Gangs of Las Vegas — Mayhem in the Desert

**Explore the gangs of 1980’s and 90’s Las Vegas…according to this infographic from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)**

A deadly shooting at a Las Vegas high school in 1990 was believed to be gang-related. Though later investigation into the murder of Donnie Lee Bolden by Curtis Collins at Eldorado High School did not conclusively find that the crime was the result of a gang dispute, local media seized on the incident to highlight gang violence that had taken hold in the city since the mid-80’s.

The Las Vegas-Review Journal ran an infographic in the days after the shooting at Eldorado with a purported breakdown of the gangs operating at each of the major high schools in the Las Vegas Valley.

So, we took a look at each gang listed in the infographic in order to see what additional info we could find about their activities in 80’s and 90’s Las Vegas. Here are our results:

**Las Vegas press covered the rise in violence from white supremacist skinhead gangs throughout the late-80’s and into the 90’s.** **(Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)**

Stoners

Not so much a gang as teenagers that like to smoke weed. The most we could find in the way of “gang” activity from Stoners were news reports from the 80’s about the occasional graffiti on a city wall featuring a marijuana leaf.

Skin Heads

A catchall term for the white supremacist gangs with members sporting closely-shaved heads that operated in the Las Vegas area.

Las Vegas area skinheads would tag walls and buildings with swastikas and other bigoted imagery during the 1980’s. Neo-Nazi skinheads also started a brawl with anti-racist activists and veteran groups protesting outside of the Imperial Palace Hotel in 1989, with one protester being sent to the hospital due to his injuries. The activists were protesting Imperial Palace owner Ralph Engelstad’s sympathetic views towards Nazism, which had included hosting two birthday parties in honor of Adolph Hitler at the Imperial Palace. In response to rising skinhead activities, the Anti-Defamation League pushed for tougher hate crime laws in the Nevada legislature during the 1989 session.

An early example of the skinheads’ propensity for violence is found in an incident that occurred in 1994. 13-year-old Kelly Buzzalini and a friend went to a party in the desert hosted by skinheads. Buzzalini, who was half-Japanese, was unaware of the skinheads’ virulent racism. At some point during the party a group of skinheads began questioning Buzzalini about the shape of her eyes. After her friend told the skinheads Buzzalini’s ethnicity, the group proceeded to throw beer bottles at the young girl before one of the skinheads struck Buzzalini in the head with a large rock, fracturing her skull. One of the skinheads at the party was later charged in relation to the assault.

However, the most notorious attack committed by Las Vegas neo-Nazi skinheads occurred on July 4, 1998 when anti-racist activists Lin Newborn and Daniel Shersty were lured into the desert and assassinated by a group of white supremacists. Despite the murders being the result of a conspiracy, only one individual was convicted in relation to the crime.

Henderson Original Gangsters

The only info we could find on this group is that the founder of the Henderson Original Gangsters (HOGS) eventually moved to Garden City, Idaho, where he started a group called Garden City HOGS that committed burglaries and harassed area high school students.

Shit on Skates

We could locate no additional info on this group in the newspaper archives or elsewhere.

Los Hermanos

An article that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in April of 1986 noted Los Hermanos operated in the northeast part of Vegas and North Las Vegas, with the group primarily involved in the illicit drug trade and burglaries. The only other mention of the group in the news archives was the city routinely cleaning graffiti from walls reading “VLH” (for Varrio Los Hermanos) during the mid-80’s.

**Fatal shootings near Bonanza High School and at Eldorado High School in 1989 and 1990 respectively left three young people dead and sparked a flurry of coverage about local gangs in the press.** **(Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)**

East Side Posse

The East Side Posse was an offshoot of another gang we will be covering later – the Reet Boyz. The East Side Posse, as the name suggests, operated on the east side of Las Vegas and had a multiethnic membership.

Bad blood between the East Side Posse and the Reet Boyz exploded on the streets of an east Vegas neighborhood on the night of July 6, 1989. Nine members of the East Side Posse and nine members of the Reet Boyz confronted each other at Whitney Park on that evening. Shots broke out, and the gun battle then filtered into a housing complex in the surrounding neighborhood. One member of the Reet Boyz sustained minor injuries, and all involved with the gunfight were taken into police custody.

