FINALISTS OF THE 28TH ANNUAL MIDWEST BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED SAINT PAUL, MN, April 6, 2018: The Midwest Independent Publishing Association (MIPA) has announced the finalists for the 28th Annual Midwest Book Awards. The awards recognize quality in independent publishing in the Midwest. All books were copyrighted in 2017 and entered by publishers from MIPA’s 12-state Midwestern region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). Winners will be announced on Saturday, May 12, 2018, at the Midwest Book Awards Gala in Saint Paul. Fiction – Mystery/Thriller Murder Book by Frank F. Weber (North Star Press of St Cloud, Clearwater, MN) The Bricklayer of Albany Park by Terry John Malik (Blank Slate Press. imprint of Amphorae Publishing Group, St Louis, MO) Judge's Choice by Phil Rustad (Fast Dog Press, Plymouth, MN) Young Adult Fiction Murder Book by Frank F. Weber (North Star Press of St Cloud, Clearwater, MN) Slider's Sun by Rebecca Fjelland Davis (North Star Press of St Cloud, Clearwater, MN) Waking in Time by Angie Stanton (Switch Press/Capstone, North Mankato, MN) Fiction – Romance Murder Book by Frank F. Weber (North Star Press of St Cloud, Clearwater, MN) New Penny by C.E. Sawyer (Satin Romance, imprint of Melange Books, White Bear, MN) The Curse of the Braddock Brides by Erica Obey (Walrus Publishing, imprint of Amphorae Publishing Group, St Louis, MO) Willie Lloyd (Gang banger), Chuck Connors (Conservative republican), and Mitch Hedburg (Liberal hippie), were never pictured together, but here they are together in this blog. Mitch was born in Minnesota, Willie died in Minnesota, and Chuck came to Minnesota to watch the Twins beat the Braves in the 1991 World Series. The Almighty Vice Lord Nation (Vice Lords for short, abbreviated AVLN) is the second largest and one of the oldest street gangs in Chicago, Illinois. Its total membership is estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000. Vice Lord Leader, Willie Lloyd, retired and died in Minnesota in 2015. In 1996, Chicago police had supposedly linked every murder committed in Chicago's 15th district back to orders from Lloyd. Origin and Growth of the Vice Lords In 1962, the Vice Lords gang was founded by several African American youths originally from the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. These youths met while incarcerated in the Illinois State Training School for Boys in St. Charles (also known as the St. Charles Juvenile Correctional Facility). The name "vice" was chosen when a gang founder looked up the term in the dictionary and found the meaning as "having a tight hold". As the original Vice Lords group was released from incarceration, they quickly began to recruit other youths from their neighborhood and began engaging in conflicts with other "clubs" from various Chicago neighborhoods. By 1964, law enforcement named the Vice Lords as a primary target for various illegal activities, including robbery, theft, assaults, battery, intimidation, extortion and specifically for their violent behavior. In an attempt at softening their public image, one of the original 8 Vice Lords changed the gang's name to "Conservative Vice Lords" or CVL. Inc., which today serves as the foundation of the entire Vice Lord Nation. They developed new logos and advertised themselves as a community outreach group. This attempt was successful enough that the group began to receive a large amount of positive publicity from various politicians and community leaders. CVL, Inc. established a number of recreational areas for neighborhood children which were then used as gang meeting houses after they had closed for the day. In 1970, two Vice Lord leaders, Alfonso Alfred and Bobby Gore, applied for and received a $275,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. This particular era of the CVL is documented in the 1970 film, Lord Thing. At the same time, the gang was successfully consolidating smaller neighborhood gangs (including the Cherokees, the Morphines, the Commanches, the Continental Pimps, the Imperial Chaplains, the Clovers, the Cobras, and the Braves) into the Vice Lord Nation. As a result, their numbers swelled significantly. In spite of the positive press, it was soon discovered that the Vice Lords were still violent criminals. They infused narcotics into the Lawndale neighborhood during this time, accompanied with a rapid increase in crimes involving intimidation, extortion, and murders of business owners who refused to pay for "protection." Muslim identity adopted (1980s) After public pressure, a federal investigation into CVL, Inc.'s use of the Rockefeller grant money was conducted and as a result, several leaders were arrested and sent to prison (including Willie Lloyd, Alfonso Alfred and Bobby Gore). The younger Vice Lord leadership attempted to conceal the gang's true intentions with another camouflage campaign, this time by adopting Islamic ideologies. By the mid-1990s, they had created a large document called Lords of Islam which addressed new rules for the gang. Their headquarters, located near Pulaski and 16th Street, is referred to as the "Holy City." 1990s to the present In the 1990s, the Vice Lords, while engaging in the usual activities, had become much more sophisticated and expanded into mortgage fraud, credit card fraud, and money laundering. Symbols and emblems (are seen a variety of clothing today) Vice Lord street gangs use a variety of gang graffiti symbols or emblems to identify themselves and their gang 'turf' including:
