The Black Hand: The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer »

Chris Blatchford is an investigative reporter and author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller Three Dog Nightmare. He has won numerous commendations and awards for his reports, including nine Emmy Awards and a Peabody for his investigation into Italian Mafia infiltration of MCA/Universal's music and home video divisions. He lives in Los Angeles.

THE BLACK HAND is the true story of Rene Enriquez, aka "Boxer," and his rise in a secret criminal organization, a new Mafia, that already has a grip on all organized crime in California and soon all of the United States. This Mafia is using a base army of an estimated 60,000 heavily armed, loyal Latino gang members, called Surenos, driven by fear and illicit profits. They are the most dangerous gang in American history and they wave the flag of the Black Hand.

Mafioso Enriquez gives an insider′s view of how he devoted his life to the cause--the Mexican Mafia, La Familia Mexicana, also known as La Eme--only to find betrayal and disillusionment at the end of a bloody trail of violence that he followed for two decades.

And now, award-winning investigative journalist Chris Blatchford, with the unprecedented cooperation of Rene Enriquez, reveals the inner workings, secret meetings, and elaborate murder plots that make up the daily routine of the Mafia brothers. It is an intense, never-before-told story of a man who devoted his life to a bloody cause only to find betrayal and disillusionment.

Based on years of research and investigation, Chris Blatchford has delivered a historic narrative of a nefarious organization that will go down as a classic in mob literature.

Publishers Weekly

There is much to praise in this authorized biography of Rene "Boxer" Enriquez, penned by Peabody Award-winning journalist Blatchford (Three Dog Nightmare). While this is a superb cautionary tale about the dangers of youth falling into senseless gang violence, it also rates as a probing, redemptive story of Enriquez, a vicious, heroin-addicted killer for Los Angeles's largest criminal street gang, with 20,000 members involved in extortion, drug-dealing, vice and murder. Blatchford explores with grim accuracy Enriquez's criminal past, prison killings, turf wars and contract eliminations around the West Coast. But the book also reveals Enriquez and his crew's total commitment to hoodlum honor, the cost in lives and status, and the betrayals and intrigues both behind bars and out in society. This is a savvy account of Enriquez's arduous self-education and personal transformation from cold killer to a man who, in his own words, educates law enforcement and the public about a "prison and criminal subculture that should scare the hell out of them." (Sept.)

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1 Blood In, Blood Out 1

2 Mexican Mafia History 4

3 Boxer Beginnings 12

4 Drugs, Dealing, Robbing, and Rebellion 18

5 Boxer Graduates to College (Prison) 29

6 The Wrecking Crew 36

7 Boxer and the Black Hand 39

8 Mafia Politics: Like Swimming with Sharks in a Bloody Pool 45

9 Back Outside: The Brutality of the Streets 53

10 Preserving Hoodlum Honor 59

11 Boxer Meets Steely-Eyed Chuco 65

12 Hit the Streets Like a Wild Man 70

13 Shifting Loyalties and Sweet Revenge 75

14 A Reign of Terror 82

15 Learning a Sweet Lucrative Scam 95

16 Hungry Piranhas in a Tank 100

17 Die Like a Man, You Punk 105

18 Mafia Gratitude Goes Only So Far 112

19 La Eme Goes to Hollywood 114

20 Drive-bys, Drugs, and the Pepsi Generation Mafia 121

21 Dealing with Pure Evil 127

22 The Eme Plot to Kill the Governor of California 135

23 Operation Pelican Drop 140

24 Calling the Shots From Prison 149

25 Baby Killers 161

26 Dead Men Don't Pay 180

27 Chuco Rolls on La Eme 185

28 A Rat or Just Smart? 195

29 A Mini-Mob Convention 201

30 Boxer, Bat, and the Tijuana Drug Cartel 207

31 It Was Just Business 217

32 Race Riot Madness 225

33 Phony Peace Talks 230

34 Growing Mob-Weary 240

35 Man Is Made or Unmade by Himself 246

36 Missing Life 249

37 Dropping Out of the Mob 256

38 A WonderFul Break 267

39 You Can't Play by the Rules 274

40 La Eme Spreading Like a Cancer 283

41 Trying to Be More 289

Afterword 295

Glossary 305

Bibliography 309

Acknowledgments 315

Index 317