Stanley Tookie Williams

Stanley Tookie Williams III was one of the founding members of the Crips, a notoriously violent street gang in South-Central Los Angeles. Williams had started his own gang and united it with an existing one called the Baby Avenues, a union that came to be known as The Crips (Williams later claimed that the Crips were initially formed to "cleanse" the neighborhood of other violent street gangs, but that it got out of control and wound up becoming the kind of gang he had set out to eliminate). The Crips became known for engaging in a wide range of criminal activities, crimes, including robberies, hold-ups, drug sales, auto thefts and murders. They also became known for extreme violence and their willingness to attack and kill any who they thought were getting in the way of their criminal activities; oftentimes innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire of their attacks and seriously wounded or killed. Williams was convicted of the 1979 murder of Albert Owens, a clerk in a 7-11 stor