were tough enough but Rockford residents would undergo further misery when the 1990s approached. Even though the recession in the U.S. was over by 1984, Rockford never would recover even into present day and the damage was being felt by 1989 as Rockford entered another stage of gang settlement and high crime. Around the Chicagoland area there was a mass exodus of mostly Hispanic and African American Chicagoans moving either to the southwest side of Chicago or into the suburbs. This was a mysterious and simultaneous migration shift that I have been tracking for some time. It all happened between 1989 and 1990 then seemed to stop after 1990. Non-English-speaking Mexican immigrants also poured into Chicagoland during these years and neighborhoods and suburbs that were once predominantly white now were majority Hispanic or African American. Chicago street gangs moved alongside this migration wave and staked out areas that were previously untouched by street gangs or already had older groups and gang conflict became intense and fierce. This migration wave triggered white flight and/or took advantage of white flight as now an abundance of affordable housing appeared in these communities. This was also a time when landlords aggressively purchased several properties and converted them into apartments. Rockford was no exception to this migration pattern as the south side and west side experienced heavier white flight and increased migration patterns of Chicago residents and migrant workers from Mexico. The mostly European neighborhoods on the south side and west side changed further as now whites became the minority group in these communities. This migration pattern brought more ample recruits into Rockford’s pre-existing gangs and brought new organizations into the city that would quickly conflict with the older gangs in a violent escalation. This migration pattern further fueled Rockford’s drug trade and more gang members and groups within the gangs were profiting largely. The migrating people are not to blame for this, this is the result of harmful real estate steering and haphazard expansions of the section 8 program that were ill planned. These parts of Rockford were not assimilated properly which ignored the damages of cultural conflict which always triggers white flight patterns which leads to economic devastation and sudden disinvestment in certain communities. I haven’t found exact evidence of this steering effort, but the results are plain and obvious and everyone that had lived or lives in these areas knows the time periods when these changes happened, I see it all over the internet in chats, social media and even in some books that point to time periods of change.

During the 1980s, when Rockford’s loss of manufacturing first devastated Rockford the downtown area began to suffer urban decay along with the closing of several businesses. Much of this was attributed to the loss of the professional sector of Rockford that was attached to the white flight pattern. Rockford suffered from a loss of value during this era and the effects were not only seen on the south side and west side but was reflective in the downtown area. Many businesses closed and renovations lacked to balance budgets greatly impacted by the recession of the early 80s. The problem was the strained budget continued for decades after the early 80s recession. The east side of downtown east of the river, mostly sustained complete collapse in the community nearby. On the west side of Rock River, the western downtown collapse seemed to negatively impact the St. Paul’s Place neighborhood severely. Beginning in the late 1980s, St. Paul’s Place began to suffer urban blight which resulted in a loss of value in the community which triggered a white flight pattern. Just like much of Chicago, the late 80s brought great change to Rockford as white flight patterns and losses of housing value damaged some areas of the city just like how Chicago’s southwest side and many suburbs were affected by the late 80s pattern. St. Paul’s Place is an example of an area negatively affected by this urban shift of the late 80s. Landlords began buying once grand homes then converting them into multi-unit apartments which were soon left to deteriorate as they moved in many of Chicago’s poor.

