Spanish Gangster Disciples

The beginning of the Spanish Gangster Disciples on the streets is a tough one to nail down as it appears to be a culmination of ideas at 87^th and Houston in South Chicago that brought about this formation.  I will do the best I can to explain this formation and if I am incorrect on anything, please have patience and contact me in a decent manner and I can make corrections.

In the year 1979, the South Chicago gang landscape was changing as old school gangs that once ran this neighborhood began to retire as new groups emerged.  The Royal Knights were one of the old groups that go back to 1960 and the Saints of 87^th (not Saints of 45^th) were another group that began to retire.  The Saints ran 87^th and Houston while Royal Knights ran 88^th to 89^th and Commercial area, these groups were neighbors to each other. By this time Saints and Royal Knights were allies and may have always been allies.  Members of the Royal Knights from the neighborhood had been incarcerated for a number of years in the 1970s and had flipped the Maniac Latin Disciples while incarcerated.  These former Knights included Rudy Rios, Rico “Mickey” Villea, Jesse Montanez and his brother.  By 1979, some of these guys began to be released from prison and returned to these streets but did not represent Royal Knights or bring it back.  During their time in prison, they were allied with the new “Folks” alliance that was developing between 1978-1979.  “Duck” of the Maniac Latin Disciples was one former Royal Knight that came out to unite what was left of Royal Knights and Saints, but this had no official title or anything like that.  These were older guys banding together at 87^th and Houston to watch out for the community.

In the year 1980, Shakey of the Milwaukee Kings alongside a board of Folks that included Victor “King Vic” Gomez of the Maniac Latin Disciples helped create the “Spanish Growth and Development” or “SGD” concepts practiced within the Folks alliance.  Shakey was bestowed the title of the head of the SGD, and he made all the decisions.  Before being released from prison in 1981, Rudy Rios asked permission from Shakey to bring SGD to the streets and start a mob in South Chicago.  Shakey gave permission for this to happen, and Rudy Rios came out of prison then preaching about SGD and Folks at 87^th and Houston.  The Royal Knights had just declared extinction in the year 1980 but the heart of them was still in the neighborhood as was former members and teens that were the last members.

The name of “Spanish Growth and Development” or “Spanish Gangster Disciple” was not required to be used by this new group and because the Saints previously ran 87^th and Houston for decades and because the last remnant of their members were involved, they wanted their name as part of this.  The new group was initially called “Saint Disciples.”  Just to make it clear, this had nothing to do with the Saints of 45^th and Wood in the Back of the yards.  Those Saints knew these Saint Disciples and were allies but were not the same club.  Two brothers from the Back of the Yards Saints moved to South Chicago to partake but there was no merger and the SGDN was not born out of the Saints of 45^th Street or anything like that.  To further clarify, the Saints of 87^th and Houston did not give birth to street SGDs either, this was just remaining members of the Saints of 87^th that wanted to put this together and for a year at most their name was used.  By 1982, the name became disagreeable for some reason and needed to be changed to pay better homage to SGD.  The name was changed to the “Saint Spanish Gangster Disciples.”  This name would only last about a year and during this early era the SGDs were not very well-known.

Finally, in the year 1983, the club was renamed “Spanish Gangster Disciples” and that was the name that stuck.  This is also when recruitment accelerated at the same time neighborhood gangs like Latin Kings, Latin Counts and Latin Dragons started to get big.  SGDs were with the Folks while those other groups were People alliance.  Most gangs on the southeast side of Chicago were People allies.  The list of People alliance gangs roaming the East Side, Hegewisch, South Chicago and South Deering was long: Latin Kings, Latin Counts, Spanish Vice Lords, Latin Dragons, Black P Stones, El Rukns, Conservative Vice Lords, Four Corner Hustlers, Renegade Vice Lords, Mafia Insane Vice Lords, Insane Vice Lords, and Traveling Vice Lords, most of these mobs were in South Chicago alone.  The only Folks on the southeast side were SGDs, Gangster Disciples and King Cobras.  King Cobras were from South Deering only in the 80s.  Gangster Disciples were a African American group and usually went their own way; therefore, the SGDs were out there on their own in South Chicago which meant they had to gangbang hardcore in order to survive.  This meant many shootings, beatings and incarcerations for many members.  Many homes would have bullet holes in them and the 87^th and Houston area was jumping with gang activity right away starting in the mid-1980s.  SGDs had to be down and had to be prepared to fight or shoot, there was no way to be a member without getting involved without it.

