A Gang Leader
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Running head: GANG LEADER
A Legendary Gang Leader
Abstract
Stanley Tookie Williams was one of the co-founders of a nationwide gang the Crips. He was convicted of two separate robbery/murders in 1979. While serving time in prison, he spent 61/2 years in solitary confinement. Afterwards, he became an anti-gang activist. Moreover, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each year from 2001 to 2005.
Stanley “Tookie” Williams III (Dec. 29, 1953 Ð- Dec. 13, 2005), was an early leader of the Crips, a notorious American street gang which had its roots in South Central Los Angeles in 1969. In December 2005 he was executed for the 1979 murders of Albert Owens, Yen-Yi Yang, Tsai-Shai Lin, and Yee-Chen Lin (CNN, 2005). While in prison, Williams refused to aid police investigators with any information against his gang, and was implicated in attacks on guards and other inmates as well as multiple escapes plots (CNN, 2000). In 1993, Williams began making changes in his behavior, and became an anti-gang activist while on Death Row in California (Tookie, 2005). Although he continued to refuse to assist police in their gang investigations, he renounced his gang affiliation and apologized for the Crips founding, while maintaining his innocence of the crimes for which he was convicted (Tookie, 2005). He co-wrote childrens books and participated in efforts intended to prevent youths from joining gangs (Black news, 2005). On December 13, 2005, Williams was executed by lethal injection amidst debate over the death penalty and whether his anti-gang advocacy in prison represented atonement (CNN, 2005).
Born to a 17-year-old mother in New Orleans, Louisiana, Williams moved to the impoverished South Central Los Angeles neighborhood when he was 6, where he made a name for himself for being a fighter and a “general” on the streets of South Centrals West Side. He attended John C. Fremont High School, but was expelled and did not graduate (people, 2005). People mistakenly believed
that “Tookie” was a nickname, but it was in fact his given middle name, which was shared by Williams and his son, Stanley T. Williams Jr. His nickname was Big Took. He got the name after he became very muscular. Some theories lay claim that “Tookie” was using drugs, namely anabolic steroids, to increase his size and physique in an attempt to make him more Ðgang-like.
The Crips were founded by Raymond Washington and Stanley Tookie Williams. Williams argued that this was after the two became fed up with random violence in their neighborhood. Law enforcement officials disputed this, pointing to the extremely large number of violent crimes involving the gang members, even in early years. Along with friends, Washington and Williams gathered with the initial intent of continuing the revolutionary ideology of the 1960s (Democracy now, 2005). These aspirations were unendurable because of a general lack of political leadership and guidance. Washington and Williams were never able to develop an agenda for social change within the community and instead became obsessed with protecting themselves from other gangs in the community. The original name of the gang founded by Raymond Washington in 1969 at the age of 15 was the Baby Avenues, derived from a gang of older boys in the 1960s, named the Avenue Boys with their turf on Central Avenue in East Los Angeles. This evolved to Avenue Cribs and then Cribs as nicknames for the age of the members. The name Crips was first introduced in the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper in a description by crime victims of young men with canes, as if they were crippled. The name struck. In addition to co-founding the gang in 1971, Williams started his own gang called the Westside Crips. The Crips became popular throughout southern Los Angeles as more youth gangs joined it; at one point they outnumbered non-Crips gangs by 3 to 1, sparking disputes with non-Crips gangs including the L.A. Brims, Athens Park Boys, The Bishops and The Denver Lanes. The Crips eventually became the most powerful gang in California. In response, all of the other besieged gangs, including the Pirus, formed an alliance that later became the Bloods (Street gangs, 2005).
Williams was convicted of two separate robbery/murders in 1979. Williams always maintained his innocence, though subsequent court reviews concluded that there was no compelling reason to grant a retrial. Court transcripts state that, Stanley Williams met with a man who is only identified in court documents as “Darryl” late sometime on Tuesday evening, February 27, 1979. Williams introduced Darryl to a friend of his, Alfred Coward, a.k.a. “Blackie,” a reference to his African American heritage. A time after the initial meeting, Darryl, driving a brown station wagon and accompanied by Williams, drove to the home of James Garret. Coward followed the two in his 1969 Cadillac (Tookie, 2005). Williams frequently stayed with Garret, and kept some of his personal effects at that location including a 12-gauge shotgun. Williams went into the Garret residence, and in about ten minutes returned with the shotgun. The three men then went to the home of Tony Sims, where they discussed where in Pomona, California they could go to make some money. Afterward, they went to another residence, where Williams left the others for a period of time. Upon returning, Williams had a .22 caliber pistol, which he placed in the station wagon. Williams then suggested that they should all go to Pomona. Darryl and Williams got into the station wagon, Coward and Sims got into the Cadillac, and shortly thereafter they were on the freeway headed toward Pomona.
Transcripts show that next Coward and Sims followed Williams and Darryl to the 7-eleven market located at 10437 Whittier Boulevard, near Whittier, California (Tookie, 2005). The store clerk, twenty-six year old Albert Owens, was sweeping the store parking lot. When Darryl and Sims entered the 7-eleven, Owens put the broom and dustpan he was using on the hood of his car and followed them into the store. Court records show that as Darryl and Sims walked to the counter area to take the money from the register, Williams walked behind Owens, pulled the sawed-off shotgun from under his jacket and told Owens to “shut up and keep walking.” While pointing the shotgun at Owens back, Williams directed him to a back storage room and ordered him to lie down. Coward said that he next heard the sound of a round being chambered into the shotgun. He then heard a shot and glass breaking, followed by two more shots. Records show