THE LEGACY OF LIL SMURF
THE CITY STREETS WHERE GANGSTERS
RUN ARE FULL OF STORIES.
Few are as frightening as the tale of the Richmonds, a group of men who may be more calculatingly brutal than any this city has ever seen.
According to legend, the Richmonds came to town from California in early 1995 on a murderous mission. Their target was 18-year-old Anthony Branch Jr., one of Portland's most notorious gang criminals.
"They came up here to seek revenge," says Portland Police Detective Kerry Taylor, "and they carved a path through the people around him."
In a shooting spree that began in February 1995, the Richmonds critically wounded two people and killed three more. All of them were relatives or associates of Anthony Branch Jr., or Lil Smurf, as he was known on the streets.
On Oct. 9 of this year, Lil Smurf himself was gunned down in the parking lot of a Northeast Portland strip club. He had been out of prison for less than a month.
So far, only one Richmond has been prosecuted for his part in what the DA's office is now convinced was a deliberate and calculated crime spree.
At this point, the rest have gotten away with murder.
Navigator:
Cover Story: The Legacy of Lil Smurf
Sidebar: The Rap on Lil Smurf
Sidebar: A Story About Drugs by Anthony Branch Jr.
Patty Wentz contributed to this story