Birth and Early Years (1950-1962)
Larry Hoover was born to Floyd Hopskins and Obell Cooper on November 30, 1950 in Jackson, Mississippi. His father was a mechanic and his mother did odd jobs. He was the eldest of the four children they had. In 1955, his mother along with him and other siblings born by that time, moved to a low-income area in South Side, Chicago while his father stayed behind in Jackson. The last that his parents spoke to each other was in 1966. For most part, Larry Hoover was brought up by a single mother.
From an early age, Hoover had a desire to earn money. He sold Jet magazine on mass-transit platforms of Elevated Train, carried groceries, and cleaned furnaces. His mother worked odd jobs at restaurants and laundromats. The family also relied on welfare.
Often, Hoover stole what he couldn’t buy. He shoplifted clothes and hid them at the house of a friend where he changed before walking to school.
Like most boys, Hoover too was fascinated with guns, and once recalled that one Chicago policeman let him climb into his squad car and handle his revolver.
Larry Hoover Joined Supreme Gangsters (1963)
By the age of 13, he had become a member of the gang of about 30 youths who called themselves Supreme Gangsters. The gang members often bunked school together to ride the Elevated Train around Chicago.
With his natural ability to influence and lead, he quickly rose through the ranks of the Supreme Gangsters garnering power and authority.
Alex Rain was the leader of Supreme Gangsters and Larry Hoover was his Second in Command. As the leader of the gang, Alex Rain was called “the King” by the gang members. He was murdered in 1964 and Larry Hoover became “the King” of the gang.
Initially, Supreme Gangsters was involved in petty crimes like mugging and theft but with time made its way to more heinous crimes like shooting, assault and homicide.
Larry Hoover’s Life as a Senior School Boy (1964-1968)
In a statement submitted in 1993 to the Prison Review Board of Illinois for his parole, Larry Hoover informed the board that as a teenager he was greatly influenced by popular Western and gangster movie stars, and the hustlers who lived in the immediate neighborhoods. He further wrote that it seemed then that everyone believed violence and guns were the best way to settle conflicts, to get real respect and power and to be recognized as someone important. He admitted in the statement that he found himself believing that as well.
Larry Hoover once described himself as an introvert. As a freshman he played basketball and did well in math. According to his school counselor he was “a little above average” student (which is debatable though) and was taunted for stuttering and would “break out in a sweat” whenever asked to read aloud.
On September 4 1968, Larry Hoover was shot in the leg by one of the two attackers who belonged to a rival Devil’s Disciple gang. The incident occurred outside the principal’s office in Francis W. Parker High School. It was his first day as a sophomore. Larry Hoover, though being the victim in that incident, was expelled from the school.
It was the third attempt on Hoover’s life and it was also the first time that his mother came to know about his gang related activities.
Larry Hoover Forms Black Gangster Disciple Nation (1969)
Under the leadership of Larry Hoover, Supreme Gangsters and another gang Black P Stones, led by Jeff Fort, formed an alliance in January 1969 to work together. The alliance was short-lived and the two gangs parted their ways in June 1969. Immediately after that, Larry Hoover negotiated the merger of Supreme Gangsters with Black Disciple Nation of David Barksdale to form Black Gangster Disciple Nation (BGDN).
At the time of the merger Hoover’s Supreme Gangsters had about 5,000 members and Black Disciple Nation had about 10,000 members.
David Barksdale became “the King” of the gang and Larry Hoover assumed the charge of the Chairman and the second in command. The BGDN members called the group “The Family” in their internal communication.
Hoover took Barksdale as his mentor, whom he found glamorous and worth emulating. Hoover assumed the role of Barksdale’s henchman and would also carry out orders to assault, hit and kill whenever required.
Larry Hoover Gains Power in Black Gangster Disciple Nation (1970-1972)
In June 1970, David Barksdale was badly injured in an accidental gunfire from the M-14 rifle of a member of gangster group Black P. Stone. Poor health of Barksdale from the injury resulted in an expanded role and responsibility for Larry Hoover.
