Relationships Talk

The offshoot branch of the La Familia Michoacana has been involved in bizarre, religious-like practices. Recently, a government official reported the group had begun rooting out potential spies by having recruits eat the hearts of their murder victims.

Source: Reuters

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Gang members who stray from the group’s code of conduct can be butchered at will. One banishment ritual called “stripped” involves searing off a member’s tattoo and carving the letter “X” through the seared flesh.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

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A collegiate report on sexual violence referenced an August 2002 incident involving a female initiate. Reportedly, the initiation ritual is called “sexed in” and involves several gang members having sex with the initiate.

Source: National Gang Crime Research Center

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Now disbanded, the New Jersey gang’s initiation right had aspiring members committing murder.

Source: Associated Press

The initiation rite for this Texas gang is the “cora-check.” It involves one recruit squaring off against two members in a fisticuffs match. Unlike other “beat-ins,” this ritual is fast and somewhat cleaner.

Source: Houston Press

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In 2006, a convicted member of the gang told Reuters how initiates were inducted into “the Brand.” Members had to kill someone in a “spectacular fashion.” The interviewee claimed he stabbed a fellow inmate more than 30 times in full view of guards and other prisoners.

Source: Reuters

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Though now incorporated into mainstream entertainment, the C-Walk or Crip Walk dance still has gang connotations.

It’s been reported and rumored that many in the Mexican cartels have been indoctrinated by the Santa Muerte cult. A GQ magazine reported on Zeta follower had boasted of sacrificing two teenage rivals, slitting their bellies and “spilling their blood as an offering.”

Source: GQ Magazine

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Like the Hell’s Angels, the initiation rite for new Bandidos involves urine. After passing the first two trials, members urinate on a new recruit to finish the third and final step.

Source: National Geographic

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Journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote a book about his travels with the motorcycle group back in the 60s. One of the weirder rituals practiced by the gang involved “baptizing” a new member with a slop of feces and urine.

Source: Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

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Also in his book, Hunter S. Thompson noted one initiation rite involved recruits bringing a woman or girl who would consent to having sex with each member of the club. These women were referred to as “sheep.”

Source: Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

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In an August 1986 Reuters report, undercover New York City policemen took part in a blood ritual to infiltrate the gang. The ritual involved making various vows and drinking a glass of wine that was mingled with a drop of each initiate’s blood.

Source: Reuters

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In 2012, a Syracuse teenager pleaded guilty to assaulting two men as part of an initiation. The men were chosen at random.

Source: CNY Central

In 2013, an initiate of the gang went on trial for attempting to stab the brother of an imprisoned rival gang member. According to testimony, the gang ordered the attack because they were unable to reach the imprisoned rival so they opted for family instead.

Source: Times Herald-Record

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A hit man employed by one of the Chinese crime syndicates told a British court he and several other men were stripped to their underpants and made to say a number of vows in a restaurant basement. The ritual included a number of papercrafts and burning joss sticks.

Source: The Independent

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The Japanese crime syndicates are steeped in old tradition and rituals. One of these is yubitsume which is practiced on members who have committed offenses against the organization. Members amputate portions of their finger as a sign of contrition and loyalty.

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Though attitudes are changing somewhat, the Tokyo Times reports tattoos are still kind of a taboo among Japan’s citizenry because of its ties to the Yakuza. Members are adorned with art that stretches from head to toe.

Source: The Tokyo Times

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A police recording of Italian mobsters caught several individuals taking oaths to join a secret society within the organization. Cyanide capsules and a revolver were present as a warning to traitors.

Source: Daily Mail

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In 1985, a member of the mafia group recalled his orientation into the Palermo-area organization. He was made to rub blood from his finger on a small picture of an unknown saint while reciting an oath. The picture was then later burned.

Source: LA Times

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