The Underworld Podcast - Sex Money Murda, Pistol Pete and the United Blood Nation (and Young Thug!)

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

This is the story of Pistol Pete, one of the most revered killers to ever walk the streets of New York City, who found infamy after the small click he founded in the Bronx, Sex Money Murda, linked up ...with a newly burgeoning prison gang federation called the United Blood Nation. Together, both groups would spread up and down the east coast and have such a powerful influence in the streets than 30 years later, one of rap's biggest stars would be linked to them after a massive gang arrest in Atlanta. For bonus episodes, subscribe on itunes or on Patreon at patreon.com/theunderworldpodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:39 There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Rikers Island, sometime in the mid-90s. Pistol Pete has a choice to make. He's only 23 years old, but he's in Rikers facing a slew of charges worth dozens of years in prison
Starting point is 00:01:00 that he's picked up as the creator and head of the sex money murder gang that ruled over parts in New York City's notorious South Bronx neighborhood in the early 90s. O.G. MacPorty
Starting point is 00:01:10 is another gang leader in Rikers at the time. Only a few years earlier there, he had formed the United Blood Nation. A collection of black gangs he hoped to be able to protect black inmates from the more powerful Latino gangs that dominated Rikers at the time,
Starting point is 00:01:24 like the Latin Kings. To form up, he brought together more than a dozen different crews. He wants Pete to join to bring his crew under the umbrella. but Pete's not really sure about it. See, Pete's not a small-time player, right? He's not some no-name dealer.
Starting point is 00:01:39 Despite only being in his early 20s, he's already got a huge reputation. He's built a bit of a legend in the Bronx, more so than anyone else in the United Blood Nation. And he's now becoming known citywide. He runs big housing projects, has had a number of people killed, killed the number of people himself.
Starting point is 00:01:57 And he's been up in all the popular men had in nightclubs like the tunnel, showing up in a fleet of luxury cars and buying out dozens of bottles of Kristal with his crew, sometimes even assigning them numbers of bottles that they have to buy, while he parties with supermodels like Tyson, Beckford, and Tyra Banks, and rack Kimkins like Puffy. People are terrified of him and his crew, and they take no shit.
Starting point is 00:02:18 One of his lieutenants actually even cracked a bottle over the rapper Nas's head in the club one night. Pete's also a stone cold killer himself, known for sneaking up on people, catching them when they're not suspicious, and shooting them in the back of the head. sometimes even in broad daylight. Only recently, Pete had been on the cover of the New York Daily News
Starting point is 00:02:38 as the Bronx most wanted, after he was named as a suspect in the broad day murder of a man in Harlem at a street fair a couple years ago. Stupidly, Pete had gone back to the festival two years later, where he was promptly arrested in Santa Rikers. His crew is also warring with another crew in the Bronx, ran by a one-time NBA prospect called Carlton Duncan Hines. Pete killed him and one of the other members of his crew
Starting point is 00:03:01 like it was nothing. But things are starting to close in on him. He's already locked up facing life sentences, and a lot of the top guys in his crew are talking to the police already. But what Pete does next, with OG Mac, is going to have consequences that far outlasts his original sex money murder crew, even playing a role in one of the biggest gang cases involving a superstar rapper in 2022.
Starting point is 00:03:25 This is the Underworld podcast. Welcome back, everyone, to the Underworld podcast, where two journalists who have reported on crime all over the world of all types, take the listener into underworld stories from New York City to Japan and everywhere else in between. I am one of your host, Danny Gold. I am here with Sean Williams, who always requires me to thoroughly explain slang from 90s rap songs.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Yeah, and there's going to be no shortage of that in this episode, I'm sure, right? I mean, I should have done my homework. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's all right, man. No, everyone, everyone forgives you. You know, no, there's no, there's no blame here. But you, you're working on them. the Nepal thing. Yeah, you got that coming out soon?
Starting point is 00:04:12 Yeah, man. I mean, I'm writing that up. I've got another two weeks to get that finished, so I've been getting up at 5 a.m., going to bed at midnight, and thinking that I'm really tortured artist when I'm just like looking at a TV screen and watching YouTube. And then we're going to have like a show about that trip as well, which is
Starting point is 00:04:28 going to be pretty wild, actually. It ended up being this crazy journey through the outback of Nepal, which is pretty fun to listen to and there's a lot of new metal involved. So I hope people like that. With a bunch of like weed dealers, right, or we growers or something along those lines. Yeah, a bunch of like dreadlocked Nepali weed dealers who are really
Starting point is 00:04:45 into Slipknot and Lincoln Park. Yeah. So that was quite a way. That's cool that you guys have the same taste. I know. I couldn't get enough of it. Three days, nonstop, 12 hours listening to New Metal Man.
Starting point is 00:04:58 It's a privilege. Okay. Yeah, as always, we have bonus episodes, many episodes. I just did one on LaBarby. The American Mexican cartel boss. who has disappeared, disappeared from federal custody. So we talked about that.
Starting point is 00:05:14 Many episodes, interviews, they're up at patreon.com slash the underworld podcast, where you can become a subscriber and get those as well as scripts and other benefits. We're talking like 10, 20, 30 hours of bonus episodes, I think, all that good stuff. And also, we just set it up so you can sign up through iTunes with like one click.
Starting point is 00:05:31 Nate. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of going through Patreon and all that. But yeah, our numbers are actually kind of down in general. because of a certain video game company digging us about for three months. But anyway, if you can steal your friend's phones, download the podcast on that, you know, what is it? What are they? Ratings, give us ratings, subscribe, spread the word so, you know, we don't feel like failures. Anyway, moving on.
Starting point is 00:06:01 This is another and kind of I feel like the classic New York series stuff that I'm doing. And I definitely want to branch out and start doing more West Coast and Southern episodes. and Canadian and whatever, but, you know, New York stories are just so much fun. You know, it's a bit of interesting one because typically I think we try to stay away from more well-known stories, both with like mafia guys and street figures that are obviously, you know, a ton of stuff that is out there on like Don Deva and all these YouTube channels that basically just read Wikipedia entries. But, you know, we'll dip into foreign stuff that people know about cartels and gangs like MS-13 because we actually report on that
Starting point is 00:06:33 in person. But sex money, murder, and pistol Pete, I'm usually less inclined to just story like this because there's just so much out there. But two things kind of convinced me to do this one. And the first is that I read this book by Jonathan Green, which is about Sex Money, Murder. I think it's called Sex Money Murder. That it's just one of the best reported, most intimate portrayals of a gang life in the U.S. like this
Starting point is 00:06:56 and how these gangs sort of function that I've ever read. It's just a phenomenal piece of work. And of course, I'm using it as the major source for this episode. But go out there and get that book if this interests you. I actually spent the beginning part of my career as a journalist covering, you know, murders and gang stuff and breaking news in New York City for a few years. And I just never had the opportunity to go even remotely close to a level of depth that this book has.
