Kody Scott, former L.A. gang member who became a bestselling author, discovered dead at 57

 

Kody Scott was such a notorious neighborhood gangster that schoolchildren trembled at the thinking of passing through his South Los Angeles home out of fear he’d pick out a fight or steal their bikes and lunch money.

“That’s like butterflies,” said Skipp Townsend, a former gang member, now a neighborhood activist who works with 2nd Call, a community based agency that serves high-risk individuals. “It’s like man, my belly gets jittery due to the fact we have no idea what Kody is going to do.”

But on this day, as Townsend and a schoolmate passed by 69th Street close to Florence and Normandie avenues, they happened to catch Scott on a good day.

Townsend’s schoolmate told Scott he had a stomachache and was just trying to get home. Scott patted him on the back. “All right, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, then sent them on their way, unscathed.

The curious life of “Monster” Kody Scott was soon to emerge as a cautionary tale of redemption and the relentless tug of gang life.

A generic gang banger in the 1970s, Scott remarkably became a motivational speaker and bestselling writer of a 1993 memoir that took a sobering appear at gang life in L.A. The book, which followed his experience from violence towards transcendence, arrived at a time when lots of America outside L.A. and New York City was still unaware of gang culture.

Although Scott escaped death severa times as a member of the Eight Tray Gangster Crips, then became an author who advised others to keep away from gang life, the 57-year-old was found dead on June 7 at a homeless encampment close to the San Luis River Trail in Oceanside, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office.

Scott’s girlfriend found his “badly decomposed” body in a tent, said Tom Bussey, a public information officer for the Oceanside Police Department. It appears Scott died of natural reasons and not foul play, although the cause of death has yet to be determined, Bussey said.

Scott, who changed his name to Sanyika Shakur marking his rebirth and the end of his gang career, had a complicated life. For every step forward, he seemed to take at least one step back.