  We report on VLA HI spectral line observations of five early-type galaxies
classified as optically peculiar due to the presence of jets, ripples or other
optical "fine structure". We detect HI within the primary beam (30' HPBW) in
four of the five systems. However, in only one case is this gas associated with
the targeted elliptical galaxy. In the other cases the HI is associated with a
nearby gas-rich disk or dwarf galaxy. The one HI detection is for NGC 7626,
where we tentatively detect an HI cloud lying between 20 and 40 kpc southwest
of the galaxy center. Its origin is unclear. Our failure to detect obvious
tidal HI features suggests that if these fine-structure ellipticals are
remnants of disk galaxy mergers, either the progenitors were gas poor, or they
are well evolved and any gaseous tidal features have dispersed and/or been
converted into other phases. Our targeted systems all reside in groups or
clusters, and it seems likely that tidal HI is shorter lived in these
environments than suggested by studies of more isolated merger remnants.
