CODE TALKING
The recent killing of Federal Judge Joan Lefkow's family is a story we hope will prompt the media to continue focusing on white hate groups. Right now, the suspicion is that all-purpose hater Matthew Hale somehow ordered or at least suggested that one of his crimies or followers execute Lefkow's husband and mother.
The NYT today has a story today that Hale has been communicating with people on the outside through his parents and lawyer by means of coded messages. Hale's mother is quoted as saying that the coded messages was "the dumbest thing I've ever heard of." The lawyer said that Hale's mother made the lawyer write the message down verbatim and deliver it to one of Hale's people on the outside. The message was apparently not delivered.
As a result of all this, POs have cut off Hale from communicating with his parents. Surprisingly, the ACLU has yet to raise an objection about cutting Hale off from his family.
While code comms from prison may be something new to the average citizen, the fact is, codes have been around almost as long as prisons. The range of codes run from simple hands signals, ghost writing, one time pads, Aztec writing, lip reading, imbedded writing with signifiers and variations of all those.
For instance, one of the more common codes is the simple letter that appears innocent to the untrained eye. The key to the code in the letter lies in the salutation. If the salutation for instance is "HI, HOW'S IT GOING?" the recipient knows to pick out every fifth letter. A letter that starts with "WHAT'S NEW?" indicates that every seventh letter in the body is the coded message. All this, of course, is worked out ahead of time long before the inmate lands in prison.
Also common is what cryptographers call the one time pad. Again this is worked out well ahead of time and consists of a number of code guides. Every letter in the alphabet is assigned a random number or letter. The key as to which page of the code guide to use is somewhere in the code. By going to the correct page in the guide, the recipient simply compares the random number or letter in the message to its actual meaning.
The difference between this and a letter with a salutation signifier is that it looks like a code and therefore harder to slide by the POs in charge of reviewing communications.
The most secure avenue of comms still remains legal documents. By law, POs can't open letters addressed from prisoners to their lawyers and vice versa. These are confidential. Some lawyers, as was documented in the Lynne Stewart/Blind Sheik case that recently ended, knowingly cooperate in illegal communications from prisoners to the outside. Other lawyers aren't even aware that they're being used as a conduit.
So Matt Hale's mother's contention that Hale might have been communicating in code is anything but "dumb."
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
HUNTING THE SIMI VALLEY TIGER
By now, we've all heard and seen what happened to the unfortunate tiger of Moorpark. The big cat escaped from a private exotic animal breeder and spent a few days roaming the hills of Simi looking for a meal, a place to live or maybe just wondering what terrible thing he'd done in a previous life to end up in an overgrown suburb of LA.
If you've been watching the news or reading the papers, you know that animal control agents shot and killed the cat. The public reaction was typical. There were candlelight vigils, calls for investigations, piquant renditions of the The Lion Sleeps Tonight sung by heartbroken grammar schoolers and all manner of simpering sorrow over the shooting.
Animal lovers wanted to know why animal control couldn't tranquilize the tiger. Or throw a net over it. Or lure it into a cage. We wondered too.
Thanks to a connection at the Ventura County Sheriff's office we got to information that for some reason never made it into print in your local faux newspaper.
To begin with, the animal was not walking through wilderness. It was never more than a few hundred yards from schools, homes and stores. They found paw prints right at the edge of a basketball court and parking lots. Something had to be done quick.
From the point of view of liability, if the cat had hurt or killed someone, every public entity even tangentially responsible for capturing the cat would be looking at a major lawsuit. Every lawyer looking for a big payday would be handing out business cards like Free Pipe Bomb Day at a Gaza Soccer game.
The plan to trank the cat involved a helicopter and several ground units. Each ground unit was composed of three individuals -- a game control agent armed with a trank gun and two armed escorts armed with either a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with slug shot, an AR-15 with the standard .223 cal round or an M1-A1 loaded with 7.62 cal (aka .308 cal).
The chopper would spot the cat and direct the ground units to the location. Once the foot units were close enough they'd try the trank gun. The Game people had some reservations, however. Prior experience has shown them that there was only a 6 in 10 chance of hitting a moving animal with the dart. On top of that, the dart hit has to be in a muscle. A gut shot or lung shot would do absolutely nothing to put the tiger to sleep.
They also knew that even a perfect muscle shot wouldn't bring the tiger down for twenty minutes.
When the tiger was eventually spotted from the air, three ground units were directed to converge on its location. Thanks to the heavy brush, the ground units couldn't see the tiger as they advanced. As they and the tiger moved through the brush, the chopper pilot also lost sight of the cat.
The chopper swooped low hoping to flush the animal. The animal flushed, alright, but it popped up BEHIND one of the ground units and it was moving in their direction. The cat was stalking the stalkers.
The chopper pilot told the ground unit to turn around. When they did, the cat was exactly 32 yards away. They measured it off afterwards. Tigers can charge at 35 to 40 mph. They can cover 32 yards in seconds. Not a whole lot of time to concoct a new plan or redeploy the foot units. They took the decision to end the potential danger right there. The first shot was fired from the M1-A1. They finished the animal with two 12 gauge slugs from the shotgun.
Now you know what happened.
Why the big media doesn't give you the details if baffling. They're real quick to stick a microphone in front a grieving 12-year-old holding a stuffed tiger toy. And they can find a dozen animal "experts" who weren't within cell phone range of the event to tell you how "they" would have done it. But for some reason, they never seem to get to the guys on the ground who make the decision and ask them who, what, where, how and why. Maybe it's too much work. Maybe they've already go their minds made up. Maybe they just don't care. Maybe it's because facts are boring but a crying kid is "news."
Whatever the reason, you're only getting what they want you to get. So remember to exercise caution whenever you're watching or reading the news.
By now, we've all heard and seen what happened to the unfortunate tiger of Moorpark. The big cat escaped from a private exotic animal breeder and spent a few days roaming the hills of Simi looking for a meal, a place to live or maybe just wondering what terrible thing he'd done in a previous life to end up in an overgrown suburb of LA.
If you've been watching the news or reading the papers, you know that animal control agents shot and killed the cat. The public reaction was typical. There were candlelight vigils, calls for investigations, piquant renditions of the The Lion Sleeps Tonight sung by heartbroken grammar schoolers and all manner of simpering sorrow over the shooting.
Animal lovers wanted to know why animal control couldn't tranquilize the tiger. Or throw a net over it. Or lure it into a cage. We wondered too.
Thanks to a connection at the Ventura County Sheriff's office we got to information that for some reason never made it into print in your local faux newspaper.
To begin with, the animal was not walking through wilderness. It was never more than a few hundred yards from schools, homes and stores. They found paw prints right at the edge of a basketball court and parking lots. Something had to be done quick.
From the point of view of liability, if the cat had hurt or killed someone, every public entity even tangentially responsible for capturing the cat would be looking at a major lawsuit. Every lawyer looking for a big payday would be handing out business cards like Free Pipe Bomb Day at a Gaza Soccer game.
The plan to trank the cat involved a helicopter and several ground units. Each ground unit was composed of three individuals -- a game control agent armed with a trank gun and two armed escorts armed with either a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with slug shot, an AR-15 with the standard .223 cal round or an M1-A1 loaded with 7.62 cal (aka .308 cal).
The chopper would spot the cat and direct the ground units to the location. Once the foot units were close enough they'd try the trank gun. The Game people had some reservations, however. Prior experience has shown them that there was only a 6 in 10 chance of hitting a moving animal with the dart. On top of that, the dart hit has to be in a muscle. A gut shot or lung shot would do absolutely nothing to put the tiger to sleep.
They also knew that even a perfect muscle shot wouldn't bring the tiger down for twenty minutes.
When the tiger was eventually spotted from the air, three ground units were directed to converge on its location. Thanks to the heavy brush, the ground units couldn't see the tiger as they advanced. As they and the tiger moved through the brush, the chopper pilot also lost sight of the cat.
The chopper swooped low hoping to flush the animal. The animal flushed, alright, but it popped up BEHIND one of the ground units and it was moving in their direction. The cat was stalking the stalkers.
The chopper pilot told the ground unit to turn around. When they did, the cat was exactly 32 yards away. They measured it off afterwards. Tigers can charge at 35 to 40 mph. They can cover 32 yards in seconds. Not a whole lot of time to concoct a new plan or redeploy the foot units. They took the decision to end the potential danger right there. The first shot was fired from the M1-A1. They finished the animal with two 12 gauge slugs from the shotgun.
Now you know what happened.
Why the big media doesn't give you the details if baffling. They're real quick to stick a microphone in front a grieving 12-year-old holding a stuffed tiger toy. And they can find a dozen animal "experts" who weren't within cell phone range of the event to tell you how "they" would have done it. But for some reason, they never seem to get to the guys on the ground who make the decision and ask them who, what, where, how and why. Maybe it's too much work. Maybe they've already go their minds made up. Maybe they just don't care. Maybe it's because facts are boring but a crying kid is "news."
Whatever the reason, you're only getting what they want you to get. So remember to exercise caution whenever you're watching or reading the news.
Friday, February 25, 2005
SUPREME COURT SAYS NO SEGREGATION IN PRISON
There's no argument that inmates are entitled to all the civil rights a free society can accord them. But there's a big difference between civil rights among law-abiding citizens on the outside and law-breakers on the inside. Inmates and convicted felons can't vote, for instance. And they can't claim the Second Ammendment right to bear arms.
This week's ruling by the Supreme Court that California prisons can't for the most part, segregate inmates according to race is a clear indication that laws often blindly support the ideal rather than reflect the reality.
Segregation in schools, the military or any place in outside world is pure evil. Forced desegregation in prisons, on the other hand can lead to a bloodbath.
Prison is a tribal society. The Supreme Court and law enforcement isn't about to abolish the animosity between prison racial groups by forcing them to share cells and finger paints.
In the past, even the "progressive" and radical prison reformers sued the state to force the CDC to segregate prisoners in the exercise yards, meals and shower time. According to the lawyers of the Prison Law Project, the shooting of inmate W.C. Nolen some thirty years ago was laid at the feet of prison officials for allowing blacks to exercise at the same time and in the same yard as white inmates. While it's almost unheard for liberals and progressives to demand segregation, there's a sound reason for it in the prison environment.