Gerson Park Kingsmen

The Gerson Park Kingsmen are one of the longest established gangs in Las Vegas. Founded in the 70’s, the organization was involved in several high-profile incidents during the 80’s.

At around 7:30 p.m. on January 26, 1988, a stolen blue Camaro made its way south on M Street in the Westside of Las Vegas. The vehicle was occupied by several members of the Gerson Park Kingsmen (GPK) seeking revenge for the slaying of Kingsmen associate David Vaughns in December of 1987 by a member of the West Coast Bloods. The Kingsmen opened fire at people standing near a housing complex and continued shooting at their targets as the Camaro turned onto McWilliams Avenue.

The shooters cut down three young men as they attempted to find shelter inside of a home located at 810 M Street and a 16-year-old girl was left lying wounded in the street. A police search failed to locate any suspects after the drive-by. Corey Thompson, the brother of the man accused of killing David Vaughns, was heard shouting in the street after the shooting, “Take me to jail. I don’t give a fuck! Those crabs just shot my brothers. I’m gonna kill a crab!”

Later in 1988 members of the Gerson Park Kingsmen found themselves inadvertently facing charges of attempting to murder two police officers. Two GPK members spotted what appeared to be rival gang members while driving along West McWilliams Avenue and emptied a .357 revolver in their rivals’ direction. It turned out the rival gang members were actually undercover Metro police officers conducting a drug sting operation. The GPK argued that they fired over the officers’ heads as a warning and didn’t intend to hit anyone with their shots. As the defense attorney argued to the jury, “If he wanted to kill someone why didn’t he do that?” The defense argument carried little weight as both GPK members were convicted of attempted murder.

The feuds between the Gerson Park Kingsmen and rival gangs even spilled onto the grounds of local schools. A scuffle between GPK members and a gang called the Brownies at Western High School in September of 1990 resulted in one student being stabbed in the back with a steak knife.

Metro eventually took steps to counter the influence of the Gerson Park Kingsmen by opening a police substation in Apartment A at 1536 McGuire Drive. The substation was painted black and white to mirror the colors borne by Metro patrol cars. The response to the substation from the community was mixed, with some residents arguing the increased police presence led to harassment of Gerson Park residents while others felt the regular police beat patrols made the area safer.

Comstock 40s

The Comstock 40s were affiliated with the Crips, though we could find little info about this gang in the news archives outside of incidents that occurred at Eldorado High School.

The cafeteria of Eldorado High School was packed for the first day of classes with over 800 students and bustling with activity on the morning of August 26, 1990. A few minutes before classes were to begin, a scuffle involving dozens of students affiliated with rival gangs broke out.

Amidst the melee, one of the students, 15-year-old Curtis Collins, decided to settle a simmering feud that had developed with another student. Collins pulled a semiautomatic handgun from his backpack and fired a single round into the back of 16-year-old Donnie Lee Bolden’s neck. Bolden, who fashioned himself an amateur barber and had a reputation for doing a decent job cutting his friends’ hair, died from his wounds.

Bolden was initially accused of being a member of the Comstock 40s while Collins was rumored to run with the Hoods, a faction of the Bloods. However, later investigation could not conclusively prove that the murder was gang-related as Curtis and Bolden had developed a feud between each other for personal reasons over the summer of 1990. At most, each boy was a hanger-on around area gangs.

Renewed violence occurred at the school in the weeks after the murder of Bolden. Several students were suspended after a fight broke out in the halls between members of the Comstock 40s and Bloods. No weapons were used or injuries reported in the scuffle.

Reet Boyz

Made up largely of high school athletes, the Reet Boyz were involved in an infamous double murder near Bonanza High School.

The Reet Boyz formed among jocks attending Valley High School in the 80’s reportedly to provide protection against other gangs at the school before turning to criminal activities themselves. One Reet Boy interviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 1989 said of the gang, “Being cool, well-liked, and a jock were a must for those who wanted to be Reet Boyz and join the crusade against gangs and drugs. We started saying this gang stuff really sucks. Well, let’s start our own.”

