Tookie Williams
| Stanley "Tookie" Williams | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
Stanley Williams III December 29, 1953 Monroe, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | December 13, 2005 (aged 51) San Quentin Prison, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Gang Leader, Activist, Writer |
| Criminal charge | First degree murder with special circumstance |
| Criminal penalty | Death penalty |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Spouse(s) | Bonnie Williams-Taylor (m. 1981) |
| Children | 3 |
Stanley Tookie Williams III (December 29, 1953 – December 13, 2005) was an American gang member and convicted murderer, who co-founded the West Side Crips, a street gang which has its roots in South Central Los Angeles in 1969. In 1979, he was convicted of murdering four people— a 7-Eleven employee, and in a separate occasion, an elderly Taiwanese couple and their daughter — and sentenced to death.
On December 13, 2005, Williams was executed by lethal injection after clemency and a four-week stay of execution were both rejected by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, amid debate over the death penalty. Williams was the second inmate in California to be executed in 2005.
Stanley Tookie Williams was born on December 29, 1953 in Shreveport, Louisiana to a 17-year-old mother. His father abandoned the family when Williams was just a year old. In 1959, Williams moved with his mother from Shreveport, Louisiana to Los Angeles, California by a Greyhound Lines bus. His mother moved into a two-room apartment on the West Side of South Central Los Angeles.
As Williams' mother worked several jobs to support them, Williams was a latchkey kid and often engaged in mischief on the streets. Williams recalled that, as a child, he would hang out in abandoned houses and vacant lots around his neighborhood in South Central where he would watch adults get drunk, abuse drugs, gamble and engage in pit bull fights. Williams stated that after the adults finished the dog fighting they would make the children fight each other. Williams participated in these street fights regularly as a child where adults would bet on him and give him part of the proceeds for winning his fights. Williams was often the target of older bullies in his neighborhood and, by the age of twelve, he began carrying a switchblade in order to protect himself against older street thugs.
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