Under him the gang had been involved in all kinds of criminal activities involving conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, drug dealing, murder, shooting, assault and so on and had taken control of Chicago’s South Side drug trade, making profits of more than $1,000 a day.
Larry Hoover and the Murder of William Young (1973)
In a meeting of BGDN on February 21, 1973 Larry Hoover ordered his fellow gang member Andrew Howard to murder four men for stealing drugs and money from a hope house under “The Family.” (According to court testimonies of some members of “The Family,” the four men had withheld money from the sale of drugs from “The Family”.)
On February 26, 1973 Larry Hoover helped Andrew Howard in the abduction of a 19-year-old neighborhood drug seller William “Pooky” Young, one of the four men ordered by Hoover to be murdered.
Andrew Howard drove him to an alley in Englewood, Chicago and murdered him with six shots to his head and one in the arm. Andrew Howard was arrested on March 16, 1973 while Larry Hoover went into hiding.
In the early hours of September 21, 1973 Larry Hoover was driving a Hertz Rent-a-Truck in Chicago. The police stopped him for a traffic violation and asked him to produce his driving license which he could not. Larry Hoover identified himself as “Larry Cooper” and was asked to drive his truck to the police station. While officers followed his truck in their squad car, he turned off his headlights and sped away. The squad car and truck were involved in an accident during the chase that ensued. Hoover fled the truck on foot but was caught and placed under arrest.
The officers later learned that the truck had been reported stolen and the fingerprints of the offender named “Harry Cooper” matched those of Larry Hoover, who had an active murder warrant. Larry Hoover was arrested and charged with the murder of William Young.
Years later, Hoover told a journalist that it was silly of him to be hiding in Chicago.
Before his arrest on murder charges, Larry Hoover had been arrested more than thirteen times. He had at least six separate unsuccessful attempts on his life and for the crimes he committed he was in and out of jail several times. He had been steadfast in the face of odds and had continued with his adopted profession.
Murder of Joshua Shaw (1973)
Joshua Shaw, another of the four men ordered by Hoover to be murdered, was attacked on February 28, 1973. He received six bullets on his upper torso but survived.
Shaw was an important witness in the murder of William “Pooky” Young. He testified against Larry Hoover and Andrew Howard before the jury in the preliminary hearing. Before the trial had begun, Shaw was slain by some unknown person on September 27, 1973 with two gunshots to the back of his neck. His testimony was, however, admitted for evidence and was important in the conviction of both Hoover and Howard.
Birth of Son Larry Hoover Jr. (1973)
While Larry Hoover’s trial was in progress, his girlfriend Winndye Jenkins gave birth to their son Larry Hoover Jr. on November 5, 1973.
Sentence in William Young Murder Case (1973)
On December 10, 1973 Cook County Circuit Court Judge Frank Wilson awarded both Larry Hoover and Andrew Howard sentences of 150 to 200 years of jail for the murder of William Young.
Larry Hoover was sent to maximum security state prison Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois.
This was a predictable culmination of a life that had been lived by the way of guns and gangs. He was ashamed of being poor and illiterate, but that is not an excuse for what he did but an explanation for his choices. He later repented for what he did but that was too late.
Family members of William Young wrote several protest letters to the authorities in 2008 asking them not to give any relief in his sentence. In November 2022, during an interview to the Prison Review Board, Illinois for parole, Larry Hoover remained interested in meeting with the mother of his victim William Young to express remorse and ask forgiveness. He told the Board that on a past occasion he requested a close associate to initiate communication with the victim’s family to meet with William Young’s mother but she was not interested.
Larry Hoover Becomes “the King” of Black Gangster Disciple Nation (1974)
In September 1974, David Barksdale, who had been wounded in a gun accident earlier in 1970, died from kidney related complications arising from the injury. This set the stage for incarcerated Larry Hoover to become the all-powerful “King” of Black Gangster Disciple Nation (BGDN).