During the late 80s, Rockford youths were conflicting heavily with Rockford’s big three gangs and there was further racial divide during these quarrels. The Gangster Disciples amassed themselves in the crack cocaine trade and became the leading distributor of crack cocaine. Other gangs were infuriated by Gangster Disciple domination which caused Latin Kings and Conservative Vice Lords to fully honor People alliance ties to one another against the Gangster Disciples. In 1985, Rockford entered a new era of gang problems as Rockford based gangs were starting to develop. These gangs had evolved into heavily active groups by the time the August 21, 1988, Register Star did an article reporting about the various gangs in Rockford. The article mentioned 1985 twice as the beginning of something new. The article listed the “Vice Lords” as being active on both sides of the river and nominated them as one of Rockford’s largest gangs. The article also told of the killing of a teenage Vice Lord who was hanging out in Concord Commons as he was shot in the head during an “argument.” The article of course brought up the Black Gangster Disciples as one of the strongest gangs that mainly dominated the west side and little on the east side of the river. The article mentioned Latin Kings being strong on the south side both on southwest side and southeast side, but I do not know of where Latin Kings were ever active on the southeast side. The article talked about two Machesney Park gangs that were named after heavy metal groups/artists like “AC/DC Gang” and “Randy Rhodes.” The article also listed the “Skinheads” who were in the Champion Park (Washington Park) area which is likely a white supremist type of group or a group of white kids just into punk music. In either case they were likely some of the last stragglers left behind from the white flight phase that were too impoverished to move out and likely were fighting with African American gangs. A group called the “Zulus” was mentioned from the far west side in the Champion Park area as well and from Concord Commons who police said they had arrested their leaders, but they were back. The “Las Aztecas” were mentioned being on the southwest and southeast sides and were a Hispanic gang. The “Latin Jack Masters” were another Hispanic gang listed in the same southeast and southwest side areas as the Aztecas. The “South Main Costa Nation” as from mid-south Main Street area near downtown. The article even featured a Latin Jack Masters tag on a garage. The article also mentioned shootings at a car wash called National Pride Car Wash at 1708 W. State Street which experienced 3 shootings in a nine-day span. One business owner in the area said that on Friday and Saturday nights and “the kids control the block, they’re all over the place.” The article also mentioned a 1985 shooting of a Black Gangster Disciple leader named Frank Mangruem Jr. who was a Disciple leader and was shot at in front of his sister’s home and he refused to run or back down. The car came back and shot at him again this time hitting him in the abdomen. The article also mentioned shootouts on Kishwaukee Street and Forest Avenue. The article also mentions the “White Gangster Disciples” that were located west of Springfield Avenue. The article states that these White Gangster Disciples had a rivalry with “Black Disciples,” but I don’t think they are referring to the notorious Black Disciples of Chicago that wouldn’t arrive in Rockford until many years later. I believe they are referring to a rivalry with Black Gangster Disciples and perhaps the White Gangster Disciples were a mockery. This group may have been more concentrated along Nina Terrace. The article stated that the White GDs started in October of 1987, or at least that is when they were identified. These Rockford made gangs were the foundation of the third major wave of gangs to sweep Rockford in the early 1990s.

I don’t have all the exact dates but sometime between 1990 and 1992 another wave of Chicago street gangs came to Rockford. One thing for certain is if this wave started anytime before 1992, it did not make the newspapers or was identified by Rockford police but by 1992 the new wave was identified and reported about.

It was during this 1992 year that Chicago’s Satan Disciples encountered an incarcerated white youth in the Illinois prison system. It is likely this youth was a member of the White Gangster Disciples that started in 1987 because I heard strong rumor that original Rockford Satan Disciples used to be former Gangster Disciples, more specifically White GDs. The Rockford 1988 article mentioned above says the White GDs were west of Springfield Avenue which leaves a small housing area along Service Road to Lincoln Park Boulevard or, if you go north of State Street, one will arrive in the subdivision where Nina Terrace is located which is the current home of Satan Disciples; therefore, I strongly believe that the White GDs all flipped to Satan Disciples by the early 2000s. The oldest group of Satan Disciples settled on the southeast side somewhere along 5th Street and that is the group that came to Rockford in 1992.

Another big arrival of around 1992 was the return of the Latin Counts of Chicago. I had heard from street legends the Counts arrived in the early 90s but the Police and newspapers did not identify them yet. It is possible they were a part of another group and under another name before encountering the Latin Count nation and joining by 1996. As I stated above, the 1960s Rockford Latin Counts of the southwest side have nothing to do with the Counts that arrived in the 90s, it is all coincidence; however, it is the same organization. By 1992, the teens that brought the Counts to Rockford in the 60s had all grown out of it and were law abiding family men. I am not sure if these 90s Latin Counts branched out from 18th Street in Chicago or not, but more than likely. The Latin Counts moved in alongside the Hispanic migration wave and may have settled in the St. Paul area, if not, they sure arrived later in time to that area. The Latin Counts mainly gathered at the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue and Ashland Avenue and became one of Rockford’s larger and more prominent gangs. The Latin Counts would end up at war with Latin Kings, Satan Disciples and Gangster Disciples as their biggest enemies. The most intense war is with Latin Kings. Latin Counts also settled on the southwest side which is like they were returning to their original area from the 60s. These Latin Counts moved into converted apartments at the intersection of Main Street and Cole Avenue right next to the Corpus Christi Monastery of the Poor Clares. In the June 18, 1997, Rockford Register Star newspaper nuns were interviewed that said they would hear gunshots from next door, and this was in wake of Latin Kings shooting and killing a Latin Count right on the corner. The silly reporting or police reporting stated in the newspaper “Although the Latin Counts are a relatively new faction of the more prevalent Latin Kings, police say they said they doubt Monday evening’s shootings resulted from a major break-away or turf war.” That is laughable they thought the Counts were a faction of the Latin Kings although they never were in history. The Latin Counts didn’t even originate in the same Chicago neighborhood and even predate Latin Kings. Street legend is tight and says the Counts came to Rockford in the early 90s; therefore, it is baffling law enforcement could not figure out that the Counts were a separate organization. The one and only thing Kings and Counts have in common is the People alliance/5 point star symbol. The two gangs hated each other in the 60s and 70s and only experienced a weak alliance in the 80s when the People alliance first formed. The two gangs only hung out in one part of the city of Chicago in the 80s and that was the far southeast side of Chicago, anywhere else they only co-existed at best! Ever since Counts arrived in Rockford it was bloody war with Latin Kings, so I don’t know where Rockford police gathered that Counts were a faction of Latin Kings. It is possible the Main Street and Cole section of the Counts may have been the first settlement of the Counts then they may have branched out on Woodlawn Ave later because only Main and Cole was documented by 1996.