Starting point is 00:07:20 And the access is just, oh, in parallel. So the second thing about this, though, is that I wanted to try to understand, you know, how Pistol P became this legend, this, like, mythical figure. Because there's so many gangsters and gang leaders out there, like a dime a dozen from the 80s and 90s in New York City, you know, a lot of them might have been moving more weight or, or, had more bodies or more, you know, just more notoriety, I feel like, or did stuff that should earn them more notoriety than this gang or control bigger territories. You know, he's got this rep, this like folklore, like a hood Jesse James.
Starting point is 00:07:51 And I wanted to see why that is and try to understand it. Because I think it's important. We talk a lot about how, how lore forms, you know, how this sort of stuff happens with, with gangs. And that's kind of part of, you know, the stories that we're telling is trying to understand that what the reality is, why these things kind of, kind of form. form up. So we've talked a lot about how law enforcement, you know, and street dudes, it kind of benefits them to hype up these legends. You know, every bad A&E or History Channel doc is like the scariest
Starting point is 00:08:18 gangster ever, the biggest gang ever and all that. It's interesting to kind of analyze, you know, while somehow ignoring those superlatives that are just kind of thrown out there, why that is, how it comes to be besides just newspaper editors or executive producers or, you know, federal task forces coming up with a catchy, attention-grabbing headline titles. You know, Peter's like shouted out by rappers, like Nas, even now shout it out. But it really was just kind of like, you know, a relatively small operation. Though he did have a way with just murdering people. So that's part of it, you know.
Starting point is 00:08:49 Are these rap references going to get more obscure? Because I reckon, I mean, I've heard of Nas. So I'm doing all right so far. You might not have heard of some of them. But I think a lot of our listeners will, if, especially the ones in the tri-state area. But like, Laura Tarika and Peter Guns, is that going to ring a bell? Absolutely not. Yeah, well, that's a shame, you know.
Starting point is 00:09:10 It's like me and cricket. But yeah, anyway, sorry, I know I'm going on on this. I don't know if I found a clear answer for why that is, but we're going to try to, we're going to dive into it. Yeah. So these guys, you know, they seem kind of disorganized as you learn about them, kind of small time. The guys at the center of it weren't around that long,
Starting point is 00:09:29 but somehow it's just flourished. It became this kind of franchisee thing. And that's where we draw on Young Thug, allegedly, movements and takedowns in other states far from New York that are still going on now. But yeah, the story begins in the streets of the Bronx, New York, in the 80s, specifically the notorious Soundview housing projects. Obviously, the South Bronx has a reputation that it's had forever as one of the most dangerous, violent and poor places in America, actually.
Starting point is 00:09:56 I think it's always the poorest zip code or poorest county in the country, like more so than Appalachia, anything like that, with a huge drug problem and everything that goes with it still kind of maintains that rep, though it's definitely, you know, a lot less violent now. But the Bronx, it's still, it's still wild, man. It still can catch you, catch you off guard. And if you're from New York, or you're not from New York, you've heard a Soundview because of the single by Lord Drie and Peter Guns, Dejaveo. That was just huge in New York City when it dropped, especially with the Yankees
Starting point is 00:10:28 who were just killing it those ears. And they're both from Soundview, and they talk about that a lot. They knew Pistow Pete actually really well. He had tried to get Puffy to sign them to back. bad boy. The album is kind of like an ode to him and sex money murder. All right. Now, here we go with the references. Yeah. Also, like the Bronx, is it weird to New Yorkers that Yankee Stadium's like the most run down part of town? Like, was it always that way? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the South Bronx has always been, always been rough, you know,
Starting point is 00:10:53 going back like 100 years. It was always just a rough, rough. It's like East New York, you know, or Brownsville. But, no, I guess it's not. I mean, there definitely were, you know, I'm sure a lot of stand-up comedians in the 80s or 90s talked about the just craziness that you'd see going Yankee games and all that sort of stuff and whether it was worth it. But not, it's always been like that. I mean, there's the famous, I'll talk about it a little bit, but there's the famous Bronx's burning thing from, that's a call from a Yankees game, and I'll get into that. But the Soundview houses, it's 13 building, seven stories each, about 1,250 families are in there,
Starting point is 00:11:27 and nearly half of them are on welfare, according to the research that Jonathan Green had done. and it's also right next door to the Casa Hill projects, and there's this fierce rivalry there that comes to play later on. And also, when you've got that many poor and desperate people crammed in together, it's going to be a big base for selling drugs. And there's always, you know, crews from each project, beefing with each other, then beefing with the other projects, all trying to set up and just take over and take advantage of that customer base.
Starting point is 00:11:53 Soundview was built in the 50s at the behest of Robert Moses, who, if you don't know, did a ton of urban planning in the city that basically screwed over minorities and poor people. Have I read the power broker? No. Do I even own it? No. Do I pretend to have read the power broker?
Starting point is 00:12:09 Also, no. Like, I'm not that guy. You know, I read the New Yorker, but I'm not some guy carrying a New Yorker tote bag. You know what I'm saying? So we're not going to get into that. Oh, man. Don't ever come to Berlin.
Starting point is 00:12:20 There's plenty of those. Interestingly, Soundview was supposed to be diverse when it was originally brought up, right? Best intentions. They had a plan where there'd be one white family, one Puerto Rican family, and one black family to occupy apartments on each floor, which is, you know, best intentions and all.
Starting point is 00:12:34 But by the mid-60s, it's going to shit already. It's kind of like the cycle that we've seen with a lot of these housing projects. We talked about Pruydago in St. Louis, that big one that was torn down only like a decade or two after it was built. It's kind of like, you know, they have these plans. Like, here's a place to live,
Starting point is 00:12:49 but also no resources whatsoever. We're not going to do any upkeep and no police. So by the 70s, most white families had already fled with white flight and all that. and the area is just disintegrating. With that disintegration, we also have the heroin epidemic. The Bronx is burning, and that's where everything is so messed up because of drugs and violence and poverty that landlords are setting fire to their buildings to collect insurance money.
