- Raymond Washington is the founder of the famous street gang that operated during the late 1960s to mid-1970s
- He died before he turned 27 years old but in his short-lived time on earth, he created a movement that had thousands of followers and was one of the first members of the gang to be imprisoned
- It has been reported that he was murdered a few days before his 27th birthday by a group of people he knew.
The period between the 1960s to 1980s and beyond saw the rise and fall of many street gangs in America, and Raymond Washington was associated with a few. He was one whose notoriety began at a very early age and soon became of the youngest street gang leaders in Los Angeles.
It could be argued, especially by his family members that he had good intentions when he started his gang but things spiraled out of his control. His mother and brother saw him as the ‘good guy’ who only fought when necessary. However, for the people of the three housing projects located in Watts at the time, Raymond Washington was a bully and robber.
Despite being some sort of Robin Hood to his family members, his gang caused quite a discomfort in the areas they operated. The Crips gang engaged in a lot of atrocious activities that led to a couple of homicides and gang wars.
Raymond Washington was Born in 1953
Raymond Lee Washington was born in Texas on the 14th of August 1953. He grew up on 76th Street close to Wadsworth Avenue, West of Central Avenue. He was born to his parents Mrs. Violet Barton nee Samuel and Reginald Washington.
Also, he had three older brothers and a younger brother. One of his older brothers is called Reginald ‘Reggie’ and the younger brother is known as Gerard S. Barton.
While he was barely two years old, his parents separated and his mother got married to a man with whom she bore Derard.
He was enrolled in quite a number of schools and was good at football but never got around to making good use of the talent. One of the reasons why Raymond never got to play football for his school teams was because he was failing in his academics and he kept getting into trouble.
Similarly, he was kicked out of every school he got into. First, he was a student at Locke High School, John C. Fremont High School, and Washington Preparatory High School’s alternative. Washington also attended Fairfax High School near West Hollywood.
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Here are some more Facts about Raymond Washington You Never Knew
1. Raymond Washington was considered a bully from his childhood Days
The young Texas-born was well built, with an enviable height. Sadly, he used this to a very distasteful advantage. He would bully the people in his neighborhood and made people wary of him. Most people had no fond memories of him despite all the good things his mother said to paint him in good light.
Admittedly, he protected his neighborhood from external influence and bullying but did not protect them against his own form of bullying. Soon, Raymond became a notorious robber and got into more trouble for his exploits.
2. He ran a Street gang that eventually became one of the Largest in Los Angeles
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Already having a penchant for being troublesome, it was no surprise that he would go on to head a street gang. What many people were oblivious to was the fact that the gang would grow to become one of the biggest street gangs in Los Angeles.
Lee first developed a liking for the activities of older gang groups such as the “Black Panther Party”. Initially, he joined a local street gang known as ‘The Avenues’. The gang was led by a fellow teenager whose name was Craig Munson.
Washington had a fall-out with the founder of the gang after beating up his younger brother as reprisal for Munson pulling up a gun to Reggie, his older brother. However, Craig didn’t take this attack lightly and beat up Raymond in retaliation.
As a result of this, then 15-year-old Raymond left The Avenues and went on to start his own gang known as ‘Baby Avenues’. In a bid to emulate a 1964 street gang known as ‘The Avenue Boys’, Washington converted a couple of neighborhood kids into his gang.
The gang remained unknown until after the name was changed to ‘The Crips’. This was done when Raymond met with Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams, the founder of a gang in the South Central West Side.
Both gang leaders met while at Washington Preparatory High School and they formed an allegiance. The broader idea was to form a confederation of street gangs and so they also teamed up with another teenage street gang leader. This third alliance was with Mac Thomas from Compton.
Decades after the formation of this gang, their recruits had spread and there were branches all over Los Angeles. They even spread to neighboring areas. The gang members grew to their thousands and continued their activities wherever they found themselves.
3. By the time he was about 20 years old, Raymond Washington had become very notorious
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While Raymond Lee Washington was the main brain behind the gang, most of the glory went to Tookie and Mac owing to the fact that at the time of the gang’s infancy, he was the only member who got arrested. Because of this, he became less famous among the growing members and people. Nonetheless, Washington was the main leader of the Crips street gang.
Soon after the formation of the confederation, the three youngins became leaders of everything criminal in the Los Angeles area. They won more territories for their gang and began to expand enormously.
By age 21, Raymond got arrested by the Los Angeles Police. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in Tracy’s ‘Deuel Vocational Institution’, on a second-degree robbery charge. This was his first recorded jail time although he had been to the juvenile detention centers a couple of times in the past.