Rockford also had or still has Surenos, more specifically Barrio Pobre Surenos which is a gang from Los Angeles that had successfully settled many Chicago area suburbs and Illinois cities accept the city of Chicago. The history of their settlement is unclear to me, but it had something to do with a former Rockford Latin Count moved to California for some time and flipped to a Sureno then got permission to return to Rockford to start Surenos in Rockford. The Surenos were for sure in Rockford since at least 1996; therefore, if their story does coincide with the Latin Counts in anyway it would prove the Counts were in Rockford in the early 90s instead of 1996 and later. I don’t know where the Surenos operated or how long they existed in Rockford.

On December 8 and December 12, 1992, the Rockford Register Star reported about for the first time, about the “Maniac Latin Disciples” street gang in Rockford as a very new gang that had committed over 40 crimes including auto theft and burglary. The Register Star also reported a gang shooting in 1993 at Cherry Valley Mall in which a dispute between Latin Kings and “Maniac Latin Disciples” caused the chaos. In 1995, the Start also had a few articles about gang violence between Latin Kings and “Maniac Latin Disciples.” This was the beginning of the Rockford Maniac Latin Disciples that branched from the Thomas Street and Washtenaw Avenue (Murder Town) faction of the Maniac Latin Disciples. I have heard this group goes back to the 80s but I have found zero evidence of that and if they did, their presence was very quite. More than likely, the real story probably is that the original Rockford Maniacs may have flipped from one of the 80s local gangs and became MLDs in 1992. If the MLDs truly were active in Rockford prior to 1992 I will surely update this page but for now I will say MLDs began in Rockford in 1992 and they were especially strong in the 90s. The only territory I know of for the MLDs has been 17th Avenue and 10th Street on the southeast side and someone near Harrison Avenue. MLDs have had severe wars with Latin Kings, Latin Counts and Insane Unknowns a long time.

Another gang to arrive in the early 1990s is the Insane Unknowns, another Chicago gang. I am not sure where the Insane Unknowns branched from but they soon settled at Kishwaukee Street and 10th Avenue. This area of the southeast side became heavily blighted by the early 90s and was known to be a drug infested area. The Unknowns moved in here and began distributing drugs heavily and became a major force in this area as they heavily battled Gangster Disciples, Maniac Latin Disciples, Satan Disciples and eventually Latin Kings. Unknowns would also lay claim to Fairview Avenue and Furman Street which is where the old abandoned high school once stood until it closed in the 90s, Insane Unknowns then used it as a hangout for a long time. Unknowns also conquered the entire area of Auburn Street on the south to Liberty Drive on the north, Johnston Avenue on the east to Carbaugh Avenue on the west. I am not sure of the time line on when each of these territories opened but hopefully in time I will get that info. I have heard the Insane Unknowns date back to the 80s in Rockford but I have found no solid stories or evidence of that either, just general statements. It could be possible the 80s part of Rockford Insane Unknown history could be linked to former membership in Rockford made gang that existed in the 80s and later flipped to Insane Unknowns in the 90s. I began hearing about Rockford Insane Unknowns in the year 2000 but they were already well-established by then.

