Latin Lovers

The Latin Lovers story begins in the year 1970 in the Logan Square neighborhood. By this time Latin Kings, Gaylords and Imperial Gangsters were flooding into this neighborhood and trying to dominate.  Gaylords more or less wanted to flush out much of the newly arrived Puerto Rican populace while Latin Kings wanted all Puerto Rican youths to become Latin Kings.  A group of Puerto Rican youths were not interested in being Latin Kings or Imperial Gangsters so they started their own crew called the “Haas Parkers” as they hung out at Haas Park (2402 N Washtenaw Ave, Chicago, IL) located at Fullerton and Washtenaw.

In the year 1973 some members of the Haas Parkers formed the “Almighty Latin Lovers.”  The gang was founded by “Lucky” in the year 1973 and they slightly relocated to Fullerton and Rockwell.  The biggest rivals of the Almighty Latin Lovers were Latin Kings, Imperial Gangsters and Gaylords.

The Latin Lovers are said to have recruited a gang called the Beldon Boys in the 1970s.

In the year 1977, the Latin Lovers opened the Lyndale and Campbell section in Logan Square with the blessing of Lucky as “Fox L” became the Lyndale and Campbell leader. this became a legendary section and established a tight alliance with the Latin Disciples after they arrived at about the same time to Logan Square.

In the year 1978, Imperial Gangsters, Latin Disciples (MLDs), Spanish Cobras and Latin Eagles came together to fight common enemies in a street alliance known as the “United Latino Organization” or “ULO.”  The ULO also invited smaller gangs to be under its protection such as the Latin Lovers.  The Latin Lovers then were able to establish a close relationship with the Latin Disciples.

In the year 1979 when the “Maniac” and “Insane” families were started to be used for all gangs allied with Spanish Cobras or Latin Disciples, the Latin Lovers dropped the “Almighty” from their name and became “Maniacs,” but they tagged and represented just “Latin Lovers” at that time.  The Latin Lovers adopted the pitchfork gang symbol after joining Maniac in 1979.

Latin Lover founder and first president Lucky was killed in the late 1970s leaving Ray also known as Lucky to take over leadership.

Another interesting relationship that was established in the late 1970s was an alliance with the Maplewood and Charleston Chi-West section.  This alliance was not honored by the Chi-West of Chicago and Western and eventually many Chi-West from Maplewood would flip to Latin Lovers.

In the year 1980, a 16 year old member of the Latin Lovers named Nelson “Baby Face” Padilla began working with a crooked cop named Joseph Miedzianowski, as Miedzianowski was assisting the Latin Lovers and all the Folk Nation ULO gangs with dirty business that involved the weapons trade, the Miami-Chicago drug smuggling operation, covering up of murders, and the robbing and shaking down of People Nation gangs in the area for their drugs, money and jewelry.  This dirty business not only brought the Latin Lovers lots of money but it also kept many members out of prison and solidified the Lovers with the Folk Nation alliance in 1980 while members were incarcerated.  Joseph Miedzianowski’s testimony in 1988 even got Padilla off the hook for major drug charges. Eventually Joseph Miedzianowski was convicted of his involvement in this (Chicago Tribune March 17, 2000).

After joining the Folk alliance then being Folk on the streets by 1981, the Latin Lovers expanded into more territory at Milwaukee and Campbell and Richmond and Mclean “L-Town.”  The Lovers also opened a significant branch in the 1980s in the suburb of Waukegan.

In the year 1984, Richmond and Mclean opened up in the Logan Square community.

In the mid-1980s, Fox L retired from the Lovers and “Godfather” of Lyndale and Campbell, took over leadership.  Godfather was only the leader until 1988 when he got arrested and put in prison for the attempted shooting of Spanish Lords at Mclean and Oakley.  Godfather and two young Latin Lovers parked their car near an alley and waited for Spanish Lords then began shooting when they saw someone but the person ended up being a security guard or employee of the Pulaski International School.  Godfather was trying to teach these young ones how to handle rivals but it ended up going bad as they missed their targets and Godfather was put in prison.

In the year 1986, the Latin Lovers opened up a new section at Milwaukee and California in Logan Square that was called “Mexico City” because these members were Mexican instead of Puerto Rican.

