Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 318 - Bloods and Crips - America's Deadliest Gang Rivalry

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Today we cover the formation of the infamous Bloods and Crips gang rivalry. How did it get started? Why did it begin in South Central Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s? The Crips were founded by two high schoolers named Raymond Washington and Stanley “Tookie” Williams, who formed an alliance to protect their neighborhoods from other young people who were harassing them. And then very quickly, gang violence escalated far beyond beating up other kids with your fists to  drive-by shootings, over 15,000 murders, and controlling much of the nation's drug trade. Hope you find all this info as interesting as I did. Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: This month we donated $15,029 to Guide Dogs for the Blind, with an additional $1,669 added to our Scholarship Fund! Guide Dogs for the Blind believes in connecting people, dogs, and communities to transform the lives of individuals with visual impairments.For more info - or to donate more yourself - please go to guidedogs.comGet tour tickets at dancummins.tv Get Scared to Death LIVE tickets at badmagicmerch.com  October  27th, 6P PST/9PM EST. True Tales of Hallow's Eve Horror TWO! Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EC-YOxVduoIMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

The Bloods and Crips found by leather jacket wearing fist fighting high school teenagers. Did you know that? I did not. The Crips were found by two high schoolers named Raymond Washington and Stanley Tooki Williams, who formed an alliance to protect their neighborhoods from other young people who were harassing them, and maybe so they could dish out some beatdowns and engage in some petty theft as well. Quickly what started out as teenagers getting into brawls to prove who was the king of the block evolved into something completely different, something that has led to over 15,000

murders over a 50 year period. Stanley Williams and Raymond Washington could not have known what their small street gang was going to turn into. Today, the bloods and crypts are known all over the country for their violent crimes, like drive-by shootings, committed against rivals and innocent bystanders alike, but it wasn't always like that. For years, they were not all over the country. They were localized to South Central Los Angeles.

The conditions in South Central Los Angeles created a perfect breeding ground for gang violence. Young black men growing up with a lack of community resources, police officers who hated them, wanted to keep them out of white neighborhoods. Many of the civil rights leaders and black panthers, they once looked up to, it would have been assassinated or sentenced to lengthy prison terms, leaving an opening for youth street gangs to rise to power in Los Angeles. Strong bonds formed to years of shared experiences, racism, discrimination, police brutality, a consistent lack of economic opportunities, and the only neighborhoods black residents were allowed to live in for decades.

The bludging crypts took over their respective territories and enforced their boundaries with astonishing brutality. The murder and crime rates in Los Angeles skyrocketed the crack cocaine epidemic only added to this and allowed the bludgeoned crypts to expand across the entire United States through new alliances formed with various drug cartels. Rap music, movies and in the modern age social media have glamorized the gangster for lifestyle leading more and more young people to desire to be a member of the Bloods and Crips not realizing what the gang life is really about in many cases and tell us too late. Today I'm going to break down the history of how and why these two street gangs starting off as one street gang formed in South Central Los Angeles. We're going to introduce you to the founders of the Bloods and Crips, speculate as to how we could help fix the legacy

of gang violence. The Bloods and Crips have left in America, with today's, if you don't address the source of the wound, you're never gonna stop the bleeding. We need to finally wake the fuck up edition of TimeSuck. This is Michael McDonald, and you're listening to TimeSuck. Oh! Oh!

You listening to TimeSuck. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Happy Monday, Meat Sacks. Welcome to the Cult of the Curious. 318 straight weeks of learning something new. So much to learn today, especially informative and thought-provoking episode at least for me. I'm Dan Cummins, Suck Nasty, Meet Sack with an attitude, Taurus for whatever that's worth. And you're listening to Time Suck. Did have fun in Boston last week at Laf Boston, as I had hoped, man, the show's so much fun. Grand Rapids is next followed by Austin, Louisville, Portland, and Minneapolis. And that's it for 2022. And then kicking things

off in 2023 and Spokane, then Boise, St. Louis, Kansas City, Sacramento, Denver, going to be hitting New Orleans, so many other spots, tickets to all these spots at Dancomas.tv. And a bad magic merch dot com continuing the Halloween costume theme this week, none other than the devil himself, Pogo, the clown, a bright yet dark portrait of Chicago's most notorious serial killer, John Wayne, Gacy on a black tee, also available in our new poster section. Very cool. Head on over to badmagicmerch.com. Check that out. And you can buy tickets while you're there to the bad magic Halloween show, scared of death alive, haunted Halloween, true tales of how those eve horror two. I'll be telling Halloween

theme, horror tales live online Thursday, October 27th, 6pm, Pacific time, and Lindsey will too. We'll be all dressed up. If you miss the 27th, you can spend Halloween with us. You can get a ticket. You can watch the show until the afternoon of November 3rd. Watch it as many times as you want during these seven days that it'll be available. You can go to badmagicmerch.com for tickets.

And now it's gang time. Getting right to it. You're gonna throw out a lot of stats for the first half of this episode, and then I'll get more into the personal statements, more of a narrative back half in the podcast. First, gonna break down what a gang like the bloods or crypts even is.

Like, how are they defined? How are they structured? How do they compare to like the mafia? How do you join them? I'll share information regarding how prevalent they are around the US. Where are they structured? How do they compare to like the mafia? How do you join them? I'll share information regarding how prevalent they are around the US. Where are they located? I'll share information regarding how deadly they are. How many murders are being committed? Then we'll begin to the socioeconomic factors that lead people into wanting to join street gangs. And that will lead specifically into why these two gangs formed in South Central, Los Angeles, as opposed to literally anywhere else in the world,

anywhere else in America. That might be my favorite part. We'll learn how South Central's, you know, very specific history created a perfect environment for these gangs to form, and how looking back, it almost feels inevitable that they did form based on the conditions around them. Then it'll be timeline time, where we will learn,

where we meet, excuse me, the co-founders of the crypts, Raymond Washington and Stanley took you Williams, see how the formation of the crypts then led directly to the formation of the bluts. Exam in how these two gangs have mutated and changed over the years. I'll share thoughts along the way and at the end regarding how unless we change our, you know, current punitive strategy, these gangs will probably never go away. I guess why rather than how? Let's jump in and let's, let's get started with a very interesting episode. All right, starting off as I said by talking about what a gang even is.

1996 2012, the National Gang Center, a project funded by the US Department of Justice to provide US law enforcement with specialized training for countering street gang crimes conducted an annual survey of law enforcement agencies to assess gang problems in the US. Their sample consisted of over 2,500 different law enforcement agencies from all over the country, from big cities, suburbs, small cities, rural areas. Each year, they received about an 85% response rate from these agencies. That's a great engagement rate. So the feedback they got seems to have clearly fairly represented law enforcement nationwide. And one of the questions I study

asked was simply, what is a gang might seem like a stupid question at first glance, but there is still currently no real universal definition for a gang in the US that captures what the bloods and crypts have represented. I mean, look it up in the dictionary, and you're gonna get pretty vague definitions like an organized group of criminals, or a group of young people, involved in petty crime or violence.

The bloods and crypts fit both definitions, but so do so many other groups who are not nearly the same as them. Like five friends in school who agreed to pull off a home burglar together, technically again, but it's not one any member of a set of blood or crypts would likely respect as any sort of criminal peer. Another dictionary definition of a gang is simply a group of people, especially young people who regularly associate together. That definition is way too loose. My 16 year old son Kyler regularly hangs out

with a group of male friends he refers to as the boys. Gonna be meeting up with the boys, play some soccer. Gonna hang out with the boys after the game. Going bowl in tomorrow night with the boys. Are they gang? Technically, yeah. But the boys are not a gang like the bloods and crypts. The bloods and crypts would eat the boys alive. The more specific labels of street gang, youth gang, criminal street gang are used interchangeably by law enforcement to describe many gangs according to that same National Gang Center report. All three of these terms apply to the bloods and crypts. Members tend to be real young because the life expectancy of a gang member is sadly so

young and they sadly get started so young. They definitely engage in criminal activity. They do operate on the streets. The NGC writes the term street gang carries two specific meanings that increase its practical value. First, it suggests a common feature of gangs. They commonly have a street presence. Street socialization is a key feature of adolescent gangs. Second, the term also refers to street crimes.

That is, serious and violent crimes, such as assaults, drive-by shootings, robberies, homicides that occur on the streets, often are of concern to citizens and policymakers. The ongoing commission of these offenses, consequently instills fear amongst residents, undermining informal social control mechanisms within the community. Okay.

So street gang, better than the less precise gang. Law enforcement agencies submitted responses, ranking characteristics that define a street gang in order of importance. Law enforcement agencies that group criminalityality or say a group was the most important factor in determining a street gang to find anyone, group criminality. After that was has a name, displays colors or other symbols, hangs out together, claims turf or territory, and has a leader or leaders. Okay, I'll make sense.

Other criteria to define a street gang can be according to law enforcement feedback. Three or more members usually age 12 to 24, right? So young. Member sharing a common identity like a name and other symbols. Members considering themselves to be a gang and I think this is way more important in the first part. Others who know of them also considering them to be a gang. I really like that last criteria actually. I mean, if no one else thinks you're in a gang, despite you and your crew telling people

that you're in a gang, are you really in a gang? Or are you just a poser, a wannabe, who thinks that they're in a gang? I mean, it sounds like in that scenario, maybe you're a gang banger in the same way that former Sucks subject Mark Mitchell Twitchell, the Dexter killer, was a movie director. Maybe you're a gangster banger in the same way that former suck subject mark a bitch will twitch all the dexter killer was a movie director Maybe you're gangster like former suck subject Paul Bernardo half of the cannon Barbie killers, you know was a was a rapper with all his

Deadly innocence bullshit Remember that guy been a while since we talked about him. Still love this beat Remember his dope rhyme rc RCMP never gonna catch me. Kenneth's most wanted still walking free. The million dollar man with the billion dollar plan. Deadly innocence. Rockin' in the gold sedan. You think I'm innocent?

Behind this I'm packin' a lot of deadliness. So come at me. Come at me. I got a fuckin' nice face. Uh huh. Uh huh. I like the girls and the girls like me. They like it when I'm people and I beat it by a tree. Bush beating.

Bush beating. Bush beating. Bush beating. Bush beating. Bush beating. Uh, I know it's been a minute. Since that episode, that was a little mashup of lines that I came up with with Paul and Paul's original lyrics.

I can't take credit for the nice face line. That was all Paul, all of his lyrical genius, that still cracks me up. He thought that was a fucking dope lyric. I got a nice, I got, no, I got a fucking nice face. Anyway, forgot about that eight. All right, so a real street gang, like the Bloods and crypts, they know they're in a gang and other people for sure know they're in a gang.

A gang, uh, you would want to think twice about before fuck with. More criteria from the NGC, they have permanence and a degree of organization. I like the word permanence here. We're not talking about a group of people who decided to band together to take down another gang and then go about their separate ways or who've come together to rob a few banks and then run off with the riches, lead new lives. Now, this is a group of people who don't plan on going anywhere. They don't plan on not being in the gang at some point.

A group that plans on continuing to make money in a list of ways for as long as humanly possible, which brings me to the final NGC criteria. The group is involved in criminal activity, right? Take away the criminal activity part and the term gang can be replaced with just a group, club, organization or something. The NGC also answered the question, how are street gangs different from organized crime, terrorist groups, prison gangs, motorcycle gangs? Well, gang researcher Malcolm Klein wrote in each of these instances, the word gang implies

a level of structure and organization for criminal conspiracy that is simply beyond the capacity of most street gangs, right? They're not as organized. Most street gangs are only loosely structured with transient leadership and membership, easily transcended codes of loyalty and in formal rather than formal roles for the members. That's what makes this street gang different than like a terrorist group. Much more formal structure. All right, interesting. Unlike even the somewhat loosely organized hell's angels, the typical blood or cryptset doesn't normally have a clubhouse. No headquarters,

loser than that. Look at a more NGC literature when talking about hierarchy. It says, crypts have no charter or national hierarchy. They are instead a loose association of local self-governing sets, and you can say the same thing for bloods. These sets determine their own name and formal structure. Cripset structures may vary from no formal leadership to a hierarchy consisting of a leader, lieutenants, drug coordinators, soldiers, drug curers. All depends on the set and depends on the time you're talking about the set. Reminds me again of when we talked about the hell's angels, right? There's not a superformer leadership system clubs do have leaders members who are fully patched, prospects who want to be fully patched, etc. But whatever rules there are,

vary from clubhouse to clubhouse, you know, from club to club charter to charter, you know, if set to set in this case, they're largely verbal rules. There's no like written code. The rules in the hierarchy or whatever the current person charge, uh, fucking says they are. Sometimes in some sets, it can be even kind of hard to figure out who exactly isn't charged. The mafia for comparison, according to the FBI, much more agreed upon formal structure. Right? At the top, each mafia family rough equivalent of an individual bloods or crypts, you know, gangs, sets, uh, which

can be over a thousand members strong like the notorious bounty hunter Watts bloods gang, which has around 2000 members centered around a Nickerson gardens, a huge housing project and Watts biggest housing project west Mississippi, actually, with over a thousand apartment units. That gang has numerous sets within it. The lot boys, block boys, bell haven, ace line, doos line, tre line, four line, five line. All right, there was one bloods gang or one crypts gang. Things have mutated and gotten so messy since he's gang. Got started, some crypts gangs, fight other crypts gangs,

bloods gangs, fight other bloods gangs, et cetera. Just like some mafia families, fight other mafia families. Back to mafia structure, each family has a clear leader, in the mafia, the boss or the dawn. You know, like in the Godfather, you know, dawned Corleone, Marlon Brando. Not all bloods, crypts, gangs have a clear leader, sets off and evolve, break away into their own new gangs,

new leaders, leaders dial the time or imprisoned, not agree upon a way to figure out who the next leader is going to be. There is with them off you beneath them off you boss is the under boss the next in line clear and powerful second command, typically a family member generally a son being groomed to take over the family business. Then there is the cons leere probably saying it wrong. Cons leere cons leire third in command heard numerous different pronunciations. Trusted friend, confident on to the boss, counselor, advisor, often a lawyer.

Beneath these three are the K-POs. K-POs similar to military captains who command soldiers. K-POs each run a crew of soldiers. These are made men, just like the top three members are made men as well. Made men are ranking mafia members who are not to be fucking touched unless you want your crew or your family to be touched. You don't fuck with a made man without risking

your life. Traditionally, all these guys are Italian. As other soldiers, there was not the same race lines when bloods and crypts. Soldiers, these guys are actually commonly known as made men, the lowest members of the crime family, but still highly respected. They take an oath to never share details of the operation with law enforcement, to never betray the family Once you're a made man you're you're in for life You don't get to decide to just not be in them off anymore Unless you want to look over your shoulder for the rest of your days and worry about being whacked

Some families to become a made man you have to kill someone for the family at the equivalent in Bloods and trips will be to probably to jump someone we'll talk about getting jumped in or having to jump somebody to enter the gang later. Finally, below these soldiers or associates, associates are a part of a mafia crew ran by a capo but are not made men. Maybe they're not Italian, not eligible. Or they're guys who have valuable criminal skills but don't want to commit their lives fully to the mafia, guns for hire, other criminal types. And there's an equivalent with bloods and crypts, you know, like a lot of people claim

not to be in a blood set or a crypt set, but they're affiliated. That word gets used a lot. They're friendly with the gang. Historically, that has been the criminal structure of the Mafia America, right? And there's no exact direct equivalent with bloods and crypts, much more loose,

more variance again from gang to gang set to set. So how do you join the bloods or crypts? Well, you ask nicely. Is one way you can do it. You don't how he's have to be jumped in or jumped somebody. You can just say something like, and this is from just some gang research I did.

Excuse me, kind sir. I was hoping you might care to list my services and some of your unlawful enterprises. I'm happy to provide a resume list of references regarding my prior villainous and felonious pursuits. And then if they're agreeable to your offer, you'll meet with a gang leader. Usually they're private office or perhaps less formulae in a fine dining establishment setting.

No, no, no, no. Typically, you get introduced to members. Maybe you've made a bit of a name for yourself as a tough kid. A kid who doesn't rat. Kid who can handle himself around cops, other gangsters, maybe deal a bit of drugs. You're running some kind of other racket that comes to a gang's attention. They see that you're enterprising, profitable. Maybe you grew up around gang members.

And when you're of a certain age, you just get invited. There's kind of an expectation that you're going to join. There's a variety of ways. Some point you either ask or they ask you. And then usually it seems to make it official. You are jumped in. Vice released a YouTube video in late 2017 titled Inside a Gang Initiation with Silent, with the Silent Murder Crips.

That's that set of crips out in Brooklyn to at least take a peek at what it takes to join a typical Cripset. A Silent Murder Crips, according to one of the guys who's part of their leadership, about 90 dudes, a dozen of which operate out of Brooklyn. That's where the video took place. The rest are said in the video to vaguely be based somewhere down south, wherever that is.

And this video, young man who goes by JT called a prospect. This dude, again, reminds me of a hell of angels. He's been hanging around this set, committing some crimes, not fully a member, he's an affiliate. And now he meets up with, you know, full members in a playground, guys who he considers his closest friends, his family, he keeps saying family. And three of these men chosen by the gang leader are there to, quote, jump him in. They will swing the jump rope and he better fucking double Dutch his ass off. He's got show some skills or he's never going to become a full member.

Hmm, this is your one chance to jump, jump, jump, jump. You fucking gang to ass off. No, uh, jump, jump! You fucking gangster ass off! No. Jumping him means they're gonna beat the shit out of it. I wish he was double Dutch. That'd be a nice little twist. Now the man claiming to lead this set, Celo, called himself an SMCOG,

said that JT has to do this to prove that he can handle himself, that he can rep the game, that he can rep the crypts. He has to fight his way out. JT, born in Washington, DC, basic street dealer who met some crypts became friendly with a few, possibly sold drugs for some members and then wanted to join. And he told Vice, I want to be around my brother's more, making more the way I'm moving right now is good, but I'd be moving better, right? Tell them more drugs. If I had something extra behind me, that's family.

