Jeff Fort

Jeff Fort (born February 20, 1947 in Aberdeen , Mississippi ) is a former leader and founding member of the street gang Black P. Stones . Under the name Imam Abdul Malik Ka'bah, he founded the EL RUKN faction within the gang , which was active as an Islamist part of the gang. Since 1987 he has been serving a 155-year prison sentence in the ADX Florence maximum security federal prison in Florence , Colorado for planning several terrorist attacks in the United States together with the Libyan leadership .

Life

Jeff Fort was born on February 20, 1947 in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He and his family moved to Woodlawn , south of Chicago , in 1955 . He left school without a fourth grade degree.

Fort spent time in juvenile hall of Cook County , Illinois , and at the State Training School for Boys in St. Charles , where he met Eugene "Bull" Hairston. In 1959, he and Hairston formed the Blackstone Rangers gang in St. Charles. The Blackstone Rangers picked up teenagers from Woodlawn's Blackstone Avenue and fought other gangs in southern Chicago. Hairston was the chief and fort his representative. Rivals at the time were the Devil's Disciples.

In the 1960s, Fort was nicknamed "Angel" because he had the ability to resolve conflicts and make connections with other gangs. In the mid-1960s he formed a coalition of 21 different gangs with around 5,000 members. This was led by the leaders of the respective gangs, the "Main 21". As the Rangers grew, they began to get involved politically and socially. The Presbyterian Rev. John Fry gave them advice on how to run the organization.

Under his direction, Fort succeeded in gaining support from the state of Illinois and in 1967 founded the political organization Grassroots Independent Voters of Illinois, which received more than $ 1 million in government support. The organization pretended to offer so-called job training . But they also functioned as an instrument for money laundering . In addition to government support, donations came from private foundations. Unlike other gangs in Chicago, the Rangers were accepted members of Chicago society. This went so far that Fort was invited to the office of Richard Nixon . However, he did not go and instead sent his deputy Mickey Cogwell and one of his generals to the event.

Black P. Stone Nation

After Hairston was imprisoned in 1966, Fort had sole control of the Rangers and renamed them in 1968 to Almighty Black P. Stone Nation or Black P. Stones . The Stones pretended to keep southern Chicago safe, but committed crimes such as assault, extortion, and coercion. Eventually they specialized in extortion .

In 1968 an investigation was conducted against the organization. They were accused of money laundering. Away, summoned as a witness, surrendered to a committee of the Senate , but then left the room. He was convicted of disregarding Congress for this.

El Rukn

In 1972 he and two other members were sentenced to five years' imprisonment for embezzling funds from his organization. Fort served two years in Leavenworth Federal Prison and converted to Islam during that time . He named himself Prince Malik. In 1976 he moved to Milwaukee , Wisconsin and joined the Moorish Science Temple . In 1978 he returned to Chicago and he succeeded in ousting the 21 leaders of the Black P. Stones and instead using five of his loyal followers as leaders. So he was able to reorganize the Black P. Stone Nation as "El Rukn" ( Arabic for pilgrims ). Officials speculated whether the conversion was a trick to protect against police surveillance.

In the 1970s, El Rukn smuggled cocaine and heroin into the United States. In 1983, Fort was therefore sentenced to 13 years in Federal Prison in Bastrop , Texas . He directed the fate of the gang through coded telephone calls and organized some meetings with government officials in Libya. In return for payment of 2.5 million US dollars, the gang agreed to commit terrorist attacks

In 1987 Fort was charged with conspiracy and sentenced to 80 years in prison. The court considered it proven that Fort and Libya had planned terrorist attacks in the style of the COINTELPRO program. He was initially imprisoned in the maximum security prison in Marion , Illinois . In 1988 he received an additional 75 year sentence for ordering the murder of a member of a rival gang in 1981. Fort was then in the newly created Hochsicherheitsgefänis ADX Florence moved and is located there since 2006 in solitary confinement .

Web links

• George W. Knox: GANG PROFILE UPDATE: The Black P. Stone Nation (BPSN) . National Gang Crime Research Center. Retrieved February 11, 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jeff Fort Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com ( English ) biography.com. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Rufus Schatzberg, Robert J. Kelly: African American Organized Crime: A Social History . Rutgers University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-8135-2445-8 , pp. 199-202.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} James A. McPherson: Chicago's Blackstone Rangers (I) . In: Atlantic Monthly , May 1969. Retrieved February 10, 2008. 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Inmate Locator . US Federal Bureau of Prisons . Retrieved January 30, 2008. 92298-024
5. ^ ^{A b} Five Draw Long Sentences for Terrorism Scheme . In: The New York Times , Associated Press , December 31, 1987. Retrieved December 21, 2007. 
6. ^ ^{A b c} Curtis J. Austin: Up against the wall: violence in the making and unmaking of the Black Panther Party . University of Arkansas Press, 2006, ISBN 1-55728-827-5 , p. 199.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Donnie Harris: Black Peace Stone Nation . In: Gangland . Holy Fire Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-9761112-4-1 , pp. 71-72.
8. ↑ James B. Jacobs: Grassroots Independent Voters of Illinois . University of Chicago Press, 1978, ISBN 0-226-38977-4 , pp. 140-142.
9. ^ "Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson by Kenneth Timmerman, 2002
10. ↑ James A. McPherson: Chicago's Blackstone Rangers (II) . In: Atlantic Monthly , June 1969. Retrieved February 10, 2008. 
11. Jump up ↑ Gangland , Season 1, Episode 7: Stone to the Bone , 2007
12. ^ William E. Schmidt: Chicago Journal; US Squares Off Against Tough Gang . In: The New York Times , November 5, 1987. Retrieved December 29, 2007. 
13. ^ ^{A b c} Don Terry: In Chicago Courtroom, Nation's First Super Gang Fights for Life . In: The New York Times , May 19, 1991. Retrieved December 28, 2007. 
14. ↑ Rosalind Rossi: How the Law Won War With El Rukns . In: Chicago Sun-Times , August 24, 1992. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017 Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 4, 2017. "Jeff Fort, serving 155 years at the federal prison in Downstate Marion language = English"  
15. ↑ GANG CHIEF GUILTY IN RIVAL'S SLAYING . In: The New York Times , October 20, 1988. Retrieved December 21, 2007. 
16. ↑ Rosalind Rossi: 75 more years for Fort 4 other Rukns draw stiff terms . In: Chicago Sun-Times , Nov. 15, 1988, p. 3. 
17. ↑ Crime Elite Moving To Rockies `Alcatraz ' . In: The Washington Post , December 27, 1994. 
18. ^ Rochelle Olson: Aug. 23: Fort hearing delayed; defense witnesses missing (English) . In: Minneapolis Star-Tribune , September 14, 2007. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 3, 2008.