everything you never wanted to know about the juggalos€¦ · this is by no means an exhaustive...
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Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Juggalos 1
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Juggalos
Deputy Christopher N. Pratt
Gang/Intelligence Unit
November 22, 2010
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During my short time on the Sheriff Department’s Gang/Intelligence Unit one group seems to
keep randomly popping up and catching my attention as I conduct various searches, member
contacts, and so on. This group is comprised of fanatical followers of the rap group known as
the Insane Clown Posse (ICP). On the streets they call themselves the Juggalos.
Since the Juggalos keep randomly appearing and catching my attention, I felt the need to give
them some measure of attention in attempts to try and teach myself more about them. I haven’t
been able to find a significant source of collected data on the Juggalos, but what I did find were
several chopped up pieces of information scattered throughout the web. I decided to put
together some basic information to help other officers learn more about them.
This is by no means an exhaustive narrative of the Juggalos, and I have done my best to
provide an accurate list of references at the end of this document to verify the information I am
providing.
Basic History
The rap group known as ICP was founded in the late 1980’s; however, the term “Juggalo” was
first used in a concert in 1994 when ICP founders Joseph Bruce (aka Violent J) and Joseph
Utsler (aka Shaggy 2 Dope) addressed their fans and followers as part of their Juggalo family.
Bruce and Utsler are originally from Detroit, MI. Juggalo groups also fall under the
Psychopathic Records hip-hop group which is comprised of ICP’s founding members and a
handful of their associates also known as the Dark Lotus group.
Juggalo Identifiers
Juggalos are often relatively easy to identify even when not dressed up as clowns. Common
dress can be defined as somewhat punk-rock or gothic in nature, and Juggalos will often wear
ICP related clothing. Juggalo vehicles can be easily identified as they display ICP related
decals. Black combat boots, pants or long shorts with metal pins, chains, needles, and etc.,
baggy t-shirts or tank tops, jackets or etc. with anything metallic are also common trends
amongst the Juggalos. For obvious reasons, contact officers should consider Juggalos to be
armed, and that many of these items on their clothing could be a potential weapon. As we all
know; baggy clothing allows them to conceal weapons easily as well.
The average Juggalo is almost a mirror image of the Gothic or Emo social groups. Most
Juggalos tend to be Caucasians; pale in complexion, often from suburban neighborhoods,
dressed in baggy clothing with ICP branded items, or even dressed as evil clowns face paint
and all. However, Juggalo followers come from all walks of life. It is not uncommon to find a
Juggalo from a rich r poor background, any and all ethnic backgrounds, and even various
religious groups. There are also celebrities claiming to be Juggalos. Some popular Juggalo
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followers are pro wrestlers Kazushige Nosawa and Vampiro, rappers Chuck D, Coolio, King
Fu Vampire, MURS, and Vanilla Ice.
Most Juggalos will wear a tattoo of the Psychopathic Record’s logo called the Hatchetman.
This is simply a silhouette of a cartoon man running with a hatchet in his hand. There has also
been a female version of this symbol that has started to emerge recently. Examples of each are
provided later in this document.
Other tattoos are images from the ICP’s record album cover art, resembling some sort of evil
clown. It is also common to see a Juggalo with different terms or phrases tattooed somewhere
on their person. Usually you might see something like “Juggalo”, “Twizted”, “Evil Clown”, or
“ABK” (Any Body Killa).
The main threat from the Juggalos is that they tend to populate junior and senior high school
children. They usually recruit social outcasts with antisocial behaviors, and those who simply
do not fit in with everyone else. Because of their odd dress style and peculiar behaviors,
Juggalos are often harassed by youths from other social groups. This mockery can probably be
connected to some of the Juggalo outburst as they reach their breaking points from excessive
harassment.
One might think that as a young person grows into an adult that he or she might abandon such
ludicrous behaviors, but many Juggalos continue to maintain this lifestyle. It is common to find
Juggalos in their 20’s all the way up into their 40’s, and still actively participating.
Juggalo Territories
As mentioned earlier; the Juggalos began in Detroit, Michigan, but have been involved in
crimes in Utah, Washington, Pennsylvania, Florida, Connecticut, and various areas in Colorado
including Aurora, Arvada, Lakewood, Canon City, Pueblo, and Denver.
As I mentioned earlier; the Juggalos can often be found in middle-class suburban areas, but it is
not uncommon to find them running amok in ghetto or urban areas as well.
The Gathering of the Juggalos (GOTJ)
The Juggalos have an annual conference commonly referred to as “the Gathering of Juggalos”.
This Gathering can be loosely defined as a sort of Woodstock for the Juggalo Family. The
event usually lasts for approximately four days. There really is no common grounds for holding
this circus because the Juggalos have trashed previous sites, and have been banned from
returning to that area. The Gathering location and schedule is usually posted on the Gathering’s
website www.juggalogathering.com, and usually has a wide assortment of different rappers,
bands, DJ’s, and musical groups.
