Gang lifer takes stand in federal trial against reputed Wicked Town boss, associate

Deshawn Morgan was immersed in Chicago’s West Side gang culture before he was even out of grade school, dealing drugs at age 12 and rising in the ranks of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords.

Along the way, Morgan told a federal jury last week, he befriended key players in the complex hierarchy of gang factions in the city’s Austin and West Lawndale neighborhoods. His testimony provided a rare glimpse at the kind of gang conflicts that often drive Chicago violence.

He earned respect by hewing to a strict street code against snitches. He got shot and shot others, was charged with murder in his 20s only to beat the case at trial, and later ordered the slaying of a friend he believed was cooperating with law enforcement.

But Morgan said he was never really interested in being a kingpin, the man at the top with all the heat and pressure that went with it. A self-described “master manipulator,” he testified Thursday that