Street Wars: The Legend of Cody Blue

By Walter Bailey

I was born and raised in the City of Philadelphia, PA., the City known famously throughout the world as the City of Brotherly Love. But for me growing up as a young boy and countless others it was a City more infamously known as the City of Brotherly Hate. It was during the late 60s a time that will live with me for the rest of my life. A time of great music the Temptations the Supremes Smokey Robinson and the Miracles just to name a few. A time world history was being made by men like Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 landing upon the Moon. A time the world would suffer the tragic loss of three great men the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. And also a time when street gangs of Philadelphia plagued the city with death and violence.
I was a part of that gang culture I was a member of one of the largest gangs in West Philadelphia the 56th & Cedar Avenue gang. A violent gang of sociopathic drug addicts alcoholics and killers. They were my family my friends my peers my gang members and some my heros. I make no excuses for my being a part of this violent gang culture. There were no Doctors lawyers or wealthy business men who lived in my neighborhood. The people who had the wealth the money the finer things in life were the Pimps the Hustlers the Drug dealers. They were the people I admired the most and I wanted to be just like them. And so I would spend the most part of my youth in a world of street hustling drug dealing and most of all in a gang of violence and death.
This is not just my story it is the story of countless others who are no longer here to tell it. I by the grace of God did survive and I am compelled to tell this true story. Not just for myself but for the countless others who did not survive the violence of street gangs. And for anyone else my story may save from a world of violence and death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493123926

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Copyright © 2014 by Walter Bailey.

ISBN:          Softcover          978-1-4931-2391-9

                   eBook              978-1-4931-2392-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 05/31/2014

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Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgement

Chapter 1     The legend was born

Chapter 2     Alter Street Lost in a world of violence

Chapter 3     Mr. Cedar Avenue

Chapter 4     The race for arms

Chapter 5     See you in hell first

Chapter 6     I am my brothers’ keeper

Chapter 7     A touch of Blue

Chapter 8     Trick or Treat

Chapter 9     All things must come to an end

Chapter 10   The Mighty Moon has fallen

Chapter 11   My Worse Nightmare has Comes True

Chapter 12   Black Jesus and the Disciples of Death

The Final Chapter

Epilogue       He, who lives by the sword, dies by the sword

Foreword

I was born and raised in the City of Philadelphia, PA., the City known famously throughout the world as the City of Brotherly Love. But for me growing up as a young boy and countless others it was a City more infamously known as the City of "Brotherly Hate. It was during the late 60’s a time that will live with me for the rest of my life. A time of great music the Temptations the Supremes Smokey Robinson and the Miracles just to name a few. A time world history was being made by men like Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 landing upon the Moon. A time the world would suffer the tragic loss of three great men the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. And also a time when street gangs of Philadelphia plagued the city with death and violence.

I was a part of that gang culture I was a member of one of the largest gangs in West Philadelphia the 56th & Cedar Avenue gang. A violent gang of sociopathic drug addicts alcoholics and killers. They were my family my friends my peers my gang members and some my hero’s. I make no excuses for my being a part of this violent gang culture. There were no Doctors lawyers or wealthy business men who lived in my neighborhood. The people who had the wealth the money the finer things in life were the Pimps the Hustlers the Drug dealers. They were the people I admired the most and I wanted to be just like them. And so I would spend the most part of my youth in a world of street hustling drug dealing and most of all in a gang of violence and death.

This is not just my story it is the story of countless others who are no longer here to tell it. I by the grace of God did survive and I am compelled to tell this story. Not just for myself but for the countless others who did not survive the violence of street gangs. And for anyone else my story may save from a world of violence and death.

Acknowledgement

First I sincerely and humbly apologize for any errors in grammar editing and lack of a professional writing technique. My book is raw and gritty but most of all every word is based on facts truth and reality. Street Wars may never make the New York Times best seller list or win the coveted Nobel Peace award. But if one person reads my book and it changes their life or someone else s’ life for the better my mission for writing this book will have been accomplished.

I thank God first and foremost for without his grace mercy and blessing this book would not have come to fruition. I would like to also thank Donna Powell. She has been an inspiration for my writing this book, believing in me giving me the confidence to endeavor to convey my message. It is a message to those who unfortunately do not have someone in their life to guide them away from a life of drugs death and violence.

I would like to also thank Wal-Mart Photo Center and Fuji film for the great job they did in restoring the old photos of the 58th & Alter Street gang and Cody Blue.

Chapter 1

The legend was born

Growing up in Philadelphia during the late 60’s was a time that will live with me for the rest of my life. It was a time of great music, beautiful women, fun times, and street gangs. From the time of Benjamin Franklin the city of Philadelphia has been know as the city of brotherly love, for me as a young boy growing up it was more like the city of brotherly hate a city consumed with violence and death.

The city, was divided into sections among them where North Philadelphia, South and West Philadelphia. I was born and raised in West Philadelphia. Throughout these sections of the city large and small gangs inundated the streets. I was a member of one of the largest gangs in West Philadelphia known as the 56th & Cedar Avenue gang.

I do not know why gangs existed in Philadelphia when they did, except to say when I was growing up there they were as much a part of the city as William Penn a top of city hall. West Philadelphia was further divided in half there was a North side and a South side. I grew up on the south side on a street named Alter. I was not aware at the time just how major a role that would play in the destiny of my life.