He goes on to say that even if he didn't join the gang, since he's already dealing drugs, he can still get caught, still go to jail. So there's what's the risk basically, like why not? He can still get killed. He said his sister was shot and killed in a drive by and she wasn't in a gang. So might as well join up with the gang and have protection in numbers. He clearly seems to feel that running in the, the kinds of neighborhoods full of this type of violence is just the only world available to him. He talks about how he only wants to be around people who understand where he's coming from, people who will look out for each other, people who will look out for him. And how sad that he doesn't even entertain the

possibility of trying to start somewhere else fresh, you know, take a chance on living an entirely different kind of life to say fuck it to the entirety or the entire way of this life he's been around and just mounts. Doesn't seem like he actually has actual family nearby. He could save some of the drug money, he's currently making a plan line to get a job somewhere else anywhere else, take a bus ticket, start over. And I'll say that would be easy, be fucking super hard. But would it be harder than being a crypt? Probably end up with a better life expectancy. The beat down JT gets in this video is fucking rough to watch. It was supposed to be three on one.

Some other dude got excited, teed it off with a big ol' haymaker sucker punch and it became four on one. And these other grown men hitting him, they are not pulling punches. Like no weapons are being used, but they go full force. Like they're going for blood and they get some blood.

They don't knock him out but they come real close. They for sure gave him a concussion. I mean, his bell was fucking wrong when he had to try to walk away. Took him a little while to get his bearings, both his eyes quickly almost swollen shut. And then after the pain subsided a bit, he was happy. He's a crypt now, right? Mission accomplished. Well, JT got himself a beat to get in the gang anecdotally. I have heard plenty of other stories about, you know,

people have to jump others to get into one of these gangs. If to beat the fuck out of someone, the gang picks for you, fuck up some kid at school, some random kid from the neighborhood, I was some gangs, you might even have to kill the stranger or kill a rival gang member to get in. So how many people have gone through something like this? How many have gotten jumped or jumped someone else? While there aren't stats on bloods and crypts specifically from 1996 or 2012, right, the

NGC report again, they did monitor overall street gang membership in the US. They found a declining gang activity from the mid 90s to the early 2000s, but then increased from 2001 to 2005. Overall number of gang members, pretty consistent actually from 96 to 2012. 84, 846,500 members 1996, 850,000 members in 2012. You know, pretty close to a million people, so many. Estimated number of gangs about the same two, 30,800 in 1996, 30,700 in 2012. For whatever reason nationwide stats like these don't seem to have

been published since 2012 in the past decade. Every source I find sites either this study or even older studies. Typically back between 1996 and 2012, and I imagine today as well, gangs were more prevalent in larger cities than rural counties. In 1996, 86.2% of large U.S. cities defined as any city with over 50,000 people experienced quote, gang problems. 59.4% of suburban counties experienced gang problems

and even 37.9% of small cities with just 2,500 to 50,000 people experienced gang problems. Damn. 26.3% of rural counties experienced gang problems. 2012, 85.6% of large cities experienced gang problems. Damn. 26.3% of rural counties experience gang problems. 2012, 85.6% of large cities experience gang problems. 49.5% of suburban counties, 25.4% of smaller cities and 16% of rural counties. So no, yeah, lots, very prevalent. No shocker, but it doesn't seem to be a lot of gang problems here in a cordal lane, Idaho, from what I could tell a website called inside prison.com tracks regional gang activity estimates that there

are less than a hundred gang members in Kootenay, Kootenay County, which a quarterly and sits inside. And the site says gang activity is decreasing. Back in 2007, Kootenay County Sheriff Rocky Watson said there were 20 documented gang members in the county. So not not too many. Never been a real issue here. I personally been so lucky with this shit.

Right, worried about gangs has never been something I've had to do. Well, I've lived a few miles from gangs, you know, when I lived in Santa Monica, never thought about them, never saw them that I was aware of, never saw any gang violence that I was aware of. When I lived in a big apartment complex in Las Vegas, when I was a freshman, sophomore in high school, when I was a freshman sophomore in high school.

I heard a gang's, new kids at school who supposedly ran with gang bangers or even dated them, supposedly there was bloods and crypts at our school. Didn't know anyone, you know, in one of these gangs for sure. They didn't run in my neighborhood that I knew of. The building I lived in supposed to be a dig, it shot up one night shortly before we moved. Other side of the building, not the one I lived in. I heard it was getting related targeting someone living in one of those apartments, but I don't remember being scared. I don't remember seeing anyone rolling by and, you know, a car, uh, looking for violence. I can't

imagine growing up around this shit or, or living around it now, just being immersed in it day in and day out like it's been in South Central. Constantly hearing shots and police sirens, constantly hearing about, you know, another funeral, the stress that would add to the normal stress of life seems unbearable. And sadly, so many people don't have to imagine this scenario. Like going back to the large national gang center report, 49% of large cities experienced significant gang problems before the 90s. 41.8% of suburban counties, 37.9% of large cities experienced significant gang problems before the 90s 41.8% of suburban counties 37.9% of smaller cities 34% of rural counties 32.4% of smaller cities and 31.4% of rural counties experienced gang problems after 2000 as well

Look hard enough you can find gangs you know and a lot of places and with gangs comes so much violence from 2007-2012 there was an average of almost 2000 gang related homicides per year. For comparison, from 2007, 2011, FBI estimated over 15,500 homicides in the entire US each year. Suggest that gang related homicides made up 13% of all annual homicides over one in 10, almost three in 20. And in L.A., right, thanks to where all these gangs got started, thanks to the crack epidemic, you know, thanks to the bloody, bloods and crypts rivalry numbers, much worse. LA County in 2012, 60% of all homicides were gang related. You know, there's no information in this report as far as like what neighborhoods they occurred in, but again anecdotally, just doing some research.

I'm going to say that 90% of those were in South Central, Compton, Englewood, like those neighborhoods. Between 1985 and 2012, gangs accounted for at least 20% of all LA County homicides. Somewhere between one and five and three and five of murders every year. In both 1992 and 1995, over 800 people murdered in gang violence in a year. In 1989 in LA County, there were 1,113 reported drive-by shootings, accounting for 1,675 people either being murdered or wounded in these shootings. And most of the men doing this killing, most of the men getting killed, so fucking young. National gang report survey respondents provided age and demographic info on gang members

in US. In 1995, 50% of gang members under the age of 18. And how many of the other 50% over the age of 18 were under the age of 18 when they joined the gang. 2011, 35% of gang members under the age of 18, vast majority of gang members, male 1998, only 7.7% of gang members, female, 2010, only 7.4% of gang members, female. Racialy, 1996, 45.2% of US gang members identified as his Hispanic or Latino, 35.6% Black or African American, 11.6% white, 7.5% other. Those percentages stayed pretty steady year after year. And while now there are numerous Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, bloods and

cryptsets early on membership in the bloods and crypts gangs almost exclusively black. And while no big global comparative study has been conducted to my knowledge, it seems that America has a bigger problem, total numbers wise, with street gangs than any other country in the world. Other nations like El Salvador have more gang members per capita, right? The nation of 6.5 million people has by some estimates up to 500,000 people with gang ties. Other estimates have the number below 100,000 though. L.A., the gang capital of America estimated to have over 120,000 gang members just inside

the city limits. Right now, the majority in South Central and possibly way more than that during the 80s and 90s can't find any stats for those decades if they even exist. When it comes specifically to loosely organized street gangs, not warlords, not terrorist groups, South Central has seen more warfare, more gang violence than anywhere else in the modern world. And it can all be traced back to the bloods and crypts. There are no stats on how much this violence can specifically be traced to these two groups, right, year after year,

but look over a list of active gangs in South Central and surrounding neighborhoods between 1970 and the present and overall, there are more bloods and crypts sets than there are groups of any other gangs, especially in the 80s and 90s. If we're numerous Latin gangs, grew in presents like MS-13 and stuff.

So why are people joining these three gangs? I've already touched on that, but I want to explain it further. According to get into that NGC study and also just processing what I've watched in various documentaries about this week's subject, most people join gangs gradually. Often starts with them just spending time with gang members. If they do join a gang, they may have a peripheral role initially while others are more deeply involved in gangs.

There are five categories of risk factors for joining a gang. Individual, family, school, peer, and neighborhood community. And I think the last one, neighborhood community, I think that's the biggest factor, right? Obviously, where you happen to grow up has a huge influence over whether or not you join a gang. I was never asked to join a gang,

mostly because I didn't know anyone in a gang. I lived by anybody that I knew was in a gang. Really easy for me to not to get wrapped up in any of that shit. Really easy for anyone who never grew up around this shit, anyone who grew up in a stable home with loving parents who checked in on you and held you accountable for your actions. Also, should I get pulled into the gang life? And I can say as someone who did engage anyone who grew up in a stable home with loving parents who checked in on you and held you accountable for your actions also

Should I get pulled into the gang life? I can say as someone who did engage in a fair amount of criminality growing up as someone who's dead and stepmom did not keep close tabs on me for a few years A high school if I would have lived in a neighborhood surrounded by gangs doing the same shit I was doing but at a higher level and then those gangs offered me friendship protection Girls hanging around who thought it was fucking hot for a dude to be in a gang. I would have for sure joined a gang when I was 15, 16 years old, like no fucking doubt, especially if I previously say I got my ass beat by other gang members. And you know, if after I get jumped, some gang members offer me protection from those gang members who beat me.

And then a chance for revenge, would I have taken them up on it? Yeah, 100%. I don't look down on any one of these gangs or who used to belong on one of these gangs for getting wrapped up in this shit. For some people, it honestly almost feels inevitable. Those without loving watchful parents who growing up in poor neighborhoods, struggling, you know, neighborhoods, growing them surrounded by gang members and violence. The ones who do that and still never join?

So much respect, I'm fucking amazed. I mean, imagine how easy it would be, especially if your dad is in the gang and your mom is affiliated somehow and maybe your uncles are two, your brothers and your friends, almost impossible to not join yourself. It probably feels like you're destiny, which is a word actually used by an unnamed gang member

in this Crips and Bloods made America documentaries. It felt it was his destiny. Everybody he knew was in the fucking gang, right? How the fuck would you not join? The Crips and Bloods made America documentary team spoke with three men named Ron, Bird, and Kumasi who grew up in South Central in the 1950s, and they provided more insight on why they became involved with gangs. You know, like how it all got started. Bird recalled how his mom took him to sign up for the Boy Scouts. in the 1950s, and they provided more insight on why they became involved with gangs.

Like how it all got started. Bird recalled how his mom took him to sign up for the boy scouts. Scout master told him that some of the white parents were gonna object to him being in the all white troop. So we need to prepare it for pushback and inevitably they didn't let him in. Come on, he said we couldn't be Cub scouts, couldn't be boy scouts, couldn't be Explorer scouts.

We couldn't get involved in organized activity that would take us anywhere, that would bear as any kind of good fruit. So we built an auxiliary alternative. Now, fucked up, not allowed to be in a positive youth group, right? So these kids, you know, they all been shunned by these groups due to racism. They formed their own group.

They hurt, they're angry. Of course, their group wasn't going to turn into anything real positive. Other men provided their perspectives on why they joined gangs. I joined the gang not only for the protection, but for the love, for the unity, to be part of a family. That's so sad to me, right?

To be part of a family nationwide for over a half a century now, at least, based on stats. Two thirds of black homes, nationwide, single parent homes. I can't, you know, isolate the states for the, or the stats, excuse me, for the area of just South Central during the 70s and 80s and 90s when the bloods and crypts membership was surging. But due to the overall turmoil of the area, I would have to think that this number was at least two thirds, if not higher. It's almost always the dad that leaves too is opposed to the other way around. So many boys, young men being raised in homes without fathers, raised without grandfathers,

looking for male role models, looking for family, for love, guidance, and who the men giving them that. Gang members, gang members not living in poverty because they're out there taking what they want. So I get the appeal. Again, it would be so hard not to join. Back to the men speaking in the doc about why they join gangs. If you're living in an environment

where you're being assaulted like I was, I just got tired of being a victim. It's like either you're the victim or you're the victor. Now, the guy said, I didn't get jumped into this. I grew up in this. My mom grew up in my neighborhood. My dad from my neighborhood, all my uncles from my neighborhood, so I don't look at his no gang thing.

It's just family, right? His whole family's in this gang. Now, the guy says when he's hooked up with his crew, they feed him, they're looking out for him, they're putting clothes on his back. Okay, but now it's time to get in his car and go get these people who just shot up my house. What are you gonna do? You're obligated.

That man just fed you all month. How can you say no to that? Fuck, how do you fight that? Like cracking down harder and harder on crime, especially non violent crime. That's how America is reacted, but I think it's the wrong move. Mass incarceration, not a smart plan to clean up crime carried out large due to lack of hope, lack of economic opportunity, lack of family infrastructure, right? Building out new infrastructure, creating quality jobs, creating hope to me.

That's the only way. Some incarceration sure, but mass incarceration that puts a crazy amount of young men, black men in prison, leave a more black children to grow without fathers and crime-ridden neighborhoods with little opportunities. That's a good recipe to create more and more crime in the long run, which is, you know, what's happened. And community activists and intellectuals, you know, who've been studying this shit, they've been saying this for years, but I don't know if people are listening.

2017 Vice interviewed several crypts members in New York City other than JT, I mentioned earlier, but why they chose to join a gang. One identified member said, the thing is, man, what can the government and these people do to stop this other than lock us up? Give us things to do. Community centers, programs, access to other things, instead of just taking us and shipping us up the river. If you don't give us something, a gateway, something, they're gonna fall to negativity.

Now it's where gang banging is about protecting around you. The real gang is a police. All the shit makes me think again about vice, not the media company, but nonviolent behavior labeled immoral or wicked, drug use, sex work, gambling. Why the fuck won't we get more serious about legalizing all of that? Our culture is so poisoned and brainwashed in some way, so stuck in the worst habits, doubling down on shit that has proven to not work decade after decade. Legalizing drugs with minimized gang violence far more than dump of money into militarizing law enforcement, right?

Take away the money gangs can make. It's so fucking obvious when you look at the problem long enough, incarceration, mass arrest, you're not dealing with the source of the wound. Your best case slapping a little band-aid on a massive open wound, or worst case, you know, when you're infecting the wound, you're making it so much worse.

You're taking nonviolent offenders, putting them in violent prisons, then putting them back on the same streets where they were arrested with less opportunities than before they were sent to prison the first time. Now they're felons harder to get a straight job back in the same neighborhoods around the same lack of opportunity, around the same old gang members. The fuck, of course they're going to go back to the same crime.

Now because they know how rough prison is, I imagine they're going to be a little more violent in their effort to not end back up in prison. Drug money is what leads to most of the violence in street gangs. Drug money allows gangs to buy black market weapons that lead to so many murders, legalized drugs, and you attack gangs nonviolently in the most effective way possible. Pimping is another way gangs will make money. Also illegal gambling. Why not legalize all that shit?

Put profits into practical education initiatives, not simple minded, moralist bullshit like just so you know the drugs. Just don't have sex, abstinence. Fuck that corny feel good but doesn't do shit bullshit. I've never fully, I never will fully respect our government or our society large while this vice remains illegal. It's just a constant reminder of hypocrisy, of how foolish our society is at the highest level.

Right? Care more about political optics and doing what's right. And I'll step out the soapbox. Before I get stuck there, I'll go back to the story but just keep running into the same fucking sad solutions to problems that just don't work in so many of these episodes. All right, let's zero in a bit. Why South Central?

Why is this the place where primarily Black Street gangs that went on to become the infamous bludgeon crypts? Most infamously began to flourish in the early 1970s. Let's back up a few decades. Try and figure that out. In the 1950s, the overwhelming majority of residents of South Central Los Angeles were Black due to years of legal discrimination. African Americans had begun moving to LA in large numbers shortly after 1900.

For the next 40 years, the numbers doubled every decade. By 1940, they represented slightly more than 4% of the total population. And right from the beginning, the city was segregated because of racially restrictive housing covenants written into property deeds. These covenants were not only enforced through property deeds, banks and insurance companies also enforce them to the practices of consistently denying loans, insurance policies, and other financial services for any African Americans who attempted to sidestep these covenants.

This practice known as redlining happened all over the nation and continued around L.A. long after the covenants were declared unconstitutional in 1948. During World War II, when there was a shortage of workers, the federal government made it illegal for employers to discriminate based on a candidate's race. So I guess yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, I did back, I had 1948 in my head. I'm like, we didn't, that's after World War II, but that's not what I was about to do. That legislation was taken more serious than the covenants and it led to a lot of new jobs,

good jobs for black Americans in LA area. After World War II, LA became a major center for the automotive industry. Companies like GM, Chrysler, Ford, Good Year, Firestone, they built factories in South LA, a lot of local black men and few women now had comparatively high-paying jobs. They were able to afford nice housing education

for themselves. They able to send their kids to college. This was all new. An attitude of a new kind of hope was in the air, right? New kind of hope for a better future began to take root. The neighborhoods had black doctors, black lawyers, black executives, business owners, black Americans moving to LA for these new job opportunities and industrial and technological fields. You know, they're doing that they're moving in mass over four million African Americans left the South and moved to major cities like New York, Chicago and LA in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, between 1942 and 1945, some

three hundred and 40,000 black settled in California alone, 200,000 of whom migrated to LA, and all 200,000 forced to live in the segregated area that would become known as South Central. Subsequent overcrowding in South Central caused the housing crisis to become the number one issue facing Los Angeles' black community at that time. And the greater the black population grew, the more tightly enforced the restricting housing covenants were. Right? The black community doubled in size in 1940s.

