Notorious Chicago gang kingpin Larry Hoover has had “virtually no contact with the outside world” for more than two decades, his lawyers have said.
They say the co-founder of the Gangster Disciples street gang “spends 23 hours a day in a concrete cell no larger than a parking space” at the federal supermax prison in Colorado. And they argue he deserves a break from the life sentence handed to him in 1998.
Their bid to secure mercy for Hoover, 73, has lingered for years at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. But now a federal judge has scheduled a hearing for this fall — and ordered prosecutors to “make Mr. Hoover present in person” when it happens.
The brief order Tuesday from U.S. District Judge John Blakey sets the stage for a rare public appearance Sept. 26 by a man who’s been labeled “one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history,” but who claims to have renounced the criminal organization he once led.
Hoover acknowledged in a 2022 letter “that some misguided people continue to hold me up as a symbol.” But, he added, “if I had any ability to influence them, I’d ask that they’d forget me and forsake the gang life forever.”
Justin Moore, one of Hoover’s attorneys, said the September hearing will be Hoover’s first chance since the late 1990s to leave the notorious supermax prison, aside from doctor visits down the street. It also means Hoover will have a chance to plead his own case to Blakey.
“I think that’s important for anybody to have that opportunity, particularly when they’re trying to make a plea for their freedom,” Moore said.
Prosecutors have adamantly opposed Hoover’s bid for a new sentencing hearing. His lawyers have been seeking the relief since late 2019 under the federal First Step Act, which gives prisoners convicted of federal crimes a chance to cut short their time behind bars and allows elderly and sick inmates to seek compassionate releases.
Then-U.S. Attorney John Lausch even made a rare direct plea to U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber in 2020, telling him it would be a “miscarriage of justice to reduce [Hoover’s] sentence in any way, shape or form.”
“It simply makes no sense now to give him a chance to run the Gangster Disciples,” Lausch told the judge.
Hoover ordered a murder in 1973 that led to his conviction in state court and a sentence of 150 to 200 years in Illinois’ prison system. There, the feds say he ran a $100 million-a-year drug business as tens of thousands of gang soldiers continued to work for him in Chicago and other cities.
A federal investigation then led to Hoover’s conviction for running a criminal enterprise. Leinenweber gave Hoover a life sentence in 1998 at the end of a contentious hearing. The judge told Hoover the charisma he used to gain the loyalty of thousands was proof he could have been a great man.
“You misused a gift you got from God,” Leinenweber told him.
More than 20 years later, Leinenweber responded to Hoover’s request for a new sentencing hearing with an initial denial, referring to Hoover as “one of the most notorious criminals in Illinois history.”
“Hoover is renowned and celebrated to this day by the Gangster Disciples,” Leinenweber wrote in 2021. “To the extent that any one person can deter another to commit crimes, Hoover’s life imprisonment symbolically demonstrates that the rule of law reaches even those in power who seem untouchable.”
But the judge issued his order without prejudice, giving Hoover an opportunity to try again. He did so in 2022, writing letters to the judge and the public.
“I am no longer a member, leader, or even an elder statesman of the Gangster Disciples,” Hoover wrote then. “I want nothing to do with it now and forever.”
Leinenweber took no action on Hoover’s renewed request in the nearly two years that followed. The judge died June 11.
Hoover’s case was then reassigned to Blakey, the same judge presiding over the prosecution of former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. Blakey initially set a hearing in Hoover’s case for August but waived Hoover’s appearance.
On Tuesday, Blakey rescheduled Hoover’s hearing for Sept. 26. And he told prosecutors to make arrangements for Hoover to be at the hearing in person.
If Hoover is successful in undoing his federal life sentence, he would still have the state murder sentence to serve — and he’d likely do so in the federal prison system. But prosecutors have expressed concern that Hoover would launch legal attacks on that case, as well.
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Click here to read Jan. 27, 2021, Watchdogs report “Gangster Disciples founder called shots from jail, feds say.”