Warning, this podcast contains explicit language and details acts of violence.

Listener discretion is advised.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has historically been known for its brutal violence against residents.

In the 1990s, the Vikings caught the attention of a skeptical press for their brutal policing in Linwood and ruthless revenge plots on colleagues who would not conform to the gang's policies.

But the Vikings were just one of the deputy gangs on the streets in the early 1990s.

In LA's Lennox neighborhood, a gang of deputies calling themselves the Grim Reaper's

formed at the local station.

The Grim Reaper's were originally based out of the Lennox Station in South LA.

The station closed back in 2010 when the brand new South Los Angeles Station opened. Members of the gang can be found throughout the department these days,

often in powerful positions,

like Sheriff Alex Vianueva's former chief of staff.

Being a deputy gang member can come with perks and career advancement,

and the Grim Reapers have used their brutal,

often fatal policing style to network to the top of the department.

Members of the Grim Reapers have a tattoo on their calf

of a black-hooded skeleton holding a scythe.

That's the medieval symbol of death.

To get a tattoo, it's alleged that deputies need to participate in killing a civilian.

This is a tradition of violence, a history of deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

By the late 1980s, deputy gangs were in style within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department,

but only people working on the inside or people with a connection to a deputy

knew that they existed. Many people thought of the LASD as a place free of corruption until

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