
There is no gang turf more desperately unique than that hidden among the 464 square miles which make up the City of Los Angeles. It is a fragile place; both tantalizing and repulsive, where wild fires can scorch hill-top celebrity homes as easily as gang members decimate a housing project with automatic rifle fire. The Gangs of Los Angeles is a classic, real life account of American crime. From the early Tomato Gangs of 1890�s Boyle Heights to the modern Crips and Mara Salvatrucha, with side trips through an Irish Dogtown, the gang wars of �Happy Valley�, Sleepy Lagoon and the yellow journalism of the Hearst Press, and a tragic murder at Sunset and Vine, Dunn recounts the events and notorious denizens that spawned LA�s gang subculture. Praise for William Dunn�s BOOT: �BOOT uses Dunn�s stint on the streets to make incisive and invaluable observations about the nation�s troubled urban areas and their policing.� �Publishers Weekly �… Read BOOT by William Dunn for an honest, inside look at the world�s most controversial police force.� �Joseph Wambaugh, author of Hollywood Station