Out of the night that shadows Harlem's filth and fear, two 1960 Ford station wagons raced north on the New York State Thruway toward Tarrytown and the comfortable hilltop home of James Arthur Vaus Jr., an ex-convict once known as a wiretapper for West Coast Gangster Mickey Cohen. From the 'cars sprang a group of boys representing two rival East Harlem street gangs, the Young Conceiteds and the Untouchables. They swaggered to the front door, where waited Vaus, 41, and his first lieutenant, a Puerto Rican named Piri Thomas. 32. who once served six years for shooting a New York cop.
It seemed obvious that no good could come out of such an Apalachin Jr. sort of meeting between the young toughs and the two ex-cons. But the session had the full backing of New York City's police. For "Big Jim" Vaus and "Pete'' Thomas were trying to prevent a "bop," or gang fight, that might have ended in another bloody teenage killing on East Harlem's dark streets.
No Doubters. As the moving spirits of a remarkably successful East Harlem rehabilitation mission named Youth De velopment Inc., Vaus and Thomas are two of the most expert bop-busters in the business. They, along with the staff of the city Youth Board, are the reason why 1960 has seen only ten teenage gang killings, compared with 23 a year ago. Y.D.I. is essentially Vaus's baby. An experienced crook, Jim Vaus in 1949 got religion after meeting Billy Graham, turned evangelist himself, wrote a moderately successful book titled Why I Quit Syndicated Crime. His new vocation took him to East Harlem, where he became convinced that he could turn his talents to more practical purpose than pulpitry. Moving his family from the West Coast to Tarrytown, Vaus rounded up some 400 reform-minded financial supporters, set up Y.D.I. for boys in a Harlem front-store room. Around the corner he set up a girls' branch, fitted it out with hair dryers and other beauty parlor equipment, hired a woman to supervise activities there.
But Vaus still had trouble winning the confidence of East Harlem's ganglads. And it was not really until he met tough Pete Thomas, who spoke the language of East Harlem as it can only be spoken by those who have been raised in its asphalt jungle, that Vaus made significant headway. After Vaus persuaded Thomas to work full time with Y.D.I., the organization became an important factor in East Harlem life. Some might suspect Vaus and Thomas, with their criminal backgrounds, of being a couple of Fagin types, but the doubters do not include the cops, educators or social workers in East Harlem.
Says Edward Gersh, dean of discipline at Jefferson Park Junior High School: "The boys we recommend to Jim are the ones that are rejected by other agencies. I call them Unreachables. When Jim first came here, he said he wanted to work with the most difficult kids we had. I thought he'd be spinning his wheels, but I underestimated him. He managed to reach them."
Rice & Beans. Explaining Y.D.I.'s methods, Pete Thomas says: "You don't get anywhere by antagonizing a kid. You got to feel their feelings of anger and uncertainty, dig? That way-out feeling of wanting to hurt and not caring who. This is why I think Y.D.I, is so great—it's the arroz y habichuelas [rice and beans] the kids need."