Baltimore is one of the nation’s murder capitals. There’s a reason it’s known as Bodymore. In the swirl of paranoia and profit surrounding the heroin trade in the inner city guns are pulled quickly and indiscriminately with no regard for the loss of human lives or the consequences to the individual and the community at large. The drug game has long held roots in B-More, where the majority of the city’s population is black. The politicians are black, the citizens, the cops, the administrators, the addicts and the drug dealers. Two years ago it was reported that Charm City had 10,000 dealers serving 65,000 heroin and cocaine addicts. This in a city with a population of well under a million.

 

The critically acclaimed HBO series, The Wire depicts fictional druglords of the city’s past in their struggles against law enforcement. But the cities real life history is more BET’s American Gangster than make believe. As the emergence of Stop Snitching, the now-infamous underground DVD that discourages cooperation with police, that Carmelo Anthony had a cameo in, showed dudes from Bodymore go hard. The Wire portrays stretches of abandoned rowhouses, hard faced street characters and police helicopters trailing suspects with a spotlight, but to the natives of the city all that is nothing new. That shit is real life, day in and day out. Since way back in the day. When names like Little Melvin, Marty Gross, Anthony Jones, Itchy Man, Joe Dancer and Black Barney inspired fear, respect and admiration in the inner city. And it wasn’t that long ago that Peanut King was the man, plain and simple. No ands, ifs or buts about it. If they were talking about B-More’s premier druglord they were talking about the man know as Nutt.

 

In 1982, the news from the television reported that the FBI had a warrant for the arrest of Maurice “Peanut” King, one of the biggest kingpins of the heroin trade in Baltimore history. The case which took five weeks to try arose from the operation of a major drug distribution organization in Baltimore City, court records indicate. The defendants were convicted in 1983 in the United States District Court of Maryland fengaging in a conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin and cocaine. King and Thomas “Joe Dancer” Ricks, two of the leaders of the conspiracy were convicted of conducting a continual criminal enterprise, CCE 848, the kingpin charge. Along with Clarance “Magic” Meredith they were named as the heads of the organization; defendant James Carter was the financial advisor; defendants Marcell “Black Barney” Moffat and Kerney “Wilco” Lindsey were lieutenants of certain inner city street corners where drugs were sold; defendant Clifton Frisby was a sub-lieutenant and distributor; defendant Stanley Rodgers was a courier of drugs and money; and defendant Beatrice Roberts was the girlfriend of Ricks who allowed her apartment to be used for illegal purposes and who otherwise assisted in the operation, court records relate.

 

The evidence was more than adequate to prove all elements that were charged in the narcotics prosecution, court records say but all of the above is just what was reported in the official record. And you know that’s only one side of the story. We went to the street to get the other version of events and here it is the real story of the Peanut King Mob, one of the most notorious crews to ever do it in Baltimore. Allegedly led by one of the biggest names in the drug game- street legend Peanut King.

“He was making $25 million a year,” says a dude from Holbrook Street who was around during the Nutt’s reign. “Peanut King had Hoffman and Holbrook. That was the most lucrative area. He was putting seven to 10 percent pure on the street. He had a better cut on the heroin. They’d be coming from DC, Virginia- all over to get that bang for their buck.” Most dealers put out three percent pure in that era so the heroin that Nutt’s people allegedly put out was of a higher quality and with the better product Nutt quickly cornered the market. The Peanut King Mob sold a lot of heroin and the price of a bag was $60 and $70. The Federal government said they estimated his mob made $45 million a year through his drug business.

 

“Peanut King was bigger than the mayor because he took care of the ghetto,” An oldhead from the era remembers. “He did things in different ways. He was a businessman with morals. He knew if he took care of the people the people would take care of him. He had big Christmas dinners at Lafayette, pulled up a U-Haul van and gave a way presents for the kids, so how can you say something bad about a man like that. He was like the savior of the ghetto. He was one of the best conmen in the business. If he could fool society and get them on his side while pushing dope and employing ruthless killers his game was tight. He knew how to play every angle.”

 

He drove a Delorean and had a huge house in Silver Spring, Maryland. It’s said the house had no windows, just surveillance cameras on all angles of the house. King and Meredith Market and Deli on East North Avenue was one of three stores owned by Joe Dancer, Meredith and Nutt. Peanut was feared by just about everyone. He wore bedroom slippers that cost $100 to $150. He dressed like a Mafiosi, top notch suits, top dollar shoes. A classy dresser well known in all the big nightclubs for his extravagant ways. It’s said he used to step out of a big old limousine in front of the clubs wearing flawless diamond pinkie rings that Nutt said cost 40 grand.

 

“He had police, city cops on his payroll. Might of had a couple judges. He got out of a lot of shit. His style was like no other hustlers I have ever seen in Baltimore City’s underworld. Him and his crew shopped at Bernard Hill, the best clothing store in the city.” The oldhead says while the dude from Holbrook adds, “He was a flyman. He had the Delorean. The stainless steel joint. The man was sharp. He had a lot of charisma. Real laid back. Very humble for the type of business he was in. He had the latest of everything. All the women gravitated toward him. They said he was a vicious crimelord, but we didn’t look at it like that. He was trying to put people to work. He was trying to bring a better quality of heroin to the people in a way that showed respect to the addict. His business was about respect and that’s how you get money.” And Nutt put his money back into the community.

 

“He owned El Dorado, a strip club by the old civic center. He owned the Gatsby on Charles Street around the corner from O’Dells. They said he had bail bonds and Delis and Markets.” A young hustler from that time remembers. “I was off the East B-More side but Nutt had the whole town, the power that he had, nobody knew who he was but dudes would compare themselves to him like ‘I’m getting it like Nutt.’ He was a quite dude. You never knew he was around but his name was bigger than life. We always had a vision of him with money, guns, cars and women. When you meet anybody from any part of B-More they all know of Peanut King.”

 

And eventually the feds knew of him too. Evidence linking Nutt with illegal gambling, firearms and drug trafficking surfaced. Nutt was shooting craps with the best of them and breaking them all. The Feds said he did his best shooting at Atlantic City casinos. They said he used it to wash or clean up his drug money. To legitimize the drug money. When he cashed the chips back to the cashier he would receive the cash with the casinos bands. The FBI said he would get three million in chips at a time. He had credit and could get a million in chips with just signing his name. He used to sit at the crap table with just him and the dealers alone. They were roped off from the public. He was dressed in a tuxedo and that was his thing. But the extravagance attracted unwanted attention from law enforcement. And Nutt would rue his demise. But understand it was only after a very long and successful run.

 

“In 1976, he was coming up in the drug world. Taking over territories.” Says the oldhead and street legend has it that in the beginning Peanut was just a street corner hustler near Preston and Bond Streets in East Baltimore. “Peanut comes from a long family of hustlers. His daddy was a gunrunner. Peanut had contacts all over- Florida, New York, New Jersey, Philly.” The oldhead continues. “He went in Lafayette and recruited all the young kids and their families and had them selling drugs and hot merchandise. He had a warehouse in East B-More full of hot merchandise.” This was Nutt’s start, but he still had to put together his crew.

 

“His crew came from a place called Lee Street in B-More. They called it Death Valley because more bodies were found in that area then in all of B-More, the oldhead relates. “Joe Dancer was the enforcer for his mob. He was a treacherous dude on the street. He was Nutt’s right hand. Whatever he said to get done, got done. Dancer came out of East B-More. He was a small town hood but Nutt took him under his wing. I knew his whole mob. Some trusted soldiers were Roland X and Spudie. They were youngsters in his mob.” Drugs, hustling, lots of murders, lots of contract killing. It’s said Peanut King snuffed out all the other dealers before him to gain control of every area he wanted to.

 

In 1979, Peanut was on the run. The city police were looking for him wanting to ask him about a murder. Nutt and Joe Dancer were locked up. They were in jail nine months and they let him out. He was found not guilty. When he came uptown after beating the charges he never looked back. He went from street level to king of the hill. His name started to ring and people from his crew started opening doors for him and driving him around. It was clear that he was in power.

 

“You couldn’t get close to him. He was protected by his crew. He controlled all the heroin.” The oldhead says. “He didn’t fuck with nothing small time. He had a piece of the action of every club on the strip. The clubs, gambling, strip joints.” Baltimore Street at that time was the strip and Peanut allegedly had his hand in all that. “He took over prostitution on Pratt and Monroe Streets and sold a lot of heroin down there. That’s when Lafayette was ringing. The big money was made at the projects. The money generated off his name was crazy. Twenty to thirty thousand a day coming off one corner selling halves and wholes.” The young hustler says.

 

“By 81-82 he done took over Baltimore. He bought some shops and had some clubs on the strip.” The oldhead says. “He had some clothes stores he used for fronts. He laundered all his money through businesses. Bailed people out through his bail bonds to clean money.” It’s said he had a Gold Cadillac Seville, went shopping at White Flint Mall in Rockville and hung out in West Baltimore near Park and North Avenues. “He had a good chunk of Baltimore. He owned it all. A real good chunk.” The oldhead says. And in Alfred Reed book about B-More’s underworld, A Barber’s Close Cut, he wrote of Peanut, “I used to see him go to his store on North Avenue, Grocery and Deli on the side. Peanut had a lot of class to be a drug dealer. He was very smart and he could feel you. Once I brought my nephew to personally meet Peanut. Nutt came down the steps to meet him and my nephew said after he met Nutt, ‘He looks like a gangster.’”

 

And a gangster Nutt was, but he was also an innovator and he revolutionized the drug game by taking Nicky Barnes use of kids to another level. Nutt used teenagers who, unlike the kids used by Barnes, were wise to the drug game and were dedicated to their jobs. Further, to make their jobs work more efficiently Nutt bought mopeds for all his young workers to get back and forth from the stash to customers. The mopeds gave the youngsters mobility, agility and speed in transporting the merchandise to their customers. Teens in Russell brand sweatpants, Coach shorts and bedroom slippers, the style Nutt made popular, became a common sight in Baltimore inner city streets.

 

“He had kids between 15 and 18 about 30 or 40 of them on mopeds selling heroin,” the Holbrook dude says. “This was one of his strategic moves because it sped up his deliveries with the transfer between money and drugs. The lore with the kids was that if you worked for Peanut King you got a moped, so all the kids wanted to work for Peanut. He always had hundreds of kids who wanted to work for him. This was his stroke of genius.” The use of teenagers by Nutt caused a new law to go on the books in Maryland though. It became a requirement for anyone driving a moped to have a valid driver’s license. That gave the beat police a reason to stop the kids on mopeds and also took a lot of Nutt’s kids off their bikes.

 

“Nutt was big from the early to late 70’s into the eighties. He was always present.” The young hustler says. “In 1980, a key cost like $130,000. It was part of that NFrench Connection/ Nicky Barnes hookup.” And if you weren’t hustling for Nutt it was dangerous to hustle. “You couldn’t sell nothing.” The young hustler remembers. “If you were a hopper you knew where it ended up. Nutt wasn’t having it. It was about them putting their hands on you. It was just Nutt. You respected him.” And Nutt was instrumental in the youth basketball leagues also sponsoring teams and tournaments.

 

“They were real avid basketball dudes. They ran the dope leagues.” The young hustler says and he remembers the times at O’Dells where Nutt’s crew styled and profiled. “O’Dells was like Studio 54- the hood version. It was over on North Avenue between St. Paul’s and Charles Street. The line would go around the block. It kicked like that from 75 to 85. They had a million dollar sound system. Thursday nights were the nights, it was rumored Nutt owned the club. The hustlers would be lined up in their furs and jewels, pimped out. It was a beautiful time. But Nutt’s crew, you would have thought they were business men. Peanut always had a reserved table and women all around him. His crew was deep up in O’Dells. O’Dells had a radio commercial that said, ‘The under ground is open. You’ll know if you belong.’ And Nutt and his crew definitely belonged. They were like royalty up in that joint. Police would be up in there dancing and everything. It was crazy.” And the photo booth captured the moments even the moments with Nutt.

 

“The thing about Peanut, that the run was so long was because he was taking care of all the Lafayette families paying rent.” The oldhead says and the young hustler gives Nutt’s strategy, “Nobody knew what part of town he was concentrated in. He was like hit and run, keeping his business steady. They were the guys. It was just that simple.” Wilkins, Fulton Avenue, Pigstown, Sandtown- Nut set up everywhere, but it didn’t help. Eventually his long run would come to an end.

 

There was a big shootout over at Lafayette Projects. Some say it was on the playground and there were about 30 people involved. Somehow Peanut got shot in the foot in a van. He was driven to DC, 44 miles away, to get some help for the gunshot wound and was alright. But the incident was never forgotten. A girl got shot on Broadway and Oliver Street. The girl was carrying a child. That corner was considered Nutt’s territory and they said Nutt’s people had something to do with it. The drug activity in and around the Lafayette Projects was heavy and the shooting incensed state and federal law enforcement officials and brought attention to the projects and Peanut King. The Feds were on Peanut’s ass, but his game was tight. The authorities stepped up their efforts to bring him down. Investigations were started, surveillances increased, raids conducted and arrests were made. They raided Peanut’s businesses and harassed his crew, but still they couldn’t get anything on him. The feds needed an inside guy.

 

“For a long time he couldn’t be touched.” The oldhead says of Nutt, but nothing lasts forever and Peanut’s time in the streets was getting short. “In that business you knew he was under investigation. His people were. His stores and businesses were. His name rang like that.” Says the Holbrook dude. In his book, A Barber’s Close Cut, Alfred Reed wrote that Peanut even prophesized his own end. “During the end of his run he was talking to me, Peanut said, ‘I am looking at the penitentiary and I know it.’” It was just a matter of time. A matter of time and a rat.

 

Mike Smith was in prison when his brother Howard Smith was shot to death at the corner of Hoffman and Holbrook Streets with his two sons in the back seat of the car. Mike thought that Peanut had something to do with it. The FBI, who had nothing at this point, were trying to find someone to wear a wire on a buy from Peanut. In Mike Smith they had their man. Court records indicate that Otis “Mike” Smith first assisted Detective Sergeant Gary Childs of the Baltimore City Police Department in the summer of 1980. After having his parole revoked, Smith reestablished contact with Childs in late 1981 and began assisting Childs in the Peanut King case.

 

Bankrolled by the Feds, Mike was made up to be as big time drug dealer from the Eastern Shore. Smith first approached Ricks about purchasing heroin in late 1982, court records indicate. Ricks refused, explaining alternatively that he was no longer in the heroin business and that he was being watched too closely by police. In order to develop his credibility as a drug dealer, Smith began making small purchases of heroin from individuals at the organizations Ellsworth and Bond Streets location and represented that he was reselling the heroin in the county where he could double his money. Accordingly Smith was plausibly able to finance even larger purchases.

 

On March 16, 1982, Ricks contacted Smith and indicated he was ready to deal with Smith directly, court records relate. Over the course of three transactions that same month, Ricks, assisted by Moffat, sold Smith large amounts of heroin. These purchases were made on 50 percent credit and consequently Smith owed Ricks a substantial amount after the third purchase. Ricks was arrested on April 1, 1982 on a homicide charge unrelated to the case and was in custody the remainder of the government’s investigation. Smith subsequently paid the balance of the transaction to King and met with King, Meredith and Moffat to arrange and complete sizable additional purchases. Smith was assured by Moffat that the debt to Ricks had been satisfied because “it was 11 in the same pot.”

 

The feds gambit with Mike Smith worked with a large amount of marked cash as bait. Nutt bit and the feds finally had him on a buy. When the smoke cleared Baltimore City jail became the new residence for all of Nutt’s sale force. Nutt’s crew all stuck together and did not tell on each other. This was the first time a black mob did not snitch each other out especially in B-more where it’s said the city breeds snitches. “Nobody in Baltimore got him. It was the special federal prosecutors,” the oldhead says. Peanut was arrested on June 14, 1982. Court records indicate that Ricks and King, along with defendant Clarance Meredith headed a major drug operation in Baltimore, Maryland. Moffat was a lieutenant overseeing distribution of heroin from one of several street corners controlled by the organization. The case against the defendants was proved largely as a result from Otis “Mike” Smith and to a lesser extent from Delphine Robinson who were police informers. Evidence was also collected as a result of the undercover efforts of Detective Arlene Jenkins who represented herself on various occasions as a companion of Smith and as a friend of Robinson. Detective Sergeant Childs coordinated the investigation, court records says.

 

Smith testified that he had known many of the defendants for years, had purchased heroin from King and Meredith in 1979 and 1980 and knew Ricks to be a partner of King and Meredith. The government presented evidence that two grocery stores owned by Ricks, Meredith and King, as well as gambling trips were part of a carefully concealed money laundering scheme. Smith testified unequivocally that it was King with whom he met on numerous occasions. Officer Childs testified that he personally observed King on several occasions in meetings with Smith and was able to identify King’s voice in recorded conversations with Smith regarding heroin sales. Officer Jenkins also testified regarding her personal observations of King as one of the individuals with who Smith dealt, court records detail.

 

During the course of the investigations the police locked up Peanut’s mother and told him he needed to stand up and be a big man to get her released. There were also allegations by the defense of foul play and dirty cops testifying for the prosecution. Officer Marcellius Ward testified about Kings previous arrests for counterfeiting and possession of marijuana. “Officer Ward was a dirty cop.” The young hustler says. “He made the guys from The Shield look clean.” Officer Ward was murdered after the trial by another drug dealer. Prosecutors also entered into evidence the fact that lawyers had been paid a significant amount of cash over a four-year period to represent members of King’s network when those members were arrested on narcotics charges. Such proof was highly relevant, court records indicate, to the status of Ricks and King as organizers or managers of a criminal enterprise because it would show their payment of fees for underlings who were in trouble.

 

King’s defense was that he made a substantial amount of money gambling throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s and later invested in the two grocery stores. Ricks testimony at trial corroborated King’s contention that King was a successful gambler and at no point did Ricks link King with the narcotics transactions he acknowledged participating in as a middleman for Mike Smith. But the jury didn’t buy it. The defendants were convicted of a variety of substantive narcotics possession and distribution offenses and of engaging in a conspiracy to possess and distribute narcotics. In addition Ricks, King and Meredith were convicted of heading a continual criminal enterprise, court records indicate.

Peanut was convicted in 1983 and received 50 years in federal prison with no chance of parole because of the Rico Act and his property and businesses were seized. He also got 10 years in Maryland for all the guns seized in the investigation. Following a second trial in 1986 Peanut and his crew were again convicted after the circuit court ordered a new trial because of prejudicial error with regard to jury selection. But Nutt and his crew couldn’t get any play.“Nutt wasn’t no violent type of person,” the Holbrook dude says. “He would forego violence to try to work stuff out. He was about his money. His Lieutenants held onto that philosophy for a minute but when he went down the bodies started dropping. The murder rate went up. The police saw that Nutt was the only thing keeping it all under control. Bodies aren’t good for business because they attract police attention and Nutt had such a long run because of the way he carried it.” And to this day Peanut’s legend still resonates.