It remained confined to pre-war boundaries. And this period, known as the Great Migration, also the heyday of Central Avenue as a jazz district called west coast Harlem All right, a bit of a Renaissance numerous restaurants music venues night clubs like the Lincoln theater club Alabama Stretch from Pico to slossin from 1920s to the early 60s. I talked about a lot of this in time suck episode two Oh nine the American riots right the night 92 riots and so much more Important to hit these historical notes again here. The Dunbar Hotel at 43rd and Central was where jazz luminaries like Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald,

Lester Young would stay when they visited LA. Hollywood's biggest celebrity, like Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Orson Wells, they would regularly visit the avenue. But despite this story musical and cultural history, the lack of housing overcrowding made for poor living conditions, for the people actually fucking live in there. Graduate the 1950s, the Southern section of LA from Watson and West towards Inglewood and the Crenshaw district became increasingly African American West Adams, Limor Park, Baldwin Hills. Graduate became middle class, upper middle class, African American areas, black Americans

living in the neighborhoods earned enough money to qualify as middle class, purchase real estate. And according to the bloods and crypts documentary, to establish, if not exactly, a very close similarity to the American dream. As the 1950s gave way to the early 1960s, neighborhoods were desegregated. Several of the leading black churches were beginning to wield political influence and civic affairs. And some people didn't like that. And one of those people who liked it the least

was LAPD police chief William Parker, who held that position from 1950 to 1966. And history has not been kind to chief Parker because he was a cunt. He was a huge piece of shit. He became infamous for bullying black and brown citizens into their part of town. He would make statements complaining

about black people moving to LA from the South all the time, just publicly. After the watch riots 1965, he compared black people participating in the riots to monkeys in a zoo, just publicly. Uh, during the riots made the public statement. It is estimated that by 1970, 45% of the metropolitan area of Los Angeles will be Negro. If you want any protection for your home and family, you're gonna have to get in and support a strong police department. If you don't come 1970, God help you. Holy fuck, think about how over the top races that is.

And this dude is the police chief for a long time setting the tone for the rest of LA's law enforcement. If you feel comfortable saying that in public, what was he saying in private? What was he doing to combat racism in his department? Fuck and nothing. He was encouraging it. Obviously, publicly labeling black Americans just in general as the enemy.

After the riots, he sent an army to beat him down. Before the riots, Chief Parker started a pro-active, as he called a police and approach. Instead of waiting for calls, officers would just go out on patrol and just look for people, commit and crimes. Look for black people, commit and crimes, or just black people just being black in a part of town they didn't want them to be in. Many of these so-called criminals just so happened to be young black men. Many saw the actions of the LAPD here as blatant racial profiling, especially targeting young black men who refused to stay in the neighborhoods they were supposed to stay in.

For young black men, I just walking around Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica. That was a crime at this time. Rumors abounded of police plant, nevidence left and right on any African Americans who didn't abide by these unwritten laws. Back in up just a bit, starting in the late 1950s, America's economy, especially in the LA area, shifts to highly skilled fields and also low skilled service jobs, kind of away from that middle ground where the auto industry existed. The aerospace industry replaces auto manufacturing. Companies like GM, Chrysler Ford, Good Year Firestone, they leave and they take, you know,

the good jobs that the black community depended on to South Central with them. Black Americans, through segregation, through a lack of comparative socioeconomic opportunities, have been denied the type of education they would need to thrive in the emerging tech field of the aerospace industry. The factory workers now suddenly jobless. At the same time that Uber races, chief parkers cracking down on crime and ways that are overtly abusive and based and racial profiling. The LAPD's new policing practices combined with the shift to the economy, combined with overcrowded black neighborhoods

and no tolerance for local black residents to move the fuck out of these neighborhoods, this sets the stage for the street gangs of the 60s and 70s. Black youth and struggling families denied entry to positive youth groups like the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts as I mentioned, living in neighborhoods with more poverty, poverty which always leads to more crime, started to join up in groups, often called street front fraternities in their neighborhoods. Partially for protection, partially because no one else fucking wanted them and they wanted to belong to something, something to make them feel proud, make them feel strong.

And they're fucking angry. An anger especially in young men who feel hopeless so often these violence. Bird from the bloods and crypts documentary said that in his neighborhood, his gang originated in Slossom Park, which is how his group got their name, the Slossons. Slossons, one of the early gangs that would go on to become first the crypts, then the bloods, as they kind of like split and mutate. According to Kamasi in that same documentary, they never called themselves a gang. Please gave them that label, right? Called themselves a club. Ron said that joining the slossons gave him a feeling of identity and family that he didn't get

anywhere else. There was also a sense of power and numbers for someone who felt powerless. There were rivalries among the slossons, other groups. They fought on the sidewalks, alleys, parks, Kamashi said these fights were more just for competition. My cheese mo, not doing serious violence, not killing anyone. They were fist fights, right? No weapons.

Police are frequently stopping and questioning these young black men. Dr. Todd Boyd, University of Southern California, professor, told the producers, the cops are treating these young black men as though they were enemies, as though they were in warfare. There was no community outreach going on No innocent until proven guilty. No, hey, how you doing guys? Just a immediately assuming they were up to no good. You know, of course they were they were black and black people

Were the fucking enemy just as their boss told them Dr. Josh sides former history professor chair of the history department at Cal State Northridge added It was an open secret that one of the tacit duties of the LAPD was to make sure people were in their right neighborhoods at the right time. And Alameda Boulevard was the white curtain of L.A. Don't cross it. Black men and women crossed that invisible line. They were stopped, questioned, often arrested. Right?

This treatment made them feel alienated, powerless, and angry. Kumasi said, in a free society, I'm walking down the street. Please got the nerve to ask me where you going? Where are you coming from? Ain't none of your damn business where I'm going. Ain't none of your damn business where I came from. The fuck you talking about? Where are you going?

He gonna ask me, what are you doing here? You go anywhere and ask anybody else what they're doing here? Do you stop and ask anybody else in this society, man? Why do you exist? You understand what I'm saying, but you got to nerve to ask me that all day every day. Now, what do you think that does to me psychologically? What does that tell me? What message am I being fed every day? See, he don't understand that every day he's feeding me a spoonful of hatred every day. That's my diet, a spoonful of hatred. You see? And it's just a question of what is this going to erupt and upon whom is he going

to erupt? Am I going to attack myself? Am I going to attack my brother? You understand? Am I going to attack my own image in the mirror? Or am I going to eventually attack the cause of my anger and my frustration? That kind of policing, what led to the Watts writes. The Watts Rebellion or the Watts writes, series of writes, it started August 11th, 1965 in the Watts neighborhood of LA. Lasted until August 17th. 34 people died, over 1,000 injured, 4,000 people arrested roughly. Approximately 34,000 people involved in the rights

in total about 1,000 buildings damaged, costed around $40 million. And how did it start? 7 pm, August 11th, stepbrothers, market, Ronald Frye. Pulled over by a white highway patrol officer, drive with their mom's car near the corner Avalon Boulevard and 116 street and Watts.

Markette fails a sobriety test. There was rumors that he was not drunk at all that it was, you know, he should have passed, but the officer said he failed. He starts to panic. As he's being arrested, he and one of the police officers getting into a fight, Ronald Fry joins the fight.

Crowd gathers around him. The backup officers that arrived, assumed the crowd was hostile. One of the crowd members gets into a fight with the police officer, right? She starts to get crazy. Another officer hits Ronald Fry in the stomach with his baton.

Same officer then gets involved in the fight between Marquette and another officer. Marquette's hit with the baton, handcuffed, taken to one of the cars. By this point, Rina Fry, Ronald and Markets mom arrives at the scene. She thinks the police officers are abusing her son, attempts to pull one of the officers off of him, leads to another fight. She's arrested. Ronald's arrested. Crowds get angry. Highway patrol officers using batons and shotguns to back the crowd away from the police car.

Hundreds of people now show up at the scene. Then someone spits on a motorcycle police officer, as he attempts to leave the scene. Two motorcycle police officers attempt to chase after them when they thought spit on them, the crowd surrounds them. More police officers show up. Woman named Joyce Ann Gaines is arrested for spitting at the officers. She resists arrests.

It's about to be, or it has to be dragged away. She believes she was pregnant at the time. It becomes more angry at how she's being treated. By 7.45 pm, the situation escalated into a full right. Crowd members are throwing rocks, bottles, other objects, the buses and cars that are stuck in traffic. Crowd begins attacking drivers, hitting them with rocks and bricks, pulling them out of their cars.

In the morning, Watts community leaders from churches, local governments and the NAACP have a meeting to attempt to calm down the riding. Reena Fry attends a meeting, asked people to stop riding. People use this meeting to voice their complaints about the riding, Reena fry tends to meeting, ask people to stop riding, people use this meeting to voice their complaints about the police and local government. After Reena makes her statement, a teenager takes the microphone, announces that the riders are going to be moving

into predominantly white areas of LA. People freak the fuck out. Watts Community Leaders request for the LAPD to send in more black police officers to respond to the right there. But Chief fucking clan, grand dragon parker declines that request plans to call in the national guard. This and the teens and prompt to announcement escalate the right significantly. Now even more people are involved in the writing, right? This night, police are fucking fighting with various

citizens. There's vandalized, you know, tons of vandalization going on. I think that's the word. A lot of things have been vandalized. Uh, stores are being loaded. The crowd also attacks firefighters who are attempting to put out some of the fires. It's fucking madness. By the end of the day, 50 square miles of L.A. or in chaos, 14,000 National Guard members are sent in, right? They treat residents like, uh, an enemy army. People are now shooting to the police, National Guard, creating Molotov cocktails, National Guard, Rex Barricade, threatens to shoot anyone who crosses them to war zone. White versus black, white cops, white National Guard, black residents. And then chief parker says the super inflammatory racist shit I said earlier, according to L.A.

Times, black and Hispanic communities were outraged by parkers comments, especially because they'd echoed similar comments even making for years. Rights continue on for three more days. On the final day of ride to police around the local mosque fire guns on unarmed residents Or rest people inside some of whom some of whom had nothing to do with the riding they were just fucking hiding out of fear Also rate a building next door even spray tear gas down into the sewers to prevent people inside from escaping There's two fires the mosque is destroyed Most of the 34 people who died or black two police officers in a firefighter also die. 26 deaths are ruled justifiable homicides. But a lot of people live in there did not see it that way at all. After the

Watts Wright, Governor Edmund G. Brown, appoints John McCone to lead a commission to investigate the cause of the right and recommend preventative measures for the future. McCone was a former director of the CIA. A commission identified the causes of the riots and made suggestions for community programs to improve schools, provide new jobs, better housing, better health care, improve the community's relationship with the police department, right?

Because that's what the fucking problems were. That's why this shit all got started. The city does not follow the commission's advice at all. Little to no improvements are made. Right? And this is red. This lack of action. And this is red rightfully so by the black community of South Central LA as you do not fucking matter. All that hope at the 40s and early 50s. The city government, you know, you know, to take a shit on all that, then set that shit on fire, then fucking rub it in people's faces. So many civic leaders, so short-sided back then, so many still so short-sided with this kind of stuff. After the Watts riots 1965, many young black people become more active in their communities. They're joining community service organizations,

they're joining groups like the Black Panthers. But by the late 60s, many civil rights activists in Black Panthers were fucking dead, assassinated, or put in prison. Fred Hampton, leader for the black panther party in Chicago, murdered in his apartment during a police raid while sleeping, unarmed, in 1968 Martin Luther King murdered, right assassinated in Memphis 1968 Malcolm X, murdered in Manhattan 1965, Sammy Young Jr., civil rights activist killed in Alabama 1966 and on and on and on. This is devastating to many in the black community. On top of everything else that's been happening, now it's like their fucking hearts have been ripped out.

Black leadership leaves a void, and that void is filled by gangs. Kamasi said the original crips came out of our neighborhood. They were the children we passed by every day and paid no attention to, but they watched us. We had the generation our parents came from from and we had the great personalities of their generation to connect with. We had something to attach ourselves to as in these leaders. They didn't.

Journalist Elizabeth Collins wrote a 2022 grunge article that says in 1960s, South Central, two things were happening. Young men were coming of age and low income project housing, initially designed to house factory workers and the civil rights movement. The Black Panther Party created after the Watts rights, 1965 gave older gang members a focus on fighting police brutality. All the while younger men and teenagers are forming gangs and engaging in crime. Now the real beginning of the bloods and crypts gets going. The California Office of Justice published crypts and bloods, street gangs, volume four in 1991, intended to aid California law enforcement and identifying gang members. According to this report, there have been gangs in Los

Angeles, the 20s, mostly in Compton, South Central. These gangs came about because of young people coming together, protect themselves from other youth gangs and neighborhoods. These gangs defended their territories from other gangs. They got into fights often, but there were much fewer stabbing shootings than in modern times. Almost none, you know, it was almost all fist fights. Wasn't about drugs, gambling or pimping. It was young dudes proven how tough they were

to other young dudes for the most part. And then the crypts are found a decades later in 1969 by some high schoolers. After all the stuff that we just went over. Some say the crypts picked blue because it was one of the colors of wash in high school in South Central where early members supposedly went, blood soon formed to protect themselves from the crypts,

formed in response to the crypts. The crypts were known as a violent and dangerous street gang when the bloods formed. First bloods came from Pyru street in Compton, they named themselves the Compton Pyrues, the word color red, because most of the members attended Centennial High School in Compton and red was one of their school colors. All right, now that the stage has been set, let's dig deeper into the origins of the bloods and crypts rivalry. Love digging into all this history by the way.

It was a challenge this week, but when I felt like I finally understood it all, the basics felt like putting the last few pieces of a really complicated jigsaw puzzle together, just a-ha! So that's how all this shit got started. They'll fucking Nimrod love learning something new, love gaining a little more of an educated perspective on something, especially on something provides me with a little more empathy for the struggles of other meat sacks, gains me a little more gratitude for how I've been fortunate in many ways, not to have to deal with this shit.

Hope this gives many of you the same feelings. All right, now time for the time suck timeline. Right after today's sponsor break. Thanks for listening. Once again, Dears, meet sex. Now off the origins of the infamous bloods, crypts, rivalry, we go. Shrap on those boots, soldier.

We're marching down a time-suck timeline. A- A- A- A- A- A- Original crypts founder Raymond Washington was born at South Central, August 14, 1953, probably.

Uh, that's what most sources list. Journalist Michael Cricorian, a writer from Gardini, California, who has covered the history of the bloods and crypts and other South Central gangs extensively, writes that Raymond Washington was actually born in Texas. But then his family moved to LA shortly after his birth, and then he grew up on 76th Street near Wadsworth Avenue. So Texas, LA, but probably LA, and then when he's a baby,

either way, he's in LA. He grew up less than three miles from the campus USC a prestigious private university that when you factor in room and board cost a little over $80,000 a year, right? No big whoops Twish and Lone still for 60,000 pocket change What a great affordable institution providing quality education to both princes and poppers Some of the schools many many famous alumni include George, creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, legendary Western actor John Wayne,

astronaut and first man to definitely step on the moon because that shit was not fake, you know Armstrong, director John Singleton graduated from USC, then just a year later, made boys in the hood, a gritty, critically acclaimed film released in 1991 about growing up amongst the violence, we'll be talking about today in South Central LA. A movie that was my introduction to this subject,

a film that introduced me to Ice Cube. Then that's a talented man. I listened to nothing but West Coast gangs to wrap from the 90s to get the right vibe going in the background while I polished these notes last few days, NWA, EZE, Bloods and Criffs, banging on wax, volumes one and two, and a lot of Ice Cube, forgot how incredible his first few albums are how raw real passionate

Crazy listen to him talk about a lot of this gang style stuff I heard him talk about when I was a teen and just thought oh cool. Look at it sweet Like I might want to go live in Compton doesn't sound cool now makes me sad for the kids who did live through it Kids who never asked to be born in all that bullshit. Anyway, USC, so many famous directors, actors, artists, etc. have attended that college. And I doubt many of them ever venture just three or so miles south to where Raymond grew up in a different fucking world.

Right? Just crazy. Raymond grew up just a few miles, not just from USC, but from Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Malibu, so much more places where dreams are made, places featuring some of the most sought after, real estate in the world, definitely in the US, places that could not feel more different in South Central where he grew up,

it might as well have been just on the other side of the planet, on the other side of the moon. Raymond's parents were Violet Samuel and Reginald Washington. Ray also had three older brothers from his mom's first marriage and a half brother from her second marriage. Violet raised mom, told Michael Cacorian, that journalist, Raymond was a good kid when he was a boy.

Raymond didn't go out of his way to fight or do anything bad, but if someone came to him, he would protect himself. And he was well built. He tried to protect the community, he kept the bad guys, but after a while, every time I looked up, the police were coming to the house looking for Raymond. Raymond a mysterious figure, known as a protector of the community, but also some saw him as a bully. Laurie Griffin Moss, a woman who grew up right across the street from Washington,

said, I don't have a whole lot of good to say about Raymond. Raymond was a bully, a muscular bully. He wouldn't let anybody from outside our neighborhood bother us. He would bother us. Raymond could be very mean. LA Times reported that the people who grew up with him knew him as a legendary street fighter. It's a quote. And this guy apparently could fucking brawl like nobody. Raymond's brother, Derard Barton told Cricorian he was real, real good with his hands. He could bring it from his shoulders, like Mike Tyson in his prime.

He weighed about 215 pounds, all muscle. I never saw my brother lose a fight, except for my older brothers when he was real young. But then when he got a little older, he could even take them. Raymond was also a good football player, but he had no interest in organized sports. Ray hated people who brought guns to fights, called them punks. He mainly got into fights for two reasons to protect people in his neighborhood or to fight people in his neighborhood. Dude fought a lot.

