I want to give a massive shout to James Genocide (his site is full of good stories!) for writing an in-depth story about the teenage violence we were a part of. There has been much said about the Suicidal Boyz vs L.A. Death Squad. I was at this show at the OLYMPIC AUDITORIUM and I got to say that this night was wild AF!
I wanted to shed some light on the Suicidal Boys part of the article because this is the scene that I was a part of when I first found punk rock. Usually people always talk about how violent we were, but they leave out the kinship we had with one another. We had a central meeting place, which was Mar Vista park, where we would meet up before shows and down beers. Also this park served as the place were the Suicidal softball & football leagues would play ball. Somedays we could also be seen at Penmar playing golf with the Suicidal golf club or at the bowling alley with the Suicidal bowling team. For me it was more of a band of brothers than it was a gang. That being said, many of us did have older brothers that were a part of the local gangs, plus being from Venice we were taught to represent our hood! Many of the kids that were in our scene had known each other since the first grade, so of course as we got older we had each others’ backs.
Sean
I don’t know what show was going on at The Olympic Auditorium that night in 1984 but I can tell you about The Battle Royal that went on in the parking lot and back alleys around the Olympic Auditorium that night between The Lads and The Suicidals.
I remember standing near the box office window with some friends when all of a sudden three Suicidals walked by like they were on patrol. They then walked out of the lot and across South Grand Avenue into the alley.
Lurch, Oliver and I gave each other the look and we immediately began to make our way across South Grand following these Suis through the alley towards South Olive.
Once we got as far as South Olive it was on … A three on three fight broke out with The Lads doing the ass whipping. We took control quickly with these guys and were making short order of them when some short black dude ran from out of nowhere and cold cocked Lurch in the side of the head. Lurch was already fighting with one guy when the black guy ran up and hit him from the side. More Suicidals entered the street now and the numbers were changing on us. Then the black guy pulls a knife on us, swinging wildly at Lurch and Oli. We end up in a stand off even though we’re already out numbered. They wouldn’t commit even though they out numbered us. So we begin to make our way through the alley heading back to The Olympic.
As we’re walking back we hear some shit coming from behind us and as we turn to look we now see a huge crowd of Suicidals at the end of the alley on South Olive.
Suicidal Boyz
Members of the crowd were pointing at us and with that the crowd began running at Lurch, Oli and I at full sprint! We began to run in the direction of the Olympic but about midway through the alley I was hit from behind by that black guy we had fought with earlier.
The black guy tackled me from behind and I rolled onto my back and swung up. He swung down, then the crowd arrived and kicked the living day lights out of me. Just dudes whaling on me and kicking me. I balled up, covering my face, on the ground, while they thrashed me.
Then, I felt it… Something being poked into my leather jacket. It was that black guy stabbing me in the back. I could feel the knife get stuck in my leather jacket as he was stabbing me.
So now, I’ve got this asshole stabbing me with a knife in the back while his friends are continuing to kick me everywhere else.
All of a sudden, all the beating, all the thrashing, just stopped and I just stood right up, but as I began to I could see Oli going off on two guys…. Swinging bombs on them. Then a third Suicidal stepped in and cut Oli in the head with some sort of a shank. The guys that had been kicking the shit out of me just stared at me with a shocked look of disbelief on their faces.
L.A. Death Squad
Gangster was at the end of the alley on South Grand seeing what was going on and he summoned a shit load of Lads and they began running up the alley and then Suicidals started getting swung on pretty good. Everyone was exhausted and beaten, every one of us had gotten into it. We began to head back to The Olympic and I remember being met up by members of FFF. These guys did me a solid that night by helping me out with first aid. They were prepared for anything in those days. They were serious, kinda para-military, like me and my friends so we always got along.
With everyone’s battle wounds cleaned up we started getting loaded up on liquor and shit in front of the box office area over at The Olympic again. It was all of us Lads plus FFF and Circle 1 just standing there in front of the box office, just hanging out waiting for it to go down.
Ten Suicidals walk through again like they’re on Patrol but this time Alex blows the whistle and the shit just fucking explodes in front of the box offices.
Everyone is ALL IN…. An unmeasured level of violence ensues with Suicidals just being destroyed from every direction. Suicidals began to run away from one beating only to run into another beating. The grotesque violence found it’s way onto South Grand. People in cars looked on in horror as Suicidals ran into the streets running from the crowd of Lads FFF and Circle 1 that were throwing rocks and bottles at them. Many Suis were hit by passing cars on South Grand and then beat up all over again.
We chased the bastards down the alley continuing to issue more beatings on anyone not fast enough to get out of our way.
The Lads were now joined by a whole set of younger guys from FFF and the violence really picked up steam again behind the McDonalds on Washington Blvd. One Suicidal running for his life tried to jump into the drive through window to escape the crowd. The restaurant closed the drive through window on him so he ran over to a McDonalds worker that was sweeping with a broom near the outside eating area. The Suis tried to arm himself with the broom stick but the crowd grabbed that broom out of the Suis hands and breaking it into several sections proceeded to beat him senseless with it.
The Black guy that was stabbing me earlier in the evening was chased around the front of McDonalds to where he wound up banging on the front window of the McDonalds screaming help help they’re gonna murder me. He was pounced on and beaten from every direction. Someone had him by the leg at one point and was beating on his knee with a lead pipe trying to break his legs. He screamed in terror as several young guys ran up and took turns stabbing him with knives.
After all of this went down we all just went back to The Olympic and continued our search and destroy mission on all Suicidals. It got seriously ugly, several Suicidals were now being held hostage in the parking lot in front of the box office. People were kinda dancing them around like puppets, slapping them around, putting out cigarettes in their faces and hair.
Even now, after all these years, I know that my life could have very well ended that night. Anything could have happened, an inch this way or an inch that way and I could have been killed. Once you’ve gone through some shit like this you’re just never the same. It makes you feel different from other people because no normal person would ever understand this shit. You had to have been there and lived it in order to really understand it. Most of my friends are dead but the one’s that survived this shit know what I’m talking about.
Live To Slam<>Slam To Live
~James Genocide~
