Tired of having to scrap their way through the streets of West Compton in the early 1970s, A.C. Moses and his childhood friends banded together to defend against the other local gangs that were hassling them.
They took to calling themselves the Pirus, after the tiny street where they grew up, and eventually formed one of the first known Bloods gangs. But back then, they were more self-styled neighborhood patrol than the muscular criminal enterprise that law enforcement says they would become.
Moses, who went by “King Bobalouie,” made a name for himself as a fearless brawler who could take a punch as well as he could deliver one. He and his followers protected one another from getting jumped on the way to and from school. Sometimes they crossed into rival territories with payback in mind…