Gang Turns Hope to Fear, Lives to Ashes; Crime: The victims of 18th Street's violence are not always rivals, but children, families and workers. Series: 18th STREET. Southern California's Largest Gang Brings Suffering to Struggling Neighborhoods. Second of three parts: [Home Edition]

Demanding respect, they give none.

None for the school children they bully. Or the working-class families they chase from parks. Or the hopeful immigrant entrepreneurs they drive into insolvency. None for those who have lost loved ones to bullets.

In ways subtle and extreme, members of the 18th Street gang--the West's largest--have brought unprecedented misery to the blue-collar neighborhoods they claim to own.

"What you get from gangs like 18th Street, on a large scale basis, is fear . . . an army in the community," says Michael Genelin, head of the Los Angeles County district attorney's Hardcore gang unit.

As 18th Street's growth has climbed to as many as 20,000 members in Southern California, the casualties have mounted.The communities of 18th Street's rise have fallen victim to drug dealing, assaults, robberies and scores of homicides, police say.

The killings dot 18th Street turf like paint drops splattered across a canvas. Often the victims are rival gang members. Sometimes they are not.

Istvan Udvarhelyi was not.

He was shot seven times--from his head to his torso--while walking to his Hollywood home from a bus stop. Authorities say the alleged killers, two 18th Street juveniles now awaiting trial, were cruising, looking for enemies. Instead, they gunned down Istvan, who had celebrated his 40th birthday days earlier. He died steps from his front door.

"He was totally innocent," says Det. Mike McDonagh of the Los Angeles Police Department. "Completely, 100% innocent."

Istvan had helped his parents realize their dream, leading them from Communist Hungary to Los Angeles. For 11 years, he worked as a banquet waiter at the Biltmore Hotel. He was the breadwinner of a family that today is struggling to make ends meet.

"He was a good son," says his 78-year-old mother, Elizabeth Udvarhelyi. "A very, very good man."

Behind the security gates of the modest home Istvan shared with his parents, reminders of him are everywhere: the television he bought, his unfinished construction work on the house, his detailed sketch of the Statue of Liberty.

And his ashes.

"Here is my son," whispers the frail mother as she cradles a white plastic bag. Each night, she places it beside her pillow.

The parents of Amy Wong know this pain too.

The 25-year-old woman...