Starting point is 00:13:12 There's actually a book called The Bronx is Burning, which is great about this time period. I think there's a documentary too, but it's this infamous baseball call, I think during the 70s, maybe 78 or 79, when during a broadcast of a Yankees game, they were able to show, like, look outside the stadium, you know, from the stadium you could see, there are just buildings on fire, like big, big fires. And the play guys, they're basically just like, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning. So it became this kind of notorious thing that happened. And that's when you have these photos of the Bronx in the 70s and 80s,
Starting point is 00:13:41 where it kind of looks like a bombed out war zone. You know, politicians would go there to talk about urban blight. Even Jimmy Carter, as president, did that. I remember the first ever book review I did was a photographer taking features of the Bronx back around that time. It actually looks like Mosul or something, like insane, insane level. was the decay. It's kind of like, isn't that what disco and hip hop came out of as well?
Starting point is 00:14:03 Like people just hooking up like amps and rigs to the, to like the bombed out street lamps and stuff like that? I think I read that somewhere. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about disco. But yeah, hip hop, that's what hip hop came out of. That era in the Bronx and that was also a huge gang era. You know, we're talking about the warriors
Starting point is 00:14:18 and all that sort of stuff and leather cuts and savage nomads and all that. And, yeah, Savage skull, seven, whatever. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, it was a really, really wild era. In the late 80s what's happening is the street drug of choice is changing from heroin to crack. And crack is a whole different ballgame. I think we've talked about this a bit in other episodes. Heroin is a lot tougher to get a hold of than cocaine, right? And a lot more expensive to buy it wholesale.
Starting point is 00:14:44 Heroin was also mostly kind of controlled, almost monopolized by the mob back then. You know, think of the French connection and what followed. With crack, it was a lot easier to find Coke to find a good connection. You had all sorts of Dominicans and Colombian crews that were freelancing and bringing it in. And it was easy for anyone with a dollar and a dream to just get involved. And that's what happened. That's a big part of the crack wars and why they were so wild to so many crews fighting over territory and customers. I think we got into that a bit more in the Wild Cowboys of Washington Heights episode if you want to go back and listen to that, which you should. So Jonathan Green, the author of this book I mentioned above, he pulls an estimate of 150,000 people
Starting point is 00:15:22 in New York City at the time working in the crack. industry, which I don't know. I mean, that seems kind of insane. Seems what, like every 60th New Yorker isn't like dealing or doing crack. That's mad. I think it's like, yeah, it's pretty insane. I think, I mean, maybe that includes fronts, right, like bodegas and store shops and who knows? Maybe you throw in banks and real estate, right? And that brings it into that. But I don't think there's any way it could be a hundred fifty thousand people on the street dealing or chopping stuff up in some ways. That just sounds insane to me. But who knows? Anyway, two of those 150,000 people are Pete and Pipe.
Starting point is 00:15:59 Pipe is 11 years old. His mother is a heroin addict. He's already working on what they call cozy corner, which is a major crack spot in Soundview, selling, even shooting at people by then. And he's basically like a crack dealing prodigy. I mean, one of those kids who never had a chance. And then there's Pete. Pete's a few years older than Pipe.
Starting point is 00:16:16 He's 14 then. And he had a little money growing up, actually. He went to private school, all that sort of stuff. But Pete was always just destined to be a gangster. His dad had worked with the infamous Nikki Barnes, who ruled Harlem heroin in the 70s and worked with the mob. He also had created like a black gangster governing body called the council. Leonard P.D. Rolak was his name. He was a low-level distributor. He actually got busted in undercover DEA Sting in 1976.
Starting point is 00:16:41 He got sentenced to 15 years, though he was out in a lot less or substantially less. And when he got out, he started again a new crew with one of Nikki Barnes' relatives. All right. Pete and Pipe, it's like turning out into a pretty great. buddy movie plot yeah pretty grim one but it is i mean get got jonathan green that money man he deserves it if you're out there put him put him get the rights make make this happen so they're selling stuff this is this is this is the uh father they were selling stuff they got from that gambino family which is gody's cool at the time you know he never prayed to god he prayed to god he anyway he gets busted again to 87 barns and his relative flip but pete actually his dad doesn't right he solidifies
Starting point is 00:17:21 this rep he ends up getting 50 years for racketeering Personally, I would have gone with the flipping and not the rep, but that's why I'm not in the game, right? Pete carries that rep with him everywhere, right? His dad is a stand-up guy, work with the mob, doesn't talk, doesn't snitch. And when Pete's dad goes to jail, he goes and lives for a period of time with his uncle, this guy, George Wallace. She was also, like, you know, a major player. One of these 70s, 80s cats, that's just a smooth operator, you know, doesn't raise his voice, dresses really well, just a mentor of sorts.
Starting point is 00:17:51 And we'll get to him a little later on. growing up, Pete had posters of guys like Lucky Luciano and Albert Anastasia in his room, which interesting segue, Sean, what was the worst poster you had in your room growing up? I can't even imagine. Well, apart from the Libertine's lyrics,
Starting point is 00:18:06 I painted on some of a free paper and stuck on my dorm wall. Jesus Christ, that saying that is so... Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th,
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Starting point is 00:18:59 That is really cringe. Anyway, moving on. Yeah, another crew member named Shug. Pete was already boys from playing youth football with him. Shug kind of looked up to Pete, even though he was the one on the block doing favors for the neighborhood dealers and stuff. Pete was just this real shitster, always getting into fights, always getting other people into fights.
Starting point is 00:19:16 And he grabs Pipe and Shug, a couple other guys, and he kind of organizes them into this crew to fight other crews. The Pipe and Shug, the reason I mention them too is because they end up being the ones who talked to Green for his book. They gave him the entire rundown, which is really, really interesting. By high school, Pete's into distribution a bit, right?
Starting point is 00:19:36 Pipe is selling firm. These guys are toting guns everywhere. Pete was never actually on the street. He was always in distribution. He always focused on the bigger picture. And he was getting more and more stuff from Dominicans he knew in Washington Heights and basically falling into a vacuum
Starting point is 00:19:50 after a couple of other neighborhood guys got murdered. And then it's just the usual, right? These guys are hustling on the block. They're fending off other crews and crooked cops and stick up kids. It's just, it's a real jungle out there in those days. It's like 2,000 murders a year in New York at this point, the highest it's ever been. And these kids are like 14, 15, 17, like on the street just trying to make things happen. And they soon start their own crew, they call it Kings, which stands for killing innocent and word gangster style, which is, I don't mean, gangs and their acronyms, right?
