The Gaylords grew in the 1960s as middle class whites left for the suburbs, leaving poor whites behind to fend for themselves in increasingly black and Hispanic inner city slums. At the height of the Gaylords reign in 1979, they had were listed as the fourth most powerful gang in Chicago with about 1,500 members and were noted as "Chicago's largest white street gang...considered a violent, bigoted outfit." In 1970, they were suspected for being involved in the murder of a black Chicago citizen named Joe Henson, but no charges were brought: a later feature article in the Chicago Reader alleged police and political coverup.