 

“Whatever was going down was going down because of the King.” The young hustler says. “What showed his power was when he ran his shit from the joint. When he went down it was still the same, but they started killing people. Beating people to death with baseball bats.” In the pen Nutt’s control was less but he still made his paper. “To this day he still got millions and he still got businesses. He was involved in organized crime. The man was smart. They never got none of his money.” The oldhead says but they did end up giving him more time as Nutt’s moves caught him a case from the pen.

 

In 1987, four years into his ten year bid, for the state, Nutt hooked up with a Pakistani who claimed to have a connect for high grade heroin. What Nutt didn’t know was that this Pakistani was an informant for the feds. The informant set Nutt up. Trying first to get the heroin on consignment Nutt was told that only cash was acceptable. He then got in touch with two of his trusted soldiers who happened to just get out of federal prison. Spudie and Roland X. They visited Nutt in prison to set up the deal. Several months later they flew to Boston and brought back samples of the heroin. It was just like the Pakistani said, pure high grade, so Nutt instructed Spudie to search for cop money. The deal required 1.2 million cash, in installments of $250,000 a pop. Nutt got Kevin Scott, a young up and coming dealer to do the deal for them. It was set up in a Boston hotel room. Kevin, Spudie and Roland X were busted by the feds, lost the cop money and got sentenced to ten years each. Peanut for his involvement received an additional eight years on top of the 50 year federal sentence he had to serve following the ten he was serving for the state to bring his total sentence to 68 years without the possibility of parole.

 

Check out Soul Man’s upcoming release Street Legends

 

Also check out Soul Man’s A Christmas Song in Nikki Turner’s Street Chronicles Christmas in the Hood

The girl recognized the subject, however could not recall his name. She referred to him as “one of the big men.” Monica Fountain, the witness, advised agents that “Big Man” stayed out in the car and he would send women to drop off drugs and pick up the money. Once while Monica was at one of the crack houses off Western near Goodwill with her boyfriend Julio, who was in the house selling crack. She saw the Big Man drive up and Julio said, “Here comes the boss.”

 

Julio was Detroit native Kossayambe Anthony and the boss he referred to was his homie Geno, who along with his brother Hen allegedly ran South Bend Indiana’s lucrative drug trade. Robert “Geno” and Henry “Hen” Booker were the leaders of a drug operation that distributed crack cocaine from early 1991 through most of ‘92. Authorities said the Bookers headed an organization that distributed large amounts of crack cocaine- selling about one million annually on the streets of Detroit, Ypsilanti, South Bend and Muskegon. The brothers divided the city of South Bend into two areas, newspaper accounts said. Robert Booker’s operation primarily was on the southeast side while Henry Bookers was on the west side. They worked with their cousin Antonio “Rico” Booker and another Detroit homie Tony “Chuck” Olive.

 

The men sold cocaine from more than two dozen crack houses throughout the city, the South Bend tribune reported. The cocaine was brought to South Bend through the use of rental cars. The witness Monica told agents that Julio once showed her piles of money and drugs behind the door panel of a rental car. The papers alleged that frequent use of guns, fights and shootings were a part of the brothers business. The Bookers and some of the others previously were involved in illegal drug dealing in Detroit, federal officials said. However in Detroit the Bookers probably were small operators it was reported. But in South Bend they kept the city in a chokehold. Their run only lasted a couple of years but in the sleepy college town that is home to Notre Dame University their legend remains. The boys from Detroit who locked down and terrorized the city even had the police on their payroll it’s said. These two brothers weren’t faking it, but let’s let them tell it straight from federal prison.

 

“I grew up, born and raised in Detroit.” Geno says. “I grew up with my three sisters and one brother, my mother and father so we had it made. My father worked hard to bring us up right.” But the lure of the streets was strong. “Later in life my brother took a left turn and started hustling, not because he had to but because he wanted to. He paid me to stay in school. And refused to let me hang out with him. So in 1985 when he went to the joint to do a 5 to 20 I took $250, bought an eightball and never looked back and when my brother got out in ‘89 I was balling. I would hang out in clubs with all the ballers, drinking, talking shit, taking names and laying lames.” And both brothers ended up in South Bend after legal problems in Detroit.

 

“I was run out of Detroit by the DPD and the drug laws. 650 lifer law,” Hen says. And Geno had just beat two murder charges, one in ‘86 and one in ‘88. “The homicide detective Ronald Sanders told me the next time he heard my name involved in a homicide I was going down.” Geno says. “So I left Detroit and went to Ypsilanti, Michigan made too much money and headed west to South Bend, Indiana.” But why South Bend?

 

“Well, that was my mother’s birthplace, she grew up there and we had family there.” Hen says. Geno explains, “We left my aunt’s funeral in Chicago, stopped in South Bend to say hello. Our cousin told us he was paying $1800-2000 for an ounce, which we were selling for $650 in Detroit. My brother went home and came back instantly. I came later.” The Booker Boyz were in business. And the business was good.

 

“When I’m in Detroit I’m a small fish in a big pond,” Hen says. “But in South Bend I was a shark in a small pond. In Detroit I couldn’t come up off nothing as fast as South Bend. It was like candy. And with my brother we ran that shit.”

 

In March 1991, according to court documents, Robert Booker along with co-defendant Tim Pollard aka Nut traveled from Detroit to South Bend for the purpose of distributing crack cocaine. Hen was already established with drug houses on Napier, Brookfield and Florence streets, so Geno set up shop on the opposite side of town. In the spring of 1991 he opened a house for the distribution of crack cocaine at 238 E. Elder Street in South Bend. Booker operated that crackhouse through the summer of 1991 until the house burned down court documents say.

 

“South Bend was a city for the take,” Geno says. “My brother was there first with his crew. I came months later. He controlled the westside, I controlled South Bend.” But there was no sibling rivalry between the separate operations. The two brothers kept all their soldiers in check. Court documents relate that Booker and Pollard agreed and did sell crack cocaine to other persons who combined and conspired with them to distribute crack cocaine in South Bend. These persons included Robert “Squeak” Davenport, Damond “D” Hayes, Jarvis Mack, Antonio “Rico” Booker, Tony “Chuck” Olive, Larry “Yum-Yum” Beverly, Kossayambe “Julio” Anthony and others. These persons sold crack supplied by Booker and Pollard at the 238 E. Elder crack house.

 

Later in 1991, court documents continue, and then continuing in 1992 Booker and other members of his crack organization opened and maintained over 30 crack houses in South Bend. To supply their dealers and crack houses Booker purchased cocaine powder from suppliers in Detroit. The monies used to pay for this were collected from the South Bend retail operations and transported by Booker to Detroit where they bought the coke, cooked it and took it to South Bend where it was cut up, divided in plastic baggies and distributed to Booker’s crack houses and to dealers on the streets of South Bend .

 

“When I got there everybody was selling packs of powder cocaine to cook in a spoon,” Geno says. “My brother had $25 rocks, so I came better and did something they never dreamed. I sold $12 rocks the size of a $30 rock. I had business coming from everywhere. South Bend was creaming for my drugs. Niggas was hating trying to say the dope wasn’t real cause the size.” And from March 1991 to the summer of 1992 the feds said that the brothers ran a large scale crack operation in South Bend with two different crews of transplanted Detroit dudes.

 

And the Booker Boyz were balling. While Hen was the more laid back type his little brother Gino was in his element- the streets. They’d both be hitting the clubs in South Bend like Kevin’s on the hill and Stormins and showing the locals how Detroit players did it. By flaunting their success they were showing the locals who running shit. Hen explains, “I’d be sitting there with 10-15 broads and Geno would come in with an entourage. We’d be buying drinks for everybody and have the whole club on smash, security and everything. Dudes would be hating because we had the camera man hostage with all the local broads on our dicks. Our heads would be gleaming and we’d be fresh to death. You know all the girls were with us.” And for real the brothers had the whole city asking, who the hell are these Booker Boyz?

 

“My attitude towards the locals was I was there to make money,” Geno says. “But you know how local niggas get, they sent messages by different broads telling my guys if they didn’t leave they would get killed. But me being from Detroit I wasn’t trying to hear that shit. The South Bend dudes built their nuts up one day and shot into one of my spots. I shut the South East side down, smashed every nigga who might have had something to do with it and the rest of the city heard the news and bowed down.” The local news billed it as the Detroit- South Bend war for control of the streets but with their crew of homeboys and spots generating a reported 35 to 50 thousand a day the Booker Boyz had the city in check.

 

The brothers were allegedly in control of Castle Point and Notre Dame apartments plus Geno had houses on Pulaski, St. Josephs, East South, East Indiana, West Jefferson, Diamond, Broadway and West Colfax Streets. “At one point,” Geno says. “I had 30 houses up and running plus the street corners.” And the Booker Boyz even had police on the take. Court documents say that Officer Booby Avance used to roll up in her squad car to the spots and trade guns for crack. It’s like Geno says,” Anytime a nigga got South Bend police on his payroll that a tell you who had South Bend.” But the run didn’t last. The Booker Boyz days were numbered. With informants squealing the cops were getting clued in.

 

Robert “Squeak” Davenport was one of the first homies to break weak. Davenport when arrested cooperated from the jump spilling his guts from the back of a police car. According to court documents he indicated that he sold $120 rocks for Gino and that he was selling $7,000 worth a day. He would turn $500 of a $750 sack to Geno. He also advised agents that the Booker Boyz were selling crack cocaine in Columbus, Ohio as well. “This one police, Aaron White was trying to be Colombo and shit.” Geno says. “He was arresting my guys trying to get them to go against me. So when he made detective he pushed harder, because his woman was one of my guy’s groupies.”

 

On October 7, 1993 both Booker Boyz and their crews were indicted by a federal grand jury in Northern Indiana. Hen was charged in an eight count indictment while the feds served Geno and his crew a 17 count indictment. Nine men from Detroit, the newspaper headlines read, were indicted on charges of distributing cocaine from about 25 crack houses throughout South Bend. Everybody was arrested but Gino decided he wasn’t getting caught up and took off.

 

“The feds didn’t know of us until South Bend’s mayor got on TV and said he’d rather his own people do wrong than to have out-of-towners take over his city.” Geno says, “That’s when I knew it was time for me to go. My Aunt Edna told me they would kill me if I didn’t leave, so my girl drove me back to Detroit through the back roads cause South Bend Police had a task force out for me.”

 

And on March 31, 1993, on the second day of Hen’s jury trial, he pled guilty to count eight of the indictment. Count eight charged the defendant with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base. Hen explains.

 

“I started jury trial for two days listening to people I knew and people I didn’t know lie back and forth. I knew I didn’t have a chance at trial. But the conspiracy only carried ten so that was what we banked on and everything was going good until my lawyer leaned over and asked me ‘Who the hell is that?’ and I looked up and seen death. My own family about to testify. My lawyer said if he didn’t know better he would have thought it was my brother, but he was still a fugitive.”

 

Michigan’s Most Wanted- Robert Booker aka Geno, age 27, height 5-foot-8, weight 165 pounds- wanted for distributing crack cocaine, using a firearm during a felony and money laundering. Police said that Booker was the leader of a large-scale drug distribution network. He was considered armed and dangerous, the most wanted poster read. Here’s Geno’s take.

 

“Being a fugitive cost me a lot of money.” He says. “Everywhere I went I paid highly so people would keep their mouths closed. I was cool until they put me on Michigan’s most wanted. My cousin set me up for the reward money.” The newspaper reported that he was arrested after a neighbor reported seeing him on Detroit’s northeast side.

 

Timothy Pollard, Jarvis Mack, Robert Davenport and Robert Booker along with others were charged in 1993 in a 17 count indictment with among other thing, being members of a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in South Bend Indiana. Pollard, Mack and Davenport entered pleas of guilty. Booker went to trial and was convicted on 3 of the count presented to the jury, court documents relate.

 

The trial commenced February 2, 1995. Geno’s trial lasted for five days and on Feb 8, 1995 the jury convicted Geno on counts 1, 9, 16, acquitted him on count 4 and dismissed count 8. Count 4 charged him with using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense.

 

The federal prosecutor said in the papers that a powerful message had been sent with the sentences given to the two leaders of the crack cocaine ring. It also reported that U.S. District Court Judge Allen Sharp imposed a 20 year prison sentence on Robert Booker 28 of Detroit in April 1995. This ended the case that had begun over two years ago with two indictments returned by a federal grand jury. Robert’s brother, Henry Booker 31 also of Detroit was sentenced earlier to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to his part in the crack ring. Eight men were prosecuted and sent to prison that began with indictments returned in the fall of 1993. Robert Booker was the only one convicted by a jury, the other pleaded guilty.

 

“The case sends a message that the government will not tolerate and will prosecute such activities,” AUSA Donald Schmid said at the time. While the case had not eliminated crack cocaine doing in South Bend, Schmid told reporters that he believed getting the Bookers and their cohorts off the streets put a large dent in crack sales in South Bend at least for a time. Schmid said much of the credit should go to the work of the South Bend Organized Crime Drug Task Force and its lead investigators, State Trooper Randy Huff and James DeBeck, an Internal Revenue Service agent. The task force was a combined operations involving state police, such as the officers in the Metro-Special Operations Section, a countywide drug investigation unit. A number of MSOS arrests of various Detroit men for drug dealing provided the federal task force with the information to track the ring to Detroit and find its leaders, Schmid said. And Geno concurs.

 

“The snitches on my case, man they came from everywhere.” He says. “Out of a list of 280 witnesses I only knew maybe 30 of them. The number one snitch was my first cousin Timothy “Nut” Pollard, he was my closest relative and he testified against me and took 10 years. Then my best friend Robert “Squeak” Davenport started telling in the back of the police car, he took the feds to my store, my women’s mothers crib and tried to give them my mom’s address, which they already had. Jarvis Mack lied on me, he made shit up just to get a five year deal and we went to junior high and high school together. Tony “Chuck” Olive made statements against me, but didn’t testify in court. He’s still a rat ass coward. Larry “Yum-yum” Beverly was a fugitive til 1999 and took 13 years after he refused to speak on me. Angela Hubbard and Lashawn Rogers both testified. My nigga Damon “D” Hayes took five years for perjury and my cousin Antonie “Rico” Booker and Kossayambe “Julio” Anthony both carried it like soldiers taking five years straight up.” So to all appearances this story was over. All the defendants were shipped off to prison, but the government wasn’t happy with Gino’s sentence.

 

The newspaper headlines read, A Detroit Man Who has been Sentenced twice on convictions stemming from his leadership of a crack cocaine ring will be sentenced a third time by a different judge as a result of a ruling by a federal appeals court. Geno originally sentenced to 20 years in April 1995 and sent off to prison was called for re-sentencing when government prosecutors appealed the sentence and the case was sent back to Judge Allen Sharp to redo. The Judge increased the sentence in July 1996 to 30 years. As a result of another appeal the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision vacated the sentence and sent the case back for another sentencing by a different judge. Chief Judge William Lee assigned the case to Judge Robert L. Miller for re-sentencing.

 

On October 1, 1997 District Court Judge Miller presiding held a re-sentencing hearing solely on the issue of a weapons enhancement. In the original trial several witnesses testified that they saw Geno in possession of an SKS assault rifle at two of the crack houses. A rifle meeting that description was seized at one of the locations raided. It was loaded with one round of ammunition in the chamber and 22 rounds in a high capacity magazine, court documents say. Other witnesses testified that Geno regularly carried a 9mm automatic handgun. But Geno beat these charges at trial. He was found not guilty by the jury on that count of the indictment. Still prosecutors persisted. But let Geno tell it.

 

“The prosecutor begged for life after I lost three charges in trial, but the judge refused and sentenced me to 20 years and sent me to FCI Pekin.” He says. “A year later- July 26, 1996 I was re-sentenced to 30 years because the judge had to sentence me 4 points for a leader and organizer enhancement. I was then sent back to prison again. On October 1, 1997 after the prosecutor won his appeal again I was called back to sentencing, but a different judge was assigned. They gave me two more points for a 9mm pistol that I beat in trial and sent me back to the joint to serve natural life. Because they couldn’t hang me like they wanted to they served me life.”

 

And Geno is doing his life sentence in the pen with his brother Hen carrying it like they always carried it. The Booker case was the first in the history of the United States where a defendant was sentenced three times resulting in a higher sentence each time, but the feds play dirty we all know that. And reflecting its like Hen says, “They gave my brother life. A first-time offender. And 1 got 20 years and I’m a repeat offender with numerous arrests. Something definitely ain’t right about that.” Injustice, travesty, heartbreak- just another street story from the drug war. Where inner city minorities are on the frontline.

Category: article

Posted: 2007-10-18 16:03

 

Adam “Adee” Bennett

 

“Ground zero for gangsters- the Southside of Jamaica, Queens. Home to multi platinum rappers like 50 Cent and legendary crack era druglords like Fat Cat and Supreme. This borough has bred some of the most progressive, notorious and brutal gangsters of the 20th century. Dudes that are on the Al Capone, John Gotti level in the black underworld. The dudes from Queens are being written about in Don Diva magazine; the original street bible. They’re the ones being profiled on BET’s American Gangster. They’re the ones that Troy Reed’s Street Stars and Shabazz’s AS Is are making street DVD’s about. Dudes from Queens just epitomize what the word “gangster” means. It’s just how they carry it. The list includes the aforementioned Fat Cat and Supreme, Prince, Corley Wall, Tommy Mickens, Pappy Mason, Pretty Tony, Tuck, Bing and Adee; A second generation Queens gangster. Gorilla Convict sat down with the kid from the mean streets of South Jamaica who counts Fat Cat’s sons as his main men and kicked about where he grew up, South Jamaica. He’s in the federal now doing time but he’s ready to hit the streets and do his thing…

 

GC- Tell us about yourself?
A- My name is Adam Bennett. I’m 33 years young. Right now I’m on the verge of wrapping up a 12 year 7 month bid. My prior beef include drugs and robbery. I’m from that hood that’s known as South Jamaica Queens.

 

GC- What prisons have you done time in?
A- I’ve done time on Rikers Island, jails up north in New York, Allenwood Medium, FCI Loretto and Baltimore City Jail,

 

GC- Where did you grow up at?
A- I grew up on 142nd St. and lllth Ave. and all blocks in-between. I first started getting money on lllth Ave. and 127th St. then they moved us to Rockaway Blvd. and
133rd St.

 

Adee and Father Taheem

 

GC- Who did you come up under?
A- I came up under some dudes by the name of Parish (RIP) and Lenny. Those were the first dudes to ever put work in my hands. The dude Parish got killed in ’87, so I switched to some other cats on the same block. They started jerking us at one point so I took like a 1000 bundle and did my own thing. I was only 14 at the time. The dudes I looked up to the most were my brother Todd and my heart that’s in the town right now, Father Taheem Allah. Those were the dudes I was really_ intrigued by. My brother Todd use to be on some robbery shit. Him and my other brother Mark and I use to dig thay shit as a shorty. The dude that taught me the game and bought me amongst Parish and them dudes was my comrade Ibn Josiah Robinson. He’s been back in the essence of life for the past 16 years. That’s the dude that gave birth to my gangster without question.