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The Gatherings have been known to become problematic as the members behave erratically,
and are known to be under the influence of drugs/alcohol. Nudity, profanity, and violence are
all common practices at a Juggalo gathering. At the 2010 Gathering two of the performers were
attacked with bottles of the Faygo soda. Both were injured, and are planning to sue ICP for
their injuries.
Juggalo Crime
Crimes related to the Juggalo family include murder, shootings, kidnapping, rape, necrophilia,
cannibalism, assault, and arson with no common pattern or trends. Crimes seem to be randomly
acted out, and are often acts acted out by one or more individuals as opposed to an actual gang
related incident. Juggalo related violence is usually a mob of Juggalos on one victim. They
tend to run and fight in packs.
The Juggalo “code” (as one might loosely refer to it) encourages all sorts of miscreant
behaviors. They are not beyond committing violent, sexual, or even grotesque crimes, and in
fact, such acts give a Juggalo a sense of pride and street credit amongst peers. The Juggalos
claim to be strongly opposed to racism, bigotry, and snitches, but everything else is apparently
okay.
Most Juggalo news is easy to find on the web. Some Juggalo related crimes that made the news
are as follows:
February 1, 2006-Jacob Robida conducted a series of hatchet attacks and random
shootings which took the lives of three people, including himself and a local police
officer.
June 18th
and 20th
, 2006-Washington. Several Juggalos dressed as clowns attacked park
visitors in Tacoma. Nearly two dozen were injured, and the Juggalos threatened to kill
and behead other visitors of the park.
February 2007-Bryan Grove and his girlfriend Tess Damm were arrested murder for
stabbing Tess’ mother to death. Grove pled down to second degree murder, and is up
for parole in 30 years. Damm was charged with first degree murder, and another
unnamed party was arrested for possible involvement.
September 2008-Utah. 18 year old Blue Wynn and an unnamed 15 year old, both
Juggalos, attempted to kidnap a 5 year old boy by trying to force him into a car.
Witnesses described both would-be kidnappers by their distinguished style of dress, and
the clown masks they wore. The boy was safely recovered.
July 2008-Utah. Two teens lured a 17 year old out of his home, and then attacked him
with a battle axe stabbing him over a dozen times. Police linked the crime to the
Juggalos with a necklace the victim managed to tear off of one of his assailants. The
necklace was a Juggalo symbol.
November 1997-New Mexico. Joseph Bruce was arrested for assaulting one of his fans
with a microphone. Bruce was released on a $5000 bond four hours after his arrest.
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Early 1998-Indiana. Bruce and one of the former ICP band members had stopped at a
Waffle House where they were harassed by one of the restaurant’s patrons. The band
members retaliated by assaulting the customer. Months later Bruce plead guilty to
disorderly conduct charges that had been reduced from battery charges.
January 2000- Michigan. Rapper Eminem assaulted an associate of Bruce and Utsler’s,
and threatened him with a gun in a parking lot. Eminem and ICP have maintained
strong rivalries ever since.
November 2010-Juggalo Ben “Suzpekt” Butler was hospitalized after drinking a Faygo
soda that someone had laced with rat poison. No other information is available at this
time, but another Juggalo is suspected of the crime.
February 2009-Pennsylvania. US ARMY veteran, and soon to be police officer Michael
Goucher was stabbed to death by two teenagers. Police say that as the teens were
killing Goucher they acted out lyrics to songs from ICP’s albums. The Monroe County
District Attorney stated that the Juggalos killed Goucher simply because they wanted to
know how it felt.
Late 2009-Pennsylvania. Four Juggalos attack and kill a fellow Juggalo. 21 year old
Anthony Locascio was lured into the woods where his fellow Juggalos where they beat
him 60-80 times with metal baseball bats. Locascio allegedly had snitched to local
police revealing information on an unidentified rap group. Police say that Locascio’s
murder was acted out almost exactly as the lyrics to ICP’s song Imma Kill U :
“First, I smack your head with a bat
The bloody splat, crack with impact”
September 2009-California. 20 year old rapper and Juggalo Sam McCroskey, also
known as “Syko Sam”, was charged for four different murders. One of the victims was
a pastor from Virginia. The lyrics to one of McCroskey’s songs titled My Dark Side
depict his behavior and crime perfectly.
"You're not the first, just to let you know. I've killed many people and I kill them real
slow. It's the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and stabbing till there's
nothing left."
August 2010-A Juggalette known as Envy was reported to have been murdered by her
boyfriend, also a Juggalo. No other details were available at this time.