The group garnered little public attention before March 10, 1989. Several young men belonging to a gang known as the Pinoy Boys were walking near Bonanza High School on that afternoon just as classes were getting out for the day. The Pinoy Boys were confronted by a group of Reet Boyz packed inside a passing car. The vehicle slowed and words were exchanged between the groups.

One of the Pinoy Boys yelled, “Drop your weapons and fight head up!”

Reet Boyz member Michael “Italian” Smith leaned out of the car and produced a sawed-off shotgun. He yelled back, “Like you did at McDonald’s?” (referencing an incident in December of 1988 where a Pinoy Boy shot and injured a Reet Boy at a McDonald’s.) Then he pulled the trigger.

Two young men, 21-year-old Lino Abacahin and 16-year-old Jeffrey Randrup, were cut down by the shotgun blast. Neither survived their injuries. The car containing the Reet Boyz sped away, but Smith turned himself into police two days after the shooting. Smith later plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for prosecutors agreeing not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced to four life terms without parole.

The Reet Boyz produced several offshoots, such as the Gold Bar Posse, the Green Valley Boys, and the East Side Posse. In the case of the East Side Posse, it developed a rivalry with the Reet Boyz that occasionally spilled over into violence, as was the case with a shootout between several Reet Boyz and East Side Posse members in July of 1989.

As late as 1992 police estimated there were approximately 156 Reet Boyz active in the Las Vegas area.

**More infographics from the 1980’s featured in the Las Vegas Review-Journal purporting to detail the workings of local street gangs along with coverage of gang activities around the Vegas Valley.** **(Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/LVRJ)**

Rolling 60s Crips

Press accounts from the late-80’s indicate the Rolling 60s originated in California before establishing roots in Las Vegas.

One of the earliest cases we found involving the Rolling 60s was the 1988 murder of Jimmy “Boo Boo” Swanson. A member of the Donna Street Crips, Swanson was driving with a friend through territory in North Las Vegas controlled by the Rolling 60s. Another vehicle containing three members of the Rolling 60s pulled alongside Swanson’s car and shouted a gang epithet. Then a shot rang out and Swanson’s car began to swerve. Swanson’s friend riding in the passenger seat grabbed the wheel and guided the car to a nearby store, but it was already too late for Swanson.

Throughout 2001, the Rolling 60s engaged in a vicious war with the Gerson Park Kingsmen for control of territory in North Las Vegas. The gang war left at least fifteen dead and many more wounded in the square mile area surrounding Lake Mead Boulevard and Martin Luther King Boulevard, including a church deacon caught in the crossfire between the gangs.

The neighborhoods where the Rolling 60s operated obtained some relief in 2003 after 21 members were indicted by the federal government on RICO charges for crimes ranging from arms trafficking, prostitution, arson, armed robbery, and murder. One area resident living near Lake Mead Boulevard and D Street told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the arrests, “I’m afraid they’ll just be locked up for a while, and then get out again and do some more shootings.”

Boulder City Terrorist Group

We found no other references to this group in the news archives.

White Street

The White Street Mob was a smaller gang focused primarily on narcotics dealing on the east side of Las Vegas.

The alleged head of the gang, Jesse Bright III, was shot and killed in 1989 by a suspect the police identified as being known to the victim. Even after Bright’s murder, rival gangs targeted his parents’ home with gunfire and a Molotov cocktail.

The last notable incident involving White Street occurred in 1998. A 14-year-old member of White Street encountered two rival gang members when they pulled up in a car in the parking lot of a supermarket. The rival gang members started “talking crazy” and insulting White Street, and in response the 14-year-old pulled out a .22 handgun and fired several rounds, killing 16-year-old Daryl Crittenden and wounding the other youth in the car. The young gunman was later granted a reduced sentence by the Governor due to his age at the time of the shooting.

Regal Estate/State Boys

The only reference we found to the State Boys was the 1988 arrest of three members that attended Chaparral High School for allegedly beating up random citizens in an effort to build street cred for their new gang.

West Coast Bloods

Formed in Las Vegas around 1985, the West Coast Bloods had links through kin or affinity to more established gangs in Los Angeles.