If you recall, Nolen's death was what fueled George Jackson's rage and triggered him to kill CO John Mills. That event was a wake-up call to POs. While there have been sporadic abuses of COs purposely putting enemies in the same yard just to watch the fights, for the most part, the CDC has done the tough work of keeping feuding groups apart.
For the sake of keeping the bloodshed down, let's hope the CDC can find a way of following the spirit of this desegregation ruling without violating the letter of it.
There's no argument that inmates are entitled to all the civil rights a free society can accord them. But there's a big difference between civil rights among law-abiding citizens on the outside and law-breakers on the inside. Inmates and convicted felons can't vote, for instance. And they can't claim the Second Ammendment right to bear arms.
This week's ruling by the Supreme Court that California prisons can't for the most part, segregate inmates according to race is a clear indication that laws often blindly support the ideal rather than reflect the reality.
Segregation in schools, the military or any place in outside world is pure evil. Forced desegregation in prisons, on the other hand can lead to a bloodbath.
Prison is a tribal society. The Supreme Court and law enforcement isn't about to abolish the animosity between prison racial groups by forcing them to share cells and finger paints.
In the past, even the "progressive" and radical prison reformers sued the state to force the CDC to segregate prisoners in the exercise yards, meals and shower time. According to the lawyers of the Prison Law Project, the shooting of inmate W.C. Nolen some thirty years ago was laid at the feet of prison officials for allowing blacks to exercise at the same time and in the same yard as white inmates. While it's almost unheard for liberals and progressives to demand segregation, there's a sound reason for it in the prison environment.
If you recall, Nolen's death was what fueled George Jackson's rage and triggered him to kill CO John Mills. That event was a wake-up call to POs. While there have been sporadic abuses of COs purposely putting enemies in the same yard just to watch the fights, for the most part, the CDC has done the tough work of keeping feuding groups apart.
For the sake of keeping the bloodshed down, let's hope the CDC can find a way of following the spirit of this desegregation ruling without violating the letter of it.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
HMONG NEIGHBORHOODS IN NORCAL
The SAC BEE reports that a shooting war has essentially broken out between HMONG neighborhoods in NORCAL. A rash of recent shootings culminated on Sunday in a daylight driveby shooting that left one HMONG soldier DOA. The shooting happened at a busy intersection witnessed by a busload of people who were in the line of fire. There was so many witnesses that LE were able to get a good plate number on the shooter's car.
While the existence of Hmong neighborhoods isn't all that new, LE up north and in the Central Valley have seen a recent spike in criminal activity. Apparently they're forming up into organized groups and are big into weed. Hmong immigrants survive on a combination of government benefits and agriculture. A NORCAL drug agent told me that "farmers" lease land and ostensibly grow legitimate crops at the perimeter. What can't be seen from the outside, however are plots of marijuana growing in the middle. The pot is the actual cash crop. As a result, legit Hmong farmers have been unfairly stigmatized as pot growers.
The story of how thousands of Hmong families have come to live in the Central Valley is long and complicated but it has its roots in the Viet Nam war. US Special Forces armed and paid Hmong tribesmen to fight the VC and the Communists in Laos and Cambodia. American soldiers and brass came to respect the Hmong as fierce warriors who stood their ground and fought to the death even in the face of overwhelming odds. When the war ended and the US pulled out, the Communists went on a rampage of revenge against the Hmong. Out of good conscience, the US government made it easy for Hmong to migrate to America.
Thanks to their intense tribal culture and distrust of outsiders, the Hmong have had a hard time assimilating in the Central Valley and everywhere else they've settled. All these factors have contributed to criminal or near criminal activity ranging from simple game poaching on private and public land all the way up to drug trafficking and set warfare.
Chances are, the Hmong will never achieve the critical mass needed to become a major criminal organization. But one copper told me that what they lack in numbers they make up for in brazen violence like Sunday's daytime driveby.
The SAC BEE reports that a shooting war has essentially broken out between HMONG neighborhoods in NORCAL. A rash of recent shootings culminated on Sunday in a daylight driveby shooting that left one HMONG soldier DOA. The shooting happened at a busy intersection witnessed by a busload of people who were in the line of fire. There was so many witnesses that LE were able to get a good plate number on the shooter's car.
While the existence of Hmong neighborhoods isn't all that new, LE up north and in the Central Valley have seen a recent spike in criminal activity. Apparently they're forming up into organized groups and are big into weed. Hmong immigrants survive on a combination of government benefits and agriculture. A NORCAL drug agent told me that "farmers" lease land and ostensibly grow legitimate crops at the perimeter. What can't be seen from the outside, however are plots of marijuana growing in the middle. The pot is the actual cash crop. As a result, legit Hmong farmers have been unfairly stigmatized as pot growers.
The story of how thousands of Hmong families have come to live in the Central Valley is long and complicated but it has its roots in the Viet Nam war. US Special Forces armed and paid Hmong tribesmen to fight the VC and the Communists in Laos and Cambodia. American soldiers and brass came to respect the Hmong as fierce warriors who stood their ground and fought to the death even in the face of overwhelming odds. When the war ended and the US pulled out, the Communists went on a rampage of revenge against the Hmong. Out of good conscience, the US government made it easy for Hmong to migrate to America.
Thanks to their intense tribal culture and distrust of outsiders, the Hmong have had a hard time assimilating in the Central Valley and everywhere else they've settled. All these factors have contributed to criminal or near criminal activity ranging from simple game poaching on private and public land all the way up to drug trafficking and set warfare.
Chances are, the Hmong will never achieve the critical mass needed to become a major criminal organization. But one copper told me that what they lack in numbers they make up for in brazen violence like Sunday's daytime driveby.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
UPDATE ON LOCKDOWNS
A day after we posted the lockdown at Pelican Bay, Andy Furillo writes about more lockdowns in the Feb. 16, issue of the Sacramento Bee. We already mentioned the Bay lockdown that allegedly uncovered a plot by the Eme to kill three correctional officers. Furillo adds that "skinhead" inmates at New Folsom (we're assuming the AB here), were also planning to attack or kill COs at that institution. This was planned as a retaliation for the November '04 shooting death of inmate Wade Shiflett. Shiflett was shot while he was in the process of attacking another inmate.
And there was supposed to be another plot on COs in Chino, this one organized by the EAST COAST CRIPS.
If you accept all this, it appears that every major ethnic group in the California prison system is pissed off about something and ready to take it out on the COs. Prison officials are saying that there's no connection between these alleged plots. The ethnic gangs each had their own reason for the planned attacks.
It's pointless to speculate what's going on behind the walls. These three plots could be a big coincidence or the beginning of a general resistance movement sparked by prison conditions. We'll update if we hear more.
A day after we posted the lockdown at Pelican Bay, Andy Furillo writes about more lockdowns in the Feb. 16, issue of the Sacramento Bee. We already mentioned the Bay lockdown that allegedly uncovered a plot by the Eme to kill three correctional officers. Furillo adds that "skinhead" inmates at New Folsom (we're assuming the AB here), were also planning to attack or kill COs at that institution. This was planned as a retaliation for the November '04 shooting death of inmate Wade Shiflett. Shiflett was shot while he was in the process of attacking another inmate.
And there was supposed to be another plot on COs in Chino, this one organized by the EAST COAST CRIPS.
If you accept all this, it appears that every major ethnic group in the California prison system is pissed off about something and ready to take it out on the COs. Prison officials are saying that there's no connection between these alleged plots. The ethnic gangs each had their own reason for the planned attacks.
It's pointless to speculate what's going on behind the walls. These three plots could be a big coincidence or the beginning of a general resistance movement sparked by prison conditions. We'll update if we hear more.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
THE BAY LOCKED DOWN
We're a little late on this one. Two days, late. But we waited until we had something more than the bare bones reported in the press about the lock down in Pelican Bay. What the CDC has released to the public is that they uncovered a plot to assassinate three corrections officers and the prison would stay locked down until they complete the investigation. The LA Times didn't report who planned to do the hits or why.
We still don't know why but we've been reliably informed that the plotters are all Eme brothers. So far, prison officials have confiscated four prison-made weapons (we assume they're shanks) but COs are looking for at least ten more. It sounds like there was a snitch in the mix.
With the information we have in hand, we're not ready to believe that there actually was a conspiracy to kill three COs. It's possible, of course, but it doesn't seem to make sense. First of all, greenlighting COs is bad, bad, bad for business. The whole institution is locked down. Virtually all communications, except with lawyers, is banned. All privileges are suspended and pretty much the entire system grinds to a halt. Plus consider the aftermath of three greenlights on COs. Talk about a shit storm of heat directed like a flamethrower at every shot caller and camarada. There doesn't seem to be much percentage in it for the plotters.
So if it wasn't an aborted plot, what was it? One possible scenario that comes to mind is that POs were handed misinformation by somebody who suddenly found himself in the hat and needed immediate PC. He comes up with a wild story, he's put in PC and starts debriefing. Whether his story is true or total bullshit doesn't matter. He shot his mouth off and that qualifies him for PC. Maybe it was even misinformation he was "ordered" to provide to get POs to put some enemy under the microscope.
Another possibility is that POs used the pretext of an assassination plot to go after somebody that needed going after but didn't want to make it look like they were targeting this particular person or persons. So POs do a general lockdown, toss everything and everybody and come up with what they were looking for in addition to all the other stuff they find in the course of searches. It's been done before in prison and on the street.
The scenarios, while not infinite, can get fairly extensive. And practically anything you can think of already has a precedent. If we've learned anything about the pinta and the people who live there is that truth is way stranger than fiction.
We're a little late on this one. Two days, late. But we waited until we had something more than the bare bones reported in the press about the lock down in Pelican Bay. What the CDC has released to the public is that they uncovered a plot to assassinate three corrections officers and the prison would stay locked down until they complete the investigation. The LA Times didn't report who planned to do the hits or why.
We still don't know why but we've been reliably informed that the plotters are all Eme brothers. So far, prison officials have confiscated four prison-made weapons (we assume they're shanks) but COs are looking for at least ten more. It sounds like there was a snitch in the mix.
With the information we have in hand, we're not ready to believe that there actually was a conspiracy to kill three COs. It's possible, of course, but it doesn't seem to make sense. First of all, greenlighting COs is bad, bad, bad for business. The whole institution is locked down. Virtually all communications, except with lawyers, is banned. All privileges are suspended and pretty much the entire system grinds to a halt. Plus consider the aftermath of three greenlights on COs. Talk about a shit storm of heat directed like a flamethrower at every shot caller and camarada. There doesn't seem to be much percentage in it for the plotters.