 

GC- What was jumping off in your hood back in the days?
A- When I was a shorty I wasn’t really too concerned about what was poppin in my hood only cause I was a shorty you know. All that was on my mind, was coppin’ me the new black and gray pinned stripped Lees with the black and gray suede Adidas and the black and white Lumber Jack jacket so I could go to school and shine you know. It wasn’t until later that I began to understand that money made the world go round.

 

GC- Looking back did you know you were coming up in a legendary place under some legendary dudes?
A- Looking back I didn’t realize I was corning up in a legendary place that was qonna make dudes rich and their names legendary household names you know. It just wasn’t that type of situation. Dudes were just getting money and I don’t believe they themselves knew they were gonna be legends. How do I feel in retrospect? I love my past and I’m glad I’m still on the set to bare witness to how shit popped back then you know, and am able to speak about it. A lot of my cronies ain’t make it out that era to see my hood rise to legendary status as far as getting money. I’m appreciative that out of mad hoods in New York’s five boros, my hood was able to distinguish itself from the rest you understand what I’m saying. And that appreciativeness has to go in the direction of Cat and Preme and them dudes cause they the ones that really made that happen, Real talk.

 

GC- What kind of stuff were you and you peeps into way back when?
A- Back in like ‘86 we was on some stolen car shit real hard. That’s what was popping then. Then we started robbing dudes and broads at the high schools for their nugget rings and their acid wash Cotler jackets and shit like that. Then we turned to the drug scene in ‘87. We were dibbling and dabbling but nothing major. Like I said I took that G pack from them niggas and did my own thing but I fucked it up. We went back to robbing. In ‘88 that’s when shit started to pop for us real serious on the drug tip. We made a bad decision at one point and fell off like a bad bag of dope. We went back to robbing and that’s when I caught a robbery beef in ‘89. I came home in ‘90 and it was strictly drug money from then on. Basically, it was a mixture of drugs and robbery

 

Adee and Mel

 

GC- Describe the philosophy you learned growing up?
A- Stand firm on principle, never cross your people, honor your family and show forth honor and respect in all instances. That’s the philosophy I grew up on. I always say I could’ve been real prosperous in this life of ours had I been a disloyal dude you know. But I never stepped on no toe, always dealt fairly and kept it authentic all around the boards. Trust me when I tell you, I will die for my dudes or fall back behind these walls for eternity for my dudes if so be the case, ya dig. I know to a lot of dudes that may come across as sounding crazy or what have you but that just the loyal dude I be. It’s in my DNA to move with the utmost loyalty and love my niggas regardless of what. I know a cross can come in the mix along the line but I’m prepared for all that. I saw a lot of love and loyalty coming out of Fat Cat’s camp towards his son and dude was in the can for 6 years already. In 1991, his son (MEL) had a little issue with a dude that gets bizzy on the low. The comrade gets bizzy himself make no mistake but he got on the phone with some of his fathers loyalists (THE FUTADO BROTHERS) and being who they were they ran up on dude and the situation was settled instantly. That’s loyalty and love at its finest.

 

GC- What was your MO on the streets?
A- My MO on the streets has always been getting money and letting that 7-21-14 ring always.

 

GC- Who were the dudes you ran with back in the days and where are they now?
A- A lot of the dudes I ran with back then are either back in the essence of life or tied up in the joint and have been for years, My two comrades that’s back in the essence of life IBN and OCTAVIOUS RIP, and my man FATHER TAHEEM ALLAH that’s in the town right now. That’s been my heart for l9 years hard body and I’ll kill something for son. My two comrades that I love till the death of me, Cat’s two sons, Jemel (DON MEL} Tyler, been up-north 16 years, and his brother BIG RAHEEM tied up in VA. My blood brother TODD, up north with 21 years, rider without question. My lil comrade up north in Oneida, James aka JB, was right on my side when I almost got assassinated. And my comrade in the struggle with BIG SQUEEK DOG locked in FCI Fort Dix.

 

GC- Give us a glimpse of Queens back in the days?
A- Queens back in the days was a nice environment. Houses, kids playing in the streets and shit like that. Mr. Softee earning through and all the kids asking moms and pops for money to buy an ice cream cone with sprinkles. It was just a good place for me to live as a shorty. Then the drug thing emerged like a TSUNAMI. I recall back in like ‘84, ‘85 walking to go shopping on Jamaica Ave. and the short-cut you would take would be through 150th St. and 107th Ave. Fat Cat made that block infamous and will forever be known as the “BLOCK”. But I was walking through this block and I saw this kid sitting on the steps of Cat’s store with a big ass bag of coke. I mean a BIG ass bag and for real that shit scared the shit out of me. That’s when I realized them Mr. Softee days were finished.

 

GC- What’s up with all the gangster craze nowadays?
A- All this gangster shit means nothing to me personally. All this gangster talk is coming from these rapper dudes that don’t know nothing about being a gangster you know. Don’t know nothing about being confined and oppressed by these oppressors for years and years on end. They talk that shit but trust me they ain’t ready for this life of ours. Then you got dudes getting caught up in that shit. It’s madness.

 

GC- What does it mean to you to have big heart and be your brother’s keeper?
A- To be able, if shit hits the fan, to come back behind these walls for eternity for the sake of being your brother’s keeper you know, moving accordingly in any situation without wavering one bit, and standing firm on principle regardless of the consequences.

 

GC- What events made you who you are?
A- The event that shaped my life and made me who I am today is when my comrade got savagely murdered when he was 18 years young on December 3lst, 1990. My comrade IBN. His murder had a devastating effect on me then and still does to this day When he was in the casket I told him I will forever carry his legacy as long as I’m alive, and I’ve held that vow 16 years later, aside from that though I’ve always been around older dudes like my blood Taheem and a host of other God bodies back in the days. So even though I was young my mental has always been a little older which lead me to move like an older dude you know. As an example of this, I had my own work with mad worker and fucking older broads when I was a youth of only 14, driving uptown in the ‘88 box Corolla coppin !25 and shit like that. That’s the shit that really made me who I am today.

 

GC- Why has Queens bred so many legendary gangsters?
A- In my hood just as in any hood, dudes are trained to go, meaning dudes will murder something in a second. Real talk. I’ve been pinned up in the can now for a substantial amount of years now but I still keep my ear to the street and know ain’t nothing sweet out there. Queens has bred so many legendary dudes because I guess it’s the cloth we’re cut from and I guess that’s the cloth I’m cut from. Shout to all my cronies tied up. We almost there. Stay strong, firm and move with the precision of an F-16 Fighter Jet, ya heard. Salute to all the comrades never returning to civilization, stay strong and maintain elevation…

 

Check out Soul Man’s story in Nikki Turner’s Street Chronicles Christmas in the Hood

 

 

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Posted: 2007-09-21 07:09

 

 

Howard “Pappy” Mason was a soldier. In one of the most violent eras in New York City history Pappy Mason rose above the rest to cement his reputation as one of the most feared men in the five boroughs. When the South Jamaica crack wars were in full swing and bodies were dropping by the day Pappy held court in the street and reigned king. He was the one nobody wanted to fuck with. He was the baddest man on the block. To put it quite simply, Pappy Mason was a legend in his own time. In the mid-80s the crack vial spawned violence and bloodshed, paper chasers and four corner hustlers, drug empires and kingpin galore. And in the annals of mythical druglore Pappy Mason has stood tall over time as the man, the myth and the folk hero that inspired Jay Z, Nas and 50 Cent to lionize him and his exploits in verse. “They was legends, myths like urban-legends myths,” Irv Gotti said of the Southeast Queens hustlers. And for real can’t nobody front on that. But let’s go way back, before Pappy was the certified street legend that he is. Let’s look at how he got to be who he was.

 

“There’s not a lot of history on this dude,” says BC, a Queens’s hustler from the era. “They say this nigga was from the Brook, from Brooklyn somewhere. And Bing from the Supreme Team confirms, “Pappy Mason was from Brooklyn, Crown Heights, not Queens.” But that didn’t stop Pappy from becoming a Queens’s legend. It’s said he was born in Alabama and moved to Crown Heights at a young age. At the time Brooklyn had that thug shit on lock. Of the five boroughs Brooklyn was known for producing the thoroughest, most grimiest dudes. Pappy, who was a natural born fighter, came up in this thug culture and learned how to be a man on Brooklyn’s tough streets. First as a member of the gang, the Jolly Stompers and later as a stick up kid. Back in the day Pappy was not known as a drug player but he was known as a hothead who took no shorts and who hated the police. At a young age he was telling the police in his neighborhood to “suck my dick.” He held a big middle finger up to authority. It was just how he was cut. Pappy had a problem with authority from the jump and his preferred way of handling that problem was with his fists.

 

His violent ways and fights with police landed him in juvenile detention facilities like Warwick and Spofford. He did a fiver year sentence for attempted murder as a teenager and couldn’t stay out of trouble. During one of his many stays at Spofford Youth House Pappy met another young kid who was good with his fists and hailed from the Seven Crowns gang, Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols. The two young toughs hit it off. Bonded over their ability to knock motherfuckers out. They both had the I am my brother’s keeper mentality and saw the ideals they valued in themselves in each other. Spofford was an institution for bad and troubled teens. Only the worst of the worst were sent there. Kids came in bad but after years in that madhouse authorities called juvenile detention they came out worse. Pappy turned his hatred for police into a hatred for C/0’s and clashed with the staff repeatedly. “Pappy’s the only person I know back then who had seven years and did everyday of it,” Fat Cat said. “He left not owing a day.” And when Pappy left in 1983, he had already spent a quarter of his 23 years in prison.

 

“In every hood people make a name for themselves.” Bing says and Pappy was no different. By the time he hit the bricks in 83 his man Fat Cat was well established as a drug dealer on 150th Street in Southeast Queens. Pappy went to the block looking for Cat and Cat hired him on the spot for $1,000 a week as security. “Pap’s got a good heart,” Fat Cat said. “If he’s your friend, he’s your friend. But if he’s your enemy that’s something altogether different.” Pappy was the dude crazy dudes would think twice about trying. With his no-nonsense attitude he was vicious. And don’t get if fucked up, Pappy was fiercely loyal to Cat.

 

“When you hear Cat, you hear Pap.” Says BC of the pairing. Pappy emerged as Cats man on the streets. Cat wanted Pap on his team because he knew Pap had that mad heart. And Pappy did his job with a vengeance. He pistol whipped a prostitute who stole from Cat in broad daylight on the block. He shot a rival dealer who tried to encroach on Cat’s territory and he shot a customer dead outside a church because the customer had the nerve to complain about the purity of Cat’s product. Pappy’s viciousness and image enhanced his already fearsome reputation. He had a strong mystique around him. With his Rastafarian dreadlocks and adopted Jamaican patios dudes thought he was from Jamaica. “That dude with the dreadlocks. That’s Pappy.” One informer told the police. “He’s Fat Cat’s enforcer now. He the craziest guy out here.” And street tales tell of Pappy sticking hot curling irons up dudes’ ass to torture them or get them to talk. The dude was vicious. He definitely did not play. And Pappy’s work was rewarded by Fat Cat. He handed Pappy a lucrative drug spot in Forty projects to ply his trade and get money. Pappy took the spot and ran with it.

 

The enforcer for Cat’s crew formed his own crew. Pappy’s sub-organization was called the Bebos. The Bebos grew dreads too and sold cocaine and heroin. “The Bebos were underneath Pap. He was the head nigga in charge,” BC says. “He was amongst them Bebo niggas from Forty projects.” And along with the dreadlocks Pappy’s crew emulated him in all matters, from his violent ways to his speech patterns. “They used to try and be like Pap talking Jamaican and the like. A lot of dudes were under Pap. He had a strong influence in our hood.” And the Bebos adopted Rastafarian culture as their own. “They got a thing where they call one love and when Pappy say you do, you do.” Scott Cobb, a Bebo said. “One love mean do or die. We all tight, we family. When Pappy give you an order you do.” Pappy was down on 150th Street but his crew held it down in Forty. “Those Bebo niggas they were out there,” BC says. “They had leather jackets with Bebo on it.” And Phillip “Marshall” Copeland, another Bebo said, “There was no boss with us, every man was for himself. Bebo is a way of life to Rasta man and Jah for real.” But still, even with his own crew and spot Pappy was in charge of Cat’s security.

 

“When you think of Pap you think of an enforcer for Cat,” BC says. And Prince from the Supreme Team said, “The first person I met from Cat’s crew when I came home from state prison on July 1, 1984 was pap.” Pappy was a wild dude in the streets too. He didn’t give a fuck. He was blatant when it came to violence. “He had his own identity as far as getting busy,” BC says. “He was a loyal faithful soldier. In my hood it was all Cat and Pap.” Even the infamous Supreme weighed in on Pappy, “He was a real thorough dude.”

 

And when crack hit it changed Queens dramatically. The violence erupted and Pappy was at the center of it. “He was a wild nigga,” BC says. And Pappy Mason didn’t play. When Fat Cat was arrested in 1985, Pappy crept on the arresting officer as he escorted Fat Cat to a police car. Pappy slipped behind the cop and was prepared to shoot the cop to free Cat so they could make a get away but Cat shook his head no, so Pappy crept back into the cut, gun still in hand. Pap used to visit Cat in jail at the Queens House of Detention and even threatened Fat Cat’s girl after his arrest. “I don’t know what you know,” Pap told her, “But Cat says you better forget it.” And when Cat’s parole officer was killed for violating Cat’s state parole, Pappy was the main suspect. On February 28, 1985 Queens’s detectives arrested Pappy for the murder on Cat crew member Perry Bellamy’s statement. Bellamy told the cops that he lured the PO to the ambush spot where Pappy gunned him down. When the cops arrested Pappy he had a loaded .22 caliber Derringer in his boot that he was trying to get at before the officers arrested him, adding to his charges. Asked to cooperate into the affair and implicate Fat Cat for the murder of the PO, Pappy told police, “I ain’t no Perry Bellamy.” Referring to the snitch in Fat Cat’s camp. Because of his refusal to break the street code Pappy joined his boss in the Queens House of Detention. And during Pappy’s incarceration his legend grew.

 

 

“He was a big presence in Queens,” BC says and it’s said that while he was incarcerated Pappy gave Phillip “Marshall” Copeland a gold and diamond ring shaped like Africa worth $40,000 off his finger in a visit at Rikers to take care of future Bebo ventures. Pappy would call his crew in the streets from Rikers and go on tirades about the cops and word on the streets concerning the PO killing was that “the Bebos did it.” But Pappy maintained that, “I didn’t kill no PO.” And before trial started in January 1986 one Queens Native said, “There’s not a single soul who is gonna come in and testify against that boy.” In the borough that was the prevailing sentiment. Pappy had that much juice on the street and his cold blooded antics put fear into people’s hearts. “He was a motherfucking killer, BC says. “His influence was so strong. He had a big influence.” The prosecutor and judge in the case were living under constant anonymous death threats during the weeks prior to the trial and right before the case started the star witness Perry Bellamy refused to testify. Pappy had got his man. Only Bellamy’s taped confession was played for the jury.

 

“They was all there when the PO got killed,” Perry Bellamy voice said on the tape player. “Pappy, he just open fire. Pappy got him. That shit was swift.” But without a live witness willing to testify the jury hung. As Pappy made bail in February 1988 after the hung jury he formed an imaginary gun with his thumb and index finger, turned to the prosecutor and pulled the trigger. Pappy Mason was free again. But this time he would only be on the street for 10 days. But during that 10 days he set in course the motions that would shock the nation.

 

Pappy was on bail and drinking a beer on a South Jamaica street corner when a beat cop accosted him. “Do me a favor,” a cop called the Iceman told Pappy. “Don’t drink beer in front of me.” Pappy was stunned. No cop ever told him what to do. “Do you know who I am?” He demanded of the cop. “Yeah, the guy who is going to put his beer in a paper bag.” The cop replied. “Fuck you,” Pappy screamed and a shoving match ensued. After a couple of seconds Pap walked off, his beer on the ground spilling on the pavement. Pappy was in a rage. “That cop has to die,” Pap said. “He dissed me.” Death threats against the cop followed and he was pulled from the streets for his protection. Pappy’s gun case, for the Derringer he was arrested with, was remanded a week later and Pappy was back at Rikers. He had only lasted 10 days on the street since the Rooney murder. “He was out before they remanded him,” one local said. “He was organizing at that time. It was already planned.” Pappy Mason was about to set in motion a jarring set of events that would have repercussions for the decades to come.

 

“We lose one, they lose one,” Pappy allegedly told Marshall. Pappy wanted the Bebo’s to send the police a message. He wanted to send a message out. The message was that even though he was behind bars he still gave orders. The message was devastating. Pappy wanted a cop hit. He was eventually convicted on the gun charge but that was the least of his worries.

 

“When Pap went to jail after Cat most of Cat’s strength in the streets was gone,” Prince said and Pappy knew this. He needed to do something drastic to keep his power and the hood in check. Something unheard of. His message was carefully constructed to have a maximum effect. Early in the morning of February 28, 1988 NYPD Officer Edward Byrne, a 22 year old rookie was shot five times in the head while sitting in his patrol car in Queens 103rd precinct protecting a witness whose house had been firebombed after he testified against some local drug dealers. The rookies’ murder was front page news all over the nation and kicked the War on Drugs into high gear and let to the creation of New York’s Tactical Narcotics Task force (TNT). Informants said some Jamaicans from Brooklyn killed the cop. Pappy went to prison the day before the officer was killed.

 

Four suspects, all Bebos, were immediately arrested- Todd Scott, Scott Cobb, David McClary and Phillip Copeland. Three of the four suspects made video taped statements off the jump implicating themselves, Fat Cat and Pappy. The only one who didn’t talk was Phillip Copeland. The police played it up to implicate the drug lord Fat Cat in the media. “This was an order, not for the murder of a particular officer, but any officer for the purpose of delivering a message of death to anyone who opposed Fat Cat,” Lt. Phillip Panzarella of the Queens Homicide squad said. But behind the scenes a different tale was emerging.