A well-publicized case involving the West Coast Bloods occurred on December 4, 1988 during a party outside of the Comfort Inn located at 525 East Bonanza Road. The party had been advertised around several area high schools and drew teenagers from many different gangs. During the party, West Coast Bloods member Calvin Thompson got into an altercation with David Vaughns, a member of the Gerson Park Kingsmen. Thompson pulled out a gun and fired three rounds into Vaughns’ head, killing him. Another person was injured, and Thompson even accidentally shot his own brother in the arm during the incident. Notably, Thompson had been released from the Clark County Detention Center only a day before the shooting after being charged with spraying gunfire into a North Las Vegas home.

The trial of Calvin Thompson turned into a spectacle. A brief fight broke out between members of the West Coast Bloods and the Gerson Park Kingsmen at the Clark County Courthouse when members of the rival gangs arrived at the same time in response to subpoenas issued by the District Attorney. And the rows of seats behind Thompson in the courtroom were filled with members from his gang donned in red as a show of support for their incarcerated compatriot, with Thompson frequently flashing gang signs to his brothers in the Bloods during trial recesses.

Thompson was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of David Vaughns. At his sentencing hearing, Thompson maintained his innocence. However, he did say of his victim, “I don’t care nothing about him, and he don’t care nothing about me. And that’s coming from the heart. I’m sorry he got killed.”

In 1991, the West Coast Bloods were one of several gangs targeted in a sweeping multiagency police raid across the Las Vegas area. The gang members were charged under Nevada’s version of RICO for engaging in a criminal enterprise, the first time in the nation that youth gangs had been charged with criminal racketeering.

Rolling 50s

We could locate no other references to the Rolling 50s in the news archives other than they also went by the Vegas Heights Gangsta Crips.

Piru Bloods

Named after Piru Street in Compton, California, the Piru Bloods were well-established in Las Vegas by the mid-80’s.

On June 4, 1990, 19-year-od Richard Carter was standing outside of an AM/PM gas station located at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue. An Oldsmobile with three occupants slowly pulled up. Then five shots from a rifle rang out and the car sped away from the scene. Carter suffered a fatal wound. As for the Oldsmobile, it had been stolen before the shooting and then abandoned about two miles from the AM/PM after being used in the crime.

A reputed leader of the Pirus, Kevin Lay, was charged with the murder of Richard Carter. Prosecutors alleged that Lay tried to create an alibi after the Carter murder by visiting a 7-11 where he would be caught on surveillance video. Investigators believe gang rivalry was the motive behind the slaying of Carter, who was a member of the Gerson Park Kingsmen. Despite claims that he had spent most of the day at his grandmother’s house, Lay was convicted of Carter’s murder.

There may have been retaliation for the Carter murder a few months after his death. On the night of August 6, 1990 a Piru member, Alexander Synagogue, was shot to death outside the same exact AM/PM gas station where Carter had been killed. Witnesses described the murder occurring after a confrontation between members of the Pirus and their gang rivals.

28th Street Gang

An established feature of the east side of Las Vegas, the 28th Street Gang was quite active during the 80’s and 90’s.

One of the earliest references to the 28th Street Gang we found was an incident that occurred on December 9, 1984. A fight broke out between members of the 28th Street Gang and rival gang the Lil Locos in the early morning hours after a house party on Sandy Lane. During the melee, 18-year-old Esteban Aragonez was chased down by a rival gang member and stabbed repeatedly in the back. Aragonez eventually succumbed to his wounds after crawling more than 100 feet in an effort to obtain help.

Another dramatic and terrifying incident involving the gang took place during a little league practice. On the evening of September 28, 1988, a group of 7 and 8-year-olds gathered at the baseball diamond near 23rd Street and Stewart Avenue along with their coach and parents to practice for their little league team. Suddenly rival gang members from the Bloods and the 28th Street Gang began to converge on the baseball diamond. At first the two groups of interlopers threw bottles at each other. But then gunfire exploded through the night air. The parents and coach yelled for the kids to duck and the little league team hit the ground until the shots let up. The gang members involved in the chaos had scattered by the time police arrived on the scene.

