Stan "Tookie" Williams and the Crips

On December 13th, 2005, a couple weeks before his 52nd birthday, Stanley ”Tookie” Williams III was executed by the State of California for the murder of 4 people. I remember one of my teachers, who lived in Watts, CA, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, telling us there would be riots all over L.A. about a week before his execution. Everyone was expecting riots, similar to the 1992 L.A. riots, when 4 LAPD officers were acquitted of excessive force charges, in the beating of Rodney King.

Let’s take a look at the life of Tookie Williams, the co-founder of Los Angeles street gang the Crips, the gang is now nationwide, and even internationally.

Tookie was born on December 29th, 1953 at the New Orleans Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father Stanley Williams Jr., abandoned Tookie and his 17 year old mother after Tookie’s birth.

In 1959, Tookie and his mom took a Greyhound to Los Angeles, CA, in search of a better life. They settled in South Central, Tookie has said the neighborhood looked affluent. His mom worked several jobs to provide for Tookie and herself. His mom enrolled Tookie in Menlo Avenue Elementary school. At the age of 6, Tookie was roaming streets of South Central, he quickly learned how to defend himself.

In 1963, Tookie’s mom shocked him by telling him his sister Cynthia would be joining them in L.A. Tookie didn't even know he had a sister. They didn’t get along and even though his grandma asked Tookie to be nice to Cynthia, they fought like cats and dogs. Tookie’s mom enrolled Tookie and Cynthia in Normandie Avenue Elementary, before he could be expelled from Menlo Avenue Elementary.

When Tookie attended Foshay Junior High, he tried to keep to himself, but was targeted by several gang members. One guy named Lewis tried to shake Tookie down for his lunch money, and told Tookie to empty his pockets. Tookie just looked at Lewis like he was crazy, next Lewis went for Tookie’s pocket, before Lewis could reach Tookie’s pocket, Tookie slapped Lewis’ hand away from his pocket. Later that day Lewis confronted Tookie with 5 of his homies. An elderly black woman broke up the fight yelling “Y’all leave that boy alone or I’ll call the police!”

Tookie was expelled from Foshay Junior High for stealing from the cafeteria and low attendance. He was enrolled in Audubon Junior High for a week before getting kicked out for low attendance and fighting. Next Tookie’s mom enrolled him in John Miur Junior High, the principal kept a close eye on Tookie. Tookie’s mother decided it was better for Tookie to move across town with her boyfriend Fred and his family.

By the time Tookie was 15 years old, he was enrolled in his 4th junior high, this time it was Horace Mann Junior High. Around this time Tookie, his mom, and sister moved into an apartment on 83rd St. between Denker Ave. and Harvard Blvd. It took some time but eventually he got kicked out of Horace Mann Junior High. At this point there were only 2 schools in the city willing to accept Tookie, Henry Clay Junior High and Bret Harte Junior High. Tookie and his mom didn’t like that the principal at Henry Clay called him intimidating.

Tookie enrolled in Bret Harte Junior High, this was the point of no return. They moved to a new apartment on 90th St. between Vermont Ave and Budlong Ave, Tookie’s mom tried hard to keep him on the straight and narrow to no avail.

By the time Tookie went to George Washington Preparatory High School, he was smoking marijuana and introduced to a barbiturate called “red devils” by a pimp called Lil Tony. One day, Tookie overdosed when he was chilling and using drugs with a friend at St. Andrews Park. Tookie’s friend contacted his mom, who in turn contacted her boyfriend Fred, together Tookie’s mom and Fred showed up at the park and took him to Morningside Hospital.

The next morning Tookie was interrogated about his drug use by the LAPD at 77th St. police station. At night Tookie was transferred from the police station to Central Juvenile Hall in the city of L.A. This was Tookie’s first time in juvie, he said he didn’t learn anything in juvie, but to be more indifferent and embittered.

After Tookie’s release from Juvenile Hall, he fell back into the same things he was doing before, he was locked up. He went back to George Washington High, where Tookie and his homie Erskine felt like they could get away with anything, except murder. Tookie had a reputation of being fearless and would fight gang members all the time.

Tookie was sent back to Central Juvenile Hall, he got drunk one night and ran out of gas in a stolen car in Carson, CA. He spent 3 weeks at Central Juvenile Hall, before Tookie was transferred to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, CA, because the staff said Tookie lived in Los Padrinos jurisdiction, not in Central Juvie’s jurisdiction.

