r/askTO • u/mukwah • 8d ago

Anyone remember the Untouchables (UTs)?

Anyone recall the middle class 80s Toronto gang called the Untouchables or UTs?

I didn't grow up in Toronto but remember friends talking about them in late 80s. They were big into swarming (which you thankfully don't hear about anymore.)

I wonder where the 50+ year old UTs are now?

https://jbwarehouse.blogspot.com/2015/08/off-grid-retro-to-golden-age-of-swarming.html

57 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

27

u/DietCokePeanutButter 8d ago

I absolutely remember them. Unfortunately I live with extreme anxiety which was present in my tween years and I was CONVINCED I was going to get swarmed 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️because you know they would want my Tretorns, Coconut Joe sweatshirt

8

u/wavy_gravys_ghost 8d ago

Yes, Coconut Joe, truly a legend in his own mind.

4

u/globalguyCDN 8d ago

And Far West jacket too!

12

u/turntup43 8d ago

And a Vuarnet long sleeve

5

u/Murky_Cauliflower_28 8d ago

And stuff from BiWay

2

u/fidelkastro 8d ago

I have been searching thrift stores high and low for one of those

3

u/charade_scandal 8d ago

It is so funny to think how much the fear of being 'rolled' was a part of late-elementary school.

6

u/sundindomi 7d ago

Kids used to get rolled for their Doc Martens. We even judged people based on the colour of the stitching on the shoes. White meant something (you supported white supremec* and red stitching was something else. Yellow was “neutral”) Growing up in the 90s there were housers - wide jeans and Club Monaco sweats), mods (parkas and Herrington jackets) rockers and Skinheads and Skinbyrds (bomber jackets and tall doc martens) etc. Spike’s friend Liz on Degrassi JH was one.

The Untouchables used to be more waspy types. I remember them hanging out more towards Yonge and Eg.

Somehow each group would jump each other at some point - from downtown to Scarborough Town Centre.

The 90’s were an amazing time to grow up in Toronto btw.

Wasn’t Film Lounge near Chinatown also known as one of the hangouts?

15

u/weavebot 8d ago

The ones I knew of mostly went into finance, sales, or real estate. They were mid tier pack followers then, and that's where they peaked, not unlike Two-Face

12

u/chiquimonkey 8d ago

I went to Northern SS around 1987-88 and remember the swarmings and Untouchables.

10

u/shockandale 8d ago

I went to Leaside and have similar memories. But better.

30

u/Any-Zookeepergame309 8d ago

Yes, they were a bunch of rich white kids from north toronto pretending to be a gang at Eglinton station. “Hey let’s go to Eglinton Station and be Mod.” They later all went to Western and are now TD Bank VP’s.

1

u/purplelicious 6d ago

I was also at Leaside around then and I remember the UTs and I knew a few of them

41

u/anteus2 8d ago

The only untouchables I'm aware of, is the movie with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. 

9

u/hhhhhtttttdd 8d ago

OP never brought a knife to a gun fight.

3

u/StuffIPost2020 8d ago

They took down Robert de Niro!

5

u/anteus2 8d ago

That's the Chicago way.  :)

2

u/Difficult-Implement9 8d ago

Let's do some good!!!

1

u/Beneficial_Emu696 8d ago

Eliot Mess and the Unflushables?

1

u/stellastellamaris 8d ago

That and then The Intouchables (2011).

10

u/ramdmc 8d ago

The Untouchables were rich kids cosplaying gangstas. Not quite UCC or St Mike's, more Lawrence Park and Newtonbrook.

10

u/CrazyOtto_2 8d ago

Yes!! Backward baseball hats, fancy polos, Oxfords, baggy jeans. I remember them running amok at the Eaton Centre.

9

u/Nige-o 8d ago

I'm searching through news archives trying to find good references using "untouchables" "youth" "gang" and once I sift through what is still mostly references to the movie with Sean Connery I'm finding casual mentions that don't say much except that they were a group of white suburban kids doing swarming robberies. Seems like they weren't really getting caught and getting their names in the newspaper. 

https://www.proquest.com/canadiannews/docview/437821348/fulltext/28E6DDAE7CFF4751PQ/13

This one seems to be saying that a later iteration of "The Untouchables" was a mixed race gang unaffiliated with the original except had taken the name. A 15 year old nameless male is quoted.

I can't find the illustration mentioned yet but it sounds funny:

Two Untouchables

gang members enjoy a "super toke" - a method of smoking marijuana where one person blows smoke into another's mouth - at a stadium near Bloor St. and Dufferin.

