The Dangerous Boy Gangster of The South Bronx: “White Boy John”
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They made a lot of friends and played in the park across the street, and also took part in activities at the shelter.
Here, John was surrounded by mostly blacks, and his fair features led them to mistake him for Caucasian, which earned him the nickname White Boy John.
John and his family spent over 2 years at the shelter before receiving a Section 8 voucher for an apartment.
They then moved a short distance away to right here at 1043 Avenue Saint John.
This was when he met a kid 1 year younger than him named Victor, who would become better known as Half Pint.
White Boy and Half Pint became very close with each other and ran the streets as a team, taking part in all kinds of criminal activities together.
By his early teens, John was frequently smoking wet, which is a joint or cigarette laced with angel dust, and when he was high on the drug, his behavior was even more erratic and unpredictable.
He used to purchase or rob bundles of dust from a spot at 161st and River Ave, right next to Yankee Stadium.
During this time, John met a local hustler in his 30s named Howie, who used to put younger kids to work in the streets, and he took a liking to John.
Howie was a brazen character notorious for ripping people off, which earned him a long list of enemies, and he had survived multiple shootings.
Under Howie’s direction, John began taking part in various street crimes, usually with Half Pint, including sticking people up on the subway and stealing cars.
From there on out, he was often in trouble with the law and arrested several times.
This led him to be sent to the Spofford Juvenile Correctional Facility in the Bronx.
Spofford was a notoriously rough detention center which housed delinquents from all over the five boroughs.
Some of the more well-known alumni of Spofford include boxer Mike Tyson and rapper Noreaga.
At Spofford, John got into several altercations, on one occasion slashing another inmate’s face with a razor, giving him what’s known as a buck 50 because the cut requires 150 stitches.
It’s said that Spofford hardened him even more, rather than rehabilitating him, and he came out worse for the wear.
When he returned home, he went right back to his criminal ways, and was now hitting up drug spots and robbing the customers and workers.
In addition to his activities in the Bronx, when he went to visit his grandmother in Union City, he would carry out burglaries of stores and bodegas there.
His father, Carlos, was well connected and continued involvement in the drug game, doing business with cocaine traffickers, but he was also using crack, which led to a serious addiction.
He was in and out of jail, but when he was convicted on a drug charge in 1990, he was sent to prison for the next few years.
With his dad out of the picture, the already precocious John had to grow up even faster and became the man of the household.
He was a father figure to his younger brother, Carlos.
He tried to keep him focused on school and would punish him when he got in trouble.
He was close with his older sister, Olga, whom he was very protective of and always looked out for her.
It was during this time that he dove even deeper into the streets, hustling harder to support himself and his family.
At the age of 15, he started selling crack with a group of friends from the neighborhood.
This crew included Half Pint, Gito, JJ, Alvin, Stevo, and Bobcat.
John was also close with a neighborhood local a few years older than him named Gilly.
Gilly would go on to become the road manager for the legendary Bronx rapper, Big Pun.
It was right here on Southern Boulevard where John and his crew were carving out a reputation in the crack hustle.
>> This was the time when America was at the height of the crack epidemic and the South Bronx in particular was one of the biggest drug markets in the US.
The same year John began selling crack was when New York City had its most homicides ever on record with a staggering 2,245 murders.
>> John was operating within the jurisdiction of the 41st Precinct, which was known as Fort Apache.
The 41st had one of the highest crime rates in the city and frequently ranked among the top five in homicides every year.
>> There was another drug crew a few blocks away on Union Avenue named Power Rules, which was led by a feared 20-year-old named Miguel Guzman, aka Meepo.
Power Rules sold red top crack vials, a heroin brand called Bad Boy, and also shook down local drug gangs for a street tax to deal in the area.
Meepo was known to be vicious with the reputation for violence and was alleged to have murdered or ordered the murders of a number of people.
>> Meepo and other Power Rules members were a few years older than John and his boys, but the two crews associated heavily with one another to the point that they began referring to John and his squad as Junior Power Rules.
Meepo also attempted to unite all the local crews into one big crime conglomerate.
>> John’s youthful appearance and slight build that just 5’6″ and barely 130 lb masked just how dangerous he really was.
Despite his diminutive physique, he was good with his fists and wouldn’t hesitate to throw down.
Grown men twice his size were cautious of him and he had a reputation in the neighborhood as someone not to be messed with.
He had a short fuse and zero tolerance for disrespect and was often high on angel dust, which only made him more flammable.
