Review: The Black Hand: The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer

The Black Hand: The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer by Chris Blatchford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a fascinating criminal career biography of Rene "Boxer" Enriquez. The arc is from growin up on the violent streets of East L.A., prison at the age, induction into the widely feared Mexican Mafia La Eme. Enriquez helped La Eme become the powerful and violent organization that it is now, with a base army of approximately 60,000 heavily armed gang members who control the prison system and a large part of California crime. Arguably the most dangerous gang in American history, journalist Chris Blatchford with the cooperation of Rene Enriquez, reveals the inner workings, secret meetings, and elaborate murder plots that make up the daily routine of La Eme. This includes the details of the 2000 Pelican Bay mass assault on black prisoners which can be viewed online.

It is interesting to me that divulgence of this information is to a great degree symptomatic of a weak period in La Eme, when lethal violence had leaked out of the criminal subclass (namely, resulting in the death of children) and lax vetting of candidates allowed informants to enter. This is very similar to me to the story of the success of William Queen, a nearly 20-year ATF veteran as well as a motorcycle enthusiast, in infiltrating the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Mongols. During the same time in 1998, the ATF was contacted by a confidential informant offering to help place an agent inside the gang. Looking back on the story ending with Boxer disappearing into enter the federal government’s witness protection program, I ponder much this fact that we only see these organized crime innards when they spill out due to lax controls.

Does society tolerate or even have a role that accommodate organized crime within certain parameters? When gangs keep violent crime to internal policing, attacking other gangs over "turf", and preying on unorganized non-violent criminals like drug dealers and offer security to small business (mild extortion), is it, in a sense, "OK"? It seems in practice, from the original Mafia to the Mongols to La Eme, history shows that it is.

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