A gang, known as the Pirus, is acknowledged to be the founders of the Bloods. Pirus used to be a set within the Crips gang, and after much warfare, decided to break away and start the Bloods. Pirus has been around since the 1970s.
The Pirus, along with other gangs, joined together to fight against the threat that was continuing to grow from the Crips. Within the next ten years of establishing the Bloods, they found themselves to be greatly outnumbered by the Crips. The fight of territory grew between 1982 and 1984 as drugs became the scene for these gangs. It was in the late 1980s that the Bloods became a well known household name.
The Bloods are determined to show no respect towards their rival gang, the Crips. They even go so far as to change letters in words so that the letter C is not used. They will add a K with the letter C to make CK, which means Crip Killer. They may also use the letter B instead of C or just cross out the C entirely to show their disdain.
The Bloods chose the color red as a direct opposite of the Crips color blue, to identify who they are. While committing a crime some members may chose to not wear the identifying color. On the west coast the color is mostly shown by wearing a bandanna and on the east coast members may show their color by wearing a beaded necklace.
The gang as a whole, all sets together, do not have one leader in particular. Each set seems to have their own leader who is in charge of that particular set. Although the Bloods will sometimes form alliance with other gang members to commit crimes, even their biggest rivals the Crips, they usually do not last very long at all.
The Bloods are known to participate in many types of crimes, but they are greatly known for their presence in dealing drugs. These gangs are formed in prison also as a means of protection. However, these gangs are not truly Bloods, they are only emulating that of the original gang.
The movie Colors was made in an attempt to tell of the gang lifestyle and it is said that bandannas were given away to those who saw the movie. From this stemmed teenagers forming their own version of the Bloods. Some fizzled out and others became involved in the violence and drug dealing, eventually being accepted by the original Bloods.