There was a local Dominican hustler named George Garcia, who was known as Chichi, who was running an operation which sold crack in Black Top violets.
He had a partner named Pucho, and Chichi’s wife, Melissa Polonio, also assisted them in the operation.
Melissa was quiet, but ruthless, and it was said that rivals feared her more than Chichi.
On the evening of October 4th, 1990, John’s pal, Alvin Rivera, was sitting on the stoop here at 575 Southern Boulevard, with several other people, including Chichi.
Suddenly, a car pulled up, a man hopped out, and began shooting at Chichi.
The crowd instantly ducked for cover, and Chichi reportedly ran into the building, and Alvin tried to follow him inside, but Chichi slammed the door shut, leaving Alvin exposed.
15-year-old Alvin Rivera was struck by a stray bullet intended for Chichi, and he died at the scene.
People held prayers and lit candles at the site of his killing.
Alvin’s friends and relatives carried his casket through the neighborhood, with John serving as a pallbearer, and his image appeared in The New York Times.
John was upset over Alvin’s death, and also harbored some resentment at Chichi, feeling that he held some responsibility in his killing.
A of Power Rules, who also happened to be known as White Boy, was arrested and charged for Alvin’s killing.
John had street smarts far beyond his years, and also a great knack for making money.
As he honed his craft in the crack trade, his formidable group of young hustlers now became known as the Saint John Boys.
Half Pint was his right-hand man, and by now, his older sister’s boyfriend, Grego, had also gotten involved with them.
The St John boys’ main hangout was at 52 Park on Kelly Street.
There was a Puerto Rican drug crew in the area selling crack, but the St John boys ran them off.
And afterwards, they launched an operation which sold crack in gold top vials.
With crack being at the height of its popularity, the gold top operation was bringing in considerable clientele.
And throughout 1991, John was making big profits for a kid barely 16 years old.
But there were always problems when his explosiveness reared its ugly head.
During this time, he had stabbed another man and was arrested and sent to Rikers Island.
But after the victim refused to press charges, he was released.
>> White Boy John was flashy, flamboyant, and loved attention.
From dealing, robbing, and other rackets, he would pull in upwards of $20,000 in a single day.
He had more money than he knew what to do with and spent like there was no tomorrow.
He rocked gold teeth and expensive jewelry, including thick gold chains with Lazarus pendants.
He owned a Suzuki Sidekick and a number of other vehicles, including Acuras and Hondas, and didn’t even have a driver’s license.
He hooked his cars up to the max, including with sound systems that you could hear bumping from blocks away.
He enjoyed gambling and could often be found on Fox Street playing high-stakes dice games.
A ladies’ man, girls were naturally drawn to his good looks and bad boy persona.
He had a collection of guns and stayed strapped, usually walking the streets with two TEC-9s, and sometimes wore a bulletproof vest.
He loved riding dirt bikes, dancing, and pitbulls.
He was a big fan of hip-hop, particularly Tupac, and also loved the movie Scarface.
Alizé was his favorite alcoholic beverage.
He had a major sweet tooth and often ate Kit Kats, Reese’s, and drank Yoo-hoos.
John had a keen business sense and tried to instill order in his operation.
One day a customer tried to buy a vial with loose change, which annoyed one of John’s workers, who then smacked the man.
When John witnessed this, he stepped in, made his worker pick up every coin, then began striking him with his fist.
He told his worker that he doesn’t care if the man pays in pennies, you don’t know what he went through to get that.
After learning the customer was Cuban, John grew even angrier, then gifted the man with a bunch of crack vials for free.
Through Howie, John met a young hustler and aspiring rapper named Joseph Cartagena, who was better known in the streets as Fat Joe.
The two developed a friendship as Joe built his name in the hip-hop industry.
John allegedly still held a grudge against Chichi over Alvin’s death, and now that John was a rising force in the neighborhood, he had his eyes set on removing him and taking control of his territory.
But Chichi, a seasoned street veteran, saw it coming and was well aware of John’s ambition, so he watched him closely as tension simmered between them.
One evening in the summer of 1991, White Boy was sitting in a parked car on Southern Boulevard when a van occupied by three men pulled up alongside him and began firing.
As he was being struck by gunshots, he maneuvered his way out through the back seat and onto the street.
Badly wounded, he crawled to a nearby bodega for help, and after the ambulances took too long to show up, Bobcat and other friends took him to the hospital.
