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Mysterious gang of thugs

M

mr_micawber

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Oct 10, 2005
Messages
12
Hello everyone.

I enjoyed telling you all about my Dad’s ghostly heretic and I have always had an interest in the unexplained. Despite this I have never had the pleasure of seeing any ghosts or UFO’s but there is one incident in my life that whilst not being of a supernatural nature is rather strange.

This incident goes back to 1984. I grew up in Bolton, in the North West of England and I went to the local comprehensive (called Canonslade) near my house. One day I remember going to school (I was in the 3rd year, what is now known as grade 9) and there was an excited but nervous buzz around the playground.

“It’s the warriors, they are coming to get us”. I was bemused “Who the %&$ are the warriors” I asked? Well rumour had gone around that a group of thugs called the warriors were due to drive their van into the playground of my school, get out of it and then with various unpleasant weapons beat the living daylights out of everyone. This prediction was going around the school and being repeated time after time. Some of the younger pupils were quite upset and scared. The teachers irritated by being repeatedly asked about it were dismissive and told us not to be so stupid. However the rumour would not go away. Few people were concentrating on lessons with all eyes gazing anxiously out of the window into the playground. Any vans are trucks that drove into the school proved a fearful reaction.

By lunchtime the school was in a frenzy. The teachers tried to reassure everyone that there was no such gang but the dinner ladies were not so certain. One of the dinner ladies has heard that they had already been to a neighbouring school and foolishly told me this. This of course whipped the excitement up even more.

So did the warriors come and beat the crap out of everyone? No they didn’t but the weird part of the story is this. After the school day ended and all the pupils (some with nervous glances over their shoulders) left school, I arrived home. My mother was already home, at the time she herself was a dinner lady at another school. Before I could say anything she said “Oh its been a terrible day at Castle Hill, all the children were convinced a gang called the warriors who were going to come to school and hurt them”. As these were primary school kids they were really upset and frightened and many had refused to even set foot in the playground and many were clinging to the dinner ladies like limpets. As at my school the teachers knew nothing about it but some of the other dinner ladies had heard of the mysterious thugs paying visits to other schools. How strange I thought two different schools in one day.

Next day our local paper “Bolton Evening News” had headlines “School children in terror of mysterious gang of thugs”. It seemed that virtually every school in Bolton on the very same day had all had their own “warriors day”. The police had been inundated with calls from worried members of the public but said to the best of their knowledge no such group existed and had certainly never attacked anyone. He was at a loss to explain where these stories had come from.

That’s about it, I often think about this day and I mention it on the friends reunited board for my school. How do you start a rumour like this and then spread it so quickly to reach every child in a town on the same day??

Paul
 
Interesting - there is a film called 'The Warriors' which according to IMDb came out in 1979 (as an aside, it's well worth watching and is being made into a videogame by the folks behind the Grand Theft Auto series).

Perhaps someone's older sibling had seen the film and told a few pals about it, and this was overhead and misunderstood by those pals' younger siblings and the rumour spread from there ... nah, bit implausible methinks. :?
 
Interesting story, and it certainly rings true for my schooldays too - schools can be hotbed for mini-outbreaks of mass hysteria and spreading rumours. At my old primary school, we had stuff like:

Ghosts in the park one Winter, leading to a sizable number of children walking the long way round to get home (this was the 70s and in those days we tended to walk rather than be ferried around in 4x4s)

The "Phantom Window Tapper", mentioned in my very first post on this forum many years ago. One kid's claim that he'd heard something tapping on his window at night escalated, until it became a nocturnal Bigfoot / Spring-Heeled Jack hybrid living in the undergrowth on the disused railway line!

Best of the lot, a rumour which spread that the Bay City Rollers were going to pay a visit to the school. This one got so bad that the Head had to put on a special assembly where he stated categorically that the Scottish pop muppets were not coming, and furthermore, we were all very "silly" for thinking otherwise. Some disappointment from tartan scarf-wearing girls in the fourth year, but I was more of a Slade fan anyway...

As for how the "Warriors" panic managed to hit several different schools around the same time, did the panics occur on the same day, or were they spread over a period of time? If it's the latter, then it could just be down to kids talking about it to friends from other schools, overheard conversations on the bus, and so on.

