Wild Cowboys
Written by Ellis Penn and Canden Robinson
In 1986, a young duo by the names of Lenin and Nelson
Sepulveda began, what we know today as, New York’s most notorious gang. This
gang was known as, The Wild Cowboys. Lenin and Nelson were brothers. They were
of Dominican decent and living in the South Side of the Bronx New York. They
received the name “Wild Cowboys”, by their gym teacher while attending
Washington Heights High School in the Bronx. The gang began slanging dope
throughout their neighborhood. They were
killing people and started having other
members do most of their real dirty work. Some of members were young teens,
even as young as 12 years old. The group was taking over the streets, making so
much money pushing drugs between the South Bronx, Brighton Beach, Washington
Heights and the entire upper Manhattan. They were averaging over $16,000,000 a
year in dope deals.
The Wild Cowboys
were increasing rapidly, reaching a total of 42 members before the year 1991.
They began to be so widely talked about in the neighborhood that the Manhattan
City Town Hall proposed a meeting to construct a plan to combat this crew. In
early 1995, 24 members of the Wild Cowboys were arrested and subjected to a
trial on May 15, 1995. All 24 members were found guilty and received a sentence
of 25 years to life in prison. The trial was a complicated trail, lasted a
long-time due to the number of members the jury had to deliberate on. So now,
24 members of the Wild Cowboys are down for good. All found guilty of 36 of the
42 counts held against them. One of those 24 members was Linwood Collins.
Collins was tried for murdering Oscar Alvarez. Alvarez was tortured on the
rooftop of a tall Bronx building in May 1991. Nonetheless, Collins was
acquitted for that charge and is expected to be retried once again. Leader
Nelson Sepulveda, testified in court and gave details of their violent crimes.
He poured out every incident that involved them killing an individual. Because
Sepulveda was found guilty of conspiracy and manslaughter, he received 22 years
to life in prison. His brother, Lenin Sepulveda, was still awaiting trial at
that time.
In early 1991, a
man named David Cargill was shot through the window of his pickup on the West
Side Highway after cutting off another vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the
scene. The driver of that other vehicle was Lenin Sepulveda. Sepulveda was
charged with the murder of Cargill and pleaded guilty. He has not been charged
with any of the other crimes yet at this moment. Besides the murders that
detectives have hard evidence on, they believe the Wild Cowboys were linked to
20 more unidentified murders, including a quadruple homicide in late 1991. This
homicide was committed in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. Four people in
total were killed, three innocent bystanders and a rival gang member. According
to an article by Shayna Jacobs in the New York Daily News, one of the members
known as the gangland terror, Daniel Rincon, was one of the Wild Cowboys that
pleaded guilty in the quadruple homicide. He was sentenced to 158 years to life
in prison. He claims he was wrongfully accused of the quadruple homicide. So,
his attorney, Patrick Joyce, filed a claim to have the conviction overturned.
At this point, 35
members of the Wild Cowboys were indicted on attempted murder, murder, drugs
trafficking, possession and assault. The trial lasted for 8 drawn out months.
During the trial, defense lawyer Sol Schwartzberg said, “the defendants could
appeal the verdict on the basis that they were deprived of due process”,
(James, 1995). The Wild Cowboys did not receive a fair and speedy trial. Be as
it may, the Wild Cowboys gang is still one of the world’s most infamous gangs
known in New York history. This was a gang that slide away from the police for
decades as they filled the urban streets of New York with crack cocaine and
other drugs. From 1986 to 1995, this gang sold over $16 million dollars’ worth
of drugs on the streets, killed over 10 people and injured more than 20 others.
Marilyn Perez, an ex-New York police officer, was also a person in connection
of the drug ring. She was arrested and charged with conspiracy. No information
has been released as to if she was found guilty and or sentenced. The actual
investigation of the gang lasted over two years of undercover work and seizures
of drugs, money, and guns. The trial ended in 1995, sending 36 members of the
Wild Cowboys to prison. Some were sentenced to 20 years to life, while others
were sentenced to 158 years to life. Having the Wild Cowboys off the streets
and where they belong, police could get the community back in order. The story
of the Wild Cowboys has been and will always be an outstanding story with an
intense beginning, a twisted middle and a successful end.
2 comments:
Washington Heights is a neighborhood located in Northern Manhattan, not the Bronx. So, Nelson and Lenny are from
Manhattan, or “Uptown,” how we affectionately call it. They attended George Washington High School, or “G Dubbs,” as the community knows it, there is no Washington Heights High School.
FEDS Magazine, you all advertise and promote to the street culture. You should, at the very least, fact check basic geographical boundaries and know the names of institutions (high schools). You owe it to your fan base to provide accurate, thoroughly researched work.
Respectfully,
A subscriber
INFO FIXED IT WAS A MISS PRINT THANKS FOR THE CATCH
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