So if it wasn't an aborted plot, what was it? One possible scenario that comes to mind is that POs were handed misinformation by somebody who suddenly found himself in the hat and needed immediate PC. He comes up with a wild story, he's put in PC and starts debriefing. Whether his story is true or total bullshit doesn't matter. He shot his mouth off and that qualifies him for PC. Maybe it was even misinformation he was "ordered" to provide to get POs to put some enemy under the microscope.
Another possibility is that POs used the pretext of an assassination plot to go after somebody that needed going after but didn't want to make it look like they were targeting this particular person or persons. So POs do a general lockdown, toss everything and everybody and come up with what they were looking for in addition to all the other stuff they find in the course of searches. It's been done before in prison and on the street.
The scenarios, while not infinite, can get fairly extensive. And practically anything you can think of already has a precedent. If we've learned anything about the pinta and the people who live there is that truth is way stranger than fiction.
NEW BOOK DEFINITELY WORTH READING
We don't generally cover non violent crime on these electronic pages, but I just came across a new book that just floored me. Don't let the title, GOD WANTS YOU TO ROLL, throw you. It's got nothing to do with religion. What it has to do with is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated in American history. And it started right here in Los Angeles. Compton, to be exact.
Written by JOHN PHILLIPS III, GWYTR tells the tale of two friends from Compton, ROBERT GOMEZ and JAMES NICHOLS, both still in their teens when they got the idea for the scame. By cunning and force of personality, they managed to convince thousands of victims that GOMEZ had inherited a vast fortune worth $411 million. Part of that inheritance was in the form of cars that ostensibly belonged to GOMEZ's adopted father, a devout Christian.
The way GOMEZ told his tale to church groups was that the hundreds of cars in the collection were earmarked by his late adopted father for Christians, church-going folks who believed in Jesus and miracles. The cars were tied up in probate but victims were told they could sign up, for a fee ranging from $1000 to $10,000, to reserve a car and to cover the shipping and registration expenses. The cars ranged from beaters to Maseratis and Bentleys.
To make a long story short, Gomez and Nichols took in over $21 million over a few years for cars that never existed.
If this story wasn't absolutely true, nobody would believe it as a work of fiction. It's impossible to imagine that thousands of otherwise smart, legitimate and sometimes even dubious people could be so sucked in by a story supported by nothing more than "legal" forms purchased for $1.99 from Staples. This is an amazing read. A real page-turner as they say. I was up until 3:00 AM.
Unlike most of the criminals we discuss in inthehat, Gomez and Nichols weren't hooked up with any neighborhood. They were independents. And they never used a gun, knife or a fist to collect the kind of money that big,violent criminal enterprises can only dream about. And they never spilled a drop of a victim's blood. The most powerful weapons thesse two scam artists used were the victims' faith and, frankly, their greed. You know what they say about something that sounds too good to be true. Apparently, none of the victims paid any attention to that old saw.
Ultimately, Gomez and Nichols caught 20-year sentences for the fraud but the ride that landed them in prison is worth reading about. Frankly, the kind of money generated by drug dealing, murder and extortion pales in comparison to the kind of money that can be made by using your head. We wouldn't be surprised if this book isn't already on some film producer's desk waiting for a production deal from a studio. It'll make an awesome movie. Another CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.
We don't generally cover non violent crime on these electronic pages, but I just came across a new book that just floored me. Don't let the title, GOD WANTS YOU TO ROLL, throw you. It's got nothing to do with religion. What it has to do with is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated in American history. And it started right here in Los Angeles. Compton, to be exact.
Written by JOHN PHILLIPS III, GWYTR tells the tale of two friends from Compton, ROBERT GOMEZ and JAMES NICHOLS, both still in their teens when they got the idea for the scame. By cunning and force of personality, they managed to convince thousands of victims that GOMEZ had inherited a vast fortune worth $411 million. Part of that inheritance was in the form of cars that ostensibly belonged to GOMEZ's adopted father, a devout Christian.
The way GOMEZ told his tale to church groups was that the hundreds of cars in the collection were earmarked by his late adopted father for Christians, church-going folks who believed in Jesus and miracles. The cars were tied up in probate but victims were told they could sign up, for a fee ranging from $1000 to $10,000, to reserve a car and to cover the shipping and registration expenses. The cars ranged from beaters to Maseratis and Bentleys.
To make a long story short, Gomez and Nichols took in over $21 million over a few years for cars that never existed.
If this story wasn't absolutely true, nobody would believe it as a work of fiction. It's impossible to imagine that thousands of otherwise smart, legitimate and sometimes even dubious people could be so sucked in by a story supported by nothing more than "legal" forms purchased for $1.99 from Staples. This is an amazing read. A real page-turner as they say. I was up until 3:00 AM.
Unlike most of the criminals we discuss in inthehat, Gomez and Nichols weren't hooked up with any neighborhood. They were independents. And they never used a gun, knife or a fist to collect the kind of money that big,violent criminal enterprises can only dream about. And they never spilled a drop of a victim's blood. The most powerful weapons thesse two scam artists used were the victims' faith and, frankly, their greed. You know what they say about something that sounds too good to be true. Apparently, none of the victims paid any attention to that old saw.
Ultimately, Gomez and Nichols caught 20-year sentences for the fraud but the ride that landed them in prison is worth reading about. Frankly, the kind of money generated by drug dealing, murder and extortion pales in comparison to the kind of money that can be made by using your head. We wouldn't be surprised if this book isn't already on some film producer's desk waiting for a production deal from a studio. It'll make an awesome movie. Another CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
LA WEEKLY AND THE AB
This week's LA WEEKLY runs a feature story on the ARYAN BROTHERHOOD. Naturally, it caught our attention. The focus of the piece is US ATTORNEY GREGORY JESSNER. He's the lead prosecutor in what the author, MATTHEW DUERSTEN, states is the "largest death-penalty indictment in the history of the American justice system." He also called it "the most important trial you've never heard of." Whether you've heard about this trial depends on if you're a regular reader of the New Yorker Magazine. The truth is, the New Yorker ran a huge piece written by DAVID GRANN about this trial way back in 2004. Same prosecutor, same players, same trial. A lot of the information in the LA WEEKLY piece came from that New Yorker story. In fact, I handed one of the AB defense lawyers a copy of that New Yorker article when it first appeared because his client was mentioned prominently.
So essentially the AB story, while new to LA WEEKLY readers, isn't new in the strict sense of the word. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld says. It's just interesting because DUERSTEN mentions in his piece that USA JESSNER doesn't eat meat, doesn't wear a watch and is an avid reader of the NEW YORKER. You would think that DUERSTEN would have asked JESSNER, "What did you think of yourself in the New Yorker?" If he did, it didn't make it into his piece.
One item in DUERSTEN's article that caught our interest was JESSNER's connection to FAY STENDER. JESSNER apparently played with STENDER's kids when he was a toddler. DUERSTEN, by the way, spells her first name FAYE, which we've seen before, but in fact, it's spelled it FAY. When the CALIFORNIA WOMEN LAWYERS give out their FAY STENDER AWARD, they also spell it F-A-Y with no e. So you be the judge.
STENDER's story is worth knowing. I've mentioned her in previous posts but her life and times are worth examining because of the cautionary tales they contain. One of STENDER's many claims to fame is that she was GEORGE JACKSON's lawyer. He was accused of killing CORRECTION OFFICER JOHN MILLS. STENDER made JACKSON a cause celebre. She was responsible for editing JACKSON's book, SOLEDAD BROTHER, a collection of JACKSON'S letters from prison and got GREG ARMSTRONG at BOUBLEDAY to publish it. The book was a huge seller and the royalties from it were originally supposed to go to the Jackson defense committe that she founded. The money would be spent for legal fees and a PR campaign to raise grassroots support for JACKSON and other "political prisoners." In fact, the money was siphoned off to the Black Panthers who used it to buy weapons and rural property in the Santa Cruz mountains. The property was used as a training camp where Panthers and other revolutionaries learned weaponcraft, bomb making and unarmed combat. JACKSON's ultimate goal in this was to have this "army" of trained insurgents bust him out of prison and escape to Angola.
HUEY NEWTON, founder of the BLACK PANTHERS, was ostensibly JACKSON's comrade on the outside. JACKSON was relying on NEWTON to organize his escape to the point where NEWTON convinced JACKSON to sign over all the royalties from SOLEDAD BROTHER to NEWTON to raise and train this revolutionary army. NEWTON made JACKSON a FIELD MARSHAL of the BPP. NEWTON took the money and quietly abandoned all pretense of helping JACKSON escape. HUEY bought lots of coke and shoveled it up his nose. He also put himself in a 25th floor penthouse suite where he held court and entertained the female employees of his "modeling agency." He also jacked up Oakland drug dealers and befriended Hollywood celebs like DONALD SUTHERLAND, BERT SCHNEIDER (producer of EASY RIDER), CANDACE BERGEN and others.
Fay Stender got caught between competing interests. She saw JACKSON's trial as a political cause, a non-violent showcase that would bring to light all the racial and class injustices suffered by blacks in the US prison system. Her client, by his own admission, wanted to cut throats and create political change via firing squad like his heroes Che and Fidel. On the other side was Newton, who for all his political rhetoric, was never anything more than a slick street thug. Newton was eventually killed by an Oakland drug dealer who refused to pay tribute.
Stender made the mistake of becoming emotionally and physically involved with Jackson. Her performance in court was more emotional than professional and other Movement lawyers eventually convinced her that she wasn't doing her side any favors. When she apparently refused JACKSON's demand to smuggle in guns and explosives into prison, they had a falling out. She left his case and the defense committee.
In 1971, JACKSON was killed trying to bust out of prison. A 9 mm Astra pistol had been smuggled in to him by means of a tape recorder carried into the visiting room by another of his lawyers, STEVE BINGHAM. Bingham was accompanied that day by VANITA ANDERSON, a BLACK PANTHER member loyal to the NEWTON faction of the party. During the bust-out, JACKSON massacred two white inmates (KANE and LYNN) and three prison guards, KRASENES, DELEON and GRAHAM.
