36th Street Gangsters

The 36th Street Gangsters (36ST), better known as the 36th Street Gang or the East Side 36th Street (Tres-Seis) are a Mexican-American street gang located in South Central, recently changed to South Los Angeles, California. Their territory stretches from Jefferson Blvd to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Main Street and San Pedro Avenue. This region of South Los Angeles referred to as the “Low Bottoms” or “Bottoms” by gang members and locals in the community. The 36th Street Gang originated on 36th Street near Maple Avenue on the East Side of South Central during the 1980s.

Members of the 36th Street Gangsters gang often refer to themselves as 36ers (Thirty-Sixers). The Maple Street Locos (MPLC) and the Woodlawn Locos (WLS) as well as the San Pedro Locos (SPLS), are geographical cliques of the larger 36th Street Gang. They are also known to have cliques outside of their primary neighborhood such as the Five-Nine (59th Street) and Five-Seven (57th Street), near Broadway and Main Street. The Maple Street Locos are their most active and largest clique and have been linked to numerous murders in South Central. Other cliques of the 36th Street Gang are the Stanfords and the Pee Wees as well as the Wall Street.

Allies & Rivals

The 36th Street Gang and the 39th Street Gang, who is also located on the East Side in South Central Los Angeles were rivals with a lot of bad blood between them. However, during the 1980s, the two warring gangs formed a short-lived truce, in hopes of ending their history of conflict. The 36th Street Gang and the 39th Street Gang territories are adjacent with the 23rd Street clique of the Primera Flats to the North. Earlier members of these barrios grew up together and often attended the same elementary schools.

However, the truce was broken after a member of the 39th Street Gang was jumped by several members of the 36th Street Gang. Within a month, a 15-year-old member of the 36th Street Gang turned up dead, destroying all future hope of a “peace treaty.” This deadly conflict between the two South Los Angeles street gangs started over graffiti being crossed out (a rival gang defaces another gang’s name that has been painted on a wall) during the late-1980s.

The Varrio 36th Street Gang and the Ghetto Boyz Gang are former allies, together they feuded with common rival neighborhood street gangs such as the 29th Street Gang with the Clanton 14th Street, being one of their oldest enemies. The Varrio East Side 36th Street Gang also feud with African-American street gangs under Gangster Crips (including the 43 Gangster Crips and the Avalon Gangster Crips as well as the Broadway Gangster Crips), causing them to claim CK (Crip Killer). However, they remain on good terms with neighboring blood street gangs.