The Musings and Memoirs of a Gila Monster: A Growing Storm by Kevin Wikse.

Kevin Wikse A Growing Storm

I won my black belt in Judo at 14 during a Batsugun. 

A Judo Batsugun is when a tournament's competitors line up, from the lowest-ranked white belt to the top-ranked black belt. The lowest-ranked white belt steps out on the mat and challenges the second-lowest-ranked white belt. The contest winner challenges the next Judoka, and so on until the highest-ranking black belt is called out. I was third in line from the beginning. That night, I took my black belt off the highest-ranking black belt under 18 in Southern California. 

Later, I discovered it's partly what got me noticed by some interesting people, and my name was "highlighted."

I was 17 in the mid-1990s when an organization recruited me to hinder the advance of MS-13, looking to gain footholds in rural areas of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, & Montana. They would train males 15 to 16 years old and "seed" them in small Podunk towns in the Pacific Northwest.

These seedlings recruited members, primarily others his age, and indoctrinated them into MS-13's rules and culture in time for the arrival of a captain who would assume control. My similarity of age gave me cover and access to these young infiltrators. I am not ashamed to admit the seedlings I got close to met oblivion, "ripped out by the roots and tossed on the heap." 

-Gila Monster

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