0:00

Just a heads up.

0:02

This episode contains descriptions

0:04

of violence. Welcome

0:16

to the Urban Legends

0:18

hotline where we investigate

0:20

the mysterious tales of

0:22

your home towns and

0:24

story is passed through

0:26

the old Lockard halls

0:28

of your schools to

0:30

get to the haunted

0:32

heart of the urban

0:35

legends that you grew

0:37

up hearing and maybe

0:39

even telling. Today

0:41

we are covering

0:43

Gang Initiation. It's.

0:46

I'm your host, Chelsea

0:48

Weber Smith. And from

0:50

one friend of a

0:53

friend to another, this

0:55

is American hysteria. I.

1:00

Chelsea. This is Elizabeth I was

1:03

a teenager and Omaha, Nebraska and

1:05

the nineteen nineties. You

1:07

know, when you're. Driving.

1:09

At night in the dark and the

1:12

polite thing to do when you see

1:14

another car who's or on to turn

1:16

on their lights up like introduced flash

1:19

your headlights at them to they'll turn

1:21

it on Well for some reason and

1:23

Omaha in the nineties. There was this

1:26

urban legend that if you were to

1:28

flash or lights at night like this,

1:30

that there was a gang initiation happening

1:33

and that if you flashed your lights

1:35

out another car a gang member would

1:37

have to shoot you. I. Don't know

1:40

where this came from. I don't know

1:42

the origin of this. It's really silly

1:44

and I think in retrospect fundamentally racist.

1:46

but I was wondering if this might

1:49

be a good topic for your Urban

1:51

Legends shows. Thanks. Bye bye. In

2:01

August of nineteen. Ninety

2:03

Three parents. School

2:05

officials and news fire

2:07

stations and police departments

2:10

across America began receiving

2:12

back says on official

2:15

looking letterhead warnings about

2:17

a blood initiation week

2:20

and said for the

2:22

Twenty Fifth and Twenty

2:25

Six of September. Many.

2:28

Took these warnings seriously

2:30

and continued. The chain

2:33

back saying and emailing these

2:35

warnings out to everyone they

2:38

knew, printing and sending them

2:40

through the mail, even posting

2:43

copies. Esquire's around town. The

2:46

story went like this: members

2:48

of the gang known as

2:51

the Bloods were planning to

2:53

cruise dark highways with their

2:55

headlights off, waiting for another

2:58

driver to flash affairs as

3:00

a courtesy. But

3:02

these dark. Headlights were not

3:04

an accidental oversight. Know

3:07

this was a monster

3:09

as traps. Aimed at

3:12

innocent, good samaritans in

3:14

a sociopath, a rite

3:16

of passage called Lights

3:19

Out The prospective. Gang

3:21

bangers would screech out of

3:23

by time, follow the driver

3:26

and fried a murderer them

3:28

either by forcing them off

3:31

the road or shooting them

3:33

through their window. All that

3:36

they could land themselves a

3:38

coveted spot in the local

3:41

branch of a nationally organized,

3:43

heartless and bloodthirsty. Street

3:46

gangs. I

3:52

remember this urban legend vividly

3:54

as it flashed up several

3:56

times in the Nineteen nineties

3:58

and I had no reason

4:00

the believe if it wasn't

4:02

true. After all, I was

4:04

in elementary school and teachers

4:06

all over the country were

4:08

warning kids like me that

4:11

if we wore blue or

4:13

red, we might be mistaken

4:15

for a member of The

4:17

Bloods or their rival gang,

4:19

The Crips. maybe even shot

4:21

to death right there in

4:23

my quiet suburban neighborhood. All

4:25

for this. Mistake in

4:28

allegiance. I've been

4:30

hoping for a while that

4:32

someone would call in to

4:34

the Urban Legends hotline with

4:36

this fun, but I knew

4:38

that when I finally dove

4:41

into the history, there was

4:43

going to be a whole

4:45

lot of difficult stuff under

4:47

the surface of this bogus

4:49

but extremely potent piece of

4:51

contemporary folklore, a tale that

4:53

was most popular in the

4:55

eighties and nineties when stopping

4:57

gang violence was one of.

4:59

The hottest political

5:02

platform. For.

5:04

This two part series were

5:06

not only going to cover

5:09

the lights out version of

5:11

this tale, but many others

5:13

as well. Your brutal bathroom

5:16

A tax, Your ankle slashers

5:18

at the mall, your Halloween

5:21

crip massacres, your trick babies

5:23

left by the roadside. I'm

5:25

going to take you on

5:28

a long journey through old

5:30

newspapers where we can find

5:33

both reports. attempting to

5:35

debunk faceless panics as

5:37

well as many examples

5:39

of real sensational crimes

5:41

blamed on gang initiation

5:43

that turned out to

5:45

be anything but we'll

5:47

see how law enforcement

5:49

worked to publicly quell

5:51

the rumors that popped

5:53

up again and again

5:55

wow at the same

5:57

time using them to

5:59

explain random instances of

6:01

violence and sometimes

6:03

even, along with politicians,

6:06

to achieve harsh changes

6:08

in local, state, and

6:10

national laws that have

6:13

had lasting and devastating

6:15

effects on entire

6:18

communities. We

6:20

know that gang violence can

6:22

affect random people who might

6:24

be robbed or hit by

6:26

stray bullets during drive-by shootings,

6:28

and we know that gang

6:30

initiations are very real, often

6:33

involving being jumped in or

6:35

beaten up to prove the

6:37

wannabe's toughness. But

6:40

our urban legend specifically

6:42

claims that the victims

6:44

are instead chosen at

6:46

random as part of

6:48

an organized, intentional command,

6:51

an innocent human

6:53

sacrifice to the

6:55

great god of

6:57

the gang. Sometimes

7:03

there are two a

7:11

man in the so-called juvenile gang.

