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Top 15 Surprising Facts about Joe ‘Pegleg’ Morgan

Joseph Morgan was born on April 10, 1929, and died on November 8, 1993. He was the first non-Hispanic member of the Mexican Mafia. The Mexican Mafia, also known as La eMe, is a Mexican American criminal organization in the United States. Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia did not originate in Mexico and is entirely a U.S. criminal prison organization. Law enforcement officials report that the Mexican Mafia is the deadliest and most powerful gang within the California prison system.

Joseph Morgan was the youngest of four siblings and was born in San Pedro, California to Croatian immigrants Clara and Grgo Me膽ugorac, a truck driver who was an ethnic Croat from Ljubuski. Shortly after his birth, his father naturalized as a U.S. citizen, anglicizing the family name to Morgan due to anti-immigrant and anti-Slavic sentiment at the time. Here are the top 15 surprising facts about Joe ‘Pegleg’ Morgan.

1. Joe Morgan is most notable for being the Godfather of the Mexican Mafia

Despite his Croatian roots, Morgan eventually became a highly influential member of the prison gang and played a very instrumental part in the organizing and legitimizing of the Mexican Mafia. Morgan was raised by his Catholic Croatian mother and grew up in a neighbourhood in Los Angeles. 

In the late 1930s, Morgan joined what was believed to be the first Maravilla street gang. The Mexican Mafia is entirely a U.S. criminal prison organisation. The U.S. Government considers the Mexican Mafia to be among the most powerful, dangerous and feared criminal organizations in the world, and even considers La Eme to be more dangerous and at least as powerful as any Mexican drug cartel.

2. Morgan received the nickname “Pegleg” from authorities because of his prosthetic leg

A French-captioned lithograph of a caricature of four soldiers, all with artificial limbs and various orthopedic devices –

In 1956, Joe Morgan robbed a West Covina bank using a machine gun. He made off with $17,000, but was ultimately caught and sent back to prison.

According to a Mexican-Mafia-member-turned-FBI-snitch, Rene 鈥淏oxer鈥� Enriquez, Morgan was shot in the leg during the robbery, which caused him to lose his leg. Prison officials began referring to Morgan as 鈥淧egleg,鈥� though nobody called him this to his face.

3. Morgan grew up in a primarily Mexican and Croatian neighbourhood in San Pedro

In 1929, the same year Morgan was born, the U.S. passed immigration laws limiting immigration from the Balkans. It鈥檚 believed that more than half of the Croatian population in the U.S. at the time was deported from the nation.

Morgan was raised by his mother in a Mexican neighbourhood in Boyle Heights. In the late 1930s, he joined the Ford MaraVilla street gang, one of the oldest documented gangs in Los Angeles.

4. Morgan led eleven inmates in a jailbreak from Los Angeles County Jail 

Los Angeles County Sheriff prisoner bus by Eric Polk –

In 1961, Morgan was transferred from Folsom State Prison to the Los Angeles County Jail so he could testify on behalf of another prisoner. However, this was just a guise so that he could escape. 

He ended up leading eleven other inmates through a pipe shaft, reportedly using hacksaw blades he hid in his prosthesis. The escape was the largest break in Los Angeles County Jail history and was featured on the front page of The L.A. Times. Morgan was caught a week later.

5. Morgan was first arrested when he was only seventeen years old

In 1946, Morgan beat to death the husband of his 32-year-old girlfriend and buried the body in a shallow grave. While awaiting trial, he escaped using the identification papers of a fellow inmate awaiting transfer to a forestry camp. 

Joe was recaptured and sentenced to nine years at San Quentin State Prison. He was only seventeen years old at the time.

6. Morgan used his connections to establish the Mexican Mafia’s narcotics distribution in California

Mexican Mafia tattoo by United States Department of Justice –

Morgan was well respected within the ranks of the Mexican Mafia and became a high-ranking member. 

His connections with cocaine and heroin suppliers in Mexico helped pave the foundation for the Mexican Mafia’s narcotics distribution throughout California. 

7. Morgan persuaded the Aryan Brotherhood to forge a loose alliance with the Mexican Mafia 

The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000鈥�20,000 members both inside and outside prisons.

 Morgan was able to persuade the Aryan Brotherhood to forge a loose alliance with La Eme, due to having the Black Guerrilla Family as a mutual rival. This was after Morgan tried and successfully made loose alliances with black gangs such as the BGF, which eventually broke down because the Mexican leaders at the time had issues with multiple black gangs.

