- Any story you ever heard of Skid Row will never live up to what I have seen. 'cause we can tell you a
thousand times or a million times and you can get guys from all over Skid telling you this story, but unless you was there to see this, you would never believe
the graphics of it. It was treacherous, as Skid Row was one of the most dangerous place
I'd ever been in my life. Skid Row was built on
a history of violence and dangerous people. Which they called the blood bath. When the blood bath first started, most people think it was 68. When Tookie became a founder of the Crips when he invented the Crips, because they say the blood was here first. And the blood bath was dangerous, but it was a lot before that in 64, 62, downtown Skid Row before
that name was Los Angeles was one of the most
dangerous sites ever around. And I had been a lot of places. I had been in Chicago,
Competing Green, Houston, but none was never more
dangerous than LA because of the fact that it was a
lot of money in Los Angeles. And, and, and, and it was so dangerous to when the reputation
of Skid Row got out, you had some of the baddest
guys, some of the, most me I won't say baddest or tough. And then they, but just guys,
it wasn't didn't have no fear. It was something like John
Clark, bam, bam, the blood sport where these guys would come in from other cities to come to Skid Row. It was a playground for the baddest of the baddest and the most and the ones and the
intimidated of the intimidators. You know, whoever could
intimidate the other one the most would take over Skid Row but the blood bloodbath were
considered a major killing. Now, when the killing first started it was a Crip, Blood
and a few Mexican gangs like the Modern Deals
and the Mexican mafia, Wife is Bad Boys, 18th street,
those were vicious killers. And they were, like, my homeboy
Kicked, that got killed. Jack Lucas blowed his head up like a can of spray paint. It was like something you
saw in a movie, you know? And then they, they, they, the Jamaican they ran and shot him up. And it was something like and Jack liquors on fifth and
right off, right between fifth and Crocker on fifth between
Crocker and San Pedro. But then they closed
Jack liqueurs down now 'cause so much killing was going on but they killed the Jamaican there. Blew half his, messed his body up so bad when they shot him up that morning. And so when these guys, the Crips and the bloods and the
Mexican gangs were killing. They was pretty busy, they do drive bys. But it didn't really get vicious until you got the outsiders coming in which was your solo killers. They wasn't going to be in a gang. And these would consist of
all races, mostly whites because they wanted to come down here and buy they heroin, their
crystal and stuff like that. Then these guys thought some
of these guys were punks but people, these guys, they
weren't in the Hell's Angels. But they were Hell's Angels type guys. And when they came down here, you talking about the blood bath some of these white boys
would mess these brothers up and they didn't think, they didn't know who they was dealing with because you had these savage ass killers. They come out of Oklahoma,
come out of Texas, Chicago. And it was something like,
it was something like a like a first blood thing
if you saw that movie. The first blood, when
that man, when he went to that town, tore that whole town up. It was something like that when these white boys came into Skid Row. They would come in here
and you didn't know them. And these guys would slap, tried to slap him upside the head. Slap upside the head. And that would be his one and only trap because these guys would get
up with machetes and they and some of them knew special skills and they would cut half your body off. So I seen the dude take
a dude, a white boy take his teeth and bite
in the side of a black man jaw and held it so tight. He couldn't move. And the dude was trying to. But every time he tried to raise his hands he'd bite harder. Had him sticking on his toes and bit, bit a chunk out of his
jaw and spit on them. When the dude fell on the
floor, grabbed his face. He thought it was over it wasn't. He should've never met that dude. 'Cause that white boy,
fucked him up right there. Just to let him know that
you don't mess with people you don't know nothing about. Like one of my buddies told me one time. It was a meshing with tattoos
on him, all across his body. And he said, he came to me, stranger. He knew I get it a little bit. So he said, help me come
on back me up on this dude. And I thought it was big mashing. And you know, I, it was, I just came. I had been in three or four mashings. So that didn't really scare me, if you had to. But what really bothered me is that I asked him when I say, yeah we gonna beat this motherfucker
all the way back to Mexico to the desert boat. And I put my boots on and got ready. When I say, what did he do to us? And do we know this guy? We never met this guy before. - And I say, I wouldn't
have nothing to do with it. 'Cause I didn't know the guy. So he went and got another
one of my homeboys. They left, they went
after this Spanish dude, and this dude tore them apart. And I asked him, I
said, he didn't kill him but he tore him apart. And I asked him, I say,