I was put in mind of something which wasn't so traumatic sounding as the Warriors, but still puzzed me at the time. When I was in about the third year of secondary school, one boy had the habit of replying "I don't think so, somehow," in ubersarcastic tones at just about anything anybody said. I don't remember anyone saying it at all before him, but, kids being kids, usage of the phrase spread. I assumed that it was this one particular kid's saying, but over a period of months, I heard people from other schools saying it, and eventually it turned up on TV in an episode of Grange Hill (not a repeat either, so he can't have picked it up from there) with exactly the same tone to the voice. Logically, the kid must have got it from somewhere, probably a film or TV programme, but it's always seemed mildly odd that it should also be picked up by people at other schools at the same time. anybody else familiar with the phrase, and did it start to be used at your school circa 1982-3? ;)
 
As far as I'm aware, the there's-a-gang-of-toughs-gonna-beat-up-all-the-kids-in-school myth that occasionally circulates around primary schools (I don't think it happens so much in secondary schools) is fairly common. In my day (early to mid 1980s) it usually involved skinheads hanging around the school gates at hometime, who were going to 'kick our heads in' when we got out.

No-one, of course, actually bothered to ask why these skinheads had decided that all us kids were in need of a 'good kickin'. And the fact that not a single skinhead had ever showed up previously didn't reduce the power of the current rumour at all.

Happy days, eh.
 
barfing_pumpkin said:
No-one, of course, actually bothered to ask why these skinheads had decided that all us kids were in need of a 'good kickin'. And the fact that not a single skinhead had ever showed up previously didn't reduce the power of the current rumour at all.

Happy days, eh.
Click to expand...

That's reminded me of yet another rumour from my youth, which seemed to happen every year without fail, and for all I know is still happening. In mid July, the town carnival always kicked off with a big bonfire and fireworks on the beach, and there was always word going round amongst the hard lads (of the denim jacketed, Status Quo-patch and Doc Martens-wearing persuasion back in my day) that a busload of thugs from Hull were on their way to cause trouble. Every time this led to cider-swilling teenagers arming themselves, usually with bits of bonfire wood, preparing to man the barricades and defend the bonfire (and the town's honour) against these shadowy intruders. And every time, it never happened. One year, I remember an agitated hairy running up and shouting that the "Hullies" had just done over the market place, but walking back through the town in the small hours, it seemed rather quiet, considering the pitched battle which had allegedly occured...
 
Rumours, eh

Yeah, this is what happens when some incredible cretin starts a rumour....
 
In the early to mid 1970s - I was at 'junior school' but can't recall the exact year - there was a rumour going round that small children and animals were being preyed upon by an eagle owl.

There was actually an escaped eagle owl at the time but it was interpreted amongst the local school children, in various local schools, that this feathered fiend would swoop down and, in its grim talons, make-off with a doomed child - destined to be an owl's main course.

This went on for a couple of weeks and the more it went on, the more a twisted logic began to apply: it hasn't attacked yet, so it has to soon as it must be starving from not having any children to eat.

I can't remember how it all ended.
 
Every so often, here in the Detroit area, there's a rumor that goes around about a murder that's going to happen at one of the area colleges. On Hallowe'en, IIRC. I's even made it onto the local news. The fact that it's a rumor, I mean.
 
Chased by Possibly Paranormal Thugs

One Saturday evening back in 1962 I leisurely strolled through the town center of my quiet little North Kentucky hometown.

It was in fact much quieter than normal. There should have been people out and about at 6:30 or 7:00 P. M. It was still nearly full daylight, but it seemed a ghost town inhabited only by myself.

But just then a "mob" of screaming thugs "materialized" just behind me, arriving from the traditional "out of nowhere.". It was made up of 15 or 20 members, all around my own age (circa 20 or 21) but I did not recognize a single face. (Unusual in itself in a town of barely 7500 souls.) All the faces were snarled in hatred.

"K!ll the filthy no-good queer!" they shouted. "Beat the f--- out of the godforsaken faggot!"

And they meant ME. [Let me emphasize here that I was then as I still am today - 100 percent straight and entirely heterosexual.]

I ran diagonally across the street, towards a Roman Catholic church on the opposite corner, praying that the doors wouldn't be locked..

They were open. I had just gotten both feet inside the vestibule when the mob arrived.

"S---, he's gone inside a CHURCH!" I heard through the thick oak door. "We can't get him in THERE!"

The church had a nearly-equal number of people inside, Catholics waiting for Saturday evening confessions in preparation for taking Communion at Sunday Mass.

