Life sentence The brief and tragic career of Baltimore's deadliest gang leader

Baltimore's Sandtown neighborhood suffered many of the same social problems of other distressed areas in the U.S. The situation was made much worse, however, by the gang Trained To Go (TTG) and its young leader, Montana Barronette, as they committed senseless murders and other violence and dealt drugs. Bowden (The Steal, 2022) turns his masterful storytelling talent to chronicling the gang's reign of terror and law enforcement's Herculean efforts to end it. This account stresses that most of the people in Sandtown and similar places escaped the "greased path" that leads to prison or an early, violent death. He weaves an intricate narrative of criminal activities, profiles of colorful gang members, and precise descriptions of Sandtown. Bowden combines transcripts of wiretaps, interviews, court reporting, and secondary sources about life in Baltimore and the Black experience in America to yield a powerful chronicle of gang life. Life Sentence is not pessimistic, despite the hopelessness at the heart of its story. Instead, it offers many avenues for change and improvement if only the proper political will can be summoned and applied.

Montana "Tana" Barronette, the focus of this scorching true-crime narrative from bestseller Bowden (Black Hawk Down), was born in 1995 and grew up in Sandtown, one of Baltimore's worst neighborhoods. His community was plagued by violence and addiction, and at an early age Tana began a life of crime. He was arrested when he was nine for auto theft and progressed from running errands for street dealers to selling drugs himself. Before long, his record included multiple homicides, including, in 2013, that of a stranger, Alfonzo Williams, who had simply asked to speak to Williams's sister. Tana's fearsome reputation kept witnesses to his killings silent, but eventually he became the target of a federal task force and in 2019 was sentenced to life in prison for racketeering and drug conspiracy charges, including murders and witness intimidation. Bowden pulls no punches in his indictment of the ways in which the richest country in the world has allowed Black children for decades to be born into blighted urban neighborhoods, and saddled them with burdens that they must struggle to surmount to lead meaningful lives. This account of "young men growing up in a place where murderous violence has become a way of life" will haunt readers long after they finish it. Admirers of The Wire will be riveted. (Apr.)

A gripping and revealing glimpse into Baltimore gang life and the city's efforts to combat street violence. With exclusive access to police interview footage, FBI files, and court documents, Bowden focuses his investigative lens on the case of Trained To Go, a Baltimore gang operating in the destitute Sandtown neighborhood, led by Montana "Tana" Barronette, who--at the age of 21--received two life sentences for his involvement in at least 20 killings. The author takes a deep dive into Tana's life story in an attempt to determine the circumstances that led such a "goofy, genial, smart, poised, ambitious" young man down the "greased path" of violent crime. Working with the U.S. attorney office's materials and his own extensive interviews with detectives, community members, witnesses, informants, and researchers, Bowden develops a fascinating crime narrative featuring a cast of complex, charismatic characters. As products of their environment, the young members of TTG exhibit a reckless, devastating nihilism, resigned to violent deaths and openly flaunting the spoils of their criminal enterprise as long as they are able. "While morally null, Tana was not mentally ill," writes the author. "He and the rest of his crew were normal teenagers in an aberrant environment, an extreme product of a violent, oppositional subculture, not just trained to go but bred to go, or kill." Making a case for the near inevitability of Tana's fate without denying or minimizing his brutal actions, Bowden presents a damning indictment of the city's treatment of its most precarious constituents. "Gang violence and white indifference are two sides of the same coin," he writes, arguing for massive investment in "better schools, better local policing, more counseling and community involvement, stronger gun laws, more employment opportunities…[and] specialized, strategic law enforcement" as critical steps toward ending this self-perpetuating pattern of poverty and violence. A powerful, nuanced depiction of gang violence in America that makes a strong case for meaningful reform beyond policing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.