 

“Cat was mad about what that stupid motherfucker Pappy did,” Viola Nichols, Cat’s sister said. “What Bebo did was fucked up,” Cat raged. “Now nobody will make no money.” And in a call to Viola Pappy explained his reasons “The man dissed me.” It was because the police officer ordered Pappy to put a can of beer in a brown paper bag. But as Cat found out Pappy had the wrong cop killed. The execution style murder was said to have been ordered by Pappy from prison for revenge against the police. And to make matters worse on August 12, 1988 the feds indicted Fat Cat and his whole crew on racketeering charges. The New York Daily News headline read- Fat Cat’s Empire Crumbles; Feds Bust Drug Clan, $20 million in Dope Seized, 30 Suspects Nabbed in Massive Raid. The suspects included Pap and Cat’s mothers. While all this was going down Pappy was sentenced for the gun receiving a three and half to seven year sentence. At sentencing he told the judge, “You gotta do what you gotta do. I look crazy so people are going to judge me on that. This is two cops I supposedly allegedly killed. Cops come to me at precinct and say I’m the leader of a drug ring. I’ve never been arrested for drugs in my life. I don’t know what they’re talking about.” The federal racketeering and conspiracy case included charges that Pappy and Fat Cat orchestrated and gave the order to kill the cop. The four suspects in the state case, the triggerman and his three cohorts had already been convicted and sentenced to 25 to life. Now the feds were going after the ringleaders.

 

“Todd Scott and them niggas are from the projects. Forty Projects.” BC says. And Todd Scott is the one who said that Pappy ordered the hit. But he wasn’t the only one who betrayed his man. It’s alleged that on September 29, 1989 in a secret court session Fat Cat agreed to testify against Pappy Mason. “The feds offered me and Pap 40 years under the old law to cop out to 848 for our mothers freedom,” Cat explained. “Pap said he wasn’t going to plead guilty. I took the plea.” There was a lot of outrage in the streets at the time concerning Fat Cat’s alleged duplicity. And there was outrage at the prosecutor’s office too where one prosecutor said, “Using Fat Cat to get Pappy is like using syphilis to get gonorrhea.” But to this day Pappy maintains that, “Cat never testified against me. His name is not in any of my paperwork.”

 

Pappy Mason went to trial alone in the federal racketeering case. “I’m not letting these crackers roll me,” he said and about his mother facing the indictment he explained, “My mother knows about white people. She said god will make a way.” Harry Butchelder, Pappy’s lawyer tried to enter an insanity defense at the November 1989 trial. But it didn’t play. Pappy was violent in court and the judge isolated him. So in effect he boycotted his own trial, preferring to follow the proceedings on a specially installed speaker system in his cell. “They did me wrong,” Pappy said. “Jah is good, it was no trial. It was a KK meeting for real. That was not an indictment that was the government.” Scott Cobb was a witness saying he knew in advance of Mason’s plan to kill a cop. The order was given to Marshall who was instructed to pay $8,000 a head. Mike Bones, from Cat’s crew also testified and Viola Nichols, Cat’s sister, spent three days on the stand. Fat Cat was never called.

 

“They say that me and Pappy planned this,” Phillip “Marshall” Copeland said. “But me and him never talked and I didn’t go see him so I can say that he didn’t play no part in it.” David McClary, the accused shooter denied Pappy ever gave him an order. And even Pappy claimed innocence, “No, hell no, why would I kill a cop?” Still Pappy was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment after the jury deliberated three days before finding him guilty. “I look at it like this, they used me and my boy to make points during that election year Marshall said summing it all up from his point of view. But whatever the truth is the legend lives on.

 

“I am a man amongst men. I am God’s son,” Pappy Mason said. “I am strong I will never give up on Bebo. I’m the hip-hop kid from Southside Queens.” And a lot of the kids who grew up on hip-hop and later became rap stars looked up to Pappy. He’s had a strong presence indirectly in their lives and this has translated to their songs. Nas on God’s son’s Get Down spit, “New York streets where killers’ll walk like Pistol Pete and Pappy Mason, gave the young boys admiration.” Nas also namedropped Pap in The World is Yours, “Facin’ time like Pappy Mason,” he rapped. And Southside Queens most controversial rapper 50 Cent used Pap’s name in verse too in the Ghetto Qua’ran where he alluded to Fat Cat snitching on Pappy. “I used to idolize Cat/Hurt me in my heart to hear that/He snitched on Pap/How he go out like that?” And 50 also big upped the Bebo’s in his song, “Go against crews like Bebo and killers like Pap Mason.” Other rappers like Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Ghostface have also saluted Pappy in verse.

 

 

“He defied the police in the street. He defied them in jail. How real is that?” BC says. “Some niggas don’t bend, they don’t move, they fight. It’s in the nature of a nigga like Pap. He was a cool ass nigga but he could get violent in a minute. Bug out and all that shit. But still the nigga was cool.” And for a guy with such an outlandish legend he wasn’t a real big dude only standing maybe 5-foot-8 or so but what made him who he was, was that pit bull heart and attitude. That take all comers mentality. Like they said, “Pappy didn’t take no short.” But looking back another hustler from the era said, “I think these guys were living a movie. They used to watch Scarface and the Godfather and they wanted to be like that.” Maybe so but whatever the reason Pappy has gone down in infamy as one of the most notorious killers to ever walk the streets of New York. And even to this day the fearless soldier Pappy Mason who some say is as strong as an ox is ready to go to war.

 

Tales from the pen have circulated of Pappy battling the goon squads and cell extraction teams. They say he wraps his head with towels to soften the blows from guards’ batons and saturates his body with baby oil to wrestle with the guards so they can’t grab a hold of him when they storm his cell, six deep to try and subdue one man. They say he wages a constant battle against the guards throwing shit and piss at them through the little door trap where they put the food tray through. Because you know Pappy Mason is in 24 hour lockdown. He long ago forfeited his right to be on a regular compound. “Pappy Mason’s burnt out. I was with him at MCC in 92. He had dreads down to the floor, slept underneath the bed, smoked a carton of cigs a day,” said one federal prisoner.

 

“They said in Attica he was bugged out.” BC says. “He was crazy but that don’t take nothing away from him. Street niggas love this dude because they know he gets busy.” Pappy’s life now consists of threatening officers, cell extraction and cutting up snitches who he hates with a passion. After 18 years at USP Marion, Pappy was transferred to ADX Florence in Colorado, the Bureau of Prisons Supermax and home to the most notorious criminals in the U.S. It’s said that the feds shoot him up with large doses of Thorazine to keep him docile. Pappy even admitted this, “The government shot me up with Thorazine, but Jah makes a way, so God brings me back to Bebo. I am not crazy, I am in prions for something I did not do.” Pappy is still at this time fighting to overturn his conviction and life sentence in the feds, waging a constant battle on multiple fronts.

 

“The nigga took that time. He ain’t crying, he took it, he doing it.” BC says. “You got to salute a nigga like that. I just know this nigga is burned out but Pap a stand up nigga, they love that nigga son. They love that nigga because he stood up. He’s in the joint and he still don’t give a fuck. His influence is so strong a heritage that’s not even his salutes this dude. The Jamaicans claim Pap like he’s one of their own. He’s not. He’s American.” And on the whole Fat Cat snitch fiasco Pappy stands firm.

 

“They lie on Fat Cat and me word to mother.” Pappy said. Pappy calls Cat his brother. But street legend discredits pappy due to him being shot up with Thorazine. Some dudes say he doesn’t know what he’s saying but whatever the truth it’s caused a lot of controversy. Not enough to diminish Pappy’s infamy though. Even though he’s been locked away from the world for the last twenty years his legend lives on. As does his link with Fat Cat. “They will forever be linked together.” BC says but unlike Cat Pappy will forever be recognized as a stand up dude whereas Fat Cats credentials, right or wrong, are in question. A chilling fact rises to the surface though in this story and that is no matter who ordered it the bullets that killed Edward Byrne - were meant for the other cop, the one called Iceman.

 

Check out Soul Man’s story in Nikki Turner’s Street Chronicles, Christmas in the Hood

 

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 or request it at a bookstore near you.

Posted: 2007-08-16 17:48, Edited: 2007-08-16 17:57

 

 

Wayne “Silk” Perry

 

Notorious Washington, DC head-hitter, Wayne “Silk” Perry was one of the baddest in the business. He was loved by some, feared by many, but respected by all. He was the Michael Jordan of the murder game. If one was to list the top five head-hitters to ever come out of the Murder Capital Silk would be number one and number two. The government has called him a hit man, a contract killer, and even DC’s worst-case scenario.

 

Everybody has heard the stories about how Silk protected the infamous rat/Harlem drug dealer, Alberto “Alpo” Martinez. Silk allegedly dropped bodies to keep Alpo alive and Alpo repaid him by telling the feds everything and helping them seek the death penalty against Silk. That story is well known, but Silk’s early life is not. Most people only know the Wayne Perry of the late 80s, but the legendary gangster has been in the mix since the 70s. Now, confined in the Control Unit of ADX with five life sentences, the man that federal prosecutors called one of the most heinous murderers in DC history is ready to shine a little light on how he became the feared and respected gangster that he is. This is the Don Diva exclusive.

 

DON DIVA: Why have you waited so long to share your story?
WAYNE PERRY: I really don’t and haven’t talked about my past in a long time because even though I speak facts and the truth, one could easily mistake the truth for arrogance. I hate arrogance. Besides that, it’s a struggle to simply reach out to one’s family and friends from this slave plantation, Neo Nazi camp (ADX). These racist crackers that run ADX are so foul they tear up, if not all, most of my mail, so it’s difficult for me to reach anyone, and these crackers also tear up my incoming mail and lie to justify rejecting most of my mail.

 

DD: How much longer do you have to do in ADX?
WP: I have 18 months left in Control Unit. (Control Unit is the
most secure housing unit in the super max prison.) Insha Allah (God Willing), if I don’t get my time ran up, I hope to get to pen. But most likely these Crackers are going to keep me here in ADX a while longer. I’ve been here 12 years. I refuse to kiss these crackers’ ass or compromise. It’s DBD 4 Life with me. I ain’t going for NOTHING!

 

DD: Where did you grow up? -
WP: I was born 11-14-62 and raised in DC. I grew up down Southwest and lived on L Street. I spent a lot of the summers of my childhood in Georgia. I even put fools in the dirt down there and back then it was super racist. Crackers used to call me boy.

 

DD: What were you into back in those days?
WP: I was the best baseball player in DC at one time; I’ve been in the Washington Star several times about baseball. I grew up on sports. I lived across the street from the boys club. I boxed, played basketball, baseball, and football and was always the MVP, but I was caught up in that gangster stuff.

 

DD: Where did you get the name Silk from?
WP: I got the name Silk from my extended brother, Lop. I was real smooth in sports and with the girls when I was a kid. I was 12 or so when Lop gave me that name. Lop was my idol, the thoroughest and baddest joker I ever knew.

 

DD: What were your high school days like?
WP: I went to Wilson High School. I got locked up in 79 for shooting the hall monitor man. But I really didn’t shoot him. The dude who did it and his crew blamed it on me because it was a riot, SW against NW, and I kicked it off by punishing this older joker from NW, but I didn’t have a weapon. It was known that I wouldn’t tell and I’d ride it out so they lied on me, but I beat it in court. I got put out of school and went to Randall but ended up beating the baseball team coach with a bat at practice and got barred out of all DC public schools. Then I went to Franklin GED School cause a judge ordered me to. I had to kill a fool there for telling me he was going to take my chain. I was real small back then so I guess he thought he could try me.

 

DD: When did you get involved in the street life?
WP: In 1974 I put my first fool in the dirt. I started hustling in 1975 and had a crew up under me. In 1976 I learned how to cheat with crooked dice, marked and cut cards. I was real good at it. Older guys I never told I was cheating used to take me all over to gamble cause they thought I was lucky. I was rich for a youngster in 77.

 

DD: When did you start robbing?
WP: I started robbing in 78, I started robbing banks. My little brother got killed in a bank by a pig in 79.

 

DD: What areas of DC did you used hang out in?
WP: Back then, I had started hanging up 17th Street NW, gambling. I was also hanging on 14th Street, and 7th and T Street NW with older guys, watching their backs while they hustled. They knew I’d shoot anybody, police, killers, gorillas, etc. I also used to go on robberies with some helleva gangsters, but they always took the bullets out of my gun cause they said I was trigger happy.

 

In the early 80s, Southwest, DC was the host of some of the biggest crap games in the city. Hustlers and gangsters from all over DC could be found at these crap games. By this time, Wayne Perry’s name was all over Southwest and a few other spots; he had his hands in a little bit of everything. He was known to make an example out of whoever crossed the line with him as well. Silk’s close comrade, and DC street legend, Sop Sop, remembers one of those examples: “They had this big crap game going on outside down Southwest one day. A lot of well known hustlers and gamblers from other parts of the city was out there. Wayne and this well known and respected dude whose name I can’t recall got into it about a bet. Wayne shot him in his ass twice in front of everybody.” As time went on it became clear that Wayne Perry had no problem making an example out of anybody at any time.

 

Despite Silk’s growing notoriety in the streets, his loving parents had no idea he was into so much, especially his hard working father. Silk and his father eventually fell out because of Silk’s lifestyle. During their fall out Silk spoke to his father in such a disrespectful way that his father was emotionally scarred for life. Silk’s father had never heard his son speak to him in such a way. Feeling deep regret after the fall out with his father, Silk soon went to prison carrying that burden. It would be a burden that would affect him for the rest of his life.

 

DD: What did you go to prison for at that time?
WP: In 84 I killed a fool in front of the police, it was sort of like self-defense. I went down Youth Center.

 

Lorton’s Youth Center was one of the most violent and aggressive prisons of its time. Convicts went to war with everything from hammers and butcher knives to lawn mower blades. Any weakness in a man was exploited to the utmost down the Center. It was truly a place that could make or break a man, and it produced many of the gangsters and street legends that took the nation’s capital by storm in the late-80s and early-90s. “Wayne came down Youth Center One where myself, Titus, Gator and many other good men were,” says Sop Sop. “Wayne established himself as a man among men. He then went home in the late 80s and looked out for all the men he left behind and did what he had to do to survive as a man in the streets.”

 

DD: When did you come home from Youth Center?
WP: I came home in late 87. When I came home my father was in critical condition after having two strokes. In a short time he passed and I lost my mind and was on a death wish.

 

The late 80s were dangerous times in the DC streets. Gunplay was at an all-time high. At the same time, there was tons of money to be made for a man with a game plan and enough balls to put the plan into effect. Wayne Perry had both and in no time he was right back in the mix of things. Murder, robbery, drug dealing, extortion, you name it, Silk had his hands in it. “He was a master philosopher when it comes to that street shit.” says Manny, a comrade of Silk’s that Silk says is like a blood brother to him. “Silk had his extortion game down so tight that he took me to a spot that was owned by some major dudes in the city and said: ‘Go in there and tell such and such to send a bag of that money out here and don’t make me come in there and get it either.’ I thought he was playing, but he was dead serious.” Manny remembers. “I went in the spot and told the dude what Silk said and with no problem the dude gave me a bag full of money. Silk had niggaz scared to death.” Silk didn’t stop at street figures when it came to his extortion game, he went as far as extorting lawyers and Italians in Georgetown.

 

However, Wayne Perry’s murder game is what grabbed the most attention and he was playing no games when it came to firing his pistol. When he allegedly started taking money for murder nobody was safe. If the price was right and the joker wasn’t in Silk’s circle he had no problem putting that work in. He was known to lay on his victims for as long as it took. There are stories of Silk sleeping in the yard of dudes that had money on their heads until he could get at them. Silk allegedly told a comrade of his: “I don’t play that across the street shit, I walk right up and put seven in they head like it ain’t shit.” According to police and homicide detectives, one of the things that made Wayne Perry so dangerous was that he would kill where least expected. He would pop up in broad daylight and gun down a victim in the middle of a crowded outside basketball tournament. At times, it was said that he wouldn’t even wear a mask, knowing that witnesses would be scared to death to talk to police.

 

The fear that Silk put in the hearts of some people was like no other. Even other so-called killers tried to avoid his shit list. Close friends of Silk say that he had a thing for taking down wannabe killers. He also put fear in the hearts of big drug figures that he wasn’t even paying attention to at times. “When Silk was on the streets, certain niggaz wouldn’t even drive their expensive cars because they didn’t want him to think they were getting money.” says Manny. “If you were weak or a punk you weren’t supposed to have shit as far as he was concerned.”

 

Aside from his murderous street persona, Wayne Perry still lived up to the name Silk. He would pop up out of the blue driving anything from a 560 Benz to a CE and step on the scene in top-of-the-line Versace gear without a care in the world despite the fact that he was allegedly behind a number of high profile murders in the city. He was the life of the party, extremely funny, down for a good time and always joking and playing. He joked and played so much that it was hard to tell when he was serious unless you really knew him. Without a doubt, he could be very serious in a heartbeat. Silk was also very smart and shrewd; he could run circles around the average joe in the streets. He played the streets like a game of chess, thinking his moves out several steps in advance. Loyalty was one of his strong points. If he had love for you and respected you he would stand against the world with you no matter what the odds were. “Wayne was_a_real_good dude,” says Sop Sop. “A well respected man of honor. Well respected by myself and other men like me. Wayne would give a friend the shirt off his back.” Silk lived by the code, but played by his own rules.

 

Alberto “Alpo” Martinez

 

DD: When did you meet Alpo?
WP: I met the rat Po in 89. I was out to destroy him over a lie a girl told me he said. I didn’t know him, he was scared to death, but he was with my close comrade, Lil Pop, who asked me not to kill Po.

 

Silk saw a golden opportunity in dealing with Alpo at a time when coke was short in the city so he took him under his wing. Silk’s protection was supposed to make Alpo off limits for the hungry wolves of the city, but they came out of the woodwork trying to get at him. About his business, Silk stepped up and put heads to bed with no questions asked. In the process, he damn near dared anyone to fuck with Alpo. Soon afterward, Alpo was allegedly moving 30 bricks of coke a day at times and Silk was eating like a king. If dudes owed Alpo money and were playing games about paying Silk went to get the money and didn’t care who the dude was supposed to be. One of the city’s biggest drug dealers allegedly owed Alpo close to a million dollars at one time; Alpo wasn’t pressing the situation, but Silk stepped to the dude and told him: “That money you owe Po ain’t Po money no more, it’s mine and I want that.” It’s said that Silk had the money the next day and kept it for himself. In a short time, Alpo had a ghetto pass and could roam DC safely, getting money. He was worth more to Silk alive than dead. As the money began to pile up, more bodies began to drop.

 

One of the bodies that grabbed the attention of homicide detectives was that of Garrett “Gary” Terrell. According to Alpo, he and Gary were cool at one time; he said that Gary killed Rich Porter with him. Alpo claimed that he and Gary were putting money together to cop $6,000,000 worth of cocaine; the deal was to put up $2,000,000 and owe $4,000,000. Alpo was to put up $1,500,000 and let Gary get down with $500,000. According to Alpo, Silk learned that Gary planned to kill Alpo in the process of the deal. Gary turned up shot seven times and dumped naked in Rock Creek Park.