By the early 90s and perhaps as back as the late 80s, came a few new Chicago gangs to the southwest side joining Latin Kings and Conservative Vice Lords in their fight against Gangster Disciples. These three new groups to establish themselves south of Latin King territory were the Four Corner Hustlers, Insane Vice Lords and Unknowns Players and Kings or “UPK.” The Four Corner Hustlers claimed territory on the southwest side just north of Latin Kings in a mostly industrial area along Curve Street onto Corbin Street. Along Curve Street presently there are multiple vacant lots where houses once stood and that is likely where these late 80s to early 90s Four Corner Hustlers lived as this was their starting territory in Rockford. The Four Corner Hustlers are still around in Rockford but I don’t know where but seems like they are gone from Curve Street now that many houses were removed. I don’t know where Insane Vice Lords and UPKs moved on the southwest side but it was likely just south of Montague Street which was the divider between Latin Kings and Conservative Vice Lords. Insane Vice Lords were mostly converted to Mafia Insane Vice Lords in Chicago between 1989 and 1990 and the smaller amount of IVLs that didn’t want to convert tried to hold it down in Chicago but only lasted until the mid-90s before they made their main operations out of state which is still active today outside of Illinois. Some IVLs came to Rockford around 1990 and made the southwest side their home. Most of the remaining IVLs in Rockford and Chicago flipped to Mafia Insane Vice Lords around 1995 and this is how Rockford has Mafia Insane Vice Lords today but I don’t know if they remain on the southwest side. The Unknowns Players and Kings gang started in West Humboldt Park in Chicago in the early 1980s. This group was strong allies with Latin Kings and Insane Unknowns but was not directly linked to those groups besides sharing the People alliance that is also shared with all Vice Lord gangs and Four Corner Hustlers. The Unknowns Players and Kings was known for going extinct in the late 80s in Chicago as members flipped to Insane Unknowns and Latin Kings in the city. I was shocked to find out not all of them flipped and that some moved to Rockford in the late 80s to around 1990 and started on the southwest side where they would carry on through the 1990s until they flipped to Latin Kings and Insane Unknowns. In the late 80s and early 90s until about the mid-90s all southwest side People allied gangs were at peace and at peace with the southeast side Insane Unknowns. The IVLs, UPKs, IUKs, Latin Kings, CVLs were all at peace and were all at war with Gangster Disciples.

The biggest gang legend in Rockford history was that of the exploits of the Gangster Disciples and Karl “Short Dog” Fort. In the early 90s, as many Chicago residents now found Rockford to be home, the strength of the Gangster Disciples grew considerably in the early 1990s, and the GDs began to tap into the crack cocaine trade. In Chicago, Gangster Disciples were the leading street gang in the crack cocaine business as they sold literal millions of dollars in Crack Cocaine especially in the south side public housing projects and Cabrini Green in Chicago. It was no surprise that the Rockford Gangster Disciples got hooked into the same aggressive crack cocaine trade as Chicago GDs. According to authorities, court documents and news articles Karl Fort was known as the biggest crack dealer in Rockford and was known to be violent and dangerous. In 1993, Karl Fort was apprehended by Rockford authorities and in 1994 he was convicted and given a life sentence. At the time, our justice system administered harsh and rather unfair sentences to crack cocaine dealers and Karl Fort was one caught up in this sentencing. As I was exploring the You Tube videos of Chris Harden’s Rockford videos and I was reading people’s comments, I came across one comment that stood out. It was that of a former Rockford police officer that enforced the law in Rockford for 12 years between 1988 and 2000. The former officer needed to leave the police department early in his career due to the Karl Fort and the Rockford Gangster Disciples putting out $25,000 contract on his life because he investigated Fort and many others and became too good as a cop. He stated,” Driving down west State Street during the day was bad enough, but at night you were in real danger. When I came on the department in early 1988, you could see gang members in broad daylight, standing on street corners like west State Street and Forest Ave, literally selling drugs in broad daylight. It was like a drive-up window at Mcdonald’s.” The officer also ended up suffering from PTSD and told of corruption in Rockford, “Rockford is like a mini-Chicago, full of corruption on every level, they hide it very well.” He pointed to Karl Fort the most, “Yes back in the 80s and 90s the Black Gangster Disciples and their leader Karl Fort, were in full control of the drug trade in Rockford. It really bothers me how they seemed to be so brazen and given free reign, to stand on the street corner selling crack cocaine.” The former officer shared how Karl Fort targeted him, “So I made it my goal, to do what I could as a patrol officer, to stop this. I found out who every gang member was and could tell you everything about them. I knew what kind of car they drove, where they lived etc…I made hundreds of felonies and class X felony arrests for drugs and guns. I became a thorn that had to be dealt with, so they put out a $25,000 contract on my life. At the time I was young, married and had 2 kids. They found out where I lived so we had to move. Long story short, it took a toll on me mentally and physically. It got so dangerous for me that I was forced to resign. One of my deputy chiefs, found out about the contract on my life and they took me off the streets. I was also diagnosed with PTSD.” This former officer even gave details of how the Rockford police was ran at the time, “I thought I was only doing my job, but it turned out I was doing it too well. All the info I knew about the gangs turned out to work against me, I knew too much, and I paid a price for it. Back then the RKFD police department, was a reactive and not a proactive department. They didn’t want their officers to be aggressive. Aggressive officers to them were a liability and generated too many complaints from the public. So, they were content with waiting for the crime to happen then going out and solving it.” This man’s testimony is chilling to say the least and he was not the only one to say Karl Fort was not a good guy and should have stayed in prison. I came across articles from the late 2010s talking about Karl Fort’s release from prison due to changing crack cocaine laws. The previous laws were under heavy criticism for giving harsh prison sentences for the sale of a drug mostly found in disadvantaged African American communities and in impoverished areas. This law mostly ended up targeting African Americans who faced the harshest sentences. Crack cocaine has indeed been a plague in the black community since late 80s. The cheapness of the drug made it possible for drug users in impoverished neighborhoods to afford the habit; therefore, the law ended up targeting the black community. This is the reason Karl Fort was released from prison after serving 25 years behind bars. Fort was charged with distribution of crack and not violent crimes, so his release technically became just. Upon release Karl Fort has reformed and works with youths in the community. Many criticize his release due to his past but now he is over 50 years old and seemingly retired from gang life. Through my years I have encountered many like Karl Fort that you would never have thought committed the crimes they did commit because of their change. I can attest these men often reform and lead law abiding lives so change can and does happen. The story of Karl Fort sheds light on perhaps Rockford’s worst era in the 1990s.

