Larry Hoover - Early Life

Early Life

Hoover's parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois, when Hoover was four years old. By the time he was 12 years old, Larry was on the streets with his friends. Calling themselves "supreme gangsters," the group would often ditch school together and ride the train around the city.

As the gang grew, Hoover emerged as the natural leader. Known as "Prince Larry," Hoover, along with rival gang leader David Barksdale, decided to merge their gangs into one: the Black Gangster Disciple Nation. In 1974, after Barksdale died from kidney failure due to an earlier shooting, Hoover took the reins of the Gangster Disciples Nation, which now had control of Chicago's South Side. Under Hoover's rule, the Gangster Disciples took over the South Side drug trade. While incarcerated Larry Hoover helped form the Folks Nation which added other gangs such as: Black Disciples, Gangster Disciples, Imperial Gangsters, La Raza, Spanish Cobras, Latin Eagles, Maniac Latin Disciples, Simon City Royals, Spanish Gangster Disciples, Two Sixers, Young Latino Organization Disciples, Young Latino Organization Cobras, Black King Cobras, and International Posse.

While incarcerated, "King Hoover" ran the gang's illicit drug trade in prison and on the streets, starting from Chicago's West Side and later extending throughout the United States. By the early '90s Hoover claimed to have renounced his violent criminal past and became an urban political celebrity in Chicago, and the GDs earned fans in the community with charity events and peaceful protests. He proclaimed that GD now meant "Growth & Development." A lengthy federal investigation using wiretaps led to Hoover getting another life sentence in 1995. Hoover's gang allegedly has had 30,000 "soldiers" in 35 states and made $100 million a year, a total of $3,300.30 USD per "soldier" annually (though as with all underground criminal enterprises, it's hard to say).