Upon examination, doctors uncovered that he had 14 gunshots to his body.
While in the hospital, John asked one of his buddies to bring him some angel dust, which he smoked in the bathroom as his friend stood lookout.
When he returned home, he learned that people thought he was dead, so he told his family to be quiet and not tell anyone that he was still alive.
That same day, he came out of his building in just his boxers and sandals with an IV still attached to him and screamed out, “If anyone wants to kill me, I’m right here.
” It’s alleged that three Dominicans from Prospect Avenue were the ones who shot him, and the word was that Chichie and Pocho had ordered it.
White Boy John wasn’t about to let this slide and began plotting vengeance before his 14 bullet wounds had even healed.
>> Once he was back on his feet, John was out to settle the score.
The word on the streets is that he had carried out payback on two of the three men who had shot him.
Around that time, he had also caught an attempted murder charge, although it’s unclear if it was connected to the retaliation.
His friends bailed him out using some of the cash he kept on the side as bail money.
Although he had a reputation for violence and volatility, those who were close to him knew him to have a big heart and endearing qualities as well.
If he cared about someone, he’d go to war for them and always stood firmly behind those he loved.
He was generous to friends and family and gave food, gifts, and money to people during the holidays.
One time, there was an incident when Fat Joe was shot by another man, and he was the first person to show up to the hospital to check on him.
In October of 1991, John was on a corner when police searched him and found him in possession of an Uzi, and he was arrested and taken to the 41st Precinct.
>> While John was in custody, he pulled out a razor he had hidden and then slashed his own face, opening up a huge gash on his cheek.
>> Afterwards, he was sent to Bellevue Hospital for treatment and a mental evaluation.
When his family arrived to the hospital, they yelled at the cops for leaving him unattended given his mental condition, and his mother threatened a lawsuit.
>> As it turns out, John actually did this to get out of the charge.
Knowing he was underage and on record as having a mental disability, he put the police in a predicament that he knew would favor him.
>> This self-mutilation and indifference to his own appearance revealed the deep mental turmoil he was dealing with and what a stressful trigger could lead to.
The cut was initially grotesque, but as a still growing teenager, it healed up quickly and soon became unnoticeable.
His tactic worked.
The attempted murder and gun possession charges were dropped, but authorities were intent on getting him on something.
They wound up convicting him on a drug charge and he was sent to serve a short sentence, spending all of 1992 on Rikers Island.
After his release, it was right back to business as usual, but by now the cops had it out for him and would look for any reason to arrest him.
On multiple occasions, he led the police on chases, sometimes on foot, eluding them by running across the top of parked vehicles, and other times speeding through the streets on his dirt bike.
>> He always moved around vigilantly and ready for action, but by now he had to be cautious about carrying guns because of constant police pressure, so he often kept them hidden in his cars.
One summer day, John got into an argument with a friend of his and because he felt disrespected, he shot him in the buttocks.
John still had it out for Cheech and his partner, but they proved harder to get to.
They were either locked up or laying low in the Dominican Republic.
>> When Cheech was incarcerated in connection with the murder of a rival, his wife Melissa stepped in to run the operation.
>> Melissa Polonio later made headlines for fatally stabbing a woman at a gathering simply out of jealousy about her beauty.
She fled to the Dominican Republic, was featured on America’s Most Wanted, and remained a fugitive for years before being captured in 1999 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
It was business as usual for Jon throughout 1994.
At just 18 years old, he had experienced more than many hardened criminals twice his age.
By now, his father Carlos had returned from prison and got involved with him in his drug business.
Whiteboy was also dating a girl whom he had gotten pregnant, but they had a tumultuous relationship.
When he got into an argument about her speaking to one of his friends, she stabbed him with a knife.
Jon took himself to Lincoln Hospital where he was treated for his wound and released.
>> Around this time, it’s alleged that Meepo had approached Jon and encouraged him to stop selling crack and switch to heroin.
He wanted to supply him with dope and get a cut of his sales, but Jon wasn’t interested in this arrangement.
Furthermore, like many people in the streets at that time, Jon believed that crack offenses were handled at the state level, while heroin was a federal charge, which meant harsher penalties for dope dealers.
>> Cops continued to harass Jon, but he was unstoppable, still hustling, robbing, and as visible as ever.
He could always be seen in the neighborhood rolling around in one of his souped-up vehicles with his sound system blasting.
By now, he was a big fan of Notorious B.
I.