Starting point is 00:20:21 I think that's technically an initialism. But why killing in, like, why would rap about killing innocent? Like, that's not, I mean, that just doesn't really serve a point. But, you know, it ends up being relatively true. So they get a rep for fighting. And Pete also gets this rep for carrying these small handguns, which is where he earns the nickname Pistol Pete after shooting someone in the leg. Shug branches off at one point with another dealer.
Starting point is 00:20:45 They're going to Springfield, Massachusetts, which is a working class city, where they're soon earning tens of thousands of dollars a day. And the reason I bring this up is because this is a period where, New York City had so many dealers and so much drugs coming in, they would relocate to smaller cities and towns all over to move weight and basically bully out the other local dealers and they could charge more for their products, right? Double triple profits. They were earning more is more profitable and there's less competition as Shook learns. And this is a big part of how their crew grows. They take off the smaller cities, not just Springfield, Massachusetts.
Starting point is 00:21:18 They're in Kingston. They're in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, North Carolina eventually. you know, they call it going OT, right? Going out of town and just taking over. Shug, unfortunately, he makes the mistake of coming back to Soundview and flashing his cash around. That's, you know, the wolves aren't going to let that stand. He soon gets robbed by a rival crew, the biggest one in Soundview at the time, led by a guy called E.T. Larry, which I'm only mentioning because I know there's a lot of names going around, but E.T. Larry's just a great, that's a great little gang nickname, you know? Great alias.
Starting point is 00:21:48 Him and his goons kidnapped Shug, but Shug Shug breaks free, and he comes to Pete. I guess Shook shouldn't have phoned home. All right, I'm going to let that one slide. That's not bad. That's not bad at all. And then, of course, obviously, it's war. And this is the first war where Pete and his crew really are facing serious guys. And it's where they make their name.
Starting point is 00:22:07 Basically, there's, like, shootouts all over the projects, you know? Broad day stuff. Like, it's a game of fucking paintball, right? These kind of younger generation of killers that just don't play by the rules. So much so that E.T. Larry, after one of his guys is killed, he just backs away. Right. He's had enough. He's like, I'm done with this. These kids are too out of control. And he flees to Seattle. I mean, to be fair, all this crazy stuff going on. Like, I'm starting to believe that 150,000 figure. Yeah. I mean, it's wild. So Pete and his crew, they now run Soundview. And they're the major Coke supplier for every dealer who wants a piece in the neighborhood.
Starting point is 00:22:43 Pete also soon connects with two twin brothers who are basically the biggest guys or second biggest guys in the Castle Hill projects. And they kind of unite. It's kind of that's a big part of the genesis of sex money murder. Pipe actually relocates the Buffalo. He starts a little franchise there for catching a charge, and he's making a ton of money there. Sex Money Murder, the thing is that they never seem like this super set, super organized thing, which is weird in how it's grown so big now. It just seemed like Pete supplying a lot of kind of almost independent guys,
Starting point is 00:23:12 and as top guys are going off on their own to do their own things, and it's kind of like it's amorphous, you know, it's very vague. That's also right around the time Pete had a cousin come visit from L.A., that had been a Crip. And that, you know, that's LA's major gang banging days, right? The 80s and 90s, the days of colors and all that. He didn't understand this kind of non-gang mafia type thing that Pete had dreams of, right? This like almost autonomous operation thing.
Starting point is 00:23:35 So he tells him, all you guys care about is sex money murder. And that's how the name of the gang is born. Because Pete's like, yeah, that's true. Yeah, fair enough. I mean, you mentioned franchises before. It's kind of like, yeah, it's kind of like a Starbucks franchise or something. I don't know, like just to name these guys throw around. not very structured, like you say.
Starting point is 00:23:54 It's kind of interesting, yeah. It's weird because it kind of, at some points it does seem like that. And you'll see later on Pete tries to make it like that. But, I mean, that's one of the things I couldn't wrap my head around with the book. I think the impression we get is a lot of this stuff is like super, especially with Strukegangs is like super top down, organized, at least in the States. And it doesn't really appear that that's the case for a lot of it. So, yeah, they had people, Buffalo, Springfield, Massachusetts.
Starting point is 00:24:20 Pete supplying major weight to the street dealers, spending money all over, getting a little bit of the Robin Hood thing going, you know, turkeys on Thanksgiving Day and all that. Then in October 1992, Pete gets a gift from his dad, something he had left for him when he locked up. It's $250,000 in cash. And his dad's brother, his uncle, the older gangster George Wallace, or G. Wollis is how he was called, who's like the smooth debonair guy. He's really starting to mentor Pete right now. with the new money, Pete and Pipe start looking for new cities, new places set up.
Starting point is 00:24:52 You know, they really focus hard on Kingston, which is upstate New York. They start, what they do is they show up. They recruit youngsters to be their soldiers. They chase other dealers off the block and that's how it works. The expansion, it's as simple as that. Sex money murder, hands out monies to kids in these projects. They help older women with their groceries and they keep a lock on other violence at the time. Ah, yeah, nice.
Starting point is 00:25:12 The old Escobar trick, right? Don't argue your crimes, but definitely do help the old days. the hood, get across the roads, get all your potential snitches on the side. I want to just shout out, by the way, in case you can hear something in the background, there is a monkey fighting a pigeon outside my window. So, yeah, there's stuff going down here. Yeah, I mean, I've got rats fighting pigeons outside my window. You don't hear me bragging about it. At that point, sex money murder, it's only really like eight guys. But Pete soon links up with a new connection, who has really good in constant supply a top-level cocaine. The guys who are supplying it,
Starting point is 00:25:45 they need Pete for protection at this point. So they set up in Pittsburgh. and it's like, despite this being a tiny crew, they're expanding to all these other states already. The guy helps connect P with Dominicans connected directly to Colombia, and now he's getting kilos, like major, you know, big time wait for a guy in the street. And the Dominicans, actually, this is like an interesting side thing. They get Pete into Sinteria, and he starts practicing and doing, like, weird rituals. Wait, what's that like peyote and stuff?
Starting point is 00:26:09 No, Centauria is like the sort of African folklore that mixed with Latin America. I don't have a good definition of it. Like a voodoo kind of thing. But, you know, it involves like, yeah, like I think Vuda would be, would be, or similar to that, somewhat accurate. But yell at me or yell at Sean. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the comments or whatever people yell at people these days. Yeah, just do that if I get that wrong and it's insensitive or something. By this time, you know, they are flashing like big money, luxury cars, all that, going to those famous New York City 90s nightclubs.
