[img:left]http://www.trbimg.com/img-51ba39dc/turbi...613/399/399x225[/img]

Officials: Murder, intimidation kept $11 million-a-year gang going


By Annie Sweeney and Jason Meisner
Tribune reporters
4:28 p.m. CDT, June 13, 2013

The top leaders of one of Chicago’s most violent street gangs have been charged in a sweeping racketeering case that alleges they controlled their West Side drug empire through pattern of intimidation, kidnappings, shootings and murder dating back to the mid-1990s, according to an affidavit unsealed today in Cook County Criminal Court.

Before sunrise today, police armed with "no knock" search warrants fanned out across the Chicago area surprising dozens of leaders of the Black Souls, including Cornel Dawson, known as the gang’s chief, and Teron Odum, described as Dawson’s second-in-command. Also arrested were a number of “top runners” and “supervisors” who authorities say control the gang’s street operations.

The 78-page affidavit alleges the Black Souls ran an $11 million-a-year drug operation and protected the enterprise with violence that included at least seven murders from 1994 to 2012. In all, 23 members of the gang have been charged with racketeering conspiracy, while 18 more face state drug or weapons charges, authorities said.

Among the charges was the slaying last October of Claude Snulligan, whom authorities said was fatally shot after he worked undercover and agreed to testify against the gang’s leaders about a robbery and attempted kidnapping months earlier.

The case, dubbed “Operation 40 Cal,” marks the first prosecution under the state’s new anti-racketeering law designed to hold gang leaders accountable for violence their organizations wreak on city streets.

“The new street gang RICO law has enabled us to launch an unprecedented attack on the leadership of this violent and notorious gang,” Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said at a news conference today at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. “It is a game-changer for law enforcement in our war against Chicago street gangs.”

Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy said similar measures were used to great effect during his tenure in New York and allow police to “permeate the veil of secrecy” in which gang leaders surround themselves.

“We’re going to use this a lot,” McCarthy said.

Court appearances for the defendants are expected to begin Friday.

The arrests mark the first prosecution by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office under the gang RICO law, which took effect in June 2012 and was modeled after the 1970 federal RICO statute originally designed to go after mobsters. By classifying a gang as a criminal enterprise, the law allows authorities to hold leaders responsible for the gang’s actions even if they are insulated from a particular crime such as a murder or drug deal.

The law carries stiff penalties for those convicted of participating in a criminal enterprise -- from a mandatory 7- to 30-year prison term for racketeering conspiracy up to life in prison without parole for those convicted of murder under the statute.

The Black Souls gang was founded on the city’s West Side and is thought to have a half-dozen factions with more than 750 members, according to law enforcement reports.

In 2010, the gang was targeted by then-Chicago police Supt. Jody Weis under a new strategy to crack down on an entire gang if one of its members was involved in a fatal shooting. The effort, which began with the August 2010 murder of high school senior Anthony Carter, netted more than 60 arrests, according to a Tribune report that year.

Over the past decade, the federal RICO statute has been used against two Chicago-area gangs: the Latin Kings in Chicago and the Insane Deuces in Aurora.

In the Latin Kings case, prosecutors emphasized that the case provided them with a rare opportunity to hold the highest ranking Latin King in the country accountable for the violence that supported the gang’s drug enterprise.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...0,3198306.story

This is major news since the black souls is one of the most tight knit black mob and low profile. There haven't been many indictments on their group up until now and the mid 90s arrest of some members and nigerians. I'm going to try to get the link for that affidavit. As I said earlier this year, despite all the talk about factions that doesn't apply to ALL chicago mobs.

are the souls people or folk nation?

These guys have been around for a while.
I figured it was the gds at first considering all the press coverage they have been getting from that senator. But that stuff probably won't go down for a while yet.

Neither. Black Souls are independent. They started in 1962 in East Garfield Park. They are mainly involve in drugs and gun trafficking. Many rumors say they have infiltrated the police department.