did you look at the tattoo? Some people had the tattoos so long. They made mistakes when they were young but they didn't care about this. They only wanted to be
the King of Skid Row. And I told him then you cannot have one King
of all the Skid Row. And so when these bad
guys came in the Skew like with the hotel, the El Rey when they came into this
in the Skid Row thing and they were going to be there. They won a couple of fights or they might fuck the dude up a pretty bad, but eventually no matter
how bad think you was you gotta remember you
got these guys coming from all across the world. Chicago, 'cause they done
heard of this Skid Row. And it was a lot of money in Skid Row and everybody
was on the take back then. The reason it was so
treacherous, so dangerous, because you knew the
police was on the take. They were paying police
officers off and they were blind out of these murders and we would make it. So when we ride around in our
trunk with four and five keys of mothefucking cocaine,
in our trunk of our car. I had, I had a friend named B Roll. I won't call his whole name,
but his name was B roll. He pulled up to the park in front of Julian one day and the police
pulled in right behind him. We was paying them off, but they didn't like this guy cause he wouldn't pay him. And they pulled up behind
him, opened his trunk and found 75 pounds of weed
in the trunk of his car. That's how open the
freelance was in Skid Row. And that's what brought these
guys here, all that money. But once they got here, you
had one guy named U.B. Jack walking around checking
your pockets like this. See if you got any money,
rob you right there on the stack on his own, on the spot. He killed a girl. They say because, because he I mean he killed a girl
because she gave him AIDS/HIV. But now this female did not
let make him have sex with her. He got exactly what he want. And that's what it was back
then because they do get drugs and want to have sex with
all these different females. But you know Skid Row was that dangerous. And they had that much violence that it was allowed disease, a lot of sex having a race down here at night for the females that
trying to hang up here which brings me to another point. The females is one of some of the toughest mothers
around here, because once you started raping
them and beating them up dumb girls would carry blades
in they purse and everything. And they were calling you
and smile, cut your throat cut your meat off. Sometime they would go in the corner and know you're going
to look at they butt, put booty shorts on and
something to get you in. And then they said, and
then you would try to walk up to them and tell them, get a date. And they knew you was one of them asshole, vicious,
motherfuckers that done 'em. And then, you know, you're a baby. I give you a couple of rocks but these girls had been lied to and beat on and played
on and all his here. So they would say, okay, yeah, I'll go out with you and con you
down the street in the dark. And then once you got down the street, four or five more girls walking
behind that car with clubs and knives and, and you
might hit one in face but are you going to hit that one behind you beating you in
the head with that club? How much can you take that many licks in the back of your head, that pain? Are you going to get the one that's on the side of your study, hitting you with a knife and your
arm and on your side? And what about the girl? That's at your feet started
beating your shin bone and your knee cap. They hitting all the
points to take you down. And once you fall to
the ground, if you fail it was truly over then because they piled around you like a bunch of hyenas and would have
no mercy kill you dead, right then in the dark. Like my homeboy Cave Man, up, he on a on seventh and San Pedro. Con this girl man all day
long and had an intent. I'm going to give you this. He was a big dealer and all that so much. And he con this girl in the tent and did all kinds of fine things with her and gave her a nickel or
dime after all that sex. And thought and laughed at
it and thought it was slick. Like she couldn't do nothing and went to his tent and went to sleep in a tent not a house with bars on
it and a key to the door. But he went to a little flimsy
ass tent and went to sleep on this guy to doing it like that. The girl had an aluminum bat with spikes stuck all over the back
and walked in his tent while he was asleep and
thought whooping him with them spikes and the aluminum
bat 'til he was dead. They found him in his tent, dead. The guy down here, I forget his name. He lived off of seventh
between Crocker and Crocker and Gravitz. He would, he was a speed
freak, but they say speed made the girls horny. Okay, you might do a little bit of speed. It might get you little
anxiety for hour or two, maybe two or three hours. But that don't mean you
want to go in a tent that you gonna go in a tent and stay in there for two
or three days doing nothing but fucking meat and
getting hit in the button. The man won't let you out. He would lock his tent and
wouldn't let the girls out. But he did it to the wrong girl. 'Cause one girl, he got
had family and she went and told somebody and they