He was kicked out of every school he ever attended for fighting. He was into different juvenile detention camps for months at a time for fighting. Then would fight more when he got back home. Hearing all the stories about him getting constant fist fights. When I looked him up online, I expect to see a picture of a dude who look fucking mean. Maybe missed a few teeth, right? Scars all over his face from all these fights. Evil, glint in his eye.

Maybe some kind of body builder, bar balancer physique. Look of a predator. No. No, dude was built like a muscular NFL wide receiver. Strong but like slender. I think for today's guys. And then he had a face. If you didn't know who he was, what he was capable of,

I feel like he has a very kind face. Look like a nice dude, handsome. Looks like a cool guy you'd wanna be friends with. Not a dude that you would fear. In the late 60s, Ray, just a teenager, started studying the teachings of the Black Panthers, admired how they were trying to change their communities, admired how they didn't act subservient

towards why two despise them, admired their toughness, their militantness. Right, they weren't act subservient towards whites who despise them, admired their toughness, their militantness. Right. They weren't going to take any unjust bullshit. They didn't give a fuck about bending the knee to his system and never had shown them any justice. So Ray wanted to do the same thing that they did just in his way.

Crypt co-founder Stanley Tooki Williams or Tooki. He was also born in 1953. Tooki, not a nickname, as I always thought it was. It's actually his middle name. Same middle name is his dad, according to what he'd say in an interview. A two key was born December 29th of 1953 at New Orleans, Louisiana, or maybe Shreveport. More than half of the sources say New Orleans, the rest say Shreveport. I'll say Louisiana. His mom known as sources as Louisiana Williams, not sure if that was her birth name or

nickname, just 17 years old when she had him. And after the first year of his life, when his dad, who has never mentioned by name, left, she raised him alone. And 1959 never liked his full name. 1959, when he was five, Stanley, and his mom moved to LA for a chance at a better life. And just six years old, Stanley,

classic latch key kid, starts wandering around on the street because he said it was more interesting than being at home Clearly mom not keeping a real close I am which she might not have been able to not judging may not have been her fault at all sources Don't say but you know she might not have had time to watch young Stanley because she's busy fucking working Make sure that food is on the table. Make sure the lights were staying on That's not sticking around no other family around to help out if you're living in an area with little no social programs to help you, well, what the fuck he's supposed to do?

Young Tuky learned how to fight real early in order to defend himself from bullies. He would later say as a member of the black male species living in the ghetto, uh, ghetto microcosm, circumstances dictated that I either be prey or predator. It didn't require deep reflection to determine which of the two I preferred. Well, stayed. And he was a very good writer. I mean, who would prefer to be the prey if prey or predator are your only options? I mean, I would take predator every day. Tukki idolized the older criminals. He often saw around the neighborhood spent in time with as a young teen. He got a job working for some of them feeding, treating the dogs, the feeding and treating dogs that were injured during their

illegal dog fights. The dogs that he cared for when they weren't fighting other dogs to the death, they were being beaten by gamblers and hustlers, as you would say, beaten by the same guys who shot them when their injuries were too severe to fight again. Well, Jango's just growled, snarled, and left the suck dungeon. Shake off some of his rage. Maybe he chased his cat or squirrel or something. Oh, he doesn't catch him. What has seen that done to dogs going to do to your psychology growing up? What's not going to do to a developing mind being exposed to that level of callousness and cruelty? Most of the kids raise and see dogs as loving companions and source of solace when the world of humans isn't being particularly kind to you. Most kids grow up spoiling their dogs,

showing love to the creatures that unconditionally love them back. Dogs are a great way to teach a kid compassion, empathy to show kindness to creatures that depend on you to survive. Instead, Tukki is taught that it's okay to beat and kill them at their lives are disposable. And then to make his heart even harder, the gangsters he admired teach him to treat other kids like they treated those dogs. Right, the men around him eventually shift from betting on dog fights to betnon fights between boys. So he was paid to box other little kids in his neighborhood, paid to fucking beat the shit out of him. Violence is all around him from the beginning of his life, right?

Mastering violence is what his mentor is admire. But they don't care about his education and two key struggles in school when he goes, which is, you know, not often. Also like Raymond Washington, he gains reputation, not surprisingly, amongst the kids he sometimes does go to school with for being a real good fucking fighter. Makes a name for himself as a young dude, not to be trifled with. A dude real good at delivering beat down.

It's like Washington, he's a true alpha male lesser alpha male, flock to him, be and he becomes a leader of their little crew. Guys who ran with Tookie felt like they won the brawl before they even showed up to the fight. All right, Stanley and his friends make a money stealing, shining shoes mostly by stealing. Unlike Ray, Tukki looked like a dude who delivered a lot of beat downs. Holy shit. This is a big muscular motherfucker.

Later once he, you know, had lifted for some years in prison, this guy at 510 would weigh 300 pounds and a lean 300 pounds at 510, which is absurd. He honestly reminds me when he looked at pictures of imposing, he reminds me of the he-man action figures I had as a kid, like come to life. Like cartoonishly big muscles, just jacked, gigantic arms and chest. Like if you didn't know anything about Raymond Washington or Tooki Williams, no one in the right mind based on their looks

would ever prefer to fight Tooki. You'd be like, I'll fuck it, I'll take Ray. Even though he might have been the better fighter. In 1971, Washington Williams, both 17, come together to form the Crips, maybe. Many sources say that they formed in 1969 at Washington High School when they were 15. But according to Tuky, Raymond never even attended Washington High School. So there's discrepancies in

a lot of sources. Somewhere between 1969 and 1971 is where this all got started. Begun by two kids that while maybe not enrolled in this high school were high school age, why was the gang formed? Supposedly in an effort to protect their neighborhoods from other rival gangs. And the crypts wasn't the first gang that either man was in in the late 60s. Ray had joined the avenues gang led by a man named Craig Munson. So random, but Craig also was a fucking gigantic dude. Also way into bodybuilding actually became a professional bodybuilder. Clearly when some of these dudes weren't getting into brawl, man, they were fucking prepping for those brawls, doing a lot of lifting. Craig and Tuky too, they both went on

to work out sometimes at the famous gold gym and Venice Beach, right? The mecca for bodybuilders, especially during the gold age of bodybuilding, Lou Ferrigno, Franco Colombo, Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is where all these big dudes, you know, lifted during the 70s and 80s. And South Central's Craig Munson was one of the strongest dudes in that whole gym. Tyler and I were talking about this this morning just how mind-blowing this is. He could bench 500 pounds for 10 reps, like a set of 10, that is ridiculous.

He could do overhead tricep extensions, French curls with 225 pounds. It's hard to mentally, I've lifted for years. Benchine, 315 once, we'll get a look of like, oh, okay, that dude's strong. Like it most gyms, rep in 225, I was like, all right, okay, he's a serious lifter. Just fucking toss that above your head,

just bouncing around 500 pounds, like it's a warm-up weight. I've never seen anything like that in real life, just in videos. Anyway, this dude took first place in some international bodybuilding competitions. If there would have been more powerlifting stuff, he would have been due pride would have destroyed it. But his gangbanging did keep him from achieving the same level of popularity as a lot of his peers. He was actually known as the Gangster Bodybuilder. So I knew that that was not pertinent info.

Little side-run, I'm fascinated by it. I've been into bodybuilding, world-strong as man type competitions forever. Anyway, Reagan to a fight with, you know, fucking he man's brother, chose to leave Hercules's gang and start his own gang called the Baby Avenue so that he owes money to the baby avenues.

According to the website BlackPast, which is a great source of information about a lot of stuff in South Central. The youthful aspect of the gang's membership then led to their adopting the name of the Avenue Cribs, which then finally became the Cribs. According to a National Geographic document where I watch called National Geographic Investigates,

Bloods and Cribs, LA Gangs, the Rise of Two Street Gangs, the Cribs started off as the Cribs because the 10 or so kids who were its initial members, yeah, were very young, right, 14, 15 year olds. The Avenue Cribs become just the Cri. Then the term crib evolves to crib early in the 70s when, and I fucking love it so much, imitating the look of pimps and black, black exploitation films of that era gang members started carrying canes that they would use in some of these brawls, beaten people with canes and walking with a pimple imp. Some of the solve victims describe their attackers as cripples.

And then that was soon shortened to Crips. Love, historical, trivia like that, Hill Nimrod. And so does somebody else. It's a chicken Joe, having heard from him in forever. Bok, bok, bok, bok, bok. Cripp came from pimping. You can hear it in the way crabs talk. Watch OG, Cripwalk, the feet never coming off the sidewalk. The Pimpen games all about working in the street, making sure everybody knows you're

running that stretch of conflict. CripLife was never about only making money and going to war, because I look good and fly when you get in hardcore. Pimpen style is about having that presence when you walk into the room, make your head turn, you man of respect, anyone who doesn't want to end up in a tomb. Pim's in crypts, no good to be keep the gangs

to lean nice and tight. Everything's gonna see all right. Now get back to your story because this history needs more than laying. You feel me? You do? Hear what I'm saying? I'm letting me do the tell ya.

Oh shit, love no one that chicken Joe still around. Dropping a bit of pimp knowledge from time to time. Glad he wants me to share the story. There are actually multiple theories on how the name Cribs came to be. It's not for sure that one. I want it to be that one. I think it's probably that one.

Most sources go with one I just relayed, but there are other variations. There's one that's the one I hope is not true. They just, Cribs is just a mispronunciation of cribs that stuck uh... another one's a combination of cribs and r-i-p right symbolizing members who are involved in the game from birth to death that's you know pretty hardcore

uh... some people close to rain washington reported the name came from a time when his older brother injured his ankle walk with the limp according to raise a younger brother to our barren my older brother reggie was kind of bollated. And then he twisted his ankle bad one time and he was walking with a limp. So he put Crip on his Chuck Taylor converse All Stars. And Raymond took the name for his gang.

All right, so maybe some other people claim that Crip an acronym for community revolution in progress. Took he Williams wrote in his memoir to set the record straight about the Crips and the gang's origins. According to him, he and Raymond led two groups of high school boys who like to fight joined together against other South Central gangs who are harassed them. They called themselves cribs on several name choices. They originally picked names like Black overlords and snoopies.

Black overlords fucking way cooler than snoopies. Overlord, that's a fucking sick gang name. Cribs turn into cribs, during about a drunken revelry he said, when the newly minted homeboys repeatedly mispronounced the B as a P. Williams wrote his book that it is false that the cribs came from the black panthers and that the name means community resource

inner city project. Okay, well, I wanna believe that it came from early members fucking beating people with canes, pimplocked. Anyway, according to Criplor, one day in the spring of either 1969, 1971, more, most sources again, do say 1969, took Williams on his lunch break and Washington high school leaves to meet up with a friend, C's two strangers approached him. One of them calls out, hey, tookie steps in front of him.

He asked, are you tookie tookie assume that they were there to fight? But then one of these guys smiles holds out his hand and introduces himself as Raymond Washington, right? Tell us tooki that a mutual friend of theirs told him about tooki's willingness to fight with neighboring gangs. They were hassled him and his crew. How he had success fighting them. Ray said he was having no, same problems,

opposed in alliance together. So that together they could show all of these other gangs who the baddest dudes in the hood really were. Stanley told him that he would think about it. And then he later wrote in his memoir, we shook hands and I stood there watching as they disappeared around the corner of the gymnasium. And alliance was possible. I felt because it aligned with my agenda to consolidate the groups of homeboys that met over

the years. I envisioned our being not a gang in the customary sense, but an unstoppable force that no gang in Los Angeles or the world could ever defeat. I thought appeals to my growing megalomania. I made up my mind right there that the alliance was on. The original cribs were founded by approximately 30 high schoolers who quickly divided into the east and west. Ray was in charge of the east, you know, East South Central. Toki was in charge of the West South Central Group. Tukki later wrote, when Raymond and I became joint leaders

of the CRIBS, we functioned as a single federation. But during that period when our name, the CRIBS mutated into the CRIBS, tribalism began to develop. The two organizations were autonomous and were allies with the same agenda. War against street gangs. Each side engaged in a competitive aggression to see which could conquer the most other gangs or take the most leather coats cars jewelry or money from those gangs

In spite of all the inflated egos there was no tribal crypt warfare between the west and the east not even fist fights The occasional verbal conflicts between homeboys were always settled in full contact football games held on Saturdays at St Andrew's Park It was a magnificent scene, a collection of black talent on the field, although none of them would ever be offered in athletic scholarship or even in education. It sucks about the education. Scholarships, obviously, something weirdly innocent. For lack of a better term about the early years of the crypts. At this point, these guys aren't dealing drugs, aren't killing other gang members and fights over drug turf. They're not pimping, they're not running around providing protection for underground gambling,

they're not extorting anyone for protection, they're not running dry buys where a lot of instant people are getting killed. This young dude's wanted sounds like, you know, what a lot of people who were there in the early years and a few dogs I watched would say who most you just wanted to be part of a group, a group of tough guys, you know, protection from other tough guys. Comradery, a lot of male ego shit, prove your gang was the toughest group of dudes in the hood, prove that you were one of the toughest or the toughest motherfucker in the hood, but it wasn't guns at this point.

It was about fine with your fist, generally in big rumbles that would break out at parties, nightclubs, predetermined fight locations like a park, a parking lot, whatever. The worst thing you had to fear weapon wise, these rumbles in the early days was getting hit with the bicycle chain or a baseball bat. And even that sounds rare. Most of it was guys throwing fists, not beating random citizens, beating on other gang members to prove that their gang was tougher,

prove that no one could come into their neighborhood and fuck with them. After as union with Tukki, Ray expands his influence by challenging other gang leaders to fights, still fist fights, still fist fights. After he will, you know, win the fight, and it doesn't sound like he ever literally ever lost, according to Lori, always won.

Maybe that's the myth building. He would then invite the beaten gang members to join his gang, the Crips, but the chose not to, he'd warn them it would be more beatings in the future. Former gang member, Gerard Barton, told Michael Cricorian, he would go to the leader of another gang and fight him. He went straight to their main man. Once he put that guy in his back, everyone else would join up and follow him. Guys, the legend.

March 20th, 1972, the violence finally escalates beyond beatdowns. That night, Curtis Mayfield has a concert performed with the Chicago dance show Soul Train at the Hollywood Pladeum. The other time, the concert, some crypts members, murder a 16 year old kid named Robert Bayou Jr. when he refused to hand over a leather jacket. His leather jacket. According to an L.A. Times article, he was stomped and beaten to death.

Witnesses reported that Robert and his four friends were attacked by about 20 people, nine people were arrested, most of them students at Washington High School. This is the first publicly confirmed incident of the crypt's murder in anyone. In response to this attack, and a lot of other beatdowns that had happened over the past few years, various South Central rival gangs will soon join together to defend themselves against the crypts. Journalist Cricorian wrote in the way that the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

of Austria sparked World War I. The war between the crypts and bloods was ignited by the killing of Robert, by you, Jr. Here's a few more details about the attack that led to a decades-long gang war that has claimed thousands and thousands of lives. By one account back in 2009, some 15,000 people have been murdered in bloods and crypts-related violence. For comparison, to show how crazises in the troubles, right, the heart of the IRA conflict, taking place mostly in Northern troubles, right, the heart of the IRA conflict, taking place mostly in Northern Ireland, roughly 3,500 people murdered in roughly the same

amount of time between the 1960s and 1998. Bloods and Cribs conflict has been way more violent than the Irish Republican army violence, which has received far more press. Back to this first murder now, 19-year James Cuzz Cunningham sees Robert wearing a long black leather jacket, which was in style at the time. Cunningham told his friend, 22 year old Justin Baco that he wanted that coat. Justin had a gun on him. The crosses street approach group of three boys, one of whom was Robert Cunningham called

out, hey dude, hey dude. Cunningham said that he liked Robert's coat and you know, told him to take it off and give it to him. And Justin pointed to Gunn and him and said, this is a robbery. Don't make it a homicide. Charles Alexander Foster, one of Robert's friends, told a police that his friend was getting killed, was killed by the crypt. Didn't that ever get in shot?

