Latin Kings

Latin Kings

The Almighty Latin Kings & Queen Nation is a Chicago-based criminal organization consisting of mainly of Spanish-speaking or Hispanic members. It began as a social organization for the advancement of the Puerto Rican community in the Chicago area in the 1940s and has since spread through all of Latin America and into Europe, specifically Spain. By the 1970s, the Latin Kings came to be dominated by individuals engaged in criminal activity, and in particular, narcotics trafficking. Their main members were King Papa,Cadillac Joe,Tiger,Joe Gun, LaZeR and Fast Eddie,this men were "Kings of Kings"(triple O.G tittle in regular gangs).

In 1961, this gang was known for fighting white gang members in the south side of Chicago. The first faction of LKs was formed on the Southside on the corner of 18th and Wabash by Papa King according to oral stories. According to some older members of the LKN
in interviews, the LKs grew out of the Noble Knights. One of the very first trends of the LKN was to grow your hair into a very large afro; a Latin Kings had to do this back in the 60s. The last known LK that had one of these large afros was LK named “Crow” Rivera who died in prison from a drug smuggling attempt that went terribly wrong. The drugs were smuggled in a balloon that he put in his mouth, the balloon busted and he died. Rivera was the rank of “Inca” from Armitage and Kedzie. He died in Menard.

The Latin Kings became a bigger success by the mid-60s; by 1964-1965 they had expanded further on the north side. By 1966 they were well recognized. One may ask how was it known about the LKs? Well during the 1960s, Chicago was in the infancy of understanding street gangs. One method was to offer charity to street gangs. Government funded non-profit organizations were set up to send out counselors to find Gangs and talk to their leaders in order to get the gang members some help. The Latin Kings were first discovered in 1961 but were worked with to a more wide scale amount by 1966 because they were growing larger and becoming more organized than ever. There are absolutely no records or evidence of any kind of the LKs existence before 1961. But that does not mean they absolutely did not exist, but it is more than likely they didn’t. The Latin Kings and other gangs were willing to work with social workers because they received government benefits from meeting with the social workers. The way it worked was if a gang was seen as a threat and acted real bad, they would get more benefits and other nice things (a real flaw in the system at that time); therefore, the Latin Kings took full advantage by acting real bad and then gaining more sympathy from the government.

Soon the Latin Kings spread influence to the South Side streets. Some gang researchers believe that the South side LKs came from the Royal Kings that was a gang that fought with Ambrose in the early to mid-60s, but that partnership soon after diminished. By the 1970s the LKN had grown considerably and was engaging in many major crimes and organized criminal activity. It was because of this the leader of the South side LKs known as “Baby King” or Raul Gonzalez and “Lord Gino” Gustavo Gino Colon leader of North side LKs, were incarcerated in 1972 on murder charges.

King Tone's Kingdom

King Tone is one of the most infamous and one of the most loved Incas in the history of the Latin Kings. King Tone is known for trying to change the way of the nation from a street gang to a Latin organization. In 1998, he was sentenced to 12 years with out the possibility of parole before 8 years. If he keeps his good behavior he will be out of prison in summer of 2007.

Signs symbols colors

The Latin Kings have the easier way to communicate that you'll find in gangs:hand signs.the FBI believes that the gang has more than 5000 hand signs. the main symbol of the gang is the five point crown,five point star,the "lord" the picture of the King of cards with a black tear in his right eye. Their colors are black and gold representing life and death. Also, if you mix the two colors together, you'll have the color brown, of which most of its members are.