Dual Persona of Larry Hoover (1974 onwards-till perhaps now)
Inside the jail, Larry Hoover on one hand was discreetly leading BGDN, and on the other was portraying himself not only to have been reformed but also as a reformer of the members of his gang. Hoover at that time was performing the twin roles of a gang leader and a reformer to the highest degree of perfection.
Prison was beneficial for Larry Hoover
It was ironic that life in jail provided two immense benefits to Larry Hoover.
- He had all the time in the world to think and reflect and carve a strategy for himself and his criminal organization.
- The jail provided him with peace and safety which otherwise are not available to people who are a part of the gangs involved in the business of illegal drugs.
- The prison provided him with the chance of learning and self development which he utilized by becoming a lifelong learner.
The result was that Larry Hoover became more powerful behind bars than he ever was as a free man.
Personal Development and Learning (1974 to date)
When Hoover went to prison in 1973, he was diagnosed as functionally illiterate. His reading was of third grade level. He had never had a driver’s license because he could not read or write. Once in prison, he began to study and eventually obtained his GED and an emergency medical technician’s license.
In a 2012 report of the Prison Review Board, Hoover had completed more than 100 ACE courses and had extensively exhausted all available courses offered by the federal institutions. He also received programming in cognitive behavior therapy.
Hoover read a wide variety of books on different topics. His favorites ranged from Machiavelli’s The Prince to Ayn Rand’s political novel The Fountainhead. About The Prince he said, “It’s like required reading, just to be able to stay in a conversation in the yard.”
Of all the books that he read, the most that he admired was Boss, the 1971 biography of the former Chicago Mayor (1955-1976) Richard J. Daley by Mike Royko. The book described the transition of Irish and other white immigrant gangs in Chicago in the early 1900s. In the words of Hoover, “It was very motivating, because it showed you can make a transition from a street gang to a socially acceptable gang.” It was this very book that inspired him towards “Growth and Development” of the impoverished and politically and socially marginalized African-Americans.
Prisoners’ Strike and Birth of Folk Nation and People Nation (1978)
By the start of the year 1978, cracks had started appearing in BGDN and three different factions had emerged from it: Black Gangsters, Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples. It was a time of internal strife and chaos and was a big test of Larry Hoover’s leadership skills.
It was April 1978 when many inmates at Stateville prison fell ill due to foul food being served there. Larry Hoover called a meeting of the inmates and organized and led a work stoppage strike against the poor food quality. Those who joined him in the strike included imprisoned leaders of rival and allied gangs from all over Chicago.
Larry Hoover seized this opportunity of all the inmates uniting under him for a common cause and called another big meeting of allied and enemy gang leaders and members to discuss measures to control messy gang wars and unrestrained bloodshed.
In the assembly he presented his vision of peaceful coexistence of all gangs, and if war became necessary, he wanted it controlled and isolated, just like the way Italian Mafia control their gang wars. He proposed that there should be only two rival coalitions and all gangs should join either of them. He wanted all issues to be negotiated and decided between the leaders of the two rival coalitions.
It was out of this idea that Folk Nation and People Nation were born in that meeting. Larry Hoover became the leader of Folk Nation and he not only prevented BGDN from disintegration but he also brought different gangs like Maniac Latin Disciples, Spanish Gangster Disciples, Simon City Royals, Almighty Insane Popes, La Raza, Spanish Cobras, Almighty Latin Eagles, Lady, Satan Disciples, Ambrose, Ashland Vikings, Two-Two Boys, Two Sixers, Imperial Gangsters and Harrison Gents under his fold as the leader of Folk Nation. The drug selling activities of the gang organizations under control of Larry Hoover spread from Chicago to several states across the USA.
