Posted By: stern49
Joe Morgan - 12/27/13 03:50 AM
The Life of Joe Morgan
The story of Joe “Pegleg” Morgan is a fascinating tale of how a white man could reach to the top of the most feared Hispanic prison gang in the USA. For several decades, Morgan was one of the leading figures in the so-called Mexican Mafia, and he was as loved by his friends as he was feared by his enemies.
Joseph Morgan was born in San Pedro, California in 1929. Joe was raised by his Croatian mother. He never knew his Irish-American father. Joe and his mother moved to East L.A. when he was 12. When he was 17, Morgan was convicted of murder after he killed the husband of his older girlfriend with a tire iron, and was sentenced to 9 years in prison. He escaped a few months after being sentenced, but he was soon captured. He became the youngest inmate ever at San Quentin State Prison. Morgan was a tall and tough kid, who developed a good relationship with the Latino convicts, because he was a member of the Mexican-American street gang El Hoyo Soto Marvilla.
Joe was released on parole in 1955, but would go back to state prison the next year, after he had robbed a bank with a machine gun for almost $20,000. At the same time, a couple of young inmates at a youth facility in California decided to form a prison gang to protect themselves from other criminals, and this group would later be known as the Mexican Mafia. The leader and founder was a guy named Luis "Huero Buff" Flores, who was from East L.A. Growing up in East L.A. and with a background with Hispanic street gangs, Morgan joined the gang when they were later transferred to San Quentin. The Mexican Mafia, or La Eme (The letter M in Spanish) soon got a reputation for being one of the most dangerous and most violent prison gangs in the entire country. As the power of the gang grew, so did the power of Joe Morgan, and even though he was not Hispanic, he became one of the godfathers of the Mexican Mafia. The original members of La Eme were from Southern and Northern California.
He had a calming presence, not like the many hot-blooded members. “Pegleg” (a nickname he got because of his artificial leg, but it was rarely said to his face) was also the mastermind behind their most lucrative business; the drug trade. Due to his connections with the drug cartels, he was able to import pure heroin and cocaine from Mexico, and then supply it to the whole West Coast. “La Eme” became one of the first prison gangs to take their business outside of jail. Drug dealers in the Los Angeles area now had to choose between paying the gang or a bullet in the head. There were few who said no. In a couple of years, Joe and the rest of the “brothers” (carnales) organized a drug racket that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, making the organization even more powerful.
In 1965, a small group of Mexican Mafia associates who were angry with the way they were being treated by Mexican Mafia members started a gang called Nuestra Familia in Soledad Prison. As soon as some Nuestra Familia members began arriving at San Quentin in 1968 they were treated very bad by the Mexican Mafia. Nuestra Familia member Sonny Pena was the first victim to be murdered by the Mexican Mafia. Pena’s brutal murder was the Mexican Mafia’s way of letting other California inmates know that new prison gangs would not be accepted. Mexican-American prisoners from northern California also became targets, leaving the California Department of Corrections with no other choice but to segregate all Nuestra Familia members and northern California inmates at that time. This gave Nuestra Familia the perfect opportunity to let Hispanic criminals from northern California join their gang. Bakersfield, California soon became the dividing line between the Nuestra Familia and Mexican Mafia territory.
Because of Morgan’s race, he also had a connection with the Aryan Brotherhood and even some members of the Italian-American mob in L.A. The Mexican Mafia would sometimes pay the Aryans for hits on “rats” or opposing gang members. Morgan’s best friend, Rodolfo Cadena wanted to gather the Nuestra Familia and La Eme into one national crime syndicate, but he was killed by the NF, after being stabbed over 50 times in Chino Prison in 1972. This would begin one of the bloodiest feuds in the American prison system, and La Eme members still have a “kill on sight” policy for Nuestra Familia members. Cadena was the second boss of La Eme.
In 1976, Joe Morgan was again released on parole. He married his girlfriend Jody, who he would have 2 children with, but he would soon enough find himself in trouble with the law again. After he was indicted with federal narcotics charges, he ran away to Utah, but was arrested there the next year. Even though he pleaded guilty and only received a moderate sentence in 1978, he would never again be a free man. The same year, a former La Eme member turned on the gang, and testified against Joe. He pinned Morgan to several murders, both inside of prison and out on the streets. “Pegleg” was sentenced to life in jail, to be served in the maximum security section of Pelican Bay State Prison. Many describe him as the most powerful La Eme member ever. He became a legendary icon for many young gangsters, and even prison guards (who claim he was always kind and respectful towards them) say there was “something” about “Papa Joe”. A member who badmouthed the “White Godfather” in 1991 found out just how respected Morgan was by the other members when he was stabbed 26 times in 1991.
In 1992, the movie American Me about Morgan and his friend Cadena brought national fame to the prison gang. La Eme was not satisfied with how they had been portrayed, because the movie showed some of the Mexican Mafia members raping an inmate and Cadena being raped as a young man, which both of those situations never actually happened. Morgan himself filed a lawsuit against Universal Studios for basing one of the leading characters on him without his permission. On May 13, 1992, a gang counselor named Ana Lizarraga was gunned down for helping with the film.
The next year, Morgan was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and transferred to California State Prison in Corcoran where he died November 9, 1993 at the age of 64. Even to this day, and even though he had no Hispanic blood in him, Joseph Morgan is a hero to many Latino gangsters, and they regard “Papa Joe” just as much a Chicano as they themselves are. A more historically correct look on the history of the Mexican Mafia, than the American Me movie, is the book “The Black Hand” by Chris Blatchford from 2008.
That's All