Growing up as a young boy on Alter street I was very much aware of the gangs activity but not yet a part of it. I was forbidden by a very forthright grandmother from associating with bad ass hoodlums she would say. Strangely enough I would learn so much about these hoodlums from my grandfather. They even had a nick name they would call my grandfather Pot and Pans, I never did find out why they called him that. But I always thought it cool that the toughest guys in my neighborhood liked my grandfather.

On most nights my grandfather would come home from a long hard day of work and as he would unwind and prepare for dinner he would tell us about the people and things he would encounter from the time he would leave for work in the morning and upon his return home at night. My brother and I would sit and listen fascinated about the adventures he would describe to us in his encounters with these bad ass hoodlums of the neighborhood.

When my grandfather would tell us of his adventures circumventing the neighborhood of these bad ass hoodlums he would always speak particularly about a group of brothers. They were the Gladson brothers Willie, Russell, Larry, Tyree and Michael. They were known as the blue brothers. Not because they sang down on my luck, my woman left me I need a drink blues. They were called the blue brothers because of their dark complexion. Early on people on the streets use to call them coal miners forty-niners. As legend has it Willie Gladson the oldest did not like the connotation at all. That there dark complexion was compared to the black sot that covered the faces of coalminers. At one point he had had enough and one day someone of a considerable size larger than he called him a coalminer and Willie Gladson punched him out cold. And from then on he would whop anyone’s ass who called him coalminer. After that he was never again called a coalminer or anything else derogatory, The legend was born.

He was from then on known as Cody blue. It was as though the streets were affording him a moniker more favorable a reputation of a notorious fast on the draw old west gun fighter. For a time Philadelphia did indeed felt like Dodge City of the old west and Cody blue was our Wild bill Hitchcock.

My first sight of Cody blue was the way a boy sees his hero in person for the first time. After hearing so many of my grandfathers’ stories about him I imagine him to be bigger than life, and he was. At 6ft. 3 and about 220 lbs. all muscle, for me a young boy of fourth teen he was a gladiator. During the early days of street gang wars, gangs would settle many disputes with a one on one fight. The two gangs would pick one member each to fight the other gang member. My first encounter with Cody blue was him fighting just such a fight against the biggest young boy I had ever seen in my life. As a matter of fact I thought this boy was a grown man. He was known in the streets as big Muss a member of the 61st and Cobbs Creek gang, The Creek gang was Cedar Avenues number one nemesis. They were almost as large as the Cedar Avenue gang, but what made them such arch-rivals was the fact that the two gangs were divided by just one street block, 59th & Ellsworth. Ellsworth was the very next street after Alter, Which was the beginning of the Cedar Avenue turf in that part of the neighborhood. I never knew big Muss’ real name but I sure admired him for he had heart, almost as big as he was. To be in the middle of the street fighting a guy who I thought was Muhammad Ali, Hercules and Superman all rolled up in one. And Muss not that much older than I was, I was absolutely amazed. You see no one from the Whole Creek gang and I mean no one out of about 250 members wanted to fight Cody blue. No one except this young behemoth named big Muss. This was a contest between these two gladiators which would continue for many more times to come. This was my first time to witness this contest between these two titans but not my last. For the Creek and Cedar Avenue would continue to fight for many more times to come and they were not always one on one battles.

Every gang in the city had at least one other gang that was considered a hated rival. There also existed kindred alliances as well. For Cedar Avenue the Strongest bond between two gangs existed between Cedar Avenue and the Moon gang which was located on the North side of West Philadelphia. There was no gang in all of West Philadelphia larger than the Moon gang. They controlled the entire North side of West Philadelphia and there number one rival at the time was the Barbary Coast gang, 57th and Ludlow St. How sophisticated it must seem that street gangs fought one another with a sense of war rules as though they had read the book, the Art of war by Sun Tzu. An Example of such a rule was an enemy of my friend is an enemy of mine. This was just such a rule that was practiced routinely particularly between Cedar Avenue and the Moon gang, which is the crux behind Cedar Avenues’ involvement in the fight between the Barbary Coast and the Moon gang. This war will be one that will cause the first death of a Cedar Avenue gang member.

It is 1968 there is a war ragging on in Vietnam Richard Nixon announces his candidacy for President, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King are both assassinated. And the Barbary Coast gang makes a move on the Cedar Avenue gang at 57th and Catharine St. Out of all the gangs the Barbary Coast had to be the most unique. When they would move onto another gangs turf with bad intentions, they would all be wearing White apple hats. A white apple hat is a hat made by a designer named Kangol. There are two kinds of Kangol hats there is the regular and then a more stylish hat called the apple. The apple is a much larger more provocative looking hat. There would be no mistaking for who it was moving down in your turf when you would see this multitude of white apple hats heading in your direction.

It was just another warm summer day when the Barbary Coast decided it was a good day to push down on Cedar Avenue. They encountered some members of the Cedar Avenue gang and began to chase them. Thomas Bullock ran into the alley in an attempt to reach his house from the rear when a Coast gang member name Andre Druid shot and killed him. I will never forget going back later to that alley to see the blood stain ground where he laid bleeding to death. Now decades later I still see members of his family who still carry the painful memories of the lost of their beloved brother