 

As time went on, the money and murder became a blur. At the same time, the FBI and DC homicide detectives were hearing the name Wayne Perry in connection with too many murders. The heat was on and law enforcement went after Silk. However, Silk allegedly put an end to investigations and court cases by putting an end to witnesses. Alpo told federal prosecutors that Wayne Perry caught one female that was about to testify against him and ended up stabbing her in the face and head before shooting her five times and dumping her body on 295. Alpo claimed that Silk had a thing for torture.

 

By 1992, Wayne Perry was in jail in Prince George’s County, MD where he was being held on a number of charges, but nothing that would lay him down for a long time. After all, he was still Silk, he knew how to beat cases. As Silk appeared in court in December of 1992 to plead guilty to one count of selling a counterfeit substance to an undercover, he was arrested by the Safe Streets Task Force and charged with first-degree murder in the October 23, 1991 slaying of Garrett “Gary” Terrell in the furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise. The beginning of the end was at hand, but Silk remained firm and kept his mouth closed even though he was facing a life sentence if convicted for the murder in DC.

 

Meanwhile, Alpo was already in jail on cocaine distribution charges. He’d shown signs of weakness from the jump, The Washington Post reported that as Alpo appeared in court after his November 1991 arrest he “sniffled loudly as tears welled up in his eyes.” Alpo soon began to cooperate with the feds, who really wanted Wayne Perry.

 

On March 5, 1993, federal prosecutors unsealed a 27-count indictment charging Wayne Perry, Tyrone Price and Michael Jackson with committing murder in the furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise for the execution of nine people, conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, racketeering conspiracy, retaliating against a witness, kidnapping and robbery. The indictment was based on the cooperation of Alpo, who had already pleaded guilty to ordering multiple murders. According to the indictment, Silk, Price and Jackson were paid by Alpo for killings in drugs or money. The drug operation allegedly shipped more than 500 kilograms of cocaine into DC between 1989 and 1991. Silk was allegedly responsible for eight of the nine murders/ he was also identified by law enforcement as the “premiere shooter” and “hit man” for the so-called drug gang headed by Alpo.

 

In June of 1993, the government decided to seek the death penalty against Wayne Perry in federal court, his case was the first death penalty case brought in DC since 1971. The last execution was in 1957, when Robert Carter was electrocuted for killing a police officer. In an effort to get the death penalty approved by Attorney General Janet Reno, prosecutors filed a list of alleged aggravating factors stating that Wayne Perry was responsible for killings for hire, torture, kidnappings and retaliation against witnesses. Silk was the only defendant that was to face death on his case. Reporters present in court when Silk learned that he would face death said that he smiled despite having heard the grim news.

 

DD: How did you feel when you learned that you would face the death penalty?
WP: I went with the flow, I don’t fear nothing and no one but God!

 

After a number of ups and downs, betrayals and double crossings, Wayne Perry pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to five counts of murder in the furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise for the killings of Domenico Benson, who was shot as he shook Alpo’s hand; Evelyn Carter, who was allegedly cooperating with police, she was shot in the head at close range leaving Constitution Hall; Yolanda Burley; Alveta Hopkins; and Garrett “Gary” Terrell. Silk was immediately sentenced to five life sentences. In March of 1994, at 31 years old, Wayne Perry’s run in the streets was over.

 

DD: Why did you plead guilty to the murders?
WP: I didn’t cop out because of the death penalty. I live to die. I copped out to make sure others didn’t get life. I took the bull by the horns to save others. That’s the kind of man I am.

 

DD: After everything that went down, what are you feelings about Alpo?
WP: Make no mistake about it, Po is a spineless coward, a rat of the highest order. I will never understand how people praise and romanticize snitches, rats and sell-outs. I would die a thousand deaths before I ever compromised my principles as a
man. As I think back, I always knew Po was weak and capable of everything he displayed. I had my reasons for not putting him in the dirt. I should have put the barrel in his mouth!

 

DD: Do you have any advice for the younger generation?
WP: It’s important that they never take the field and play the game that has no ending and no winners. The game has been tainted by rats. Nowadays, you can’t trust guys in the game, especially the ones that seem to be winning because as soon as the heat comes down they’re selling out. Kingpins are telling on foot soldiers and etc.

 

DD: Is it true that you legally changed your name?
WP: Yeah, my name is Nkosi Shaka Zulu-El. I got rid of my slave name and took on the Zulu name because they are a strong Black blood line of our ancestors who are the most hated Blacks of all time. I’m also Muslim now and my fate lies in the hands of Allah, the Most High.

 

Although Silk is gone he will always be remembered as one of the few that lived by the code and stood for death before dishonor, no matter what the cost.

 

Check out Soul Man’s story in Nikki Turner’s Street Chronicles, Christmas in the Hood

 

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 or request it at a bookstore near you.

Posted: 2007-07-31 09:51, Edited: 2007-07-31 09:56

 

 

In the streets some dudes are respected, some dudes are feared and some dudes are loved. But every now and then a dude hits the trifecta rising above the norm, because of the way he carries himself, because of the way others perceive him and because of how he treats others in the game. When a dude like this comes along he is known as an ambassador and even in death his legend holds.

 

Over 15 years ago the Washington Post headline read Alleged Drug Figure Slain on DC Street. The man known as Fray, government name Michael Salters had met his demise. He was described by law enforcement officials as one of the city’s largest drug dealers, but it was noted that his real power lay in his ability to referee turf disputes among rival drug dealers. So in other words Fray made big power moves and due to this he was a man among men. Respected, feared and loved. But this didn’t stop him from being gunned down on the streets he came up on. On July 16, 1991 in an ambush at First and Bryant Streets NW an unidentified gunman opened fire on Salter’s car, DC Police reported. The death of a street legend being the result.

 

Before his untimely end Fray was the subject of a five-year investigation by the Washington Metropolitan Police and the FBI. He had been implicated in drug deals of more than 200 pounds, but he had proved too well insulated from direct involvement to be charged. Agents at times put Salters under intense surveillance and interviewed drug dealers who said they had worked with and for him. His name also came up in wiretapped conversations. A dude from the R Street case was heard on wire saying Fray paid the DA 5 G’s for info. This was how far his reach and influence carried. But the feds never got him. Fray met his maker in the streets. In a burst of gunfire. Some rappers rap about it, but Fray lived it. And through interviews with friends, relatives and those in the know Don Diva has put this story together to honor the man, the gangsta and the legend.

 

“Fray was an uptown nigga 100%,” Says Eyone the co-writer of this story. “Fray was close to my family. I was under the impression that he was my uncle as a child. He was close friends with my mother and aunt.” Eyone relates how Fray used to give him and his cousins money when they were youngsters. It was always a good day when Uncle Fray rolled through. In the close-knit uptown community Fray was a benefactor.

 

“I’ll never forget the day I saw him and his man in front of my house with the red Ferrari.” Eyone says of the man who was loved and highly respected by those who knew him well. “I had never seen other niggas in a Ferrari in the hood. I always saw Fray with gold and diamonds on as far back as I can remember, I mean the big-boy shit like rappers started wearing in the 90’s. Fray was rocking the iced-out Rolex as far back as 84.” They used to call him Horse Collar and Fray Bean back in the day and it’s said that he was a true ladies man that spent lots of money on the honies buying them jewelry and diamond rings. He was a baller that drove Mercedes, Acuras, Ferraris and trucks, but most of all people respected his presence in the streets.

 

“Fray was a dude that was for DC, all the way. He had a lot of power in the city. When he was on he made sure all those close to him were doing good.” Says a close relative of Fray. But Fray was also known to be ruthless. He was the first Washington dealer to stockpile guns, according to police. He was not afraid to handle business and in the drug game that business wasn’t nice. “Not one time as far back as I can remember did somebody that Fray was close to get killed and he didn’t straighten it ASAP.” The relative says. “Everybody knows this. If a nigga out of his circle go killed he made sure somebody answered for it.” And other hustlers from the era who were down with Fray remember this also. Don Diva hooked up with Ya and Fatts, two oldschool hustlers from uptown.

 

Don Diva- What do you know about Fray?

 

Ya- He was a neighborhood legend. Old school hustler that came from uptown. A true gangsta.

 

Fatts- He came up on the streets. People viewed him in different ways. People who really knew him would say that he was ruthless. He wouldn’t put a hit out, he handled stuff for himself. At the same time people would come to him and ask him if they could handle things for him.

 

DD- Was he feared? Why?

 

Ya- For dudes that had something to fear from him. He was dangerous, no doubt, if crossed. He wasn’t afraid to put in work, himself. He was truly respected regardless of whether you loved him or hated him, you respected him.

 

Fatts- By those that had reason to fear him. The ladies loved him. Men respected and feared him

 

DD- Where did he grow up? What streets did he come off of?

 

Ya- Off of Allison and Webster streets, that neighborhood.

 

Fatts- He is from NW, uptown. He hung out on Upshur and lived on Webster.

 

Fray came up in the streets of uptown. Born on December 26, 1953 in DC. “Fray was a serious nigga,” Eyone says. “He was an old school hustler that stood on the rules of the game as they were passed down to him. He was also a no-nonsense type of dude, he played for keeps, going all the way back to the seventies.” And to the seventies is where Don Diva is going. That’s where Fray’s story starts and we are going to chronicle Frays rise from neighborhood tough to Chocolate City drug dealer to Ambassador of the city.

 

In the late 60’s and 70’s most remember Fray as a vicious armed robber and a heroin addict. In the early 70’s at the age of 19 he was busted on an armed robbery charge and sent down Lorton to Youth Center 1. But Fray was too aggressive for the Youth Center crowd and was sent over to the Max at Big Lorton on the Hill, the vicious and brutal pen where convicts observed only one rule- surviving by any means. In the joint at that time dudes were literally being raped, robbed and killed daily. This is the environment that a young Fray was thrown into and in its fire the legend he was to become was forged.

 

“The Hill was no playground back then,” says Graytop, an oldhead convict and Lorton veteran. “Niggas didn’t care who you were or what you were known for, if you got out of line they were coming for your ass. Most killers didn’t even walk alone, but some could and Fray was one of those dudes, although he had a crew that were dead serious about their business.” Fray was a well respected man during his bid, but he was also a survivor. He came through the circumstance of his upbringing and environment and prospered in the realm of predators.

 

“He survived the era of the gangs when everybody was getting high and stuff in the early 70″s.” Eyone says. “His thing then was robbery and other little hustles. He was in the mix and running in the circle of all the killers and hustlers. He could walk the streets and in the pen alone.”

 

Don Diva- As far back as you can remember what kind of hustles did Fray have?

 

Ya- He started out as a stick up boy, crap hustler and whatever he could get a dollar out of.

 

Fatts- He was in gangs. He was in the Marlboro 500 and then went to the Rock boys. He was always scheming to get money, but he was a good dude. I don’t remember him going to school. He got educated in jail.

 

DD- What kind of beefs did he go down Lorton for?

 

Fatts- He went down for armed robbery. He did time at Youth Center and Big Lorton. At Youth Center in 1974 when I first got there somebody broke into my locker. They took my stuff. Fray went and got my stuff back and made the dude apologize. That just shows what type of guy he was. How much he was respected.

 

DD- What’s something not everyone knows about Fray?

 

Ya- That he was once a drug addict and flipped the entire script.

 

From dope fiend to big boy status. It’s said that his plans to get paid were cultivated down Lorton on the Hill. He stopped getting high and focused on getting money and establishing himself amongst men that were on the same time from all parts of the city. “Slim was a hustler, a shotcaller down Lorton,” says Moose, another hustler from the era. “He made alliances with all the thoroughest dudes in the pen.”

 

Don Diva- What did Fray do at Lorton?

 

Ya- He started his empire in jail by surrounding himself with the most thorough dudes of each town SE, NE etc. So when they got out he was able to go into each part of town and hustle because these niggas were a part of his mob. He was truly ringing across the city. He was truly getting his.

 

DD- When did you meet him?

 

Ya- I met him in 1977 through Black Anthony. We were shooting craps in the back of Coolidge and Black Anthony introduced us. He was with Wookie, Black Al and Anthony. That was the start of his mob. This was the first time I eve saw this nigga in my life. Before that he was locked up and his name was just ringing. Everybody kept talking about Fray and when Fray come home.

 

 

Fray returned to the streets around 1977. His name was ringing bells, but he still had to play his position. “Wookie and Eggy were running things when Fray came home. Wookie put him on his feet.” Moose says. And from there Fray made his way. But it wasn’t all kosher. He didn’t blow up right away. And there were still people willing to try the young, up and coming gangsta. One of them was Avon Little. Dudes in the city were scared of Little because he was good with his hands. He had a fearsome rep and did what he wanted. Then he crossed Fray or so the story goes.

 

Allegedly Avon Little snatched Fray’s girl’s purse in front of the Howard on Wiltberger and T. This was an affront Fray could not abide if he wanted to keep his reputation intact. Retribution was swift and Avon Little was murdered, his body found in an alley off Wiltberger. Fray was eventually charged with the murder, but beat the case because the witness never showed up. Street rumors at the time said the witness was held hostage throughout the trial. And with the outcome of this situation Fray’s reputation was further enhanced.

 

As a result of the murder charge Fray and Wookie were on the run for a minute, but they were arrested in New Jersey and extradited back to DC. Fray beat the murder case, but his parole was violated and he was sent back to Lorton. He emerged from prison once again as the 80’s started and this time it was on for real.

 

“Fray was a real serious nigga in the streets,” Moose says. “He came home and got a lot of money with the water when the city was going crazy over Loveboat.” A homie from down Lorton also helped Fray out by giving him access to his stash of bank robbery money, which was allegedly $100,000. With the capital and the water connect out of California Fray spread his wings and when he got on he made sure his mans original 100 grand went back into the stash. Fray was loyal like that. He allegedly had a piece of the infamous Handover spot and was allegedly connected to the notorious Black Tape dope that was all the rave in the city at the time. “Fray was on big boy status when he was on top of his game,” Moose says and legend has it Fray had dudes carrying bags of money down the street in duffle bags that they could hardly carry alone. His name was ringing bells across the city louder than ever before.

 

Don Diva- How did Fray become so popular?

 

Ya- He was a go getter, very ambitious, wasn’t afraid to get what he had to get of life. People just loved that nigga because of his charisma, his superfly style. People wanted to be him and to be around him. He was the dude that wasn’t afraid. He was the life of the party. The dude that people wanted to be like, if they could, and that’s real.

 

Fatts- Word of mouth. When he came out he was like a new dude on the scene. He had a new hustle game. People knew him for everything. He knew a lot of people. Pickpockets. He looked good so the girls loved him. All the women loved him even the thick ones. He was a hustler. He knew a lot of things.

 

DD- What was he into streetwise?

 

Ya- Narcotics trafficking. He started selling weed, then it escalated to dope and coke all over the city. He had Kennedy Street locked down in the dope game. He was the type of dude that started with nothing then blew up. He was fly, very stylish, funny and thorough. He was always the type of dude trying to get a dollar, trying to catch a honey. Always scheming.

 

DD- Where did he hang out at?

 

Ya- I can remember seeing him at NW Gardens, Maverick Room and the Masonic Temple to name a few.

 

Fatts- Everywhere. The whole town. Back then the Masonic Temple, The Squad Room. It depend on what was happening.

 

As crack hit the city in the mid 80’s Fray maintained his position as the man. He was ruthless when dudes crossed him- he believed in an eye for an eye. Law enforcement sources said that Frays main drug operations were along Kennedy St NW, stretching at times from North Capitol St to Georgia Ave. “Fray had a stronghold on Kennedy ST and at one point even had spots downtown and on 14th Street.” Eyone says. “He was truly a citywide dude. He had bonds with dudes of honor and respect all across the city.” Fray threw parties around the city, started businesses and bought laundry mats and stores. He was taking trips to Vegas, Hawaii and other spots. Hitting all the big fights, draped in gold, diamonds and gators.

 

At the same time he was taking care of his comrades in prison all across the nation. Keeping money on their books, paying for lawyers and arranging for drugs to be smuggled into them. He’d go down to Lorton to the different fairs and functions and give away thousands of dollars to his homies. He sent $20 grand to his partner on the run in Houston numerous times and blessed another homie with $50 grand when he hit the bricks. Federal drug officials also said that they were told by several drug dealers that some dealers ceded Fray the power to assign drug territories for PCP, Heroin, cocaine and other drugs.

 

Don Diva- When did Fray blow up in the streets?

 

Ya- Around 1980, his empire began to blow up across the city. He had several businesses, laundry mats and stores. He promoted boxing events and youth events. He was recognized as one of the big boys on the come up in the city at the time. A young nigga that wasn’t having it with a vicious crew behind him.

 

Fatts- In 1981-82 when he hooked up with Daru, Eddie, Curtis and Eggy, people he knew in jail. He knew a lot of people. People trusted him.

 

DD- Did you respect him as a man and why?
Ya- Yes, because he was a man’s man. The type of dude that could lead other men.

 

Fatts- Yes, because I knew him. I knew him as a person. He was a real good person. He humbled himself to the lesser guy. Anyone who needed any thing he would humble himself to anyone in need.

 

In the late 80’s when Rayful Edmond came to power in the cocaine trade in the city Fray was still doing his thing. He was still a factor during the crack era when Rayful had the game in a headlock. This was when DC was known as the Murder Capital of the World. Bodies were dropping as dudes tried to get theirs in the vicious crack wars that raged throughout the city. There was so much killing that it was affecting business and when war broke out between Rayful’s crew and a rival faction in the Trinidad section of NE Fray was called upon to restore order to the streets of DC on behalf of Rayful. DEA agent John Cornille testified in the pretrial hearings into the cocaine distribution case of drug gang leader Rayful Edmond that Fray was identified as the person who in August 1988 imposed a cease fire in the bloody warfare between Rayful’s crew and the breakaway crew operating in the Trinidad section of NE DC. It was the last week of August and Rayful Edmond, Tony Lewis and their rivals met in a schoolyard near Howard University to squash the beef. Fray showed them that the warfare was senseless and attracting too much attention from the police plus it was cutting into the profits from everybody’s business. A truce was called and the killings stopped.

 

“When I say he had power, I mean real power in the city.” Fray’s relative says. “When Rayful’s crew has its issue with the dudes from Trinidad and bodies were dropping all over the place, fucking the city up, niggas turned to Fray. I was there. Fray was paid $100,000 to put an end to that and the killings stopped. Not because niggas were scared, but because niggas respected him. These were killers, known killers we are talking about. Fray had power like that in the city. It’s said that even the FBI, and the DEA were impressed by Fray’s actions and even though Fray was not charged in the Edmond case federal sources said that he had pooled money with Edmond and his partner Tony Lewis to buy cocaine from the LA drug broker who was Edmonds pipeline to Columbian dealers. “Rayful came to him to squash one of the most notorious beefs in the city.” Says a hustler familiar with the situation. “Fray was like that. His respect level was high.”

 

Don Diva- Was Fray the man in DC?