7:39

One of the first major national

7:41

stories about this phenomenon,

7:44

called a gang initiation,

7:47

struck all the way back in March

7:49

of 1935, when

7:52

a group of working-class

7:55

Irish immigrants, calling themselves

7:57

the Dripping Daggers, frightened

8:00

Bostonian drivers with their

8:02

daring and dangerous

8:04

antics. According

8:07

to news stories printed all

8:09

across America, these madcap hoodlums

8:12

had participated in a gang

8:14

initiation day that caused the

8:16

tragic death of a World

8:19

War I hero and injured

8:21

his wife and infant son.

8:25

In a flurry of car

8:27

thefts, police said the initiates

8:29

had sped through Boston at

8:31

80 miles an hour, a shocking

8:34

speed, an entirely new speed

8:36

for the 1930s. It

8:40

was, as the story went,

8:42

a risk that they had

8:44

to take to become an

8:46

official dripping dagger, and

8:48

newspapers far and wide

8:50

reported on three other

8:52

injuries from related car

8:55

accidents in quote, smash

8:57

ups that marked the gangs orgy.

9:00

Ultimately, after several

9:02

arrests, two members in

9:05

their late teens were arrested and

9:07

sentenced to eight years in

9:09

the Concord Reformatory. But

9:13

after the initial dramatic

9:15

police announcements and news

9:18

reports, the gang initiation

9:20

angle is abandoned completely

9:22

and replaced with generalizations

9:24

about the group stealing

9:26

and racing cars, which

9:29

they did a lot,

9:31

causing more damage, injuries,

9:33

and even deaths. But

9:36

the ritual initiation narrative

9:39

was already out there,

9:41

soaked into the minds of

9:43

those who read the early reports.

9:47

So maybe, just maybe,

9:49

despite the story being

9:51

almost entirely lost to

9:54

time, some essential

9:56

elements manifested again in

9:58

the blood and initiation

10:00

weekend panic 60 years

10:02

later, the leaders of

10:04

a gang creating a

10:06

specific initiation date and

10:09

rites of passage with

10:11

members in their cars

10:13

harming innocent bystanders. The

10:16

dripping daggers became poster children

10:19

for this new crime that

10:21

was not only a financial

10:24

nuisance but presented a danger

10:26

to the public. Police

10:30

wanted to create a mandatory

10:32

sentence of a felony for

10:34

anyone stealing a car, which

10:36

not only meant definite jail

10:39

time for minors, but also

10:41

a provision that allowed the

10:43

police to shoot at cars

10:45

and car thieves at

10:48

their own discretion. They

10:51

used the death of the

10:53

World War I veteran as

10:55

their main argument for these

10:57

stiffer penalties, also

10:59

admonishing judges for their

11:02

leniency against these rats

11:05

and thugs. But

11:07

while many local politicians fought

11:10

for an aggressive law and

11:12

order approach, the local deputy

11:15

superintendent of schools and

11:17

members of the National Recreation

11:19

Association attempted to convince

11:21

the government of the need for

11:24

constructive outlets for this youthful energy.

11:27

In South Boston, where the dripping

11:30

daggers members were likely living in

11:32

poverty, there was a

11:34

massive need for places like

11:36

community centers, public gyms, work

11:39

rooms, playrooms, social rooms, and

11:42

opportunities for work that were

11:44

very scarce during the Great

11:46

Depression. It turns out

11:48

that in 1920, there had actually been $350,000

11:50

in today's money allocated appropriated

12:00

for a public gym procured

12:02

by a social and athletic

12:05

organization to help address the

12:07

root causes of juvenile crime.

12:10

But that gym was never

12:13

constructed. Instead, the

12:15

city appropriated those funds

12:17

and spent it all

12:19

on building a fancy

12:21

new speedway. The

12:23

very place where the

12:26

dripping daggers would later

12:28

hold their alleged initiations,

12:31

or more accurately, where

12:33

they raced around randomly

12:36

in stolen cars. As

12:39

we'll see in more detail in Part

12:42

2, this process of

12:44

avoiding funding the root

12:46

causes of gang crime

12:48

and focusing on increasingly

12:51

harsh punishments would return

12:53

again as the gang

12:55

initiation folklore took on

12:57

a sensational life of

12:59

its own, transforming, as

13:02

many crime legends do,

13:04

into lurid and prejudiced

13:06

stories that a chronically

13:08

outraged and anxious America

13:11

always seems ready to

13:14

believe. In

13:42

the mid-1970s, in a cluster

13:44

of towns in South Carolina,

13:47

a shocking

13:49

rumor began to take hold,

13:51

the first version of our

13:54

gang initiation urban legend

13:56

ever seen in print. In

13:59

Anderson, stories were

14:01

spreading that street gangs

14:03

were performing a sick

14:05

ritual to induct wannabes,

14:08

instructing them to hide in

14:10

department store bathrooms, in

14:13

K-Marts specifically, and

14:15

then castrating an unsupervised

14:17

young boy. The

14:21

Anderson Independent looked into these rumors

14:23

and found that they had been

14:25

told in each new town and

14:28

the surrounding area as soon as

14:30

a new K-Mart opened up. According

14:33

to the manager of the

14:35

Anderson store, he had heard

14:37

the same rumors going around

14:39

for years about the K-Mart

14:42

in Charleston, in Charlotte, in

14:44

Asheville, North Carolina, and Jackson,

14:46

Tennessee. Police had

14:48

also gotten reports about at least

14:50

three other locations that

14:52

were allegedly part of

14:54

this macabre gang initiation.

14:57

Though it's difficult to understand

15:00

why the legend specifically cited

15:02

K-Mart, that same manager claimed,

15:05

without providing evidence, that it

15:07

was some kind of conspiracy

15:10

meant to deter locals from

15:12

shopping at these new big

15:14

box stores. It's

15:16

less difficult to understand why

15:18

the story was about harming

15:21

a child in such a

15:23

gruesome way, as this

15:25

came at the beginning of both

15:27

the movement against child abuse that

15:29

put the issue in the national

15:31

spotlight and the

15:34

satanic ritual abuse scare

15:36

that often involved sensational,

15:39

unimaginable brutality against kids.