Life Attempt on Hoover (1979)
In 1979 an assassination attempt was made against Larry Hoover by a homesexual Black Gangster nicknamed “Nissan.” He tried to stab Larry Hoover but did not succeed and died violently.
The Legacy of Folk Nation and People Nation: Unfulfilled Expectations
In the years to come, the two Nations remained loosely knit units of gangs and could not transform themselves into the super gangs they were supposed to be. The two Nations never had the discipline and order in their ranks and files to be recognized as gangs. But still, the two-gang system has survived through thick and thin and a loose structure of them still exists to this day.
Overall, the system failed to live up to the expectations as envisioned by Larry Hoover and the other co-founders. Not only have there been uncontrolled and messy gang wars between Folk Nation and People Nation gangs, the gangs inside the two Nations have also repeatedly killed other allied gangs’ members within their respective Nations.
Murder of Three Prison Guards at Pontiac Prison (1978)
Immediately after the formation of Folk Nation and People Nation, Larry Hoover was transferred to Pontiac Correctional Center, Pontiac, Illinois which was a prison of medium security. This transfer was due to the role of Larry Hoover that led to a work stoppage strike in the prison.
When Larry Hoover got to Pontiac Prison, he saw ill-treatment of inmates by the prison staff. The prison was overcrowded and the conditions were squalid. Larry Hoover involved high ranking leaders of BGDN and other gangster groups into a movement that he named “Brothers of the Struggle.”
The inmates raised a rebellion on July 22, 1978 to overthrow the prison and bring mass destruction. The riots resulted in the death of three guards and injuries to dozens. Seventeen inmates including Larry Hoover were put on trial that went on till 1981. Although Hoover’s involvement was evident throughout the investigation, all 17 inmates were found not guilty for lack of evidence.
The Rise of Black Gangster Disciples under Larry Hoover (1981)
In 1981, the name Black Gangster Disciple Nation was changed to Black Gangster Disciples, abbreviated as BGD. After this name change a situation was created by some leaders of BGD who had a background of David Barksdale’s former Black Disciple Nation (BDN). They decided to part ways with BGD and announced the formation of Black Disciples (BD) and asked their like minded BGD members to choose between BGD or BD.
Such was the charisma of Larry Hoover and the attraction of the BGD banner that a majority of the so called BDN gang members, including some of the founding members of BD, opted to become a part of BGD. This made Larry Hoover the most powerful gang leader of Chicago and BGD the biggest gangster group of the city.
For tighter control over the activities of BGD Hoover created two separate boards of directors of which he was the Chairman. One board was from directors inside the prison that had the responsibility to look after the activities inside the prison and the other board was assigned to look after the operations of BGD on the streets.
The same year, Larry Hoover no longer wanted the title of “the King” and instead chose to become “the Chairman.”
Political Awakening of Larry Hoover (1981)
Also in 1981, Larry Hoover and his board of directors circulated a memo amongst their gang members informing them, “Through business and politics, we can build an economical base that will insure us boundless power and wealth. But if we stay uneducated and without political power, prisons and death will continue to be a way of life for many of us.”
Larry Hoover hit the right chords since that was exactly what the African-American community needed. Hoover and the gang’s leaders showed their deep concern about the African-American community being criminalized and wrote, “Laws and sentences have become more stiffer and longer, and prisons are being built with us in mind.”
Larry Hoover comes on the Radar Screen of the Investigators Once More (1987)
In March 1987, when Hoover was 36, he was rewarded for his good deeds and exemplary conduct in the jail and was transferred to prison of minimum security in Vienna, Illinois. Ironically, the new prison gave him even greater control over the Gangster Disciples.
Larry Hoover’s transfer to Vienna left a leadership vacuum at the prison in Pontiac. The iron hand of Hoover was not there anymore to quell uprisings among the inmates.