 

Fatts- He was probably the man to the people who knew him. He was the type who went out and made things happen himself. Like Rayful had a connect. Fray didn’t have a connect. No one ever put the keys in his hand. People knew that if they gave him something he would take care of it. He was the man as far as his crew not like Rayful. He made a way. He was trying to get it. Always grinding. Trying to make money to survive.

 

And Fray was looking out for the home team too. This loyalty to his people would be his downfall. His relative explains, “Fray would lean on outsiders, dudes that were from out of town. I know, I saw it. I was there. He stressed to me not to lean on hometown dudes when there was enough dudes from out of town that could be taxed.” And this was Fray’s philosophy still as he moved into his 30’s a respected member of DC’s criminal underworld.

 

When the soon to become infamous rat Alpo hit DC in the late 80’s Fray would get shit from him and not pay him sometimes. He was leaning on the New Yorker and saw him as a coward even before he started snitching.

 

“I saw Fray take 10 keys from Alpo one time,” one hustler says. Fray had gotten in touch with some of his people from New York that came down and warned him that Alpo wasn’t right and that he had set some people up in New York long before he began to tell. So Fray had the 411 on Alpo from the jump. But he didn’t foresee the cowards treachery.

 

Fray was in the life and death was an occupational hazard. Fray just never envision himself falling prey to the life. Afraid that Fray was going to have him killed Alpo paid a DC dude to kill a DC legend. Fray’s body, still inside his bullet-ridden car was left outside the entrance to the Washington Hospital Center shortly after 10:30PM on July 16, 1991. 5th District Captain James Coffey said. Fray was pronounced dead at about 1AM that morning. The police department said Fray had been shot at least 6 times. A relative of Fray’s was driving a van behind Fray’s car east on Bryant when he was cut off by another care near First, police said. An occupant of the vehicle that cut off the van opened fire on Fray. An uninjured passenger in Fray’s car then drove him to the hospital.

 

About the murder, the rat Alpo said in another street magazine, “Fray was about to get back in position in DC. He had a list of names of people who he needed to eliminate and I was at the top of his list. I found out because I was feeding someone in his camp he wasn’t taking care of. That same person ended up killing him for me.” At the time though no one knew who had killed Fray.

 

“I was in prison when Fray got killed.” His relative says. “I’ll never forget when dude came to my cell and told me that your cousin got killed last night. I got on the phone and called home and couldn’t believe it. I wondered who would jump out there like that. Fray had that much pull in DC. It hurts to even talk about this shit because nothing was really done to answer that shit. How can a nigga like Fray get killed and niggas don’t tear the city up and go to war. The only person I can say really did something was his nephew Poochie.”

 

Darrell Salters aka Poochie, Frays nephew, was a triggerman who robbed and kidnapped. He did a lot of shit behind Fray’s murder, but was eventually gunned down himself. It was said that Poochie killed a few big names in the game behind Fray’s murder, but no one knew if he got the right people.

 

Don Diva- Why was Fray taken out?

 

Fatts- I heard that this guy Brooks and Alpo were scared of him. That’s what I heard.

 

On March 5, 1993, a 27 count indictment stemming from the Alpo case alleged that his group from 1989 to 1991 was responsible for 9 alleged homicides. According to the indictment when Alpo learned of Fray’s plans to kill him he and Wayne Perry paid Michael Jackson $9,000 in cash, a half-kilogram of cocaine and a 9mm handgun to kill Fray. The allegations were never presented in court, but Alpo freely admitted to them in the magazine interview.

 

“Fray maintained his status throughout the 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s when bodies were dropping like crazy in the city.” Eyone says. Fray’s end was the death of a legend that rocked the city. “When Fray got killed my peoples would not let me go to the service because of the tension that was in the streets at the time.” Eyone says and even though retribution was not exacted it has in a way. Because Fray has gone on to be remembered as one of the most legendary gangstas of all time. He has been recognized as a loyal, respected leader that played the game the way it was meant to be played and it turns out the man who had him killed has gone down in gangsta history as the worse kind of rat and coward. A man whose very name is vilified and said out the side of peoples mouths with distaste. While Fray is still held in high esteem and regard by friends, enemies and the law alike.

 

“Fray was a good dude, a fiar dude and a comrade.” Graytop the Lorton veteran says. “He gave respect and demanded it as well. He didn’t take no shit. He played by the rules of the game. He never crossed you, but there were lines drawn back then and if you got on the wrong side of the line he dealt with you. Over all he was a good dude and I could never speak bad of.”

 

And 15 years later on the 15th anniversary of Fray’s death an obituary with his photo was placed in the Washington Post celebrating Fray’s life. It read in part, “Even though your life was cut tragically short, you mastered what many people take a lifetime to accomplish. You were and still are loved, honored and respected in the hearts and lives that you touched, just as much now as when you were here.” And that says it all along with this tribute to the man. Don Diva honors only true gangstas. The rest need not apply.

 

Check out Soul Man’s story in Nikki Turner’s Street Chronicles, Christmas in the Hood

 

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 or request it at a bookstore near you.

Posted: 2007-06-16 16:17

 

 

A Hustlers Wife, Project Chick, The Glamorous Life, Riding Dirty on I-95, Death Before Dishonor, Forever a Hustlers Wife- these are the titles of Nikki Turner’s books but could easily be superlatives to describe the Queen of hip-hip fiction and her life. The Richmond, VA author is on top of the game now but it wasn’t always like that. Still a come up is a come up and in the parlance of the streets Nikki is what they call a big baller. But every big baller started somewhere and most came from humble beginnings.

 

“I started writing in 7th grade when my English teacher gave me a journal because I passed notes in her class,” Nikki says. “From that point I knew I could write. I’ve always been a very outspoken person but if I put my thoughts on paper or in a letter than I would truly get my point across. That’s with anything, if I went to a restaurant or to a store and was mistreated, if I complained it was ok but if I wrote a letter I always got a surprising response. So it goes back to there.” And from there it went to her first novel, A Hustler; Wife, which was a look into the world Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim left behind, but from a female’s perspective.

 

 

“When I first penned A Hustlers Wife there were not many street books on the market so I thought, ‘hmmm, I think I’ll write a book.’ And I did. Once I had it in my mind that I was going to do it, thirty-seven days later I had the rough draft of A Hustlers Wife.” A now that rough draft, which found its way to Triple Crown founders Shannon Holmes and Vickie Stringer and sold in the six figures within the first year of publication is being made into a movie.

 

“It’s in production now and scheduled to hit the big screen,” Nikki says. But the Essence and Don Diva Magazine best selling author hasn’t rested on her laurels. Besides Project Chicks, The Glamorous Life, Riding Dirty of I-95 and Forever A Hustlers Wife which came out on Random House/Ballentine Nikki put out the first two books in her Street Chronicle series. “Street Chronicles is my baby.” She says. “Initially, I created it as a vehicle for new and upcoming authors to be put on. In the process I somehow ended up getting some already published and established authors under the Nikki Turner book line through Random House.” She also co-wrote Girls in the Hood with Cruchi for Urban Books, which part 2 is ready to come out also and Nikki launched gangsta rapper 50 cent’s imprint G-Unit books too with Death Before Dishonor. So Nikki stays grinding and getting that dollar but she has other responsibilities also.

 

“Some days I’m a soccer mom,” she says. “I have two children, although, I have a live in nanny. I am still a very instrumental part of my children’s lives. Even successful as I am I still go through the struggles and prejudices of being a single mother.” Still writing is her focus.

 

“Other days I am consumed with my writing.” She says. “Those days I am strictly hugging the block, only the block becomes my computer and my project. I go hard. After I get three chapters into it, I completely submit to it. I don’t answer the phone, cook and most of the time I don’t leave the house. Outside of those doors are too many perils and traps to get me side tracked and snatch away my focus. During my writing time I don’t do anything but sit at the computer with my cute pj ’s or some sweats and a wife beater and write.” Nikki draws a lot of material directly from her life.

 

“Most of my days are merely drama filled and can fit in between the chapters of any Nikki Turner original book,” she says. “Funny incidents, arguments, things that could only happen to me. Never a dull experience. You have no idea… you think my books are intriguing? Try a day in my actual life.” And since signing a reported six-figure deal with Random House Nikki Turner is definitely that big baller,

 

 

“My first book deal with Random House was for 2 books (The Glamorous Life and Riding Dirty on I-95),” she says. “That came about through my agent, he held an auction for the highest bidder, who ironically I didn’t sign with. Random House was just the best place and deal for me.” With her own imprint to put out Street Chronicles and to put new authors on under Nikki Turner presents she is ready to take over the street lit game. But still it’s all about the down time.

 

“The small breaks, usually a couple of weeks or one month that I take between writing, I’m usually a wreck,” she says. “I have too much time on my hands but I usually take this time to read through the submissions and other books.” Nikki enjoys traveling in her down time too.

 

“Every time I finish a book, I take a trip.” She says. “I do travel the world extensively. This is when I let go of a project and move onto the next.’ But even on vacation Nikki handles her business.

 

“It’s always about promoting my books. It has become a habit that no matter the handbag I carry or which one of my cars I’m driving I always have my promo postcards/bookmarks. In my travels I never know whom I may meet.” She says. “Of course, my favorite past time is shopping, shopping and more shopping.” And to Nikki it’s more than just writing books

 

“I feel I represent every woman- the single mother, the sister, the mother, the cousin, the sister-friend, the wife, the ambitious, the heart broken, the confused and especially who ever has had a story to tell.” She says. “I also feel I symbolize a woman who is the epitome of a real chic on mission. I am the true definition of real life drama in all its splendor and as I pen every story I want all my sisters out there to know that through me their mission is considered accomplished.” And that about sums up the life of Nikki Turner.

 

She just inked another 3 book deal with Random House and about the book deal she says, “Inquiring minds want to know for how much? Let’s just say that I’m eating and I don’t miss a meal.” The first book in the new deal is the sequel to A Hustlers Wife, Forever A Hustlers Wife. So it’s back to the beginning for Nikki. What comes around goes around.

 

In closing she says, “I’m just thankful for all the blessing that have come my way. I’m just going to continue to do whatever God places on my heart and mind. There are too many people to name who contributed to me being where I am today but I can honestly say that I’m truly blessed.” As are we to be able to read this wonderful and talented authors work, book after book after book.

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 or request it at a bookstore near you.

Posted: 2007-05-21 10:15

 

Rayful Edmond

 

Murder Capital

 

“The city ain’t been the same since then. Especially, with that bitchass Rayful telling. It almost seems as if he made it a fad. I definitely blame him for that.” The DC Hustler

 

Washington DC will forever be known as the Murder Capital of the United States because of the drug violence during the crack era. The drug trade bred killers and Dodge City in the late 80’s was a virtual war zone with bodies dropping left and right on a daily basis. The shootouts, drivebys and execution-style killings were reminiscent of the brutal tactics used by Chicago gangsters in the 1920’s. Thirteen people were even killed by gunfire in a 24 hour period on February 14, 1989, a clear reminder of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago 70 years before when seven henchmen of gangster Bugs Moran were shot to death by Al Capone’s thugs. And like the Capone-era thugs many of the crack era gangsta’s had huge egos and boasted of their exploits after seeing them depicted on TV shows like the Districts “City under Siege.”

 

Crack hit DC in 1986 and its effects were immediate. When crack became king the streets of Chocolate City turned much deadlier. The police lost control of the neighborhoods and Washington became a mecca for crack cocaine enabling dealers to become more feared than cops. Rival dealers spilt blood, dying everyday for drug turf and spraying DC’s poor black neighborhoods with automatic gunfire killing one another and painted the city with death. As crack tore through DC and people got hooked crack babies, homelessness, carjacking, home robberies, kidnappings, lost homes, jobs and families became commonplace. Most of the drug dealers, drug users and victims of the drug related murders were young black men and the young black man who came to personify the city’s drug wars was Rayful Edmond.

 

Balling

 

“Rayful was balling but he wasn’t like they made him out to be. A lot of that was for the media and public. He was just the wrong nigga in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Mr. T, DC Blacks gang leader

 

Rayful Edmond was a baller. As in world class baller. His flashy life style made him famous on District streets and his crack empire, which spanned 4 years generated $2 million a week at its peak. The flourishing business afforded its young executives a style of life well beyond their working-class origins. And Rayful was president and CEO. His life consisted of flashy cars like Mercedes- Benz, BMW’s, Porsches and a Jaguar convertible with gold-inlaid hubcaps and bling like a $45,000 Rolex watch on his wrist. $25,000 pendants, a 3 carat diamond stud in his ear and a $15,000 diamond covered cross around his neck. Does your chain hang low? Rayful’s did. He took all expenses paid trips with his crew to the Super Bowl in San Diego, Mike Tyson fights in Atlantic City and Vegas title fights. $25,000 shopping sprees at Trump Plaza, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Gucci or Hugo Boss stores in chauffeured limousines were the norm too. Dom Perignon Champagne flowed at trendy nightclubs and the flamboyant dresser made cash, purchases totaling $457,000 over 2 years from Linea Pitti, a pricey Italian men’s boutique in Georgetown. And this was just on suits, clothes and $600 shoes.

 

The king of cocaine was a folk hero to the city’s youth and passed out $100 bills like candy to kids in his M Street neighborhood. They gawked at Edmond, his fabulous clothes, his glittery girls, his stylish cars and the famous basketball players like Alonzo Mourning who were his friends. Rayful was a charmer who was seen as a modern day Robin Hood. When his city-league basketball team played in area tournaments the gym was filled with admiring young woman and adoring kids. The 6-foot, 190 lb sweet shooting guard was an affable, courteous and intelligent young man who attributed his affluent life style to his winnings from gambling. He was a high roller who loved to gamble at craps tables and the numbers. Edmond liked the streets, he liked running around, people talking about him and women chasing him. He liked spending nights at high-stakes crap games and being the center of attention and adoration of the whole city. But he also had a darker side, rooted in the vicious crack cocaine trade that caused a drug crisis in the city like never before.

 

Open-air drug bazaars and the grotesque killings that plagued the city’s spiraling drug trade, couriers going to LA by plane to buy kilos of coke carrying suitcases stuffed with, so much cash they could barely be lifted and seizures by law enforcement totaling nearly $4 million in cash were the lore of Rayful’s reign. His exploits were legendary in the city where stories about his crew’s drug dealing and penchant for violence that led to Rayful being linked to as many as 30 killings were rampant. As a big wheel of the drug trade he became a role model and employer of the area youths who with the promise of fast money became street dealers, lookouts or runners and made thousands a week. Edmond even had t-shirts made for his crew with his ‘Top of the Line’ slogan. Edmond spared no expenses and picked up legal fees if necessary or funeral expenses for soldiers gunned down in the line of duty. Network members were almost always represented by paid lawyers, an unusual sight in DC Superior Court for youths with no visible signs of employment and the deceased’s families were taken care of and provided for.

 

“Rayful was very generous,” a prosecutor said. “He provided his people with the avenue to get all their acquisitions. It was the lure of money that made them turn a blind eye to the immorality of the drugs and death around them and embrace the business wholeheartedly.” And Edmond made mind-boggling sums of money. He had so much money coming in that he once recalled having $15 million in denominations ranging from lO0’s to 5’s at one time in his house. Despite his millions he had no bank accounts, checkbooks, ledgers, money orders or cars, houses or apartments in his name. “That’s the way the police, they would catch you.” He said.

 

“He’s the Babe Ruth of crack dealing,” US Attorney Eric Holder said at the time and when a detective tried to serve him with a grand jury subpoena in connection with a shooting Edmond arranged to meet the detective at a certain time on a street corner. “Exactly at that time, Rayful pulled up in a white stretch limo with a driver,” the detective reported. And city educators knew about Rayful too. “The youth of this city know more about Rayful Edmond than great civil rights leaders,” a District high school teacher complained and she was right. The man who was so fresh he got 3 haircuts a week and who 20/20 called the $300 million dollar man has gone down in infamy. His story, one of brutality, power, money, murder and betrayal deserves its place in the annals of black American gangsters. And here it is, straight from the penitentiary, The Rayful Edmond story, uncut and uncensored.

 

“I was real jazzy. I’m like let’s try to have a lot of class.” Rayful Edmond

 

“They said he had fags up in the limo.” Da Kid from SE

 

“I made between 35 to 40 million easy.” Rayful Edmond

 

“They said slim had some rather homosexual tendencies.” The DC Hustler

 

“Just having a lot of street knowledge and being honest and putting a lot of work into it.” Rayful Edmond on building his crack empire

 

Biggest DC Drug Lord Ever

 

“Rayful Edmond is no hero. He is simply a thug with a wasted past and a hopeless guture.” The City’s Top Prosecutor

 

A 43 count indictment filed on June 20, 1989 charged Edmond along with 29 others with a variety of narcotics related activities, weapons offenses, murder and other crimes of violence in regards to the operation of a large scale cocaine distribution conspiracy. At trial the government presented evidence that Edmond led a group of family members and friends who conspired to distribute large amounts of cocaine in the NE Washington neighborhood where many of them lived and where Edmond grew up. Those involved in the conspiracy were Edmond; his friends, Melvin Butler and Tony Lewis; Edmonds half-brother, Emmanual “Mangie” Sutton; his half-sister, Bernice “Niecey” McGraw and her husband David McGraw; Edmonds cousin, Johnny Monford; Edmonds aunt, Armaretta Perry; and Edmonds sister’s boyfriend Jerry Millington; along with James “Tonio” Jones, Keith “Cheese” Cooper, Columbus “Little Nut” Daniels; Edmonds mother, Bootsie Perry and other relatives and associates, court records indicate.

 

“It was run just like a major corporation.” A detective said, “You had the chairman of the board and it went down from there.” Many of the family members supervised the retail side of the street operations counting the money. packaging and distributing the cocaine destined for the open-air market at Orleans Place NE. Rayful’s grandmothers house at 407 M St NE served as the networks headquarters and law enforcement officials said his “organization was as slick and well run as McDonalds. Crack was available any time of day or night and dealers had customers form lines that stretched one hundred buyers long.” Rayful was allegedly responsible for 60 percent of the District’s cocaine market in the late 80’s and he ran his organization with careful precision.

 

According to the government evidence, the conspiracy involved a multi-layered operation. Its focus was on a two block area of Morton Place and Orleans Place NE, Known as the Strip, which Edmond ran and maintained from 1986 through 1989. In operating the drug business, sellers, paid by the day or week, worked in 8-hour shifts. Demand for drugs along the Strip was so intense during that period that sellers sometimes sold out their supplies within minutes. Individuals dubbed lieutenants of the organization including Cooper and Sutton, supplied dealers, including juveniles with bundles of cocaine, collected money from them and shouted warnings when police entered the area. These lieutenants, along with Millington, Jones and Monford, supervised the Strip, controlling the supply of cocaine and overseeing sellers. To supply the Strip several family members of Edmond, including David and Bernice McGraw and Armaretta Perry, packaged cocaine at various sites. Once packaged the cocaine was stored at various houses and apartments of the conspirators, court records indicate.