Uh, got beaten, stomped to death. And this seems to have been the first time that many of the areas police, many people in the city in general had ever heard of the crypts. First time they get depressed. Foster only confessed because his grandma came to meet him at the police station after he got arrested, slapped him in the face until he talked. Detective Al Castaldo said, if it wasn't for that grandma,

I don't think we would have ever solved that killing. That's a fucking tough ass grandma. Blood's now be formed as a direct response to the CRIPS. I said this formation of few years in the making, another inciting incident reported in sources had occurred a few years earlier in the late 60s. Ray and gang members who had become the Crips attacked two Centennial high school students in Compton. So Vester, Scott and Benson Owens known as the founders of the bloods. Scott, no one's they didn't just take these beatings and go on about their

day like nothing happened, right? They wanted to make sure it didn't happen again. They wanted a chance at revenge. They wanted according according to one source, I found to build up a bigger gang, find Ray and his crypts, slap him around a bit, and then take off their pants, and then take off their undies, right? Believe their shoes on, leave their shirts on. And then they wanted to jerk them off. They all came. Not for sexual reasons though. They said it was, quote, the founders of the bloods said it was a no-home jerk. They said, they wanted to make sure that their penis is just and get too hard for the next part. And once these guys were all definitely jerked off

in the street, the winning gang, right? The bloods would grab their weeners again. Yank on them real hard, stretch them out as far as possible. And once they were totally stretched, these gangsters made the losing jerked off gangsters, standing groups of four people faced each other, groups of force. And their weeners were pulled out

into all the four wings with touch in the middle. And then they would glue them together. And then the winning gang would get a bunch of old tires. And then they'd been gathered for this moment, giant tires like for heavy equipment. And they wanted to make these losing crib guys and groups of four stand in the middle of these tires and then pile the tires up around them. And then glue them together with leftover glue that they didn't use on the winners. And now, and then they them together with leftover glue that they didn't use on the winters and now and then they did do this

Each group of four losers form the human axle in the middle these big tires and then the winners roll these crypts down a street yelling stuff like look at these Crips of ops that we made because we're tough we're tougher than the crypts we're rolling crypt stickers and someone thought they said rolling crickets and then someone was like I thought they said rolling crickets and then someone was like thought they said a blood and that's anyway after parading these guys around they rolled them down a giant hill. You don't know about don't even look for it on map and these guys the tires would peel apart and then eventually the guys weeners peeled apart and that is how Raymond Washington

got his nickname the headless horseman that will that and he also used to write a horse a lot and wear a cowboy hat and I'll stop now and now feels awkward I made it awkward. I made it on purpose awkward Obviously the source I used for that information is a liar and I'm not gonna use them again. I'm not gonna let them trick me again How most reputable sources say that after their beat down by rain is crypt Scott forms the pie rugang and Owens forms the West pie rugang Bad kind of butterfly effect here. Violence created more violent, right? Numerous small street gangs on or near South Central's

pyru street refused to join the crypts instead formed new alliances for protection. These affiliated gangs become the bloods by late 1972. After so much more violence. After more guys got rolled down hills and their fucking winners got torn apart. No, we're trying to keep selling that. June 5th, 1972, just three months after Bayou's murder, Frederick Little Country Garrett

murdered by a Westside Crip. That marks the first known Crip's murder against another gang member, and also motivates non-Crip gangs to align with each other. Garrett was a member of a South Central gang called the Brims. The Brims struck back August 4th 1972 murdering Thomas Ellis an original Westside Crip by late 1972 the pyruz held a meeting in their neighborhood to discuss growing Crip pressure and intimidation. That bayou murder the press that accompanied it you know raised the Crips profile gave

them extra street cred to increase their membership several gangs felt victimized by the growing Crips right they joined the pyruz created a new Federation of non-crips. That alliance again becomes a blood. So the Pyrus are considered the founders of the blood. The blood's were red to distinguish themselves from the crypts, came up with their own hand signs, distinguishing tattoos, the blood's membership and crease in the 1970s, but they never reached the numbers that the crypts had. Still haven't today, right?

To remain competitive with the crypts, they became especially violent. The crypts typically outnumbered the blood's three to one one and the bloods couldn't overcome those numbers without weapons. So tired of getting their asses kicked by gangs with more members and fist fights, they started bringing guns to even the score. Initially, these guns, not oozee, not machine guns revolvers, shot guns, dangerous. Yeah, but they're not typical drive by weapons, innocent bystanders, right? And getting shot and gang warfare, super rare 1970s, because they're not firing lots of shots. From 1972 to 1979, the rivalry between the bludgeon Crips worsens, leads to about 450 gang related murders in South Central Los Angeles.

Ray Washington disappointed with the extreme amount of gun violence in the city. He prefers to settle arguments with his fists, but it's not his gang anymore. Not long after he founded the Cris, he lost his position to leadership. Thanks to, getting his weiner ripped off when he got rolled down that hill. You know, that's what that one source said. No, incarceration and disillusion. 1974, 21-year-old Washington was arrested for second-degree robbery and sentenced to five years imprisonment at the dual vocational institution in Tracy. A state prison that just closed down last year, actually. It became the first crypt to be incarcerated there.

Not a fun designation. Washington was less than popular with the prison population. When he first showed up, he tried to recruit, right? Young black inmates into the crypts. Much to the disapproval of the established black prison protection groups already there, like the black Muslims and the black guerrilla family.

And he was not successful. According to a former inmate who is housed at duel with Washington, the black Muslims and the black guerrilla family well aware of the spread of the crypts in South Central, warned Washington, they're not going to tolerate that shit in their prison. And then Washington, again, the lone member of the crypts in this prison faced another problem while serving time at duel. The crypts are murdering rival gang members on the streets of LA while he's incarcerated. Inmates at duel are sometimes relatives of the victims.

They're being, you know, these people being killed and they hold Washington solely responsible for their relative's deaths. Greg Batman, Davis, a friend of Washington and an original crypt's member stated that people in the prisons were losing their loved ones on the streets and because Raymond was the founder of the crypts, they blamed him for it.

And since Ray was the only trip up there at the time, they were trying to kill him. That's fucking terrifying. How would you like to be public enemy number one in a prison where you have no allies? How long do you think you would last? I wouldn't give myself a week. But because this dude was apparently one of the toughest motherfuckers of all time, no one even heard him. Prop it's preposterous. I'm not gonna lie, I wish the video existed of some of his fights.

I feel like he was like backyard brawl Kimbo slice times 10. Like he was like like a cheat code in a video game. 1976 Washington paroled from prison, returns to South Central. The headless Hortman rides a mighty steed over into Compton, right down Pyrrhus street, dares to crew from earlier to try and take the rest of his wiener Of a hard time letting that stupid jucco. No reportedly He's a shock to discover the violent war between the crypts bloods some new Hispanic gangs that had escalated to the point of Fight with guns that that was all the new normal no more fist fighting over the next few months

Washington becomes further disillusioned with the crypts as the gang commits more of what he sees is unnecessarily violent, senseless crimes, new recruits seeking to build more violent reputations and existing members. It's just getting out of hand in the two of the years of Washington's incarceration, the organization had quickly and totally broken down into loosely affiliated decentralized sets that were often fighting each other, right? Crypts original leadership had disappeared, Even though there was still another original leader out there in the streets, let's check in with Tukki. Tukki Williams, right, served as the de facto leader

during Washington's imprisonment, but he got injured in a rare early drive-by shooting, 1976 before Washington's release. And he had developed a real nasty PCP habit that it caused his authority to wane a bit. Man, if I can PCP, you can talk about that in a second. 1979, tooki will be arrested and charged with four counts of murder, accused of murdering 26 year old Albert Owen to 711 clerk, also accused of murdering three members of the same family, the Yang family, 76 year old, you know, 63 year old

Si Shai and 43 year old Yuchin. On February 28th, 1979,Shi and 43 year old, Yuchin. On February 28th, 1979, Tukki and three other people were riding in a car together looking to get some money to buy some more PCP. They were already high on PCP and they wanted more. So they decided to rob a store to get some money. And they found a 7-Eleven Whittier, store clerk, Albert Lewis Owens, who was sweeping the parking lot and other store to serve him. Tukki, according to an accomplice Alfred Blackie coward pulled a shotgun.

His name is spelled coward. I got it. It's kind of an unfortunate last name for a gang member. Pulled a shotgun on Owen's, told him to head to the back. Blackie stole about 120 bucks in the register while Tukki makes Owen's lie down on the floor, shoot him twice in the back with that shotgun. Next three murders. Take place March 11th when Stanley and an accomplice

breaking to the Brookhaven Motel at 10 4 11 South Vermont Avenue in South Central 5 a.m. and then murder the three members of the Yang family I mentioned earlier who owned and ran the motel. The Yangs immigrants from Taiwan, Williams entered the lobby, broke down the door that led to the private office and sides shoots and kills. Again the 76 year old father has 63 year old wife and their 43 year old daughter. Then empty the cash register and flees is seen. Yang Sun, Robert asleep with his wife in the bedroom at the motel was awakened by the sound of somebody breaking down the door to the motel's office. Shortly thereafter, here's a female scream followed by gunshots enters the motel office finds his mom, sister, dad, all shots,

death cash register is empty. A forensic pathologist testified that his dad suffered two close range shotgun blasts. One to his left arm, while an abdomen, one to his lower left chest, mom received two close range shotgun blasts, one to her tailbone, other to the front of her stomach. Sister shot once to the face from point blank range. Witnesses later testified that Williams referred to the victims in conversations later with friends as Buddha heads. So fairly racist. How much money did he get from killing three fucking people from the same family? 50 bucks.

He was arrested shortly after these killings, while two people denied these killings for the entire entirety of his later incarceration. Three of his friends, numerous others, would testify that he did confess to them. Ballistic evidence would link his shotgun to one of the murder scenes as well. Williams will be sentenced to death in 1991 for these four homicides, more on that in just a bit. Just five months after the Yang murders, less than five months after one co-founder of the crypts is arrested, put in prison for life, other co-founder is killed. August 9, 1979, Raymond

Washington is murdered. A murder that is still unsolved. He was shot with a sawed off shot, and we'll stand it in the street. He was killed most likely by someone he knew, just based on him approaching the car on the corner of 64th and San Pedro streets. Someone inside the vehicle called his name, he approached the car, and then he got shot. Still had a heartbeat when the ambulance arrived, but was dead by time he got to the hospital. There were rumors that the Hoover Crips were responsible to Eastside Crips and the Hoover's engage in retaliation shootings after Raymond's murder. Kind of ironic, the different sets of the gang he founded for protection would attack each other after he died by the hands of one of

their members. After Ray's death, the Crips further unraveled into more and more sets as they fought with each other, fought with other gangs like the Bloods, South Center became more violent and chaotic. And now for more info on Tuky's trial real quick, Stanley Williams convicted a four counts of murder, two counts of robbery, March 13, 1991. He was actually charged with four counts of first-degree murder, three counts of robbery with use of a firearm, one count of kidnapping, and eight special circumstances of robbery murder and multiple murder. It's probably begun a month previously, February 10th, 1981.

Alfred Blacki-Coward was the prosecution star witness for the first killing of that 7-11, offered immunity to testify, not uncommon, but obviously it's always a little bit of a conflict of interest. I said that at 10-30am, February 27th, 1979, Tookie came to Cowards house. They drove to James Garrett's house because Williams was staying there at the time. Tookie went into the house, came back with his shot off shotgun and a man named Darrell. He smoked cigarettes, lays with PCP,

then picked up a man named Tony Sims, and then they shared another PCP cigarette. And I say cigarette, the joint. Fucking PCP man, I've never done it. Never even been around as far as I know. Let me share a bit about what this stuff is since I forgot. PCP also knows angel dust, rocket fuel, ozone, or whack. It's chemical name is, phenyl cycle hexal,

phenyl cycle hexal, but peridine. Actually, I think I got that right. Defined as a dissociative hallucinogenic drug that may cause hallucinations, distorted perceptions of sounds and violent behavior, very violent. Out of all the hallucinatory drugs, PCP gained the worst reputation in the 60s and 70s for inciting violence. Sometimes people would lose their fucking minds, go berserker on hospital staff, law enforcement, whoever will high on PCP.

It doesn't seem like it's very gentle, like shrooms or DMT. It was developed and marketed in the 1950s as an intravenous anesthetic by Park Davison Company. Now a subsidiary of Pfizer. It's used for humans discontinued in 1965. It caused patients to become agitated, delusional, irrational, and violent. After being discontinued, it was used as a tranquilizer for animals by vets for numerous years,

and then now no longer used in any medical capacity. And almost exclusively found in the US. Super hard to find now, but pretty popular in the late 60s and 70s. When crack showed up, PCP dropped off dramatically in popularity, and has never really regained popularity. Mainly taking with weed, joints would be dipped in it. My dad smoked a bit of weed when he was younger, just a bit, and quit after he ended up thinking he smoked a joint that had been dipped in PCP. He said it made him feel super crazy,

they really freaked him out. He's probably, you know, his wave admitting that he killed a bunch of people while he was high, you know, you get it. If you've listened for a while, you get it. Back to Tukki, after gathering a small crew and smoking a bunch of angel dust, he asked Tony Sims if he knew where they could make money. Using two cars, they drove to the city, attempted to first rob a restaurant and then a liquor store. Neither place felt right, so they moved on and ended up with that 7-11. Sims and Dera went into the store, store clerk Albert Owens, Tukki coward followed, Tukki forces Owens into the back,

you know, make some lay down, like I said earlier, shot at the TV monitor, then shot Owens twice. Later, after they went back to Sims House, Tukki said he shot Owens because he didn't wanna leave a witness. Also said that the shelves couldn't be traced

and he picked them all up. Robert Yang testified against Tukki at the trial for the next three murders, right? Of his family members at the Brookhaven Motel. Two shotgun shell casings would be found at that crime scene. And a firearms expert later testified that one of the shells conclusively came from Tukki's gun that he had bought in 1974 for witnesses identified him as the perpetrator witness Samuel Coleman testified that he and Tukki went to a bar Coleman stated the bar until 6 a.m. on the 11th. Last year, he took it to 30 a.m. Next day, he said, Tookie admitted to robbing and killing people on Vermont Street, where the hotel was located.

James and Esther Garrett also testified against Williams. Williams was staying with the Garrett's. When the murders occurred on March 13th, Williams told James Garrett that he heard about how some Chinese people on Vermont Street had been killed. claim he didn't know how it happened, but the killer must have been professional. Because there was no shells left behind. No witnesses. Then later he spoke with James Garrett again, described the murder in detail, said that a big guy knocked the door down and then indicated that he was that big guy.

And again, Tookie was fucking huge. Esther Garrett testified the Williams told her and her husband that the brook having killers used the money to buy PCP collected collected shotgun shells so they wouldn't leave evidence behind. Also told Esther Garrett alone that he and his brother-in-law committed the crime. Next witness was an inmate. Tookie spoke to after being arrested. George Oglesby testified that Tookie admitted to shoot a man, woman, and child during a motel robbery.

Also testified about Stanley Williams' escape plan. Oglesby was invited to escape with him. He planned to escape during a bus ride from jail to court, but then Tookie canceled his escape attempt because he wasn't sure that he and Ogles V would be transferred to court at the same time. And he thought, two police vehicles will be following the bus. Tookie did also have a few people testify on his behalf. It's stepfather Fred Hallowell and a few others testified that he got to the showcase bar at 3 30 AM March 11th, thought he saw Stanley in the showcase parking lot around 5 AM. Remember to see him because Williams was involved in an altercation

that resulted in a cut across his chest. Eugene Riley, an inmate testified that he saw Williams in the showcase parking lot at 5 AM March 11th gave him a ride around 5 30 AM. Joseph McFarland also inmate testified that Oglesby was a jailhouse rat and other inmates gave him false info because they knew he was government informant. And it was all said and done March 13th, 1981, Tukki was convicted of four counts first-degree murder, right? And the two counts of robberies in a firearm. With eight special circumstances of robbery murder and multiple murder, and he was sentenced to death on April 15th. After his conviction, he would spend over six years in solitary confinement for assaulting various guards and inmates at San Quentin. Damn. Some point during all that solitary

Tuggy found God. He converted to something and became an advocate against gang violence. I must have read through 30 articles about this dude. Now one of them identified exactly which religion he converted to. Closes I got to a definitive answer was in an article about his son, Trayvon Williams, also a crypt for a time who converted to Christianity, said he wanted to carry on his father's legacy and bring people out of the gang and over to God. So I assumed Christianity. Took people file a federal appeal in 1988 and I imagine prayed about it a whole bunch, but then plot twist. Jesus literally told him to go fuck himself and his appeal was denied. Come on, Jake, I don't know what Jesus said.

But his appeal really was denied. More on what he goes on to do from prison later. Right now, let's smoke some crack. Or talk about it at the very least. South Central LA combination gang activity, lack of jobs leads to more people using crack in the 1980s. Between 1979, 1994, 5,541 total homicides occur in LA County during this period, the proportion

of all homicides that were getting related increases from 18% to 43%, which is epidemic proportions, right? The crack epidemic hit LA in 1991 and exploded by 1982 old freeway Rick Ross rolling into LA with crack by the metric tonne. Two months since the episode to really dig into as far as how the crack epidemic, you know, all the LA with crack by the metric ton. Too much since the episode to really dig into as far as how the crack epidemic, you know, all the stats with everything, that's an entire episode and a link to one in and of itself, just a few details that pertain to this episode for now. And the most important one is, you know,

who sold the bloods and crypts crack? Like how did it first get to South Central? Bear evil in incorporates it. They brought crack into South Central and sold the gangs all their guns too. Why? Because there was fucking money in it. You stupid piece of shit. Great is good.

Money is all that matters. And no one makes more money than bear because they're smarter than you, better than you, and most importantly, wealthier than you. Bear is the only corporation the world with the balls to admit they only care about money. And don't give a damn about their customers

or human life in general. Bear, they'll sell crack to babies if there's profit and it's health. They'll turn babies into crack if there's money to be made there Bear only in it for the money Man, I knew bear was evil, but holy shit Let me share some crack related info now that is you know, not just real in the suckers Between 1984 1989 nationwide during the

high of the crack epidemic, the homicide, homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubles. The homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increases nearly as much during this period, the black community also experiences a 22 100% increase based on what study look at and fetal death rates low birth weight babies, weapon arrests, and the number of children in foster care. In 1986, the U.S. Congress and its infamant fucked up wisdom passed laws that created a hundred to one sentencing disparity for the possession or trafficking of crack when compared to penalties for powder cocaine.

