John Turscak biography: 13 things about former Mexican Mafia member who stabbed Derek Chauvin 22x

John Turscak is an American prisoner of Czech descent. His parents are from Czechoslovakia, which was dissolved on December 31, 1992, leading to the birth of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic on January 1, 1993.

Although Turscak is not Mexican, he became a member of the Mexican Mafia, a Mexican American criminal organization founded by Luis “Huero Buff” Flores in 1957. Turscak is 12 years younger than Mexican Mafia leader Mariano “Chuy” Martinez.

When Turscak was 26, he became a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant. His work resulted in the indictment of more than 40 alleged Mexican Mafia members and associates.

Turscak grew up in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California, United States. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 1984, he joined the Rockwood gang in Echo Park, Los Angeles and was involved in shootings.
2. In 1987, he was arrested for robbery, which was part of a murder plot foiled by police. He was incarcerated in Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California for robbery and false imprisonment where he was involved in several stabbings mostly at the direction of California’s first prison gang La Erne.
3. In 1990, he fatally stabbed his fellow inmate Gabriel “Pato” Rodriguez in Folsom State Prison.
4. In 1996, while he was out on parole, he violated his terms of release by hanging out with other gang members and testing positive for cocaine.
5. In April 1997, he became an FBI informant with $2,000 monthly salary.
6. In March 1998, he received a letter from a La Erne member at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California stating that Martinez “must go”. He handed the letter to the FBI. Shortly after, he was caught dealing drugs, extorting money and authorizing assaults while he was on the government payroll.
7. On April 30, 1998, FBI agents arrested him and put him back in jail. He would be killed either in prison or when he got out, Martinez’s right-hand man Max “Mono” Torvisco said, according to information the FBI received on November 17, 1998. On Martinez’s order, Richard Serrano, Jose Gutierrez and Enrique Delgadillo were fatally shot in an auto shop in Montebello, California on November 19, 1998. On February 15, 2001, Martinez was found guilty of conspiring to murder him and eight others, racketeering, drug dealing and ordering the murders of Serrano, Gutierrez and Delgadillo.
8. On November 26, 2001, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for committing numerous crimes while acting as an undercover informant for the FBI in the Los Angeles area after he pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiring to kill a rival in the prison-based gang. He was incarcerated in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
9. In 2005, he requested a transfer from the federal penitentiary in Atlanta by claiming his life was in imminent danger from fellow inmates as a result of his past cooperation with the government in the Mexican Mafia investigation.
10. He is 5 years older than Derek Michael Chauvin, one of the police officers involved in the fatal arrest of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA on May 25, 2020.
11. On November 24, 2023, he stabbed Chauvin 22 times inside the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, USA. 
12. On November 26, 2023, he told FBI agents that he chose to attack Chauvin on Black Friday because it was symbolic with the Black Lives Matter movement.
13. He was 52 years old when he was charged on December 1, 2023 in U.S. District Court with attempted murder, assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury stemming. Before facing these charges, he was scheduled for release in 2026.