In MAY 1979, STENDER was visited by a former PANTHER and member of the the BLACK GUERILLA FAMILY, the prison gang that JACKSON founded. At gunpoint, he made her sign a confession that she betrayed JACKSON and was the cause of his death. Then he shot her five times and left her for dead. Miraculously, she survived but was left paralyzed. She testified against her attacker and then moved as far away as she could from the BAY AREA -- HONG KONG.
A year later, disillusioned and still in fear from associates of her former client, she took an overdose of pills and died. Stender became a "martyr" to the cause of prison reform and civil rights. Others see her as a gullible dupe of hardened criminals who used political reform as a cover. JACKSON even admitted that, "Marxism was my hustle." Ohers have an even harsher perception. In an unpublished memoir by a reformed Mexican Mafia brother, Stender is portrayed as a provacateur. In her efforts to recruit other races to the cause of prison reform she tried to get the Eme to assault and kill prison guards in order to show solidarity with black prisoners. And bringing this discussion to a complete circle, she tried to do the same with the founders of the ARYAN BROTHERHOOD in the CA prison system. She figured that a full court press of blacks, hispanics and whites would turn the prison system inside out and achieve her political goals.
It never happened, of course. The Eme had no interest in politics or in being protrayed as victims by radicals with an anti-American agenda. They saw themselves as warriors, not a class of victims. And the white inmates, for all their violence and antisocial behavior were revolted by Marxism. And neither group would ever make an alliance, in or out of prison, with blacks. A situation that, with few exceptions, exists to this day.
There's more on this piece I'd like to discuss. But I gotta run.
This week's LA WEEKLY runs a feature story on the ARYAN BROTHERHOOD. Naturally, it caught our attention. The focus of the piece is US ATTORNEY GREGORY JESSNER. He's the lead prosecutor in what the author, MATTHEW DUERSTEN, states is the "largest death-penalty indictment in the history of the American justice system." He also called it "the most important trial you've never heard of." Whether you've heard about this trial depends on if you're a regular reader of the New Yorker Magazine. The truth is, the New Yorker ran a huge piece written by DAVID GRANN about this trial way back in 2004. Same prosecutor, same players, same trial. A lot of the information in the LA WEEKLY piece came from that New Yorker story. In fact, I handed one of the AB defense lawyers a copy of that New Yorker article when it first appeared because his client was mentioned prominently.
So essentially the AB story, while new to LA WEEKLY readers, isn't new in the strict sense of the word. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld says. It's just interesting because DUERSTEN mentions in his piece that USA JESSNER doesn't eat meat, doesn't wear a watch and is an avid reader of the NEW YORKER. You would think that DUERSTEN would have asked JESSNER, "What did you think of yourself in the New Yorker?" If he did, it didn't make it into his piece.
One item in DUERSTEN's article that caught our interest was JESSNER's connection to FAY STENDER. JESSNER apparently played with STENDER's kids when he was a toddler. DUERSTEN, by the way, spells her first name FAYE, which we've seen before, but in fact, it's spelled it FAY. When the CALIFORNIA WOMEN LAWYERS give out their FAY STENDER AWARD, they also spell it F-A-Y with no e. So you be the judge.
STENDER's story is worth knowing. I've mentioned her in previous posts but her life and times are worth examining because of the cautionary tales they contain. One of STENDER's many claims to fame is that she was GEORGE JACKSON's lawyer. He was accused of killing CORRECTION OFFICER JOHN MILLS. STENDER made JACKSON a cause celebre. She was responsible for editing JACKSON's book, SOLEDAD BROTHER, a collection of JACKSON'S letters from prison and got GREG ARMSTRONG at BOUBLEDAY to publish it. The book was a huge seller and the royalties from it were originally supposed to go to the Jackson defense committe that she founded. The money would be spent for legal fees and a PR campaign to raise grassroots support for JACKSON and other "political prisoners." In fact, the money was siphoned off to the Black Panthers who used it to buy weapons and rural property in the Santa Cruz mountains. The property was used as a training camp where Panthers and other revolutionaries learned weaponcraft, bomb making and unarmed combat. JACKSON's ultimate goal in this was to have this "army" of trained insurgents bust him out of prison and escape to Angola.
HUEY NEWTON, founder of the BLACK PANTHERS, was ostensibly JACKSON's comrade on the outside. JACKSON was relying on NEWTON to organize his escape to the point where NEWTON convinced JACKSON to sign over all the royalties from SOLEDAD BROTHER to NEWTON to raise and train this revolutionary army. NEWTON made JACKSON a FIELD MARSHAL of the BPP. NEWTON took the money and quietly abandoned all pretense of helping JACKSON escape. HUEY bought lots of coke and shoveled it up his nose. He also put himself in a 25th floor penthouse suite where he held court and entertained the female employees of his "modeling agency." He also jacked up Oakland drug dealers and befriended Hollywood celebs like DONALD SUTHERLAND, BERT SCHNEIDER (producer of EASY RIDER), CANDACE BERGEN and others.
Fay Stender got caught between competing interests. She saw JACKSON's trial as a political cause, a non-violent showcase that would bring to light all the racial and class injustices suffered by blacks in the US prison system. Her client, by his own admission, wanted to cut throats and create political change via firing squad like his heroes Che and Fidel. On the other side was Newton, who for all his political rhetoric, was never anything more than a slick street thug. Newton was eventually killed by an Oakland drug dealer who refused to pay tribute.
Stender made the mistake of becoming emotionally and physically involved with Jackson. Her performance in court was more emotional than professional and other Movement lawyers eventually convinced her that she wasn't doing her side any favors. When she apparently refused JACKSON's demand to smuggle in guns and explosives into prison, they had a falling out. She left his case and the defense committee.
In 1971, JACKSON was killed trying to bust out of prison. A 9 mm Astra pistol had been smuggled in to him by means of a tape recorder carried into the visiting room by another of his lawyers, STEVE BINGHAM. Bingham was accompanied that day by VANITA ANDERSON, a BLACK PANTHER member loyal to the NEWTON faction of the party. During the bust-out, JACKSON massacred two white inmates (KANE and LYNN) and three prison guards, KRASENES, DELEON and GRAHAM.
In MAY 1979, STENDER was visited by a former PANTHER and member of the the BLACK GUERILLA FAMILY, the prison gang that JACKSON founded. At gunpoint, he made her sign a confession that she betrayed JACKSON and was the cause of his death. Then he shot her five times and left her for dead. Miraculously, she survived but was left paralyzed. She testified against her attacker and then moved as far away as she could from the BAY AREA -- HONG KONG.
A year later, disillusioned and still in fear from associates of her former client, she took an overdose of pills and died. Stender became a "martyr" to the cause of prison reform and civil rights. Others see her as a gullible dupe of hardened criminals who used political reform as a cover. JACKSON even admitted that, "Marxism was my hustle." Ohers have an even harsher perception. In an unpublished memoir by a reformed Mexican Mafia brother, Stender is portrayed as a provacateur. In her efforts to recruit other races to the cause of prison reform she tried to get the Eme to assault and kill prison guards in order to show solidarity with black prisoners. And bringing this discussion to a complete circle, she tried to do the same with the founders of the ARYAN BROTHERHOOD in the CA prison system. She figured that a full court press of blacks, hispanics and whites would turn the prison system inside out and achieve her political goals.
It never happened, of course. The Eme had no interest in politics or in being protrayed as victims by radicals with an anti-American agenda. They saw themselves as warriors, not a class of victims. And the white inmates, for all their violence and antisocial behavior were revolted by Marxism. And neither group would ever make an alliance, in or out of prison, with blacks. A situation that, with few exceptions, exists to this day.
There's more on this piece I'd like to discuss. But I gotta run.
Monday, February 07, 2005
LAPD KILLS 13-YEAR-OLD CAR THEFT SUSPECT
Can you smell lawsuit? We can.
Early Sunday morning, an LAPD patrol unit tried to make a traffic stop on a car theft suspect. The person at the wheel ran a red light and refused to stop. He eventually crashed and his crimey in the passenger seat beat feet. The crimey was caught without incident. The driver, however, threw the 1990 Toyota Camry into reverse and smacked into the patrol unit.
At that point, the unnamed bluesuit fired ten rounds into the car and killed the driver, who turned out to be a 13 year old male black.
Get the $2,500 a night suite at the Loew's Santa Monica ready because Jesse's coming to town.
We don't want to sound cold-blooded about this, but aiming a car at a cop is the first thing they tell you not to do in undergraduate FELON 101. Ageleno's witness something like one car pursuit per week on the local news. And if there's anything to learn from these pursuits is that cops are happy to chase you all day and night until you either crash or run out of gas. They provide car chase suspects with multi-jurisdictional helicopter escorts, plenty of media play on the news and they'll even block on-ramps and intersections to give the suspect vehicle plenty of room to maneuver. They draw the line, however, at having guns pointed at them or being rammed by the suspect vehicle. They'll let you run away at 100 mph if you want to without interference. But aim your car at a cop at even 5 mph, and that's assault with a deadly weapon. Out come the guns and there goes your life.
This incident was probably the kid's first car theft caper. And unfortunately, it was his last. Somebody should have schooled him.
The aftermath, of course, is anybody's guess. Lawsuit for sure. Disciplinary action for the cop? Maybe. More headaches for Chief Bratton? Definitely. Riot? Probably not.
In an unrelated story, somebody fired 20 rounds at the 77th LAPD station. No injuries. Maybe an omen of things to come.
Can you smell lawsuit? We can.
Early Sunday morning, an LAPD patrol unit tried to make a traffic stop on a car theft suspect. The person at the wheel ran a red light and refused to stop. He eventually crashed and his crimey in the passenger seat beat feet. The crimey was caught without incident. The driver, however, threw the 1990 Toyota Camry into reverse and smacked into the patrol unit.
At that point, the unnamed bluesuit fired ten rounds into the car and killed the driver, who turned out to be a 13 year old male black.
Get the $2,500 a night suite at the Loew's Santa Monica ready because Jesse's coming to town.
We don't want to sound cold-blooded about this, but aiming a car at a cop is the first thing they tell you not to do in undergraduate FELON 101. Ageleno's witness something like one car pursuit per week on the local news. And if there's anything to learn from these pursuits is that cops are happy to chase you all day and night until you either crash or run out of gas. They provide car chase suspects with multi-jurisdictional helicopter escorts, plenty of media play on the news and they'll even block on-ramps and intersections to give the suspect vehicle plenty of room to maneuver. They draw the line, however, at having guns pointed at them or being rammed by the suspect vehicle. They'll let you run away at 100 mph if you want to without interference. But aim your car at a cop at even 5 mph, and that's assault with a deadly weapon. Out come the guns and there goes your life.
