Publication Date

The publisher -- Headpress -- of Blood In Blood Out has pushed the release date back to February 16, 2011.  If you're disappointed, just imagine how I feel.  However, all indicators point toward an outstanding book, when it finally does come out. 

Top Ten Worst Gangs: MS-13

Mara Salvatrucha makes all of the other gangs look like children at a Sunday School picnic. MS-13 is in fact the deadliest gang that anyone will ever come into contact with. The gang mainly consists of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, and other Central Americans and was started in the 1980s to protect immigrants from other big gangs.  The gang has spread beyond Central America into Spain, U.S., Great Britain, Germany, and even Canada. MS-13 focuses on drug smuggling, black market gun sales, theft, contract killing, human trafficking, and assault, especially on law enforcement officers. In the U.S. alone, the gang has 10,000 members. MS-13 does not do remorse. Mara Salvatrucha hunts down and kills anyone who speaks to law enforcement about the gang. MS-13 is synonymous with extreme violence, especially against innocents. MS-13 torched a bus full of children and women.  Twenty-eight women and children died in the flames.

Blood In Blood Out

The release date for Blood In, Blood Out has been pushed back to January 26, 2011.

Top Ten Worst Gangs: Bloods

The Bloods:  a Los Angeles based gang. Rivals with the Crips, who sport the color blue, the Bloods flash red as their color. The gang started in 1972 and grew slowly by taking over territory that was controlled by other L.A. street gangs. Because the Bloods were so fearless, many of the gang members that they encountered decided to band together and join the Bloods. The gang is separated into “sets,” which have their own tactics, especially when it comes to recruiting. The Bloods’ sets utilize the unusual tactic of sending threats to people to join the gang. Bloods members often combine with other gangs in order to carry out criminal activity, especially drug trafficking.

Top Ten Worst Gangs: Crips

The Crips came to life in 1969.  Founded by a pair of 16-year-old kids, Stanley Williams and Raymond Washington. The two started the gang using the Black Panthers as their model. The gang started off small and initially was a loosely connected network of individual gangs. Since its origin, the gang has grown to be one of the largest as well as one of the most powerful gangs that exist in the U.S. Today, the gang is said to have over 300,000 gang members both inside and outside of jail. The Crips are known for wearing the color blue. The gang focuses on murder and robbery, as well as drug deals. The Crips' bitter rivals are the Bloods, as well as many different Hispanic street gangs. Violence is the basic tenet of the Crips. Sometimes brawls and fights explode within the gang, usually resulting in deaths of Crips' members. The Crips are now international in scope, boasting a strong membership in Canada.

Top Ten Worst Gangs: Texas Syndicate

Texas Syndicate is a prison gang that was created in response to gangs like the Mexican Mafia and the Aryan Brotherhood. Because these gangs were preying on inmates, especially those in Texas, prisoners saw a need to have a rival gang to protect these Texas prisoners as a means for self-protection. The Texas Syndicate doesn’t allow any members that are outside of the Hispanic race. Caucasian members are verboten. The gang is made up generally of Mexican immigrant prisoners, not Mexicans who were born and raised in the U.S. In 2000, the gang was said to have about 1,000 members in jail, and about 830 outside of jail. Texas Syndicate is known for contract murder, gambling, prostitution, extortion, and drug trafficking. Many of the gang’s leaders are imprisoned due to drug charges.

Top Ten Worst Gangs: La Nuestra Familia

La Nuestra Familia is a Mexican American prison gang that originated in Northern California. The gang has been around since 1968 and has always been a rival of the Mexican Mafia. Many speculate that the gang was created just to deliver a blow to their rival gang. The gang focuses not just on criminal activities, but also on preserving the Chicano culture, especially while living in a society that is dominated by so many different races. La Nuestra Familia is known to control intra-prison drug and sex trades. From inside the prison, ruling gang members call to those outside of the prison, where their orders are carried out. The gang is known to kill anyone, sometimes members of the gang. Members of La Nuestra Familia are recognized as serious criminals because the gang requires a two year time period to join. La Nuestra Familia requires that all gang members put the gang above family, money, drugs, and women. Women cannot join the gang but are sometimes used for running drugs

New Release Date Set

The publisher of Blood In Blood Out has scheduled the release of the book for January 19, 2011.

Top Ten Worst Gangs: Bad, Badder, and Baddest

The list is not in any particular order.  Extreme violence is the default mode for each of these gangs.  To say that one gang is 'more violent' or 'worse' than another gang is an exercise in futility.   

Number 1: 

The Aryan Brotherhood.  Even though they are not one of the biggest prison gangs, the Aryan Brotherhood is known to have murdered many prisoners in jail. The gang only makes up about 1% of prison populations, but size doesn’t matter to the AB. In fact, this gang is known for at least 26% of the murders that occur in prisons around the U.S. The AB is split into two groups, usually those in federal prisons and other members that are located in some of the smaller state prisons, especially those in California. In order to join the Aryan Brotherhood, one has to kill or assault another prisoner. This is known as blood in, blood out. Any who try to leave the gang are generally assaulted or murdered by a member. The AB is known for organized crime, extortion, inmate prostitution, drug trafficking, and murder-for-hire.


Number 2: 

The Mexican Mafia (La eMe) is a gang that has its strongholds in many prisons throughout the U.S. The gang was started in the 1950s in Tracy California. La eMe is well known for its drug trafficking, extortion, and murder. Closely knit with the Aryan Brotherhood, La eMe has made many contracts with ally gangs in order to kill other gang members from rivals. The gang doesn’t have many rules for its members: no exposing the gang, no homosexual acts, and no cowardice. Mexican Mafia gang members also cannot practice the Christian religion. Once your join the Mexican Mafia and are released from jail, members are expected to send some of their earnings to those lead gang members who are still in jail. The gang isn’t known to kill random civilians.

Number 3: 

The Mungiki (Kenyan Mafia).  This gang isn’t one that you’ll find in the U.S. The Mungiki is mostly found in poor parts of Kenya, especially Nairobi, which is one of Kenya’s largest cities. The gang was formed during the 1980s and has since grown, but not much. The gang is known to work in “cells,” each of them consisting of about 50 members that get involved with racketeering. The Mungiki despise Christianity as well as any type of Westernization. The gang advocates beheading, and mutilation. As many as 50 people have been killed because of clashes with the Mungiki, two of these people being Kenyan police offers who were beheaded. The gang is said to have some ties in the U.S., but this has never been concretely proven.