I waited 10 or 15 minutes before peering out the door. There was absolutely no sight or sign of the mob. People once again promenaded on the streets - friends and neighbors whom I knew.

As for the "lynch mob" - I never saw any of them again, singly or en masse, not ever, ever again.
 
I think this MUST have something to do with the film The Warriors - it's too close to be a coincidence.

It's worth watching, BTW. :D
 
From Mike Dash's Borderlands (pp 25-26):
To Houston, Texas, where in 1983 a curious panic spread among children in the city. A vicious gang of Smurfs were said to be marauding through the city's schools, massacring pupils and slaughtering headmasters. The murderous cartoon characters, armed with knives and machine guns, were thought by some to be killing anybody wearing sky-blue; others insisted that only those who put on blue clothes were safe.

...Investigation suggested that the panic began after a TV news report on the arrest of several youths from a street gang named 'The Smurfs' became embroidered with fantasy.
Click to expand...
smurf.gif
 
Mob

BIg_Slim said:
:shock: "i would have moved...just in case"
Click to expand...

But this was my home town which I loved (and still love) very much. It was home to BOTH sides of my family - back to great-great-grandparents on my Mother's side, great-grandparents on my Dad's. Even here in Cincinnati, Ohio, today, I live only around three or four miles away.
 
yeah i would have stayed too but my first reaction would be
to run.
Quite a scary situation
 
How's this for a weird coinicidence? I have been following this post for the last few days and then today, while driving, I saw a billboard for a movie called The Warriors. Apparently, they've remade that old movie!
 
I remember hearing a similar rumour, only while I was in high school. I was about 16-17 and at a friend's house with my then-bf and a few other people, and I remember the guys talking excitedly amongst themselves about this "big fight" which was supposed to take place downtown sometime that day. No one quite knew who was instigating it or why, just that it was supposed to happen. With older kids, as we were, I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to sort of will it into being anyway, i.e. it gets around, enough people go down, someone gets stupid and throws a punch and then it's game on.

(apols. for grammar, it's way too late and I have about 864 unread threads to catch up on)
 
We had almost the exact story . Our gang was called the Smilers , and they were a gang of bovver booted skinheads driving around all the schools in the Glasgow area (in a dirty black van with a pirate logo on the side). We kept on hearing rumours about schools getting the Smiler treatment (they would pick a kid at random , and using a stanley knife slash the kid at either side of the mouth , creating a smiley-face effect , hence the origin of their nickname.

I remember the mass panic when the schools that were getting the Smiler treatment were getting closer and closer , so one day it was decided that it would be our turn that day . The headteacher called an emergency assembly to quell the panic . To this day I still have an image of our PE teacher stood at the school gates in his pea-green tracksuit , brandishing a cricket bat , on the lookout for the mysterious black van .

Needless to say , nothing ever happened .

Coincidentally , our school had a resident tramp who used to live in the trees . The rumour was that he was a vampire . The rumour spread like wildfire , to the extent that we were all kept indoors one day , while the tramp was politely asked to vacate his tree . We were petrified when he went , thinking that he'd curse us all and fly into our bedrooms at night and drink our blood.
 
I also lived in Bolton at the same time and went to smithills down crompton way/ moss bank way away... I recall this rumour but rather than it going round on a single day I remember it having some days to properly gather speed. In the story I was told they were Asians too. A girl who lived round the corner from me told me she had actually seen them and, get this... she said there were so many that they blocked out the sun!! I laughed my hat off and asked how had they achieved that then, by standing on each others shoulders?? She then started laughing realising her embellishment had gone way to far. There are things that should be taken into account with this
1) The Warriors film at that time before millions of films were available across many formats. I never really knew anyone to actually buy a film in those days just rent them from the shop. Warriors was a film kids watched over and over at the time... along with The Wanderers, another gang film
So there is the name.
2) In my personal hearing of the tale the baddies were asians. In the catchment area for smithills school I think it was 50% asian then.. now it is more like 80%... was the extra element of the gang being asian reflective of the perhaps bigoted views the children heard at home and then tacked onto a growing story ?
i figure it is the whole fear of the unknown... skinhead culture... panic-'oh the skin heads are coming!'.... mainly asian neighbourhoods expanding ..panic- 'Oh the asians are taking over'.... hooded street urchins drinking rubbish cider on the park... panic- 'The Hoodies are going to get us!!'
I heard it the other night from a neighbour- 'yeah they come and crawl under the wall so you can't see them then throw stones at the window and run off, they all have over one hundred pounds worth of cannabis in their pockets' These folks are scared of the children who no one has ever seen doing this stone throwing and the rest is straight out of the newspaper and off the telly.
What is the whole war on terrorism other than a rumour that 'they' are going to come and get us. Only the faceless terrorists are the subject now rather that faceless skinheads, football fans, asians, red necks blah blah
 
Yeah, at my school it was a white van full of evil clowns. ah, the young mind's capacity for terror...
 