This incident was probably the kid's first car theft caper. And unfortunately, it was his last. Somebody should have schooled him.
The aftermath, of course, is anybody's guess. Lawsuit for sure. Disciplinary action for the cop? Maybe. More headaches for Chief Bratton? Definitely. Riot? Probably not.
In an unrelated story, somebody fired 20 rounds at the 77th LAPD station. No injuries. Maybe an omen of things to come.
SUGE KNIGHT MAY BE VIOLATED
In the ongoing saga of Death Row Records founder, Marion Suge Knight may be going back to jail. This past Saturday night, Suge was pulled over for making an illegal U-turn in Colton, CA. A search of his car turned up some chronic. Possession of narcotics is a parole violation and that could be enough to send him back to prison.
As we predicted, he was never implicated in the punch-out of Suge's former producer Dr. Dre at the Image Awards two months ago. At the moment when Suge's meat puppet was punching Dre in front of a packed house, Suge was strategically standing right next to an LAPD uniformed cop at the back of the room. That gave Knight the best alibi in the world, a cop witness. This traffic stop be be tougher to beat.
In the ongoing saga of Death Row Records founder, Marion Suge Knight may be going back to jail. This past Saturday night, Suge was pulled over for making an illegal U-turn in Colton, CA. A search of his car turned up some chronic. Possession of narcotics is a parole violation and that could be enough to send him back to prison.
As we predicted, he was never implicated in the punch-out of Suge's former producer Dr. Dre at the Image Awards two months ago. At the moment when Suge's meat puppet was punching Dre in front of a packed house, Suge was strategically standing right next to an LAPD uniformed cop at the back of the room. That gave Knight the best alibi in the world, a cop witness. This traffic stop be be tougher to beat.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT CANDIDATE
Out of town readers may not be aware that a mayoral election is about to take place in LA. I'll spare you all the gory details but LA citizens don't seem to have much to pick from. For one thing, all the candidates are Democrats. Republicans don't even bother fielding a contender because the city is basically a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party. While it's amusing to watch liberals savage each other, it's pathetic watching this cast of characters propose the same tired agendas that put the city in the financial hole. They all seem to be saying, "If you don't like what happened in the past, I promise to give you more of it."
Bob Hertzberg is the first candidate to air a TV spot. It looks like it was produced by legendary science fiction shlock-meister BERT I. GORDON. Gordon, known as MISTER BIG, worked the gigantism formula to death in movies like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (giant bald guy attacks Las Vegas), WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (giant bald guy attacks Griffith Park), EARTH vs. THE GIANT SPIDER (giant spider attacks what looks like Palmdale), and BEGINNING OF THE END (giant grasshoppers attack bad background plates of downtown Chicago).
In his ad, Hertzberg looks like a benign Gordon-inspired, 50-foot giant walking around the city in a suit and apparently fixing things like the LAUSD and traffic problems. On the up side, it's a refreshing change from most political ads where the candidate sits in a classroom and pretends to care deeply about teaching kids or is surrounded by uniformed cops and pretends to get tough with crime. On the downside, it makes Hertzberg look like an atomic mutant ready to wipe away traffic jams with the sweep of an arm or crush under-performing public schools. When you're completely out of ideas or have nothing new to contribute, somebody in the campaign must have figured it would be neat to make Hertzberg look like he's about to battle Mecha-Godzilla to the death. Boy do we deserve better.
Out of town readers may not be aware that a mayoral election is about to take place in LA. I'll spare you all the gory details but LA citizens don't seem to have much to pick from. For one thing, all the candidates are Democrats. Republicans don't even bother fielding a contender because the city is basically a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party. While it's amusing to watch liberals savage each other, it's pathetic watching this cast of characters propose the same tired agendas that put the city in the financial hole. They all seem to be saying, "If you don't like what happened in the past, I promise to give you more of it."
Bob Hertzberg is the first candidate to air a TV spot. It looks like it was produced by legendary science fiction shlock-meister BERT I. GORDON. Gordon, known as MISTER BIG, worked the gigantism formula to death in movies like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (giant bald guy attacks Las Vegas), WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (giant bald guy attacks Griffith Park), EARTH vs. THE GIANT SPIDER (giant spider attacks what looks like Palmdale), and BEGINNING OF THE END (giant grasshoppers attack bad background plates of downtown Chicago).
In his ad, Hertzberg looks like a benign Gordon-inspired, 50-foot giant walking around the city in a suit and apparently fixing things like the LAUSD and traffic problems. On the up side, it's a refreshing change from most political ads where the candidate sits in a classroom and pretends to care deeply about teaching kids or is surrounded by uniformed cops and pretends to get tough with crime. On the downside, it makes Hertzberg look like an atomic mutant ready to wipe away traffic jams with the sweep of an arm or crush under-performing public schools. When you're completely out of ideas or have nothing new to contribute, somebody in the campaign must have figured it would be neat to make Hertzberg look like he's about to battle Mecha-Godzilla to the death. Boy do we deserve better.
BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN
January has been particularly rough around here. We haven't posted for nearly a month due to the press of circumstances. The dry spell is over and we'll be posting regularly. Thanks to all the readers who sent emails asking what happened and when we'd be back. It's gratifying to be missed.
January has been particularly rough around here. We haven't posted for nearly a month due to the press of circumstances. The dry spell is over and we'll be posting regularly. Thanks to all the readers who sent emails asking what happened and when we'd be back. It's gratifying to be missed.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
HATE CRIME? WHAT HATE CRIME?
Regular readers of INTHEHAT are well aware of our futile attempts to get the LA MEDIA interested in the Kenny Wilson murder case and the ethnic cleansing currently underway on LA's gang-controlled streets. We've been pitching that story to every media outlet in the city, county and state for close to two years now and so far we've only gotten a tentative bite from a soon to be named outlet. And we're not sure that will pan out because they may get a case of cold feet at the last minute.
To recap, Wilson was killed in 1999 by homies that claimed AVENUES. He was picked at random because he was black. Four shooters were involved. Only one was ever prosecute and convicted for a hate crime. I'll refrain from mentioning names right now.
To use a dopey cliche, the Wilson murder is only the tip of a very ugly iceberg. In the course of INTHEHAT's business, we've come across lots and lots of racially motivated assaults and murders all over the county. This was a story the media had completely ignored. I'll leave the reasons for ignoring these cases to your imagination. When we brought this story to the attention of the usual suspects - LAT, LA WEEKLY, LACITYBEAT, LA MAGAZINE, NYT MAGAZINE, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, SACRAMENTO BEE, FRESNO BEE and others, the responses ranged from dead silence to the plain bizarre. One editor told me the story was "unoccasioned seeming," whatever the hell that is. Another told me to supply them with the research and they'd do the story themselves. Thanks, but no thanks. The only outlet that showed some interest was the SACRAMENTO NEWS AND REVIEW. They looked at the info and supporting evidence and concluded that because there was no NORCAL angle, they would pass. The James Byrd killing in Texas had no local angle but that didn't stop that story from making national news. Go figure.
Now it seems the Wilson et al story is finally getting some traction. Two papers in the city are currently working on the Eme's ethnic cleansing policy and gathering up the information to support the case. The newfound interest is the result of a Federal hate crime indictment that was unsealed late last year against some of Kenny Wilson's killers. Back in July of 03, I mentioned that a Federal indictment was coming down on that case. And if you look back through my posts, I already outlined the bare bones of the Wilson case. There's tons more of course, but I'm not giving it away anymore. Late last year I wrote a post to the effect that no hate crime exists until the big media says it does, even though I'd given them the story months and months before the indictment was a gleam in US Attorney Tom O'Brien's eye.
Right now, several reporters are falling over themselves trying to be the first out of the gate with the Wilson murder and the other city and county race homicides. Too late, kids. Inthehat was there first. Strange how they were offered it over a year ago and passed.
It'll be interesting to see who gets there first, how thorough the reporting and what spin they'll put on it. Let's see if we can guess who the stories will quote shall we? My top picks are, GREGORY BOYLE, JAMES DIEGO VIGIL, BLINKY RODRIGUEZ, WES MCBRIDE and MALCOLM KLEIN. Since he wrote STREET WARS, TOM HAYDEN has tried to make himself a go-to guy in this field but he's a very long shot. There probably won't be a quote from Tom O'Brien. USAs are bound by law to be silent on pending cases. Thom Mrozek will probably get quoted. There will be quotes from the IOs and at least three LAC DAs who have prosecuted brown-on-black hate crimes in the recent past. I can point to a few others in RIVERSIDE, ORANGE and SAN DIEGO but we'll let the intrepid reporters find those DAs on their own. The reporters may or may not be able to get hold of a couple of COMPTON PD cops. COMPTON PD was disbanded years ago and I had hell's own time tracking down those IOs. They have some chilling stories to tell. COMPTON VARRIO TORTILLA FLATS figures prominently in two homicides. That one was a freebie clue in the hate crime scavenger hunt. No charge.
More on this as the race develops.
Regular readers of INTHEHAT are well aware of our futile attempts to get the LA MEDIA interested in the Kenny Wilson murder case and the ethnic cleansing currently underway on LA's gang-controlled streets. We've been pitching that story to every media outlet in the city, county and state for close to two years now and so far we've only gotten a tentative bite from a soon to be named outlet. And we're not sure that will pan out because they may get a case of cold feet at the last minute.
To recap, Wilson was killed in 1999 by homies that claimed AVENUES. He was picked at random because he was black. Four shooters were involved. Only one was ever prosecute and convicted for a hate crime. I'll refrain from mentioning names right now.
To use a dopey cliche, the Wilson murder is only the tip of a very ugly iceberg. In the course of INTHEHAT's business, we've come across lots and lots of racially motivated assaults and murders all over the county. This was a story the media had completely ignored. I'll leave the reasons for ignoring these cases to your imagination. When we brought this story to the attention of the usual suspects - LAT, LA WEEKLY, LACITYBEAT, LA MAGAZINE, NYT MAGAZINE, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, SACRAMENTO BEE, FRESNO BEE and others, the responses ranged from dead silence to the plain bizarre. One editor told me the story was "unoccasioned seeming," whatever the hell that is. Another told me to supply them with the research and they'd do the story themselves. Thanks, but no thanks. The only outlet that showed some interest was the SACRAMENTO NEWS AND REVIEW. They looked at the info and supporting evidence and concluded that because there was no NORCAL angle, they would pass. The James Byrd killing in Texas had no local angle but that didn't stop that story from making national news. Go figure.
