Raymond Washington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raymond Lee Washington (August 15, 1953 – August 9, 1979) was the founder of a Los Angeles, California street gang, which eventually would become known as the Crips, one of the most notorious and violent gangs in United States history.
Raymond Washington was born in Haskell, Texas. When he was three years old, his family relocated to 76th Street, on the east side of South-Central Los Angeles. In 1969, 15-year-old Raymond Washington, then a student at John C. Fremont High School, organized a group of neighborhood friends and founded a gang known as the "Baby Avenues". Washington’s gang was named in admiration of a prominent 1960s gang led by Craig and Robert Munson, named "The Avenue Boys".
The Baby Avenues later changed their name to the "Avenue Cribs", and by 1971 the name had evolved to become the "Crips". Stanley Tookie Williams joined the gang in 1971 and formed the "Westside Crips". Together, Washington and Williams played instrumental roles in expanding the Crips to other territories in Southern California.
Washington was shot and killed by a rival gang in 1979, five months after Williams' arrest for a quadruple murder. Washington’s killer(s) have yet to be determined. The homicide remains a cold case.