Kick Boys

We could locate no other information on the Kick Boys.

Pinoy Boys

The Pinoy Boys were a largely Filipino gang that operated at Las Vegas high schools.

As we detailed above, reputed Pinoy Boys member Lino Abacahin was gunned down a half block from Bonanza High School in 1989 by rival Reet Boyz member Michael Smith during a confrontation between the competing gangs. The bad blood between the gangs had been heightened by the shooting of a Reet Boyz member by a Pinoy Boy at a McDonald’s in December of 1988.

A few months after Abacahin’s murder, a car full of Pinoy Boys members was stopped by the police based on information received from a confidential informant. The Pinoy Boys were loaded up on guns and were on their way to carry out a retaliatory attack on the Reet Boyz.

The Pinoy Boys were targeted in the sweeping 1991 law enforcement raids against Las Vegas area gangs for violating Nevada’s equivalent of RICO.

Pecker Woods

Aside from the fact the Pecker Woods were a skinhead gang, we could not locate any other info on this gang in the news archives.

Flip Side

We could not locate any info on this gang in the news archives.

18th Street Gang

The 18th Street Gang was originally formed in Los Angeles and has operated in Las Vegas for decades.

A tragic murder involving the 18th Street Gang was set in motion when Gibson Middle School student 13-year-old Alexander Arroyo and his friend John Episioco were dropped off in front of his house the afternoon of October 26, 1996. Arroyo made his way past a blue Cadillac parked in front of the home when he was approached by 19-year-old Jerry Lara, who was a reputed member of the 18th Street Gang. Referencing the vehicle parked in front of the house, Lara brandished a handgun and told Arroyo he was going to get the “fool with a Cadillac.”

Arroyo entered his home and immediately informed his 16-year-old brother that Lara had a gun and was looking for him. Arroyo, his older brother, and his friend piled into the Cadillac parked out front and made their way to a nearby 7-11 in a search for Lara. Not long after arriving, the car containing Arroyo and the others encountered Lara, who fired shots into the Cadillac as it drove near the intersection of Vegas Drive and Simmons Street. Alexander Arroyo was struck and killed by one of Lara’s rounds as he sat in the backseat next to his friend.

After his arrest, Lara told police that he had been at an apartment with friends at the time of the shooting. Lara was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder, but when handing down the sentence Judge Jeffrey Sobel told Lara, “You are either totally innocent or totally guilty. I hope to God you are guilty because that’s what the jury found.”

For his part Lara continued to maintain that 13-year-old John Episioco – a key witness for the prosecution – had lied under oath. Only two months after Lara’s conviction, Episioco was approached from behind by an unknown teenager as he walked his 5-year-old sister to school. The assailant fired a single round into the back of Episioco’s head before fleeing the scene. Episioco was murdered almost exactly one year from the date he witnessed his friend Alexander bleed to death next to him in the back of a Cadillac. Lara denied any involvement in the slaying, and no suspects have ever been arrested in connection with Episioco’s murder.

San Chucos

One 17-year-old member of the San Chucos told the Las Vegas-Review Journal during a 1989 interview, “There are a lot of Crips at Rancho High School and they tried to mess with me because I was Mexican. It stopped when I joined [the San Chucos] because they get along with my gang members.”

The San Chucos were involved in several brazen incidents during the 1980’s. In March of 1988, members of the gang smashed a car through a closed sporting goods store and stole weapons from inside.

In February of 1989, members of the gang were believed responsible for arson incidents at two North Las Vegas schools. On the night of February 13, 1989, two Molotov cocktails were thrown through the windows of Lincoln Elementary School, torching a classroom for blind students; a janitor managed to snuff out the firebomb tossed into the school’s library before it could do any damage. Then, on the Saturday night over President’s Day weekend, San Chucos members broke into Bridger Junior High and doused the administration offices with a flammable liquid before setting a fire that caused $200,000 in damage and destroyed countless student records.

A group of five San Chucos members ranging in ages from 12 to 17-years old were charged with setting the fires. Investigators believe the 17-year-old suspect planned the torching of Bridger Junior High after he was thrown off school property for tagging.

