In this show, viewers are given a firsthand look into the Satan’s Disciples Gang in Chicago.

The “Satan’s Disciples” (SD’s) have a 25-year history as a predominantly Hispanic gang originating from Chicago. The gang is a “Folks” gang, and uses therefore the six-pointed star in some of its graffiti, but almost always accentuated with its unique trademark of “Devil” images. It typifies many of the older traditional Chicago-based gangs in respect to being basically an adult-run criminal enterprise that makes extensive use of juveniles in its drug distribution operations.

Unlike the majority of those gangs, it has now spread to over 40 Chicago suburbs as well as to 22 other states. It is, therefore, a big player in the American gang crime scene.

FOUNDING OF THE GANG

One account gives the Satan’s Disciples gang being started in the 1960’s in the Pilsen neighborhood. The SDs have, admittedly, been active in that area and the rest of the nearwest side and near southside neighborhoods. They were clearly a gang crime problem in Chicago in the 1970’s. Because a number of them started to show up in the prison system as a result of gang prosecutions. They were, at that stage, still small and restricted to a few neighborhood areas of Chicago and were not yet formalized.

The formalization of the gang appears to have originated when Larry Hoover’s Gangster Disciple gang was able to establish an alliance system inside the Illinois Department of Corrections back in 1980. Some historical analysis is required here to put this in perspective.

Recall that today’s Black Disciples (BD’s) and Gangster Disciples (GD’s) actually evolved from the predecessor gang identity that operated since 1969 as “Devil’s Disciples”. There is some evidence that the “Satan’s Disciples” existed as an independently formed group from about 1975 onward, because it was after all primarily composed of Hispanic members, while the GD’s and BD’s were primarily African-American.

The “Satan’s Disciples” have, particularly in Chicago’s south, southwest, and near west side neighborhoods, since their formation been bitter rivals and enemies of the Latin Kings. Thus, when Larry Hoover, the leader of the GD’s, formed the “Folks” alliance gang system, the “Satan’s Disciples” readily joined in. The reason was one of exigency: their members were largely outnumbered behind the walls of the Illinois prison system and they were in frequent confrontation with the larger Latin King gang. By joining the “Folks” alliance, the “Satan’s Disciples” gained status and greater leverage in the inmate gang power system.

It was not until the mid-1980’s, however, that the “Satan’s Disciples” gang became more formalized. It achieved this formalization (i.e., having a written constitution and by-laws) while its members were inside the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). Clearly, it was patterned after the other types of written constitutions in use by gangs like the Gangster Disciples.
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“We Can Last Forever” is a Chicago song that was released as the fourth single in 1989, and from the album Chicago 19.

The song was sung by Jason Scheff and was written by Scheff along with John Dexter. It did relatively well on both the Hot 100 and AC charts, reaching #55 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
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The Satan’s Disciples Gang of Chicago

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