Willie Lloyd As a child with little guidance growing up on Chicago's West Side in the 1960s, Willie Lloyd joined a local gang, the Unknown Vice Lords, a faction based along 16th Street in the Lawndale neighborhood. This was the late 60s, and Willie was only 12 years old when he became a gang member. Willie was a natural leader and, by the time he was 14, he had recruited more than 1,000 followers, or "soldiers," to the gang. Willie was small in stature, at 5’4” as an adult, but ruthless in nature. On December 5, 1971, the 20-year-old Lloyd headed to Davenport, Iowa, with several Vice Lord members. The trio rented a motel room in Davenport and broke into several rooms, holding the occupants at gunpoint while they robbed them. Police arrived on the scene shortly after, and entered into a shootout with Willie Lloyd and his companions. All three men were arrested, but not before one of Lloyd's group shot and killed a state trooper. The incident sent all three Vice Lord members to prison. Lloyd received a 25-year sentence for his role in the crime, but only served 15. Vice Lord members referred to Willie as a "cop killer," giving him the reputation of a cold, hardened criminal. Lloyd returned to Chicago after his release and declared himself boss of all local Vice Lord gangs. As the self-proclaimed "King of the Vice Lord Nation," Lloyd helped generate new methods of income for the group, including drug dealing and street taxes for anyone who wanted to do business in Vice Lord territory. Anyone who didn't pay was extorted or murdered. Lloyd was incarcerated from 1971 to 1986. While incarcerated, Lloyd wrote The Amalgamated Order of Lordism, a 61-page manifesto on the Vice Lord command structure in the prisons and on the streets. Chicago law enforcement tried to put Lloyd back behind bars, but was unable to make any charges stick. But in January 1988, he was pulled over for a routine traffic violation. Police discovered a 9 mm and a MAC-10 submachine gun. That August, he was convicted and was incarcerated from 1988 to 1992. While serving his time at Logan Correctional Center, Lloyd still managed to effectively run the Vice Lords. By the time he was released in 1992, he had developed a heroin addiction that left members skeptical of his ability to lead. When he left prison in 1992, Willie was picked up by fellow gang members dressed in furs who were driving a convoy of five limousines. Lloyd returned to the Westside to resume his position as Vice Lord leader, but many Vice Lord members were resentful of his attempts to re-establish control. Tyrone "Baby Tye" Williams, who had assumed power while Lloyd was in prison, helped create an opposition movement to Lloyd's leadership. To curb the new faction, Lloyd abducted Williams' brother and held him for ransom. Tyrone Williams refused to pay a $6000 debt to Lloyd, although Lloyd later stated he was paid. Williams gave Lloyd his Mercedes Benz and his brother was released. Williams then sent his soldiers to shoot up a vehicle filled with Lloyd's relatives—including his 18-month-old son. Fortunately, the child wasn’t injured beyond cuts from broken glass, but unfortunately a gang war ensued. A few months later, Tyrone Williams' splinter gang murdered Lloyd's right-hand man in a drive-by shooting. In a separate incident, Williams' followers also executed two of Lloyd's teenaged drug dealers. They then followed Lloyd home from a court appearance and shot him, as well as his three passengers. No one was fatally injured, but all suffered gunshot wounds. Arrested and Imprisoned Again Lloyd was acquitted of kidnapping Tyrone William’s brother, after the judge declared the witnesses testifying against Lloyd as unreliable. But Williams, along with several members of his faction, were charged with the murders of Lloyd's associates, and for the highway assault on Lloyd's family members. In 1994, shortly after Williams' conviction, Chicago law enforcement received a tip that Lloyd was carrying an illegal weapon. Police raided Lloyd's house, finding a 9 mm handgun, which Lloyd contended was planted. Lloyd went to prison from 1994 to 2002. Attempts to Change His Life After his release from federal prison in 2002, Lloyd decided to