The 90s do indeed seem to be the most violent decade and in the May 2, 2008 edition of the Peoria Journal Star two of those crimes were detailed from the 90s. On April 14, 1993, Antonio “Bingo” Craig of the Gangster Disciples shot Rockford police officer Sheri Glover as she sat in her police car on Hinckley Avenue which was near the legendary area of West State Street near State and Forest which was described by the former Rockford police officer of 12 years. This was a larger drug trafficking zone and Craig may have shot her for just having an appearance in the neighborhood disrupting drug business. Craig shot Glover in the head and shot her multiple more times. Miraculously, Glover survived and even stayed on the force until 1995 when she retired and went into religious ministry. Antonio Craig was given a 60-year sentence and is still in prison. Another unforgettable 90s shooting happened May 31, 1997, at the same corner as the Sheri Glover shooting at West State Street and Hinckley Avenue. A party was going on that day and a gang dispute ensued between Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords. The argument escalated into a shooting between Johnie Blake and Terrence Ruffin. The bullets fired by Johnie traveled across the street and entered the 1323 W State Street home striking 10-year-old Tanya Hooks as she sat on a sofa watching Disney’s Dumbo in the living room, she was killed instantly. Johnie Blake was sentenced to 80 years in prison and is still in prison. Terrence Ruffin was sentenced to 15 years in prison even though the bullets he fired did not strike the 1323 house. The newspaper interviewed Willie D. Ashford of North Hinckley Street, and he recalled these incidents and stated crime issues began in the 1970s in the area then became worse in the 80s and 90s. The article also stated the 1400 block of West State Street had an open-air drug trafficking market.

Local legends tell of the notorious 11th Street on the southeast side of Rockford. This is the strip between 23rd Avenue and Charles Street. Stories of shootings, robberies and drug addicts walking this street day and night have been told of since the 70s. I don’t know what gangs were historically active on 11th Street in the older decades, but Insane Unknowns and Maniac Latin Disciples have always been near that area.

The area of the Fairgrounds public housing projects was also to blame for the higher crime in the complex. Legends have told of multiple “crack houses” near the projects especially at the intersection of School Street and Tanner Street. A house once stood right at that corner right across Tanner Street until it was demolished in the 2010s. At this 1010 School Street house, crack cocaine was heavily distributed and at its peak in the mid-1990s. Next door to this house along School Street where more drug trafficking houses until those ones were torn down well before 1010 came down. The vacant lots are still there.