Black Souls are independent long live KING WEE

There a joke! You guys shouldn't idolize these guys!

Your the first poster to mention the founder. How much do you know about him?

Nobody is idolizing them (exception of the members of course), it's rarely you even see news about them.

black souls are strictly in the business of making money

they don't gangbang at all

ain't no telling what kinda schemes they were into

in 2010 about 60 black souls members were arrested after a murder, It was mostly on minor charges but it was used as a sort of punishment against the whole group for the killing.

http://chicagostreetgangs.webs.com/blacksouls.html
Alliance: Indepedent /(Folks)
Ethnicity: African American
Colors: Black and White
Symbols: Heart w/Wings, Black Diamond, Numbers 4-4-9, Dice, PLaying Cards, Cross, Number 1
Aliases: Black Souls 440, Souls Previously Known As: Black Souls Factions: Mad Black Souls (MBS), Gangster Black Souls, Outlaw Black Souls, Egyptian Cobra Black Souls, Black Soul Brothers
Founder: William Earl Weaver alias: King Wee
Considered an independent gang (non alignment to either Folks and People/Brothers, the black souls started in West Garfield Park in 1963. King Wee founded the organization; he is William Earl Weaver. Earl Weaver is the King or Chairperson of the Black Souls. However, there are lso Five Star Generals: Mad Black Souls-Sam McKay; Gangster Black Souls; Wayne Edwards alias: Gray Bobo; Willie Jones-Egyptian Cobra Black Souls. The Outlaw Black Souls were founded by Lewis Johnson, Sr. alias Pee Wee. They originated as the Impression Black Souls (now defunct). There also exists a reengage faction called the Outlaw Black Souls (citation needed). The Outlaw Black Souls are now under Paul Fitts alias Gangster Paul. The Black Souls consider themselves First Cousins to the Blue Fin Black Disciples. The Black Souol Brothers were founded by Frank Davis. The Black Souls are known for engaging in narcotis sells at a high level and also engaging in the sale of weapons. There are rules for the Black Souls that culminate into a “design” called “4-4-0” (Four Forty); it symbolizes a Right of Passage. The gang has a long standing feud with the New Breeds. A member of the Black Souls attempted to touch Boonie Black, former chief of the BGs.

The Black Souls have influence within the Chicago Police Department and have developed into an organized crime enterprise. The gang sets itself in white color criminal crime.

The Black Souls originated on the corner of Madison & California. They control much of the Madison Street corridor on the west side. Craving four power led the gang to form a secret alliance with the Four Corner Hustlers which both gangs had the Black Diamond symbol. Nevertheless, there is tension between the two west side organizations.

The Black Souls are related to the Latin Souls. Frank Davis oversaw the development of the Latin Souls while he resided in New City. The Black Souls never had a firm foothold in Sherman Park. Davis is said to have also formed the Soul Brothers, who merged with the Black Souls in the early 1970's. The gang would be called the Black Soul Brothers and base themselved at 16th & Kostner

Bases of Operation: The Black Souls “own” a swathe of territory in West Garfield Park. At one time they controlled a portion of Rockwell Gardens. Assumedly, they were forced out of Rockwell Gardens by the Vice Lords. This may be a reason why the Black Souls never elected to join the People Alliance. They have a small chapter on the south side within the Pocket Town.

They have a large contingent in K-Town, where the Mad Black Souls share territory with Black Soul Brothers, Egyptian Black Souls, and Outlaw Black Souls. Here and at Fifth & Sacramento the Black Souls mob up with New Breeds. There may be a faction called the New Life Black Souls, who share Fifth Street with Black Gangsters, whom also go under the New Life concept.

Method of Operation: The Black Souls do not engage in gang bngin and representing to either side. These are codes of conduct passed through King Wee. Black Souls represent by throwing up the “1” (One). This is traced back to their relationship with the Black Disciples who all contend “All is One” To make a point the Black Souls quote “On the One.” The gang’s hand symbol is a upward pointed index-finger. Though technically an "independent" gang, the Black Souls aligned with the Folks --particularly the Black Disciples-- while incacerated.

