So, I heard that the pikes were under arrest, I thought 'it couldn't happen to a nicer group of guys.' They've had this coming for years. The Times-Pic has a rundown of some of their recent incidents, but I can think of far more off the top of my head.
When I was in high school, a Newman high school girl was drugged and raped by the pikes. The brothers in question never went to jail. Oh, yeah, and the Pikes still hold a Boone's Farm party every year for high school girls. Parents are horrified when they find a flyer for the party in one of their little girls' bag.
The most infamous incident happened in the late 90's. Josh Gimelstob, brother of the famous tennis player, was being issued a DUI by a cop. The Pike, drunk, lost control of the vehicle and ran over the cop and dragged the body down McAllister (the road that runs through the middle of campus). It looked like someone spilled gallons of red paint all down the street. Josh then fled the scene. Here's a steaming turd of an article about the trial hosted on the defense attorney's website. Josh got 6 months in a prison alternative program and not a single night in prison for murdering a cop! What did that do for him? Well, a few years down the road, he led cops on a high speed pursuit winding through the back roads of New Jersey at 120 mph. Cops called off the chase because of the danger to civilians and the cops, but just a few blocks down the road, they found Josh with his Mercedes SUV wrapped around a tree.
A few years later, the Pikes took a pledge on a pub crawl. The pledge died of alcohol poisoning. Cops interview the Pikes and they all keep their mouths shut. No charges are ever filed.
I forget exactly when, but the Pikes got kicked off campus, but got special dispensation from Nationals to operate without affiliation to a school. This is normally a no-no for big fraternities. A lot of national Pikes considered their NOLA brethren an embarrassment. My dad, an Ole Miss pike, detested the NOLA Pikes.
They continued to operate and were total assholes. They were also INFAMOUS for ruffieing girls, especially at their big party, Saturate. Dues for the Pikes ran something like $5,000 a semester and none of it went towards keeping the house up (TOTAL dump). It all went for beer and coke.
When I was at Tulane, a student body president campaigned to get them back on campus, arguing it's better to have an in-house problem than a loose cannon. The Hullabaloo and a large group of Newcomb students RAILED against the idea as a disaster waiting to happen. I'd love to see some of those editorials they ran reprinted in the Times-Pic. Cowen, despite his general hatred for the Greek system, gave the move his tacit approval. He had struck up a friendship with some large-donating Pike parents back in 2002.
Did the Pikes behave once on campus? Nope. If anything, they got worse. They started picking fights with other students. The date raping of girls got worse (if that was even possible). There was a large sign that read, "RAPE FREE ZONE" in their frat house that was considered a joke. Anyone who didn't think the Pikes were a ticking time bomb was either a fool or a liar.
I have one piece of advice for the Pikes. Before you go to Central Lockup, you might want to get a tattoo on your butt:
Full disclosure: I was a close friend of Ducky Riess (who ran the fraternity system at Tulane for 50+ years, although not the more recent years) and I was a fraternity member at Tulane.
NOTE- Some minor edits for spelling.
UPDATE- Didn't really want to write a new blog post about this, but had a couple of quick things to say. First off, it's sad that the Times-Pic put this story on the front page 2 days in a row when there were murders and shootings and real news happening all over the city. Second off, after all the rapes and hooliganism, it's a couple assholes who wanted to join these assholes that shuts them down. Rape? Murder of a police officer? Eh. Pouring crab boil on the genitals of a rich, white asshole, SOUND THE ALARM!
UPDATE 2- More Piker stories here...
UPDATE 3 - Tulane Pike House dies an Ironic Death: turned into police station.
You left out when they set their house on fire.
ReplyDeleteRumor was it was an indoor fireworks fight, but actually it was a lamp that had been pushed down over a pillow and left that way (important safety tip: don't do that).
It was repaired, cleaned up and promptly trashed again.
Refrain from dropping the soap, gentlemen.
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ReplyDeleteBelieve me, those activities have been going on for decades, although it sounds like the Pikes at Tulane were beyond redemption.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious what your Dad had to say about fraternities in general at Ole Miss back in his day?
Tulane paid off the family of the cop Gimelstob killed to keep quiet about it. There are papers acquired from a Tulane administration office floating around which detail this.
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