In July 1987 a BGD inmate at Pontiac prison Billy “Zodiac” Jones died after swallowing a bag of cocaine during a struggle with guards searching his cell. Some inmates blamed the prison administration for the death of Jones and decided to avenge his death by murdering the Superintendent Robert Taylor.
On September 3, 1987 Robert Taylor was murdered by two BGDs which was followed by arrests and investigation. When a BGD inmate Harry Martin was apprehended and charged for the conspiracy of the Superintendent’s murder. He was offered relaxation in his sentence if he cooperated with the investigators. Harry Martin claimed that Larry Hoover gave him the order to kill the Superintendent.
Upon investigation it was proven that Larry Hoover had no ties to this, however, the damage was done because Harry Martin gave up lots of other information about how the BGDs were run and how they operated. This put Larry Hoover back on to the radar screens of the investigators and they started keeping a watchful eye on his activities. This was the turning point and the investigations that ensued ultimately resulted in his indictment in 1995.
Harry Martin later lamented in the court proceedings that the promises of relaxation in his sentence were not honored, his son was killed and his wife and children had to leave her place and live somewhere else.
Birth of Growth and Development (1987-1993)
At the prison in Vienna, Larry Hoover had unlimited access to phone and had unrestricted time for visitors. There he lived a life of luxury enjoying new clothes, expensive jewelry, specially prepared food and private visitations from friends and loved ones.
When other BGDs would be transferred to the Vienna facility, Larry Hoover would arrange for them to come and meet him. He would give them marijuana, money, cigarettes, whatever they wanted, and cultivate potential new middle-management leaders of the BGD gang in this way.
Somewhere in 1987, while at the Vienna prison Larry Hoover came up with the idea of channelizing the energies of the youth involved in gangster activities. He thought that the black youth should collectively do something more positive to impact the lives of the men and women of the poor and deprived communities. It was with these thoughts in his mind that he came up with the concept of transforming Black Gangster Disciples into Better Growth and Development.
At that time Hoover shared those thoughts with only a very few of his closest partners. Better Growth and Development was discussed with a wider audience of the trusted top leadership of Black Gangster Disciples in 1990.
In 1991, two things happened concurrently; Black Gangster Disciples started calling themselves Gangster Disciples dropping the “B” or “Black” out of their name, and Larry Hoover changed the name of his brainchild organization from Better Growth and Development to just Growth and Development, leaving out the word “Better” which was a part of his original 1987 plan.
In 1993, formation of Growth and Development was officially announced to the public and in 1994, Black Gangster Disciples declared themselves to be called Gangster Disciples, both abbreviated as GD.
Just like Larry Hoover, GD also had two faces. GD that sood for Growth and Development was the one more advertised and visible. It was deeply compassionate and profoundly progressive and stood for the development of the marginalized communities of Chicago.
The other face of GD was Gangster Disciple. It was more obscure and hideous and was brutally criminal and devilishly immoral. It represented the largest street gang of Chicago involved in assaults, murders, illegal drug selling and other allied activities.
Since GD referred to both Gangster Disciples and Growth and Development, it was the context of the situation that defined what GD meant.
With the official proclamation of Growth and Development in 1993, Hoover renounced his violent criminal past and became an urban political celebrity. The Gangster Disciples earned fans in the community with charity events and peaceful protests.
Those were the years when Gangster Disciples was considered to be the largest street gang of the US by many accounts.
Growth and Development of “Growth and Development” (1993-1996)
Hoover’s move to reform started getting attention from the others. His Growth and Development created many non-profit organizations including one that registered disenfranchised black voters, a music label that helped needy children, and even a clothing line.
He also organized from the prison a series of peaceful protests to reverse the decision of the closing of public welfare programs. Those programs provided a sense of community and empowerment to the marginalized and oppressed African-Americans. For all the good work that Hoover had helped to initiate for the poor African-Americans, the people outside genuinely considered him their savior and lobbied to get him paroled for his contributions to society.