Starting point is 00:26:42 You know, puppies promoting parties at this time. He's giving Pete the VIP treatment, putting him on all the love. list, they got the big chains, the diamonds. Pete would actually tell his crew how many bottles of crystal they had to buy, depending on how well they did that week. At one point at a party, like late in the night, words are exchanged. And Pipe, who's still like a teenager, right? A kid, like 14 or 15, he cracks a champagne bottle over someone's head. That ends up being Nause, you know? And I think the story is like, Nas eventually rounds up like some of his guys or his muscle and, like, goes over and realizes Pipe is who he is and he's with Pete.
Starting point is 00:27:17 And he's like, no, I don't want, I don't want any problems, right? Nothing like that. And these guys, you know, they're like 15, 16, 17, just spending thousands of dollars at the clubs, going to strip clubs, having like wild orgies and fancy hotel rooms. It's just, you know, they're getting a little out of control. Yeah, I mean, this pretty much sounds like my youth. Same year and you.
Starting point is 00:27:34 Yeah, sure, sure. One week in August, they're in Harlem for this block party. That's like a street fair thing. It's called Harlem Week. One of the twins gets into a confrontation over a dice game at like 11 a.m. Pete just doesn't hesitate, right? He pulls out a gun, shoots the guy in the back of the head, just like that. And the thing is, it's actually his first murder at that time.
Starting point is 00:27:55 You know, Pete was this guy known for, like, his violent rep, but that was the first time he ever killed someone. And he's kind of like also getting this rep as like a playboy, just like slick. You know, he's also getting darker and darker and paranoid. And they're turning Soundbue into this fortress where, like, even the police don't want to go. And then after that, after that first murder,
Starting point is 00:28:15 the violence just hits overdrive. There's this roller skating rink that people would go to at night. I don't know if that's a thing anywhere, anywhere out. Well, I guess in New York and parts of the south, I've heard it. It's like that was a big thing like the 80s and 90s, right? These roller skating rink parties and all that sort of stuff. People would go and flash. Oh, you did have that.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Yeah, yeah, we had that. That was just the U.S. thing. Yeah. Pete goes up to the roller skating rink. He tries to say hi to this guy Carlton Duncan Hines, who was like, you know, one of these guys who was supposed to make it to the NBA, but he ended up turning into a drug dealer in the Bronx. He's six foot five.
Starting point is 00:28:48 He's wearing a full-length fur jacket. He had been a serious ball player. He actually went to boarding school in Maine and kind of bonded with this white family up there, which is like this weird side story in it, which is really interesting. But he flunked at his school. You know, there was obviously some racism stuff
Starting point is 00:29:03 that happened to him there. I kind of think he lost his interest. So he started playing at the infamous Rucker Park, which is, you know, where a lot of the major dealers were hang out and sponsor teams. He gets to know them. he starts getting fronted his own Coke and he starts dealing. And by 1993, he was led to the earning $40,000 a day in sales from controlling the Melrose
Starting point is 00:29:21 projects. So Pete goes up, tries to say hi. People aren't really sure. I think Heinz, the story goes that Heinz didn't know who he was or knew his legend but didn't know he was him. So he kind of disrespects him. There's a fight and Pete walks away and it's like dead set on killing him. Heinz at this point is terrified, right?
Starting point is 00:29:40 he's considering fleeing back to Maine, but Pete and his crew, they catch him at a car dealership near the Bronx Zoo and they kill him. And Pete starts getting infamous Boroughai now after this. It's like a big news story because this kid was supposed to have gone
Starting point is 00:29:53 to the NBA and was apparently trying to get back into playing college ball or something. Yeah, I mean, there's always a point in these stories where I'm like, oh yeah, he's not some plucky entrepreneur. He's like, he's a cold psychopath. And there we go. I'm sure he just settles down in Seattle himself now, right?
Starting point is 00:30:07 Pete? Or I don't know. No, no. Pete just goes nuts after that, right? He kills a few more people, some other, like, hood-seleb drug dealers. He's even claiming murders he didn't do at this point. And nobody's no, like people know. People that are witnesses, but nobody's going to talk.
Starting point is 00:30:22 You know, there's never anyone who's going to testify against Pete. He kills another one of Duncan Heinz crew in broad daylight. And like in no time, he single-handedly killed three people in less than a year. He also kills a dealer who his uncle George thought was setting him up. Pete had 30 kilos for this guy, apparently. Like, serious weight. they met up at Wallace's house and Pete just walks up behind the guy and shoots him in the head. And Wallace is just pissed.
Starting point is 00:30:45 You know, these old school guys, they were smooth operators. They weren't pulling stuff like this with like, you know, he hadn't cleared it with Wallace. It's in his home too, you know, blood everywhere. So it's just, it's a different way of operating. That's just wild. By then, sex money murder had a hook up with a car company out of state and they would lease cars and they would just mule coke and take their guns out of New York City. That's how they got things out of there.
Starting point is 00:31:05 They actually developed, and I hadn't heard about this before this gang, but it could have been the case. They developed special consoles in the car to hide guns, monies, and drugs. You know, one of those things where you've got to have, like, the air conditioner and the radio station set to a certain area to open up the console, which became like a really popular thing. And this is crazy and kind of stupid, but one of Pete's lieutenants actually has them incorporate in where else Delaware. So sex money murder incorporated. And these guys are getting weekly paychecks on the guys in the gang, which is like, I mean, I don't know, man. I guess it's good for handling your taxes, but it strikes me as a bit too much paperwork for a criminal conspiracy
Starting point is 00:31:42 to have it on. Like, got to give them some respect for innovating there, you know, but it's like, that is legit. It's a little wild. I just imagine these dudes that are like 17, just like being like, what the fuck is FICA? Why am I losing, you know, 20%, 10% to whatever the fuck FICA is? But Pete, Pete makes a fatal mistake with those 30 kilos he had gotten from the guy he killed at his uncle's place.
Starting point is 00:32:04 He decides to take it to North Carolina to offload. And something happens with like one of the. the local guys there gets pissed in him, snitches on him, he ends up getting arrested with coat, guns, and money on him. He's eventually freed out on a huge bail, but it's the first of, like, his serious legal troubles. Also, another big New York player was rumored to have wanted to kill Pete because he had been selling in North Carolina,
Starting point is 00:32:24 and Pete kind of took it over. So he hires a shooter to take Pete out like a hitman in the club in New York City, but Pete's guy gets to him first and just shoots him in the head in the middle of the club. Like, this is the kind of stuff these guys were doing and getting away with for the most part. So, yeah, there's arrest, hit men coming after him, It's 1995, and the walls are just closing in a bit. Sex Money murder is not only garnering the attention of the NYPD, but also the feds. And one day around then, Pete wakes up and he's on a cover of the Daily News with the headline reading Most Wanted in the Bronx.
