Timothy Joseph McGhee

Even the Entrance to the California Adventure theme park at Disneyland was modeled after the quaint Atwater Village of the 1940s.

But a Mexican street gang known as Toonerville, also referred to as Toonerville Rifa 13, AKA: TVR, established roots in the area as early as 1942.

As gang activity flourished in Los Angeles in the late-1970s and 1980s, clashes between Toonerville and various rivals, most frequently Thee Rascals 13, AKA: TRS, brought drastic change to the neighborhood.

The once dominant Toonerville gang's territory shrank by more than 50% as Thee Rascals established themselves in the area of Atwater Village south of Los Feliz Boulevard.

The Rascals 13 is a predominantly Hispanic street gang that established themselves in the late-1970s which; a group of Atwater youths originally formed to protect themselves from the older, well-established gangs, primarily Toonerville Rifa (TVR), The Avenues (AVES), and Frogtown Rifa (FTR).

Though smaller in number, Thee Rascals are just as equally vicious as their older arch-nemesis.

The crime rate increased in the area, the economy wavered, and ethnic diversity grew.

A recent study found that 51.3% of the community of 15,455 are Hispanic, predominantly Mexican and Filipino.

Nearly half of residents are immigrants from foreign countries and over half of the 5,000 households earn less than $40,000 annually.

There is, however, a modern movement to revitalize the area into its once middle class status.

The organization claims the area north of Los Feliz Boulevard between San Fernando Road and the Los Angeles River as its territory and has expanded into at least three other suburbs of Los Angeles.

Timothy Joseph McGhee (born April 27, 1973) is a convicted serial killer and Toonerville Rifa 13 gang member from the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

McGhee was born on April 27, 1973, in Los Angeles, California.

name="Northeast gang leader sentenced to die"> Locals recall McGhee as a typical kid who often skated in the neighborhood.

As an adult, McGhee had three biological children and raised five of his girlfriend's children as well.

By many accounts, he was a good father.

The back of McGhee's typically shaven head bears a tattoo of an eagle eating a snake which appears on the flag of Mexico.

McGhee also has "Atwater Village" tattooed across his chest, his gang "Toonerville Rifa" on his back, and the initials of his gang "TVR" on his stomach.

He also had the initials NELA tattooed behind his left ear, which likely stands for Northeast Los Angeles.

McGhee stands 5’ 11" with a muscular build and frequently wears a goatee. He was given the street name Huero, slang for the Spanish word Guero, translated as a light-skinned Mexican. His relatively fair complexion also earned him the nickname Eskimo. As his notorious reputation grew, McGhee would aptly earn the nickname Monster, or "the Monster of Atwater." When the U.S. Department of Justice placed him on their most wanted list, they denoted his primary alias as Joe McGhee.

McGhee was raised in the neighborhood of Atwater Village, a lower middle class area of Los Angeles consisting of 1.78 square miles just north of downtown Los Angeles along Interstate 5 adjacent to Glendale, California.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, born the year after McGhee, grew up in the neighborhood.

Judge Lance Ito, who presided over the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and Michelle Phillips, a member of The Mamas & the Papas, both attended John Marshall High School there.

McGhee's earliest recorded act of violence was a 1989 assault with a firearm when, at the age of 16, he pointed a shotgun at a guard while detained at a juvenile custody facility.

At some point in the 1990s, McGhee became the gang's leader or "shot-caller," demanding absolute loyalty from nearly 200 members, training his legion in calisthenics, target practice, tactics to elude police, and procedures to eliminate rival gang members.

Toonerville Rifa 13 members were typically posted, armed with weapons, on three main roads that lead into their turf with cell phones or walkie-talkies for communication.

The Toonerville gang's main source of income was the drug trade, in which members and associates would deal drugs, consisting primarily of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana, and PCP, were dealt out of numerous "trap-houses" operating within the gang's zone of control.

The gang also possessed and sold an arsenal of weapons ranging from handguns to AK-47s.

After his arrest for assaulting a law enforcement officer, McGhee spent 1994 to 2000 either incarcerated or on parole.

During his stints as a parolee, he allegedly shot seven people, killing three, and attempted to murder two LAPD officers.

In 1994, a 21-year-old McGhee was convicted of assaulting a law enforcement officer in San Bernardino County and was sentenced to four years in prison.

He is alleged to be responsible for at least 12 homicides between 1997 and 2001, three of which led to convictions.

McGhee is also suspected of at least ten attempted murders, four of which led to convictions.

He was released in 1997 after serving three years.

In 1997, two members of The Rascals, Juan Cardiel and Pedro Sanchez, were allegedly chased through the streets of Atwater Village by McGhee.

Cardiel was shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down.

He was arrested in 2003 on homicide charges and sentenced to death in 2009.

In a separate trial in 2007, McGhee was sentenced to 75 years to life for leading a 2005 prison riot.

Due to a new change in California's death sentence laws, McGhee has been transferred from San Quentin's death row to general population in Salinas Valley State Prison.

In 2018, the Los Angeles Times named McGhee one of the top 20 most notorious killers in the history of California, a list that included the likes of Charles Manson, the Golden State Killer, and the Night Stalker.