retire from his life of crime and attempt to earn a legitimate living as a mediator for gang members. He began collaborating with Chicago's School of Public Health, where he worked with the Chicago Project for Violence. He also involved himself with CeaseFire, a program that provides gang mediation efforts, and mentoring at a Westside church. In addition, Lloyd agreed to lecture incoming freshmen in DePaul University's Discover Chicago program on the dangers of gang life. He took sociology students on a field trip to give them an inside look at gangs in their "natural habitat," and discussed the pathology of crime. When parents learned of the arrangement, however, angry phone calls to school administrators shut the program down. Willie Lloyd's attempts to promote peace didn't resonate with his former enemies. In August 2003, Lloyd was shot six times while walking his dogs in Garfield Park in Chicago. This was the third assassination attempt on him. Lloyd survived the attack, but was paralyzed from the neck down. Lloyd believed his attackers included some of his former henchmen. During Lloyd's quarter-century as gang leader of the Vice Lords, drug deals, extortion and other crimes reportedly led to thousands of homicides. Lloyd ultimately retired to a quiet life in Minnesota, where he died at age 64 in 2015. My feeling is that for the last 30 years we haven’t done enough to help working class and middle class Americans. The ultimate change in our inner-cities will come with legitimate job opportunities. Instead we’ve allowed wealthy Americans to manipulate the system creating a growth of franchises, corporate farms, and new stadiums, at the expense of private businesses, private farms, and our infrastructure. The good news is we can change this! Time for some levity. Howard Cosell was once “the voice of Monday Night Football.” He did a song, with Chuck Connors in Gold, on the Sonny and Cher comedy hour worth a view. Chuck Connors, famous for his role as The Rifleman, had a long career as a serious actor. He was 6’5” and an impressive man. While serving in the army and stationed in New York, he moonlighted as a professional basketball player, leading the Rochester Royals to the 1946 National Basketball League championship. Following his military discharge in 1946, he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics and became the first professional basketball player to be credited with breaking a backboard. It was actually a shot, not a slam, which may say something for his touch. Connors took a shot that caught the front of the rim of an improperly installed glass backboard during the Celtics' warmup at Boston Arena on November 5, 1946. Connors left the team for spring training with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers. He joined the Dodgers in 1949, but only played in one game and was sent to the minors. He joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter. Chuck Connors was drafted into American Football by the NFL's Chicago Bears, but never suited up for the team. Instead he pursued a serious acting career which lasted 40 years. I’m not aware of either Connors or Cosell doing comedy outside of the Sonny and Cher show. Mitch Hedberg quotes: People follow arrows. Imagine being killed by a bow and arrow. They would never solve the crime. "Look at that dead guy... Let's go that way." I got a Do Not Disturb sign on my hotel door. It says Do Not Disturb. It's time to go with DON'T disturb. It’s been Do Not for too long. We need to embrace the contraction. I hate sandwiches at New York delis. Too much meat on the sandwich. It's like a cow with a cracker on either side. "What would you like sir?" "A pastrami sandwich." "Anything else?" "Yeah, a loaf of bread and some other people." I met the girl who works at the Double Tree front desk. She gave me her phone number... it's zero. My roommate says, “I’m going to shower, does anybody need to use the bathroom? It’s like a weird quiz where the answer is revealed first. Thanks for listening, Frank ![]() Friends from the class of 2012, put together a last minute team in the annual 3 on 3 basketball tournament in Pierz. There were 190 teams. Preston, Logan Meyer and Dylan Smieja took 3rd in the adult men’s bracket. It was fun to see friends from all over the state, including my book publicist Krista Soukup of Blue Cottage Agency, and her twin daughters playing in the tournament. Krista’s daughters team took first in their division. Adam and Dina Mertons entered their son’s team and their “Razzle Dazzle” team from Sauk Rapids won the 3rd grade division. (Pictured below) The Brixius and Sitzman families in the early 1980's
1 Comment
Kelly Stark
11/12/2018 02:11:31 pm
I have been blessed by God. But I still need good family company.
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
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