Gang Nicknames: Sometimes It Gets to Be Too Insane

The courtroom drama was reaching its peak, with murder defendant Horace (Horse) Burns being grilled about his role in the mistaken-identity shooting of four members of a South-Central Los Angeles family.

As hushed jurors leaned forward, Burns solemnly sought to explain a jailhouse letter in which he appeared to acknowledge his complicity in the deaths of the relatives of former football star Kermit Alexander. Suddenly, however, the parries and thrusts were punctuated by what seemed like an Abbott and Costello routine.

“Insane was with you?” asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris.

“Let me clarify, there’s two Insanes,” Burns replied. “One Insane here is from another gang. . . . (The second) Insane has been in jail for two years.”

“Is this the Insane that’s down here on (this letter)?”

“No, that’s Little Insane.”

“You’ve got three Insanes?” asked Norris incredulously.

“Yes. Little Insane. Big Insane. This other Insane I’m talking about in the letter is from a whole different gang,” said Burns, who was convicted.

At times, Norris reflected, prosecutors themselves can go a little insane trying to keep track of the hundreds of nicknames of defendants and witnesses in the Los Angeles County Criminal Courthouse. And as the street monikers pop up in testimony, even the most gut-wrenching murder trial can take on an air of Alice in Wonderland, or perhaps Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

No ‘Bashfuls’ Here

“You have Grumpies, Dopies, Happies, Sleepies--but there are no Bashfuls,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Takakjian of the office’s hard-core gang division.

Yet these colorful nicknames are not merely courtroom surrealism. The monikers help authorities crack cases in graffiti-strewn neighborhoods where some criminals are known only by their nicknames. And they provide an intriguing glimpse into the makeup of the personalities and the gangs behind street crime in Los Angeles. Indeed, these examples of verbal graffiti can even be self-fulfilling, observers say.

Unfortunately, “once someone is called ‘Crazy,’ he will try to live up to it,” said Ed Turley, a team leader for the city- and county-backed Community Youth Gang Services Project.

While nicknames are not exclusive to gang members, virtually all gang members who pass through the court system have them.

And many indeed pass through the system. In 1984 alone, authorities say, the county’s 450 street gangs were responsible for 212 homicides.

The monikers, however, are a manifestation of the gang members’ penchant to win attention for their often anti-social acts, experts say.

“It separates them from run-of-the-mill people with names like Joe, Pete and Bob,” said John Quicker, a sociology professor at Cal State University, Dominquez Hills, who teaches a course on street gangs. “It helps make it clear they are gang members--a status most are quite proud of. When you’ve gotten a name, you’ve gotten your stripes as if you were in the Army.”

Generally, Quicker said, members are dubbed by fellow gang members or, particularly in Latino street gangs, they retain nicknames bestowed by their childhood families. The Latino names are frequently based on physical characteristics and will sometimes poke fun at shortcomings.

“If you’ve got a guy who is really skinny, they’ll probably name him Flaco. If they’ve got a guy that’s pretty small, they’ll end up naming him Tiny or Peewee,” explained former gang member John Garcia, another youth services team leader.

“Black gangs, on the other hand, have adopted a lot of monikers from the movies, killer-type names--monikers of status, power and violence,” Los Angeles Police Department Detective Supervisor Robert K. Jackson said.

Dog Suffixes Popular

Prosecutors cite such examples as Insane Wayne, Psycho, Monster and Mad Dog. Names with dog suffixes, Ken-dog or Ant-Dog for example, are also particularly popular these days. The etymological root of the entomological reference in the latter, by the way, is the Christian name Anthony.

Knowledge of nicknames is of particular importance because, just as mobsters are instantly identifiable by such “middle-names in quotes” as “The Boot,” “The Weasel” or “Three Fingers,” many Los Angeles street gang members “know each other by their moniker only,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert J. Schuit said.

“I’ve had witnesses on the stand who I ask, do you see John Smith in court,” Schuit recalled. “They say, ‘Who is John Smith?’ and I say, ‘Do you see the guy who had the gun?’ Then they say, ‘Oh, Dopey, he’s over there.’ ”

By knowing the nicknames, police emphasize, they are often able to track down suspects and bring them to justice.

“Gang members can’t go down the street and shoot somebody without yelling out the car window where they are from and some yell their moniker too,” Jackson explained. “They want to be sure they are getting credit for a shooting. We try to give them their credit in court.”

Nicknames Not Unique

At the same time, he cautioned, nicknames, unlike fingerprints, are not unique.

“So many people have the same monikers that not only do you have to know the moniker but what gang and what clique within the gang,” the detective said. “You can’t arbitrarily go after Gumby unless you know what Gumby you are looking for because there may be a few Gumbies.”

Marianne Diaz, a youth services supervisor who has been jailed for gang-related activities, said nicknames at one time served a real purpose as aliases for avoiding police detection.

“But gang members are not trying to keep secrets (these days) when they go around throwing their nicknames on the walls. . . . Also, they’ll tattoo their names on themselves. I did and I got busted several times because of the dumb tattoo.”

Once in the courts, cases that feature aliases can result in bizarre twists and can also raise interesting legal issues.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Barbara G. Murphy cites a murder case in which she elicited testimony from witnesses nicknamed Big Stupid and Little Stupid against defendants nicknamed Insane and Cocaine.

Murphy acknowledged that with a name like Stupid questions of credibility could arise. But, she said, “the argument can be made that they are too stupid to lie, so they must be telling the truth.”

Defense lawyers, however, complain that prosecutors often seek to unfairly influence juries by disclosing the monikers of defendants, even when the names may be irrelevant to the case at hand.

In the recent trial of three South-Central Los Angeles men accused of wounding TV news anchorman Jerry Dunphy, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Choate drew fire from the defense for disclosing to the jury the nickname of Frederick (Time Bomb) Cole, who was later convicted.

Although the judge quickly ordered jurors to disregard the “Time Bomb” reference, the damage had already been done, defense counsel James Bledsoe charged.

“It certainly had a prejudicial effect; it’s certainly not favorable, is it?” Bledsoe said. “Monikers in and of themselves are usually prejudicial because they identify the defendants with a gang and gangs are all negative in the eyes of the community.”

Prosecutors say they can often, with justification, enter monikers into evidence if they are the sole means of identifying a defendant or witness. But defense attorneys complain that prosecutors have a tendency to go overboard, seeking to imply that defendants with nicknames are gang members even if they are not.

“A lot of guys have nicknames that are not in gangs, but the names are often used anyway by prosecutors with a negative connotation,” said attorney John Yzurdiaga, who defended a Dunphy defendant. “When you have a name like ‘Psycho’ or ‘Time Bomb’ or ‘Hitman,’ it can be devastating.” The Monikers Gang monikers come in a plethora of shapes, sizes and life forms. Among those on a list of suspected gang members in the district attorney’s office: Mad Dog Baboon Turkey Buzzard Leapy Shorty Stretch Little Man Popeye Peanuts Kong Frankenstein Mumbles Joker Limpy Toothless Termite Fly Worm Junebug Mr. Lion Tiger Bear Smokey Carrot Eggplant Milkshake T-Bone Wino Loco Joe Lil’ Rimhead Angel Rabbit Turtle Fat Rat Fester Smiley Shotgun Ace Capone Big Foot Cosmo Moonman Sputnik Stone