G.
and constantly bumped the Ready to Die album with his favorite songs Juicy >> Word up, my [ __ ] and Gimme the Loot on repeat.
One evening, John jumped in his car and carried out a shooting right in front of the 41st Precinct.
It’s unclear exactly why he did this.
Some accounts say that he was actually targeting the precinct due to frustration over police harassment, while others say that he was aiming for someone who happened to be walking by the 41st.
By now, Southern Boulevard had a large Dominican population, many of whom were dealing drugs.
When John uncovered that there was a Dominican hustler selling green top crack vials at 751 Southern Boulevard, he told him that he better leave, otherwise he’d be killed.
Then in early December, Half-Pint was hustling on a corner when a Dominican man tried to steal his customer.
And after a brief argument, he went and got Whiteboy.
Half-Pint grabbed the Mac-11, Whiteboy an AR-15, and they returned to confront the man.
As they approached him, John began shooting at his feet, making him frantically jump to avoid the bullets.
Half-Pint chased him into a building before he made his escape.
On the evening of December 4th, 1994, John went clubbing with two female friends.
He returned in the early morning hours, dropped them off, they came around the corner to right here at 571 Southern Boulevard.
He pulled up in front, left his car in the middle of the street with the doors unlocked, hopped out, and went inside the building.
After entering the building, John was overheard arguing with some people.
Then soon afterwards, gunshots rang out.
John was shot three times, once in the neck, chest, and side.
19-year-old Whiteboy John Mendez died on the spot.
>> His family got a call from someone on Southern Boulevard who said that they heard gunshots and saw John’s car in the middle of the street.
When they arrived, the block was flooded with cops, and when they went inside the building, they witnessed John’s dead body on the lobby floor.
Cops found a bunch of green top vials on him, which was strange since John’s brand was gold top, which led to questions about how they wound up there and why.
Detectives also noted that there were signs of a struggle and there was a physical altercation before he was shot.
>> There was a huge funeral for John and the whole block turned out.
His father and other pallbearers paraded his casket through the streets.
During the course of the ceremony, his father let doves go.
Many people showed up to pay their respects including Fat Joe.
People left Yoo-hoos and Reese’s on John’s tombstone.
>> There are several theories about who was behind John’s killing and what the motive was.
The fact that he pulled up to the building and left his car unattended in the middle of the street suggests that he went to meet someone he knew and may have been shot by that person or was set up by them and lured there.
Some believe that Meepo ordered his murder as John was his only serious threat and he wanted him out of the way.
Others think it was the Dominican selling green top vials who John had threatened, while some say that it was another member of Power Rules and one of his associates.
Whatever the case, it’s been said that there were a number of people who wanted John gone, but many were too afraid to take the chance.
>> After his killing, his mother asked members of the renowned Tats Cru graffiti group to create a tribute to John.
On the front of a Seaport Town Supermarket on Southern Boulevard, they spray-painted a mural which depicted him wearing a gaudy gold chain and flashing a TEC-9.
However, the local community board pushed back, arguing that the mural glorified gun violence and drug culture.
Feeling pressured, Tats Cru replaced the mural with a less flashy one, showing John without a weapon.
>> John’s daughter was born a few months after his death and was named Alizé after his favorite drink.
>> In 1997, Miguel “Mipo” Guzman and eight members of Power Rules were hit with a 30-count indictment with charges ranging from racketeering to murder.
Mipo was eventually convicted on numerous counts and received several life sentences.
In 2020, John’s old pal Bobcat, whose real name is Robert Williams, made headlines for a weekend rampage against the NYPD.
On the evening of Saturday, February 8th, he shot at two officers in a police van, which wounded one of them.
Then the next morning, he walked into the 41st Precinct and opened fire, striking a lieutenant.
In August of 2023, Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder in the first degree and was sentenced to two concurrent counts of 23 to life.
>> When most kids are goofing around and still caught up in childish antics, John Mendez was already emerging as a force in the streets.
He was a striking contradiction, a scrawny teenager with a baby face inspiring fear and respect on the dangerous streets of the South Bronx during the most violent era in New York City’s history.
To some, he was just a reckless and violent thug, while others remember him more for his loyalty and generosity.
But like many crime figures, the truth of who he was lies somewhere in between.
Questions still linger about who killed him and what the motive was, but to die the way he did seems to have been all but written.
A hell-raising teen who was killed before he was even old enough to legally drink, in the end, the life of White Boy John Mendez went by as fast as the way he lived it.