According to Facebook comments and YouTube comments under Chris Harden’s Rockford videos, many believe the demolition of the public housing projects was responsible for the third gang migration wave around 1990 but that is not true. It isn’t true because the public housing projects in Chicago didn’t start to be torn down until the mid-90s and most of the projects remained standing heading into the year 2000, this includes Cabrini Green. Cabrini Green high rises were still in use up to 2011 when the final towers were razed. The Robert Taylor projects and the Stateway Gardens projects on the south side were torn down by 2006, but the main demolition occurred in the early 2000s. These facts prove the gang migration and migration of low-income Chicagoans did not move to Rockford because the projects were being razed, instead if was families outside of the projects. In the early 2000s, Rockford would then begin to see a significant migration of Chicago families moving to Rockford directly from Chicago’s public housing projects. This move did bring more gangs to Rockford and increased gang membership among Rockford’s oldest gangs. The Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords would only grow in the 2000s and this was after the era of Karl Fort and while he was in prison. The 2000s was another rough era for Rockford’s south side and west side and by the time this decade arrived south, and west Rockford was full of blight.

Even by the 2000s south and west Rockford still had not recovered from the early 80s recession and for the last two decades so many once elegant homes fell to deterioration. In the 80s and 90s, foreclosures on houses ran rampant in the south and west parts of Rockford. Hurried abandonment and short sales of houses left many houses in the hands of slumlords. For several years slumlords would divide these once elegant houses into apartments that they rented to low-income families. Slumlords would then neglect the properties severely over several years until the building would become unlivable and condemned. White flight panic made it so these houses were easily attainable after long-time residents sold their homes at bottom dollar to escape Rockford the fastest they could. This left these slumlords enough of a budget to not only buy the houses but to also convert them into apartments. In neglected communities like west and south Rockford these slumlords are often not as detectable and could avoid shut down for years or even decades. Many had moved to Rockford in the 80s and 90s seeking cheap houses for their families and once lived in the community for certain number of years. When these families would face job loss, they would often no longer be able to pay their mortgages, and their homes were seized by the banks. The houses would often be condemned or left by the bank as a vacant property because it wasn’t profitable to repair the home due to the lower values of properties in the area. These are much of the situations that caused west and south Rockford’s streets to be heavily populated with shuttered and blighted homes by the end of the 1990s.