Starting point is 00:32:53 And I guess, I mean, that's a part of it, right? That's a big part of the answer for how the lore gets going or really kicks in. That's the kind of thing that makes you notorious. The story is actually about the murder in Harlem and the guy who was playing the dice game with a twin at the Harlem Festival and Pete shot in the head. So that's, I mean, you put somebody on the cover of one of the local New York tabloys, and it's kind of like, I mean, that's the kind of Godi treatment, you know? Yeah. But by then, Pete Singleton-Hanley killed four people in two years and been taking credit for others
Starting point is 00:33:20 because he also wanted the notoriety and everything that came with it. It's kind of like a boneheaded move, to be honest. You know, it's, I guess the before ways of Instagramming your crimes. He actually goes back to that annual Harlem Week Festival, gets arrested, and now is sent to Rikers. And Pipe takes over the gang. he probably gets robbed by Jamaican weed dealer and afterward Pipe pretended he wanted to choose with the guy
Starting point is 00:33:42 who somehow believed him and then shot the guy a bunch. The guy miraculously lives and then he fingers pipe for the cops. He did what now? He fingers, he points him out anyway, he points him out for the police. And so now him and Pete are both in Rikers.
Starting point is 00:34:00 And this is when they really actually start to build up. As one of the docs about him says, I think there was an A&E doc I watched like most scary gangsters are most notorious. So I use a little bit of that info as well. Quote, behind bars, he was made bigger than life. Before they were just kind of known in the Bronx.
Starting point is 00:34:17 You know, you had tough, hard Brooklyn and Queens crews in Rikers as well. They had their own legends and affiliations, but the sex money murder guys quickly assert themselves, mostly through violence. And Pete kind of bonds with OG MacPorty, who had just founded the United Blood Nation and quickly starts building one of the largest, or what would become one of the largest Coast prison gangs. Portie grew up in the Bronx. He had been locked up before for armed robbery when he was a teenager.
Starting point is 00:34:44 He gets sent out to L.A. This is late 80s, I think, or early 90s by family to escape the streets. But his cousins out there, they're in the bloods. They're in the sets, right? And he gets wowed by the whole L.A. gang scene, which is popping off light crazy at the time. This is the days, like I said, of colors. Yeah, amazing.
Starting point is 00:35:02 Yeah, great, great movie. Young Sean Penn. He comes back to New York City. he's got his own little gang and he tells them he's sanctioned to make them bloods, which is apparently not true or debated. But he initiated its crew he calls them the 1-8-Tray Bloods
Starting point is 00:35:17 and now there's Bloods in New York officially. He quickly gets an attempted murder charge in 1992 and he's sent back to Rikers. The thing about Rikers back then is that it was dominated by the Latin Kings who ran everything. Remember, this is before the Trinitarios who, you know, I think are basically the most dominant gang there now,
Starting point is 00:35:34 at least Latino-wise, but they didn't even really exist then. And Rikers, for those who don't know, it's the largest jail in New York City, and it's a madhouse. I mean, they're trying to shut it down now. It's a brutal, brutal place and has been for decades and decades.
Starting point is 00:35:47 But the main issue for OG Mac is, at the time, the black gangs or crews, they're not united, they're all clashing with each other, and the Latino gangs are just dominating them. So he wants to change that. And he starts preaching black unity, really selling people on it,
Starting point is 00:36:01 trying to unite all these different crews. He links up with a powerful gang leader from Brooklyn, this guy, OG Dead Eye, and together they form up, and it works. He annoys himself the godfather, and 14 different crews join as the United Blood Nation. He starts writing up, like, you know, the codes and the gang statutes, the usual sort of stuff. Snitches die, you must obey, gang comes first, all that sort of stuff. Yeah, no loud music after 10, Taco Tuesdays, I know. Yeah, anyway, that's a, it's one going to miss, but, you know, you're trying.
Starting point is 00:36:29 You're doing better these days. Your average is definitely higher than it was. Thank you. It means a lot. that within no time the united blination goes to war against landing kings and just starts taking over territory right the first thing they do is they claim the phones and that's like that's a big thing as well and there's all sorts of slashings and stabbings they get pretty infamous for slashing people's faces that's where a buck 50 comes from if you ever heard that term it's 150 stitches in your face
Starting point is 00:36:53 and there's always like rumors i remember in high school like about how the bloods were doing initiations right it was always big on halloween like it was always like don't if someone asked you for the time don't do it because that's like a blood initiation. They're going to slash your wrist. They're going to slash your face. So those were the kind of rumors, I feel like that went around. I don't know if they still do in like the mid-90s, especially around Halloween. Yeah, that was a big thing.
Starting point is 00:37:16 I think we just had to look out for like the old pedophile guy on the edge of the street. But this sounds worse. Well, you guys weren't Knife Crime Island back then, right? That's only like a recent day. That's recent, yeah. Yeah. So United Blah Nation, it keeps growing. The authorities make the same mistakes they always do.
Starting point is 00:37:32 They spread them around. the different areas of the prison and different prisons and sections in jails and they just grow and more and more so in pete's and rikers him and o g mack grow tight and he wants pete to join up blooding crew and whatever you want to call it but pete's already like this boss that has a bigger rep on the streets at that point than og mack does so he's not really sure you know he's doing his own thing he's doing well he says no at first but then og mac kind of offers him this thing where s mm they're going to have complete independence on the street you know they'll just be clicked up in prison they can do their own thing they're pretty much just
Starting point is 00:38:03 just like, they get this special offer. And Pete just says, yeah, fuck it. Like, now I'm in. So him and his crew, they now have hundreds of United Blah Nation guys pretty much at their disposal in all the prisons, which is like a wild, wild thing. They grow from this small crew to this. Pete later gets out of Rikers and want to witness or can'ts, but he gets arrested again on charges related to North Carolina.