 

The government also presented evidence that the Edmond organization-acted as a drug wholesaler. According to the government the Edmond network received the cocaine that fueled its activities from Colombia through a series of transactions with Melvin Butler in California. The government presented evidence that Edmond associates Royal Brooks, Alta Rae Zanville, Tony Lewis and Edmond himself made trips to LA in the late 80’s to arrange for and pay for shipments of cocaine to Washington. Tony Lewis and Edmond pooled their money to finance million dollar multi-kilogram cocaine purchases from LA groups including the Crips who served as brokers from the Cali Cartel. The two youthful drug lords also formed a loose syndicate in DC with other major dealers in an effort to quell the violence bloodying the drug markets, court records indicate. But the violence associated with Edmonds crew couldn’t be averted and it would eventually come to a head. But how did Rayful get his start?

 

“If Rayful had all tha money how come his pops got busted with a punkass couple of kilos in Virginia after he got popped.” Mr. T

 

“I am not the person the US government is trying to make me out to be.” Rayful Edmond

 

The Jump Off

 

“A lot of kids from my community, they look up to me and think I was right for selling drugs. I want them to know I was wrong.” Rayful Edmond

 

“Rayful comes from a long line of hustlers,” Mr. T says. And police concur reporting that the Edmond family was linked to old-time drugs and numbers rings, which operated in the 1950’s and 1960’s. “He learned the business from his relatives at an early age, counting money and holding drugs.” Mr. T continues and prosecutors alleged that Edmonds father gave his son his start in the drug business in 1986 with a kilogram of cocaine, which Edmond flipped, setting up the foundations of his operations at Orleans and Morton Place.

 

Orleans Place and Morton Place were short, narrow, parallel one-way streets connected by a series of alleys. Florida Ave, a major east-west thoroughfare, was a short block to the north for easy access and fast getaways. When the strip was running at full capacity, dozens of coke dealers sold little bags to customers who came on foot or slowly cruised through in cars with Virginia or Maryland plates. If a police car ventured into this maze lookouts would yell, “Olleray, Olleray, Olleray,” pig Latin for roller. The narrow alleys were barricaded, so if the cops gave chase on foot, it was an obstacle course of old tires broken-down washing machines, trashcans and trip wires. Juveniles would lob foam footballs that had been hollowed out and stuffed with coke up and down the block as a kilo a day was moved in $50 bags.

 

“I don’t know if he was running shit back then but everyone that was associated with slim was getting some bank. Some more than others but no one was hurting.” Christopher Johnson, A DC soldier who’s forever tied to Rayful says. And Edmonds operation grew so fast that by 1987 he was making $1 million a week. “If you introduce Pepsi-cola into a new area, you’re going to create a demand for something new,” said Eddie McLaughlin, Narcotics supervisor for the Washington office of the FBI. “Edmond knew the potential for the market here. He was an early entrepreneur and he helped in its proliferation.”

 

Edmond became a hometown hero. He made sure neighbors had turkeys on Thanksgiving. He bought meals for the homeless, cars for his top staff, clothes for his friends and sponsored area basketball teams. With his flair and street persona he drew workers and admirers by always traveling in an entourage and in cars like Porsches or Jaguars, he was a walking employment advertisement. “There goes Rayful and them. They getting it.” They said in the city and the street smart, cunning young man from a large tight knit family was getting it. “Slim was having shit his way,” says Da Kid from SE. “I remember slim pulled up in my hood and gave all us lil’ niggas $100 a piece and told us to take out 1i1′ asses to school. I was like 7 years old then and to me he was a star because he was getting out a limo.”

 

“When people saw Ray they saw flash and personality.” Christopher Johnson says. “I don’t think he was feared himself or respected as an individual but the dudes that were around him were respected and feared by many. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Everyone played their position.” Edmond avoided arrest because he dealt only with a small group of associates and he rarely had direct contact with drugs or money. But his business really took off when he got hooked up with some major suppliers in California. The cocaine road to Edmonds distribution area in NE Washington began in Cali, Colombia. It was in LA that he laid the groundwork for large shipments of Colombian cocaine to the streets of Washington. And it was in Las Vegas where he made the connection.

 

“People get killed, people lose their jobs, people get strung out. A lot of my friends from my neighborhood lost their lives because I brought drugs into the community. Some babies probably was born from crack because of me. I feel bad about it now but back then I was just thinking of power.” Rayful Edmond

 

“All of us are loving and caring people who have kids. We’re ordinary people, just like everyone else in Washington.” Rayful Edmond

 

“Rayful Edmond and his family were a scourge to the streets of DC.” DC resident

 

The Come Up

 

“Any drug dealer then and now would enjoy doing business with Edmond, It would be a claim to fame. I could see how each and every one of them would like having that on their resumes.” DEA agent John Cornille

 

Among the thousands of high rollers who converged on Las Vegas in April 1987 for the Sugar Ray Leonard/Marvelous Marvin Hagler title fight was an unusual delegation from Washington DC led by a flashy 22 year old Rayful Edmond. The flamboyant Edmond and his crew caught the eye of LA Crip gang member Melvin Butler who attended such events for the precise purpose of finding men like Rayful, out of state big city drug lords. Butler was a cocaine broker who hooked up with kingpins like Rayful and connected them to Los Angeles wholesalers. The complex system that evolved and started to supply Edmonds organization with drugs was built on an informal and mutually profitable set of relationships between him and three west coast figures, the aforementioned Butler, his fellow Crip Brian “Waterhead Bo” Bennet and Mario Villabona. a Cali Cartel cocaine wholesaler who used his Crip connections to move thousands of kilo’s of coke.

 

During the 18 months following the Leonard/Hagler fight Edmond imported more cocaine into Washington than any drug dealers in the city’s history, federal law enforcement officials said. The drug pipeline that fed Edmond was a graphic illustration of the reach of the global cocaine networks controlled by Colombian drug cartels, which supplied 80 percent of coke imported to US markets in the 80’s. Law enforcement officials note that the increase in cocaine abuse in the city closely tracked the period Edmond was tapping into that pipeline that during 87 to 89 brought a seemingly unlimited supply of cocaine into Washington. “Slim made a grip.” says the DC Hustler. “It wasn’t a problem or a factor for slim to be known for money gettin. I can jive go for that.”

 

The methods used to supply Edmonds organization illustrate the meticulous and increasingly sophisticated way drug traffickers used the nations highways and airports to transport massive quantities of cocaine. During the 2 years the LA to Washington pipeline was in operation a highly organized transcontinental supply system operated with virtual impunity, thwarting the best efforts of federal and local law enforcement officials. Some shipments as large as 200 kilograms of cocaine were driven across country in rented trucks or recreational vehicles. Smaller shipments of about 20 kilograms were brought to the District in the luggage of couriers. An elaborate protocol extended to all business dealings. When Edmond met Bennet, they talked and they partied but money and drugs did not change hands between them. Associates attended to those chores. Edmond took care to separate himself from them.

 

“You know that with money comes power and strength.” The DC Hustler says. “Ray had a crew of almost 200 working for him. He was powerful and Slim had folks that he fucked with that was very real men, so respect came with the territory. Dudes have respect for those who earn respect.” And with the Colombian coke connect Rayful got that respect and he got that money. “He was from NE but he was supplying a great portion of the whole city.” Da Kid from SE says. And it’s said that Rayful even acted as a cocaine liaison for other drug kingpins in New York like Alpo and AZ. But it didn’t last. In May 1988 Edmond’s elaborate, cash-rich corporate style drug operation started to cave in when four men were arrested in California for offering an undercover $1 million for a cache of coke. Eventually the men talked and the man they talked about was Rayful Edmond. Three other key members of Rayful’s organization were arrested and agreed to participate in the case against him.

 

“I didn’t know how bad my situation was or how it was going to turn out.” Rayful Edmond

 

“Ray just got too big, too fast. You just knew the feds were gonna come get him.” Mr. T

 

“When Rayful got busted it was big news. I mean big news. It seemed he was the biggest drug dealer the world had ever seen “Da Kid from SE

 

“All I know was at that time Rayful was the man. Before all the other shit.” The DC Hustler

 

The Trial

 

“Everybody had incentives to lie. Royal said a lot of thing about me. Me and him was like brothers. I couldn’t believe him coming to court saying things like that about me.” Rayful Edmond

 

The US District Court Building occupied an entire block on the north side of Constitution Avenue where it intersected with Pennsylvania Avenue at Third Street. Constructed of buff-colored limestone, it wasn’t an unappealing structure, and the small park to the one side with the expansive courtyard in front gave it an open, unimposing feeling. The National Gallery’s East Wing was directly across the street and the Capitol was just 4 blocks up the hill. It was a court for trying corrupt senators, judges, spies and federal officials. It was also a venue to try local drug dealers.

 

The Edmond case provided one of the first detailed glimpses of how the cartels fed inner city drug markets. The trials were a culmination of 3 parallel investigations into Edmond and his District associates and their suppliers in LA conducted over 2 years by more then 200 federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The investigation, which began independently stretched over 3 continents, revealing an international drama of smuggling, money laundering and secret wiretaps that traced a drug pipeline that began in the valleys of the Andes and ended on the narrow, tree-lined blocks of NE Washington known as the Strip where Ziploc bags of cocaine sold for $50. Witnesses included drug and money couriers, buyers, street lieutenants, sellers, a member of the Crips, a security guard and a lifelong friend and associate of Edmond, court records indicate.

 

“I wasn’t too surprised when his crew went down, because they were doing a lot of back and forth beefing prior to his arrest.” Christopher Johnson says referring to the June 23, 1988 murder of Brandon Terrell. Columbus “Little Nut” Daniels allegedly shot the rival dealer seven times on Edmond’s signal killing him. Edmond rewarded Little Nut with a $50K Mercedes-Benz for the Terrell shooting, court records say, and got a 16 year old to take the blame for the killing of Terrell outside the popular Chapter II nightclub. But the police didn’t buy it. “Nice try,” a detective said to Edmond, “but we still want Little Nut.” The execution triggered the turf battles, which gave DC the reputation as the world’s drug and murder capital. Little Nut was eventually gunned down at a barbershop and paralyzed from the neck down but Rayful escaped unscathed.

 

“It did shock me when the people told on him though. His mom killed him by bragging to someone that was wearing a wire. I couldn’t believe she was talking like that.” Christopher says referring to how Edmond’s mom described his rise in the drug business in a body wire recording played at the trial. “When he started out it was just like hand to hand on the street corner and then he just got too big. He just up and went out on his own.” Bootsie Perry said while secretly being recorded. “That’s not something I said, ladies and gentlemen, but his mother.” The prosecutor told the jury.

 

“They were actually executing slim without the death penalty,” the DC Hustler says. “He had Mayor Barry at his trial along with others. That’s when he had respect, when he was in the ring with Rome clutching.” And the trial was not without controversy. The cocaine conspiracy trial was the city’s first criminal trial with an anonymous jury and the public was excluded from the proceedings, leaving the media to act as its surrogate. A daily series of outbursts and unexpected events overshadowed the courtroom testimony. The complex, multi-defendant drug trial had allegations of witness harassment, death threats, prosecutorial misconduct and judicial bias. 160 witnesses and 800 pieces of evidence including tapes filled with coded discussions about drugs in sometimes undecipherable pig Latin were presented in the 56 day trial presided over by US District Court Judge Charles R Richy.

 

“There was the general feeling that because of the bulletproof glass, the anonymous jury system, the number of Marshals ringing the courtroom, the way in which the jury was selected and because of the general hype about the case and the amount of pretrial publicity that all created a climate he felt was going to make it difficult to get a fair trial,” Edmonds lawyer said. The most damaging evidence was the testimony of Alta Rae Zanville and Royal Brooks, a childhood friend of Rayful’s who testified in excruciating detail how he stored hundreds of pounds of cocaine and millions of dollars in cash for Edmond. He described ferrying millions of dollars to LA at Edmond’s instruction to pay for cocaine. Edmond bragged to him that he could package cocaine faster than anyone because he was “raised bagging stuff.” A police officer testified that he was 30 transactions a minute at the Strip and a former worker testified that she sold 500 $50 packs, $25,000 worth in two hours. The testimony painted a picture of an efficiently run business with regular paydays and work shifts and Sundays off.

 

“This is the most significant law enforcement operation here directed at a cocaine distribution network,” US Attorney Jay B Stephens said flanked by local and federal officers at a news conference in front of the courthouse. “This is the principal case, based on our intelligence, Edmonds group distributed 60 percent of the cocaine coming in. It was a closely knit family organization with enforcers, runners, lieutenants and money counters “The 3 month trial dominated headlines and newscasts and was the first to be carried out under extraordinary security measures including an anonymous jury, more than 15 US Marshals in the courtroom and the bulletproof shield separating the attorneys, judges and jury from the courtroom audience. None of the defendants took the stand to testify in their own defense and six witnesses linked Edmond directly to drug transactions. The jury of 2 men and 10 women announced their unanimous verdicts on all defendants shortly after 10 AM on December 6th, 1989 after 5 days of deliberations in what was the longest and costliest drug trial ever held in the district.

 

“We’ve taken down a major distributor in the city.” DC Police Chief Maurice T. Turner said at the conclusion of the trial. “That sends a message to the community that we are serious, that we are going to close this drug distribution market down.” US Attorney Stephens also hailed the convictions as a victory “for all the people of the District of Columbia” and a warning to other drug dealers that law enforcement officials “stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of this community to turn the tides of drugs that have so devastated this city.” The convictions capped a massive 2 year investigation by the DEA, FBI and DC Police, which pursued Edmond as his operation grew from its base in a quiet residential neighborhood in NE Washington. Edmond who smiled through much of the trial appeared shocked when the verdicts were read. “For those young people who have seen Mr. Edmond in his smiling ways over the years, they should have seen his crying ways in jail this morning.” DEA agent John Wilder mocked. But Edmond would get the last laugh.

 

“I think that me, and my family, and my friends all should have been found not guilty.” Rayful Edmond

 

“I felt railroaded. I honestly think I was. Everybody in DC knew about the case. I said to myself the jurors were not going to have any choice but to find you guilty.” Rayful Edmond

 

“We were on trial for 3 months and they came back in 4 days.” Rayful Edmond

 

Still Balling

 

 

“People are sitting in prison, making drug deals.” Rayful Edmond

 

Rayful kept on dealing even after he went to federal prison for life. He masterminded the shipment of more than two tons of cocaine from the coca fields of Colombia to the District of Columbia from his cellblock. Edmond took advantage of every privilege while at the Lewisburg PA federal prison using the phones to arrange introductions of Washington dealers to Colombian suppliers. He often made 60 calls in less than five hours occasionally using 2 lines simultaneously to conduct his business. His contacts on the outside set up conference calls for him to Colombia and he used the prison mails and visiting hours to work out details of the meetings of the various parties He even mediated disputes, persuading the Colombians not to kill “Washington drug dealers when they fell behind in their payments for cocaine. One afternoon he made 54 calls to 5 states and 2 foreign countries. He spoke pig Latin to his boys in DC using the contacts he made while serving 2 life sentences to expand his drug trafficking operation in prison.

 

“He was exceeding that, which he did when he was running what had been the largest drug operation in DC history.” US Attorney Holder said. And Rayful said in interviews after the fact that it was “much easier (to sell drugs in prison) because you’re right there where the people that have direct access to the narcotics that you need- Colombians, Cubans Mexicans.” Sharing the same cellblock with Edmond at USP Lewisburg were Dixon Dario and Osvaldo “Chicky” Trujillo-Blanco. The brothers connection went to the heart of the violent Medellin cartel and they became Rayful’s new Colombian connection Lewisburg was bustling with convicted dealers who were doing major business setting up deals for friends on the inside and outside. When Rayful met the brothers they were not a year away from being paroled,

 

Osvaldo “Chicky” Trujillo-Blanco was cocaine royalty son of Griselda Trujillo Blanco, better known as the Godmother of the Colombian drug underworld, a founding member of the notorious Medellin drug cartel. By October 1991 an informant told the FBI Rayful was back in business arranging deals from prison. From April to October of 1992 the FBI listened in on 4 prison phones as Edmond brokered deals between the Colombian brothers and various DC drug traffickers in arcan codes to discuss and arrange large cocaine deals. As matchmaker Rayful collected commissions based on the amount sold.

 

“His name was still ringing in the city.” Christopher Johnson says “After all he was one of the biggest dudes to come out of the city. His crews name was still ringing too. Still does for that matter on a respect tip “As Rayful’s name stayed in the streets he got visitors to smuggle small amounts of cocaine, heroin and marijuana to him. He said he quickly learned it was easier to deal drugs from behind bars to people on the outside. He had access to phones on the B cell block practically whenever he wanted. He estimated he hooked up 20 or so Washington dealers with Chicky who sold them close to a thousand kilos of cocaine. “I just enjoyed it,” Rayful said of his continued drug activity. “It was something for me to do. I was in jail and I had nothing to do. I wanted to make more money. At the time my mindset was I had to still have people look up to me and prove that I was still capable of making things happen. It’s just about everybody inside the jail in some way, shape, form or fashion is dealing drugs, either directly or indirectly.” Not to justify it but Rayful was definitely balling from inside the cellblock. The authorities were not amused.

 

“It is intolerable that criminals who were incarcerated for the precise purpose of protecting our citizens have instead been able to use the prison facilities as their home offices for creating and commanding narcotics enterprises that have left nothing in their wake but death and destruction on the streets of our city,” US Attorney Holder said upon revelations of Edmonds activity. “Today’s events demonstrate the shocking fact that inmates in federal correctional institutions have been able to participate in international cocaine conspiracies from behind prison walls.” Lane Crocker, the agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office sharply criticized the federal Bureau of Prisons, blaming its laz management for allowing international drug deals to be orchestrated from prison. But this story still had an unexpected turn.

 

“Dude stayed up in the law library. He always said he was working on a way to get out but I had no idea he would do want he did.” USP Lewisburg Convict

 

“I could stay in here 100 years and it’s not going to change anything.” Rayful Edmond

 

I’ll be out in two years. I’ll be back on the street.” Rayful Edmond

 

Flipping the Script

 

“I knew. But his persona is so strong. Rayful is the ultimate stand up guy. That persona just sucks people in. Rayful Edmond would be the last person anyone would think was a snitch.” James W. Rudasil, Attorney at Law

 

“The feds sent a nigga named Donald “Worthy” Wortham to set Ray up in Lewisburg.” Christopher Johnson relates. “After the Colombian dude Chicky got killed it slowed things down in the city for a second. Through Ray the city was getting blessed by Chicky. The feds knew this but couldn’t get to Ray until Donald caught a case and couldn’t do the time. They knew that Donald knew Ray so they sent him to Lewisburg and Worthy hit him with the good story. ‘I got a man that has the money but his connect is not steady. ‘Ray bit and plugged Worthy’s man (the feds) in with the connect. The feds went to Ray and let him know that he was through. Told him he was going back to Marion and that his appeal on the first charge didn’t mean shit. That’s right that whole crew was coming back on appeal except for a few people. So all that shit about he did it for mom is propaganda by the government.”