A move widely criticized as being blatantly discriminatory against African Americans and other racial minorities who were much more likely to use cracked and powder cocaine. A move widely criticized as being blatantly discriminatory against African-Americans and other racial minorities who were much more likely to use cracked and powder cocaine. Cocaine. This fucked up nonsense called blatantly racist 101 ratio, then mandated by federal law in 1906. Persons convicted in federal court of possession of five grams of crack cocaine received a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in federal prison minimum and with the three strikes in your out bowl shit three arrests for just five grams of crack a piece puts you in prison for life. On the other hand you had to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine to get the same sentence that's a fucking scar face level of coke that's an absurd amount

five grams of crack is a tiny amount comparatively. That's like it in the same prison sense for having either a little 10 milligram weed gummy or 150 joints. It's nonsensical, it's stupid. So many laws truly are passed by completed idiots. Fun fact, you don't have to know, fuck all about drugs or anything else at all

to become an elected official. Super cool, you don't have to be literate. It's awesome. 2010, the first sentencing act cuts the sentencing disparity to 18 to one. Oh, how kind? What a nice gesture of mercy. Get the fuck out of here. Fuck the war on drugs. Fuck dumb shit politicians who still pushed out propaganda. The crack epidemic combined with these sentencing laws gutted South Central and surrounding black communities. More and more young black men when they're not getting shot down and increasingly violent confrontation with gangsters who are now able to upgrade their arsenal significantly to military grade weapons because of all that crack profit. They're

going to jail for non violent crime for selling or using crack, leaving more and more families without fathers without older brothers and the cycle of violence broken homes hopelessness and bad role models lead to more violence, hopelessness, and bad role models leading to more violence, broken homes, hopelessness, and bad role models continues and intensifies. The crack epidemic, which actually hit the northeast, harder than California, led also to the crypts and bloods expanding across the country, right, to find new buyers to sell this crack for a variety of, uh, you know, drug cartels. In the 80s, sets of bloods and crypts become crack cocaine's biggest distributors, formal alliances with mostly Mexican drug cartels. A 1989 Washington Post article reports that LA gangs moved out of the city as far away

as Baltimore. They recruited new members, sold drugs across the nation. The California Office of Justice report provided further details about this transition and gang structure. Not sure how this compares to gang structure hierarchy today. The date of the publication listed as unknown, but the recent legislation it references was passed in 1988. So I'm going to assume it's from around that time, 89, 90. Gangs, et cetera, hiring younger boys as lookouts, often as young as 12. Their job is to watch for police and rival gang members, and they get paid over a hundred bucks a day.

Cash obviously for doing this work. Next level up is a runner. Often also someone under the age of 18, or at least someone without much of a criminal record, hopefully no criminal record, runner transports drugs from the people who make them to dealers for about $300 a day. Runners assigned to retaliate against rival gang members

because young gang members, or you against rival gang members because young gang member gang members or, you know, gang members that a record record are going to get probation or a light sentence for a first time offense to get caught. Next level up is a dealer. Dealers are making anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a day, $2,000 a day cash, right? And probably $89 or $90, no degree, no job references required. Then there are the worthy gang godfathers, gang godfathers at the top of the hierarchy, often the ones who deal directly with drug cartels. The report states in the past, the Crimson Bloods seem to be primarily involved in predatory crimes in the LA area. Today, law enforcement authorities

throughout California and other states are reporting the widespread movement of Crimson Bloods from the LA area into their jurisdictions. Gang members are being linked to the increasing sales of rock cocaine in cities across the nation and to the establishment of rock cocaine houses, right? Crack houses. Their eagerness to cash in on the lucrative rock cocaine trade has heightened their enthusiasm to expand their operations in pursuit of new markets. These new illicit drug markets are known by law enforcement officials as virgin territories. When gang members arrive at a Virgin Territory, rock cocaine samples are given away to prospective customers, in hopes of getting them hooked on the cocaine,

thus providing gang members with new customers. With expansion of the drug markets, the Crips and Bloods are undergoing a change from local retailers to national wholesalers, thus eliminating the middleman. In the past, most of the gang strength and numbers has been offset by poor organization and a lack of leadership. But the crypts in the bloods are changing the way they do business. Their new focus is on increasing profits, removing themselves from the streets, where they're at most risk of being arrested or killed and evolving into organized crime groups.

It doesn't seem that that's fully happened from other things I've read. They have still not really become like fully, fully organized, not most of these sets. In response to the crack epidemic and gangs becoming more militarized, the police becoming more militarized, or they become more militarized, excuse me, using assault weapons, special forces, tactical training to raid drug houses. You know what didn't happen in response to all this? A lot of money being poured into preventative education and rehab. You know what almost no money. Being poured into preventative education and rehab.

You know what almost no public money was poured into? Creating good paying inner-sighty job opportunities or upgrading the educational infrastructure with say good food and daycare programs for impoverished single parent households. If you don't build hope, this fucking cycle will always continue. You can't punish a population and to stay in a way from escapeous drugs

and illegal income opportunities. If you left them in a hopeless environment, created not all that long ago, by the same government, now punishing them in ways predictable to basic behaviors. Yeah, by the late 80s, the entire country now begins to learn about the bloods and crypts, as well as the culture of South Central LA.

Movies like Boys in the Hood, 1991, Minnest to Society in 1993, bring further awareness of these gangs. I love both of those movies, right? Fuckin love the menace to society soundtrack DJ Quick Ice Cube, NWA, two short, boogie down productions. Grunge reported by the mid 90s, the image of the South Central gangster had captured the country's imagination the same way the cowboy once did. Teenagers fashion themselves as gangsters, even if they lived in wealthy neighborhoods. This media popularity helped and hurt the gang's public image a lot of people fell like these movies

Increased prejudice against black people in the US and looking back. I agree with that sentiment I didn't realize it at the time at the time. I thought this media popularity You know was doing a big service In the word out about a lot of black Americans. Maybe a huge fan of black Americans, but I see it differently now, right? I was one of the idiot white kids who didn't know shit about how horrific

all this stuff really was. How sad and racist and terrible. I thought it was kind of cool. I just heard good music, right? Watch good movies, good music videos, featuring fucking hot ass girls dancing around, love of these guys, you know, movies featuring young dudes who weren't much older than

I was who seemed so tough and fearless and I admired them These gangsters did seem like modern western gun flares. I've also always liked the Cowboys genre, right? And just like some kids dressed up like Cowboys. I just have like a gangster Fucking ridiculous. I was a skinny clueless white kid little 500 less than 500 person white eyeed hotel Listen to South Central hip hop at a subscription to the source, sagging my jeans, wearing an oversized big starter jacket, notches in my eyebrow, hoop earrings, shaved my head down to look so tough.

I wasn't tough as a fucking poser. I ended up with a real fucked up vision of what I considered to be black culture, right? I now associate a black culture now with the broad spectrum of humanity. It includes fucking doctors, professors, whatever, you know, the truth for any culture. It always exists on a broad spectrum. Instead, I almost only saw gangsters and, well, gangsters and athletes, right?

And that was mostly it. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't instill that, that, that didn't instill a little fear of the black man into me, right? Luckily, that went away for me a few years later when I went to college and learn the truth. The black culture has just many fucking dorks in it. That's what culture does. I see black nerds, emo kids, grunge kids. But really the whole situation, you know, all fucked up.

The hood of South Central was rotting, real people dying, the living, living and fear and hopelessness. And instead of media focused on South Central spreading empathy, movies and music are monetizing the pain in ways that did little to nothing to help the plight of anyone actually living in the neighborhoods, being immortalized and romanticized. I mean, imagine if your childhood home was in a war zone,

or is in a war zone, and now music and movies are made about the pain that you've endured, right? And now people all over the country living in way better neighborhoods, safer homes, and you do more food, more shelter, love, et cetera, people with more opportunities than you have by far, people whose friends and families and neighbors aren't literally dying and being incarcerated

a month after month, and they start dressing like you. Because it's fun, come on, it's cool. It's almost like they're dressing up like you for Halloween. Hey, everybody, look at me, I'm a gangmanger, ah, cool, man, college is so fun. Hey everybody, look at me, I'm a ha ha, I'm a gangmanger! Ha, cool, man college is so fun. Hey careful, walk back in your dorms, everybody. I heard somebody got followed around by someone who kind of creepy last week on campus.

So dangerous here. It's like we're living in the hood too! Ha ha ha! That's pretty fucked up, I really like, look at it. When 1990, most major US cities had blood, crypts, both. When 1990, the crypts numbers exceeded 35,000 in just LA county, making them the largest gang in the US by far. There was also 15 to 20,000 bloods.

A lot of gang members. In early 1990s, some East Coast bloods, all-known United Blood Nation formed by inmates at Rikers Island. So, in these East Coast bloods, came out number of the crypts in New York City. Then on April 28, 1992, something happens that actually slows down bloods and Crips violence. The bloods and Crips joined

together to establish a historic peace treaty. Hundreds of bloods and Crips gather outside the Nickerson Gardens housing project to make the truth official. One unidentified gang member told a reporter, I do drive-by shootings. I kidnap babies. I kill people. So what? I'm an active gang member. I'm going to stop. Check the homicide rate and watch next year this time fool. But then the very next day, LA residents began rioting after four LAPD officers found not guilty for the beating of Rodney King. So would the truth hold? It actually did. Gang related crime decreased in LA by 1993, even with all the fucking Rodney King should LA Times later wrote on the 30th anniversary

of the historic truce, the Watts Tree originated from the desire of some gang leaders to end the death and violence that plagued their community. They were motivated to protect their families and friends from indiscriminate shootings and targeted attacks. They recognized law enforcement, could not, would not end the violence. These leaders, Akila and Daoud Sharils,

Twilight Bay, Anthony Perry, Dane Holmes, Tony Bogard, and others saw the devastating struggle between gangs as analogous to military conflict. Complete with no man's land where rivals would be shot on site, the use of assault weapons, targeted killings and civilian casualties. They realized such violence required a diplomatic solution. So Akila Sharills and his brother Daoud, along with their friends, went to the four biggest housing projects in Watts to start some peace talks. Akila attended Cal State Northridge and read books like The Autobiography of Malcolm

X. The evidence of things not seen. Sherels later wrote these things, challenged me. They politicized me. They also gave me courage and language to begin to speak with folks in the neighborhood about what was happening. Akilala member of the grape street, grape street crypts began talking with his fellow gang members and bloods. The official truth was a result of years of meetings and peace talks. Various gang leaders, visitors, local libraries, looking for templates for their peace agreements. It was Anthony Perry who found the 1949 armistice agreement between Israel and Egypt, which ended the Arab-Israeli war. The main creator of that treaty was Ralph Bunch, black man from LA.

He received Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation work during the war and his work on the treaty. When the people worked on the 1992 truce, learned that info, they felt like it was a sign that that was a template they should go forward with. Perry handed copies of the armistice agreement out to, you know, various gang members. The treaty was established between the grape street, crypts, PJ watch, crypts, bounty hunter bloods, and the Hosse end of village bloods. According to a killer, the OGs were skeptical of the truth that it would really work while the younger members celebrated the peace.

Crypts and blood spent the night, you know, partying together at the night of the peace treaty. The agreement was crucial in decreasing the gang rate in LA. High ranking gang members acted as enforcers to keep other members from breaking the truce after 1992 riots, a program called Rebuild LA, then promised to create lasting change. The $6 billion program was supposed to establish long term systemic change by creating over 70,000 new jobs in the riot zone over a five year period. This combined with the truce created a new sense of hope that some real change was finally gonna happen in the city.

Fuck yeah, right? No. Only a year later rebuilt LA just shuts down. Those jobs were not created. Once again, the city chooses not to invest an infrastructure that will actually help South Central. Once again, residents are reminded, right? That to the rest of the country, they do not fucking matter. According to Sharills, the piece lasted about 10 years, despite all

that before violence started up all over again. Alex Lanzo, expert on LA gangs told KPCC, there is newer generation of gang member who decide that they do not want to be part of the truce. The identity of the gang is more important to them and fighting over the identity consumes them. Shootings and crime continued during the truth. They did continue. Just not at the rate that occurred before or after it. Then after it obviously just spikes way back up again.

Sadly, Akila Sharil's son killed in gang violence just after the truth ended in 2004. Grunge reported on the truth saying it was the truly grassroots effort that evolved over time. One conversation lead into another. One friend encouraged another friend to rethink their decisions, getting activity, and murder rates and watch dropped dramatically served as an example for other neighborhoods. Unfortunate without economic improvements, the decision on whether or not to join a gang remained a difficult one. Exactly. You don't repair the underlying conditions,

right? You just put in a bandaid on a bullet wound. 1997 now, Stanley, Tuky Williams, Crips co-founder, apologizes for his role in founding the Krips, saying, I'm no longer part of the problem. Thanks to the Almighty, I am no longer sleep walking through life. I didn't actually hear a real apology there. Didn't hear I'm sorry, but okay, something. In the early 2000s, the FBI reports on increased blood

and Krips gang activity in the military now. Hunter Glass, gang expert in veteran, interviewed with WPWBTV and showed them a video of soldiers in a nightclub and Fort Bragg using their hands to chant crypts. People across the room throwing gang signs and meant crypt killers. WBTV obtained pictures showing gang graffiti and Iraq. They also found pictures of men in military uniforms posted on an 18th St. gang website as well as a man doing a gang sign on an army recruiting chat room. I'm sure a lot of that was real, but how much it was real and how posted on an 18-string gang website, as well as a man doing a gang sign on an army recruiting

chat room. I'm sure a lot of that was real, but how much it was real and how much it was idiots like me throwing the blood sign, which I don't want to do on video. I don't want to fucking piss anybody off, but I did throw it in the suck dungeon the other day and immediately Lindsey and Logan threw it too. The one person who didn't, the only black member of our four-person office, Tyler, he was the only one of us that he sentenced to realize how fucking stupid it was right. He was to know this in the first place. That's maybe at least one percent of the military, about 14,000 people at any given time

affiliated with A Street gang. 2008 LA investigator detective, LA investigator detective, Adam Torres told WBTV that the FBI is concerned about gang members using military training when it goes into battle against other rival street gangs. 2002, member of the Swiss parliament nominates Stanley Tooki Williams for a Nobel Peace Prize. Williams had many supporters because of the work he had done to speak out against gang violence in prison. During his lifetime, he was actually nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times. And the Nobel

Prize for Literature once later that year Stanley appealed his convictions again and his appeal is denied. 2004, Williams helps write the toki protocol for peace. Peace agreement between the bloods and trips. President George Bush even Percy wrote a milletter, commanding him for his work on this. Williams implemented these strategies in prison and gangs used it outside of prison. The Guardian reported the protocol achieved its first success in June when hundreds of members of two street gangs in New Jersey used it to bring calm to their community. In the four

months before the treaty was signed, there had been 34 gang related murders. The piece has held ever since. Williams also published his memoir Blue Rage Black Redemption, that same year. The purpose of the memoir was to tell his life story, share the true story of the crypts and warn young people about the dangers of gang life. 2005 Stanley Petitions for Clemence, December 8th, 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwartz Neger. What if he were fucking lifted back at Gold Gym with, you know, Tuky. But he greased me with him to hear his case.

The defense and prosecution each have 30 minutes to present their arguments. Williams and his lawyers maintained his innocence and the original killings argued that his efforts to change his life showed he no longer deserve to be executed. His lawyers asked an important question again, uh, that was never taken seriously during Tookie's original trial, which is pretty messed up. And that question is where the fuck was my dad? Seriously, on the two nights, when

those four murders were committed in 1979, no one knows for sure what my dad is. And I fucking know that my dad smoked PCP. He smoked PCP sometime around 1979 and he kills people. Where the fuck was he get his PCP? South Central? My dad was born in Los Angeles. He has ties to the area. Also, according to my most recent 23-amid genetic analysis I'll fucking prove his on social media if I have to I'm point point eight percent North African My dad could be twice that did he grow up as a white guy in Alaska and Idaho or as a black man in South Central Was he a crib? Was he a blood?

He's good with his guns and his fists I don't know, but someone needs to fucking ask him these questions after they arrest him When is he gonna get arrested? When's, but someone needs to fucking ask him his question after they arrest him. When is he gonna get arrested? When's he finally gonna have to fucking pay his dues? Pay his dues? I don't know, I'm talking. Sorry, he's attorney's not saying anything about my dad.

As far as I know, but they probably should have. Dad watch, never forget. Stanley's attorney, Peter Fleming, said in a news conference, this is life. This, sorry, this is a life whose message has resonated with children, particularly with the people of California. This is the man who has not only redeemed himself, but is a life whose message has resonated with children, particularly with the people of California. This is the man who has not only redeemed himself, but he has sent his message of redemption

and non-violence to the people of California and all over the country. Those who argued that Williams should not be executed said that killing him would just show other gang members that there's no point in reforming because even if they change their lives, there's no hope for them. Stanley Defense pointed out how the only physical evidence connecting Williams to the murders was showcasing That matched the gun he owned his defense question to ballistics testing Yes, witnesses testified that they heard Stanley admit to and brag about killings, but according to defense all of the witnesses had motives to lie One witness was allegedly in a complice who was granted immunity, right?

Which we know from prosecution other another was acution also dismissed literally all potential black jurors, which made the jury racially biased. And that is super fucked up. That was not a jury of his peers. Williams told the Associated Press. There is no part of me that existed then that exists now. The majority of the detractors and naysayers, it's difficult for them to recognize the redemption. They've been unable to stop smoking or drinking or lose weight.

And then they're looking at me and San Quentin and they say, this man is on death row convicted of killing four people. How can he be redeemed? They can't believe that. They don't want to believe that. They would then feel lesser about themselves. That's not a bad argument. For me though, there are some acts that disqualify you for a chance of redemption. I'm not a religious man I do not always believe in turning the other cheek, you know or granting redemption forgiveness I mean if Tookie actually did not commit those four murders then yeah, I obviously Should not have been ever put in death row in the first place Did not deserve to die, but if he did commit those four murders if he really did wipe out almost the entire yang family

To get less than a hundred bucks to buy some PCP with. Then I don't think he deserved the opportunity to write any of the books that he wrote in the first place, right? They made people love him later, especially if he didn't ever admit to killing them, which he, which he didn't, you know, the Yangs, where, where is their chance for redemption? What life story did they get to keep writing? After the day, the jury decided they met crypts founder Stanley took it Williams.