Starting point is 00:38:24 And from there, he starts, like, ordering murders from prison, greenlighting people to die, doing it all through these coded letters. You know, he calls it like a murder is a wet t-shirt contest because the code causes the blood to soak through. But of course, those letters eventually all get found out. And it starts this pattern, arrest, incarceration, all these guys in sex money murder turning on each other, robbing each other, testifying against each other, killing each other. And it's like, you know, it's like that last third of Goodfellas, basically. That's kind of always how it ends, right? At least it's not the last third of the Godfather trilogy, am I right?
Starting point is 00:38:56 I don't remember the last third of Godfather trilogy. Oh, man. Is that Cuba or is that the second one? I haven't seen the third one in a long time, man. Yeah, it's not good. I watched the end recently. Nah, don't bother. So meanwhile, Pete's in jail devising these new systems
Starting point is 00:39:10 because he kind of gets inspired, I think, by maybe the United Blan Nations. He calls it like the fist where the command structure has five guys and three units. It's a model after the five families. You know, each is a different set, different leader, five deuce, four tray, three-Os. It's like a semblance of organization
Starting point is 00:39:25 that sex money murder never had on the outside. He starts writing formal letters to the gang about organization, having them read at meetings, right, in Soundview trying to formalize. And he actually orders now one of the twins killed who had expanded like crazy thinking he was doing the right thing. But Pete actually grew really jealous. They had gotten like 100 kilos from a Colombian connect. They were rising up and getting sophisticated. Peefs locked up. He's getting jealous. He tries to convince everyone he was informant and needs to be killed, according to Jonathan Green's book. So basically at this point, like all the top brass for SMM,
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Starting point is 00:41:44 And the original crew is like tight knit in a way. And Pete's trying to make them tighter, but they're getting new members, younger guys, who don't have the same loyalty as all these guys that sort of grew up together. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. I mean, these guys always said, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And these, I just realized, like, these are not old guys even now, right?
Starting point is 00:42:02 These are still, I mean, are they, like, in their 30s or 40s or something? That's crazy. I think in their 40s, there's a really big thing. Pete's actually has a podcast. He's locked up in, um, ADX Florence, you know, the super, the super strict. And there was a big thing with him. So he, I talk about us later, but I guess I'll just do it now. You know, he had a really strict isolation sentence because of all these letters he was writing.
Starting point is 00:42:24 So he was locked up in like, in isolation for, for like a decade plus. I think it's obviously loosened out because he has the podcast. But there was like even New York Times articles about it. And then 2012, 2013 because of how strict his sentence was. And he apparently had been a model prisoner by then. But they were worried because of his influence is so huge. Anyway, we'll get to that. By then, by the mid-90s, there's a big RICO investigation against sex money murder.
Starting point is 00:42:48 And all sorts of members are being arrested and just starting to flip. And that's when the infamous Thanksgiving killing happens. This is just too much. I mean, it's kind of seals the deal. It's the end of Pete and his original crew. It happens at this football game that's been a tradition for a few years where the Soundview projects
Starting point is 00:43:02 plays the Castle Hill projects is kind of, you know, the Turkey Bowl, we have those high school rivalries too. It's like a good nature rivalry at this point. But that's where Pete Orr is the killing of the twin. It's broad daylight. Two people are killed in a shootout. And this is when New York was already getting
Starting point is 00:43:17 a little bit safer, right? So this sort of wild double murder on Thanksgiving Day in broad daylight, it becomes a big, big news story. It's not your average South Bronx housing project murder, you know? Residents of Sanobu even start talking to the police, that's not usually something
Starting point is 00:43:32 that was done. They're starting to be like, it's too much, it's too much. So all the guys in in Sex Money Murder, they're now cracking under the federal attention, you've got task forces, everything is falling apart. Meanwhile, Pete is just being made into this legend, right? He's having guards smuggle out letters, he's getting
Starting point is 00:43:48 caught banging another guard, and this whole time, sex money murders is blooding in new members while it grows outside. But it's not the same from what it was, like, when it was like a 12-member, eight-member thing, right? It's a different thing,
Starting point is 00:43:58 just widespread all over the place. Most of Pete's top who kind of turns states evidence and ended up testifying Pete pleads guilty at his trial
Starting point is 00:44:06 to avoid the death penalty. Afterward, his mom gives us interview to, I think it was Fed's or Don Deva, you know, one of those like street, street gang magazine type things where she's like unapologetic
Starting point is 00:44:17 and she's basically like, look, Pete killed people who would have done the same thing to him. He was just quicker. That is. That's real parental love, man. I wouldn't see it. You wouldn't see many British moms and dads doing that.
Starting point is 00:44:29 I'm sure you've got a few that are in the lifestyle. That would feel the same way, right? Actually, yeah. There's one of them getting buried today. Really? Who? The queen, right, right, right, right. Oh, right, right, right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:44:41 So Pete's in his mid-20s at that point, and he's getting sent to ADX4 in Supermax, which is the most maximum security prison in the U.S., just an unpleasant, you know, where all the terrorists go. It's an unpleasant place to be. but he becomes this cult figure. You know, there's even posters saying free Pete put up all over the Bronx. The NYP actually hangs up their own posters of him saying how he's got life now and all that. So it's, you know, competing little, it's almost like like one of the early Memor, you know,
Starting point is 00:45:10 just hanging up posters all over the projects. He's actually locked up, like I said, for years and years in isolation because he had ordered hits through the coded letters, through a girlfriend, whatever it is. So there's actually this big court battle and a big New York Times article about it in 2000. And again, I'm not even 100% sure in status right now, but he has this interview podcast, so I assume it's not as severe. But, you know, I couldn't find a direct answer to that. O.G. Mac and the United Blood Nation, he gets released briefly in 1999.
Starting point is 00:45:40 The New York Times actually has an interview with him from 2000 at, like his hideout fortress in the Bronx. It's kind of a weird article. They seem to kind of take him out his word for some stuff, that he was coming home to give the bloods, like this new ideological bent of stopping black on. black crime, which is nonsense, and he's devoted to political and cultural solidarity, but it doesn't really work out. There's internal divisions that are rife.