found him in his tent. Look at the picture on there. They find him in his tent,
in a chair like this here. With his throat cut, head back. Just like that. That's how he was found his tent. Because he would take
these girls in his tent and lock the tent up. And when they started
doing crystal with them he would rape these girls
and make them stay there. Like he a Crip. 'Cause he gets so horny on the cris. He want to have sex three
four days and all day. And you know how, think of
a person, putting their shit in your mouth, but your
body, all they make you stick 'til you want to throw you. Won't let them out. And you're sick. And you're looking at
this man, do this to you. But when she finally got
out, he met, he went home to his maker because whoever family was, they was not going to tolerate and do you know, he had a family
member come up and one dude and I was walking by his
tent one day and I said and I didn't make that. I seen the black guy standing out there. I didn't know him. But as he was looking at it,
10, I said, yes, the sad thing man, people live and come and die in Skid Row all the time. I've seen there for many years. The dude looked at me and say what happened? Do you know what happened? I say, yeah, drugs happen just like that and walked away. Because I mean, even
though I don't approve of debt and I didn't want this guy to die I wasn't going to sit there and feel sorry for this
man at the same time. 'Cause he brought that on himself. Keeping them girls in them tents. Taking what he wanted to take. So I didn't, I wasn't
happy about his death but I just said drugs
happen and walk away. 'Cause I don't want this guy
feeling sorry for your brother. I know you miss your cousin
or brother, whoever he is. I'm thinking in my mind,
but you should have told him that he took all them girls
to the tent and locked put the lock on the tent,
kept them in their regular. Just like you love your family members. Somebody's going to love
their family member. So, and. So when all these bad guys
came from all over Chicago which you will know had a
bad ass reputation to come up in LA Skid Row, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, which is another,
another treacherous place came up in the Skid Row. And then from the cities
around LA, you had bad names big names around in the city like Big Skillet who
non privileged, who are Uber JACK, Big Bunches from insane, young Scotty from a,
little Johnny, from Hoover. All these were some of
the most vicious names. And you couldn't show no fear in Skid Row. Even if you knew you would
spend to get in a fight and die. Both of y'all had guns and knives. You had to come and steal you a smile because you had to live up to their reputation of being bad. And people look at me like they call me stranger at the time. I swear to God. When, when I come downtown they say they was looking at me, and said oh that's stranger. He was born over there on Maple, they say. - He got a Holly, we do Hollywood. And they would look at
other people and say that's Big Skillet. That's Bunchy's from insane. That's Hoover Jack from Hoover, that little Johnny from Hoover. That's Scott based on East
coast and all these names. When they heard this will get
jealous and envy each other. And the Mexicans wanted to make they mark, the Mexican mafia. They didn't have I have
all these colorful names, they had colorful nicknames but not as out there like we did. You know? And so when they, when
they got into the picture it exploded a little bit more there. There were these twin
brothers Crips and Bloods. So the Mexicans moved in. White Fence, Bad Boys, 18th street. All of them hated each other. They was killing each other. Brothers was killing each other. Mexican mafia was killing each other. Everybody was killing. At one point, do you not seen on the corner where they had
Crips, Bloods and Mexican. Doing like this here. All of was on a different corner. The police showed up and could not get order
with boys with mouth. So they get eight. They start breaking out they shit. Bam, bam. So you got four people in four different corners
too, that he juggled. But now the other three had to back down because when the
police couldn't get it under control with them
little glocks, you know, the heavy equipment came in there. And so when they came in there, when they with the big guns the little guns had to
take off and run, you know? And it was so it was so much shooting that it was so smoky out there that you it was like to 4th of July. You thought you would saw five
crackers and cherry bombs. That's how much the
shooting was back then. But then Skid Row was wide open territory. So you got to remember, there is no order. Like that, man said, he came
and, and are blown away. Tommy Lee Jones and Jeff Bridges. I have come to start a new
government called anarchy a new order called chaos. That's what it was, is Skid
Row, anarchy and chaos. And the police couldn't get no order. But when it started branching out when these white boys started coming into Hollywood to buy it,
taking it back to Hollywood and this blood bath started and they started defending themselves. Some of the people leave here
