In Chicago, Illinois (USA) during the 1970s, street crime was becoming a real problem and citizens were uncomfortably remembering the days of Al Capone. A group of Chicago cops decided to form a secret vigilante ring to deal with this problem 'undercover.'

These cops, named Willy, Preston, James, Adam, and Othello, called themselves The Watchmen.

The Watchmen would prowl the streets of Chicago between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m.

There was no enforced curfew in Chicago at the time, but the Watchmen would patrol the streets wearing monkey-masks and dressed in civilian clothing, walking in pairs or in lone routes and report back to each other on suspicious activity. When they saw something funny, they would approach the scene with their machine-guns and tell the trouble-makers they were hired by the Chicago mafia to make sure the streets were quiet at night.

The Watchmen enjoyed their work and discovered that vigilantism was rather spiritually rewarding in Chicago.

While there was no explicit publicity about the Watchmen, word soon spread that apparently the Chicago mafia was enforcing curfews and street peace with a handful of monkey-mask wearing and gun-carrying goons. The Chicago police department investigated the reports but came up empty, especially since no one wanted to snitch on the mafia. The police also secretly condoned the so-called Watchmen, since they seemed to be enforcing regular laws without much reports of egregious violence or mayhem; in other words, their job suddenly became easier.

The crime rate in Chicago went down and the Watchmen decided to ordain themselves as formal 'bishops of street peace.'

There was one strange skirmish in which a gang of thugs wore hood-masks and carried baseball bats in an attempt to hunt down and assault the Watchmen and defy the Chicago mafia, but these goons were soon scared away rather efficiently by the machine-gun carrying Watchmen.

A local film troupe decided to make a street-talk Chicago gossip film titled "Reign of the Watchmen" which surprisingly starred Burt Reynolds as the unofficial leader of the vigilante group.

The Watchmen did not want to be associated with other vigilantism-marked American groups such as the Hell's Angels, so they sent an article to the Chicago press stating that their mafia ties made it mandatory that they remain clandestine and anonymous.

Everyone in Chicago seemed secretly happy with the social successes of the Watchmen.

The 1980s came around, and the Watchmen were considering who to recruit for the next generation of Chicago street enforcement. They decided to start interviewing prospective members of the Chicago police department and were rather optimistic about their plans. The Watchmen decided to meet for a special celebratory dinner at a local Italian restaurant. However, the owners of the restaurant were in a skirmish with some local mafia leaders and unknown to the Watchmen, the restaurant became targeted. As they were enjoying a festive dinner, mafia hitmen attacked the restaurant and killed everyone, including the Watchmen, who was dining there that evening.

As weeks passed, people reported that the Watchmen seemed to be nowhere in sight. Anxiety about street crime rose again, but it seemed that the memory of the Watchmen created a strange veil that ironically motivated the people of Chicago to maintain peace and order in small steps (i.e., cheering on regular Chicago police officers).

A certain American comic book writer named Bob Kane decided to make an adapted story about the Watchmen titled "The Mafia Saints" (DC Comics), and the stories sold well in Chicago, San Francisco, and Kansas City.

Is American culture naturally conducive to vigilantism spirit?