Summary of Offense:
Cleamon "Big Evil" Johnson, described by police detectives and FBI agents as the city's most violent gang member, was sentenced to death on December 12, 1997, along with co-defendant Michael "Fat Rat" Allen, for the August 5, 1991 murders of two men at a South-Central Los Angeles carwash.
In another case, prosecutors said an inmate known as "Big Evil" was assigned as a trusty after being sentenced to death for killing two people in South Los Angeles in 1991. Cleamon Johnson, a leader in the violent street gang 89 Family Bloods, was in County Jail awaiting trial on a new murder case at the time. While an inmate worker, prosecutors said, Johnson used his privileges to intimidate witnesses against him.
Donald Ray Loggins worked at a local cable company, and since the birth of his son five months earlier, he had been as punctual as a Marine Corps reveille. He would pull into the driveway of his pleasant two-bedroom, South-Central Los Angeles home at 2:45 p.m. to watch the baby while his wife Violet got ready for her swing-shift job. But on August 5, 1991, Violet was sitting on the couch, cradling their child and staring at the telephone, wondering why her husband was so late.
Loggins and his friend were killed because they lived east of Central Avenue, a dividing line between (Kitchen) Crips and Bloods. Evil says neither was a gang member, but Johnson, seeking to provide a newly recruited Blood with a mission to earn his stripes, spotted them and issued their death sentences.
In total, police attribute more than 20 murders to Johnson. But even using the lower figure to which Johnson has confessed, that means he murdered as many people as "Freeway Killer" William Bonin or "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez. In all likelihood, Evil's relative obscurity has to do with where the slaughter occurred. No celebrities among these victims. No Palos Verdes bankers or Newport Beach realtors. These were innocents just trying to survive, or young gang members in way over their heads. Johnson's defense tried to portray him as a victim of geography. "Evil is a product of 89th and Central," said Joe Orr, counsel for Johnson's co-defendant, Michael "Fat Rat" Allen. "With his charm, there's no telling how far he could have gone. He was talented, but his abilities were diverted to the streets. If he had been raised in a different area, this would not have happened."
On August 5, 1991, Johnson ordered Allen to get an Uzi submachine gun and "serve" two men at a carwash at Central Avenue and 88th Street. Allen shot to death Donald Ray Loggins and Payton Beroit in broad daylight in front of more than a dozen witnesses, according to authorities. Loggins and Beroit were not gang members, but lived in rival gang turf. Johnson, who authorities say killed at least a dozen people during his reign as the shot-caller of his gang, the 89 Family Bloods, declared his innocence after he was sentenced. He called police a "lynch mob" and vowed to have his conviction overturned.
For more on Johnson, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...hlight=cleamon
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