15:43

The idea of what a gang was

15:45

and what a gang looked like began

15:47

to change by the late 1970s. Some

15:51

of the most feared groups

15:54

had been white motorcycle gangs,

15:56

and folklorists have actually traced

15:58

oral retelling. of the Lights

16:00

Out initiation as being first

16:03

related to the Hell's Angels.

16:06

But as the decade rolled on,

16:08

the two most well-known street

16:10

gangs, the Crips and the

16:12

Bloods, started to cement themselves

16:15

in Los Angeles as well

16:17

as in the national consciousness.

16:21

Street gang violence is not a new

16:23

phenomenon. For

16:25

lawless gangs, the Bourbon youth have been a fixture

16:27

of life in our bigger cities for more than

16:29

a century. Today,

16:32

however, the gangs are a subject

16:34

of growing national concern, for

16:37

their influence is no longer confined to

16:39

the central cities. With

16:42

startling swiftness, the plight of

16:44

gang violence is bred to outlying communities.

16:48

Suburban, little-class neighborhoods, plants thought to

16:50

be comfortably far removed from this

16:52

threat to life and property. Some

16:55

have claimed that these groups emerged

16:57

from the ashes of the Black

16:59

Panther Party, a militant

17:02

activist group who frightened

17:04

much of white America

17:06

with their uncompromising dedication

17:08

to Black liberation, opportunity,

17:10

and safety, as

17:13

well as their open carrying of

17:15

guns as a show of protection.

17:19

However these street gangs were formed,

17:21

the reality was that even after

17:23

the civil rights movement in the

17:26

decades prior, the Black

17:28

poverty level in LA was reaching

17:30

30% as opposed to 8% for

17:32

white people. Places

17:37

like the inner city neighborhoods of Los

17:39

Angeles were full of young

17:41

people trying to find a way to move up in

17:43

the world, willing to sell

17:46

drugs and protect their turf using

17:48

violence against their rivals. We

17:51

can see these small

17:53

bathroom rumors continue to

17:55

grow larger and more

17:57

explicit as the relative racially

18:01

progressive 1970s transformed

18:04

into the far more racially

18:06

charged conservative Reagan era 1980s.

18:08

With the popularization of fax

18:11

machines, the legend

18:16

had a faster and farther

18:18

way to travel aside from

18:20

word of mouth. These

18:22

warning faxes became far

18:25

more explicit in their

18:27

violent descriptions and racism. So

18:29

be prepared for this next

18:32

part. Quote, according to an

18:34

eyewitness, the poor boy had

18:36

been castrated by an ethnic

18:39

gang of local youths and

18:42

subsequently they found three little

18:44

black boys walking through the

18:46

store with a bloody penis

18:48

in their pocket. As

18:50

it turned out, they had cut

18:52

the little white boys penis off

18:54

as an orientation, a method

18:57

of getting into a gang they

18:59

wanted to belong to. Of course, as

19:02

far as we know, no such

19:05

gang initiation has ever

19:08

taken place. This

19:10

is a product of

19:12

the lurid American imagination.

19:15

But as gang related crimes did

19:18

start to climb, usually only affecting

19:21

other gang members or people who

19:23

lived in the poverty stricken urban

19:25

areas where the gangs operated, the

19:29

victim narrative continued

19:31

to shift. Many who

19:33

lived in more affluent areas

19:36

became convinced that a gang

19:38

member could strike at any

19:40

moment as they were out

19:42

picnicking on the lawn or

19:45

walking to class clutching

19:47

their schoolbooks to their

19:50

chest. This

20:00

is the University of Southern California

20:02

standing proudly on the threshold of

20:05

its second century. Proud of its

20:07

independence, prepared for its future. Accepting

20:09

the challenge of private higher education,

20:12

the University of Southern California moving

20:14

toward Century Two. In

20:18

the fall of

20:20

1981, following an uptick

20:22

in campus crime, stories

20:25

began popping up about

20:27

an initiation that involved

20:29

gangs targeting young women

20:32

and the LA Times began

20:34

a series of reports on

20:37

a mass panic happening on

20:39

the campus of the University

20:41

of Southern California. The

20:44

first article began like this.

20:47

Unfounded rumors about a gang

20:49

initiation right, supposedly involving the

20:52

rape and murder of USC

20:54

students, have thrown the campus

20:56

into what one security official said approached

20:59

mass hysteria. The

21:02

freak out began, reporters believed,

21:05

when a well-liked business student

21:07

from Norway was shot and

21:09

killed off campus during a

21:12

robbery, though I could find

21:14

no information about the actual

21:17

perpetrator of that crime. Soon

21:20

the campus-wide conversation took

21:22

a sensational turn. This

21:25

was not just a random murder.

21:28

No, this was part of

21:30

a far more sophisticated plot

21:32

by organized and cold-blooded

21:35

thugs who saw these

21:37

students as easy prey

21:39

for their psychopathic rituals.

21:43

Coeds, female faculty members, and

21:45

wives of faculty were said

21:47

to be targeted for rape

21:50

and even murder. It

21:52

was going around that members

21:55

of the Latino Harpies and

21:57

the Black 18th Street Gang,

22:00

were creeping in from the urban

22:02

area of Los Angeles that

22:04

was just 10 miles

22:07

away, seeming to

22:09

surround the affluent island

22:11

of USC. The

22:15

rumors continued to grow more and more

22:17

dramatic. Now

22:20

dozens of women had been

22:22

raped, but when campus police

22:24

looked into the handful of

22:26

reports that did involve USC

22:28

students, they found no evidence

22:30

whatsoever that any of them

22:33

were gang-related. On October

22:35

22nd, a student was kidnapped

22:37

from a parking structure and

22:39

sexually assaulted, but the perpetrator

22:41

was not identified as a

22:43

gang member. Another

22:45

robbery and shooting did occur

22:47

off campus, witnessed by two

22:50

USC students, but it is

22:52

not known who committed that

22:54

offense. Still,

22:57

students started breaking parking laws

22:59

to get as close to their

23:02

classes as possible and to avoid

23:04

walking across campus, and

23:06

many women, both students and

23:08

staff, started to use escorts

23:10

to protect them from becoming

23:12

a target. USC

23:15

President James H. Zumberg

23:17

tried to set the

23:19

record straight, creating what

23:21

he called a rumor

23:23

control center, with

23:25

officers going door to door on

23:27

frat and sorority rows, to explain

23:30

that there was no evidence

23:32

whatsoever for the initiation

23:34

tales being told. Trying

23:37

to placate the concerned parents

23:39

writing and calling in from

23:41

all over the country, as

23:44

well as the frightened students, the

23:47

USC President also announced major

23:49

changes to security on campus.

