John M. Hagedorn - The Insane Chicago Way: The Daring Plan by Chicago Gangs to Create a Spanish Mafia

Excerpt from formal grievance of Latin Lovers against the Maniac Latin Disciples and the MLD response

Introduction to the constitution of Spanish Growth and Development

Application for Membership of 2-6 Nation

Loving Memories, from the SGD constitution

Insignia of the Spanish cross

From the SGD constitution

Latin King manifesto

Ambrose grievance to SGD

Preamble to the SGD Constitution

From the laws of SGD

The first shooting was at 4:35 p.m. Tuesday (February 13) when Jose Munoz, 21, and Steven Wasilenski, 17, were shot by an assailant who walked up to them as they stood on the sidewalk in the 1800 block of N. Mozart Street. They were in fair condition at Illinois Masonic Medical Center Thursday.

Twenty minutes later, at 4:57 p.m., Victor Sanchez, 16, was shot in the head, leg, and wrist as he left his home in the 2600 block of W. Evergreen Avenue. He remains in critical condition at Cook County Hospital.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Theophil Encaldo, 18, was shot in the right thigh and right toe at 1545 W. LeMoyne St. by a passenger in a van who shouted a gang slogan and fired five times. Encaldo is in serious condition at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center.

At 6:11 p.m. Tuesday, Dawn Massas, 15, was shot in the back in her home in the 1400 block of N. Maplewood Avenue by two men on her front porch. She was treated and released from St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital. A 16-year-old boy was wounded in a shoulder that night at Cortez Street and Campbell Avenue.

At 7:20 p.m. Tuesday, Jose Cartegena, 20, was shot in the neck at 2544 W. Cortez Street by two gunmen who shot from a gangway. He remains in serious condition at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital.

Just after 8 a.m. Wednesday (February 14), a 17-year-old youth was shot in an arm in the 1200 block of N. Rockwell Street, police said.

6 p.m. Wednesday. Eddie Ramos was an 18-year-old member of the Spanish Cobras. Grand Central Area Cmdr. Philip Cline said Ramos was sitting in his car at 2522 W. Shakespeare Ave. when a gunman approached and opened fire.

T hese shootings are part of a larger story of how gang warfare raged out of control in 1990s Chicago despite highly organized attempts by a secret coalition of Latino gangs to stop them. The war of the families began a chilling chain of events that explain why it has been so difficult to control gang violence in Chicago today. Most gang members are youths struggling for survival and identity, and given a chance can be productive members of society. At the same time, there have been covert efforts of a select group of power-hungry Chicago gang leaders to organize crime, regulate violence, and corrupt all-too-willing police and public officials. The hidden history of the rise and fall of the Spanish mafia calls into question some of the most strongly held beliefs about gangs by both social scientists and law enforcement.