The political action group created by Hoover for registration for voters was called 21st Century V.O.T.E. In May 1993, it first came into the public eye when it organized a march towards City Hall of Chicago to protest municipal cutbacks in health care. About 5,000 young people participated in the march.
In September 1993, more than 10,000 members of the Gangster Disciples gathered at a large picnic in Kankakee, Illinois where Larry Hoover’s pre-recorded speech was played in which he explained his vision of Growth and Development. This resulted in thousands of letters to the Governor of Illinois Jim Edgar with appeal for clemency for Larry Hoover, which the Governor refused.
In October 1993 a “gang peace summit” was held in Chicago which was attended by about 2,500 people from across the USA. Attendees included gang members, former gang members, gang intervention workers and community activists. Larry Hoover was widely believed to be the brain behind the summit.
In 1996, Hoover’s teachings were published in a book titled The Blueprint of a New Concept: From Gangster Disciple to Growth & Development. The book presented some political goals and strategies for achieving political power.
GD has been regularly organizing picnics and gatherings on occasions like Independence Day and Father’s Day.
Parole is Denied Once More (1993)
Larry Hoover has made multiple unsuccessful attempts to get parole, have his sentence shortened or to be put in a prison of lower security. By 1992, the Prisoner Review Board, Illinois had denied Larry Hoover’s annual request for parole for ten years. In 1993, notwithstanding the campaign mounted for the release of Larry Hoover where he attained celebrity status in Chicago, the board once again denied him parole. It is worth mentioning here that Andrew Howard, who had actually shot dead William Young, was granted parole in 1992.
Investigations Start against Larry Hoover (1993)
Even though Hoover was incarcerated, he held onto the reins of this gang tightly in the prison and kept running the illicit drug trade in prison and on the streets.
The suspecting government officials, who had already been alerted by Harry Martin in 1987 during the murder investigation of Pontiac Prison Superintendent Robert Taylor, saw Hoover’s good intentions as a ploy to get out of prison and resume his illegal activities.
In the fall of 1993, just as the campaign for release of Hoover started getting momentum a parallel thing was taking shape.
On October 29, 1993, the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order authorizing the secret oral interception of communications of Larry Hoover with his visitors at the Vienna Correctional Center. The initial authorization of tapping was for one month only but on December 3, 1993, the Chief Judge extended the order for another 30 days.
The investigators used special transmitting devices that were hidden in the badge worn by the visitors. On December 19, 1993, one of Hoover’s visitors discovered the transmitter in the badge and all interceptions ceased after that.
The tapped recordings revealed to the investigators that Larry Hoover was running the Gangster Disciples group from within the prison system and had expanded his criminal empire to the Midwest and Southeast.
Upon further investigation, informants revealed that Larry Hoover’s nonprofit organizations were actually fronts for laundering drug money. According to the testimonies of Gangster Disciple members, none of the proceeds for any of the so-called charities actually went to helping anyone in need.
Transfer to Dixon and His Life There (1994)
In the fall of 1994 Larry Hoover was transferred out of the Minimum Security Facility in Vienna and into a tighter facility at Dixon Correctional Center, Illinois. The prison authorities of Illinois knew at that point that the federal investigation was underway and that they had collected incriminating evidence against Larry Hoover. It was obvious to them he was about to be indicted. The reason for this transfer can be explained by the fact that it is always a better option to take a high profile criminal like Larry Hoover into federal custody from a more secure facility.
At the Dixon prison, Larry Hoover’s “job” was that of attending to the visitors at the visiting room. He had visitors every day; he had milk shakes to drink and ate steak sandwiches and chicken from the grill at the visiting room. He never ate off the “main line” in the inmate chow hall. He did not do any work, he had no assignment, he was busy everyday meeting with the endless number of visitors who would come to the prison to meet him. He had his own section of the visiting room staked out; it was called “Larry Hoover’s” area.