Right. If you molest 100 kids, but then write the best book ever written to teach kids how to stay away from pedophiles later in prison, should you receive clemency in that situation? I don't know. I mean, he did do so much good work. I do think like, okay, prison for life. Instead of the ex, you know, being executed, that's tough. December 13, 2005, 51 year old Williams is executed by lethal injection. His final request for clemency denied

on December 12th, Governor Schwarzenegger wrote about his decision, is Williams redemption complete and sincere or just a hollow promise without an apology and atonement for the senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption. If you would have admitted to these killings, I think you probably would have received clemency. And I understand not a minute if he truly wasn't guilty. He didn't do them. But, I mean, I'm skeptical what if his entire redemption act was built on a lie on refusing to own up to the four murders. Yes, still did good things, but it's like, ah, that's fucking, yeah, it's tough. Bloods and crypts still kill each other today. Now they just compete with a lot more gangs.

Primarily Latin gangs, like MS-13, there are 10,000 members of just that gang in the US, about 70,000 members worldwide. Lot of the street gangs are online now, right? Gangs posting on YouTube to intimidate others. Gangs posting videos about beating somebody up or videos that I'm shooting and showing off guns. These videos get millions of views, which causes concern about how many of these viewers

are then recruited to join these gangs. I watched a video from last year about bludging crypts in South Central, super interesting, over 5 million views. Social media today, the website writes, before Facebook made claiming a crime or arranging a friendly get together, easy gangs would raise their numbers gradually, street corner by street corner, avenue by avenue. Now thanks to the internet, this can be done online. And what was once immersely, mercilessly slow process is done with a few left clicks of a mouse. That's pretty scary. Gangs use all the social media platforms for recruitment and to

show off the gang lifestyle. Calvin Schivers from the FBI gang unit said, it may stoke the curiosity of someone in the community. And so that is a kind of recruitment tool because now people may see this video and think that's sort of cool. March 31st, 2019 now, 33 year old rap artist Nipsey Hussle is murdered. Shot ten times outside marathon clothing in South Central Los Angeles. Allegedly his store was a gathering place for the rolling 60s crypts. Nipch was a former member of some people say he was still a member, openly spoke about his experiences with gang culture, also often performed to work with rival bloods affiliated rappers. Just that an example of reaching across and being able to work with everybody. The bullet pierced his lungs, severed his spinal cord to other people also injured. April 2nd, Eric Holder, Jr. was arrested and charged with murder, his murder, two counts of attempted murder, and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

And Holder, also a member of the Rolling 60s Crips, and the killing was supposedly personal, right? More gang violence. Nipsey started his career in a strip mall selling CDs out of his car, used his fame to talk about issues relevant to his community and to try and give back to people in need, try to show his community a better way, but then someone from his old life came back and killed him. One of again, over 15,000 people, almost all of them young men killed him, bloods and crypts violence. And that's just, you know, up to 2009 again. Fallen is murdered. The bloods and

crypts came together to greed the loss and they planned a ceasefire, but not a full truce. As a result, though, gang related crime in LA did decrease 9% from April through December of 2019 compared to the same timeframe, you know, a year earlier. Another member of the Rolling 60s told LA Times, we're going to carry what Nipsey wanted. Well, he was trying to preach in his songs. It doesn't make no sense that you're fighting over a block that you don't own. That is very profound, right? Fighting over a block that you do not own. So where does it all go from here?

Only time will tell, but if economic conditions in America's poorest neighborhoods don't change, if the drug war continues in the same course, it's been on for decades now, I don't see bloods and cribs and other violent street gangs going away. Let's pop out and talk about all this a little bit more. Good job, soldier.

You made it back. Barely. Lads and creeps found out by some teenagers from South L.A. South London and South Central who weren't allowed to join any more positive-minded groups. Or any more positive-minded groups like Cubscouts, Boy Scouts, young teens who'd grown up under the harsh racial profiling, all the rest you've been black. If you step outside of your neighborhood conditions of LAPD police chief, William Grand Dragon Parker, all right, that they can rot in hell.

These teens initially wanted to protect their friends and maybe their communities from rival gangs and different neighborhoods, or maybe just prove to themselves how hard and tough they were, or maybe to feel fucking good about something, to feel like they mattered, also wanted to belong to a community, to a family. So many came from broken homes, all came from neighborhoods, not wanted by the city around them, broken neighborhoods. At first, early South Central Street members, or gang street gang members, my god, engaged in petty crimes like street fighting, stealing, but then that quickly evolved into much more

serious crimes like murder. In other 1969 or 1971, Raymond Washington, Stanley Tookie Williams found the crypts and aligns between Fremont and Washington High School gang members, Washington recruited more members by fighting rival gangs, absorbing members into his group, bloods reformed as a direct response, and then fucking some blondes, or bloods, excuse me, they jerked off, you know, Washington and some other crips, and they rolled them out of the killing giant tires after glueing their dicks together.

And that didn't fucking help anything, that escalated things. So don't forget about that, don't you, fucking ever forget about doing that. People did that. Now, gangs on Pyre Street and Compton felt threatened by the crips after several attacks, joined together to form their own alliances.

They distinguished themselves from the crips by having, you know, completely, uh, untorndicks, you know, full decks that weren't rolled down hills. No, by wearing red, uh, coming with their, coming up with their own coded gang signs, the violence quickly spiraled out of control. Outman blood started to bring guns to street fights to win their battles. These teenagers, young men began using guns all the time now, committing, you know, more and more violent crimes instead of fist fights, right? They're shooting each other, instead of dealing with the root of the problem, we started

back in the 1950s with LAPDs, policing policies and an economic and cultural shift. Law enforcement focuses on continual arrests. Legislators start sending nonviolent gang members to prison for lengthy sentences, removing more young men from the streets and from their families, making it harder for them to get straight jobs once they're released. Cycle of gang life and violence intensifies. 1979, the Crips experienced a major shift. Stanley Williams arrested charge with four murders. Raymond Washington shot and killed.

We'll stand on the street a few months later. It was the end of an era, the end of the unified Crips, which had actually already begun to unravel years earlier. In the 1980s, the Bloods and Crips joined the drug trade during the crack cocaine epidemic. They became some of the main distributors for drug cartels and the gangs expanded all around the country, upgraded their arsenals to automatic weapons with all the new crack profits. More interested by standards start dying and drive buys the day.

Every major city in the US, most of the small cities are home to bloods, crypts, other gangs fighting continues between the Bloods and C and trips. Thousands of young men are murdered, right? Over 15,000 I've said a few times just in just bloods and crypts gang violence just through 2009. Thousands and thousand more sent to prison for the rest of their lives. And not just for murder charges for drugs, for nonviolent crimes, the same crimes that their white counterparts, snorting coax into the smoking crack, are getting slaps on

the risk for. The gang culture was glorified in different rap songs and movies in the early 90s. Some of it depicted the realities and dangers of gang lives. Some of it made people even more prejudice against gang members in black men in America. Another major shift happened in 1992, bloods and crypts in LA come together to establish a historic truce just the day before the Rodney King rides break out. They promise to stop fighting, and the violence that have begun plaguing their communities. The City of LA gives them a whole promise to create jobs, provide more community resources

than ever before, and then those promises fall flat, just like promises before it fall in flat. Then the truth is the Vemsy broken. It was never in full effect. Every year, bloods and crypts were still dying and the gang violence intensifies and continues. And it'll never end. As long as they continue to sell the drugs, we choose to keep punishing people for taking so severely, as long as the US continues to be the most punitive minded society in the

world. No one else puts as many people in prison for nonviolent crimes in America. No one puts as many people in prison period, not China, not Russia. As of July 2021, the US has the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide with almost 2.1 million people in prison. Have the highest total number of people in prison and also the highest per capita in prison and rate. In prison and rate.

639 out of every 100,000 citizens are in prison. Almost exactly 25% of those prisoners are in for nonviolent drug charges. Almost 40% of all these prisoners are black, even though the black population is only 14% of the overall population. Black men incarcerated in prison nearly five times the rate of white men. I'm a fucking, I'm ashamed of these numbers. When are we going to wake up and get real about fixing all this shit instead of just cheering on politicians or rallies who talk about cleaning up the streets just fucking hollow statements. We don't need to clean up the streets. We need to fucking fix the streets. We need to fill in the potholes. Put down some new asphalt build a back better, right? Maybe there will be street gangs and gang violence to matter what we do as a culture as a society, but we can for sure do better. With this ongoing problem, then what we've done so far. Time now for today's top five takeaways. Time, suck, top five takeaways. And I just realized that I think I stole that phrase from building back better from sub-politicians.

We need to do more than give hollow phrases. Number one, the blood and crypts were founded by high schoolers in the late 60s and early 70s and LA. Although today we think a gang member is grown men, wielding guns and committing serious crimes. The original gangsters were teenagers. We wanted to band together to fend off neighborhood bullies. Many of them did nothing worse than engage in fist fights with the rivals. Number two, crypts founder Ray Washington. Raymond came to power in late 60s after breaking off from the avenues gang. Started his own gang, baby avenues, used his fighting skills to recruit new members,

washed an approach and fought rival gang leaders. Once he won the fight, he absorbed the gang into his own. But he didn't fight co-founder, co-founder of the Cripps Stanley, Tookie Williams. That dude just as tough as he was. And those two formed an alliance that formed the basis for one of the most powerful street

gangs in the history of the US. Number three, many factors led to the formation of modern street gangs in South Central L.A. The main causes were economics, racism, LAPD police practices, and a lack of resources for young people. In the 60s and 70s, South L.A. is economy suffered from a lack of job opportunities. And for so many factories, primarily automotive, moved out of the area. Racial racist housing and policing practices kept Black people confined to certain areas of the city.

These areas were impoverished under funded with little to no resources to take up young people's free time. And they became severely overcrowded. And then young people live in their join together to protect themselves from the police and from rival gangs that were harassing them and also to create new criminal economic opportunities for themselves. Number four, original crypts co-founder Stanley Tukki Williams was executed by the state of

California on December 13th 2005. This by multiple appeals, flaws in the investigation and trial as well as his efforts to completely change his life, former governor, armed force nigger denied Williams final clemency request, partially on the basis that he never admitted guilt and the former does he was convicted of committee number five new info let's talk about gang affiliated celebrities several high high profile celebrities have admitted to or are suspected of being

affiliated with gangs in recent years i'm delicious a small handful there are many others uh... gary bucy uh... poll rubens also is pb her own will feral no uh... chris brown I'm gonna list just a small handful. There are many others. Gary Bucy, Paul Rubens, also known as P.B. Herman, Will Farrell. No, Chris Brown has been associated with members of the Fruit Pyrrub Bluts. In July 2014, Chris Brown made several Instagram posts, possibly referencing the bloods, even referenced the gang during some concerts.

Chris Brown, a captioner now deleted Instagram, picture of his shoes, replacing the letter C with the letter B in the post Just like actual blood members often do right writing its bull I stand on my own two feet when life gets brazy Chris Brown also seen three also seen thrown gang signs at a BET after party and shouted out the fruits pyru gang Inside or say that he affiliates himself with the bloods But it's not a member and sources told TMZ that the bloods approve of Chris Brown claiming membership because he hired some of them to work for him and is helped them out in their in the Compton neighborhood

or this year brown himself publicly claimed blood affiliation uh... knit cannon loosely involved with the bloods as a teenager he said in an interview with Vlad TV i wouldn't say i joined again i grew up in a neighborhood in Southeast San Diego, this public assistance area called Bayvista, and that was kind of the thing. Actually, if anything, I was always trying to get away from it. Of course, during the early 90s, when it was glorified,

I definitely was wearing my dickies and certain colors and the chucks. It was a blood set, but it was one of those things where that's the area that I grew up in. I mean, even if you think of South East San Diego, the majority of the people from down there are from different blood sets. I lost a lot of friends to senseless gang violence. A lot of people still locked up right now, so I always try to downplay it and be like the cat that was allowed to get away from it.

Rapper's Lil Wayne Young Thug Birdman also allegedly affiliated with bloods. Some bloods were accused of attempting to murder Lilowein. Rolling stone obtained court documents to describe the three artists as bloods members and alleged that Jimmy Carlton Winfrey, Young Thugs tour manager, was a high ranking blood who fired shots at Lowein's tour bus in April of 2015. Winfrey was indicted. The indictment alleged at Winfrey made a threat

in Young Thugs half time video which shows him holding a weapon similar to the one using the shooting. Allegedly Young Thugs threatened L little Wayne on Instagram before the shooting When his reference the bloodstruck his entire career in a 2016 interview with nightline Lil Wayne pulled out a red bandana at one point and said I'm connected to this motherfucking flag right fucking here I'm connected. I'm a gang banger. I'm connected Some bloods members have come out though and said that he's full shit and fake gangster not associated with any blood said he's just doing it for publicity.

Who knows? Growing up, iced tea was loosely affiliated with the Crips in the Crenshaw neighborhood. iced tea once said in an interview with the AV Club. You're either with them or without them. You kind of get indoctrinated into that lifestyle. Like I say, I want to my records. Whether you're in a gang or not, you know what color to wear. You don't want to wear the wrong color just to cause a problem.

Gangs are real. They fight to the death. He claims he was never fully initiated into the gang, but pretended like he was saying we actually created a fake gang. We told people we were a part of the hillside crypts. We had them think that there was hundreds of us. We connected together. That's kind of kept people off of us.

By 10th grade, you start to know people from the different neighborhoods. I've always had a very cool charismatic personality. And as long as you meet the shot collars and the troublemakers and they like you, you ain't got no problems. Snoop Dogg has never hit the fact that he is affiliated with Crips. 2017, he released an LP titled Make America Crip again. He told vibe magazine, what I mean by that is in my lifetime,

that's when young black men in impoverished areas organized to help their communities and to take care of their own because society basically left them for dead. A lot of people glorify the gang banging and violence but forget that in the beginning, the crypt's main and sole purpose was to be the reflection of the black panthers. They looked after kids, provided after school activities,

fed them, stepped in his role models and father figures. And I didn't come across a snoops claim about that. I know the black panthers did that. I don't know that the early crypts did looking after the kid's stuff, but you know, it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Snoops, a snoops, a smart dude, he's from there. I'll, I'll take his word for it. Cardi B has admitted to associated with blood as a teen and in 2018 she told GQ, when I was 16 years old, I used to hang out with a lot of bloods. Sometimes it's almost like a fraternity, a sorority. Sometimes I see people that's in the same gang kill each other. So sometimes there is no loyalty.

Sometimes you got to do certain things, you get hired, you get hire and hire. You're doing all of that and you're not making any money off it. That's why I don't talk about it much because I wouldn't want a young person, a young girl to think it's okay to join it. And finally, two-boxy core murdered in a drive-by shooting as we talked about in the episode, I did a long time ago about that, September 7, 1996. All right, it was episode 76. According to the LAPD, Shug Knight found her death row records was affiliated with the mob Pyrrhu Bluts and Knights Association with that gang led to the murder of Tupac. When Tupac signed with death row, he immediately was on the wrong side of certain crypts, right?

All crypts, I guess. On the day Tupac was killed, he, he immediately was on the wrong side of certain crypts, right? All crypts, I guess. On the day Tupac was killed, he got into a scuffle with the crypt member, Orlando Anderson. It was a simple retaliation. He messed with one of ours. We will mess with one of yours. If Orlando had never been jumped in the hotel, they would have never killed Tupac that night. Immediately after Tupac was shot, the next day, there were murders all the way back in

LA because the Compton mob pirate, which Shogh was of new that the Southside Compton Crips were involved Said the article in the in fall of 1995 when two-packs signed with death row records owned by Shug Knights Right, it became affiliated with gangs in California at the time of the signing two-packs was in prison for sexually abused in a 19 year old fan Shug offered a finance two-packs appeal if he agreed to produce two records for him It according to an unnamed LAPDp.d source to court wanted to get a jail he basically signed his life away to shug he didn't want to do it but when he does that they own him mob pyru was built off a death row

they've been around for a while but shug would put them on the map and they started making money became big according to l.a. times or lando anderson was the one who shot two-pock the police not consider a suspect interview them and and oh sorry the police yet did not consider a suspect though uh... Anderson was killed on May 29th 1998 at a car wash in compton according to the times in notorious bi g supplied the murder weapon paid the crypto million dollars to kill two-pock an LAPD source later confirmed with people magazine the crypts leader admitted two-packs murder

was retaliation for that fight it was simple retaliation you mess with one of ours, we'll mess with one of yours. And there you go for the top five takeaways. Time suck. Top five takeaways. This, uh, blood to crypts, America's deadliest gang rivalry has been sucked. Start off, there was a couple of little like, uh, positives here and there had to get past a lot of sources, links, as I scroll through the notes, pulled from more sources of the normal to try and put all this together this week. Fascinating, sad. Doesn't have to be sad forever though, right?

We can change the way we regulate our society. We can learn from our mistakes, make better choices going forward, and that's supposed to be the goal of life. Keep fighting. The ignorance, the lead of the old mistakes by continuing to educate ourselves and by being open to change, not getting locked into fixed mindsets. So I hope that happens. Thank you as always to everyone involved starting with the Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsey Cummins. Thanks to Logan Keith, the art warlock for directing and producing today. And I pretty

sure he did throw up the gang sign first. He was the fastest. So I don't want to put a target on his back. I know I'm not saying that, but you know, I don't know if it's me or him and someone's mad about it. I mean, like he did it kind of first, you know, uh, suck Ranger. Tidoc he thinks to him for help with production from a cut and clips from the episode for socials. Thanks to a bit of licks here for upkeep on the time. So stupid. I just keep thinking about, uh, fucking the guys getting behind the winners together. I don't know why that's popping in my head

all over over and over again today. Thanks to your art world, I can log and keep again for creating the merch at BadMagicMers.com. And for helping one of our socials along with our suck Ranger Tyler C in a team managed by our social media strategist, Ryan Handelman. I also thought about me just throwing stupid improv of like, you know, log and do it at first.

