I came to Chicago in 1963 from Cleveland, Ohio. I was 9 years old and believe it or not in Cleveland I was tied into a little block street gang. 9 years old. We did things like running in stores and snatch the ice cream. We did things like threw rocks at guys on the next block. So I was kinda like coming into poverty stricken area and we had to do things like my father lived in Chicago and me and my mother and my 6 brothers and sisters we live in Cleveland and so we didn’t have too much. And so we kinda get off just like the average gang member gets called up. In a poverty stricken area just trying to survive.


Coming to Chicago I met my crew in Chicago. Right in …. Met my little crew and we running around on the street and we did things like going in and out of stores. I learned how to pick pockets by the age of 10 years old. You know we would have the people waiting to cross streets, you know women have those big pockets and they have they’re wallets in them. So we learned how to you know help her with her groceries and go in her pockets and get her wallet out at the same time. We learned how to play the til at the time. You know going through the grocery store, we were so small we go through grocery stores and we would you know cash registers up, you know I hit that thing and it opened up. You know it’s called playing the til you get to mine the cash. And we learned how to do those types of games at 10/11 years old.


In fact then it had those buses with the electric tables to them coming out Western, coming out of the ___ , down this road. And you had to have a buddy to s___ em. We used to put em and you know the bus couldn’t move, when the bus driver got off we played this game when we got on in front there and there’d be little pouches being where they put the money in. They didn’t have what you have today. The little green pouches you put the dollars in there, you put the coins in, where you put… we would steal that. So these kinds of games we played. And sometimes school wasn’t too __ cause when some people had new school clothes and we didn’t have no school clothes and our feet were burning from the hot ground because we had cardboard in our gym shoes. So we played this game, we ditched school where the little one was running in the cleaners and the big one would follow him in and then later we’d try to break somebody else and we would sneak in and hit the cash register and steal the wallet out of the purse. These were the kind of games we played. And then we would get in trouble in the evening when we came home with new clothes and new pants and my mother would wonder where you getting that from?


All right. And about the time I was maybe 13 that’s when I really did it and got involved in a major street gang on the West Side – Vice Lords. How we got involved is pretty much… it had a lot to do with racism. It had a lot to do with racism. Back in 1967 we were one of the first black families that moved right over Cicero and Jackson, it was predominantly white neighborhood. So we had to fight and go to school, fight and play. But if you know anything about that area even today Columbus Park was the nearest swimming pool. 5500 West. And the next swimming pool was Garfield Park right off of Hamlin and close to Madison, near Lake St. So we were caught between Columbus Park or Garfield Park. Columbus was a little closer. We had to go through the neighborhood to get to school. So we had to fight white guys to get in, we had to fight these white guys to get back and so some guys in the neighborhood, realizing me and my crew we had enough courage to go swimming. So they would claim us just to go swimming.
Now as time went on, whites started moving out and blacks started moving in and at that time they had what they called the Cicero Vice Lords. These were guys 17 and 18 and we were 12, 13, some 14 years old. And one day, they chased us, and I went to the ___ running. And they caught me.

See I kno lately dat we ain't did much ,but on my moma girl I promise I'm gon make it up,I kno you sick of all these bitches wit these rumors,and lies,but how ever gets da weather you gon always be mine,and I'm gon stretch my time we gon make thangs righ
t,no more layin by yourself in the sheets at night,and I'm gon beat da pussy up til you holla dats enough

I walked outside,I'm tired of dis man ,my juvey in da yard wit my draws in her hand my girl looked at me said you dog as nigga,finna put dis knife i yo mutherfuckin liver I couldn't say shit had to leave da house she punched me in my shit
t all I did was walk off,because I'm wrong ,but tonite when she go home I'ma keep callin her phone til she let me lay dat bone [fuck dat shit]my other bitch don put me on child support ,my nigga on da run slip and got on dat dope I need to fuck somein ba
d I got some preasure built up so da next thing I fuck she gon get extra ripped I looked up to god told fix dis shit I got JLO at home I need my bitch ,look three in da morning girl still hanging up da phone she ansewred bring yo na
sty ass home[girl I'm on my home]