In the year 2000, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the City of Rockford began the West State Street Corridor Study which was a plan for development and improvement along the West State Street corridor. According to the RS & H website, “it was important for the city to develop an attractive and inviting gateway for any traveler visiting Rockford and appealing to the businesses and neighbors.” The website provided the justification for the project, “The project originated from the City of Rockford’s vision to develop an attractive and inviting gateway for surrounding businesses, neighborhoods, and travelers in Rockford. RS&H’s first inspection of the area revealed deteriorated conditions and poor housing conditions. It was at that moment that the designers realized that this project was much more than just reconstructing the roadway” (https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https://www.rsandh.com/projects/west-state-street-business-route-20/___.YzJ1Om1hZ2lkZ2xvdmVhbmRzYWZldHltYW51ZmFjdHVyaW5nY29tcGFueWxsYzpjOm86MmZmMTczYzQ2ODRlOTllMzkzZWJjNTZiOWJlYzQ3NmM6NzowYzZiOjAzYzk1ZWRlMjZhMDczZWFkNDAzNWVlYWI5ZDMxYmZjOGExOTA5ZDA0OTgyM2E3Y2FmNWIwMWM3ZGZiMjIyOGM6dDpUOk4). I am not sure if the early planning of this project affected other efforts to remove buildings and houses around Rockford in the 2000s and 2010s but a frenzy began in these two decades at the same time as the West State Street construction and building removal in 2013 and forward. The West State Street project was the beginning of U.S. Business Highway 20. Rockford’s solution became to tear the buildings down but to not build onto those vacant properties with better businesses and houses. The lots would become well-manicured lawns but without new businesses it only meant for a lack of job growth. Job loss continued to be a rising issue in Rockford in the 2000s and 2010s and development of Business Highway 20 did nothing to help west Rockford. It would have been of great help if new businesses were built along the whole stretch but instead those vacant lots became groomed patches of grass all meant for show. As I have been doing my research on Rockford, I often look up the addresses of where the people lived that were victims and suspects of crimes or where Policy King buildings once held illegal bars or policy wheels. I would use Google Maps to find the house, but after punching in one address after another, it led to nowhere and this included my seeking of the Champion public housing projects which is now just an open lawn. I then learned those projects were razed in 2002 after being declared uninhabitable. The only Washington Park area project remaining is the Concord Commons that was renamed in 2024. During the 1959 raid of the Policy Kings John Head and Lee Walker an address was given of 620 Lexington Avenue for the “620 Club” which was the headquarters of the Policy Kings. A “$60,000 to $70,000” racket was busted which was the event that triggered the Rockford Mafia to start shaking down the Policy racket. As I looked up that building on Google Maps, it shows the property is removed and is just an empty lot with manicured grass and some trees. The November 9, 1965, Rockford Morning Star article gave the address of 1100 S. Pierpont Avenue as the site of an illegal African American bar that hosted illegal gambling, they were raided for selling illegal alcohol. When I looked up 1100 S. Pierpont on Google Maps it leads to an area that has been removed, not only the building but the section of that street is removed. This was once the “Quality Club” that operated with no liquor license. Federal agents raided a policy wheel at address 905 Newport Avenue. When I looked up this address on Google Maps, not only is the building no longer there that whole 900 block of Newport Avenue is removed. The 1400 block of West State Street that was mentioned as a drug trafficking hot spot mentioned by the Peoria Journal Star in their June 2, 2008, article only has a church and a small check cashing place, the rest is all manicured lawn. The 1323 W State Street address mentioned as the home of 10-year-old Tanya Hooks who was shot to death in gang crossfire on May 31, 1997, is no longer in existence when I looked on Google Maps, nor is the house across the street where the Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples had the party and where the shooters where, is not in existence any longer. The National Pride Car Wash mentioned in the Register Star August 21, 1988, article is now a parking lot and long forgotten. This shows how heavily Rockford demolished homes through the years and on many blocks on the south side and west side, one can see many vacant lots, especially on street corners. At Furman and Fairview sits a deteriorated old high school vacant since the 1990s and just north of the Orton Keyes projects sits the long vacant Rock River elementary School along Kishwaukee Street and South Avenue. Newport Ave, Cambridge Ave, Hartford Ave and Trenton Ave on the west side once met at the south onto Liberty Street and Newport Avenue, now that southern part of Newport Avenue has been removed and no longer connects to Liberty Street or Crowley Street. These were the upper 800s blocks and 900 blocks of these streets that made the newspaper over time for crimes but now the whole ends of these blocks are gone, and the streets are cul-de-sacs. This is what Rockford does, they erase bad streets and homes and do not build over them. This seems like the plans of the original decision makers that decided not to allow I-90 to pass through the west side, to slowly bleed this part of Rockford until it becomes demolished. The once notorious West State Street 1400 block area between Forest Avenue and Hinckley Avenues that was mentioned by the former Rockford police officer and the 2008 Rockford newspaper now is just manicured lawn with no houses along State Street, I was confused when I first looked those up on Google Maps until it dawned on me that Rockford eradicated that whole area and tore all the houses down that were once there to the point where the present day appearance looks like it never had houses there.

Another wave of Chicago street gangs poured into Rockford that I have pinpointed to beginning in 2001-2002. Titanic P Stones, Ashland Vikings, Two Six, Party Players, Los Be Be Stones are some examples of gangs that arrived in 2001-02 according to legends. Other groups may have arrived at the same time like Unknown Vice Lords, Traveling Vice Lords, Latin Jivers, La Raza, Imperial Gangsters, Ambrose, New Breeds along more Satan Disciple and Latin Count groups. Insane Unknowns would go into a violent war with Latin Kings that goes back as far as the 1990s. There has also been an establishment of crews and crew names within gangs like the “Moes” for example that is supposedly a Vice Lord group that developed in the Fairgrounds and the “Wackos” which is a Gangster Disciple group from the Champion/Concord Commons projects. There is also “Maple Block” which is crew near the Satan Disciples and Latin Counts in the central area on Maple Street. I am not too in tuned with crews, nor do I specialize much with crews. The most pronounced new gang settlement of the 2000s was that of the Titanic P Stones and Party Players.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice June 11, 2007, report on a conspiracy case against the Rockford Titanic P Stones known as “The Brothers,” the Titanics moved into Rockford from Chicago in 2001 with the intention of distributing large amounts of heroin and crack cocaine. The main players of the Stones were convicted between 2006-2007 as they were charged with drug trafficking and weapons charges. According to the document gang members rented houses in female associate’s names that they, “fortified with barrel bolts, steel brackets, and 2″ x 4″ boards on the doors which made it more difficult for rival gangs and/or the police to enter. The Titanic Stones gang members used Nextel cell phones with a walkie talkie feature to discuss drug trafficking, using terms such as cereal, happy meal, and demo to refer to drugs.” The document claimed the Stones were involved in shootings with rival gangs and rival dealers. Since the Titanic P Stones, the Black P Stones have become a big gang in Rockford especially in the area of Central Avenue and Auburn Street, this group is known as
FFF (FullyFuckinFocused).

