Angel

As a child, Richard ("Angel") Williams found life in Philadelphia a bleak affair. Angel's father deserted his family when the boy was a baby. His mother developed tuberculosis. The boy was shipped from one institution to another, and after stealing a car, ended up in the reformatory. When Angel was turned loose last year, at 17, he energetically set out to make a name for himself.

Before he left the "walls," Angel had settled on a guiding principle: the cops can't beat a well-organized gang. He rounded up a tough reform-school graduate named Frank Matyasevic to act as his "enforcer," and then began recruiting young hoodlums for the Green Street Counts--"the most menacing gang of teen-agers," according to Detective Captain James Kelly, "ever to get together in this city."

"Let's Get Together." Angel saw to it that the Counts led privileged lives. They wore soft black felt hats with white bands, special T-shirts with "The Counts" lettered on them; dressed up, they wore small golden crowns on their lapels. The loot from a series of petty holdups and strong-arm robberies kept them well supplied with money; the Counts rented a $4O-a-month apartment, stocked it with whisky and used it as a place to bring chosen bobby-soxers. When a neighboring gang, the Brewerytowners, tried to muscle in on them, the Counts took them on in street fights. But Angel Williams, always the organizer, said, "This is a lousy setup. Let's get together." The result was the "Green Street Counts Peace Treaty."

"This is to certify that the Counts and Brewerytown have decided to sign a peace treaty . . . this day of Feb. 8, year of 1953," it read. "So be it known that the offended and defended called it off." It listed the table of organization of the new, bigger gang: "Sec. of War, Chief of War Intel., Chief of Armament, Chief of Territory, Spokesman and Comm. of Tactical Opr." It was signed with such gang names as Mousie, Muscles, Rickets, Hypo, Dippy, Slick, Shamus, Big Nick, and Luke the Spook.

"Let's Have Quiet." The Brewerytowners were still restive, but "Enforcer" Matyasevic took care of that: during one argument, he shot a Brewerytowner in the leg to cool him off and then accommodatingly dug out the slug with a razor blade. After that, the gang got down to more serious work. Last week five of them drove to a taproom in a stolen sedan. "Blackie" Battles, the lad who had been shot by the enforcer, stood outside with a high-powered rifle. One waited in the car, and the rest walked inside holding .32-cal. pistols.

"Let's have quiet," said Angel. "Take everything," said the bartender. The boys did--$50.85 from the cash register. But as they backed out, a man at the bar tossed a glass of beer in Angel's face. Angel killed him with five well-placed shots. Last week Angel was in jail, charged with murder.

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