PJ Watts Crips

Full Name: PJ Watts Crips (PJWC)
Also Known As: PJ Watts Crips, PJWC, PJ Crips
Founded: Early 1970s
Founding Location: Imperial Courts Housing Projects, Watts, Los Angeles, California
Years Active: 1970s–present
Territory: Imperial Courts  
Ethnicity: Predominantly African-American
Cliques: Bull Side, Funny Side, Pill Head, Island Side
Notable Members: Tyrone “Tony Bogard” Thomas, Anthony “AB” Baylock,

The PJ Watts Crips (PJWC), also known as the PJ Crips are a long-standing, predominantly—but not exclusively—African-American street gang based in the Imperial Courts Housing Projects in Watts, Los Angeles, California. The gang has been active in Imperial Courts since the early 1970s and is the main gang historically associated with the project. PJ Watts Crips are also one of the oldest Crip gangs in Watts and were one of the gangs involved in the 1992 Watts Truce.

History And Early Origins

PJ Watts Crips grew out of older neighborhood groups that existed in Imperial Courts before the Crip identity took hold in Watts. Those early groups included the 456 and The Pack, with an earlier Imperial Courts groups operating in the project before them. As the Crip identity spread through South Los Angeles in the early 1970s, those groups merged into PJ Watts Crips.

Longtime Imperial Courts residents identified Anthony “AB” Baylock as one of the early key figures in the formation of PJ Watts Crips. By the late 1970s and 1980s, PJ Watts Crips had become one of the major gangs in Watts. Unlike a spread-out residential hood, the gang developed inside a compact housing project made up of apartment buildings, courtyards, walkways, and narrow access points. That layout gave PJ a concentrated base and kept the gang tied closely to Imperial Courts.

Territory And Cliques

PJ Watts Crips are based in the Imperial Courts Housing Projects, one of the major housing projects in Watts. Their hood is generally described as running from 112th Street to Imperial Highway, between Grape Street and Mona Blvd, although the gang’s identity has always been tied more directly to Imperial Courts.

The project sits directly east of the Nickerson Gardens and south of the Jordan Downs. Those borders place them in close proximity to their longest-running enemies. They are a project-based Crip gang with four main cliques: Bull Side, Funny Side, Pill Head, and Island Side. These cliques refer to sections of the neighborhood rather than separate gangs.

Smaller PJ subsets have also been mentioned over the years, including GK Boys, a name interpreted as “Grape Killa” and tied to the gang’s long-running hostility toward Grape Street.

Tony Bogard and the Watts Truce

Tyrone “Tony Bogard” Thomas was one of the most prominent PJ Watts Crips figures tied to the 1992 Watts Gang Truce. A respected Imperial Courts member in the early 1990s, Bogard became one of the public faces of the truce after helping lead peace meetings in the projects following the Los Angeles uprising.

The 1992 Watts Truce brought together members of PJ Watts Crips, Grape Street Watts Crips, Bounty Hunter Bloods, and Hacienda Village Bloods in an effort to slow the gang violence that had hit Watts for years. Because the meetings were held in Imperial Courts, PJ Watts Crips became one of the gangs most closely tied to the truce.

Bogard’s name stayed tied to both the truce and the hustling around Imperial Courts during that period. He remains one of the most recognizable PJ Watts figures of the truce era.

Criminal Activity

Like other long-standing gangs in Watts, PJ Watts Crips have been tied over the years to narcotics sales, robberies, assaults, shootings, and retaliatory violence in and around Imperial Courts. During the crack era, the housing project became one of the places where drug sales, gang enforcement, and neighborhood warfare overlapped, helping fuel repeated violence across Watts.

Later cases also show PJ Watts Crips members operating outside Imperial Courts and outside Watts itself. One example is Keandre Kelvon Session, a documented PJ Watts Crips member who was convicted in a multi-city residential burglary case after investigators linked him to a crew targeting homes in places such as Manhattan Beach, Redlands, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, and Corona. His case showed PJ activity extending beyond Watts.

Documented Incidents

The 1987 Imperial Courts–Jordan Downs Shooting

By the late 1980s, the feud between PJ Watts Crips and Grape Street was already active. One early example came in November 1987, when gunmen from a gang based in Imperial Courts opened fire near 103rd Street and Lou Dillon Avenue, killing Tommy Lynn Carter, 19. A contemporaneous Los Angeles Times report stated that the shooters came from the nearby Imperial Courts housing project and that one of their own members was also accidentally killed during the attack.

