Simon City Royals
| Founding location | Chicago, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1950s–present |
| Territory | Chicago |
| Ethnicity | European-American |
| Membership | 10,000–15,000 |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, robbery, assault, burglary, racketeering, murder |
| Allies | Folk Nation |
| Rivals | People Nation gangs |
The Simon City Royals, formally the Almighty Simon City Royal Nation, are a Chicago street gang which began in the late 1950s as Simon City, a greaser gang. They named themselves for Simons Park which is located on the corner of Drake and Wabansia, in the Humboldt Park neighborhood where they originally formed.
The Royals are heavily involved in the dealing of illegal drugs and other contraband, particularly in prisons where members are incarcerated. They have also successfully bribed a prison guard in Milwaukee, to smuggle drugs into an institution. They are also involved in racketeering and loan sharking.
In the 1960s, they became involved in with other gangs including the Imperial Gangsters, Latin Kings, Jokers, Drakers, and Belairs. By this time Simon City had begun to expand and organize, and spread to other neighborhoods on the northwest side. They started talks with a gang called the Ashland Royals who were headquartered on the corner of Paulina and Cornelia streets.
The leader of Simon City, Michael Kraft, fought a leading member of the Royals and lost, with the result being that the two gangs merged into one. The gang was now called Simon City's Angry Royals, soon to be shortened to Simon City Royals. Some sections of Simon City continued to operate as a separate group under the old name for a few years before either joining the merged group or leaving the gang entirely.
In the 1970s, the gang had tenuous alliances to the city's two major white gangs, the Popes and the Gaylords. In 1975, the Gaylords killed Larry "Larkin" Morris, then the leader of the Popes, and the Popes decided to form an alliance with the Royals. The Royals also fought major "wars" with the Latin Kings, Insane Deuces and Latin Eagles in which many lives were lost, including some of the top ranking Simon City Royals.
By this time the Royals had spread out to include neighborhoods like Albany and School, Drake and Wolfram, Southport and Fullerton, Central Park and Wilson, California and Fletcher, Farwell and Clark, Marshfield and Grace, among others. The Southport and Fullerton Royals were involved in a "war" with the Insane Unknowns because they had killed the leader of the Unknowns after inviting him to a peace meeting. The ensuing war between the Unknowns and the Southport and Fullerton Royals would result in many deaths in both gangs. The changing demographics of the neighborhood eventually drove out most of the Southport and Fullerton Royals.
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