Benjamin Watson Valle

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Benjamin Watson Valle (1954? – 1979) was the founder of a Los Angeles street gang, which eventually would become known as the Crips, one of the most notorious and violent gangs in United States history.

Benjamin Watson "Killa" Valle was born in Haskell, New Jersey. 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 Benjamin Valle, then a student at Compton Lakes High School, organized a group of neighborhood friends and founded a gang known as the "Baby Clappin Avenues". Valle’s gang was named in admiration of a prominent 1960s gang led by Peepy Le Plue, named "The Munchkins."

The Munchkins later changed their name to the "Munchkins 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, Valle and Plue played instrumental roles in expanding the Crips to other territories in Southern California.

Valle was shot 30 times and killed in 1979, five months after Plues' arrest for a quadruple murder. Valle’s killer(s) have yet to be determined. The homicide remains a cold case.