Almighty Saints

The Almighty Saints is a street gang founded in the early 1960s by Polish juveniles of the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago.

The name "Saints" was borrowed from the TV series of the same name as evidenced by the similarities between the stickman used by the show and the street gang.

During the early 1970s, as Mexican families started moving to the Back Of The Yards neighborhood, the street gang started changing ethnicity dramatically from an all white gang to Mexican. The Saints have maintained the same territory since the 1960s, an uncommon occurrence in Chicago, where gangs usually lose terrain over the years. By the 1980s, the gang had become extremely violent and drug trafficking became very lucrative.

In a 1998 feature article, the Chicago Tribune wrote: "In a city known for its fearsome supergangs—criminal enterprises like the Latin Kings and the Gangster Disciples—the Saints stand out as an example of the street corner gang that still hangs on in many neighborhoods."