Los Angeles ? Hundreds of people gathered Monday in South Los Angeles to pay respects to Stanley Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the Crips who was executed last week.

“Mostly everyone is out here because of his reputation,” said Robert Collins, 27, who said he was a former Crips gang member. “Everyone knew Tookie was no angel. Everyone’s just paying their respects to him.”

Williams, clad in a gray suit, lay in an open coffin at the House of Winston Mortuary as people quietly filed by with their heads bowed.

A line of 200 stretched out the door shortly after the six-hour viewing began in mid-afternoon. More than an hour later, the line had dissipated but people were still streaming through.

Williams, 51, spent his last years on California’s Death Row renouncing gang violence and writing several children’s books warning of the dangers of gangs.