Chicago Ventures and PVP Gang
Rest in Peace - Doc
Events leading up to Doc's death
This is by far the hardest story I will ever write. It is of a friend, some called him DOC, I called him Desi. He was a Venture and I was a Playboy back in 1972. It was a cold night and rather then just sit in the car all night, we decided to visit the Ventures Clubhouse on North and Paulina. I had two blonds and a brunette with me, one was destined to be my wife. The other two were her closest friends. We went into the clubhouse and were met by the same guys that were almost always there. Duke of Earl played almost all the time. Everybody partied and finally the song changed to Inna Gada da Vida, by Iron Butterfly. There was a set of drums in the back, and Desi sat down and was doing a very impressive job of playing along. It seemed that the girls brought out his best. Desi was the kind of guy anybody would be proud to have as a brother. He was always respectfully of others and had only started hanging with the guys, “I heard," because his parents had been beat up by a rival gang just to disrespect them and he was hurt pretty bad in the incident. I knew his brother, but not as good as I knew him.
Right then somebody came crashing through the door saying something about a conflict, a fight, or something. I didn't know much about their business. We were a short distance away in our hood, but just didn't know much about their rivals. I jumped up with him and started out. Just then, he stopped me placing the sticks into my chest leaning into me saying. "No, this is our fight. You stay here and keep the girls here. If we both leave they will leave. This is Ventures business and we will handle it. You Playboys have done enough! Don't worry we'll be right back. Stay here!” I sat down and began to make a fool of myself with those sticks. It seemed that all he had been teaching me was gone.
Related Story Links:
The Ventures
Just a few minutes later some girls came running back in screaming, “They had all been shot.” There was a lot of yelling and screaming. It was hard to figure out what had happened. The parts that I put together were that it had been a setup. They knew that the Ventures were coming and jumped into their paths with shotguns. There were three of them together: Desi, his brother, and another Venture. Desi was hit bad first. His brother went down to the ground to lift him up and caught a blast to the face. He continued to lift up his brother into his arms and the blast kept coming. The other Venture was also shot in the face. He was blinded, but could see where the fire came from. He aimed his gun into the direction of where the fire was coming and put about 6 or 7 shots into the guy with the gun. From what I heard it was a few days before they found his body, in a parked station wagon. Desi’s brother picked him up and went to the first bar. It was a Puerto Rican bar and they slammed the door and locked it leaving him on the street. This story hit the news fast and was on TV throughout Chicago. They talked with Desi's brother and the other Venture, I won't give his name, and they told the whole story. There might be more, but that is the way I remember it. The song: “He Ain't Heavy He's my Brother” had new meaning. It has been almost 39 years now, and it still reminds me of Desi and his brother. This story was all over the news and it brought guys from all over the city showing support for their fallen brother. The death of this one guy brought so many people together; it would be hard to even know how many gangs were there at the funeral. I am sure that others knew Desi probably better then I, but as for me, I will never forget him, or the support from the other gangs of Chicago. There was so much killing that proceed for the next few months that we were either in jail or being chased all the time. So many more died, after Desi, and somehow I think he would have found a way to Forgive. He wouldn't have wanted any of his brothers to suffer...