23:53

More emergency phones were installed, 12

23:55

more security guards were hired, two

23:58

more police canines. were brought in,

24:01

and there was even talk of

24:03

the college forming their own private

24:06

police force. As

24:08

we'll see is often the

24:10

case, these changes actually undermined

24:12

the intended message that this

24:15

was all just one big

24:17

urban legend, and instead made

24:19

it look like there was,

24:22

indeed, something big to

24:24

be afraid of. While

24:27

talking to the LA Times,

24:30

one USC drama

24:32

major, appropriate, pointed to

24:35

a conspiracy of silence

24:37

on the part of

24:39

the administration. Quote, I've

24:44

heard a lot of things that it's not

24:46

a rumor that it is in

24:49

fact true. It's

24:51

infuriating that they're going to

24:53

jeopardize our safety for the

24:55

sake of keeping admissions up.

24:58

But the only thing I've heard is through

25:00

the grapevine. The only

25:03

thing I've heard through the grapevine. More

25:07

after this. The

25:13

rumors are true. I do enjoy

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27:02

period at shopify.com/tech23. And.

27:06

Now back to this show.

27:09

The crips and bloods no longer

27:11

are exclusively a Los Angeles problem.

27:13

Was your authority? fair? Charge them

27:16

with selling her cocaine and committing

27:18

violent. But recently the L A

27:20

gangs have gone on the road.

27:23

The. Crips and Bloods have travelled east

27:25

too. Large and small cities including

27:27

been in Denver and Omaha. The

27:29

news. Now let's fast forward

27:31

a few years to February

27:34

of in Nineteen Eighty Seven,

27:36

when a series of a

27:39

legit attacks by black youths

27:41

the wielding golf clubs shook

27:44

the Denver area over a

27:46

two week period with articles

27:48

about the violence printed in

27:51

almost every state. fifteen crimes

27:53

were grouped into what became

27:56

known in the media as

27:58

The Golf Club. assaults.

28:01

In one instance, a couple in their

28:04

20s was approached by five guys,

28:07

one allegedly swinging a golf club

28:09

who went on to steal the

28:11

woman's purse. Two

28:13

women were assaulted and robbed as they were

28:16

getting into a car together, no

28:18

golf club involved. A man

28:20

walking his dog was said to have been

28:22

beaten with a golf club and robbed. None

28:25

of these victims were

28:27

actually seriously injured, but

28:29

a 53-year-old former actress

28:32

named Harriet Lawyer Duvalo was

28:34

murdered with a blunt object

28:36

as she walked home carrying

28:39

groceries. There were no witnesses

28:42

to corroborate that the weapon was

28:44

a golf club or who the

28:46

perpetrators were, though police

28:49

said they found golf clubs in

28:51

the trunk of a nearby stolen

28:53

car. The

28:56

Denver police chief created a

28:58

special task force of 70

29:01

officers dedicated to finding the

29:03

suspects of the golf club

29:06

assaults, which they claimed in

29:08

interviews printed in newspapers all

29:10

across the country were part

29:12

of a new gang initiation.

29:15

A few days

29:17

later, the police announced that

29:19

they had arrested four members

29:21

of the Rolling 30 Crips

29:24

gang, telling the media,

29:26

quote, It's our understanding

29:28

that to join the Crips,

29:31

prospective members have to inflict

29:33

injury. At one

29:35

point, based on a tip, police

29:37

raided a house and took eight

29:39

people into custody, but

29:42

only three were held at the

29:44

station with just one charged for

29:46

his part in the assaults. Soon,

29:49

news reports began showing

29:52

doubt, quote, Police

29:54

retreated from initial comments that

29:56

the suspects belonged to a

29:58

notorious street gang. called

30:00

the Roland 30 Crips, which

30:03

gained its name by crippling

30:05

victims by beating them with

30:07

canes and sticks. Of

30:10

course, that's not how the Crips got their

30:12

name, but anyway. The

30:14

LA Times, in a much

30:16

less prominently placed article than

30:18

those that had blared on

30:20

about the gang initiation angle,

30:23

printed this two months after

30:25

the attacks, after the

30:28

panic had calmed down. In

30:31

response to the golf club

30:33

assault, according to Denver police,

30:35

some local residents started vigilante

30:38

groups to track down potential

30:40

invading Crips. Today,

30:42

however, Denver officials say it appears

30:44

there was no link at all

30:46

between the attacks and

30:48

Crip activity. Eventually,

30:51

Denver County Deputy District Attorney

30:54

Nate Chambers weighed in, telling

30:56

the papers, quote, There's

30:58

no evidence it was a gang

31:00

initiation. The initial reports

31:03

simply haven't checked out. No

31:06

one arrested by police was

31:08

charged with the murder of

31:10

Harriet lawyer Duvalo, a case

31:12

that remains unsolved to this

31:15

very day. The

31:21

center of this all, the

31:24

center of this all, we're shopping

31:26

excitement, streets of big smiles, we've

31:29

got the look, the taste and

31:31

the style you deserve to have

31:33

it all. The center

31:35

of this all. Just

31:38

24 hours

31:40

before the conclusive evidence

31:42

debunking the golf club

31:44

gang initiation assaults was

31:46

finally, if quietly,

31:49

printed, a new rumor

31:51

was already spreading in Jackson,

31:53

Mississippi, at their Metro

31:56

Center Mall, calling back to

31:58

the early iteration. of our

32:00

urban legend, those attacks on

32:03

white boys in department store

32:05

bathrooms. This

32:07

time, the danger lurked just

32:09

outside the mall, where white

32:11

women were being preyed on

32:14

by black youths in a

32:16

right that included sexual assaults

32:18

and even murder. Despite

32:21

police telling the media that there was no

32:24

truth to these accusations, they

32:26

nonetheless beefed up security at

32:29

the Metro Center Mall to

32:31

calm the consumer public. Two

32:34

weeks after the local papers

32:37

finally debunked the Jackson rumors,

32:39

an editorial was printed by

32:41

Grace Simmons, a staff writer

32:43

at the Querion Ledger, who

32:45

opened with the statement, quote,

32:48

For the past several months,

32:50

from inside beauty parlors to

32:52

street corners, such reports have

32:54

been swarming like busy bees

32:57

humming around a clover patch.

