19 Facts About Jeff Fort

Jeff Fort moved with his family to the Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago's South Side in 1955.

Jeff Fort dropped out of Hyde Park High School after the ninth grade.

Jeff Fort spent time at Cook County temporary juvenile detention center and at the Illinois State Training School for Boys in St Charles, where he met Eugene "Bull" Hairston.

Jeff Fort organized the coalition under a governing body called the "Main 21", composed of 21 gang leaders or "generals".

In 1967, under Rev Fry's guidance, Jeff Fort obtained a charter from the State of Illinois to form a political organization, Grassroots Independent Voters of Illinois.

Jeff Fort's organization applied for and received a US$1 million federal grant from the now-defunct Office of Economic Opportunity to fund a program to teach job skills to gang members.

Unlike many gangs, the Blackstone Rangers were not considered outsiders but had been largely accepted by Chicago society, with Jeff Fort even receiving an invitation from President Richard Nixon, following the 1968 election, to attend the 1969 inaugural ball.

Jeff Fort declined this invitation, sending his "top man" Mickey Cogwell and one of his "generals" in his stead.

Jeff Fort introduced himself at the committee hearings and walked out; for this, he was convicted of contempt of Congress.

Jeff Fort served two years at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth and was paroled in 1976.

In 1983, Jeff Fort was convicted of drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Jeff Fort was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution at Bastrop, Texas.

Jeff Fort continued to lead El Rukn through daily telephone calls from prison.

Jeff Fort ordered members of El Rukn to meet with Libyan officials.

In 1987, Jeff Fort was tried and convicted for conspiring with Libya to perform acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of a foreign government.

Jeff Fort was sentenced to 80 years' imprisonment, consecutive to his drug trafficking sentence, and transferred to USP Marion.

In 1988, Jeff Fort was convicted of ordering the 1981 murder of a rival gang leader.

Jeff Fort was sentenced to 75 years in prison, to be served consecutively with his conspiracy sentence.

Jeff Fort was transferred to the newly opened ADX Florence supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, in 2006 and remains there as of 2025, being under a no-human-contact order since his arrival.