The San Chucos were involved in another attack in 1989 that captured local headlines when three San Chuco members fired several rounds from a .38 handgun into a Clark County school bus. The bus had picked up students from Opportunity Schools when an altercation occurred between passengers of the bus and three San Chucos members. The San Chucos members followed the bus in their car and fired several rounds at the vehicle as it was traveling near Bruce Street and Stewart Avenue, with one round lodging in the back of a seat.

Lil Locos

The Lil Locos were responsible for several murders during the 80’s and 90’s.

Several members of the Lil Locos were attending a small gathering at an apartment located at 1200 South Torrey Pines Drive on the afternoon of November 19, 1992. At some point, Bonanza High School student Maria Estela De La Mora – who had no gang ties – stopped by the apartment to visit her friend. Lil Locos member Adrian “Stranger” Tena started harassing De La Mora and she responded by calling him a “little bitch.” Tena pulled out a .357 revolver and pointed it at De La Mora. The high school student responded, “Man, you’re crazy.” A single shot from the gun struck De La Mora in the head, killing her instantly. De La Mora, an enthusiastic member of the ROTC, was buried in her uniform about a week after the shooting.

Tena obtained the assistance of family in escaping to Mexico. As of 2000, he was known to be located on a ranch in Chihuahua but authorities in the U.S. were unable to extradite him to stand trial.

Tena’s cousin and fellow member of the Lil Locos, Omar Mazon, also fled to Mexico after a 1991 murder in Las Vegas. Police suspected Mazon as the triggerman in the shooting of Jose Manuel Landeros over an argument about gang affiliations during a party taking place on Glendale Avenue in North Las Vegas.

Local press reported in 1994 that several Lil Locos had killed themselves during games of Russian Roulette that were popular with some members. After a 10-year-old member of the gang killed himself during one such game of Russian Roulette, a Las Vegas anti-gang activist told reporters, “They just get together at a kickback, and someone gets a gun and he starts playing with it, and he takes out all the bullets except one, and they start talking stupid, and one of them shoots himself.” News reports indicate at least four Las Vegas area gang members died in Russian Roulette incidents in 1994.

Donna Street Crips

Notorious in the history of Las Vegas gangs, the Donna Street Crips held a tight grip on their neighborhood in North Las Vegas during the 80’s and 90’s.

A particularly brutal incident involving the gang was the 1988 murder of 25-year-old Rickey Allen. In the early morning hours on September 18, 1988, Allen was accosted by four teenage members of the Donna Street Crips while walking down the street on Judson Avenue. During the ensuing confrontation, DSC members beat Allen to death with a baseball bat and tire iron. Police contended the murder of Allen was “definitely gang-related” but offered no other details to the press.

Years later, Daniel Bennett, one of the men involved in the murder of Rickey Allen, plead guilty to the 1996 murder of Rickey Ray Hall in Las Vegas. Hall had stolen $300,000 from an associate in the illicit narcotics trade and Bennett had been hired by the victim of that theft to settle the score. It was later learned that federal agents knew of the murder-for-hire plot before Hall was gunned down but failed to warn him. The federal government argued they knew of a plot but not the specific target of the hit.

North Las Vegas Police announced in 1989 that they would be opening a substation in the Centennial Park Arms apartments in an effort targeting the Donna Street Crips. Members of the gang retaliated by firebombing the substation just before it was scheduled to open. Though the substation was nearly destroyed in the fire, it eventually opened in 1990.

Hoover 52 Street

We couldn’t locate any information on this gang in the news archives.

Valley View Gangsters

The only reference to this group we found in the news archives was that members of the Valley View Gangster Crips were among the dozens of gang associates arrested in a mass sweep by Las Vegas area law enforcement agencies in April of 2004.

Police Report on Vegas Gangs

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department report that served as the basis for the infographic that lead to this article evidences the generational divide between those compiling the report and the subjects of their investigation. The most glaring example is labeling “Stoners” as a gang. The potheads at Vegas high schools in the 80’s were no different – and no more a gang – than their THC-enthusiast predecessors that attended Vegas high schools during the 60’s and 70’s. Despite the report’s flaws, it did accurately identify many of the gangs that operated around Vegas at the time.

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