In the early 1950s, a Latino gang came to the streets of the Near West Side known as the “Royal Kings” that tended to congregate in the Heart of Chicago and Pilsen sections of the Lower West Side neighborhood and into the South Lawndale neighborhood by the later 1950s. This gang was for both Mexican and Puerto Rican youths. According to the findings of the NGCRC (national Gang Crime Research Center) and George W. Knox social service documents revealed the discovery of the Royal Kings in 1959 by Social service workers. The Royal Kings could be found at Polk and Laflin and at a snack shop at Filmore and Loomis both in the Near West Side neighborhood; these were their biggest hang outs. The researchers determined the members were between the ages of 16 to 22 years old and had territory from Madison Avenue on the north down to 26th Street on the south and from Halsted Street on the east all the way to Western Avenue, but this territory was patchy and not all clumped together, their main turf was said by researchers to be from Harrison Street on the north to Roosevelt Road on the south, Loomis Street on the east down to Ashland on the west which is within the Near West Side neighborhood. The Royal Kings also had rivalries with Latin Counts, Ambrose, Satan Disciples (later) and Gay Lords just to name some. In 1954, a group of three Latino youths got together in the South Loop section of the Near South Side neighborhood at the intersection of 18th and Wabash to form their own gang called the “Imperials.” The leader of the gang was Ramon ‘Papa King,’ ‘Papa Santos,’ ‘King Papo’ Santos who was a Cuban youth that moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico. The gang quickly grew to include five members including King Papo, the other four members were Jose “Cadillac Joe” Rivera a Puerto Rican, Eddie “King Tiger” Rodriguez a Puerto Rican, and “Fast Eddie” a Puerto Rican and Joe Gunn a Mexican youth, they formed the organization to battle various African American and other Latino rivals in the area.
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