33:00

According to the reports, black youth

33:02

have been attacking white women at

33:04

the Metro Center parking lot as

33:06

part of a gang initiation. According

33:10

to Grace Simmons, local gun

33:12

stores had sold more handguns

33:14

to local women than ever

33:16

before. Eventually, the

33:18

head of the police's youth

33:21

gang unit chimed in, telling

33:23

the newspaper, quote, The

33:25

rumors have created a

33:27

gang hysteria. Just

33:31

a few months later, in August of 1989, the mall assault

33:33

gang initiation took on a new,

33:39

even more cinematic flavor.

33:43

In this version, wannabe gang

33:45

members were hiding underneath women's

33:47

cars in the parking lot,

33:49

and when they arrived back

33:51

and started to unlock their

33:54

doors, the initiate used a

33:56

knife or razor blade to

33:58

slash their ankles. right

34:00

at the Achilles tendon.

34:03

At that point, they would pull

34:06

the woman under the car to

34:08

sexually assault her, murder her, or

34:10

even cut off a piece of

34:12

her flesh to bring back to

34:14

the gang leaders as proof of

34:16

their promised dedication. In

34:19

a particularly memorable detail, many

34:21

stories being passed around claimed

34:24

that the assailants had not

34:26

been caught because the pain

34:28

of the slash was so

34:31

great as to render the

34:33

victim unable to

34:35

scream. Let's

34:40

get to the house! Pet

34:44

Sematary Interestingly,

34:46

the movie Pet Sematary,

34:48

based on the Stephen King

34:51

novel of the same name,

34:53

came out in April of

34:55

1989, just four months before

34:58

the papers printed information about

35:00

the urban legend eventually dubbed

35:03

the Ankle Slasher. The film

35:06

features a graphic scene in which

35:08

an evil child brought back from

35:10

the dead saws through the Achilles

35:13

tendon of a helpful neighbor. Though

35:16

he is hidden under the bed

35:18

instead of under a car at the

35:20

mall, the fact that

35:22

this movie premiered in theaters

35:24

so close to the start

35:26

of this specific rumor seems

35:28

worth mentioning. Whatever

35:35

the catalyst was that

35:38

helped materialize this new

35:40

version, police stations and

35:42

newsrooms were flooded with

35:44

calls from concerned citizens,

35:47

many angry that they had

35:49

not publicly called attention to

35:51

the rash of ankle flashings

35:53

that were now taking place

35:55

in other towns and cities

35:57

too, especially at the Tacoma

35:59

Mall. in Washington State.

36:02

When local law enforcement attempted

36:04

to follow this rumor back

36:06

to its beginning point, they

36:08

found one of their own,

36:10

a Pierce County Sheriff's deputy

36:12

who also taught a self-defense

36:14

course open to the public.

36:17

Turns out that the deputy had

36:19

been told the tale by one

36:21

of his students who said she

36:24

knew someone who had actually been

36:26

ankle-flashed at the Tacoma Mall. The

36:28

deputy said that he had indeed

36:30

repeated the story to the majority

36:32

of his 1,100 students,

36:35

who repeated it to their friends

36:37

and family, who repeated it to

36:39

theirs, and so the legend goes

36:42

and goes. In

36:45

the same month, a similar

36:48

rumor of gang initiates hiding

36:50

under cars rocked the Indianapolis

36:53

Greenwood Mall. Police traced

36:55

this rumor to a teenage

36:57

girl who said she'd overheard

36:59

a mall security guard talking

37:02

about one such case. She

37:04

said she had just told a

37:07

few friends, but eventually the rumor

37:09

reached an employee of the Indiana

37:12

Bell Telephone Company, where

37:14

it turned from a whisper to

37:16

a bulletin, which the worker entered

37:18

into the computer system to send

37:20

to a friend. But

37:23

the system was available to all employees

37:25

of Indiana Bell, and the

37:28

official-looking bulletin spread out and

37:30

reached the town of Greenwood,

37:32

where the mall was located.

37:35

Though it was debunked on the Indiana

37:37

Bell system the very next day, all

37:40

it took was 24 hours for the

37:43

tale to take on a life of its

37:45

own. Soon the exact

37:47

same story was circulating in

37:49

Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, when

37:52

the Lincoln Star Journal received

37:54

a mysterious flyer in the

37:56

mail with no return address.

37:59

Police who continued to attempt to

38:01

debunk the rumor, said they were getting up

38:03

to 50 calls a

38:05

day, begging them to

38:08

finally intervene in this

38:10

regional terror campaign that,

38:12

of course, had absolutely

38:14

no evidence to back

38:16

it up. Jacksonville,

38:21

the bold new city of the

38:23

South, with one bold problem. A

38:26

couple years later, in the summer

38:28

and fall of 1992, another spate

38:30

of mysterious violence broke

38:35

out in Jacksonville, Florida, on

38:37

a popular stretch of highway

38:39

frequented by tourists on the

38:41

way into the city. What

38:44

were dubbed the I-295

38:47

Sniper Attacks became huge national

38:49

news, with police telling the

38:52

New York Times that they

38:54

had recorded five shootings

38:56

from moving vehicles, 15

38:59

shootings from overpasses, 15 cases

39:02

of concrete rocks or bricks

39:04

thrown at vehicles, and

39:07

one instance where shooting

39:09

and concrete throwing were

39:11

combined. It was 4.30 p.m.