Later accounts identify that second victim as Dewitt Kemper, an Imperial Courts gang member who was reportedly struck by friendly fire during the shooting.

The Killing of Kanita Hailey (1989)

On September 22, 1989, the war between the PJ Watts Crips and the Grape Street Watts Crips claimed the life of 7-year-old Kanita Hailey. Kanita was standing outside an apartment building on 114th Street in Watts when gunfire erupted from a passing vehicle during a gang-related shooting.

She was struck by stray rounds and rushed to Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital, where she later died from her injuries. Kanita Hailey’s death became one of the clearest examples of how the conflict between the PJ Watts Crips and Grape Street extended beyond gang members and into the residential spaces of Watts.

The shooting happened years before the 1992 Watts Gang Truce and reflected how the feud between the two housing-project gangs had already turned apartment courtyards, parking areas, and surrounding streets into active conflict zones by the end of the 1980s.

The Killing of Tony Bogard (1994)

In 1994, Tony Bogard was killed after a confrontation in the Imperial Courts parking lot near 114th Street. The shooting reportedly grew out of a dispute involving Rodney Compton, another PJ Watts member. Bogard was struck multiple times and died at the scene.

Also wounded in the crossfire was Andre Wicker, better known as Gangsta Dresta, a member of the Nutty Blocc Compton Crips and the older brother of BG Knocc Out. Dresta survived after being hospitalized in critical condition.

Bogard’s funeral reportedly drew a large crowd that included former gang figures, community members, rapper Ice-T, and representatives of the Nation of Islam.

The Killing of Floyd Videau (2013)

On June 23, 2013, Floyd Videau, identified in court records as a documented PJ Watts Crips member, was shot and killed in the Imperial Courts housing projects. Prosecutors alleged that the shooter was Bobby Watts, a member of the Bounty Hunter Bloods from neighboring Nickerson Gardens, who entered the area, changed clothes nearby, carried out the shooting, and fled.

The case later resulted in a murder conviction with gang enhancements. The case reflected how relations between PJ Watts Crips and the Bounty Hunter Bloods had shifted by the 2010s.

The Killing of Markice “Chiccen” Brider (2013)

On September 23, 2013, Markice “Chiccen” Brider, a documented member of the PJ Watts Crips, was gunned down outside Imperial Courts. According to witness testimony and later court records, the shooters fled while yelling “This is Grape,” tying the killing to the long-running conflict between PJ Watts Crips and the Grape Street Watts Crips.

In Entertainment

PJ Watts Crips have appeared in documentaries, television programs, and films tied to Watts gang history. Parts of the film Training Day were shot in or around Imperial Courts. The gang and Imperial Courts were also featured on A&E’s The Peacemaker: LA Gang Wars, which focused in part on efforts to reduce tensions between PJ Watts Crips and Fudge Town Mafia Crips.

The 2014 film Imperial Dreams was inspired by the life of Bobby “Yay Yay” Jones, a longtime Imperial Courts resident associated with PJ Watts Crips. Filmed on location in Imperial Courts, the movie stars John Boyega as a fictionalized version of Jones and follows a former gang member trying to raise his son and rebuild his life after prison.

Allies And Rivals

PJ Watts Crips have had ties to several nearby gangs, especially during and after the 1992 Watts Truce. PJ Watts Crips and the Bounty Hunter Bloods were never permanent allies, but the two gangs were on the same side at different points, especially around the truce years. The PJ Watts Crips have also had on-and-off ties with the Fudge Town Mafia Crips.

Beyond Watts, PJ Watts Crips have maintained ties to certain Compton gangs through family connections and movement between the two cities (Hub & Dub). During the gang’s early days, they had close connections with Compton sets such as Mona Park, Carver Park, and Santana Blocc Compton Crips.

PJ Watts Crips’ main rivals have historically included the Grape Street Watts Crips, Hacienda Village Bloods, and Be-Bop Watts Bloods. Before the late 1980s, PJ Watts Crips generally got along with the other Crip gangs in Watts under the Watts Crips umbrella. That changed as PJ Watts Crips and Grape Street fell into a more open rivalry, and by the late 1980s the feud was active enough to produce deadly shootings between the two gangs.

PJ Watts Crips also had a short-lived feud with the Front Street Watts Crips during the early to mid-1990s. That conflict followed the shooting of a Front Street member known as Baby Dre inside Imperial Courts, an attack that reportedly left him paralyzed.

Outside of Watts, PJ Watts Crips have also feuded with Poccet Hood Compton Crips, Six Hood Compton Crips, and other enemies that came out of Watts and Compton conflicts over the years.

News

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