Q. Alphonso, we have a lot in common, we are both from the Midwest. I moved to the Northwest from Detroit and you came from St Louis. Do you feel that you brought some of your learned behaviours from back home to the Northwest and if Yes please explain. A. Yes, its funny that you ask that question because I always explain to people that I'm Midwest born and Northwest raised. That's why my love is so deep for the Wa-t.u.c.c. (Washington) Talking Under Code Cuz Some of the learned behaviour that I brought from back home ( East St Louis) was the Hustle, because back home we do anything to make a dollar ie; cut grass, shovel snow, crush cans with pebbles in them to get the weight up in recycling aluminium. Q. Now I know you were a drug dealer with some ties to illegal activities. Please share. A. In the late 80's early 90's I got exposed to crack cocaine and seen how lucrative it was and how the drug really sold itself. So I immersed myself into the lifestyle and by my 18th birthday I had my first delivery of controlled substance. The crazy part about selling drugs is I still attended high school, intact I was in my senior year with 19 credits and needing only 21 to graduate, But a prison sentence came before... Q. You also watched and participated in gang life shaping in Washington State. Can you share a little of your earlier experiences? A. We moved to Washington in 1986, Stayed for 1 year on the Hilltop of Tacoma Was. Then came back in 1988. By that time all my childhood friends had been introduced to a gang lifestyle by 2 brothers that where from Los Angeles California. They called themselves the LA Boys. The Brothers had the same Father living in Washington but they grew up on different sides of the track in LA. One was a Blood and the other Crip.... So one of the older of my childhood friends gravitated to the older of the brothers who was Crip. FASTFORWARDING, My friend formed a gang HTC (Hilltop Crips) My experience is I had the best of both worlds in the gang life because as a child growing up on the Hill I had friends and once we settled in as a family we moved to the East of Tacoma with mostly Bloods and they were friends also. Q. At what point did you feel you were all in? A. It took years for me to get to and all in point because of my own Identity crisis of wanting to fit in and befriend everybody. It was not until I found myself and created my own gang or click, then I was all in. Q. Without a lot of detail could you speak on the early street divisions. A. I believe that division was fresh out the gate because of colors and greed and the need for popularity amongst our own peers.
Q. Alphonso I'm going somewhere with my questions but I wanna switch gears. I wanna talk deep. I know you always speak about the fact that you killed someone you loved and I know then REMORSE in your heart for what you've done, but I also know you experimented with drugs at the time so I was wondering if we could go straight into a conversation about the drug (spice) that you were on and the effects of the drug because I've seen people in prison do weird things, and people have died in prison using the drug. my feeling is you could speak on that drug and save lives by just speaking to the side effects. A. Yes, like I always explained "I killed someone I loved to find out what love is and what love is not. The drug that I experienced with at the time of my senseless murder was (SPICE). I didn't know that this could have been a factor in my case until 4 yrs into my incarceration when I started reading research of what this (SYNTHETIC DRUG) does, on top of see'n the many episodes of my cellmates and others around the prison was dying. Then I said to myself that must have had something to do with me killing my significant other of 16 years. This concludes part 1 of my Iceberg Interview. I call it Iceberg because with an Iceberg you only see 10% I intend to give the 90%. Part 2 is gonna get deeper..........................