The Party Players are an organization from Chicago’s Back of the Yards community and were known for being a smaller gang that fiercely defended their turf at 48th Street and Wood Street in Chicago. Party Players were known for being outnumbered but still competed against bigger gangs in the area. In the early 2000s, Chicago police began to close in on these violent gang wars but since the Party Players were smaller than the other gangs targeted, the Party Players were devastated the most by police crackdowns. Many on the streets falsely claim the Party Players got “ran out” by enemy gangs but in reality, the police ran them out. The Party Players in Chicago were down shooters and heavy hitters so it is almost impossible for another gang to just wipe them out and this is evidenced when members fled law enforcement in the early 2000s and found southeast Rockford to be home. The Party Players settled in the Churchill Park area which was claimed by La Raza at the time. La Raza was another new group to Rockford but settled just before the Party Players. I don’t know what happened to La Raza but they no longer are found in Churchill Park, instead the Party Players run this park strongly and are referred to as the ”Churchill APPs.” The Party Players are at heavy odds with Maniac Latin Disciples, Insane Unknowns and Latin Kings. Tags of the Party Players have been seen as far west as the abandoned Rock River School along Kishwaukee Street. Party Players have also tagged over Latin King tags along 11th Street. Party Players have become one of Rockford’s prominent gangs and Rockford is perhaps the Party Player’s largest section in their mob these days.

The Brewington Oaks projects were demolished in 2021 with no solid plans of a rebuild, residents were to be directed to scattered site public housing. Fair Grounds is now mostly vacated and soon to be razed in the next few years and this is scheduled not just speculation. The reason for Brewington Oak’s demolition was crime, drugs and gang activity but the cause for Fairgrounds is not divulged yet likely because it is still partially occupied.

Rockford, as a whole, is not high crime, blighted, dangerous, drug and gang infested, it must be clarified it is only parts of Rockford, mainly the south side and west side. There are too many generalizations about Rockford that it is a complete cesspool, and these allegations are not only untruthful but can harm the reputation/revenue of the village. We must focus on these certain areas because if we are to classify the whole city as rotten then it will devoid any hope of change for the city because we then deem the people in the community as defective. It is important to bring specifications and boundaries to the table to point out socioeconomic injustices that seemingly deliberately destroyed sections of Rockford, so this is not repeated in history. The facts are that the south side and west side became neglected and sealed off from the rest of the city and left to rot. The rumors are strong that the old ways of Rockford in the 50s and 60s cut off these areas in deliberation and if one is to claim that is a falsehood then one also cannot ignore that poor planning was done that amounts to nothing more than corruption and deliberation. I would be willing to hear evidence against a racially motivated reason for drying out east and south Rockford, but the evidence is clear for now based upon how events unfolded. This is not exclusive to Rockford, these same practices of white flight, disinvestment, redlining and block busting all happened in Chicago as well. This is a systematic form of profit from racist practices where banks and real estate feed off the gullibility and fear of private citizens. We must not blame white flighters or N.I.M.B.Ys (not in my backyard) for this atrocity, we must look at this as a systematic process perpetrated by those in power seeking self-gain and profit. Banks profit from redlining, real estate profits from block busting, this is where the blame goes. Rockford is full of beautiful houses, the Anderson Japanese Gardens, museums, multiple gardens, parks and a downtown with several businesses. Many parts of northern and eastern Rockford are low crime and safe communities. Don’t blame east Rockford for their success that was given to them in the 60s, the only blame is that the west side and south side was not part of the plan which was a organizational decision that reaped profit for private interests. Look beyond the regular citizens and former citizens of Rockford, no matter how bigoted some might be, they didn’t destroy parts of Rockford, systematic racism did! Power to the People!