A memoir of the author's life as a Crip-beginning at the tender age of ten in the mid-seventies-and his prison turnaround nearly twenty-five years later Colton Simpsonlives in Los Angeles. Ann Pearlmanis the author of Getting Free:Women and Psychotherapy,Keep the Home Fires Burning,and Infidelity:A Memoir. She has a private psychotherapy practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lives. Colton ("C-Loc") Simpson was a Crip. From the impossibly young age of ten in the mid-1970s, Simpson's world was defined in terms of war. By the time he quit--the first gang member allowed to do so--he'd risen through the ranks to become Stabilizer and later, General. Simpson was the son of Dick Simpson, a ballplayer for the California Angels, but even before he became a gangbanger, his childhood was tough. Raised by his grandmother at the edge of Los Angeles's South Central, Simpson didn't turn to the streets so much as become engulfed by them: without asking to be part of the gang, his induction into the Crips involved running down an alley while the members opened fire on him as he ran. Simpson was an elite gang soldier, loyal to a fault, participating wholly in a system whose rules and unique ethics he quickly mastered. But Simpson's run at the top of the Crips was cut off by betrayal, injury, and a prison stint that plunged him into an even fiercer war beyond gang violence: the war in Calapatria prison between the Crips and the corrections officers. Inside the Cripsis an intimate detailed look at gang life in the 1970s-1990s, and at the same time a story of both buoyant camaraderie and devastating loss. It places the reader in the center of the rush that comes from participating in gang violence and puts the extraordinary life and times of one Crip into a larger context. "The Crips, one of two notorious L.A. street gangs that have attained national prominence, is a famously difficult organization from which to retire alive. Colton 'C-Loc' Simpson did, however, and now provides an insider's perspective on day-to-day life in the Crips, the gang's history (including quite a bit about its rival, the Bloods), and the plight of growing up in the 'hood while wanting a better life. To free himself from poverty and constant physical danger, Simpson made some changes. His former wife Gina once accused him of 'acting White.' He replied, 'You think I'm some bourgeoisie Negro? My changes aren't negative and White. They're positive and pro-Black'--which reveals both changed attitude and just how wide the racial-cultural gulf has become. Though gritty, Simpson's story is by no means hopeless. 'Life is something to live and do, not to verbalize,' he says shortly before signing off with 'In Struggle, Little Cee (Loc, no more).' This unvarnished portrayal of gang life is enlightening and even inspiring about a subject badly in need of illumination."--Mike Tribby,Booklist "The world Simpson evokes with Pearlman's help is fascinating, and his narrative is clearly heartfelt. For those readers willing to look, the book provides a window into an often misunderstood way of life."--Publishers Weekly

Colton Simpson lives in Los Angeles.

Ann Pearlman is the author of GETTING FREE: WOMEN AND PYCHOTHERAPY, KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURNING and INFIDELITY: A MEMOIR. She has a private psychotherapy practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lives.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xi
FOREWORD BY ICE T	xv
ONE Transformation	1	(26)
TWO Gangbanger	27	(21)
THREE Out of the Ghetto and into the CYA	48	(22)
FOUR Road Not Taken	70	(13)
FIVE Crips Module	83	(13)
SIX The Ultimate Test: Chino	96	(18)
SEVEN Solitary	114	(16)
EIGHT Soledad	130	(12)
NINE Chess Games	142	(9)
TEN Short Freedom	151	(36)
ELEVEN Discipline	187	(21)
TWELVE Betrayal	208	(27)
THIRTEEN Reality Hits: War and Depression	235	(16)
FOURTEEN Candy and a Stamp	251	(24)
FIFTEEN Transformation of a Grip	275	(21)
SIXTEEN Uhuru	296	(11)
AFTERWORD	307	(10)
INDEX	317

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