Synopsis

Cheech is a member of a street gang, but the others in the gang suspect him of telling the cops who heisted a store.

History

First publication: Guilty, July 1956

Ellison departed from science fiction a bit and joined a street gang for 10 weeks in order to research life on the streets of Brooklyn. This is the first of those stories to be published.

Review

I'm hardly the expert on Brooklyn street gangs, but Ellison seems to have gotten the culture, accents and thinking of gang members pinned down. I had a real sense of the gang and the characters and their world. Only a short story, so it could have gone farther to describe this life, but there is enough to give a good picture supporting the situation. You get to the point and the story moves along. Recommended.