The Gangs of Los Angeles

There is no gang turf more desperately unique than that hidden among the 464 square miles which make up the City of Los Angeles. It is a fragile place; both tantalizing and repulsive, where wild fires can scorch hill-top celebrity homes as easily as gang members decimate a housing project with automatic rifle fire.

The Gangs of Los Angeles is a classic, real life account of American crime. From the early Tomato Gangs of 1890’s Boyle Heights to the modern Crips and Mara Salvatrucha, with side trips through an Irish Dogtown, the gang wars of “Happy Valley”, Sleepy Lagoon and the yellow journalism of the Hearst Press, and a tragic murder at Sunset and Vine, Dunn recounts the events and notorious denizens that spawned LA’s gang subculture.

Praise for William Dunn’s BOOT: “BOOT uses Dunn’s stint on the streets to make incisive and invaluable observations about the nation’s troubled urban areas and their policing.”
—Publishers Weekly

“… Read BOOT by William Dunn for an honest, inside look at the world’s most controversial police force.”
—Joseph Wambaugh, author of Hollywood Station