The Black Souls wear the colors black and white, though not an issue on the surface. The upper echelon dresses in casual clothing and while younger members dress if urban wear, they too “doll it up” at times.

Iconography: The Black Souls have a heart w/ wings which is what the Disciples have always had. They also use dice, playing cards, the numbers 440, a cross, and the black diamond. In order, these symbols mean “hustle,” “drive,” “right of passage (four fingers interlocked form a bridge, when raised slightly it opens a bridge –envision a ship passing through on the river—to literally mean a Right of Passage. Again, a cross is obvious, and the black diamond was conceptualized by Hodari Joe, a Four Corner Hustler (read more on the 4chn).

Known bases of operation:

Madison & Pulaski: Dark Side

Monroe & Karlov

16th & Kostner

Fifth & Sacramentio

73rd & Greenwood: Pocket Town

13th to 15th & Harding

13th & Albany

Fulton & Albany: Terror Town

More info: Local authorities, armed with a powerful new state RICO law, said they charged dozens of leaders and senior members of a notorious West Side street gang with operating a violent, $11 million-a-year heroin and cocaine operation responsible for seven murders and untold violence since the 1990s.

In unsealing the charges Thursday, authorities said the probe began after a victim of violence at the hands of the Black Souls gang was shot to death in a daylight street attack in October after he had refused a bribe of $3,000 to drop charges against several gang leaders for his earlier beating and robbery.

Before sunrise Thursday, Chicago police gang specialists and FBI agents armed with "no knock" search warrants fanned out across the Chicago area to arrest suspects accused of being high-ranking leaders of the gang as well as "top runners" and supervisors who authorities said control its street operations. In all, 23 people were charged with racketeering conspiracy and criminal drug conspiracy in the first use of the tough new state RICO law, while 18 others face more traditional drug or weapons charges, authorities said.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said the investigation marks a game-changing approach to unraveling Chicago's seemingly intractable gang problem that is responsible for the bulk of the persistent gun violence that has brought Chicago unwanted national attention despite a drop in shootings and homicides so far this year.

"We're not just charging individual people. We're charging the entire enterprise," Alvarez said at a news conference at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Reaction to the crackdown, though, was mixed. While victims applauded the effort, some residents in the violence-torn West Garfield Park neighborhood considered the Black Souls' stronghold were uncertain that much would change in the wake of the arrests.

"Shootings here, shootings there," said Tyrone Browder, who has lost family members to the seemingly never-ending violence. "I'm not gonna be convinced it's ever gonna stop."

Modeled after the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act famous for taking down mob syndicates, the state law was enacted last June and carries stiff penalties for those convicted of participating in a criminal enterprise — from a mandatory seven- to 30-year prison term for racketeering conspiracy up to life in prison without parole for those found guilty of murder as part of the scheme. Unlike traditional charges that often go after a suspect for a single act, a racketeering case makes the heads of an enterprise responsible for its pattern of misconduct.

Over recent decades, the federal RICO law has been used against Chicago-area gangs, most recently the Latin Kings in Chicago and the Insane Deuces in Aurora. Prosecutors say the approach allows gang leaders to be held accountable for violence they order underlings to carry out.

"You can get at the person who is at the top of the food chain," said former federal prosecutor Christina Egan.

The Black Souls operation is centered near West Madison Street and Pulaski Road and is thought to have a half-dozen factions with about 750 members, a fraction of the size of gangs like the Latin Kings or Gangster Disciples, according to law enforcement.

"They're small, violent and hard to infiltrate," said Chicago police Sgt. Charles Daly, who helped run the investigation. "Tightknit. We never had any luck infiltrating this group."

On the 4000 block of West Monroe Street, the street where the investigation started, the gang's presence is entrenched.

There is a hollowed-out building with gaping holes for windows where residents say the gang sold drugs and a large scrawl of graffiti on a boarded up house that reads in large black letters: "New Life," a nod to a Black Soul faction.