I don't know my mind, all of a sudden flash to Taladeganites. Don't you put that evil on me, Rick Bobby. Thanks for producing Sophie Evans again with initial research this week. And oh my gosh, I did not update that. Sorry. My notes, it was a liby-a-le. Gotta give credit for credit to thanks to Olivia Lee. Sophie, uh, uh, wait a minute. Yes, Olivia Lee did the research this week. My god, I don't know why I'm brain shortened out right now. Thanks to the all-seeing eyes moderating the Colt and Curious Private Facebook page. Mod Squad for making sure Discord keeps running smooth and everyone over on the time sucks subreddit and the bad magic subreddit. Next week since it is October, time for another

true crime episode. I'll be sharing the tale of the vicious harps aka the bloody harps. The heart brothers considered to be America's first documented serial killers. Uh, Makaja, big harp and wily little harp were murderous outlaws who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Mississippi in the late 1700s, long time ago, often referred to as the heart brothers. They were actually cousins who passed themselves off as brothers, growing up near each other. The boys soon took up the nicknames, a big and little harp because, you know, one was a lot bigger than the other. Make sense. Two left North Carolina in 1775 for Virginia and attending to find jobs as slave overseers, however,

the American Revolution changed their life plans, or their life's plans. The parasite with the British, but their interest seemed to be more in violence and criminal activities than it was in any sense of duty to either side. Along with other like-mindedminded irregular, they apparently thrilled in the activities of burning farms, raping women and pillaging American patriots. When Little Harp attempted to rape a girl North Carolina, he was shot and wounded by Captain James Wood. Unfortunately, he survived. In late 1798, the harps after already committing several murders previously went on a fucking crazy murders pre one of the most violent in US history. They first killed two men in Tennessee And then they moved to Kentucky killed a couple men there on like most outlaws the time They seem to be more motivated by bloodlust and financial gain often leaving their victims disembowel doing sick shit like filling their

abdominal cavities with rocks and sinking them in a river Next they killed a man named John Langford who was traveling from Virginia to Kentucky He turned up dead a local in Kiefer pointed the to the harps. The criminal pair was then pursued, captured, jailed, and Danville, Kentucky, but they managed to escape. When a posse was sent after them, the young son of a man who assisted the authorities was found dead and mutilated, and their murder spree just kept on going and going and going. And I'll share all the glory details next week. Right now, let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker updates.

Updates, get your time, sucker updates. Before we get started with this, Logan, do you want to say anything about the gang signs? No, no comment. Starting out for the interesting update from an anonymous lawyer regarding last week's suck, where I talked about how I couldn't just sit on those confessions, you know, those tapes that PJK gave his attorney shady sheldon, sheldon the avat's tapes were Paul confessed to multiple murders and then he left the avat's office, you know, he continued on with a murder spree.

And our anonymous Texas law sac writes, hey, Dan and team, first I'm a divorce attorney in Dallas, Texas. I'd prefer that my name is not disclosed if this ends up in a time-sucker update because of the story I'm sharing. Also won't include any identifying details of the people involved because of confidentiality reasons. When you mentioned that Paul John Nolz attorney Sheldon Yavits didn't disclose the confession tapes

for ethics reasons, I was reminded of an ethical dilemma I faced and how I got out of it. As attorneys were prohibited from disclosing clients past crimes and can only notify the authorities if we become aware that a client is planning a future crime that will result in harm or we suspect child abuse. I see some sad shit as a divorce attorney and have no outlet because of my ethical constraints.

Your podcast helps with that, so thank you. My firm was contacted by an individual at the center of a violent amber alert. The child had not been located in a police where actively searching. Ethically, there was nothing we could do. Until the individual notified my office, that he was planning to take the child to Mexico

and wanted help in doing that. I personally consider that to be a future crime with a high likelihood of harm. We scheduled an in-person meeting and notified the police. The individual was successfully taken into custody and the police never shared where the tip came from to protect our firm from any potential ethical implications. Fuck yeah, I love that you did that. Tail number. In law school, we were taught that when you're faced with an ethical problem, decide what Jesus would do and do the next best thing. I'm an atheist. I didn't

really help me much, but I thought I would share. PS, thank you for your humor. I commute to work and your bit on slow drivers, char remains, serving as reminders to other drivers. Crosses my mind almost daily. Anonymous. Well, thank you. Anonymous attorney. I forgot about that. Stay in a bit. I have to hear this album. I hadn't thought about it a long time. Again, awesome job for on what you did. You Save this kid from who knows what, what law school did you go to by the way where they would just tell you as lawyers to do what Jesus would do. Or the next best thing that's interesting.

I like, I like yeah, though, like we did that client. Yavits could have done the same thing. It seems since PJK, right, was in the middle of a murder spree, like he was actively gonna cause more people to harm. I just don't think he fucking cared. Get on you for caring. I can sadly imagine all the horrible shit you must hear

doing what you do and with children involved. Yeah. But you also help a lot of good people, like you did in this situation, get away from a terrible situation, and that has to feel great. So hold on to those moral victories when you're having a tough day. Next update from Gabrielle Phillips. Fantastic sack inspired by another fantastic sack, who

was the subject of an update last week. When SuperSack Ken Sternberg shared the story of his beautiful 16 year old brother tragically dying, but also sharing his organs and saving multiple lives. And Gabby writes, my time sucker Lord, the story of organ donation from last week's episode really touched me. I'm currently a nursing school and this podcast has really helped me throughout school from late night studying to working in insane 12-hour shifts right after clinical. I'm going to suck your dick a bit here. I don't apologize, but you've always made me laugh and given me something to look forward to as the days mushed together from school. That's not mush and

I thought you were going somewhere else there. That story reminds me of why I'm in school being able to hear stories of organ donation, and seeing family members just thankful for us healthcare workers really reminds me of why I'm in school. I would like to give my deepest condolences to him and his family. I can't even imagine how they must feel. I just wanna say thank you to him

for making me really see why I'm in this program. The donation walk makes me cry every time I think about it. The countless lives he saved, and even though, and even through his family's pain, they are still appreciative of what can happen with organ donation. Sometimes I sit in wonder if I'm supposed to be doing this. I'm young. I'm a 21-year-old female. I can do many easier things with my life. But now I realize this is really for me. Thank you for everything and making me realize I'm in school for the right reasons.

I can never thank you enough. Sorry for the long message, but it's late and I'm long-winded with much love Gabby. I fucking love your message, Gabby. Yes, yes, yes. What you're doing is so damn important. You're gonna help save lives. You're gonna help people feel safe when they feel the most scared they've ever felt. You're gonna soothe souls in their final moments, help their families to the most difficult moments of their lives.

What you are going to be doing is so noble. So thank you for sticking with that path and set up something easier like fucking, I don't know, only fans, which I guess, you know, suits people in different ways. But I think what you're doing is a lot more important. He'll never know. Now, young Buck and curious sack Jason has some thoughts to share as to why surrogolars do what they do. Why did I say, sorry, I read, I read this wrong. Jaron JAR O N but pronounced Jaron, not Jason at all. And Jaron writes, hi, Dan, my name is Jaron. I'm a 19 year old college student from Jacksonville, Florida.

I love the podcast. Listen to a constant the car. And while I'm working at an ice rink as a Zimboni driver, yes, I'm a Zimboni driver in Florida. I listen. So frequently the stuff from my, from the podcast will sometimes get caught in my head My girlfriend recently got a Cocker Spaniel puppy I narrowly caught myself from making a joke about sacrificing it to Nimrod and for her parents I should went for it. Anyways, I've listened to a lot of the serial killer episodes recently and I've heard you mentioned the MacDonald triad in

It's association with violent behavior multiple times though the link between the two has never been fully proven as I've Yeah, talked about I have my own theory about the link between the two has never been fully proven as I've yet. Talked about, I have my own theory about the link between the triad and serial killers based on psychology class I've taken in high school and college. Freud theorized five psychosexual stages in children that if not fully developed lead to certain personality traits later in life. The ones most relevant here are the anal stage and phallic stage development, which span years one to six in a child's life. The anal stage is from one to three and is associated with the child trying to gain control over their boughs.

Real or perceived parental bullying during the stage, along with other factors, can cause a fixation in the kid Freud called anal expulsive. This happens when stress from parents and other things causes a lack of control over the bladder and boughs. That would explain the continual bedwetting, many violent criminals display, hoarding to Freud, anal expulsion, people also tend to exhibit cruelty, general carelessness, and disorganization,

which can explain the cruelty and lack of emotion towards animals. The phallic stage occurs in years three to six, and is associated with kids exploring sexuality and gender differences. Once again, parents who are overbearing or intolerant of a child's sexual development during the stage can lead to a phallic fixation.

People with this fixation tend to have warped ideas around sexual pleasure, sexual aggression, and in males often hatred of women. I believe the sexual confusion is what may lead to odd kinks, such as the strange attraction towards fire and violence, as well as sexual, these sexual motivation, most of the serial killers, that have been sucked seem to display. As you can tell, I take more of a nurture approach to how a person turns out. I know you have a psychology degree and may have thought of these possibilities already, but I thought it would be cool to give you my own take on the why behind serial killings. Thanks for the great content. Hail, Nimrod.

Jaren Daines. Well, thank you for your thoughts, Jaren Daines. It's been a fucking long time since I studied Freud. I had not thought of those possibilities, and I know a lot of people, you know, in more recent decades are not big fans of Freud and have discounted a lot of his work, but fucking who knows, you could be right. Right, it is so strange to think that

how we're treated when we're so young, six and under can so greatly shape our behavior for the rest of our lives. I have, you know, almost no memories before the age of six. Just a handful of little snapshots. I know, I know just from, you know, family history, saw both a lot of love and a lot of discord at that age. A lot of my grandparents, you know, doating on me.

My parents also both love each other but then fighting like crazy, a lot of my dad being gone. I wonder how that all scrambled my noodle. Luckily not enough to send me on a murderous path. I do love women's bodies so much, especially the shape of their butts. My wife loves to tell people that my butt,

or her butt, her butt, is what it drew me in and she's not wrong. Just, you know, first thing. Was I destined to be an ass man because it's something that happened to me before I turned seven, some kind of fucking anal fixation? I don't know who knows.

So much mystery still with our species. Thanks for giving us more to think about. And last one now from a fellow podcaster and marvelous meat sack, Josh Fink sending in an eye catching subject line of the Perseverance Fairy has anal warts. Got my attention. And he wrote, hello Dan, sorry for the crazy email header, but I wanted to get your attention. Well, he did. First off, I like first off, I like so many want to thank you for all that you do.

I'm very inspired by all that you and the crew do bad magic productions. I'm a bad magician through and through after discovering time stuck three years ago. Sanyoon Boston wanted to reach out and say, thanks for all that you do. I was at the Friday night 730 show. I yelled out, you go into sleep soon. I swear you blushed for a second. I did. So little embarrassed by that. That was a major life goal achieved right there. You started off one joke with, we need to have a new holocaust. I did. And I as a Jewish guy in the audience started to lose it. I have

a lot of trust in your comedy and I wasn't disappointed. I took it to a good place. Also I was the guy who sent the shirt back to the green room for you. Thank you for that. I did get that. And that's why I wanted to reach out. I found your comedy through your podcast. I've been so impressed and taken in by all of them that I started a podcast with my two friends. That's the shirt I sent back. It's called the steam gentleman,

based on a typo of mine. And the premise is pop culture and social commentary. In a lot of ways, the show emphasizes much of what you talked about in your act. White and Jewish, ethically not religious, Mike, two co-hosts are black. We all grew up very differently, but we all have pop culture and comment. We watch the same movies on VHS, over and over. We like comics and video games, the same ones.

Find the same things funny, and that's why making this podcast has been so fun or so great. Sorry. I went to film school, spent some time in L. LA, but due to anxiety and depression that was untreated at the time and really not liking LA, moved back to my hometown here in Boston or in the Boston area. But because of seeing how you started time suck in your apartment in Santa Monica,

listening to some of the early episodes, I got the courage to start this. It's been a huge blessing. I'll leave a link to the show. I'll also understand you're crazy busy. And because I listened to this week's scared of death already, I know you're headed back to Boston. Enjoy the trip. Yeah. I'm gonna be taking off in a hour or two for the airport Hope you find a school you guys like. Yep, looking at school for Kyler

If you do have a few spare moments, can I ask you what advice you'd have as far as marketing for a small podcast like mine? Don't take me wrong. I know there's no subs due for the grind, but it's a big market Excuse me, and I would very much appreciate the benefit of your experience. I went to Emerson College and Spike Lee spoke at our graduation. I'll never forget how he talked about how he couldn't give a young filmmaker the secrets in the time it took a walk signal to change. So I get it. But I would very much appreciate everything you have to say. My dream is to be the first

show you hire to be part of the bad magic podcast network. I know that's not in the plans right now, but who knows? I'll close this out by telling you how much I love the story about the Perseverance Fairy. That's just a bit I've been doing at the end of my act lately. My motto has been for a long time, keep moving forward, and that story just seems to embody that.

Yeah, if I look back there, may have been some park cars, I got a little banged up, but put the seatbelt on and just keep moving forward. Thanks again for all that you do. Three out of five stars wouldn't change the thing. Spaces are Annabelle and Junior Perseverance Fairy Joshua Fink. Well, Joshua, thank you for the t-shirt.

Again, appreciate it. And thanks again for coming to the show and congrats on going to Emerson. That's a great school. I did listen to like the first half of your most recent episode. Man, talking about a slasher films sound quality chemistry excellent Like the music you use to flow into the show the intro solid logo artwork is so good congrats on already getting ads Her to hurt one at the start of the show that's big Agree about why no no writer she has aged fantastically

Also lever in stranger things As far as as advice You know for marketing get active on social media if you're not already especially tiktok We're gonna be getting active on tip tiktok with time suck and scared to death That platform has the most growth potential right now You can't ever sleep on trying to find new listeners anyway You can record a video version of what you're doing even if it's you know a little go pros whatever Put little teaser clips out on socials video version of what you're doing, even if it's a little GoPro's, whatever.

Put little teaser clips out on socials, Instagram as well. You just never know what clip might get passed around. They'll be fine new listeners. Hopefully you can get like a YouTube version. Some people take off that way, especially when they have a podcast built on a lot of conversation. Biggest marketing tip, reach out to other podcasts, getting started like you, podcasts that you like. Podcasts that might have audiences around the same size as yours, and do some free cross promotions, right? You introduce them to your

audience, they introduce, you know, your show to their audience. Don't be afraid to do this, a lot of podcasters hate this. They get so fucking insecure and afraid. They get afraid that their fans are going to like the news show more than their show and they're going to leave. But if that was true, if that possibility was true, if your show was that dismissible, well, they're gonna leave pretty quick anyway. So there's actually very little risk in introducing them to other shows.

They know the other shows are out there. Believe in your show. Believe you can hold your audience. Finally, give it everything you fucking have. Right? Nothing will spread your show like quality content. All right, I probably pay extra attention on to like the notes because I know

that no matter how good I make them, my mouth is going to betray me. But yeah, make sure that you're improving. Listen to episodes, make sure your mic technique is good, the listeners aren't struggling to hear you, make sure you're not talking over your co-host vice versa, which I don't, you don't seem to be. Make sure you record in advance to avoid missing episodes,

right, give your audience a show they can depend on. You want to be worth make sure you record in advance to avoid missing episodes, right? Give your audience a show. They can depend on. You want to be worth their time. You want them to know they can trust you to deliver a scapest entertainment each and every week that they can look forward to. And if you can't do that, they'll find someone else who can. And good luck.

Perseverance theory, it is a fucking tough field. And there's a lot of people out there, but you got the right passion. You know, you're taking it seriously, and so you've given yourself a chance and may numrod guide you to glory. Keep going, stick with it. And you know, you're so new to the game, even if this podcast doesn't become the one that you want it to be, well, the next one might. You can learn from, you know, it and try again.

We learn more from failures often than we do from successes, which is, you know, why the crypt's got so strong as I talked about earlier when those guys had their weeners ripped off, like the tips, you know, it made them fucking tougher. And that's that's how it all stopped. He'll never out and enjoy that awesome city of yours and thanks everybody for sending in the messages. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did. Another bad magic production's podcast is done. Please don't join a street gang this week.

Try to do something different. I don't know. Try to get into a college instead. Maybe study politics. Maybe try and change the system. The least people that feel so hopeless that they feel like the best choice they can make for themselves is to join a street king. Or if not, at the very least, keep on sucking.

I'm magic productions. I just want to take a second to try and explain what I was trying to do with the winners getting ripped off references. I was very late when I came home with that concept and I don't think I delivered it well. But I just all I wanted to do was just put a scenario in your mind where one group of guys, one gang, right, they fucking beat another group of guys. And instead of just leaving it at that, they fucking take their pants off and they jerk them off until they come and so their weavers are soft and they make them stand face each other because it's just you know just the visual

of that just imagine on the streets these guys are like they could get beaten up but then I guess they were kind of happy for a second because they came but then they're fucking tired now but then they're being forced to face each other, just, you know, four guys in a little circle, and they're somehow, their winners are stretched out, as if you can do that. And then, it's like super glue, just glue them together in the middle, and it's like a bicycle, like spokes in the middle now.

They're like, they're like a tire in a way. And then they're put inside of these giant tires, and those tires are glued together, and roll down a hill, and just imagine seeing that, and then the fucking tires go ripping apart and then the guys are... the winners get torn as they fly apart and then just fucking piss them off and then ray, the leader horse too, and he's the guy who rides horses, who has not a full wear. And I probably should put, I probably should put my work into it. I just wanted you to know that I was laughing really hard when I first came up with it, and I just apologized if it didn't translate. And the last thing I want to say is, I know I said a few times already, but Logan, he did it first. He did the sign first. And it's an important thing to remember at the end of the day.

I want to do it, but I'm not going to do it. Logan might be doing it right now. you