Now it seems the Wilson et al story is finally getting some traction. Two papers in the city are currently working on the Eme's ethnic cleansing policy and gathering up the information to support the case. The newfound interest is the result of a Federal hate crime indictment that was unsealed late last year against some of Kenny Wilson's killers. Back in July of 03, I mentioned that a Federal indictment was coming down on that case. And if you look back through my posts, I already outlined the bare bones of the Wilson case. There's tons more of course, but I'm not giving it away anymore. Late last year I wrote a post to the effect that no hate crime exists until the big media says it does, even though I'd given them the story months and months before the indictment was a gleam in US Attorney Tom O'Brien's eye.
Right now, several reporters are falling over themselves trying to be the first out of the gate with the Wilson murder and the other city and county race homicides. Too late, kids. Inthehat was there first. Strange how they were offered it over a year ago and passed.
It'll be interesting to see who gets there first, how thorough the reporting and what spin they'll put on it. Let's see if we can guess who the stories will quote shall we? My top picks are, GREGORY BOYLE, JAMES DIEGO VIGIL, BLINKY RODRIGUEZ, WES MCBRIDE and MALCOLM KLEIN. Since he wrote STREET WARS, TOM HAYDEN has tried to make himself a go-to guy in this field but he's a very long shot. There probably won't be a quote from Tom O'Brien. USAs are bound by law to be silent on pending cases. Thom Mrozek will probably get quoted. There will be quotes from the IOs and at least three LAC DAs who have prosecuted brown-on-black hate crimes in the recent past. I can point to a few others in RIVERSIDE, ORANGE and SAN DIEGO but we'll let the intrepid reporters find those DAs on their own. The reporters may or may not be able to get hold of a couple of COMPTON PD cops. COMPTON PD was disbanded years ago and I had hell's own time tracking down those IOs. They have some chilling stories to tell. COMPTON VARRIO TORTILLA FLATS figures prominently in two homicides. That one was a freebie clue in the hate crime scavenger hunt. No charge.
More on this as the race develops.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
DIANNE FEINSTEIN GETS TOUGH
In today's LA DAILY NEWS, Beth Barrett reports that California Senator Dianne Feinstein is ready to reintroduce legislation that will target street gangs and bring Federal charges on crimes that have previously been considered local beefs.
She sounds steamed up and ready for a brawl. "I've watched, virtually all my political career, gangs go from next to nothing in this country to where they are the major criminal enterprises, more vicious than Mafia crime ever was."
The final wording on the bill hasn't been hammered out yet. Some legislators are afraid the bill might be draconian. An aide to a Senate Democrat 9curiously left unnamed) said, "The big question was whether the federal government should be federalizing street crimes." That objection has been moot for decades. The RICO statutes already federalizes what used to be considered pure street crimes like conspiracy to murder, loan sharking, extortion, drug traficking etc. That horse is already out of the barn.
Feinstein's bill would elevate other crimes to the level of a federal offense. The most interesting item in her bill would make it a federal crime to recruit a minor into a street gang. On the most basic level, if you're an 18-year-old soldado and jump in your 16-year-old cousin, you've just committed a federal offense. Which means you don't go to county or the pinta. You go to Joliet or wherever there's room in the federal prison system. That makes it tough on family visits, not to mention all the other restrictions you don't face in state prison.
Despite objections from juvenile offender activists, the LE sources quoted in the DN piece are all in favor of the new laws. No surprise there.
To all you pee wees, midgets and tinys out there, the eye of Sauron is upon you.
In today's LA DAILY NEWS, Beth Barrett reports that California Senator Dianne Feinstein is ready to reintroduce legislation that will target street gangs and bring Federal charges on crimes that have previously been considered local beefs.
She sounds steamed up and ready for a brawl. "I've watched, virtually all my political career, gangs go from next to nothing in this country to where they are the major criminal enterprises, more vicious than Mafia crime ever was."
The final wording on the bill hasn't been hammered out yet. Some legislators are afraid the bill might be draconian. An aide to a Senate Democrat 9curiously left unnamed) said, "The big question was whether the federal government should be federalizing street crimes." That objection has been moot for decades. The RICO statutes already federalizes what used to be considered pure street crimes like conspiracy to murder, loan sharking, extortion, drug traficking etc. That horse is already out of the barn.
Feinstein's bill would elevate other crimes to the level of a federal offense. The most interesting item in her bill would make it a federal crime to recruit a minor into a street gang. On the most basic level, if you're an 18-year-old soldado and jump in your 16-year-old cousin, you've just committed a federal offense. Which means you don't go to county or the pinta. You go to Joliet or wherever there's room in the federal prison system. That makes it tough on family visits, not to mention all the other restrictions you don't face in state prison.
Despite objections from juvenile offender activists, the LE sources quoted in the DN piece are all in favor of the new laws. No surprise there.
To all you pee wees, midgets and tinys out there, the eye of Sauron is upon you.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
NEW TOOL TO FIGHT NEIGHBORHOODS
It seems that the response to international terrorism is having some fallout on the streets. The New York City DA charged 19 members of the ST. JAMES BOYS GANG, a Mexican neighborhood in NYC, with terrorism for conducting what's normally been considered street gang business.
During a run-of-the-mill street beef, EDGAR MORALES, a homie that claimed SJB, wounded his target but also accidentally hit and killed a 10-year old innocent bystander, MELANIE MENDEZ. Instead of going with the usual charges, the DA decided to prosecute under the new terrorism laws and as a result MORALES is the first street gangster in NEW YORK STATE to be charged as a terrorist. He probably also qualifies as the first gangster in the country to be charged with terrorism. We've never heard of anyone else being similarly charged so this might turn into a milestone case.
MORALES has yet to go to trial, but if he were convicted under non-terror laws, he'd get a max of 25 to life. Under the tighter terror laws he's loooking at life without parole.
Civil libertarians are predictably up in arms about this because the terror laws were never intended to target street criminals. Just the big nasty guys that fly planes into buildings, shoot schoolkids and chop off women's heads. But once a prosecutor has a tool in the toolbox, you can bet the tool will be used. It was inevitable.
The same thing happened with the RICO statutes created in 1970. RICO was originally designed to take down the COSA NOSTRA. But once LE found that other criminal enterprises fit the description, RICO has been used against groups that didn't quite measure up to the power and organization of the LCN.
What this means to neighborhoods is that the next time a group of homies is caught in some anti-social act, even if it's conducting business that doesn't involve civilians, they might be looking at forever. In the eyes of the government, you're no longer a street soldado putting in the work. You're a terrorist.
It seems that the response to international terrorism is having some fallout on the streets. The New York City DA charged 19 members of the ST. JAMES BOYS GANG, a Mexican neighborhood in NYC, with terrorism for conducting what's normally been considered street gang business.
During a run-of-the-mill street beef, EDGAR MORALES, a homie that claimed SJB, wounded his target but also accidentally hit and killed a 10-year old innocent bystander, MELANIE MENDEZ. Instead of going with the usual charges, the DA decided to prosecute under the new terrorism laws and as a result MORALES is the first street gangster in NEW YORK STATE to be charged as a terrorist. He probably also qualifies as the first gangster in the country to be charged with terrorism. We've never heard of anyone else being similarly charged so this might turn into a milestone case.
MORALES has yet to go to trial, but if he were convicted under non-terror laws, he'd get a max of 25 to life. Under the tighter terror laws he's loooking at life without parole.
Civil libertarians are predictably up in arms about this because the terror laws were never intended to target street criminals. Just the big nasty guys that fly planes into buildings, shoot schoolkids and chop off women's heads. But once a prosecutor has a tool in the toolbox, you can bet the tool will be used. It was inevitable.
The same thing happened with the RICO statutes created in 1970. RICO was originally designed to take down the COSA NOSTRA. But once LE found that other criminal enterprises fit the description, RICO has been used against groups that didn't quite measure up to the power and organization of the LCN.
What this means to neighborhoods is that the next time a group of homies is caught in some anti-social act, even if it's conducting business that doesn't involve civilians, they might be looking at forever. In the eyes of the government, you're no longer a street soldado putting in the work. You're a terrorist.
Monday, December 20, 2004
MORE WORDS FROM OUR READERS
INTHEHAT has to have one of the most well-informed audiences on this subject in the blogosphere. As the reader mentions below, back in March we posted a mention of PROJECT GET GOING and the murder of ELLEN DELIA who ran the operation. We also mentioned that GET GOING had been thoroughly infiltrated by the brothers and they were using government provided cars and expense accounts to run the business of the EME back in the late 1970s. ELLEN DELIA was murdered in SACRAMENTO on her way, it was rumored, to blow the whistle on the infiltration. Here's the reader's elaboration on that post. To make it easier to understand, M.D. is MICHAEL DELIA, ELLEN'S estranged husband. COCOLISO is the late JOE MORGAN, GODFATHER of the EME. J.M. is again, Joe Morgan. The reader also corrects my mistake. I said "city councilman" when in fact I should have said "State Senator." Mea culpa. Thanks for the correction.
"Back on Friday March 5 2004 in the 5th paragraph you stated that an assistant to a city councilman was found murdered. Could that have been Robert L. Lewis, the administrative assistant to State Senator Alex P. Garcia? I do not recall any other government type person being murdered. As to M.D. having "Cocoliso's" blessings in the operation of Project Get Going, that is true. It was through M.D.'s father, M.D. Senior,(A very close friend of J.M. that M.D. was allowed into La EME, in fact, M.D.Jr. was put on a "Hit list" for bringing to much publicity to EME during the murders that were occuring and being tied to PGG.)J.M. had the "Hit" removed from M.D. as a favor to M.D. Senior. (M.D.Senior was a "wheelman" for the Sica brothers, Frank and Joe.)"
For those who may not know, the SICA brothers were connected to the ITALIAN MAFIA aka LA COSA NOSTRA. ROBERT L. LEWIS was supposedly also connected to both the Italian Mafia and to the Brothers. We could actually write a book about all the various connections and cross-connections that emanate from the DELIA case. It would be like reconstructing an explosion in a wire factory. Here it is in brief.