"They think they can control this block, that block, Wilcox, Adams," said Browder, 58. "They buried a guy in the backyard."

The gang was briefly targeted by then-Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis in 2010 after the murder of high school senior Anthony Carter, resulting in more than 60 arrests on a variety of charges, many of them minor. One Black Souls member, Sharod Pierce, was charged with Carter's slaying and recently was sentenced to 60 years in prison, court records show

According to a 78-page affidavit unsealed in Cook County court Thursday, the RICO investigation began with the October 2012 murder of Claude Snulligan, 36, a cooperating informant who was shot once in the back of the head after paying a cellphone bill at a store on South Pulaski Road. The undercover probe was code-named Operation 40 Cal after the caliber of the gun used to kill Snulligan.

A few months earlier, Snulligan had allegedly been confronted by Teron Odum, identified by authorities as the Black Souls' second-in-command, and two other high-ranking gang members about calling police on the gang's open-air drug activities. The three beat and pistol-whipped Snulligan, robbed him and tried to stuff him in the trunk of a car before leaving him unconscious in the street, according to the affidavit.

The three suspects were arrested by police after Snulligan had identified them as his attackers, authorities said. Days later, Cornel Dawson, the gang's alleged chief, reached out to Snulligan and offered him $3,000 to drop the case, according to the affidavit. Instead, Snulligan agreed to work undercover as police investigated the alleged witness tampering, secretly recording his conversations with gang leaders offering cash if he would sign a sworn statement that Odum was not the man who beat him, according to the charges.

Snulligan, who was terrified that he would be killed, moved out of the neighborhood and rarely returned "because he feared that the Black Souls would retaliate," one cooperating witness told police, according to the charges.

On the day he was killed, the father of five went to the neighborhood to borrow money from a friend so he could pay his cellphone bill and buy a Sweetest Day gift for his girlfriend, his mother told the Tribune on Thursday. "We warned him about going up there," Sarie Campbell said.

Shortly after noon, Black Souls crew supervisor Duavon Spears was seen with three other gang members in a parking lot of a chicken restaurant across the street, according to the charges. A witness said he saw Spears walk up with a gray hoodie pulled over his head, raise a pistol and fire once into the back of Snulligan's head. A single .40-caliber shell casing was found at the scene.

Later that day, another cooperating witness told police, he called Dawson and asked him about Snulligan's murder, according to the affidavit.

"It's a good day in the hood," Dawson allegedly replied.

The same witness, later shown video surveillance by police, identified Spears as the male seen in a gray hooded sweatshirt in the parking lot moments before the shooting, authorities said.

If u not a black Soul then no infor one of the most secret organization in Chicago.

Amid heavy courthouse security, the alleged top leaders of one of Chicago’s most violent street gangs were ordered held without bail today on sweeping racketeering charges that allege they controlled their West Side drug empire through intimidation, kidnappings, shootings and murder dating back to the 1990s.

Prosecutors alleged in charges unsealed Thursday that Cornel Dawson, 38, the reputed chief of the Black Souls gang, and Teron Odum, 34, described by prosecutors as Dawson’s second in command, protected an $11 million-a-year drug operation with violence. In all, 23 members of the gang have been charged with racketeering conspiracy, while 18 more face state drug or weapons charges, authorities said.

Dawson, of the 2700 block of West Washington Street, sauntered into bond court in the Leighton Criminal Court Building in a black hooded sweatshirt and kept his thumbs looped in his jeans. His court-appointed attorney said Dawson, the father of five children, is engaged to be married and supports his family by working as a barber.

Moments later, the same attorney was appointed to represent Odum, who said he also works as a barber.
 
Judge Israel Desierto ordered both held without bail, citing the evidence contained in the 78-page affidavit unsealed Thursday by prosecutors. Both face up to mandatory life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
 
Several other alleged high-ranking members of the gang who appeared for bond hearings claimed to support themselves through jobs ranging from shining shoes to stocking soft drinks for a beverage company.
 
