The label South Brooklyn Boys represented the loosely connected affiliation that all of these neighborhood gangs associated under.
The main body, simply referred to as "South Brooklyn" by many, was located in and around 3rd Street Park, which back in the 1950s was predominantly Italian.
The 1962 book, All the Way Down: The Violent Underworld of Street Gangs by Vincent Riccio and Bill Slocum, featured real accounts of the Gowanus Boys.
Reputed Lucchese mobster Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso was a famous member of the early South Brooklyn Boys, as was Carmine Persico, head of the Colombo family [1][2] The gang has been loosely affiliated with and has worked for the Italian-American Mafia throughout its history to the present, but it is not an official Mafia crew.
The term South Brooklyn Boys has not only been used as a gang association, but also as a loosely connected affiliation for which many neighborhood kids felt a kinship.