What are murderous Chicago gang boss Larry Hoover's chances of parole?

NBC5 Investigates what will happen next to Chicago street gang kingpin and killer Larry Hoover, 24 hours after his life sentences were erased by President Trump.

A day after Chicago street gang big shot Larry “The King” Hoover was let off the federal hook by President Trump, Hoover is being processed out of the federal “Supermax” prison in Colorado.

After his release, he will then be signed into an Illinois maximum security prison, where he is expected to ask for parole from a 200-year state sentence on a murder conviction dating back to the 1970s.

But will one of the state’s most hardened criminals truly be paroled out?

At age 74, gangland leader Larry Hoover has spent most of his life behind bars. As of Thursday, if history holds true, prison is where Hoover will spend the remainder of his life.

Hoover “cannot leave his past." That is what the Illinois Prisoner Review Board said just three years ago when he asked for parole, and most of the same people that said no to Hoover then will make the decision now.

Hoover had already been arrested more than a dozen times when he kidnapped and killed a drug dealer in an Englewood alley in 1973.

William “Pooky” Young shot between the eyes, dead at age 25 for stealing drugs from Hoover’s Gangster Disciple’s street gang. Hoover sentenced to 200 years in state prison.

Hoover would later be convicted of numerous federal crimes as the leader of a murderous drug gang spanning three dozen states and commanding a criminal army of 30,000 soldiers, according to federal documents.

With a stroke of a pen by President Donald Trump Wednesday, Hoover’s six federal life sentences were commuted.

In an interview late Thursday with NBC Chicago, Hoover’s namesake son, Larry, Jr. said he was surprised and happy that his father had been cut loose by the president.

“It was great news. I couldn’t explain the feeling. It didn’t feel real. I’d be waiting on it for so long,” said Larry Hoover, Jr. “I think he’s been a political prisoner because of the power that he possesses."

But when Hoover leaves the supermax prison in Colorado where he has been in solitary confinement, it will be in the custody of Illinois officers-who will return him to a top security state prison.

In Illinois however, Hoover is eligible for parole…and return to the streets… a benefit that was denied him numerous times, most recently in late 2022.

The parole board three years ago noted Hoover’s role in a deadly riot at Pontiac state prison in 1978. The parole board also pointed to Hoover’s use of a decoding dictionary in his cell in 2017, seeming to support the belief that he has continued to run gang rackets despite his promise that he’s been reformed. 

According to the 2022 parole denial, “Hoover’s past continues to impact his present and will forever affect his future…parole release at this time would not be in the interest of public safety.”

What all this means tonight is that Trump’s commutation won’t matter, and Hoover won’t be released…according to a former longtime Illinois parole board member and chairman. 

“I think it’s all just drama” said attorney Jorge Montes, who was a member of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board for 16 years including six years as chairman.  “The president (Trump)  well knows that Mr. Hoover isn’t going’ anywhere. And that he’s not going to be released; he’s not going to be given freedom."

Hoover has “to come back and fulfill his Illinois sentence – I think he (President Trump) is trying to impress his friends, Kanye West, and other celebrities who have been pushing for this pardon; but it’s a pyrrhic victory,” contends Montes. “At the end of the day, (Hoover) isn’t going anywhere. “

Just a couple years ago when Hoover last came up for parole, the state board denied release by a vote of 10 to 1. That single parole board member on Hoover’s side is no longer even on the board. But a majority of the others are, and they voted against Hoover’s release less than three years ago. This time they will be the only people standing between Larry Hoover and freedom.