The arrests mark the first prosecution by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office under the state RICO law that took effect last June and was modeled after the 1970 federal racketeering statute originally designed to go after mobsters. By classifying a gang as a criminal enterprise, the law allows authorities to hold leaders responsible for the gang’s actions even if they are insulated from a particular crime such as a murder or drug deal.

The law carries stiff penalties for those convicted of participating in a criminal enterprise -- from a mandatory 7- to 30-year prison term for racketeering conspiracy up to life in prison without parole for those convicted of murder under the statute.

Still haven't found the affidavit yet and here's an update news:

After Darryl Green was kidnapped from a west suburban beeper store in 1999, his kidnappers called his twin brother to demand a ransom.

But after a few calls, the negotiations came to a halt and a kidnapper said: “Make arrangements for your brother.” Police recorded the grim call.

Green was taken to a secluded area in Gary, where witnesses heard shots fired from the woods. Police found his body with three bullet wounds to the head.

On Tuesday, a Cook County jury deliberated about 90 minutes before finding Kevin Mitchell, 47, guilty of the kidnapping and murder. Police investigating the cold case had linked Mitchell to the slaying after tests confirmed Green’s DNA was in a van that Mitchell was known to drive in 1999, Cook County prosecutors said.

Mitchell was charged in the killing in 2013. Two other men involved in the kidnapping have pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder. David McAfee received a 30-year sentence, and Raymond Winters was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Charges are pending against a fourth defendant, Dimeyon Cole, officials said.

The killing of Green, who was kidnapped from the Beep the Twinz store in Broadview on June 18, 1999, was mentioned in a larger racketeering case that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez brought against members of the Black Souls street gang about two years ago. Dozens of defendants have been charged.

That investigation, called Operation .40-Cal, began after Claude Snulligan was fatally shot in the head with a .40-caliber bullet on Oct. 20, 2012, on the West Side. Black Souls members allegedly killed him because he told the cops that the gang was selling drugs in front of his home.

The 47-year-old Mitchell, who moved from the West Side to Northwestern Indiana, allegedly was a member of the Black Souls, authorities said. The FBI, Cook County Sheriff’s police and Broadview police investigated Green’s murder. It was one of six murders listed in the racketeering case as examples of the gang’s crimes, officials say.

One of those murder victims, Charles Watson, was killed and buried upside down in 2002 in a West Side yard after the Black Souls accused him of stealing money and drugs from the gang. One member of the Black Souls allegedly told police that Watson’s burial enforced the gang’s motto: “Death before dishonor.”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-pol...n-rico-charges/

Upcoming trial for the Souls. Been waiting for awhile.

Jurors hear gruesome testimony of burial at Black Souls racketeering trial
Black Souls gang trial

Megan CrepeauContact Reporter
Chicago Tribune

The order from Donald Hughes’ gang bosses was clear that day in June 2002, Hughes testified: Take this shovel and dig a hole.

So Hughes and a fellow Black Souls street gang member found a spot in a gangway between abandoned two-flats on West Monroe Street and dug a hole 7 feet deep, he told a Cook County jury.

Someone nearby yelled “po-po” — a signal that Chicago police were near — and Hughes took off running, he said.

When he returned, he testified, he saw men standing over the hole, which had been filled up with garbage, burned boards from the nearby abandoned building — and a body.

“Facedown,” he said. “He had his little gym shoes outside the hole. … They was covering him up.”

Some 15 years later, jurors heard the gruesome details as six reputed high-ranking leaders of the Black Souls face charges in the county’s first-ever racketeering trial.

Authorities said the body in the makeshift grave was Charles Watson, a 23-year-old drug dealer beaten to death after his bosses, Black Souls gang members, accused him of stealing drugs and money from them.

Watson’s slaying is one of at least eight killings that prosecutors allege the gang carried out while running a violent drug operation on the West Side.

