Monster Memoirist Wanted by LAPD

Back in 1993, while serving time on an armed robbery conviction, Kody Scott (left) published an acclaimed memoir of L.A. gang life (Monster), and, as LAT‘s Patrick McGreevy reports, he’d just turned in the manuscript of a new novel to Atlantic Monthly Press. But he’s also on the LAPD’s most wanted list after an alleged car robbery and failure to appear when subpoenaed as a material witness in a homicide case. Friends of Scott, who has also published as Sanyika Shakur, insist that he hasn’t been engaged in violent gang activity for years; some smell a set-up. “When I saw him he was trying to get a movie deal, which I think at the end of the day the police are trying to stop by putting him on this list,” says one friend. “They are trying to stop him from becoming a bigger celebrity.” Writer Wanda Coleman, who reviewed Monster for the Times, has a different explanation, suggesting that it’s common for criminals who achieve literary success to go back to their former habits after their moment in the spotlight.