to go get the white boys. But when they got over there they wasn't just getting white boys. 'Cause you got to remember you now into the territory of the
skinheads and the Hell Angels. So now when you in a
Hollywood, you into they area the Hell's Angels been here forever. You know that and they are prepared to die and kill. They will. They, they, they, they legend
is born is based on killing and not, and being, and
not being afraid of death. And then you got the Nazi guys, skinheads, up in Hollywood too. They were at war with the Hell's Angels. But then when these
brothers go up in there they will see, like, like it's a, it's
a surprise, surprise. Some of these guys had special skills. They had went to martial arts classes. Some would carry a chain
and they we're rough. Tattoos, scars across their face. Rough looking and they were nasty and mean,
and wasn't scared to die. I seen the dude coughing up blood one time on the
ground and he was laughing while he was dying. Yeah. Right there on. Now used to know the sidewalk,
his buddy, and he called they say, I'll see you
when you get there, poppa. When I looked at this white boy do that I thought this man died and coughing up blood out of his mouth. And he's smiling and telling
his homie I'll see you when you get there, which
means heaven or hell, if they do exist, he
was telling his homie, I'll see you when you get there. And he wasn't scared to die. So when these guys, the guys up today. There's weird knees, weird
knees say that coming up in these gags and
acting like they tough. That time is gone. Yeah, you might have an isolated incident
here and there where guys but ain't nothing like it was back then. Drive-bys every offer a motive. Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Pop, pop, pop. Dah, dah, dah. Uh, uh uh, uh. All day long. All day, everyday. Every day in Skid Row was beef. I'd say from seven to 10 murders around the city of Los Angeles. I won't say between
Hollywood and here every day mostly all day long All week. In a week, you'd have
about 15, 20 murders. 30 murders. - And that's, that's, that's, that's the history of Skid Row. And these guys ride up talking about, they came, they might've came up
in a poverty, hard time. Then, you know, we might've came up. Parents didn't have a lot of
money or something like that. Or you had no parents or, you know you might've been abused
by your mother and father, or you might've been molested but it was nothing like
coming out here to Skid Road. How you going to have man
got 30 guys on the corner drinking and doing drugs. And all 30 of them got a gun or knife in they waistband. Big blade. You, you, you, you, you, you,
as an invitation for death all y'all drinking and we all got guns. I got stabbed right here in Hollywood by a white boy named Dutch. We was fighting over a girl, a white girl named Lorraine
who was carrying my baby. I never had children after that. Dutch and them caught
my girl when they had the hell to land, to beat her stomach to make sure that baby
didn't come to the world. So we had been looking for each other I guess he was looking for me but he wasn't going to run from me. I was looking for him because of my baby and caught him in front of a
place called Shakey's pizza. He had five or six of
his homeboys with him. I had five or six of my homeboys with me. And I told him, let's do it. Mano a mano, you know. Kill each other hand by
hand, be one of the death. So he agree with that. But then he had a screwdriver in his hand. My buddy told me, he said
he got a screwdriver. When he said that another
one of his homeboys, came out forward. And then my homeboy fought and he hit me in the
chest with a screwdriver and the screwdriver was stuck in my chest because if I had pulled it out, the blood would have
been, it would have been would have been. And I could of lost a lot of blood. So I kept the screwdriver
in there like this here and kept fighting. Right? So the police was all out there. Somebody called police and I think we blackened each other eyes a little bit wanting to do more. My blood and mob. I got the worst of the deal. 'Cause it was still in my chest. And when the police got there, the screwdriver was in my chest. He grabbed in a sugar like that. And he said, ah that hurt. And he asked me, I'm leaving man. He said, you ain't going nowhere. He said, you're not going nowhere. I went to walk away to pull each other. When I say you ain't
going nowhere, but to jail if you don't sit your down,
you're not going away. And he's called an ambulance for you. And you got to tell us what happened. You said you going to talk to us. And I say, no, I'm not like that there. 'Cause we, you, when you
couldn't be no snitch, you know, you go to County jail. And so they call the ambulance. They took me to the hospital
removed the screwdriver out lightly where they cut around some. However, they got it out. They removed the screwdriver lightly. It was a little painful but it wouldn't be as much pain. Well, and speaking of the County jail now this Skid Row was bad. But when you went to the jail hospital being busted for murder it even got worse because
the County jail was so full. The old County, they put five and six and seven guys in those tanks. And if you was not worthy of being in that tank, they will try you. As soon as you walked into
