Williams, Stanley Tookie 1953-2005 (Stanley Tookie Williams, III)

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Williams, Stanley Tookie 1953-2005 (Stanley Tookie Williams, III)

PERSONAL:

Born December 29, 1953, in New Orleans, LA; died by lethal injection, December 13, 2005, in San Quentin, CA; married Bonnie Williams Taylor, 1981 (divorced); children: two sons.

CAREER:

Former gang leader and anti-gang advocate. Crips gang, Los Angeles, CA, cofounder, beginning 1971.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Five-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee; Presidential Call to Service Award, White House, 2005, for volunteer efforts to help youth.

WRITINGS:

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Selfesteem, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Weapons, Rosen (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Your Friends, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Your Neighborhood, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Drugs, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Violence, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and the Abuse of Power, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Gangs and Wanting to Belong, PowerKids Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Barbara Cottman Becnel) Life in Prison, Morrow Junior Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Blue Rage, Black Redemption (memoir), Damamli (Pleasant Hill, CA), 2004, reprinted, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stanley Tookie Williams was an American gang leader who became an anti-gang advocate. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 29, 1953, Williams was named after his father and grandfather, despite being raised by his mother from a very early age. Wanting to give her son a better chance to break free from the difficulties of living in extreme poverty in Louisiana, his mother moved the family to South Central Los Angeles when he was six.

Williams's financial situation did not improve after the move, and he regularly got into fights and started robbing, stealing, and even using a gun while still in high school. He was expelled from John C. Fremont High School and went on a body-building regime, which saw him bulk up to over 300 pounds, with biceps measuring in at twenty-two inches. Williams spent time in Los Angeles' Central Juvenile Hall, where his anger and destructive habits grew. As a teen in 1971 he and Raymond Lee Washington founded a gang called the Cribs, referring to their young age. Eventually the name was changed to the Crips as the gang took on a reputation for being one of the most feared forces on Los Angeles' streets.

Williams was eventually sentenced to death in a Los Angeles court of law for the 1979 murders of convenience store clerk Albert Owens and the three-member Yang family. The murders were reportedly committed without any extenuating circumstances, with the prosecution painting Williams as a racist, hate-filled man who validated his right to kill Owens simply because he was Caucasian. During the trial, allegations were made by the defense that certain witnesses, facing jail time for their own crimes, lied to the jury when they stated that Williams had volunteered confessions to them. Williams himself always publicly denied guilt in the murders. His defense team also pointed out that the twelve-member jury was made up of ten Caucasian jurors and not a single African American was in the group.

Williams entered San Quentin State Penitentiary an angry man, lifting weights to create an even more feared reputation inside the prison. But as he aged, his demeanor calmed and he reportedly began reflecting on his life of crime and violence. Williams began publishing children's books with Barbara Cottman Becnel to help educate youth about some of the dangerous paths he took when he was in the Crips. He released an array of books related to the culture of violence associated with gangs in 1996. These include Gangs and Self-esteem, Gangs and Weapons, Gangs and Your Friends, Gangs and Your Neighborhood, Gangs and Violence, Gangs and the Abuse of Power, and Gangs and Wanting to Belong.

His advocacy against violence and gang culture earned him recognition as a reformed man and a benefit to society at large. He received several nominations for a Nobel Peace Prize, from a Swiss politician and from American authors and academics. Williams also earned a powerful group of supporters from Hollywood, including rapper and former Crips member Snoop Dogg, and actors Sean Penn, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover, and Jamie Foxx, who played Williams in a movie about his life. This and other groups appealed to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Williams on the grounds that he had reformed. The governor, however, denied this request, suggesting that Williams was not really reformed as he had never admitted guilt for the murders he was convicted of committing in 1979. On December 13, 2005, Williams was executed by lethal injection after his clemency request was not approved. It was reported that doctors administering the injection had difficulty finding a vein in his arm, searching for more than fifteen minutes.

Also published in 1996 with Becnel was Gangs and Drugs. The book looks into the role that drugs play in gangs, with most members using, if not outright dealing, them to support their lifestyles. Williams and Becnel show that all races of youth in the country and around the world are susceptible to the dangers posed from selling and using drugs. They also look into how gangs use a lack of self-esteem to strengthen the individual's tie to the gang and its members, making it easier to find solace in the activities of the gang, including using dangerous drugs or even killing for them.

Stephanie Zvirin, reviewing the book in Booklist suggested that there are few "better to give advice on" the subject of gang violence than someone with the amount of experience as Williams. While Zvirin recorded that "facts about Tookie's life are intriguing," she wrote that "they are too few to balance the preachy text." Zvirin also commented that "Tookie's presentation as a tragic figure of sorts is troubling."

In 1998 the pair published Life in Prison, describing what life in prison is like in an attempt to dispel myths of the lifestyle and culture behind bars. Williams then published a memoir in 2004 called Blue Rage, Black Redemption. The autobiography describes Williams's life from his childhood, through his years as a disgruntled youth, leading him to form the gang. He then shows his transformation in prison to someone who was able to reflect on his life and his mistakes and attempt to make amends for his wrongdoings by becoming an advocate of the sort of culture he helped to develop in the poverty-stricken areas of Los Angeles and beyond.

A critic writing in Kirkus Reviews found the account "quite affecting," adding that the part of the memoir where Williams meets his son in prison while being transferred to another prison was also "particularly moving." The same critic described the memoir as "a modern, inspiring companion to such works as Claude Browne's Manchild in the Promised Land and Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice." Booklist contributor Vanessa Bush noted that the memoir "imparts a penetrating look at personal redemption" from the author offering "himself as an object lesson for urban youth."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Vol. 7, Charles Scribner's Sons (Detroit, MI), 2007.

