The history of criminal gangs in Oakland goes back to at least 1891.
Jack London, in Tales of the Fish Patrol, wrote about his run in with two members of the Sporting Life Gang who were each out on $5000 bail. According to London, the crimes of the Sporting Life Gang ranged from perjury, to ballot box stuffing, to murder.
An article from 1895 in the San Francisco Call, speaks about the notorious Fish Gang and Sporting Life Gang of West Oakland, and quotes Oakland's Police Chief Lloyd as saying: "I'm going to clean out those gangs of hoodlums, if I send half my police force down there. Their conduct is intolerable..."
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In the 1940s, there was a gang in Zoot Suits in West Oakland, the Zoot Suit Pachuos.