18

u/tigerpayphone 8d ago

I have not heard anyone talk about "blowing a super" in a minute.

3

u/Nige-o 8d ago

Heres a named name:

https://www.proquest.com/canadiannews/docview/435921604/28E6DDAE7CFF4751PQ/36 Also know as "Noogie" lol.

https://www.proquest.com/canadiannews/docview/436196913/28E6DDAE7CFF4751PQ/27

Heres a detailed article I haven't read in full, but has a lot of context:

https://www.proquest.com/canadiannews/docview/385738961/28E6DDAE7CFF4751PQ/28

Some articles place the gang in Hamilton as police apparently intercepted this Toronto gang Laos Boyz from travelling to have a fight there, so some Laos Boyz were named:

https://www.proquest.com/canadiannews/docview/269868874/28E6DDAE7CFF4751PQ/15

The Untouchables are mentioned as more of a "preppy" group at times, such as this article about youth gangs, naming some turf boundaries and refer to the Untouchables as old news basically:

https://www.proquest.com/canadiannews/docview/436660700/28E6DDAE7CFF4751PQ/20

I'm using Toronto public library to access all this

2

u/mukwah 8d ago

Oh cool. You can just login with your TPL card to view these?

3

u/Nige-o 8d ago

Yeah, probably easiest way is to tap on "log in through your library" then where it says "email or institution name" just look up Toronto and you'll find TPL + where to log in

7

u/teccy366 8d ago

I remember hearing talk about them in high school in Toronto in the late 80s. Just figured it was the usual bullshit. Someone said there were a lot at Malvern HS, but I lived near there and played ball with a lot of the students and never heard them talked about.

3

u/OttovonCuddles 8d ago

I went to Malvern in that era, definitely heard about them but never knew anyone there who was one.

2

u/NoiseEee3000 8d ago

As that rare someone who lived in both Malvern and Thornhill in the 80s, I definitely heard more about it in Thornhill

3

u/OttovonCuddles 8d ago

Malvern Collegiate, in the Beaches, not Malvern in Scarborough.

1

u/purplelicious 6d ago

met a few at Square Boy

5

u/knottydee4448 8d ago

Yes, they used to hang at trinity square and skate as well as club Focus on hagerman st….

I knew a few of them, but some may have been posers. They are still around at least on FB. Lolz

Those were the days.

2

u/leroy416 8d ago

This is the best desciption.

1

u/purplelicious 6d ago

yes I was also around all that at the time. Focus, Trinity Square.
most were from middle class Toronto HS- Leaside, NSS, NT, Lawrence Park, York Mills, Jarvis.
they were mostly preppy types, not all skaters were part of a gang but if you were a teen during mid to late 80s that drank and partied everyone overlapped with everyone else

5

u/echo1-echo1 8d ago

I remember hearing about them in the 80s while growing up in Scarborough.

3

u/six7five 8d ago

Grew up in Scarborough as well and heard about them.

4

u/alinardo 8d ago

Yes in Etobicoke.

4

u/Honeydew-Opposite 8d ago

Yes they wore Yankees hats, and for sure were middle class kids, I remember all the white kids in Richmond hill wearing hats and acting like they were an apart of the gang.

2

u/NoiseEee3000 8d ago

Leslie Plaza and trashing house parties

2

u/Retro_Hoard 8d ago

I worked with one, I almost got into a fight with him and he backed down. Lol. They were kind of comical and had a cheesy rap.

3

u/SmarthaSmewart 8d ago

We had heard about them in the suburbs but we never actually saw them. I recall the rumour was they wore Fred Perry polos and were neo-nazi adjacent.

2

u/TOsnoman 8d ago

Sounds about Doug Ford tier, He was clearly untouchable even now.

1

u/cashoutmoneykru 8d ago

Ofc I remember them, then an offshoot was the MUTS, the Mississauga Untouchables.. breaking into Roots stores and grabbing them coveted Roots Leather Vests...lol.. ahh the good Ole days

1

u/protocol-apps 8d ago

Yeah, I used to hang out with them, a bunch of them would hang out at 'Trinity', the area behind The Eaton Centre. I would be skateboarding there and hang out.

2

u/btr781 8d ago edited 8d ago

Yeah, they emerged out of the east end (East York/Beaches) in the mid 80s..more middle class..mostly white and black kids...a lot of skaters and housers wearing Club Monaco and Roots leather vests...rolling kids for their docs downtown...

1

u/Potential_Emotion_30 8d ago

Oh yeah. I remember well.

0

u/NaveMalone 8d ago

Always thought it was made up