Two more members of the Hobos street gang were sentenced to prison Friday — both for life.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Derrick “D-Block” Vaughn and William “Joe Buck” Ford were given life sentences after being found guilty of conspiracy, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Four others convicted in the federal racketeering and murder conspiracy case, including top Hobos member Paris Poe, have also received life sentences.
“It is a very rare day in this building where two individuals are sentenced to life sentences,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joel Levin told reporters Friday afternoon, “But in this case it was completely deserved.”
The Hobos — a so-called “super gang” formed in the now-demolished Robert Taylor Homes — engaged in a 10-year “reign of terror” across the South and West sides, “committing numerous murders, attempted murders, shootings and distributing narcotic drugs during that period of time,” Levin said.
Addressing reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said he remembered the Hobos from his days as a patrol officer.
“The Hobos street gang, I remember them when I was a beat cop,” Johnson said. “And they just wreaked havoc over this city and they earned every day of the sentencing they got.”
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Asked if the sentences made neighborhoods on the South and West sides any safer, Levin said yes, though it could be difficult to quantify.
“Given what they were doing, the reign of terror they were inflicting, yes I do think it has saved lives by taking them off the street,” he said.