MICHAEL DELIA was a friend of LEWIS. LEWIS was in the construction business and thanks to giving State Senator ALEX GARCIA financial and other forms of "support" LEWIS had GARCIA's fullest attention. It was through LEWIS that DELIA got Federal and State funding and some zoning variance for PROJECT GET GOING's office. PGG was at one time located in GARCIA's office prior to getting its own facility in BOYLE HEIGHTS. LEWIS, however, was also known by law enforcement to have connections with the JOE "CRAZY JOE" GALLO crime family in NEW YORK. This is not the same JOE GALLO who was PAUL CASTELLANO'S consigliere. Different GALLO, different set of connections.
The CRAZY JOE connection was through long-time COSA NOSTRA soldier JIMMY "THE WEASEL" FRATIANNO and his partner MIKE RIZITELLO, aka MIKE RIZZI. Law enforcement at the time (the late 1970s) had observed meetings between LEWIS, RIZITELLO and SENATOR ALEX GARCIA over RIZITELLO wanting GARCIA to help obtain a parole for some of his GOODFELLAS locked up in prison. Or so the story goes. There was also information at the time that MIKE RIZZI had some interest in state pension funds and wanted GARCIA's help. Maybe someone could shed some light on this. My records are incomplete.
To make a very long, very complicated story short, ALFIE SOSA, the triggerman on the ELEN DELIA execution got a life sentence in March 1982. SOSA, according to testimony given by informants, was also DELIA's boyfriend. That was probably the reason she got into the car with him in SACRAMENTO the night of her killing. She trusted the guy.
There are other offshoots and interesting threads in this case. One of the other people in the car that night was EDDIE "SAILOR BOY" GONZALES who was either an informant at the time or became one shortly thereafter. He presented testimony to a grand jury abou the DELIA murder but the information was excluded because it was obtained in a wonky way that JUDGE BOSKOVICH threw out. Another long story there. For those who keep track of these things, SAILOR BOY was a tight pal of another famous informant/dropout/hit man, RAYMOND "MUNDO" MENDOZA. If you follow the MUNDO thread, you go to a lot of places and you eventually wind up in AMERICAN ME and the EDWARD OLMOS dustup with JOE MORGAN. You also end up at the ANA LIZARAGA case, another incident of a woman who knew too much or cared too much.
Follow the thread back to MICHAEL DELIA and you end up with the murder of YSIDRO "FRITOS" TRUJILLO who was found shot to death in LANCASTER about 200 yards away from MICHAEL DELIA SR.'s property. DELIA JR. was also the alleged shooter in the LEWIS murder. There was speculation that LEWIS was killed by DELIA on a contract basis because LEWIS owed money to COSA NOSTRA loan sharks. Keep following the MIKE DELIA thread and you end up with ABRAHAM "ICEPICK JOE" HERNANDEZ and JUAN AGUILAR HERNANDEZ (no relation), war with the NF and a dozen homicides all over the state. It's a rich tapestry of intrigue, drugs and murder.
After seven years of court cases, MICHAEL DELIA was eventually released in 1984 after taking a plea. Current whereabouts unknown.
Anyway, with all the connections, we could spin this out forever. It's getting late and I gotta go Christmas shopping. More to come. And hey, this is to the anonymous reader, thanks for setting the record straight and let's talk.
INTHEHAT has to have one of the most well-informed audiences on this subject in the blogosphere. As the reader mentions below, back in March we posted a mention of PROJECT GET GOING and the murder of ELLEN DELIA who ran the operation. We also mentioned that GET GOING had been thoroughly infiltrated by the brothers and they were using government provided cars and expense accounts to run the business of the EME back in the late 1970s. ELLEN DELIA was murdered in SACRAMENTO on her way, it was rumored, to blow the whistle on the infiltration. Here's the reader's elaboration on that post. To make it easier to understand, M.D. is MICHAEL DELIA, ELLEN'S estranged husband. COCOLISO is the late JOE MORGAN, GODFATHER of the EME. J.M. is again, Joe Morgan. The reader also corrects my mistake. I said "city councilman" when in fact I should have said "State Senator." Mea culpa. Thanks for the correction.
"Back on Friday March 5 2004 in the 5th paragraph you stated that an assistant to a city councilman was found murdered. Could that have been Robert L. Lewis, the administrative assistant to State Senator Alex P. Garcia? I do not recall any other government type person being murdered. As to M.D. having "Cocoliso's" blessings in the operation of Project Get Going, that is true. It was through M.D.'s father, M.D. Senior,(A very close friend of J.M. that M.D. was allowed into La EME, in fact, M.D.Jr. was put on a "Hit list" for bringing to much publicity to EME during the murders that were occuring and being tied to PGG.)J.M. had the "Hit" removed from M.D. as a favor to M.D. Senior. (M.D.Senior was a "wheelman" for the Sica brothers, Frank and Joe.)"
For those who may not know, the SICA brothers were connected to the ITALIAN MAFIA aka LA COSA NOSTRA. ROBERT L. LEWIS was supposedly also connected to both the Italian Mafia and to the Brothers. We could actually write a book about all the various connections and cross-connections that emanate from the DELIA case. It would be like reconstructing an explosion in a wire factory. Here it is in brief.
MICHAEL DELIA was a friend of LEWIS. LEWIS was in the construction business and thanks to giving State Senator ALEX GARCIA financial and other forms of "support" LEWIS had GARCIA's fullest attention. It was through LEWIS that DELIA got Federal and State funding and some zoning variance for PROJECT GET GOING's office. PGG was at one time located in GARCIA's office prior to getting its own facility in BOYLE HEIGHTS. LEWIS, however, was also known by law enforcement to have connections with the JOE "CRAZY JOE" GALLO crime family in NEW YORK. This is not the same JOE GALLO who was PAUL CASTELLANO'S consigliere. Different GALLO, different set of connections.
The CRAZY JOE connection was through long-time COSA NOSTRA soldier JIMMY "THE WEASEL" FRATIANNO and his partner MIKE RIZITELLO, aka MIKE RIZZI. Law enforcement at the time (the late 1970s) had observed meetings between LEWIS, RIZITELLO and SENATOR ALEX GARCIA over RIZITELLO wanting GARCIA to help obtain a parole for some of his GOODFELLAS locked up in prison. Or so the story goes. There was also information at the time that MIKE RIZZI had some interest in state pension funds and wanted GARCIA's help. Maybe someone could shed some light on this. My records are incomplete.
To make a very long, very complicated story short, ALFIE SOSA, the triggerman on the ELEN DELIA execution got a life sentence in March 1982. SOSA, according to testimony given by informants, was also DELIA's boyfriend. That was probably the reason she got into the car with him in SACRAMENTO the night of her killing. She trusted the guy.
There are other offshoots and interesting threads in this case. One of the other people in the car that night was EDDIE "SAILOR BOY" GONZALES who was either an informant at the time or became one shortly thereafter. He presented testimony to a grand jury abou the DELIA murder but the information was excluded because it was obtained in a wonky way that JUDGE BOSKOVICH threw out. Another long story there. For those who keep track of these things, SAILOR BOY was a tight pal of another famous informant/dropout/hit man, RAYMOND "MUNDO" MENDOZA. If you follow the MUNDO thread, you go to a lot of places and you eventually wind up in AMERICAN ME and the EDWARD OLMOS dustup with JOE MORGAN. You also end up at the ANA LIZARAGA case, another incident of a woman who knew too much or cared too much.
Follow the thread back to MICHAEL DELIA and you end up with the murder of YSIDRO "FRITOS" TRUJILLO who was found shot to death in LANCASTER about 200 yards away from MICHAEL DELIA SR.'s property. DELIA JR. was also the alleged shooter in the LEWIS murder. There was speculation that LEWIS was killed by DELIA on a contract basis because LEWIS owed money to COSA NOSTRA loan sharks. Keep following the MIKE DELIA thread and you end up with ABRAHAM "ICEPICK JOE" HERNANDEZ and JUAN AGUILAR HERNANDEZ (no relation), war with the NF and a dozen homicides all over the state. It's a rich tapestry of intrigue, drugs and murder.
After seven years of court cases, MICHAEL DELIA was eventually released in 1984 after taking a plea. Current whereabouts unknown.
Anyway, with all the connections, we could spin this out forever. It's getting late and I gotta go Christmas shopping. More to come. And hey, this is to the anonymous reader, thanks for setting the record straight and let's talk.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
SOME WORDS FROM A READER
One of the goals of this blog is to provide unfiltered information or information not available elsewhere. We recently got this email from an anonymous reader. Generally, we don't run emails from readers because we're not sure if the reader has an agenda or has a particular axe to grind. This one sounds genuine and fairly balanced. We found it interesting and think you will too. It's worth a read.
"I'm an old veterano from east L.A. friends with true carnales of LA EME and THE MONGOL BROTHERS like many other veteranos and SURENOS here in Los Angeles. I'm glad to hear that the green light was called off. I'd like to school you on a quick tip.
The Mongols motorcycle club was not formed in prison, they were formed on the streets of Montebello consisting of a bunch of low riders and cholos that had grown out of that scene and graduated to motorcycles and hotrods. Eventually finding themeselves with the same interests they got together and formed the motorcycle club. At first they tried joining the white motorcycle clubs that were already in existence but were not accepted by them so they started their own. Actually their first war was with a low rider club called Orpheus and they were jealous that the Mongols had moved up continentally on the streets. But history shows that Orpheus no longer exists. Most motorcycle club names are themed around hell and Satan. The Mongols wanted something different so they came up with the fiercest warriors that ruled Russia and China and most of the world for over 500 years. They even considered Aztecs or Mayans but they felt it was little bit too ethnic. I personally feel the name they chose was perfect. Their next battle was with the Hells Angels with whom they wanted to be friends with but were not accepted and the Mongols were being told what they could wear and how they should exist. Maybe the Mongols did insult them by sewing on the California bottom rocker but the Mongols had thier reasons. As far back as I could remember LA EME was always tight allies with the Mongols. They have done favors for each other many of times. You can ask anyone who has been in a Calfornia prison. The Mongols have brothers from up north and down south. They have white brothers too. This was never a problem with the Surenos before. Hell the Mongols are the only guys in the joint that I know that can walk the yard without having to ask permission that's how much love they have from LA EME. Also, for your information, the second in command to Joe Morgan, which was Robot, is brothers with the ex-president of the San Gabriel Chapter Monogls. So this so called problem is a little confusing to some Surenos and even to some older Mongols. But as with the Pepsi generation things have changed with LA EME and now similar types of changes are happening with the Mongols. So if the youngsters would talk to the elders on both sides I'm sure all this oculd be straighten out. Know the facts, the Mongols never had a reputation for taxing people. They've been known to just be a tight brotherhood that live the Chicano biker lifestyle and have one common enemy with all outlaw organiztions, the local authorities and the federal government. For all we know the federal government is creating chaos amongst us through the media to limit our constitutional rights."