8. Morgan made diplomatic relations with the Los Angeles crime family

Los Angeles crime family in the late 1960s –

The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family, is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the early 20th century, it has spread throughout Southern California.

Morgan made diplomatic relations with the Los Angeles crime family through Michael Rizzitello, whom he and Rodolfo Cadena met during the nine-year sentence of the reputed mobster in Chino for a string of armed robberies during the 1970s.

9. Morgan used his gang ties to intimidate or even murder state agents 

It is believed that Morgan offered Croatian political refugees, such as Andrija Artukovi膰, protection from Yugoslav agents in the nation. Los Angeles was one of the few cities Croatians could openly oppose the communist government without any of the local leadership being murdered like in Chicago and New York City.

It’s believed Morgan used his gang ties to intimidate or even murder state agents sent to kill their political rivals. It’s even been suggested that Morgan had family ties to Artukovi膰, as both he and Morgan’s fathers came from the village of Klobuk in Ljubu拧ki, Bosnia.

10. After leaving prison, Morgan scaled the Mexican Mafia to the streets of L.A

Montreal Mafia by Royal Canadian Mounted Police –

When Morgan got out of prison in the late 60s, and early 70s, he did so with the objective of taking the gang to new heights. He didn鈥檛 only want to control prison, he wanted to control all of Los Angeles, starting with East L.A. 

Morgan began taxing Chicano street gangs. If they wanted to sell dope, they had to buy it from La Eme; if they wanted to engage in other profitable crimes, they鈥檇 have to kick a portion of the profits to the Mafia. Failure to do so and they鈥檇 face the gang鈥檚 wrath when they went to prison, where they鈥檇 surely end up eventually.

11. Morgan committed the first prison gang street execution in Los Angeles in 1971

There were all these deaths that were occurring on the streets in the 70s and that was The Mexican Mafia taking over the drug industry in East L.A. and the surrounding areas. Morgan used the underworld network he built to further the Mafia鈥檚 agenda.

In 1971, Morgan committed the first prison-gang street execution in Los Angeles when Eme member Alphonso 鈥淧achie鈥� Alvarez began collecting taxes from street gangs without kicking up a share of the profits to Mafia members behind bars. Morgan shot him twice in the head, his body was later found in a secluded area in Monterey Park.

12. Morgan received a life sentence in 1977

In 1977, Morgan was convicted or trying to arrange the murder of a Seal Beach drug dealer for failing to pay the Mafia money. Unaware that Eme member Ramon 鈥淢undo鈥� Mendoza had turned on him, he asked Mendoza to commit the murder, supplying him with a picture of the intended target, a house key, and a 45 calibre pistol inside a brown paper bag. Mendoza testified against Morgan and he received a life sentence.

13. Morgan offered Croatian political refugees

Croatian Minister Andrija Artukovi膰 –

These political refugees included Andrija Artukovi膰, protection from Yugoslav agents in the nation. Los Angeles was one of the few cities Croatians could openly oppose the communist government without any of the local leadership being murdered like in Chicago and New York City.

It’s believed Morgan used his gang ties to intimidate or even murder state agents sent to kill their political rivals. It’s even been suggested that Morgan had family ties to Artukovi膰, as both he and Morgan’s fathers came from the village of Klobuk in Ljubu拧ki, Bosnia.

14. Morgan was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer

In 1993, Morgan became ill, and on October 4, he was transferred from Pelican Bay to the hospital ward in Corcoran State Prison, where, on October 27, he was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. 

Conspiracy theorists argue that Morgan was poisoned by prison authorities because he鈥檇 become too powerful. His wife requested that he be released on compassionate release, but he died on November 9, before the process began. 

15. Morgan鈥檚 wife filed a lawsuit after his death against the filmmakers of American Me

In 1992, the film American Me was released, which was based on the history of the Mexican Mafia. A principal supporting character is “J.D.”, a non-Mexican member who has an artificial leg. Edward James Olmos, the movie’s writer/director/star attempted to visit Morgan in hopes that he would gain his love and approval for the movie. 

Morgan refused to see him and filed a lawsuit against Olmos and Universal Studios alleging inaccuracies in the film. At the time of Morgan’s death, his wife filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Olmos and the filmmakers, claiming the film did not request her permission for basing one of the characters on Morgan.