August 2010-Georgia. 49 year old Mark E. Rice is arrested after an incident at the
Juggalo Gathering. Rice assaulted another Juggalo with a deadly weapon. The assailant
was then chased off the scene by other fans, and was picked up by local police. The
victim was airlifted to the trauma center for his injuries.
Behavior
The general consensus on the Juggalos is that they are simply just a group of young adults
dressing like clowns, and acting it out. Most law enforcement officers consider the Juggalos to
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be a relatively minor problem; however, there are always exceptions to everything. While they
may appear to be a mixed up teenager that looks like a carnie reject, there are still Juggalos that
take themselves seriously. Like every gang they have their hardcore members, and those that
just want to fit in.
The typical Juggalo demeanor or attitude as they define it as “I/we don’t give a fuck” which
can prove problematic to contact officers. It is almost safe to say that the Juggalos are very
cult-like in nature. Members tend to follow ICP and their songs, and take the messages quite
literal.
While searching for other information relating to the history of the Juggalos I accidentally
came across a Juggalo religious gathering that is held on online forums and videos. This
religious group’s activities are still rather minor; however, it shows the level of commitment
the members have for their gangs, as well as their overall state of mind with their beliefs.
Further research lead me to an actual petition of Juggalos wanting a “Juggalo Bible” to be
written. Currently, I have not found anything that suggests this bible is anything more than just
a pipe dream.
Many believe that there is even a special place in hell reserved just for them. Others have
gathered together and created the Juggalo Faith website (2010) where someone by the alias of
“Reverend Last Rite” posts online sermons to his fellow Juggalo followers. These sermons are
a mixture of actual Christian scripture, and the Juggalo’s imaginative philosophies.
35 year old Jason Faanes (AKA Rev. Last Rite) of VA Beach, Virginia claims that his church
is the first Juggalo faith system to be recognized by the federal government. Faanes is also
actively serving in the US Navy. All of his information can be found easily on his MySpace
page.
Jason Faanes is pictured below.
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Another web based group that is a sub-set of Faanes’ Juggalo Faith group call themselves the
Fellowship of Juggalos (FOJ) even has a creed for their followers posted on the web page
(2010). The creed is as follows:
“I am a Juggalo.
I am an individual guided by Light. I know who I am and who I want to be. I recognize that the
path to Shangri-La requires an open mind. I shall not judge.
I am part of a Family.
I shall Love my Family as I would my blood. I shall do my Family no harm as I know what is
done to others shall surely be done to me. I shall strive to honor my Family and not disgrace
their name.
I am a Ninja.
I have no Fear. I do not Fear the unknown fore I embrace the wonders of the world around me
and the differences in others. I shall meet adversity head on fore I am a Survivor. Nothing can
stop my Shine.
I am Human.
I recognize my flaws. I shall strive to change the things I can control and seek strength for the
things I cannot. I shall cherish the teachings of my ancestors and the Family who have fallen
before me.
I have Love.
With Love there is Unity and Strength. Love does not hurt, nor does it seek to destroy. I too,
shall not hurt or seek to destroy.
With Love in my Heart, Love for my Family, and Love for the Carnival, I shall find my path to
Shangri-La”
The FOJ website (2010) also listed the basic belief system which the followers are expected to
adhere to. Again these beliefs are loosely derived from the Holy Bible, but are contorted to fit
the Juggalo’s lifestyle. Shangri La is the Juggalo’s heaven or paradise. The Dark Carnival can
refer to the Juggalo’s home or place of origin, but is also the name given to their faith, and their
hierarchy. Believers of the Dark Carnival believe
As with everything else; the Juggalo beliefs originate from ICP’s series of albums referred to
as the “six joker’s cards”. Each album represents a different being with a different message
relating to the faith and apocalyptic prophecies.
This is a short sample of the Juggalo beliefs that I found on the FOJ website (2010):
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“Family Values:
1. A Juggalo does not Hate/ Discriminate
2. A Juggalo does not steal from his/her Family
3. A Juggalo does not covet his/her ninjas significant other
4. A Juggalo keeps his/her Drama in hand, but out of sight
5. A Juggalo avoids Cliques and keeps his/her Family whole
6. To a Juggalo Everyone is Equal
7. A Juggalo does not initiate Religious Battles fore that leads to Hating
8. A Juggalo should always try to have fun.
9. When a Juggalo has Beef with another ninja he/she keeps it between them and doesn't
involve the rest of his/her Family
10. A Juggalo doesn't have to Lie to be Down
11. Above all a Ninja is proud to be a Juggalo”
FOJ Coat of Arms
For more in-depth information on the Juggalo faith and fellowship can be found on the
www.juggalofaith.com or the www.fellowshipofjuggalos.com websites.