Starting point is 00:46:01 Apparently, some sets even wanted to kill him, but he ends up locked up shortly later. And now, Nite Blination is just huge. I think they're one of the biggest, about the biggest prison gangs on the East Coast. And Pete and Sex Money Murder, their little franchisee expansion thing worked too. It wasn't just Kingston, Buffalo, Springfield. There's sets now big sets in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and. Atlanta. Here's a quote from a New York article on the sex money murder case in Atlanta, which is currently ongoing, which is where Young Thug and Gunna and YSL, they're all involved in it. It's mostly
Starting point is 00:46:34 about using the RICO statutes against these gangs, and it's from Lance Williams, who's a professor at Northeastern Illinois University, who writes extensively about Black Street Gangs. I thought it was really interesting. Back in the day, there was absolutely grounds for Rico when prosecuting Black Street Gangs, he said. He was referring to the 80s and early 90s. When he was referring to the 80s and early 90s, when he said the most prominent gangs had clear and acknowledged leaders, boards of directors, and rank and file titles and responsibilities. At that time, he said, drugs had to be purchased from the organization, with profits that were shared within the organization. Members were recorded as being on count, meaning that they were recognized within a particular set, under the leadership
Starting point is 00:47:11 of designated ranking member, and had to pay dues that were calculated accordingly. They were required to attend meetings and were subject to violations for breaking established rules and regulations. None of this structure is in place today and hasn't been for nearly 30 years, William said. In the 90s when the crack epidemic was at its peak, federal authorities went after all of the major Black Street gangs and their leaders, he explained, have been pretty much put away. Today, by contrast, the label of blood is a usually disorganized identity, Alonzo said. Whatever the case, sex money murder, you know, they keep getting locked up all over the East Coast. In April of 2022, Polk County, Florida hits 41 members and associates of sex money murder
Starting point is 00:47:51 with RICO charges, 20 pounds of math, which you know, you usually don't think of that as a as a gang drug like that, but, you know, more power to them for expanding their portfolio. There's still a presence in Kingston where I actually go a lot. Shout out Kingston, Great City. There was a February 2020 murder connected to it. Rapper KFlock, who was like a huge Bronx Joe guy who had just got arrested for murder. He's allegedly a sex money murder guy. And that brings us to Thugga Thugga, who is currently locked up, despite making Do You Love Me, which I think should get you immunity from any crime, to be honest with you. He's caught up in that huge RICO bus in Atlanta that I'm sure you've seen
Starting point is 00:48:25 on the news if you pay attention to these things. The whole thing stems from an ongoing gang war that it kicked off in 2015. It's actually between two blood sets after a leader of one was killed. Young Thug is alleged to have rented the car used in the shooting. There's actually a really good couple of articles from the intercept that detail it. Now, one of these warring sets just happens to be a sex money murder set, which Young Thug is allegedly a member of. I mean, we say allegedly, but like this is from Young Thug on the track Sex Money Murder by Bloody Jay. This is a quote. This one, for my Bloods, we got the same brother.
Starting point is 00:48:58 Bloods fly high, sex money murder. Bloods fly high, sex money murder. You know, I'm not like... Again, with a little bit more, yeah, I think you need to give it a bit more. Yeah, just a little note for you in the studio. Yeah, I'm not like, you know, I'm not gonna... You can't believe everything rapper say, obviously, and they shouldn't be tried for what they say on their songs.
Starting point is 00:49:17 You know, it gets a little, when you're starting to... to admit to stuff when you're like it's different between being like you know I shoot people and I defend myself between being like I killed this guy on April 27th and this is the gun I used you know like if you start rapping like that it's gonna be used against you you know what I'm saying like if you're if you're literally giving evidence on yourself that's gonna it's gonna happen you know what I'm saying like it's one thing it's one thing you know there there's artistic merit and freedom between like rapping about a lot of stuff but when you get really specified and what's going on?
Starting point is 00:49:50 Like, what do you expect is going to happen, you know? Yeah. Are you, a rapper's getting locked up for rhymes like on the regular now in the US? Because a couple of years back, there's London Gangster went down for life after he bragged about murder on lyrics he'd written in Joe. It's a thing. Like,
Starting point is 00:50:04 I think prosecutors will use, or DAs will use sort of generic, generic lines about killing people and being part of a gang or whatever, which is kind of bullshit, you know, because that is like artistic freedom. But there also is, I mean,
Starting point is 00:50:16 the Jacksonal thing is crazy. Like, these guys are rapping about murders they've actually. done, which, um... What do we tell you, guys? You know, like, that, it's, like, I'm all about artistic freedom and merit,
Starting point is 00:50:27 but it's like, when that becomes the case, it's like, what do you expect to happen? If you're giving evidence like that, literal evidence on shit that you did against yourself, as opposed to more generic stuff, you know? Like, come on, bro, smart enough. Anyway, the other set involved in this gang wars
Starting point is 00:50:43 YFN with another not quite as big rapper as Young Thug, but still dissingly famous as Yifan Lucci, he's been locked up since 2021. So the trial, I mean, it's going to take a while to get going, but it still kind of shows you the growth that sex money murder had after starting from nothing. And like I said, if you want more, buy that Jonathan Green book. It really, it really is something, something, it's a really amazing piece of work about gang culture, especially in the 90s and how these things happen. And it gives like a really, really intimate portrayal of the guys that get involved in their life and
Starting point is 00:51:16 and what it's like. So I think it gives a, it's not just like salacious details, right? It's a really, really great book that, um, if this kind of thing interests you, you should definitely buy. Cool.
Starting point is 00:51:26 Yeah. Anyway, I want to end on another segment from that New Yorker article that I think is interesting to think about, quote, Lance Williams, a professor at Northeastern Illinois University, who has written extensively about black street gangs,
Starting point is 00:51:39 described YSEL to me as one of literally thousands of blood sets with a three-letter name and informal ties to active gang members that's only well known because a few members became prominent rappers. Record deals can be transformative for such groups, he said. That money attracts more guys and more visibility. They get fashionable. They travel together.
Starting point is 00:51:59 And they keep some hitters, real live gangsters, because it fits the narrative and the culture. But also because if you don't have those guys, then you're susceptible to being robbed and aggressed by other groups, who you may also be rapping and talking about. Those are your protectors. You know, it's kind of like a chicken and egg thing. You know, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:52:16 I mean, some, like, look what happened to P&B Roth, like a couple days ago. Like, you definitely need, these guys are living dangerous and you kind of understand if you want people by your side that are strapped up that are there to protect you. It kind of, it makes a lot of sense. But, yeah, that is the sex money murder story, and I hope we did it justice. Yeah, that was cool, man. And I'd just like to report that I'm pretty sure the monkey just won the fight. So, yeah, one-nil, monkey pigeon.
Starting point is 00:52:43 Not surprising, actually. I would have probably put money on that. Stay safe out there. Patreon.com slash general podcasts. Go listen to the criticals. They're going to be huge. They're awesome.
Starting point is 00:52:56 And yeah, that wraps it up for this week. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list. Not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com and to your license plate or Vin and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust.
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