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«oe — Be ar a - . . . o>. > ~ 8 alee 2 sik POPEYE ~ & Transition Tae AGRupT Hoag The infant Popeye was suffering from extreme malnutrition when he was aban- doned by his mother. His grandmother took him into her home in San Francisco's Fillmore ghetto and he grew up on the streets. Hrother Carl grew up in the same neighborhood and they belonged to street gangs that were friendly. "The Lucky 20's were a typical street gang of the late 40's and 50's, non-political and non-racial. Popeye was the leader and they were into boosting and sneaking into the movies, that kind of thing. Later they were shaking down merchants and getting into robberies. I was kinda on the same trip-myself... I looked up to him." They committed petty crimes together and practiced being bad-asses,. At age 16, Popeye was charged by the Juvenile Court with cutting another boy. He got off. A year later, he threatened the principal of his high school with a knife; this time he got probation. Two weeks later, he was charged with petty theft when he and another boy tried to steal a bottle of wine; he was committed to the Log Cabin Ranch School, a semi-detention institution of the period. Nine months later he was kicked out for disobeying the rules and did his first time, in the Juvenile Detention home. After release, he wus busted for shoplifting again and forced to enlist in the army as an alternative to Youth Authority prison. In the army, he was busted for grass, did a year in the stockade, and got a dishonorable discharge. In 1951, when Popeye was 2%, he was caught in the act of burglarizing a drug- store; his pockets were full of cosmetics and cigarettes. ‘Recause of prior record, including narcotic violation", he wns given the maximum sentence of from one to fifteen years. He could have been parolled in a year, but did eleven, getting out in 1962. The indeterminate sentence in action: eleven yearn of a man'n life for stealing, conmet ico and cignretteal- ! 1 +: 7 5 F ary : : vaste? 7 LE Ree me a Ng vt Spina an% ‘ Su * geen : PARADOR EH iyi