There you have it. The straight word from the street without the spin or filters.
One of the goals of this blog is to provide unfiltered information or information not available elsewhere. We recently got this email from an anonymous reader. Generally, we don't run emails from readers because we're not sure if the reader has an agenda or has a particular axe to grind. This one sounds genuine and fairly balanced. We found it interesting and think you will too. It's worth a read.
"I'm an old veterano from east L.A. friends with true carnales of LA EME and THE MONGOL BROTHERS like many other veteranos and SURENOS here in Los Angeles. I'm glad to hear that the green light was called off. I'd like to school you on a quick tip.
The Mongols motorcycle club was not formed in prison, they were formed on the streets of Montebello consisting of a bunch of low riders and cholos that had grown out of that scene and graduated to motorcycles and hotrods. Eventually finding themeselves with the same interests they got together and formed the motorcycle club. At first they tried joining the white motorcycle clubs that were already in existence but were not accepted by them so they started their own. Actually their first war was with a low rider club called Orpheus and they were jealous that the Mongols had moved up continentally on the streets. But history shows that Orpheus no longer exists. Most motorcycle club names are themed around hell and Satan. The Mongols wanted something different so they came up with the fiercest warriors that ruled Russia and China and most of the world for over 500 years. They even considered Aztecs or Mayans but they felt it was little bit too ethnic. I personally feel the name they chose was perfect. Their next battle was with the Hells Angels with whom they wanted to be friends with but were not accepted and the Mongols were being told what they could wear and how they should exist. Maybe the Mongols did insult them by sewing on the California bottom rocker but the Mongols had thier reasons. As far back as I could remember LA EME was always tight allies with the Mongols. They have done favors for each other many of times. You can ask anyone who has been in a Calfornia prison. The Mongols have brothers from up north and down south. They have white brothers too. This was never a problem with the Surenos before. Hell the Mongols are the only guys in the joint that I know that can walk the yard without having to ask permission that's how much love they have from LA EME. Also, for your information, the second in command to Joe Morgan, which was Robot, is brothers with the ex-president of the San Gabriel Chapter Monogls. So this so called problem is a little confusing to some Surenos and even to some older Mongols. But as with the Pepsi generation things have changed with LA EME and now similar types of changes are happening with the Mongols. So if the youngsters would talk to the elders on both sides I'm sure all this oculd be straighten out. Know the facts, the Mongols never had a reputation for taxing people. They've been known to just be a tight brotherhood that live the Chicano biker lifestyle and have one common enemy with all outlaw organiztions, the local authorities and the federal government. For all we know the federal government is creating chaos amongst us through the media to limit our constitutional rights."
There you have it. The straight word from the street without the spin or filters.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
BOTH SIDES STEP OFF
The war between the EME and the MONGOLS has apparently been called off due to television. The medium that was once described as a "vast wasteland" may be responsible for saving some lives or at least prevent some bloodshed.
After CHRIS BLATCHFORD broadcast his story on the war between the two groups on FOX 11 NEWS in LA last week, a shot caller concluded that any overt moves would draw an awful lot of attention from LE.
As a result, all SOUTHERN SOLDIERS have been ordered to stand down and wait for further instructions. For now, we have a cease fire. Further updates as they arrive. Stay tuned.
The war between the EME and the MONGOLS has apparently been called off due to television. The medium that was once described as a "vast wasteland" may be responsible for saving some lives or at least prevent some bloodshed.
After CHRIS BLATCHFORD broadcast his story on the war between the two groups on FOX 11 NEWS in LA last week, a shot caller concluded that any overt moves would draw an awful lot of attention from LE.
As a result, all SOUTHERN SOLDIERS have been ordered to stand down and wait for further instructions. For now, we have a cease fire. Further updates as they arrive. Stay tuned.
DEATH OF SOUTHERN SOLDIER
Thanks to a heads up from a regular reader, it's been confirmed that ROBERT "ROBOT" SALAS passed away some three weeks ago in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
We're not sure of the exact cause of death, but we're positive he did not die by the sword. Salas had been out of prison for years and was living in SOCAL in what some sources claim in a state of semi- or full retirement. His passing marks another milestone in the history of the brotherhood.
SALAS, along with other deceased carnals like MIKE "HATCHET MIKE" ISON, BEN "TOPO" PETERS, and JOE "COCOLISO" MORGAN, could be considered part of the OLD GUARD in the organization. They were there at the beginning, or very close to it, when you could count the number of validated brothers on the fingers of both hands.
It's interesting to note that of this group, only ISON died a violent death. He'd been paroled and living in San Francisco, apparently adjusting well to life on the outside, enjoying his freedom and spending time with his family. He got into a brawl with some guys in a bar and was clubbed to death with pool cues. MORGAN and PETERS died of cancer.
More on SALAS as information arrives.
Thanks to a heads up from a regular reader, it's been confirmed that ROBERT "ROBOT" SALAS passed away some three weeks ago in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
We're not sure of the exact cause of death, but we're positive he did not die by the sword. Salas had been out of prison for years and was living in SOCAL in what some sources claim in a state of semi- or full retirement. His passing marks another milestone in the history of the brotherhood.
SALAS, along with other deceased carnals like MIKE "HATCHET MIKE" ISON, BEN "TOPO" PETERS, and JOE "COCOLISO" MORGAN, could be considered part of the OLD GUARD in the organization. They were there at the beginning, or very close to it, when you could count the number of validated brothers on the fingers of both hands.
It's interesting to note that of this group, only ISON died a violent death. He'd been paroled and living in San Francisco, apparently adjusting well to life on the outside, enjoying his freedom and spending time with his family. He got into a brawl with some guys in a bar and was clubbed to death with pool cues. MORGAN and PETERS died of cancer.
More on SALAS as information arrives.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
NEVER WORE THE BADGE
In response to the previous post on long-ago ties between the brothers and Mexican cartels, I got this email from an anonymous reader. This isn't the first of its kind so maybe it's time to reiterate what this blog is all about. Here's the email with some snipping.
"Your account on the Arujo/Morgan association is right on! Also the part of many parolees being "taken care of when they went PAL. At that time it was almost impossible to get them back to the USA. [Snipped] Do you have anything on the infamous "Shoe War"? The more I read from your articles, I believe you to be an ex-cop with a good source...such as 'Mundo.' -- Tio Moco."
To paraphrase RICHARD NIXON, "I am not a cop." Never was and they'd never have me even if I wanted to.
Yeah, I do have really good sources in and out of law enforcement. But the most important tool is doing the homework. Every scrap of information I've come across in the past decade is stored in a way that I can cross-reference it and retrieve it. You'd be amazed at the stuff you can find in public records archives and through Freedom of Information requests if you know what you're looking for. There's no mystery in putting together information even if you have to wade through heavily redacted documents. All you need is enough information to ask the right guy the right questions. Nobody volunteers anything. But they will respond honestly (most of the time) if you ask a direct question about a specific incident. In time, little bits of info start falling in place and you've got a decent picture to look at. Just plain work, some luck and informed guessing.
As to "Machine Gun Mundo," I only wish I could get a tape recorder in front of the guy. Also Chuco, Enriquez, Gratton, and all the other CIs who have debriefed or are currently debriefing. Having a chat with them would be like grabbing the keys to Fort Knox.
As to the "shoe war," there's not much mystery left in that event. It's been documented in books and court documents, verified by interviews with LE who either ran debriefs or have direct knowledge of debriefs and it's even covered on some web sites. Be alert, however, because a lot of the stuff on line is misleading or flat wrong. But even the wrong info can sometimes lead to the right conclusion. I'll take a shot at it for those who may not be familiar with the shoe incident. Look for it soon.
So Tio, I hope that answers your question. If you have more or want to share some insight, you know where to email. Always happy to hear from interested parties and I'm always ready to be set straight if I get it wrong.
In response to the previous post on long-ago ties between the brothers and Mexican cartels, I got this email from an anonymous reader. This isn't the first of its kind so maybe it's time to reiterate what this blog is all about. Here's the email with some snipping.
"Your account on the Arujo/Morgan association is right on! Also the part of many parolees being "taken care of when they went PAL. At that time it was almost impossible to get them back to the USA. [Snipped] Do you have anything on the infamous "Shoe War"? The more I read from your articles, I believe you to be an ex-cop with a good source...such as 'Mundo.' -- Tio Moco."
To paraphrase RICHARD NIXON, "I am not a cop." Never was and they'd never have me even if I wanted to.
Yeah, I do have really good sources in and out of law enforcement. But the most important tool is doing the homework. Every scrap of information I've come across in the past decade is stored in a way that I can cross-reference it and retrieve it. You'd be amazed at the stuff you can find in public records archives and through Freedom of Information requests if you know what you're looking for. There's no mystery in putting together information even if you have to wade through heavily redacted documents. All you need is enough information to ask the right guy the right questions. Nobody volunteers anything. But they will respond honestly (most of the time) if you ask a direct question about a specific incident. In time, little bits of info start falling in place and you've got a decent picture to look at. Just plain work, some luck and informed guessing.
As to "Machine Gun Mundo," I only wish I could get a tape recorder in front of the guy. Also Chuco, Enriquez, Gratton, and all the other CIs who have debriefed or are currently debriefing. Having a chat with them would be like grabbing the keys to Fort Knox.
As to the "shoe war," there's not much mystery left in that event. It's been documented in books and court documents, verified by interviews with LE who either ran debriefs or have direct knowledge of debriefs and it's even covered on some web sites. Be alert, however, because a lot of the stuff on line is misleading or flat wrong. But even the wrong info can sometimes lead to the right conclusion. I'll take a shot at it for those who may not be familiar with the shoe incident. Look for it soon.
So Tio, I hope that answers your question. If you have more or want to share some insight, you know where to email. Always happy to hear from interested parties and I'm always ready to be set straight if I get it wrong.
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