Williams, Stanley Tookie, Blue Rage, Black Redemption, Damamli (Pleasant Hill, CA), 2004, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1997, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Gangs and Drugs, p. 1018; October 1, 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of Blue Rage, Black Redemption, p. 7.

Chicago Tribune, November 30, 2005, Vincent J. Schodolski, "Supporters Fight Execution by Pointing to Gang Founder's Work"; December 12, 2005, Vincent J. Schodolski, "California Governor Denies Clemency to Tookie Williams"; December 12, 2005, Maurice Possley and Steve Mills, "Williams' Case Spurs Broader Debate over Death Penalty."

Criminal Law Bulletin, May 1, 2006, Evan J. Mandery, "Mercy and Contrition."

Current Events, a Weekly Reader Publication, October 18, 2002, "Should ‘Tookie’ Die? Debating the Fate of Stanley Williams," p. 3.

Financial Times, December 17, 2005, Christopher Caldwell, "Punishment and Absurdity," p. 11.

Internet Wire, December 6, 2005, "Snoop Dogg Rallies behind Nobel Literature Prize Nominated & Community Activist Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams in a Bid to Help Williams Gain Clemency to Avoid Execution."

Jet, December 25, 2000, "Black California Death Row Inmate Is Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize," p. 8; September 5, 2005, "Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams Receives Presidential Award for Good Deeds," p. 37.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2007, review of Blue Rage, Black Redemption.

Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2005, Mark Z. Barabak, "Californians Conflicted on Williams' Fate," p. 1; December 6, 2005, Louis Sahagun and Lisa Richardson, "NAACP Embarks on Drive to Spare Williams' Life," p. 1; December 7, 2005, Louis Sahagun, "NAACP Calls for Sparing Williams: New Chief Jets across the State Seeking to Keep the Inmate Alive," p. 1; December 12, 2005, Kenneth R. Weiss and Steve Chawkins, "Justices Reject Williams' Appeal," p. 1; December 12, 2005, Henry Weinstein, "Aging, Ill Inmate Is Next in Line for Execution," p. 1; December 13, 2005, Jenifer Warren and Maura Dolan, "Tookie Williams Is Executed"; December 13, 2005, Henry Weinstein and Peter Nicholas, "Governor Didn't Believe Williams Had Reformed," p. 1; September 6, 2006, Henry Weinstein, "Problems Alleged in Execution of Crips Cofounder: Lawyers for Another Condemned Inmate Say Stanley Tookie Williams May Have Felt Horrible Pain," p. 1.

Monthly Review, November 28, 2005, Phil Gasper, author interview.

National Review, December 19, 2005, "Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams Founded the Crips Gang in 1971, When He Was 17 Years Old," p. 14.

News & Notes, December 8, 2005, author interview.

New York Times, January 2, 1985, "Trial Is Ruled Fair despite Shackles"; December 12, 2005, Sarah Kershaw, "No Word from Governor as Execution Approaches," p. 16; December 13, 2005, Sarah Kershaw, "California Gang Founder Loses Death Row Appeal," p. 27; December 14, 2005, Sarah Kershaw, "Execution Ignites New Fire in Death Penalty Debate," p. 30; December 21, 2005, "Well-attended Service for Tookie Williams," p. 35; December 14, 2006, Jesse McKinley, "Political Drama Re-enacts Moments in a Death Chamber," p. 28.

New York Times Magazine, August 10, 2003, Kimberley Sevcik, "Has Stanley Williams Left the Gang?," p. 34.

People, Curtis Rist, November 4, 1996, "‘Don't Be like Me’: In His Books for Children, a Death Row Inmate Offers Himself as a Role Model Not Fit to Imitate," p. 123; December 12, 2005, "Does Tookie Deserve to Die?," p. 99.

Philadelphia Daily News, January 9, 2006, "Gone but Not Forgotten."

Recorder, February 3, 2005, Jeff Chorney, "Circuit Judges Again Reject Ex-gang Leader."

San Jose Mercury News, December 12, 2005, "Reaction to Williams' Execution Muted in South-Central L.A."

Sojourners, March 1, 2001, Rose Marie Berger and Susannah Hunter, "Peace Prize or Gas Chamber," p. 10.

Tampa Tribune, December 14, 2005, "The Bloody Legacy of Tookie Williams," p. 12.

Time, September 23, 1996, James Willwerth, "Lessons Learned on Death Row: A Repentant Founder of the Crips Writes Books to Warn Kids off Gangs," p. 58.

USA Today, October 25, 2005, "Trial Nears for Man," p. 3; December 6, 2005, DeWayne Wickham, "Why ‘Tookie’ Williams Deserves Clemency," p. 13; December 12, 2005, "Death Penalty Support Ebbs as Tough New Option Arises," p. 12; December 13, 2005, John Ritter, "Crowd Rallies for Crips Founder," p. 3; December 14, 2005, John Ritter, "Williams Executed, but Controversy Remains," p. 2.

US Newswire, December 12, 2005, "Group Praises California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for Letting Jury Verdict Stand for Unrepentant Killer Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams."

Washington Post, December 14, 2005, Evelyn Nieves, "Schwarzenegger Clemency Denial Called Politically Safe," p. 18.

Weekend Edition Saturday, January 13, 2001, "Profile: Stanley Williams Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize."

World Entertainment News Network, November 28, 2005, "Schwarzenegger Hears Snoop Dogg's Clemency Plea"; December 16, 2005, "Schwarzenegger: ‘Williams Had to Die’."