By the time he was imprisoned, the other inmates were not conversant with the new criminal nor his work outside. This oblivion gave Washington an edge and he was able to recruit other inmates to join his ‘Crip’ gang. He actually targeted young African-Americans to join the gang.
This new development rubbed off wrongly on some other inmates who were members of gangs such as ‘Black Muslims’ and ‘Black Guerrilla Family’. With how wide the fame of The Crips grew, the prison gang members sought to kill Washington.
After serving two years of jail terms, Raymond was released on parole and now returned to continue heading his gang outside detention.
4. Raymond Washington had a Penchant for fistfights
One interesting thing about Washington and his criminalities is the fact that he was always known to use just his hands. He did not use any other type of weapon except his fists. In fact, Raymond hated guns and anything to do with weapons.
Whenever he wanted to win over new recruits from a rival gang, Raymond would challenge their leaders to a fight. Due to his muscular build, the Crips gang leader was able to defeat those he fought with. This was one of the ways he was able to win over a lot of recruits to The Crips.
Fist fighting was the Modus Operandi of the gang headed by Mac Thomas, Stanley Williams, and Lee. However, upon his release from the Deuel Vocational Institution, he realized that things had changed.
Members of the Crip gang had begun to use guns and other weapons and the Texas-born could no longer relate with the gang. Apart from the use of weapons for fights, they also engaged in crimes that were senseless and violent.
Seeing that he had lost control of the gang and its activities, and could no longer head such a movement, Raymond Washington disassociated himself from The Crips. He then began to hang out with bikers instead and was disconnected from the happenings with the gang.
5. How the Gang name ‘The Crips’ came to be
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There are several accounts of how the name of the gang came to be. However, we would be looking at four such stories about history. The first is allegedly linked to a hairstyle that kids in the late 1960s to 1970s used to have. It was said that the hair was peculiar to members of street gangs and it was an afro-like style that their parents forced them to crip.
The second account stated that the name stands for ‘cripple’ because some of the founding members were injured and had to walk with the aid of canes.
The third story was linked to Raymond’s elder brother, Reggie who had a bowleg and also twisted his ankle one time. As a result of this, he had to walk with a limp and then inscribed the word ‘Crip’ on his shoes. This was allegedly where Raymond got the name for his gang from.
The fourth account is however linked to the first name of the gang which is ‘Baby Avenues’. In the process of changing the name, they came up with ‘The Avenue Cribs’ but while drunk one time, mispronounced the ‘crib’ as ‘crips’ and it eventually stuck.
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6. The Beginning of the End of ‘The Crips’?
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A few days before Washington Lee Raymond turned 27, he was murdered. Before him, the gang had witessed some deaths. The first was one of Tookie’s close friends and the Crip enforcer, Curtis ‘Buddha’ Morrow. Morrow was shot in South Central as he engaged in an argument. After him, Mac Thomas was murdered mysteriously in the mid-1970s.
Left were Raymond and Williams and although the former tried to unify all the members of his gang, he failed. Stanley’s partner tried to get the Crips under one umbrella and back to their initial mode of operation. Unfortunately, the members were already far gone with their new way of operation and were uncontrollable.
Resigning to the fate that he had lost control of the Crips, Raymond moved on to another path. However, Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams’ death was just around the corner. He, who served as the interim leader while Washington was in prison was shot and injured during a drive-by in 1976.
Despite surviving the attack, he got incarcerated eventually due to an addiction to the Phencyclidine drug. He began to lose control of himself and the police authorities were able to close in on him.
Williams faced a four-count charge of homicide and was killed through lethal injection. Following this and the succeeding event, the fame of the street gang and its activities began to dwindle. Nonetheless, decades later, there are still African-Americans who still belong to the movement. Some notable names are Hip-Hop legends including Snoop Dogg and the later Nipsey Hussle and Eazy E.
7. Washington’s Murder was allegedly carried out by someone he knew
Raymond Washington’s death happened on the 9th of August 1979 on the corner of 64 h and San Pedro Street. He was 26 years old and reportedly hanging there with a group friend when a car drove by and called out to him. Upon going to talk to the occupants of the car, he was shot twice by one of the passengers who drew out a sawed-off shotgun at him.
Lee was shot in the gastrointestinal tract and abdomen and rushed to the hospital where he died during emergency surgery. His friends stated that the murderers were people Raymond knew because he never responded to anyone in a car if he did not know the person. Also, they testified that before walking up to the car, Washington stated that he knew those who hollered at him.
The news of this death was however not recorded in any paper in the district and was mostly kept low-key. However, his death spread like wildfire and the streets purportedly mourned like they would a king who passed.
His death, as stated earlier, led to the gradual end of the activities of Raymond Washington’s founded gang.
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