Bob, Tell Us More!

undergroundbob said:
"Yeah, at my school it was a white van full of evil clowns."

Bob, PLEASE tell us more. Where was the school and what was the (approximate) year? If this is an unrecorded "evil clown van" panic/rumor it's important to get it into the literature.

Thank you very much,

Old Time Radio (George Wagner in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA)
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And yes the oriignal Warriors was released in 1979:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0080120/

A directors cut was just released:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000A ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000A6T ... enantmc-20

but word on the street is the oriignal is better:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000054 ... enantmc-20

------
There is a remake in the works:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0423512/

-------
And a computer game out recently:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0486048/

PS2:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001AV ... enantmc-20

XBox:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000B ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00082Z ... enantmc-20

---------------------
So all very timely ;)
 
in liverpool. at least one of the somali youth gangs calls themselves the warriors, was told a good few years back this was froma nickname given to some somalians who had fought in the somalian civil war.

or had watched the warriors.

sidenote:

does the phrase "don't f*ck with the baldies" come from the warriors film? from the turnbull ac's gang?
 
The quote there- 'd*n't fuck with the baldies' is from the Wanderers.
Others of note from the film are-
'Leave the kid alone'
'damn too much twine'
'I didn't say you looked like pricks with ears, I said you looked like a bunch of ears without pricks'

of course you would have to be into the film before they became quotes of note.

The big fight at the end is one of the best on film
 
gerardwilkie said:
We had almost the exact story . Our gang was called the Smilers , and they were a gang of bovver booted skinheads driving around all the schools in the Glasgow area (in a dirty black van with a pirate logo on the side). We kept on hearing rumours about schools getting the Smiler treatment (they would pick a kid at random , and using a stanley knife slash the kid at either side of the mouth , creating a smiley-face effect , hence the origin of their nickname.
Click to expand...
In Japanese folklore there is an entity called a Kuchisake Onna who is a woman (or, alternatively, her ghost) whose face had a hideous grin cut into it usually either by a gang or by an abusive husband. She now haunts the land seeking to slit the faces of others with her sickle. Apparently, this entity made a mass-hysterical comeback in 1979 in certain parts of Japan. During this time period her attacks were mostly on children. An excellent post on her here and more info here including a nice little IHTM story.
 
aha just like 'Ichi the killer' that terribibly blood soaked cartoon and also I think a film of last year-ish

He had the staples in his wide mouth grin didn't he?
 
milk23 said:
The quote there- 'd*n't fuck with the baldies' is from the Wanderers.
Others of note from the film are-
'Leave the kid alone'
'damn too much twine'
'I didn't say you looked like pricks with ears, I said you looked like a bunch of ears without pricks'

of course you would have to be into the film before they became quotes of note.

The big fight at the end is one of the best on film
Click to expand...

I always thought the Wanderers to be a much, much better film than the Warriors. I agree about the fight scene too. Very brutal and very strange at the same time. In fact, for a film that's often thought of as being fairly frothy, it has some pretty dark moments.
 
milk23 said:
aha just like 'Ichi the killer' that terribibly blood soaked cartoon and also I think a film of last year-ish

He had the staples in his wide mouth grin didn't he?
Click to expand...

Even more like Gwynplain from Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs.

E-Book link from Project Guttenberg : http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12587
 
Creamstick1 said:
milk23 said:
aha just like 'Ichi the killer' that terribibly blood soaked cartoon and also I think a film of last year-ish

He had the staples in his wide mouth grin didn't he?
Click to expand...

Even more like Gwynplain from Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs.

E-Book link from Project Guttenberg : http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12587
Click to expand...

Never heard of that one , need to check it out . When I first saw Ichi the Killer , it reminded me of the Smilers- I couldn't help wondering if the Smilers had made a trip to Japan , and he was a schoolboy victim.
 
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