The Gone Cole podcast may contain violent or graphic subject matter, listener discretion

is advised.

In the early 1990s, gang violence in Fort Worth, Texas was at a staggering high.

Fort Worth's newspaper The Star Telegram reported at least once a month the story of a shooting

resulting in major injury or death, usually it seems the latter.

And in fact, local gang members referred to the city as Murder Worth.

But in 1993, incarcerated members of rival gangs, the crypts and the bloods who were purposefully

locked up side by side in what was essentially a gang-wing of the Tarant County jail,

began discussing not only the consequences of their actions, but also the impoverished

conditions of their communities that contributed to those actions.

A truce between the two gangs was established, and because a couple of the detainees were

leaders of Fort Worth factions, the call to end violence was heard and listened to by members

on the outside.

It wasn't necessarily the consequences that they themselves had to face for their actions

that had these detainees seeking this truce.

Rather, it was the realization of commonality, the commonality of violence, and what that

violence was doing to their communities.

The victims of that violence, whether directly or indirectly, weighed heavy.

Both victims who participated in the gang activity, and particularly those who were innocent bystanders.

Stories of gang-land shootings in Fort Worth almost always included the innocent.

Folks injured by stray bullets shot through their home or vehicle.

Though the truce between the Fort Worth bloods and crypts didn't put a complete stop

...