39:14

on February 15th, near the

39:16

middle class suburb of Orange

39:18

Park, when someone reported a

39:21

gunshot on I-295.

39:23

Then a month later, in

39:25

mid-March, it was reported that

39:27

a large chunk of concrete

39:29

had been thrown from a

39:31

nearby overpass, just one exit

39:33

away from where that gunshot

39:35

had occurred. Throughout the

39:38

month of July, police announced that

39:40

there had been five reports of

39:42

gunfire between vehicles on the highway

39:44

and 11 reports of concrete

39:47

dropped from overpasses, as well as

39:49

one report from someone who claimed

39:51

that they had been fired on

39:53

by a sniper. In

39:55

one of two tragic incidents

39:57

connected to the crimes, The

40:00

car was hit with a piece of

40:02

concrete, causing it to crash into a

40:04

wooded area on the side of the

40:06

highway, killing the driver. A

40:09

woman was severely injured when she was

40:11

hit by a bullet in her jaw,

40:13

fired from a car full of young

40:15

men, who drove up beside her. No

40:18

other victims were ever listed in

40:20

the news. Despite

40:22

the 120 reports police took

40:25

down during this Florida panic,

40:28

most of them remaining unsubstantiated.

40:32

Throughout November, news reports said

40:34

the police suspected a gang

40:36

initiation to be the cause

40:39

of this violence. And

40:41

those words, gang initiation,

40:44

were printed again and

40:46

again in almost every

40:48

state, often in

40:50

the bolded headline. The

40:53

Marion Star and Marion, Ohio

40:55

wrote, Motorist attacks. Gang

40:59

initiation. The Tucson

41:01

Citizen in Tucson, Arizona wrote,

41:03

Two teens held in

41:05

highway attacks. Crimes

41:08

may be gang initiations.

41:11

The Hawaii Tribune Herald

41:13

in Hilo, Hawaii wrote,

41:16

Were freeway snipings gang

41:18

initiations? And the

41:20

Iola Register in Iola, Kansas

41:22

wrote, Gang initiation

41:25

may have led to attack. In

41:29

several articles, Duval County Sheriff

41:31

Jim McMillan is quoted as

41:33

saying, We've been getting

41:36

information from both the public and

41:38

others, leading us to at least

41:40

look at and investigate youth groups

41:42

that have been in operation. Among

41:45

those gangs mentioned are the

41:48

English Estates Posse, Nation

41:50

of Chaos, Dogjaw

41:53

Posse, and

41:55

Teen Les Miserables. Association,

42:00

AAA, put out a

42:02

national advisory to all

42:04

of its members, encouraging

42:06

them to avoid the

42:08

highway altogether. The

42:11

NBC Nightly News dubbed it

42:13

the Highway of Death. Florida's

42:16

Welcome Center was advising anyone who

42:19

stopped there to take a different

42:21

route into the city. An

42:24

employee was quoted as saying, I heard one

42:26

man tell me that he heard that they

42:28

drive up behind you, hit your bumper,

42:31

and then when you get out of the car,

42:33

they hit you over the head. Eventually,

42:35

the police requested help from the

42:38

National Guard, who sent 150 agents

42:40

armed with

42:43

M16s to patrol the

42:46

area with night vision

42:48

goggles flanked by camouflage

42:51

vehicles and helicopters. In

42:54

addition, the Florida Department

42:56

of Transportation erected 10-foot-high

42:58

fences on the overpasses

43:00

to prevent people from

43:02

dropping objects onto vehicles

43:04

or shooting from above.

43:07

Police eventually rounded up 20 members

43:10

of the alleged English estate's

43:13

posse, though only a handful

43:15

would come to face any

43:17

legal action. Four

43:20

teenagers would be charged with throwing

43:22

a deadly missile when they pelted

43:24

a school bus with rocks, though

43:26

reports do not clarify if they

43:28

were thrown from an overpass or

43:31

just on a side street near

43:33

the interstate. Two of

43:35

the others were charged with attempted

43:37

murder, said to have been the ones

43:39

who shot at the woman driving on I-295 from

43:42

a stolen car. Police

43:46

were attempting to charge the

43:49

15- and 16-year-old English estate's

43:51

posse members as adults when

43:53

the charges were suddenly dropped

43:56

for lack of evidence and

43:59

never picked up. again. Two

44:01

others were charged with car

44:03

theft and police claimed that

44:05

though they were not official

44:07

members of the English estate's

44:10

posse, they were each associated

44:12

with the gang. A

44:14

story printed in newspapers across the

44:16

country said that quote, although police

44:18

have recovered more than a dozen

44:20

weapons, none have been linked

44:23

to the shooting. According

44:25

to the report, police quote displayed

44:27

a pellet gun and

44:29

several toy weapons officers obtained during

44:31

the arrest of the 16 year

44:34

old. Sheriff Jim

44:36

McMillan was still confident quote,

44:38

while those arrested do not directly

44:41

involve the I-295

44:43

incidents, we feel confident that

44:46

the arrest of these individuals

44:48

has significantly reduced the probability

44:50

of reoccurrence. Police

44:53

in the National Guard claimed victory

44:55

when the incidents suddenly seem to

44:57

come to a halt. But

45:00

I have to wonder if the 10 foot

45:02

walls they erected across the

45:04

highway of death might have

45:06

been what stopped the assaults

45:08

along with the constant presence

45:11

of heavily armed authorities and

45:13

the massive amount of national

45:15

attention. Because the truth

45:17

is that the charges were

45:20

all eventually dropped against the

45:22

English estate's posse members

45:25

and all of the I-295

45:28

crimes remain unsolved

45:30

to this day.

45:34

Just a month before I-295 was dubbed the

45:38

Highway of Death, another

45:40

crime across the country

45:42

also blamed on a gang

45:45

initiation was shaking Stockton,

45:47

California. It was

45:49

the night of September 18th and 29 year old school

45:54

secretary Kelly Fried was sitting in

45:56

the passenger seat of a car

45:58

driven by her friend Will

46:00

Fitz when a vehicle pulled up

46:02

behind them without its headlights on.