After Godfather went to prison in 1988 “Rambo” took over leadership for a very short time.  Rambo was then taken to prison in late 1989 for shooting a female member of the Lawndale and Altgeld Gaylords, paralyzing her.  Rambo then went to prison then retired from gang life.

After Rambo was put away “Cuba” took over leadership in late 1989 after that I’m not sure who ran the Lovers.

In the year 1992, Latin Lovers had gotten into a war with Orquestra Albanies and were having lots of friction with all other Insanes due to an on and off war between Insanes and Maniacs.  It was the war with the OAs that Latin Lovers held personal though.  In November of that year “Ace” and “Flaco” went to resolve the war with the OAs because Maniac Latin Disciples and Maniac Campbell Boys were being roped in while OAs were bringing in Spanish Cobras, Insane Dragons and Insane Campbell Boys.  When Ace and Flaco arrived they were both shot dead on arrival by a young OA, this angered all of the Maniacs and started a war between Maniacs and Insanes outside of Clemente High School.  In the midst of this war two Latin Lovers shot and killed “Luto C” of the Spanish Cobras as he was running to retrieve a shot gun that was stashed in a special location, he was shot in the head as he ran.  The war with the Insanes and Maniacs died out shortly after but there was some bitterness toward the Latin Lovers especially from the OAs.

In 1994, things were heating up on the streets because Maniac Latin Disciples wanted more drug turf than ever before, the problem is their allies occupied much of the turf they wanted.  These allies included the Latin Lovers, Latin Jivers and Milwaukee Kings.  The MLDs knew they were the bigger gang so they figured they could just start selling drugs in their allies’ turf and the allies would be too afraid to do anything about it, but that plan backfired as the gangs fought back and tried to push the MLDs back a block or two.  For the Latin Lovers this led to the slaying of a Latin Lover named “Cook Dog,” at the hands of the MLDs.  Both organizations went before the Folk Nation/SGD board and complained.  It was decided that the fair thing would be for the Lovers to kill the MLD shooter to settle things.  The MLDs agreed; however, when it came time to pay up the MLDs did not produce instead they made things worse by shooting at some Latin Lovers.  Nelson Padilla took it upon himself to get revenge for the killing of Cook Dog and one night he spotted a MLD named Robert Detres, then leaped out of a nearby ally and shot Detres to death.  Once this happened, the Latin Lovers blamed Padilla solely for the shooting and ejected him out of the organization.  (Hagedorn, The Insane Chicago Way P. 17 and 22).

The MLDs were petitioning for removal of the Latin Lovers from the SGD La Tabla saying that they allowed a snitch to rule their organization for a long time.  Latin Lovers countered saying they eradicated Padilla and that MLDs needed to fulfill their end of the bargain.  No agreement was reached and complete war was declared between the two gangs (Hagedorn, The Insane Chicago Way P. 17 and 22).

In 1994, the Latin Lovers defected from the Maniacs and were about to be at full war with the Maniacs.  The Latin Lovers then went to the new “Almighty” alliance and petitioned to join.  The Imperial Gangsters objected heavily and even Latin Eagles did not like it, therefore, they were rejected from joining and that’s when the Insane family took in the Latin Lovers because they needed more organizations on their side to fight against Maniacs during the on and off war years.

In later years the factions of Milwaukee and Campbell, Lyndale and Campbell would close down.  The Latin Lovers withdrew forces in order to focus much more on Milwaukee and California, Richmond and Mclean and the suburb of Waukegan, after this move leadership was more stabilized.

The Latin Lovers had always been small in size but have engaged in vicious gang wars and have been known to be one of the more violent organizations in Chicago.

Please send in old school pics.   1970s pics will be especially appreciated!

Questions:

1. What happened to Lyndale and Campbell and what year did it fall?
2. What year did Milwaukee and Campbell and Richmond and Mclean open?

Known sections of the Latin Lovers past and present

Logan Square neighborhood Established 1973-present years

Sections of Logan Square

Milwaukee to North Point, California to Talman Established 1986 (Mexico City)

Richmond & McClean Established 1984 (L Town)

Lyndale & Campbell Established 1977

Milwaukee & Campbell

Fullerton & Campbell

Fullerton & Rockwell Established 1973

Fullerton & Western 70s, 2000s-present years

Suburbs

Kankakee

Peoria

Waukegan

Zion 21^st & Hebron