R.I.P. Benji "Yellow Benji" Melendez 1952-2017

Yellow Benji of The Ghetto Brothers

I know this blog is normally a book blog but after hearing the sad news today of the death of Benji "Yellow Benji" Melendez of the Ghetto Brothers, I though I'd post this, after all these JD books we all collect are pretty much all about gang members like him.  "Yellow Benji" was best known for brokering the gang truce in the Bronx and Harlem in 1971, when he was President of the Ghetto Brothers and lead guitarist of the Ghetto Brothers band. He was also in the 2015 documentary Rubble Kings. If you haven't seen the documentary or heard the album the Ghetto Brothers released, I urge you to do so, you really are missing out.

R.I.P Benji

Go, Man, Go! - Edward De Roo

Highway Thrills, Race Car Kicks...and Love-Hungry Chicks!

Lawless Hot-Rodders! A Jungle on Wheels...

DIGIT BOOKS R357

1ST PRINTING • NO DATE

LONDON, UK

Faster! Faster! Faster!

It's real cool, man. When you're a kid in a hot-rod you just wanta GO! And there ain't nothin' or nobody gonna stop you, 'cause behind that wheel you're the most.

And if you're in with the gang-you ain't never gonna chicken out on 'em, 'cause you can't, you'd die first!

Young - Miriam Colwell

THE LOW-DOWN ON TWO WILD TEENAGE GIRLS IN SEARCH OF EXPERIENCE

ACE BOOKS (UK) H268

1ST PRINTING 1959

LONDON, UK

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY WEIDENFELD AND NICHOLSON 1955

COVER ART BY JOHN VERNON

The American jungle of wolf-whistles and stalking Cadillacs through which the narrator, a wise-cracking girl in her teens, moves like a willing prey.

-MANCHESTER GUARDIAN

A graphic and uncensored account of how two adolescent American girls saunter through a summer's day, winding up with the spectacle of sudden death at a roadside beer-parlour.

-DAILY MAIL

A day in the life of two American girls in their late teens...One of them by British standards a juvenile delinquent; smart, wisecracking, knowing beyond her years, she unfolds a picture of a society with only the haziest ideas of manners and morals.

-THE TIMES

Bethnal Green - Michael Fisher

Now filmed as...

A PLACE TO GO

STARRING RITA TUSHINGHAM, MIKE SARNE, BERNARD LEE

A RELPH-DEARDEN PRODUCTION

FOR BRITISH LION-BRYANSTON RELEASE THROUGH B.L.C.

PAN BOOKS X230

1ST PRINTING 1963

LONDON, UK

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY CASSELL & CO 1961

MOVIE TIE-IN

BETHNAL GREEN

...a brawling, dingy, decaying mass of street-markets and pubs, damp old houses, reeking gasometers and littered bomb-sites.

Ricky Flint knew no other world. Yet he craved to burst out, to win a better life somewhere for himself and his girl Catherine, an amoral slut, but fired by her own fierce pride...

How Ricky met his one violent chance is told with biting authenticity.

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

A novel of the near future by one of the most talented and imaginative writers of today

PAN BOOKS X 321

1st PRINTING 1964

LONDON, UK

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1962

'HORRORSHOW'

-that's the adjective which Alex, the delinquent teenage villain of the piece would use to describe A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

You, we are sure, will find it one of the most unusual and unforgettable novels you have read. The extreme in wickedness, social satire, abundant racy humour-all are here in this story of London in the none-too-distant future, a city terrorized at night by prowling toughs, where the powers-that-ought-to-be struggle to buy peace and order through the skills of brainwashing psychiatrists!

Eff Off - Sandy Hutson

PAN BOOKS 0 330 02613 5

1ST PRINTING 1971

LONDON, UK

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY ARLINGTON BOOKS 1969

An explosive, irreverent and brilliantly-characterized first novel by Sandy Hutson

eff off

Describes in sizzling style the problems of a young teacher thrust into the chaotic world of a 'special school' for violent and disturbed children.

Sends TO SIR, WITH LOVE back to the kindergarten! - 'The dialogue scenes are splendidly handled; noisy, witty and obscene.'

NEW STATESMAN

eff off

'Don't do any such thing. Read it-for its fierce pity of the neglected and maladjusted child.'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

The Jury Is Still Out - Irwin D. Davidson and Richard Gehman

"This is a horrifying book, strongly recommended to all who are concerned about crime in young people." -John O'London's

PANTHER BOOKS 1158

1ST PRINTING JANUARY 1961

LONDON, UK

FIRST PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY PETER DAVIES LTD 1959

A NATION WAS SHOCKED...

and the reader will be shocked by this frightening account of a brutal killing and the sensational murder trial that followed it. The American Press gave detailed-often hysterical-coverage to the trial; now the Judge himself gives the complete story. It is one that contains a sobering thought for all of us.

"This book cannot merely be shrugged off with 'It would not happen here'. Reading it, you get an uneasy feeling that it could."

-Birmingham Mail