46:06

Will stuck his hand out the

46:08

window and gestured for the car

46:10

to turn them on, and that's

46:12

when the other vehicle started following

46:14

them aggressively. One of

46:16

the two Latino youths that were

46:18

eventually charged with this crime pulled

46:20

out a gun and shot at

46:23

the back of Kelly's car, the

46:25

bullet breaking through the taillight, cutting

46:27

through the passenger seat and fatally

46:30

wounding her on the left side of her

46:32

back. Though police

46:34

and newspapers called this a

46:36

gang initiation, the shooter

46:39

said that he took Will's gesture

46:41

as a sign of personal disrespect

46:43

and claimed that he shot the

46:45

car not to murder the occupants

46:47

but to scare them, and the

46:50

fact that the bullet passed through

46:52

the taillight and into Kelly's back

46:54

was a horrific accident, but of

46:56

course we can't know if that

46:58

was the truth. What

47:00

we do know is that the shooter was just 16

47:03

years old and his accomplice 15, and

47:05

neither were

47:08

members of any gang nor

47:10

participating in any kind of

47:12

initiation, as later confirmed by

47:15

police. We were

47:17

driving around, we were loaded. From his tiny

47:19

cell at the California Youth Authority, Carlos Ojeda,

47:21

the kid who at age 13

47:24

showed the most promise, now discusses

47:26

his role in one of Stockton's

47:28

most notorious crimes, the killing of

47:30

29-year-old Kelly Freed. They put their

47:32

little hands up and they turned their headlights, you know, trying

47:34

to help us out, and we took a disrespectful manner and

47:37

we more or less chased them down and we shot the

47:39

car, we shot one single time and hit the back of

47:41

the car and they hit our victim, Ms. Kelly Freed, and

47:43

it killed her. So we tried to

47:46

escape the violence. The

47:48

imagery provided by this story,

47:51

a car of young gangbangers

47:53

coming after a white school

47:55

employee in the prime of

47:57

her life, fit a

47:59

national narrative that already

48:01

existed. The local

48:04

papers reported the story this

48:06

way. From the freeway

48:08

to the funeral home, one sees the

48:10

side of Stockton any city likes to

48:12

present to the world. Quiet,

48:15

tree-lined streets lined by

48:18

tidy, single-family homes. The

48:21

perception is of a modest yet comfortable

48:23

community at peace with itself. This

48:26

was Kelly Freed's Stockton. The

48:30

funeral home where hundreds have come

48:32

to pay last respects is near

48:34

downtown, a demarcation

48:36

point between her world and

48:39

the less scenic, harder-edged areas

48:41

where peace has been lost

48:44

to gangs and crime and

48:46

drugs. The two

48:48

cultures clashed last Friday night, and

48:51

Kelly Freed, 29, was

48:54

a casualty. More

48:57

after this. And

49:02

now back to the show.

49:06

Several folklorists, including urban

49:08

legend patron saint Jan

49:10

Bruhnvant and Snopes co-creator

49:13

Barbara Mickelson, pointed to

49:15

this misunderstood event as

49:17

a likely catalyst for

49:19

the big lights-out panic

49:22

of 1993. So

49:25

many of the elements are

49:28

there, the flashing headlights, the

49:30

car following the Good Samaritan,

49:33

and a murder by boys

49:35

assumed to be gang members

49:38

that I think this event has

49:40

to have informed the urban legend

49:42

in some way. But

49:45

I would also like to look

49:47

at some major events that were

49:49

playing out on a far bigger

49:51

stage than the hyper-local story of

49:53

Kelly Freed's untimely death. In

49:56

the spring of 1992, a few months later, the city was closed.

49:58

The city was closed. The city was closed. before her

50:01

death, the Rodney King riots

50:03

exploded across Los Angeles after

50:05

a black man was severely

50:08

beaten by white police officers

50:10

in footage shown across news

50:13

channels all over the country.

50:16

The four officers charged

50:18

with excessive force were

50:20

eventually acquitted after a

50:22

very public trial and

50:24

the six days following

50:26

became the most destructive

50:28

period of localized unrest

50:31

in US history. Just

50:35

days before the riots, on April 28, 1992,

50:37

leaders of various factions of the Crips and

50:44

the Bloods participated in what

50:47

was called the Watts Truth.

50:50

They signed an official peace

50:52

treaty to join the LA

50:54

black community together to end

50:56

the very real gang violence

50:58

and murder that continued to

51:00

harm their neighborhoods. The

51:03

truce has lasted now for three weeks. Members

51:06

of the two main rival gang factions,

51:08

the Crips and the Bloods, now attend

51:10

frequent parties together. Where

51:14

there had been an average of two gang

51:16

related killings a day, authorities confirmed that the

51:19

killings by black gangs have stopped. There

51:40

was, in fact, a

51:42

noteworthy drop in LA

51:44

gang violence following this

51:46

truce. And it

51:49

was replicated in many cities across

51:51

the country and is now

51:53

considered one of the reasons for a

51:55

drop in violent crime throughout the 90s

51:57

and 2000s. But

52:00

the majority of law enforcement weren't

52:02

keen to give credit to the

52:05

gangs that they had been fighting,

52:07

and some claimed that the Bloods

52:09

and the Crips were joining forces

52:11

not to create peace,

52:14

but rather to plan a

52:16

war on police, though

52:18

they provided no evidence for

52:21

this aside from their anonymous

52:23

informants. By this

52:25

point, as we'll discuss at

52:28

length in part two of

52:30

our series, the stories of

52:32

inner-city terror boosted the law

52:34

and order talking points that

52:37

had long benefited the campaigns

52:39

of politicians and district attorneys,

52:41

the funding of police departments,

52:44

and the bottom line of

52:47

fear-baiting media. And

52:49

after the Crips and Bloods held this

52:51

summit, one homicide

52:53

detective told reporters a

52:56

new version of the story.

