April 13, 1948, in The Star: Manager Charlie Barron’s Anniston Rams will face the left-handed slants of an old diamond nemesis tonight at 7:30 when the Rams open the 1948 Southeastern League season against the Gadsden Pilots in Gadsden. The new hurler for the Rams is Hal Schacker, who uses his side-arm delivery in near-perfect fashion. Also this date: Printed in this edition of The Star is the full list of qualified voters of Calhoun County for 1948 [a good resource for genealogists, although geographically the names are grouped by city, then precinct, then district — not by address].
April 13, 1998, in The Star: Noticeable gang activity in Anniston has lessened since 1993, but gang membership has grown, says Jeff Cobb, an Anniston policeman who works in the department’s special operations unit. The reason is that gang members are older (18 or 19, compared to 14-18 five years ago) and smarter than when gangs first appeared in Anniston nearly a decade ago. Cobb said three major groups of gangs operate in the area: Crips, Bloods and Gangster Style. A subset of Gangster Style is The Disciples, which originated in Chicago. A gang called OTB, or Out The Bricks, was responsible for Anniston’s first known gang-related incidents, in 1989. That year, police arrested 17 gang members.