that, this is the County jail. This aint even a prison. When you walked in that cell if you wasn't worth them
eating, you did not eat. We took your food. If you wasn't worthy of
keeping people off of off of you like a female they took your butt. And this cell is very small. So six or seven people in there. When you fight one, I was watching. Ain't no deputy. They weighed out the other end. So you can haul a deputy and
all ain't nobody going to eat. So when you fighting this guy in the cell, if you got tired, they fuck you. If you lost, they fucked you. Ain't nobody to break up the fight. It definitely ain't coming down here. And if you try to back up and
say, I don't want no more. Then you got to have you
be a girl or keep fighting. They gonna beat you to
death, in that cell. Unless you, if you don't
fight you going to have sex. And even before that, when
you, after that, when you went to prison, these gangbangers,
that came up in Skid Row. They put all the bangers on one yard because they couldn't have,
the prison was only so big. So now you got them all the bills the Bloods and the Crips and
the prison on the same yard. The same people that saw each other in Skid Row was trying to kill each other. Now they on the yard killing until they had to bring that down. The federal government
went in there and said it won't be no more of this, you've got too many deaths in this prison. And they started separating
the Bloods and Crips. They had to separate them. And the Mexican gangs. Some of them. Because they was killing all over. The prisoners were more and
more deli than the street. Because over once these guys got light I knew they wasn't
never given out no more. They didn't give a dam unless
they got the death penalty. And when you kill somebody in there if you didn't get a death
penalty and they, they look at you when you went to court and say, what you going to give me
another life, sentence and laugh. And sometimes the judge,
we caught them by surprise, when they laugh and say, no, we gave you three life sentences already. What are you going to do to me? Now, we gonna send you
to the death penalty and kill you out. And then only then when
his face gets serious. Oh you going to put me on death row? Of course. You've done this. And you keep talking crazy to us and you would have got
three life sentences. I had lamb when they had Larry Kimble. We walked in the County jail. He asked me to do a burglary one night and I wouldn't go with it. He went to do the burglary. So I didn't. I wake up the next morning call his house, get in touch with him. I tried to get in touch with him. His sister answered the phone. I say, where Larry at? Put him on the line. She said, who is? At this time, this was another nickname. He called me little D. My name was little D at that time real short, small, but real
stocky big and told him Larry. Little D, let me holler at Larry. She say, Larry ain't here. What, he been out all night? She said, no, you ain't heard? I say heard what? She said, Larry got busted went to the County jail last night. And that's when I thought
about the burglary. I said God. He did that. Okay, all right. I'll be, I'll be in touch with you soon. And so I'm going to phone up, and me, and at this time all this was getting big time. Larry, Frankie, Joe, Michael Mac and me. Yeah, Larry, Frankie,
Joe, Michael, Mac, and me. When Larry go to trial,
he come back crying. He say, man, these
people gave me 154 years 154 years for a burglary
because I wouldn't take the 10. I went to trial. They gave me 154 years. So he say, we say all of us. When Larry started crying, all of us sit on the
bunk and started crying. 'Cause we had cases better than burglary. I was in there for a manslaughter Frankie Jones was there for
double, triple robberies. And Michael Mack was in there. I think he was in there on a manslaughter or
murder or something too, if I remember right. All of us no, we got some big cases. This man had a burglary. He got a hundred years. So we all sit on the bus started crying. We say shit. And every one of us got
tad, Frankie Jones, he died. He got in a fight and got stuck in there. For me, I, from what
I know of Michael Mack he's still there to this day. He'd been there about 40 years, 50 years. I got out after 22 years. And so from what I know about Larry, I haven't heard that in years, once I left prison, but boy I know that with 154 he's
still placed there too. Jack , all of them still there. So when people come in to
Skid row and you can never we can tell it however we want to tell it. You will never get the graphics of it unless you were there to see this because this was something
that was so treacherous and nasty, the way they
would kill these people. I see dudes get, get hit on a collar bone with a machete and then
go right into the meat. And like you, something you would see in a movie or something, you know and then dude would pull
up and try to get ready. And they keep hitting him on head and everything. And the police about five
or six police got killed. One time they was chasing
the guy from the LA Mission. And this is when the Los Angeles Mission was really being built. The police tried to corner chasing somebody and ran to this big huge hole in the middle of this