52:58

Quote, It's not as

53:01

if the truce means that the gang

53:03

members have found God or suddenly seen

53:05

the light. They are

53:07

just as violent. But

53:09

they have shifted their activities away from each

53:11

other and toward the community.

53:14

All of this was also

53:16

taking place a few months

53:18

before the presidential election between

53:20

George Bush Sr. and Bill

53:23

Clinton. They're a new

53:25

generation of Democrats, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and

53:27

they don't think the way the old Democratic Party

53:29

did. They've called for an end to welfare as

53:31

we know it, so welfare can be a second

53:33

chance, not a way of life. They've

53:36

sent a strong signal to criminals by

53:38

supporting the death penalty, Clinton-Gore, for people,

53:40

for a change. It

53:44

had been 12 years since a

53:46

Democrat had held the highest office

53:48

in the nation, and the

53:50

party had started to

53:52

realize that the Republican

53:54

election strategy that seemed

53:56

most effective was their

53:58

aggressive law. and order

54:01

rhetoric and policies. Many

54:04

establishment Democrats believed it was

54:06

time to get tough on

54:08

crime and stay tough on

54:11

crime. It was time for

54:13

a showdown to see who

54:15

was willing to go the

54:17

furthest to punish the American

54:19

evil doers. Bill

54:22

Clinton, who was referred

54:24

to sometimes as America's

54:26

first black president, was

54:29

relatively popular with black

54:31

leaders, and his party was

54:33

well aware that the greater

54:35

black community was probably not

54:37

going to vote for George

54:40

Bush, Sr. Confident

54:42

that he already had the

54:45

black vote, Clinton needed a

54:47

way to prove to white

54:49

centrist voters that regardless of

54:51

this, he would not be

54:53

a puppet for the radical

54:55

black agenda. In

54:58

an extremely well-publicized exchange

55:01

between the future president

55:03

and controversial black figure

55:05

Jesse Jackson, Clinton shamed

55:08

him for allowing Sister

55:10

Soulja, an activist, rapper,

55:12

and former member of

55:15

Public Enemy, to speak

55:17

as part of what Jackson

55:19

dubbed his Rainbow Coalition

55:21

panel, pointing out her

55:23

inflammatory rhetoric that had

55:25

recently been printed in

55:28

The Washington Post. Let's

55:31

listen. You

55:33

had a rap singer here last night

55:36

named Sister Soulja. I

55:38

defend her right to express herself through music,

55:42

but her comments before and after Los Angeles were

55:44

filled with the kind of hatred

55:46

that you do not honor today and tonight. Just

55:49

listen to this, what

55:52

she said. She

55:54

told The Washington Post about a month ago, and

55:57

I quote, if black people

55:59

kill black every day. Why

56:01

not have a week and kill white people? So

56:04

you're a gang member and you'd normally kill

56:06

somebody, why not kill a white

56:08

person? Last year

56:10

she said you can't call me or any black person

56:12

anywhere in the world a racist. We

56:15

don't have the power to do to white people

56:17

what white people have done to us and even

56:19

if we did we don't have that low-down dirty

56:21

nature. If there are any

56:23

good white people I haven't met them. Where are they? Right

56:25

here in this room. That's

56:28

where they are. While

56:31

Sister Solja maintained that these

56:33

statements were taken out of

56:35

context, Clinton put

56:37

these words in any

56:40

American household paying attention

56:42

to the landmark election.

56:45

These comments certainly made a

56:47

lot of Americans upset. Those

56:51

who had just witnessed on

56:53

their televisions a fiery uprising

56:55

against police violence they didn't

56:58

understand and who had been

57:00

inundated with sensational media

57:02

stories and political speeches

57:04

about gang violence, drugs

57:07

and juvenile crime who

57:09

perhaps had heard two

57:12

legends about random innocent

57:14

people just like

57:17

them targeted in

57:19

bloody, heartless initiation

57:21

rituals. I

57:24

think that this could have all

57:26

contributed to a sense that each

57:28

and every good Samaritan was in

57:31

grave danger, a target,

57:33

any time, any place,

57:36

even deep in the safety of

57:38

the American suburbs and

57:40

the good small towns

57:42

where things like this

57:44

just don't happen. Newspaper

57:47

mentions of gang initiations

57:49

doubled in 1992 and

57:53

then doubled again in 1993 when the lights out

57:55

rumor burned through the

58:00

nation, city by city, town

58:03

by town, house by

58:05

house, fax by fax,

58:08

email by email, and

58:10

whisper by whisper, all

58:13

while authorities began a

58:15

crackdown on street gangs

58:17

that transformed the criminal

58:19

justice system in the

58:22

name of so-called law

58:24

and order. And

58:29

that's where we'll pick up for

58:32

part two of this Urban Legends

58:34

Hotline on gang initiations.

58:40

This was American

58:43

Hysteria. We'd love

58:45

it if you'd leave us a

58:47

message on our Urban Legends Hotline

58:49

about a tale that you remember

58:51

from growing up. You can

58:54

find that at americanhysteria.com. And

58:57

while you're there, you could check out our merch

58:59

as well. If you'd like

59:02

to get more of our

59:04

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59:06

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59:08

Plus. You'll get ad-free

59:10

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like the talk show that

59:15

I do with our producer

59:17

Miranda called Hysteria Home Companion,

59:19

where we tell you stories

59:21

left out from the episodes

59:23

and tell you our personal

59:26

feelings about the topics. And

59:28

sometimes we'll tell you a story that

59:30

has nothing to do with anything, but

59:33

we know that you'll love. So

59:35

if that sounds up your alley

59:37

and you'd like to support our

59:39

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59:48

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really helps us out. American

59:56

Hysteria is written, produced and

59:58

hosted by me, Chelsea Weber.

1:00:01

Smith. Our associate producer and

1:00:03

sound designer is Riley Swadellius

1:00:05

Smith. Our producer is Miranda

1:00:08

Zichler. And our voice actor

1:00:10

is Will Rogers. Thanks

1:00:13

as always for listening. And

1:00:15

I encourage you, despite the

1:00:17

rumors, to try to be

1:00:20

a good Samaritan.

1:00:23

Have a great week.