Tookie has described Los Padrinos as the Marriott hotel of juvenile halls, with swimming pools and all. After his case was heard by the courts, the judge said “In the interest of this court and your welfare, I order that you be sent to the Job Corps in Salt Lake City.” Tookie arrived in Utah and was assigned living quarters, which Tookie said resembled an army compound. Tookie wasn’t really interested in the educational program, but did like the archery program they had.

While in Utah at the Job Corps, Tookie got in a fight with a Puerto Rican guy in the program. The guy was sitting on Tookie’s jacket, Tookie asked him to put his jacket on a chair, the guy didn’t respond, next Tookie walked over, thinking maybe the guy didn’t understand English, and asked him again to get off his jacket. The Puerto Rican guy said “Shut up, n-word,” this is when Tookie kicked the guy, the fight was broken up by the program's gym coach.

When Tookie walked toward the cafeteria, he was informed the Puerto Rican guy wanted to fight him. Tookie was confident he could take the guy, but while walking up to him, Tookie saw something shiny in the Puerto Rican guy's hand. When the Puerto Rican guy started yelling “I’m gonna kill that n-word!” guards came in and held him back. Tookie was sent to the campus jail, and a short time later Tookie was dishonorably discharged, and sent back to L.A.

Back in L.A, Tookie didn’t stay out of trouble and was sent back to Central Juvenile Hall for another stolen car. This time Tookie and 2 of his friends were driving around Inglewood, CA, they stopped, and the 2 friends started arguing about who should drive. Inglewood PD drove by, and they all ran in different directions.

Again, Tookie was transferred from Central to Los Padrinos, Tookie was approached by Los Padrinos gym coach. The gym coach asked if Tookie was interested in weightlifting, Tookie told the gym coach he was crazy, but the gym coach didn’t give up and asked Tookie again a week later. Tookie asked the gym coach why he should start weightlifting, the coach started a long story on the benefits, just to shut the coach up Tookie agreed to start weightlifting. Once Tookie started weightlifting he actually enjoyed it.

The judge in this case sent Tookie to Camp Glenn Rockey in San Dimas, CA. Camp Rockey was a firefighting facility with no guard towers or barbed wire fences, Tookie could’ve just walked away from the facility, and he thought about it several times, but it was a cake walk, so there was no reason to escape. Tookie still didn’t learn anything at Camp Rockey, and described it as no different then the other juvies he went to, he just became even more bitter, and misdirected.

Before his release date from Camp Rockey, Tookie was re-evaluated by the facilities counselors. Here Tookie was asked what his plans were after his release, to which he replied “I plan on being the leader of the biggest gang in the world,” even Tookie thought this reply was shocking, because he hated gangs. The counselors most likely found the response unrealistic, and 2 days later Tookie was released.

The streets of South Central hadn’t changed during the time Tookie was at Camp Rockey. Tookie received a warm welcome back by his homies, and went back to George Washington High.

Some time in early 1971, Raymond Washington was looking for Tookie, Raymond had heard about Tookie from their mutual friend Clint. Raymond told Tookie he had the same problems with gangs as Tookie,but in Raymond’s case it was with gang members on the east side of South Central L.A. Tookie had been asked by other people to form an alliance, but had always quickly turned it down. This time it felt different though, Tookie told Raymond he’d think about it, and to meet him the next Sunday at the Rio Theatre on Western Ave. Even though Tookie told Raymond he’d think about it, he already decided to form an alliance with Raymond. After meeting at the Rio Theatre, Tookie and Raymond decided to meet at George Washington High that upcoming Friday, to seal the deal. This is how the gang called the Crips was born, 2 young men, 1 from the west side South Central of L.A, and 1 from the east side of South Central L.A. Unlike how the Crips operate now, Tookie and Raymond formed the Crips to fight gangs, as both Tookie and Raymond despised gangs.

The name they decided on was actually the Cribs, but when members of the alliance got drunk, they kept mispronouncing it as Crips. It stuck and the Cribs became the Crips. Tookie’s west side Crips and Raymond’s east side Crips were competitive with each other, when it came to who could take the most from street gangs, but Tookie and Raymond kept the alliance in check to make sure they had a strong connection.

If this story does well, I'll continue the story from here.