Show I Chronicler of life as a crip Grip is on trial r N Ni i F r. r 1 OL Q 39 a NN H j FOREWORD BY ICE T l This week instead of being on book tour Colton Simpson foi mer original gangster with the Crips is on trial John Pomfret The Washington Post March 2003 should have been a good month for Colton Simpson He had hobnobbed with rap stars in New York A book deal was in inthe inthe inthe the offing After almost three decades in and out of juvenile halland hall halland halland and prisons the former OG aG original original original inal gangster from the feared based Crips gang seemed to toM tom m M be turning his life around Q a D Then on March 17 three men c stole an diamond earring t ti from a jewelry store in southern s 2 fa Riverside County 60 miles outside N 5 Los Angeles Within weeks Simpson was fingered as the get- get r- r Crip Cont on Page 4 Crip Cont from front car away-car driver was indicted for robbery and was facing 25 years to life his third strike under California's three strikes and youre you're out law This week instead of being on book tour Simpson 40 is ison ison ison on trial And in a rare move a California judge has allowed a prosecutor to introduce as evidence evidence evidence evi evi- dence Simpsons Simpson's autobiography phy Inside the Crips Life Inside LAs LA s Most Notorious Gang published in August to critical acclaim Southern California is the gang capital of the United States with Los Angeles home to an estimated 1000 gangs and hard-core hard gang members The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department estimates that 42 percent of all homicides in its territory are gang Beyond the violence the gangs have become a cultural phenomenon Los Angeles' Angeles gangs have given birth to sensations sensations sensations sensa sensa- rap and hop hip-hop such as Easy-E Easy Dr Ice Cube and Ice Ice- Ice T T the star of the NBC's Law Order Special Victims Unit who grew up with Simpson and wrote the foreword to Simpsons Simpson's book In recent years gang members members members mem mem- bers most of them from Southern California have penned 27 autobiographies about their tumble rough-and-tumble world The founder of the Crips Stanley Tookie Williams who was executed in California on Dec 13 for murdering four people wrote nine childrens children's books Sanyika Shakur's Monster The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member and Terrill Wrights Wright's Home of the Body Bags were published this year But Simpsons Simpson's is the first autobiography in the new gang genre to be admitted as evidence against the writer I Simpson and his co-author co Ann Pearlman say Inside the Crips is a tale of redemption the story of a hard-core hard gang soldier who changes his ways I wrote this to try to do something something some some- something thing positive with my life Simpson said in an interview at atthe atthe atthe the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside This was wasa a way to right some of the wrongs Ive I've done But to Stephen Gallon the Riverside County assistant district district district dis dis- dis- dis attorney prosecuting the case the book is a fest brag-fest by bya a cold-blooded cold gangster that has been packaged as redemption tion to get it on bookstore shelves This book allegedly speaks of a transformation on and a repudiation repudiation repudiation of the gang lifestyle Gallon wrote in an affidavit seeking to include the book as evidence This book is neither It is a vehicle to make money off of the blood and terror of innocent victims Colton Simpson was the son of a professional baseball player play play- er and a model He got his mothers mother's good looks an athletes athlete's athletes athlete's athletes athlete's ath ath- ath- ath letes lete's physique from his dad and a foul temper from both By the time tune he was 5 his parents parents parents par par- had divorced and his mother moth moth- er had won custody In the book Simpson alleges he was abused regularly at home By 10 he had found another family the Crips and joined a set of the gang called the Rollin which controlled controlled controlled con con- trolled two square miles of South Central Los Angeles The day after he joined the gang Simpson was handed a caliber handgun which he emptied in a retaliatory attack on enemy gang members Two vo of his bullets hit home the book says and he watched his bloody handiwork with numb fascination The next day he felt a moment of remorse but it passed Its like being a virgin virgin virgin vir vir- vir- vir gin he wrote Simpson took the nickname Lil Cee changing it in time to Loc Cee-Loc Loc standing for loco or crazy He branded himself with Crips tat- tat CO hj th e. e i nto hj hi jd to his right eye While US U.S. law forbids the mention of prior convictions in inthe inthe inthe the prosecution of a new crime Gallon convinced the judge that Simpsons Simpson's book about crimes that occurred more than two two decades ago was relevant to the current case because it showed a behavioral pattern the prosecutor said |