Larry Hoover’s Indictment (1995)
On August 31, 1995 after a five year long undercover joint investigation by the Illinois Department of Corrections, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives a massive raid was carried out on Gangster Disciples. More than 250 officers of federal, state, and local authorities participated in that raid called “Operation Headache” and besides Larry Hoover, 21 other members of Gangster Disciples were also arrested from the prison. A total of 39 high-ranking Gangster Disciples were indicted in the case.
Larry Hoover was charged with conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, drug-related offenses and continuing criminal enterprise and was moved by the feds from the Dixon Correctional Center to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago to stand trial.
About his indictment, Larry Hoover told a journalist that it masked a conspiracy by Chicago Mayor (1989-2011), Richard M. Daley and other officials to halt the GD backed voter registration drives, election campaigning, gang “peace summits,” and protests. He claimed himself to be a political prisoner and that the real intent of the federal crackdown was to fuel gang strife in black communities and halt his efforts to redirect gang members toward politics.
The Trial and Conviction (1997)
More than 8,000 conversations of Larry Hoover were recorded which were more than 65 hours of tapes. Out of that 4 hours of excerpts were used as evidence against Larry Hoover. The prosecutors had alleged that Larry Hoover’s gang sold drugs worth $100 million a year in Illinois alone and had recruited 30,000 people in 28 states across the United States. They argued that Gangster Disciples had never really ceased to operate as a criminal organization.
Hoover had argued that if all 65 hours of tapes had been transcribed and presented before the court, he would have been acquitted. Hoover’s defense chose not to address the substance of the evidence against him but instead tried to prove that the government recorded his conversations illegally.
Hoover’s lawyers contended that Vienna Correctional Center, where Hoover was prisoned, was located in the Southern District of Illinois and under the law was out of the territorial jurisdiction of the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The government lawyers argued that the transmitters sent radio signals to a transceiver located at Vienna. The signals were then redirected to a wire room in Chicago, where government agents listened to and tape recorded the conversations. They explained that the acquisition of all communications took place in Chicago which is in the Northern District of Illinois. The court accepted this argument.
Larry Hoover’s lawyers also argued that the law was violated when the recorded tapes were not sealed immediately after the expiration of authorized period. On that basis they contended that the tapes could not be presented as evidence. This argument was also rubbished by the court when federal prosecutors cited a previous judgment.
Larry Hoover was found guilty on all charges and in May 1997, was sentenced to six additional life terms for continuing his criminal enterprise from the jail. He was initially sent to Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute, Indiana which is a medium-security prison. Later he was transferred to the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Freemont County, Colorado (also called ADX) where he is serving his sentence. He is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
Continuing Influence of Larry Hoover Over Gangster Disciples
Larry Hoover was caught in 2015 communicating with a fellow gang member Anthony Dobbins, imprisoned at the same facility, through an elaborate code hidden in a list of legal cases and deciphered using a pocket dictionary. The decoding instructions included discounting words with a “small dash in front,” and only reading words that were to the far left of the page, according to the prosecutors.
According to the disciplinary report, Hoover denied knowledge of the dictionary found in his cell. When asked about the incident he told the authorities that he had nothing to do with violating the rules, it was Dobbins who initiated the violation and attempted to involve him. On the basis of the disciplinary action, Hoover’s commissary privileges were suspended for 10 months and he was fined $75. The disciplinary report was later made a part of indictment in January 2021 of Anthony Dobbins and others.
The new federal indictment of seven GDs suggested Hoover might still be holding power over the Chicago gang he founded. The indictment accused the seven state and national leaders of the Gangster Disciples of racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking, witness intimidation and several murders, including the 2018 murder of a 65-year-old ranking member of the gang.
Hoover was not accused of wrongdoing but the indictment claimed that in September 2014, two co-accused Gangster Disciples Anthony Dobbins and Warren Griffin discussed how Larry Hoover had recently appointed them as “board members,” which gave them both the responsibility of gang’s operations across the US.