Watson’s body was not discovered until months after his crude burial. A Chicago police officer acting on a tip from an informant started digging in the gangway and found a gym shoe — and then a bone.

On Thursday, a prosecution witness testified that Cornell Dawson, the gang’s top reputed leader who is on trial, bragged to him later about his crew burying someone.

“They beat up some guys, and they put them in a lot,” said the witness, Alex Williams, an informant who cooperated extensively with police in their investigation of the Black Souls.

In earlier testimony, Jubali Stokes, 43, testified that he was affiliated with a different gang but sold drugs with Watson for Stokes’ uncle, a now-deceased Black Souls member known as “Chuck.” Court documents identify “Chuck” as William Redfield.

Stokes told jurors that his uncle had called him and Watson to a West Side backyard that day in June 2002 and accused them of taking money and drugs.

“My uncle started stating that we were bogus, stealing from work,” Stokes said.

The uncle and two other men pulled out large sticks and started beating them, Stokes said.

The attack lasted an hour, but their punishment was just beginning, Stokes said. His hands were bound together with red tape, he said, and he and Watson were put into a van, then driven to an abandoned brick two-flat in the 4000 block of West Monroe Street — in Black Souls territory — and dragged inside.

Watson was taken upstairs, Stokes said, while Stokes was taken to the basement.

His uncle was there, Stokes testified, along with three other Black Souls, including Dawson and Clifton Lemon, who is also on trial.

Stokes was not beaten in the basement, he said, but he could hear Watson screaming upstairs.

“I just heard a lot of hollering,” he said.

Stokes said he was let go after convincing the men that he had not stolen anything.

He never saw Watson again, Stokes said.

Defense attorneys were quick to note that Stokes never alleged that any of those on trial had beaten him. And no other prosecution witnesses had testified Wednesday afternoon about Watson’s fate in that abandoned two-flat, before he was discovered months later buried in the gangway.

More than 20 alleged Black Souls members were charged in 2013, the first arrests made under a state racketeering law passed a year earlier. Hailed as a powerful tool against gangs, the statute is modeled after federal racketeering laws and allows prosecutors to hold high-level bosses accountable for the actions of the entire gang.

All but the six defendants on trial at the Leighton Criminal Court Building have previously pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors have tied the Black Souls to slayings stretching back to the 1990s. A spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office would not specify exactly how many slayings the Black Souls collectively stand accused of, but court documents list at least eight.

In addition, authorities have said the Black Souls ran an $11 million-a-year drug operation from their territory in the West Side’s West Garfield Park neighborhood.

The trial began in early October after nearly two weeks of jury selection and is expected to last two months or longer.

Did they beat the individual to death or literally or knocked him out & buried him alive?

"The five removals came in waves — one juror allegedly made racist remarks in the jury room. Another was found to have lied on her jury questionnaire. A third lost consciousness and had to be taken away by paramedics. And the final two were bounced after protesting that the jury’s legal instructions were unfair"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-black-souls-jury-turmoil-20171130-story

Gang leaders is to close to the streets...and how can they charge with being an enterprise unless they recorded someone saying that Thiers apart of the enterprise or they have rats

They have informant from within and additional one who's from a different mob.

Gang leaders have a soldiers mentality

Six leaders of the Black Souls street gang were convicted on racketeering and drug charges Saturday afternoon and now face sentences of up to life in prison.
Prosecutors said the gang, headed by Cornell Dawson, controlled a six-square block area of the West Side, centered on a brisk business selling cocaine and heroin near the corner of West Monroe and Pulaski.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/jurors-reach-guilty-verdict-in-black-souls-racketeering-trial/amp/

Black Souls are actually Peoples they run under the ⭐they are first cousins to the 4 corner hustlas

They beat him to death in the honeycomb and buried him upside down between 2 bandos left the tip of one of his shoes out thats how 12 found the body

What's up?

Yeah i read up more about it. They just sentenced them to life. You a Lord or 4 from outwest?

@blackfamily

I aint trying to chastise u or anything but 4s are lords