ditch and killed them both. One of them got killed behind the LA Mission
many, many years ago. Another one got killed
down off of Los Angeles somewhere right beyond the misery house. There was a police officer
named Connie back there and shot him up. 'Cause he was such a, he
was such a vicious man. And I remember the police
were gang bangers too. Even though they were the
police the guy they was hiring had come up in Skid Row. These guys were marines. Your big old, come out
of the Marine Corps. Country boys out of the woods,
carrying big old tobacco. and they spit, tattooed all up and down their arm, badasses,
real badasses, you know? And these marble come out there and the pole I can't meet you look at me. He say, he looked at me, he say you again, huh stranger? And he said, he spit at tobacco. Take him in to the county jail. And that's how deep his voice was. He say, we'll deal with him later. This is not over. Let's go. And they would take
one dude to county jail and walk deep into Skid Row and cocked them little
riot, pumps and shit. And say, bloods away on a building. He reminds me, don't come in here copper, we'll kill you. Before we holler back. We didn't come to live. We came to that. And before you know it,
that shop would be coming up from behind on the other
side, like this here with that motherfucker
long ass gun up the side. Bullets that long hit your body and knock half of it off like you
was in Beirut or something. They have bullets that long
knock half your body off. And they want you to kill at first. They shoot you and not have their cut. Take one of your legs
where you feel that pain. Bust you in the shoulder and take half of your body from you. And feel the pain. And then look at you and
say, you wanna quit now? Do we keep firing? Have you had enough? Like that there. And they would bring some of the guns. We had never seen in my
life in his blood bath. And then the federal government took over and declared war on Skid Row. There will be no more baby raping. There will be no more kids
getting raped, no more killing everyday killing
police officers and all that. And so the history of Skid
Row, remember, was a playground for the, I'll say it
again, for the baddest of the baddest and people from
all over the United States to LA from all the United States would come with them big names,
the badass names that come up in Skid Row, improve themselves. Now some of them that did that went to prison for the rest of their life. A lot of them died. Because you can't win them all. No matter how bad you are,
no matter how bad you are. Somebody got another one next day. Somebody want to take that reputation. You know, they want, they want
to be the King of Skid Row. So even if you didn't lose your life one way or another you lost it because you
wasn't going to be here. You was either in prison for
life for being such a badass killer so many people or you died. And the drugs was commendable. And it was like something like out of Spiderman book, the Kingpin everybody wants to be the King. And the G.I. office,
the general leave office almost we got was the most
dangerous place you could go because now they give you
food stamps and money. But if you went to G office back then this is where all the gang
bangers hang at because soon as you got your food stamps if you was a nothing
person, no gang or nothing they took those food
stamps, stole your money. They took that G.I. check all your voucher cause back then you used to
get vouchers for a motel. You go, you, you, they
give you a voucher to go on a motel and stay for a week
and give you voucher to eat at some of the finest
restaurants all around the city. And you will get stole ball. I mean, restaurant service,
like you were paying for it. On these vouchers. But then people were there. When they see you with these vouchers, they were like can they come
to your room and sleep tonight? Or can they, can you have, can
they have some of your food? If you didn't give it, they took it. They would force they way in your room. You know what I'm saying? They take your whole voucher and give it to the hotel manager. And say, this my voucher, take your room. It was like that back then. They'd take your room and your food and you
couldn't get high back then. 'Cause soon as you took a hit If you sat down and take a
hit, somebody come across you but they know you get
spooked on the crack. They come across, with their fist. And bam. Knock your bitch out,
knock your brains out. Or you, when you seen them walk up on you there is food you sit there hidden and they be scared. They reach down and grab it. Would they want it from you? 'Cause they know you were scared. If you said something or try to stop that's when they knock your brains out. They thought they could
scare you and you would move. You was high. And you'd be looking at, just
reach down and grab your shit. And turn and walk away
and leave you there. So my point was this,
any story you ever heard of Skid Row will never
live up to what I have seen because we can tell you a
thousand times or a million times and you can get guys
