Larry Hoover's former Gangster Disciples No. 2 man says he's drowning in debt from court-ordered fine
Gregory Shell was once the right-hand man to Gangster Disciples boss Larry Hoover in a $100 million-a-year drug empire, according to federal authorities.
Now, he says he’s flat broke. And he's asking a judge to wipe out most of what’s left of his court fine.
“It’s unfair,” Shell said in an interview. “The interest is more than my original fine, which was $15,000.”
Shell and Hoover both were sentenced in the 1990s to life in prison for running a drug conspiracy. They were shipped to the nation’s toughest prison, the Colorado “supermax” where the worst of the worst criminals, including former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, are held.
Last year, they were sprung from the federal prison after winning presidential commutations on their federal convictions. But their legal troubles aren’t over.
Hoover, 75, is still serving a state life sentence for murder and is asking Gov JB Pritzker for executive clemency. after President Donald Trump commuted his federal sentence.
Shell, 68, is back at home on the South Side — and back in court, trying to get out of most of the remaining debt from his federal case.
Former President Joe Biden, in one of his last moves in office, pardoned Shell in January 2025 and shaved $10,000 off his $15,000 fine.
Prosecutors say Shell still owes $1,461 in principal — plus a whopping $20,630 in interest on that — and argue that he shouldn’t be let off the hook.
Shell might claim to be broke now, but that could change, prosecutors said in a court filing late last month. They note they’ve got up to 20 years to collect on his debt.
Shell, acting as his own lawyer, has filed paperwork showing he doesn’t have a paying job and lives on food stamps and modest monthly Social Security supplemental income checks.
He says that, when he was sentenced, the judge didn’t check a box on a form indicating he needed to pay interest on his fine.
Prosecutors said the judge didn’t waive interest at Shell’s sentencing in 1998, so he’s required to pay it.
The decades-old sentencing form isn’t available for the public to see in court records.
At his sentencing, Hoover wasn’t fined. Not a dime.
But at least six of Shell’s co-defendants — also former high-ranking members of his Chicago street gang — were hit with a combined $86,000 in fines.
Five have paid their fines and one remains in prison on a life sentence.
One of them, Johnny “Crusher” Jackson, paid his $1,000 fine after he was released early from prison in 2020 under the First Step Act.
He also was ordered to pay $100 a month toward a separate $1 million forfeiture judgment he must split with another convicted Gangster Disciples leader.
The government seized $5,300 from Jackson at the time of his conviction and about $33,000 from his prison account to go toward that forfeiture judgment, court records show.
“With respect to Mr. Shell's situation, I think it is unfortunate that his original attorney apparently did not ask for a waiver of interest at the time of sentencing,” said Andréa Gambino, who has previously represented Shell and Jackson. "Now, the government's insistence on payment of interest that is 20 times what he owes on the original fine is counterproductive and puts a crippling roadblock in Mr. Shell's path to reintegration and success.
“This is especially unjust in light of the exorbitant price Mr. Shell has paid in decades of his life spent imprisoned.”
Shell said Hoover wasn’t given a fine because the former Gangster Disciples boss was in state prison for more than 20 years for murder before he was charged with the federal drug case in 1995.
“Me being on the streets, I guess [the judge] felt he had to give me some kind of fine,” Shell said.
According to prosecutors, Shell regularly met with Hoover at Vienna state prison, where Hoover gave him marching orders for running the gang on the streets. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration hid microphones in visitor badges to capture Shell and others in the gang talking with Hoover in prison.
Asked whether Hoover’s supporters have offered to get him a job now that he’s free, Shell said, “I think about it a whole lot. Nobody really reached out to me. I am taking it one day at a time, trying to adjust to the streets after 30 years.”
As for Hoover’s request for clemency from the governor, Shell said, “I hope [Pritzker] follows Trump’s lead. He deserves to be home with his family like everyone else. I’m home. I’m not getting in trouble. I am doing the right thing. He will, too.”