Steve Gerido, an investigator with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who ran a federal wiretap investigation of the group, said the inquiry leading to the February indictment "showed how the roles of women in gangs has evolved over time."
"It was almost an equal role to the men," he said. "Hebron and other women in this gang were often asked to perform violent acts. Some of them carried the weight of the same amount of respect as the men."
The four other indicted women, though not accused of shootings, each contributed to the gang's fearsome reputation, investigators say.
Diane Kline, a Hagerstown woman, allegedly collected money and relayed messages for her boyfriend, reputed gang leader Steve Willock, as he sat behind bars in Cumberland. Police say Shaneka Penix, a Baltimore woman still on the run, sold crack cocaine and devised a plan to smuggle drugs into prison.
Tracey Whiting is accused of conspiring with other gang members to disrupt a Baltimore murder trial by intimidating a witness and talking to a juror. Court papers say Sherry Brockington requested a firearm and ordered violence against those who crossed her.
More so than any of the indicted women, Hebron has a hard edge that made her well-suited for gang life, authorities say.
Hebron, like the gang leader she regularly corresponded with in jailhouse letters, rose up in a Baltimore gang even though she was an outsider, authorities say. Hebron spent her childhood in Annapolis, and Willock grew up in the Bronx before moving to Hagerstown as a teenager.
Records show that Michelle Lenee Hebron was born in Baltimore, but, as a child, went to live with her grandmother in an Annapolis public housing project.
Hebron's mother died in Miami in May 2004, and her father lives in Virginia, she wrote in letters to judges. Her brother, in his 20s, and a teenage sister live in the Annapolis area, and a much younger sister is in foster care in Florida, according to the letters.
Relatives could not be reached for comment, but Hebron described a turbulent youth in letters from prison seeking mercy from the judicial system.
"I've been in group homes, institutions and foster homes majority of my youth," she wrote. She admits in another letter that she has problems with "impulse and anger management."
She did not finish high school and was rarely employed. Hebron is candid in the letters about her lifestyle. She wrote of being "robbed and pistol-whipped bloody," of selling drugs, of carrying a handgun she bought on the streets for protection.
