President Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of notorious former Chicago street gang leader Larry Hoover, who was serving multiple life sentences in federal prison.
Hoover, 74, the co-founder of the Chicago gang Gangster Disciples, was already serving a 200-year sentence on state charges in Illinois for the 1973 murder of 19-year-old neighborhood drug dealer William “Pooky” Young, when he was convicted of federal charges in 1997, and sentenced to six life terms.
Hoover was among 39 Gangster Disciples leaders indicted in August 1995 in Operation Headache, a six-year effort by the feds to infiltrate Gangster Disciples. Federal prosecutors had accused him of leading a criminal enterprise to continue overseeing the gang while in prison in Illinois.
Hoover is currently serving six life sentences in a maximum security prison in Colorado, according to federal prison records.
It’s unclear how soon he will be released from federal custody, but he still faces the remainder of his 200-year sentence in Illinois, dating back to 1973 for Young’s murder.
Hoover’s attorneys said he has spent nearly 30 years in solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a maximum security prison in Colorado that they described as “the most restrictive, draconian supermax prison in the United States.”
In a statement, Hoover’s attorneys, Jennifer Bonjean and Justin Moore, said they are “thrilled” to see he will be released from federal custody.
“The Courts have demonstrated a complete unwillingness to consider Mr. Hoover’s considerable growth and complete rehabilitation. Despite the Court’s unwillingness to do the right thing, Mr. Hoover has been able to keep his voice alive through the incredible work of many advocates and supporters. Thankfully, Mr. Hoover’s pleas were heard by President Trump who took action to deliver justice for Mr. Hoover.”
When Hoover was up for parole by the State of Illinois in 2022, his parole was denied. An Illinois Department of Corrections order says Hoover would have to be turned over to the state to serve the remainder of his state sentence if released from federal custody.
In 1993, Hoover spoke to former CBS News Chicago reporter John Davis. At the time, Hoover was 42 years old and had already served 20 years in prison.
“I’ve done my time,” Hoover said in the 1993 interview. “I paid my debt to society.”
In the interview with Davis, the leader of the Gangster Disciples and convicted murderer he’d had a lot of time to think about ways to stop the gang violence on the streets of Chicago.
“One teenager don’t like the other teenager because of the way he wear his hat, because his ideology is different from his; a Disciple don’t like a Vice Lord,” Hoover said in the interview. “We’re all Black people. There’s no difference.”
At that time, Hoover, also known as King Larry, admitted being part of a fragile gang truce in the city and organizing a protest over plans to close healthcare clinics in African American neighborhoods.
Ron Safer, the lead prosecutor in Hoover’s federal trial, expressed disappointment in the news of Hoover’s sentence being commuted.
“I was disappointed,” Safer said. “I do not think that this is an appropriate end to the Larry Hoover story — at least the federal part of it.”
Safer said Hoover was perhaps the most notorious criminal the state of Illinois has ever known.
“He was convicted of running a continuing criminal enterprise that had approximately 30,000 members across 28 states, selling over $100 million worth of drugs in the state of Illinois alone each year,” said Safer, “and he ran that entire operation with ruthless efficiency from prison, where he was serving a state sentence for double murder.”
Safer also emphasized that about Hoover had been recorded saying teenagers needed to sell drugs for his criminal organization. The recording was made a year after the Gangster Disciples leader was interviewed on CBS Chicago.
“There was another tape where Larry Hoover said, ‘You have to share your drugs with these children — and I’m talking about 12 years old, 13 years old, 14 years old — so that they can sell it, and they can have something’,” Safter said, “and he said, ‘Make them know that with you, they are somebody, and without you, they are nobody.'”
Again, Safer said those comments were made by Hoover after the Gangster Disciples said he was redeemed, and said he understood that all of the violence in the city should be stopped.
