In the winter of 1971, dozens of New York gangs including the Savage Skulls, the Black Spades, the Immortals, the Majestic Warlocks, and the Spanish Daggers met in the gymnasium of the Hoe Avenue Boys Club in the Bronx to discuss a truce. This parley came after the murder of “Black Benji” of the Ghetto Brothers, who himself had tried to promote peace between the city’s gangs. To ensure that there was no trouble at the summit, a gang member was positioned on the rooftop across from the venue with a rifle.
Although gang violence was common in the city at that time, there evidently was some taste for diplomacy. A youth worker called Eduardo Vincenty, aka, “Spanish Eddie,” proposed the grand idea of forming a super-gang under the “Family Peace Treaty.” As a means of settling conflicts, his scheme got the leaders of 68 gangs on board at a time when the NYPD estimated there were around 10,000 gang members in just the Bronx alone. Before his idea could fully come to fruition, Vincenty was transferred to Brooklyn and shot in the head while trying to stop a fight. He survived, but some of his colleagues suspected it was an attempt on his life for trying to unite the gangs… read more >