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Many states are beginning to classify the Juggalos as a security threat group, and it is wise to
consider them as we would any other gang member when making contact. Because of the
unpredictable behavior of the Juggalos, and the unknown mental state when making contact
officers should use their best discretion. In a recent contact with a Colorado based Juggalo; my
contact informed me that the Juggalos still gang-bang, and are no different than the Crips or the
Bloods. Juggalos protect members of their “family”, and act similarly to most other street
gangs with regards to snitches, rivals, and etc.
Juggalo Terminology
This information was available on a Juggalo made website called the Other Side of Jay (ND).
This is a list of the more commonly used Juggalo terms and phrases. I have tried my best to
add a brief description of each term. If interested; there are several more terms available on the
website.
Juggalo/Juggalette-member(s) of the Juggalo family.
Faygo-a beverage consumed by the Juggalos. Founded by ICP.’s Psychopathic Records.
Family-Juggalos refer to their gang and members as a family, not a gang.
Dark Carnival-Considered to be the Juggalo’s home, but is more of a myth.
Ninja/Ninjette-Stealthy Juggalo fighters.
Down with the Clown-Lifetime supporter of Juggalo, and a believer of the Dark Carnival
Clown Love- Showing respect to a Juggalo member.
Killa-Juggalo friend/acquaintance.
Shangri-La- Juggalo heaven or paradise.
Woop, Woop- Juggalo greeting similar to “what’s up?
The Ringmaster-Leader of the Juggalo’s Carnival
MCL-Much Clown Love
Hatchetman-Main Juggalo symbol, also the symbol of Psychopathic Records.
Chicken-Redneck.
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ABK-Any Body Killa
Bowling Ball-Human head, but used as a bowling ball.
Carnie-Member of the Dark Carnival
Dark Lotus-6 founding members of Psychopathic Records
Foo Dang-When used in reference to a male it means he is weak or cowardly. When used in
reference to a female it means she is strong or assertive.
Inner City Possee- ICP’s first/original gang set from Detroit.
JCW-Juggalo Championshit Wrestling. Psychopathic Record’s pro wrestling group. Has made
appearances in WCW and WWF
Juggalo Rydas- Juggalos with the Hatchetman tattoo
Juggaloco-Insane Juggalo
Juggaloism-Followers of the Juggalo beliefs and principles.
Murder Go Round-Juggalo’s form of karma, or retribution. Similar to the “eye for an eye”
philosophy.
Necromancy-Refers to magic of the dead.
Runnin’ with a Hatchet-Juggalo saying that refers to living the Juggalo lifestyle. Another way
of phrasing “Living by the sword”.
Scoopa Villains-Another Juggalo set lead by Bruce and Utsler.
Southwest Strangla- Utsler’s rank, or title amongst the Juggalos.
The Juggla- Bruce’s rank, or title amongst the Juggalos.
Trees- another name for marijuana.
Voodoo- Another term for dark magic.
Wicked Clowns-refers to Bruce and Utsler.
Wig Split-means to cut someone’s head in half.
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Juggalo and ICP Related Symbols
Most of the Juggalo’s tattoos, symbols, and such come from the ICP albums cover art. The
most common identifying tattoo of a Juggalo is the Hatchetman, a simple image of a man
running with a hatchet in his hand.
A newer derivative of this symbol is the female or Juggalette version of the Hatchetman:
The following images are album covers, but are also popular tattoos, decals on vehicles,
clothing, graffiti, and so on. I’ve also provided the album name and production year. Images
were found on www.respecta.net website.
Carnival of Carnage-1992
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The Ringmaster-1994
Riddle Box-1995
The Great Milenko-1997
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The Amazing Jeckel Brothers-1999
Hell’s Pit-2004
Bang! Pow! Boom!-2009
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Juggalo Followers, Tattoos, etc.
I collected the following pictures to provide a general idea of the Juggalo fashion style, trends,
tattoos, graffiti, and what have you. There doesn’t appear to be any major consistency, except
the tattoos identifying that person as a Juggalo follower. Images can be easily found on
MySpace accounts, Flickr, or any Juggalo related web page.
I’ve also attached pictures of ICP’s founding members Bruce and Utsler.
Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler
AKA
Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope
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Juggalo flashing hand signs “WC” for Wicked Clown
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Coolio showing his Juggalo tattoo
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Resources
Juggalo Information
www.insaneclownposse.com
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Juggalo
http://tripatlas.com/Juggalo
http://juggalos.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Juggalo_terms
Juggalos in the News
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090527/NEWS/905270324
http://juggaloholocaust.wordpress.com/
Pictures
www.respecta.net
www.flickr.com
www.insaneclownposse.com
Juggalo Faith
http://www.myspace.com/rev_last_rite/photos#
www.juggalofaith.com
www.fellowshipofjuggalos.com
Juggalo Terminology
http://theothersideofjay.tripod.com/id6.html