from all over the city to tell you these stories. But unless you were there to see this you will never believe the graphics of it. It was treacherous. And Skid Row was one of the most dangerous place
I've ever been in my life. And when I say that, you
gotta remember anybody been to Houston back in the
seventies, seventies or eighties they had a theater called
the majestic theater downtown where they were killing like a motherfucker in Houston, Texas, but it was never tough as LA. And Louisiana that was where they came. That was one of the murder
capital of the United States but it was never tough as Skid Row. And I was in jail in Louisiana house, where we did some of the same
type of thing they did in LA. You had to fight for your food. But then when I was in, I went to, I went to Caprini Green in Chicago. Just a youngster. Hell, I was probably about 10 15 years old then or something
somewhere between 10 and 15. And it was dangerous, but
I had never seen nothing like I seen in Skid Row. These guys had AK 47, Uzis and they was standing in
the middle of the street and do they business right
there, broad daylight night day. It didn't matter. You know, and the police there wasn't on the take where they would would try to take them down. Some would get take down. But like I say, then
they would bring that. And the ones that was on the take would turn a blind eye to it. It was like bad badly were
about some of the toughest of the tough, bad got
beat down, got fucked up. And they won a few when
they came up in here. But then none of them last very long because all of a sudden every time you get in a
fight, you make a mistake. Look somewhere else,
forget to do something. And once you look somewhere
else and forget to do that the person you fight gets capitalized, to hit you cross the face with knives, teach you what's up. You know? And so, yes, Skid Row it was
one of the baddest places. That's what I have to say. And these guys coming up and telling you today,
they weren't there. And to have seen this they had to be in their sixties. Maybe they very very late fifties older and
again, and then another thing. See the young gangbangers coming up today, when they tell you
they're in a gang member, got to be in a gang. No they don't. They sag. But do you know, 10 years,
20 years ago, 30 years ago if you got caught with the pants hanging
down below your waistline any gang man would say,
what hood you from? If you weren't from a neighborhood and you claim a neighborhood. Then they would contact
somebody from that neighborhood. And they said, they didn't know you. They will beat your ass and
make you pull your pants up. 'Cause it was something
like the Marine Corps. You had to be worthy to be in a game which meant you had to be jumped in. They don't know if you're going to turn on when they get in the
fight and you're about to die you're going to turn on them
and snitch on them or what. So they made you prove yourself worthy of being in this game. So these guys today they're sagging don't have no challenge. They ain't no more jumping in. They just wake up one day and just start saying it
and say, I'm a gang banger. Ain't nobody at they door force
them to be no gang no more. Back then in the neighborhood you had to be a gang
man, because these dudes would show up at your door,
force you to be in a gang make you be in a gang, get tattoos. And if you didn't, they
shoot your house up at night, drive by shoot your house up at night or mess with the women folks
in your house or the kids. So yes, you had to be a banger, I come up in that neighborhood and you know father Benjamin, saved
my life, saved my family. Because if you want to bang,
and some guys came at you tear your house up, put pressure on you 'til you became a banger
for their protection. But how well could they protect you? Because they was still
driving by every day. You hit me, I'm going
to do your neighborhood. You do mine. I'm gonna do your neighborhood. And they would ride by shooting
each other neighborhood. Killing, sometimes innocent
people, kids and women's down on bus stops and stuff like
that, it was dangerous. So there you have it
people, Skid Row, it was what it was, and still
can be a dangerous place. But Skid Row was a
playground for the baddest of the baddest. And they came from miles
around to earn their, earn their name and earn their reputation. A lot of them died to do that. This is nothing compared to the things I have seen in my life, you know? And so, all it was about was
people just running around being wild, stupid and crazy. And let me say this here even though we had to look
brave, act brave and smile cause we thought we
were the baddest of bad. We all was scared inside. We were scared to death that we had won the fight the day before. And we'll lose this one today. And even if we didn't get
in a fight the very next day we all looked at each other. When one of us got killed or died is how long will I make it? How many, when is my turn coming to die? Because you knew you had to turn company. When you go out like that. Just wonder when your
terms come, but you do. Everybody has one coming. So I'm just saying you
badass motherfucker. There is another one you're going to run into eventually have a good day. That's Skid Row story. And that's what will happen. That's the truth.
