When we talk about the history of American street gangs, few names carry as much weight, or as much literal blood, as Luis Felipe, known more notoriously by his moniker King Blood. He wasn't just another leader. He was the architect. In 1986, while sitting inside a cell at the Collins Correctional Facility in New York, Felipe didn't just survive his sentence—he built an empire. He founded the New York chapter of the Latin Kings, specifically the "Bloodline" faction, and his influence eventually stretched far beyond the prison walls he lived within.
It’s easy to look at a guy like this and see a one-dimensional villain. But that’s where most people get it wrong. To understand the legacy of Luis Felipe King Blood, you have to look at the weird, dark, and highly organized way he managed to run a massive criminal organization without ever actually stepping foot on the street as a free man.
The Birth of the Bloodline
Luis Felipe didn't start the Latin Kings—the gang actually has roots going back to 1950s Chicago—but he reinvented them for the East Coast. He arrived in the United States from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. By 1986, he was already serving time for the manslaughter of his girlfriend. That's when things got real.
Inside Collins, Felipe began drafting what would become the "King Manifesto." Honestly, it’s a bizarre document. It’s part religious text, part military code, and part social justice pamphlet. He preached about Hispanic pride and protecting "the nation" from a system he claimed was designed to keep them down.
It worked.
People flocked to him. Within months, the Latin Kings had dozens of members inside the New York prison system. But this wasn't just a prison club. Felipe was ambitious. He started sending "directives" to the outside. These weren't just friendly letters; they were orders. If you were a Latin King on the streets of New York in the early 90s, your boss was a guy you had probably never met, sitting in a cell hundreds of miles away.
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Why Luis Felipe King Blood Still Matters
The reason we still talk about him today isn't just because of the gang's size—at its peak, membership was estimated in the thousands—it's because of the sheer brutality and the legal precedent his case set.
Felipe was eventually convicted of ordering multiple murders from behind bars. We aren't talking about vague "get 'em" suggestions. He wrote letters. He named names. In one instance, he ordered the death of William "Lil Man" Cartagena because he believed Cartagena had stolen from the gang's treasury. The resulting murder was horrific: Cartagena was strangled, decapitated, and his Latin King tattoos were cut from his body before his remains were set on fire.
This level of control from a prison cell was a wake-up call for the Department of Justice. It led to some of the most restrictive sentencing conditions in American history.
The Trial and the "Special Conditions"
When Felipe finally stood trial in 1996, the evidence was overwhelming. Prosecutors had the letters. They had the testimony of former members who were terrified of him.
Judge John S. Martin Jr. didn't just give him life. He gave him life plus 45 years. But the kicker was the conditions of that life sentence. The judge ordered that Felipe be kept in permanent solitary confinement.
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- No visitors (except for legal counsel and close relatives, of which he had none).
- No communication with other inmates.
- No letters to anyone outside the prison system except the aforementioned few.
The goal was simple: silence him. The government realized that as long as Luis Felipe could talk, he could kill.
The Transition to Antonio Fernandez
One of the most fascinating parts of the Luis Felipe King Blood story is what happened after he was effectively erased from the world. Enter Antonio Fernandez, known as King Tone.
When Tone took over, he tried to flip the script. He wanted to turn the Latin Kings into a legitimate political organization. They started showing up at rallies. They talked about police reform. Tone even knelt in front of the federal courthouse in Manhattan after Felipe's conviction, claiming it was time for a "fresh start."
But the shadow of King Blood was long. The police didn't buy the "new" Latin Kings for a second. To them, the organization was still the house that Blood built, and you can't just paint over a foundation of racketeering and murder. Tone eventually ended up in prison himself, though for much less time than Felipe.
Where is he now?
As of 2026, Luis Felipe remains exactly where the government put him: ADX Florence in Colorado. That’s the "Alcatraz of the Rockies." It is the most secure prison in the United States, housing terrorists, double agents, and the most dangerous gang leaders on earth.
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He is now in his 60s. He has spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars. The "Bloodline" he founded still exists in various forms, but the era of centralized, letter-written orders from a single "Supreme Crown" is largely a relic of the 90s.
Lessons from the Legacy
If you’re looking into this history, don't just see a gang story. See it as a case study in how the American legal system changed to handle organized crime.
- RICO works. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was the hammer that finally broke the back of the Latin Kings' leadership.
- Communication is power. The extreme restrictions on Felipe proved that for a leader like him, a pen was more dangerous than a gun.
- Ideology is sticky. Despite the violence, the Latin Kings grew because Felipe gave members a sense of identity and "nationhood" that they felt they couldn't find elsewhere.
To truly understand the impact, you should look into the court transcripts from United States v. Felipe. It’s a dry read, sure, but it’s the only place where you see the raw mechanics of how he operated. You can also research the "Bloodline Manifesto" to see the strange mixture of philosophy and rules he used to keep his followers in line. Knowing the history helps separate the myth of "King Blood" from the reality of a man who spent his life building a cage, both for others and, ultimately, for himself.
Take a look at the history of the "Latin Queens" as well. Many people forget that Zulma Andino, or Queen Zulma, was a major figure in the organization's leadership alongside Felipe. Understanding her role gives a much fuller picture of how the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN) actually functioned as a community, for better or worse.