Rap Sheet

Reign: 1980s

Business: Gang violence

Region: South Central L.A.

Claim to Fame: best selling memoir: 'Monster.'

Downfall: His ties to "the life."

Sentence: serving six year sentence

Status: incarcerated

Lesson: The pen is mightier than the gun.

Case File:

Few gangsters emblemize the tragedy of gang life - and the failed promise of so many who follow that path - more than "Monster" Kody Scott, a best-selling author and career criminal.

A legend in south central Los Angeles for his fearsome devotion to gang violence, Scott became a subject of mainstream fascination after the 1992 riots in L.A. cast a national spotlight on the conditions which led to that uprising.

The publication of his thoughtful and provocative gang memoir "Monster," written while in prison, was at once a frightening journey through his past and a tantalizing harbinger of his possible redemption.

For all his talent as a writer and the possibilities that it offered for a turn toward a more conventional career, Scott's enduring emotional ties to "the life" would be his downfall.