Founding location Atwater Village Membership (est.) 100-200 | Ethnicity Mexican Allies Sureños, Mexican Mafia | |
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Territory Atwater Village, Glendale, Tujunga Criminal activities Murder, Assault, Drug trafficking, Racketeering, Witness intimidation, Robbery, Extortion and Theft | ||
Toonerville Rifa 13, also known as The Ville, is a Mexican street gang located in Los Angeles county.
History
Toonerville Rifa 13 was formed in the 1930s in North East Los Angeles and South Glendale. Prior to taking the name of Toonerville in the early 1940s, the gang was known as the "Latin Souls." The change to "Toonerville" came in the 1940s and named after the Pacific Electric Railway trolley that used to run through Atwater Village and South Glendale. The Pacific Electric Trolley was referred to by locals as the "Toonerville Trolley," after the cartoon trolley featured in the Toonerville Folks comic strip.
Many of the original gang members were friends and relatives from the city of Guadalajara, Mexico who migrated to the Atwater Village and Glendale areas. Even today some members can track the lineage back through to Guadalajara, Mexico. Toonerville or TVR 13 has a history of brutal violence and murder against enemy street gangs and the police. One of the members, Timothy Joseph McGhee, was sentenced to death in 2009 for his role in three separate homicides. Additionally, he is suspected of taking part in as many as twelve murders in the Los Angeles area. TVR 13 claims Atwater Village, Glendale, Tujunga and as its turf.