In the summer of 1983, the Spanish Gangsters Disciples formed on the north side on the corner of Rosemont and Broadway “Original North Side” in the Edgewater neighborhood.  “Shakey” received a blessing from Larry Hoover of the Gangster Disciples to put a SGD group in Edgewater and Shakey passed that blessing down for SGDs to open this north side chapter in 1983.  The SGDs of Broadway often hung out with the SGDs of 87th, they were friends and perhaps this is why the “Saint” part of the name was dropped so there was solidarity.  From Rosemont and Broadway, “Top Cat” moved to the Albany Park neighborhood and opened a new section at St. Louis and Ainslie.  A short time later the SGDs would open the Broadway and Cuyler “Uptown Green” section in the Uptown neighborhood, then Sunnyside and Kimball opened in the Albany Park neighborhood.  The SGDs also made their way to the Rogers Park neighborhood at Columbia and Glenwood in 1983.  In all these neighborhoods the SGDs found intense rivalry with the Latin Kings making them one of their first enemies up north.  The SGDs were given great backing and resources upon full formation in 1983, hence, why they expanded into multiple neighborhoods so quickly and heavily.  Because the South Chicago SGDs were as ruthless as they were this way of operating was immediately adopted by the northside SGDs and they also became a major force to be reckoned with.  Old schoolers from other gangs that I have talked to admit they had a hard time going against SGDs.

In the Albany Park neighborhood, the SGDs would grow very powerful very quickly in the 1980s, they would eventually evolve into a long-lasting organization in this neighborhood and domination in this area even in recent years.

In the year 1986, Rico Villea and his wife opened a bakery in the suburb of Elgin.  This is how the SGDs got started in Elgin as sometime later the SGDs began to grow into the suburb, and it started with this bakery.

Eventually in the 1980s the SGDs opened Olive and Clark in the Edgewater neighborhood which was dominated by the P.R. Stones street gang and once they found out about SGDs a nasty war broke out which inevitably ended up being too costly of a gang war especially since the Stones were there first.  The SGDs were more about making money and money being made and Clark and Olive was not suitable so they moved operations to Early and Wayne which was close to Senn High School.  At this new street corner, they were selling major amounts or drugs, especially Marijuana, out of two apartment buildings that faced each other.  Some of the customers were other Folk Nation gangs either from the area or outside the area, and funny enough there were even customers that happened to be Latin Kings who would buy large supplies from the SGDs to distribute on their own.

The SGDs opened at Lakewood and Granville in the Edgewater neighborhood and congregated near Hayt Elementary School.

In the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, the SGDs opened territory at Lawrence and Winthrop.

The SGDs also traveled further north and opened territory in the Rogers Park neighborhood at Glenwood and Columbia and Lawrence and Harding “Lawrence City.” The SGDs also made new territory over in Albany Park at the corners of Drake and Ainslie and Sunnyside and Kimball.  On the south side the SGDs opened turf at 89^th and Baltimore in South Chicago along with 26^th and Tripp in Little Village and 47^th and Wolcott in the Back of The Yards neighborhood.

The early 1990s was a crazy time for the SGDs that involved both growth and declination.  First, there was the murder of the organizations’ founder Rudy Rios which left Rudy Guzman in charge then right after that he was killed.  The power then went to “Lil Dee” to run street operations while Antonio “Dee” Quintero ran things in the joint (Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1993 George Papajohn).  This was for the south side chapter.

As for the north side, the “Original 7” had all ended up serving prison terms and power was assumed by a member of the Latin Eagles that flipped to become a SGD named “Demon.”  Demon saw that the SGDs were weakened by these incarcerations and took this opportunity to come to this temporarily weakened gang and become the leader.  In one of his first orders of business, Demon declared war on the Latin Eagles, his former gang, probably because of old animosity.  Demon was a greedy leader that taxed his fellow gang members heavily on drug sales and many SGDs resented this, especially the older members.  Demon knew about this animosity so he decided to increase his power in order to show up those that disagreed with his power; therefore, Demon colonized the suburbs of Elgin, Prospect Heights “Piper Lane,” Highwood, Wheeling, South Holland, Whiting Indiana and East Chicago Indiana.  In the suburbs he found young and impressionable kids that were eager to gangbang and would have no issue paying the high taxes because they did not know any better.  He could also get them to kill for him if the older members objected too much. Demon was said to be greedy and kept a lot of money for himself even money that was supposed to be used for gang operations.

