Bounty Hunter Bloods

The East Side (E/S) Bounty Hunters Watts Bloods gang are a large and infamous African American street gang established in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California around 1969/1970, and was firmly established by 1972. The Bounty Hunters have the distinction of being the largest gang, in terms of membership and geographical area, in all of Los Angeles. Their main area, which is in the Nickerson Gardens Housing Projects is from 108th Street (north) to Imperial (south) between Compton Ave (east) and Central Avenue (west). They occupy an area of 0.54 square miles making them the largest Black gang territory in Watts. Originally known as the Green Jackets, it is believed that Gary Barker was very influential during Bounty Hunters' beginnings. Also Bobby Jack (b. 1955) was one of the founding members. The Bell Haven Bounty Hunters formed around 1978 to the west of Central Avenue just south of the train tracks. Around 1981, Renee McGowen began the Lot Bounty Hunters. Today, the Bounty Hunters are regarded by Authorities to be an extremely violent street gang who developed rivalries with a multitude of other street gangs. Their main rivals are the Grape Street Watts Crips from the Jordan Downs Housing Projects but since 1992 there was a truce between them and the other gangs in Watts [1]. Although the truce has been in effect for some time, there are occasional problems between the Crips and Bloods in Watts, but not like what had occurred during the late 1980s [2]. Other known rivals include the Carver Park Compton Crips, all Neighbor Hood Crips, all Kitchen Crips, the 99 Watts Mafia Crips, Hat Gang Watts Crips, Holmes Street Watts Crips, Mona Park Compton Crips, Bacc Street Watts Crips, Front Street Watts Crips, Watts Franklin Square Crips, the Compton Avenue Crips, Fudge Town Mafia Crips, the 108 Watts Neighbor Hood Crips, all East Coast Crips and the Avalon Gangster Crips. The Bounty Hunters also developed deep seeded rivalries with various Piru sets over the years, in particular the Campanella Park Pirus, Leuders Park Piru, Mob Pirus, the West Side Pirus, the Tree Top Pirus and Fruit Town Pirus. Other Blood rivals include the Athens Park Bloods, LA Denver Lane Bloods, the Cross Atlantic Piru and the Family Swan Bloods just to name a few. Hispanic rivals invlude the Mid-City Stoners 13. Due to their shared hatred for the Grape Street Watts Crips, the Bounty Hunters formed an unofficial truce with the PJ Watts Crips. The Bounty Hunters are also friendly towards the Hacienda Village Bloods, the Be-Bop Watts Bishop Bloods and Circle City Piru. It should be noted that different factions of the Bounty Hunters Watts have waged war with one another as well as with outside agitators.