Insane C-Notes

Grand and Western C-Notes

Original 1960s CNotes (Click photo to enlarge)

Starting in the late 1950s, the president always had a wad of $100 bills on him so they called themselves the C-Notes.

C$Notes - 1980's YouTube Movie

A Description Given By The Gaylords

The C-Notes originally started around the East Village area of Chicago, or around Smith Park. The actual year in which they started is sketchy, but they seemed to have a presence in the late 1950s.

The ethic makeup since their creation, and up through the 1960s, was predominately Italian. Usage of the Italian flag for representation was at this time. Later as time progressed, symbols such as a dollar sign, and a hundred dollar bill appear as official logos for this gang.

Along with their official symbols, C-Notes would also use the colors of green and black to identify themselves.

In the 1970s, C-Notes were a very tuff turf gang, which rode in alliance with the Gaylords and other White gangs through unities like; UFO, Stoned Greaser and WPO.

Up until the early 1980s, the C-Notes claimed street corners such as; Superior and Washtenaw, Huron & Campbell, Olcott & Roscoe (founded by O/L members. 1983 and was active until 1990 and at it's peak had nearly 30 members.), Ohio and Levitt, and Erie and Levitt. All these sets literally fell within blocks of Smith park. Additionally, the corner of Ohio and Levitt seems to be their main corners.

By the early 1980s, they opened a set far outside their normal stomping grounds, on the street corners of Normandy and Beldon. Around this time period, the C-Notes and Gaylords had a falling out which escalated in to all out war. Thankfully, no lives were lost on either side. During this war, the set of Normandy and Beldon was adjacent to the Sayre Park Gaylords, and at the outcome of their particular battle, the Gaylords were the only ones still standing in the area.

By the middle 1980s, the C-Notes were not that large in numbers, when compared to much larger White gangs, such as the Gaylords and Simon City Royals. As a matter of fact, in the early 1980s, Puerto Rican and Mexican immigration was tearing their original street corners apart. So, they were virtually unheard from for a couple years.

Why all this turmoil was going on, their gang seemed on the verge of extinction. This was up until, some of their older members moved to Jefferson Park, to escape the turmoil of their old hood. Once there, they were highly successful in recruiting.

The new membership from Jefferson Park was that of clean, respectable working class, and their territory placed the C-Notes far to the North West side of the city. Also, there was no hard core drugs being sold on street corners this far North, which saved all of their membership from any possibilities of addiction.

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Chicago C-Notes

C-NOTES card dates back to 1967. It was from a Mitchel schoolyard on O/L, a C-NOTE who went by the name "Nick the bomb"

In the 1990s, the C-Notes then went on to establish alliances with the Folk gangs, that eventually ended up as a unity called "Insane", which was a rebellious splint off fraction of around eight other gangs from the Folk unity.

Today, the C-Notes' presence in Jefferson Park is gone. They are no longer visible in this area. They however do show some small membership around their old neighborhood of Smith Park, consisting of mostly of Latinos.

In Jefferson Park, the C-Notes did list a catacomb of street corners all in the same area, which was basically the same set of up of their old hood of Smith Park. They also preyed on Insane Popes and had battles with Stoned Freaks, and Gaylords from Dunham Park and Montrose and Narragansett. They also did attack other enemy gang members who strayed in to their new hood, that were most likely traveling through the Chicago Transit Authority stop that is located in the area. Additionally, while other gangs were viciously warring through the People and Folks war, the C-Notes decided to term themselves as something called "Family". Which was their personal rallying cry or response to the People and Folk unities, and to call attention to their cause.

Jefferson Park, also did something else for the C-Notes, it bid them a fair amount of time and growth to figure out their next move. From there, they tried to branch out by forming new sets by Addison and Harlem, and Olcott and Roscoe, which were about five city blocks from each other, but these sets were only fully operational for under a year, and then they just fizzled out.

In the late 1980s,the next move for the C-notes was to try and reclaim stable control of their old ground; Ohio and Levitt, which they finally did, through the acceptance of some Latino membership in to their ranks.

CNotes Cards

Chi-West on CNotes

The largest and toughest Sicilian/Italian gang on the North-side and possibly city wide in those days was the C-NOTES. Their turf was everything north of the tracks along Hubbard st on the South to Chicago Ave on the North and from Damen Ave on the East to California Ave to the West. During the 60's they could gather easily over a hundred guys before the hour was up. And they were for the most part all experienced gang-bangers, fighting daily. They were so feared that the blacks at the Henry Horner Homes and Rockwell Gardens projects were afraid to come north of those tracks along Hubbard st for decades, it was literally bred into them to not cross the tracks. We had a dozen or more guys living South of Chicago Ave between Damen & Washtinaw and they were seldom harassed by the C-NOTES but we did have our share of friction. If you weren't around a place like Mitchel school or Smiths Field back then, it's impossible to have a clue as to what it was like. The MLK riots didn't have any effect on that hood or ours, they never crossed the tracks although the city gave warnings about all the black gangs flooding out of Crain HS and the Black Panthers out of their headquarters on Madison just east of Western, not one came past the tracks. No their hood eventually got run over by drugs and the chops (PR's)