num_pages: 275
description: This raw, brutal memoir traces Sanchez's struggle - after 10 harrowing years of senseless killings, initiation beatings and drug deals - to leave the Latin Kings and create a 'normal' life for himself. It isn't easy, and soon enough Sanchez backslides into drugs, sex and violence. This time, however, he does not escape the law and he discovers that life inside prison for a gang member continues much as usual. Yet still, Sanchez questions how he is to fight the motto 'once a King, always a King' and leave gang life behind once and for all. "Once a King Always a King" is a harrowing testament to Sanchez's determination to rebuild his life despite daily temptations, nightmares, regression into violence and his own internal demons. The Latin Kings are an organised crime network that began in a Chicago jail in the 1940s. They now have chapters throughout the USA and are the largest street gang plaguing New York today. Reymundo Sanchez is a pseudonym.
language: English
title: Once a King, Always a King : My Attempts to Leave Gang Life
titlecomplete: Once a King, Always a King : My Attempts to Leave Gang Life
genres: Biography, Social Issues, True Crime, Autobiography, Crime, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Adult, Memoir
ratings_count: 2233
places: The United States of America
publisher: VISION BOOKS