Gang Rumble by Edward S Aarons

Originally published in 1958 by Avon under the pseudonym Edward Ronns

Aarons is from the mean streets of Philadelphia. Born in 1916 and died in 1975. He graduated from Columbia University. He was a World War 2 veteran. He wrote crime and detective stories but is most well-known for his long running, 42 entry espionage series, Assignment.

Gang Rumble.

I read this here beautiful reprint from Stark House Press. Available for purchase right here.

Video version here. Text version below.

The basic premise. Ne’er-do-well, Johnny Broom, warlord of the Philadelphia juvenile delinquent street gang, the Lancers, has dreams of being a big-time hood. He gets his first big assignment from local gangster, Comber, to help heist the very warehouse where his goody two shoe older brother Pete works security. Johnny enlists the help of his fellow Lancer, Stitch, a fat smelly, red headed kid, and Mike, a sociopathic rich kid who is new in town. Things go horribly wrong during the heist and now Johnny, Stitch and Mike are on the run, being hunted down like dogs by a violent alcoholic cop named Vallera.

If you’ve ever read one of Aarons Assignment Series books you’ll know the man is a master of delivering exciting and tense situations. You never know what’s going to happen next and this book is no different but instead of being whisked off to an exotic foreign locale you are transported back to the 1950s slums of Philadelphia. A black and white world of greaser juvenile delinquents, violent drunk cops, hooch and smack, petty crime, socials, poodle skirts and the mean streets of the ghetto. It’s a bleak world with a pinhole of hope.

Aarons sets us up gently. 17 year old, Johnny Broom is Warlord of the JD gang the Lancers. He is sitting on his roof contemplating the world. His dreams. His options. His place in the world and what the world has given him. It makes him bitter. His parents are dead. He lives on North Seventh street which everyone calls the Jungle with his older brother Pete. To young Johnny Broom, Pete is a sucker. He has a shit job working security on the overnight shift at a warehouse downtown. Pete is always trying to get Johnny to quit hanging around the gang and get a job but Johnny aint having it. He’s going to be somebody. And what Johnny wants to be is a gangster. Johnny is our protagonist and his own antagonist.

He recently made a deal with local “legitimate businessman” hood named Comber. Comber wants Johnny to exploit his relationship with his brother to let them in the warehouse so Comber’s crew can rob the place. Johnny has no problem using his brother or double crossing his own gang, the Lancers to come up in the ranks of crimedom. He enlists one other member of the Lancers to help him out. Stitch. A short fat smelly red headed yes man. As for the other members of the Lancers, he’s set them up to rumble with the neighbor JD street gang, the Violets to use as a distraction so the fuzz won’t interrupt the robbery. Johnny is their leader so what he says goes but there is some question as to why they are randomly hitting the Violets at their bowling alley HQ.

Johnny figures he needs one more man for the robbery crew so enlists new kid in town, Mike. Mike lives in the rich part of town. It’s never really said how the two meet so consider that an unplugged plot hole. Mike is a sociopath. A serial killer in his infant stages. We get a fun little scene where he talks with the older woman housekeeper who he is sleeping with. He belittles her psychologically and reminisce about the joy he felt that day that he dumped out her beloved fishbowl while she was in the bathroom, so he could watch the fish slowly suffocate, and then his favorite part of the moment was seeing how upset she was about the fish being dead.

Johnny and his little crew are being tracked by psychotic alcoholic cop Vallera. Who thinks the only way to deal with all of the JD gangs is to crack their skulls open. He literally wants to kill them. He has a more rational partner named Lew whom he is not a fan of because obviously Lew is a big pussy who doesn’t want to murder these kids. Also, Lew is dating Vallera’s angleic daughter Rose and he doesn’t like that either. Not because he doesn’t think Lew isn’t good enough for Rose, which he doesn’t, but mostly because if Rose marries Lew than Vallera will be left all alone to his sad pathetic drunk life.

As you can see, like most JD books this thing is bleak. The whole story takes place in real time. From the afternoon sitting on the rooftop until the next morning. Nothing goes Johnny’s way and now he’s on the run with a hefty prison sentence hanging over his head. In tow on the lamb is the crew he put together helping him sink further into the hole. His junkie girlfriend. His useless yes man and worst off all is Mike always encouraging the worst. Pushing him even further out on the plank while throwing chum to the sharks with a smile on his face.

It’s kind of an odd comparison but this reminds me of do the right thing. It’s the hottest night of the summer. Each chapter jumps from independent scenarios featuring the characters involved and each one is a step towards what you know will initially be the climax explosion. It’s exciting to have the story built this way.

Aarons writing is top notch of course and may be the most expertly written JD book I’ve ever read. There is a scene where Vallera and Lew are sitting outside the bowling alley waiting for the rumble. They have a ride along guest of a do-gooder social worker in the back seat who wants to try and talk to the kids, to calm the situation. Vallera nastily retorts that the only thing these kids need is to be beaten into submission. Lew is silently listening to all of this, wishing to be anywhere else. Aarons writes, "He thought he heard the distant rolling of thunder but it could have been only the heavy, heated pulse of angry blood in his ears." Which is just an absolutely colorful foreshadowing metaphor intertwined in the angry reaction of the moment. The storm is coming, literally and figuratively.

I think Aarons has some interesting takes on why some people resort to desperate measures. Johnny lives in a neighborhood with little to no hope of escape. Even if he plays it straight like his brother he would only break even. Mike on the other hand comes from a well-to-do family. His criminal activity is psychological. The violent cop, Vallera lives across the street from Johnny. He’s in the slums too. His reaction to violence is more violence. On the other hand you have the upper-class social crusader who thinks everything can be handled with conversation and understanding. And what I really enjoy is both are right and both are wrong. Life is complex and this novel is a vortex decimating everyone involved. This book is literature from the gutter and the best JD novel I’ve ever read.