In September of 1991, the Chicago Police started watching the SGDs at 88^th and Houston because they had become so violent that residents were in fear (according to the Tribune).  The SGDs were in nasty gang wars with Latin Kings, Latin Counts and Latin Dragons in the vicinity and this caused the neighborhood to be all shot up with even non gang banging residents having bullet holes in their walls and windows (Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1993 George Papajohn).

After the summer of 1992 things really heated up badly as bullets were flying and bodies were dropping.  “Operation Houston” was now in full effect and on March 30, 1993, seven members of SGD were arrested including Antonio Dee Quintero who was just released not too long before while “Lil Dee” got locked up (Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1993 George Papajohn). These key arrests severely crippled all south side operations especially since Dee appointed Demon to run everything now.  In the joint before this big arrest, Quintero was trying really hard to unify the Latin Folks and expand Spanish Growth And Development concepts; however, Demon ended up working counter-productively and waged war on fellow Folk allies such as Imperial Gangsters and Maniac Latin Disciples.  Both Dee and Lil Dee were released from jail or prison not too long after and were discussing what to do about Demon as he was trouble and seemingly ruining the organization.  Demon got wind of this and recruited his suburban soldiers to kill Lil Dee, but the assassination failed, but a short time later another assassination attempt was successful; however, the murder was blamed on rival gangs.

As time went on, SGD lost a lot of territory due to police presence, gentrification (mainly in Edgewater) and lack of effective leadership.  88^th and Houston fell apart and Ambrose grew a set on that corner but this was granted to Ambrose from SGD in 1995, Ambrose did not muscle in and take it.  The original north side set of Early and Wayne fell mainly to yuppies moving in.  Broadway and Cuyler ended up becoming the SGD major section.

SGDs would have revivals in later decades in South Chicago and 87^th and Houston area still remains SGD territory but members are often not as reckless to avoid incarceration.

Please send in 1980s and 1990s pics!

Known sections of the Spanish Gangster Disciples past and present

Albany Park neighborhood Established 1983-present years

Sections of Albany Park

Argyle to Ainslie, Drake to Bernard

Leland to Sunnyside, Drake to Kimball

Harding & Lawrence (Lawrence City)

Montrose & Bernard

Back of the Yards neighborhood

Sections of the Back of the Yards

47^th & Wolcott

Belmont – Cragin neighborhood 2000s-present

Sections of Belmont-Cragin

George to Diversey, Austin to Marmora 2000s-present

Dunning neighborhood

Sections of Dunning

Roscoe to School, Melvina to Meade

Edgewater neighborhood Established 1983-2000s

Sections of Edgewater

Clark & Olive

Early & Wayne

Lakewood & Granville

Rosemont & Lakewood 80s, 90s

Rosemont & Broadway Established 1983 (Original North Side)

Clark & Bryn Mawr 90s

Broadway & Victoria 80s, 90s, 2000s

Little Village neighborhood 80s, 90s

Sections of Little Village

26^th & Tripp 80s, 90s

Portage Park neighborhood

Sections of Portage Park

Addison to Cornelia, Lockwood to Leclaire

Rogers Park neighborhood Established 1983-present years

Sections of Rogers Park

Pratt to North Shore Ave, Bosworth to Glenwood (Glenwood City) Established 1983-present years

South Chicago neighborhood Established 1981-present years

Sections of South Chicago

Exchange from 89^th to 90^th

87^th to 89^th, Houston to Baltimore (Danger Zone)

Uptown neighborhood Established 1983-present years

Sections of Uptown

Broadway & Cuyler (Uptown Green) Established 1983-present years

Ainslie to Lawrence, Kenmore to Broadway Established 1983-present years

Suburbs

Calumet City 154^th & Wentworth

Elgin Center & Summit

Highland

Highwood

Lockport

Prospect Heights Piper Lane from Plaza Drive to Wolf Road (Piper Lane)

Romeoville

South Holland

Wheeling (Lollipop)