The Co-Founder of the Crips: From South Central Gang Leader to Death Row

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Stanley Williams helped establish the Crips in 1971, eventually becoming a central figure in Los Angeles gang culture. His life took a dark turn in 1979 when he committed four murders during two separate robberies. Convicted and sentenced to death, he spent decades in prison before his 2005 execution.

Born in 1953, Stanley Williams grew up in South Central Los Angeles. By his teenage years, he had developed a reputation for being a vicious street fighter. In 1971, alongside Raymond Washington, he co-founded the Crips. While Williams later claimed their initial intent was to create a neighborhood watch force to protect against other gangs, he admitted that they ultimately morphed into the very type of predatory organization they had set out to eliminate.

In 1979, Williams's life as a gang leader ended following a series of violent crimes. On February 28, 1979, he and accomplices robbed a 7-Eleven in Whittier. During the robbery, Williams took the attendant, Albert Lewis Owens, into a back room and shot him twice in the back with a shotgun. Less than two weeks later, on March 11, 1979, Williams broke into the Brookhaven Motel in Los Angeles, where he shot and killed three people: Tsai-Shai Yang, his wife Yen-I Yang, and their daughter Ye Chen Lin.

Williams was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death on April 20, 1981, for the four murders. He spent over two decades at San Quentin State Prison. His case became a significant point of public debate regarding the death penalty in California. On December 13, 2005, Williams was executed by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 12:35 a.m., having requested no last meal and offering no final words.

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