 

When authorities ensnared him in the above mentioned sting in July 1994 Edmond said he saw that as a chance to break his addiction: selling cocaine. He never used the stuff, let alone smoked a cigarette or drank a beer and with his man Chicky having been gunned down in a Medellin nightclub Rayful must have been tired of it all, the hassle, the hustle, the deals-living up to the name Rayful Edmonds and being the wheeler dealer everyone expected him to be. “I had been giving it a thought for a while that I wanted to stop selling drugs and I figured this was the best way for me to stop,” Rayful said and he started working for the feds shortly thereafter.

 

“We gained tremendous intelligence when Rayful Edmond said to the FBI he wished to cooperate with the government,” Asst. US Attorney John Dominguez said. The immediate results of Edmonds work were the arrests in DC of 11 people, five of whom authorities described as the biggest drug dealers in town at the time. Edmond set them up and arranged for them to meet an undercover agent, DC Police Detective Jesus C. Gonzalez who posed as a representative of the Trujillo-Blanco family from Colombia. The men and their associates met with Gonzalez in Newark to work out the details of their purchase of 60 kilos of coke for $1 million with $375,000 to be paid upon delivery. Christopher Johnson who was then 28, was one of the men set up by Rayful. Two other men, Michael Jackson and James Corbin were set up and indicted in Pennsylvania. This is how the setup went down.

 

“It was easy.” Christopher says. “Ray called and said that Chicky’s brother was in town. Shit, niggas was happy as a motherfucker. All the time a nigga think he’s meeting Chicky’s brother he’s talking numbers with the feds. Them bastards tricked everyone. Kept a nigga on hold for months. They would call once in a while and tell you to be ready. All that good shit.” Christopher ended up getting 150 months for being caught in the sting operation and the knowledge that he was set up by the biggest drug dealer from the city ever, Rayful Edmond. “I consider myself a loser,” Christopher says, “Not only did I see the police that day. I just didn’t want to believe it. And of course being greedy and loyal to the niggas I was with. But I’m a loser cause I don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. I’ve learned that if you heard a nigga was hot and he went and put work in and smashed the dude for saying it, it doesn’t mean he ain’t no rat. It just means he’s a tough rat.”

 

US Attorney Eric H Holder announced that Edmond delivered five up and coming drug traffickers to the FBI and the DC police, pleaded guilty to even more drug counts and agreed to forfeit $200,000 of the profits he racked up during his prison cell dealing. As a reward for his cooperation his mother’s 14 year sentence was reduced. The feds put him in a little know witness protection program for convicts. He lives under an alias in a different prison where it’s hoped those he betrayed won’t find him. His testimony for the prosecution against Rodney Moore and Kevin Gray of Murder Inc in 2002 was the third time he set up or testified against his former friends or business associates. It was reported he did this to regain visiting privileges with his mother. The old Rayful who swaggered through DC streets in fancy threads and expensive jewelry who always seemed to have beautiful women on his arm, was no more. He was a witness for the prosecution. A rat. A snitch.

 

“I was in Lewisburg with Rayful and when I got out the nigga was calling me trying to get me to do some things with him on the coke tip. But I had just got out and wasn’t trying to hear that shit. I’m glad I didn’t cause that was when he started setting niggas up.” USP Lewisburg Convict

 

“Edmond was such a notorious figure it was unpalatable for the government to consider reducing his sentence.” AUSA John Dominguez

 

“They said that Colombian Chicky got killed for fucking with Rayful. His people knew Ray was a snitch.” Da Kid from SE

 

“He was setting dudes up and getting good men a lot of time.” The DC Hustler

 

The Legacy

 

“When it got out that Rayful was snitching all the love turned to hate, dudes started saying slim was a faggot and all types of shit.” USP Lewisburg Convict

 

The Edmond lore of fancy cars, gorgeous women and basketball stars still circulate in neighborhoods near his old base of operations in the 400 block of M Street NE. His rise and fall have become milestones in the city’s drug trade, a market previously dominated by small-time dealers in constant search of supplies. The man who was voted most popular at Dunbar High in his senior year of 1982 and who was most definitely the undisputed king of District drug dealers during the 1980’s still illicit controversy whenever his name is mentioned.

 

“Rayful’s legacy to me is bitch,” says the DC Hustler “He put a black eye on the face of DC. His antics single handedly gave out of state bammas the green light and weak bitches the green light to get down first. What type of shit is that? They even got fake gangsters on TV making bitchass movies portraying bitchass dudes talking about telling snitching, ratting on dudes in DC. Why not huh? One of our own set it off.” Edmond means different things to different people even to this very day. But he was definitely an urban (DC) legend whose true-life story is far from imaginary hood myth. Rayful was king of the city, the drug tycoon/mob boss that a lot of rappers nowadays portray themselves to be. Edmonds sophisticated enterprise that moved thousands of kilos of coke received significant regional and national publicity. Making Edmond one of the most infamous drug dealers of our times

 

 

“Yes,” the DC Hustler says. “But he’s infamous for being one of those with the ability and know how but not the heart to hold true to the code. History in DC will always know Rayful for being a bitch. We don’t remember nothing that he did before the day he snitched. True DC niggas don’t honor no rats.” But still Edmonds exploits have been documented in film and in print. The Life of Rayful Edmond was released in 2005 by Kirk Fraser, a former Howard University student. “This is the first real movie about DC.” Fraser said. “It’s about Edmonds rise and fall in the game. How he made it and what brought him down.” Instrumental in the making of the film was Curtis (Curtbone) Chambers, another snitch from the original case. The film has received positive reviews even though its said to be sympathetic to Rayful. In the film Ray’s attorney and Curtbone both describe how Ray didn’t really understand how much evidence was piling up against him. Ray thought because he didn’t actually touch the drugs he was safe. But that wasn’t true. And the movie omitted the defining characteristic of Edmonds whole ordeal – that he became a rat so much for a true story.

 

“History will remember Rayful Edmond as a snitch,” the DC Hustler says. “As a coward, as a turncoat. He is part of the reason why Rome is so hip to us the true players and macks in the game. As one of those who broke down like a bitch and gave Rome the upper hand. Remember how Rayful Edmond and those like him got a lot of warriors fucked up. I know I will.” And to finish thies piece we’ll conclude with one of the men Rayful set up Christopher Johnson’s words, “It’s like this with me. If you’re in the game period not just drugs but anything illegal. When your ass get caught shut the fuck up and stand the fuck up. Go to trial or cop out but don’t drag nobody else in your part. You crab ass nigga. That’s for all the hot niggas reading this.”

 

“He snitched because he was fucked up that dudes in the street owed him money and wouldn’t pay. He didn’t do that shit for his mom.” Mr. T

 

“A rat is a rat anyway you look at it and Slim is a world class snitch.” USP Lewisburg Convict

 

“Slim fucked up. He’s a rat and a faggot.” Da Kid from SE

 

“We don’t recognize hot bammas.” The DC Hustler

 

The Sentences

 

Rayful Edmond 2 - life sentences
Johnny Monford - 405 months
Columbus Daniels - life
Jerry Millington - life
Armartetta Perry - 405 months
James Jones - life
David McGraw - 292 months
Emmanual Sutton - 320 months
Keith Cooper - 320 months
Bootsie Perry - 14 years (reduced)
Tony Lewis - life
Bernice McGraw - 235 months
Melvin Bulter - 405 months

 

Those Rayful set up

 

Christopher Johnson
Adolph Jackson
Darrell Coles
Jimmy Robinson
Anthony Smither
Marcus Haynes
Lecount Jackson
Rodney Murphy
Richard Deane
Johnny Cherry

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 or request it at a bookstore near you.

Posted: 2007-04-09 16:23,

 

Edited: 2007-04-09 16:26

 

Is the rap game the new drug game? With all these rappers fronting, styling and profiling you would think so. From it’s origins in New York to LA gangsta rap to the bling-bling of the 90s to the South’s ascension hip-hop has always took its cue from the streets. And Y2K7 finds cocaine rap en vogue with artists like TI, Jeezy, the Clipse, Lil Wayne and Miami’s own Rick Ross doing their thing telling tales of street life and the drug game. And with BET’s American Gangster series detailing the criminal exploits of real life gangsta’s such as Fat Cat, the Chambers Brothers and Freeway Rick Ross a correlation can be made and a question posed, where does reality stop and entertainment begin?

 

Hip-hop artists have long borrowed monikers from street legends just as long as they’ve told the drug lord stories in the rhymes. From 50 Cent, who took a Brooklyn stick-up kid’s name to Scarface to Biggie referring to himself as the black Frank White, juxtaposing the gangster creed of death before dishonor and portraying the criminal lifestyle in videos has been a recipe for success. By promoting the thuglife image of a hustler from the streets who lives by the code of omerta many rappers have made a career. Call it fake, call it fronting or what you will, the formula has worked and a multitude of cardboard gangstas are flashing gang signs and making their would-be criminal associations known in their videos on MTV, VH1 and BET. But as Irv Gotti found out it can go too far, as in all the way to a court of law. And the way some of these entertainers portray themselves they shouldn’t be surprised to find themselves in court. I mean get real. Case in point the rapper Rick Ross.

 

William Roberts aka Rick Ross who released The Port of Miami last August promotes himself as the most respected hustler in hip-hop. And to be fair he’s had a lot of success, but to hear this dude talk you’d think he was the second coming of Tony Montana or is in the penitentiary, but he’s not and never was although the dude who he took his name from is. Freeway Rick Ross, an alleged Hoover Crip from Los Angeles, California who was one of the biggest drug dealers from the 80s, and is seen by some as being responsible for the nationwide crack epidemic that plagued inner city areas in the crack era. BET’s American Gangster told his story, but we’ll retell it quickly here.

 

Freeway Rick went from a low-budget car thief who stripped stolen vehicles near Harbor Freeway to selling cocaine by the ounce. The he met Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses, two wealthy Nicaraguan cocaine brokers determined to finance the ousting of the Sandinista and reestablish the Somoza government in their country. Through them Freeway Rick started getting kilos and with Blandon’s cocaine he was the first to mass-market crack. Ross flooded cities across the nation with the inexpensive ghetto-designed drug and by 1984 it’s alleged he was getting 100 kilos a week. By 1985, its said he earned two hundred million dollars and from 1982 to 1989 its alleged he moved 3 tons of cocaine.

 

The thing was that Freeway Rick was unwittingly supplying the money used to buy weapons for the contras, a CIA backed anti-Sandinista squad of guerrillas trying to overthrow the government in Nicaragua. It all came out later that Freeway Rick was an unknowing pawn in Oliver North, Ronald Reagan and the CIA’s game of running guns to the contras and returning with plane loads of cocaine that hit South Centrals streets as crack. The story was big news in the 90s. Very well publicized and California Representative Maxine Walters upped the ante by putting pressure on Attorney General Janet Reno to reveal the corruptness of Reagan’s administration after the story broke. Gary Webb, a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News investigated and broke the story culminating in a book and later his death under mysterious circumstances. All that is said to make a point and now back to the rapper Rick Ross aka William Roberts.

 

“I just put a couple of names in the air and that Rick Ross shit just ringed to me. I didn’t know anything about the dude personally, but the name sounded right to me. To be honest I didn’t know shit about him.” The rapper said recently in FEDS magazine, but this is after a previous article where he admitted being a druglord historian. He commented on how that was his thing, tracking the careers of the notorious underworld gangsters. “I started hearing more about the dude from the West Coast. I actually spoke to him over the phone. We got to chop it up. I always acknowledged him, but I don’t want to make it seem like I took the name because of him.” The rapper continued. Gorilla Convict calls it like it is and for real dude is fronting. Obviously, he took the name to emulate the infamous kingpin.

 

About the whole deal in a recent AS IS interview from prison the real Rick Ross said, “You know in the hood anytime someone takes your name they are supposed to show some respect and I feel he should show me some.” So I guess all that chopping it up shit from the rapper is some fantasy. It doesn’t sound like Freeway Rick talked to his namesake. So Rick Ross the convict was the real drug dealer, that is an undeniable fact, but Rick Ross the rapper, what are his credentials?

 

 

“I was a fan of the game. I sat on the porch and listened to the Cadillacs go by.” He said. “I was booming weed at 15 and had a bird at 17. I bought my first crib when I was 21. You know I’m the boss. I come from the cocaine capital. I was in the midst of the murder game on some real shit.” Yet he isn’t in prison and hasn’t been. What is he, untouchable? He hasn’t heard of conspiracy charges. Even the real Rick Ross, who unwittingly sold drugs for the CIA wasn’t untouchable. The rapper has even said how the money he makes from rapping can’t even support his lifestyle, implying that he’s still in the streets and in the drug game. I guess he’s not worried about an indictment, because his raps are filled with allusions to the life and his part in it. But is it his life he’s rapping about?

 

“All those things he saying is true but true for my brother.” David Ross said in the same AS IS interview about the rapper, but Rick Ross the rapper keeps the illusion going 24/7. “You know Noriega was down there in FDC forever man, with all my dogs. I used to send messages to him so that’s why I put his name in there.” He said in FEDS. “I’ve been involved in that kind of shit where robberies took place, I wasn’t even there. My homies pulled it off and came off so lovely. Go buy two homes, here’s your cut, a gift, its easy.” But it you were really involved in that type of shit would you advertise it? I don’t think so.

 

“He found an opportunity and he exploited it.” The real Rick Ross said on the rapper. “I don’t know if there’s anything I really want to say to him.” And remember this is the dude the rapper said he chopped it up with. So maybe Rick Ross the rapper lives in a fantasy world. A carefully constructed facade and image built on lies. Because if he was the real don that he claims to be in his rhymes he would be counting millions instead of rapping about them.

 

“In the late 80s, Rick was counting a million dollars a day.” His brother David said. “The million dollars couldn’t be carried alone, no one person with a duffel bag. You couldn’t even pick it up. Two counters and you could count a million dollars in about ten hours.” Now what does the rapper Know about that? Nothing. “I feel that god had put me down to be the cocaine man.” Freeway Rick said, “I owned lots of property, I owned one motel. I had one of the first custom tire wheel shops in LA, beauty salons, shoe stores, junk yards, auto body shops and numerous apartment and housing buildings.” That’s the real life of a hood legend and ghetto baler. A real big time drug dealer is looking for ways to legitimize his shit. The rapper Rick Ross is only selling illusions albeit, successfully.

 

But fuck it, its only entertainment, right? Drug game, rap game- the lines are blurred. “I just took the same formula of ripping that dope up taking it to the streets and making a nigga buy that shit.” The rapper said on his MO. And if anyone believes that they’ll believe anything. Not to say you can’t respect the hustle, because dudes music is tight, But if you’re an entertainer be an entertainer. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Could you imagine the real Rick Ross trying to get in the rap game?

 

But the subject of Freeway Rick singing has come up- singing to the feds that is. Allegedly he cooperated with the feds when the whole contra affair came to light and subsequently received a reduction on his current sentence for that cooperation. Even on BET’s American Gangster it said he cooperated, so how gangster is that? “I don’t think it was snitching.” Rick Ross said in AS IS magazine and AS IS co-signed dude saying, “AS IS has love for Rick, we gonna ride with extenuating circumstances for Rick.” What do you think? Dude snitched on the government, if you want to call it that. It is what it is. But what about AS IS?

 

AS IS is the brainchild of Shabazz who used to write for Don Diva, the original street bible. With AS IS in circulation it now makes 3 street themed magazines- Don Diva, Feds and AS IS with Felon a fourth that probably isn’t operating anymore. There’s been a couple of others like Troy Reeds Faces, but it didn’t last either. Clearly Don Diva is #1 on the food chain and with the success of BET’s American Gangster, the numerous books coming out and mainstream hip-hop mags like King, XXL and The Source featuring gangsta content its no wonder the rappers are following the trend. This gangsta shit is bubbling and pretty soon, slowly but surely the tales of America’s black underworld gangsters will go mainstream in the entertainment world just like the mafia explosion in print and film in the 70s and 80s. America loves its anti-heroes and the vicious gangstas from the crack era are finally getting their shine on. Fake ass rappers or not.

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 or request it at a bookstore near you.

Posted: 2007-03-18 05:40, Edited: 2007-03-18 06:40

 

 

The Mexican Mafia or Eme is one of the most notorious and powerful gangs in Southern California. They are allegedly running things from the penitentiary to the streets of LA. Not much is known about them or their operations. What little has been revealed has been in trumped up RICO indictments against the gang by the feds or in movies like American Me, which starred James Edward Olmos. But the reality is that the fallout from that movie included the murder of some of the people involved who angered Eme shotcallers with their portrayals in the film. So an aura of mystery surrounds the Mexican Mafia. Enter the In The Hat blog.

 

We first mentioned www.inthehat.blogspot.com in the November blog entry from 2006. The well respected website gives the 411 on gangs, crime, cops and politics in Los Angeles. Much like Gorilla Convict, In the Hat tells the stories that the mainstream media won’t. We contacted the dude who writes the blog about speaking on what he is doing or trying to accomplish with his reports. And here’s the Gorilla Convict interview with Wally Fay, the author of In the Hat.

 

What is In The Hat about?

 

It’s about Hispanic street gangs and law enforcement in So Cal and the politics that affect both of those areas. I try to keep it out of the netbanger realm. I don’t encourage “shout-outs” and gang bravado. Instead I try to get a dialog going and raise the level of discourse above the “Your neighborhood sucks, mine rules” level. The reason I focus on Hispanic gangs is because they outnumber all the other gangs by a huge margin and they’re responsible for most of the violence, drug dealing and street crimes. None of the other gang groups can compare in terms of numbers or influence on the street.

 

When did you start it?

 

In late 2003.

 

Why did you start it?

 

I realized from my own experience and research into street gangs, crime and law enforcement that the “legitimate” media was thoroughly full of crap when it came to covering this area. The press doesn’t dig very deeply and only gives the public a top line version of the story. They never provide a back story. They don’t name names and don’t get into the detailed machinations of gang life and the motivation of individuals. I also realized that some news organizations have an agenda and only run stories that fit their world view. For instance, they have refused to run anything on the brown on black hate crimes that have been happening with more frequency in the past five years. When I tried to sell them the story, they found all sorts of excuses not to run it. One editor told me the whole thing was “unoccasioned seeming,” whatever the hell that is. Another flat out told me he didn’t want to start a race war. Another just didn’t believe that hat crimes could be committed by anyone other than white people. So basically I started the blog to tell the stories that the press refused to tell or just didn’t think were important enough to tell. I wanted to tell tales from the street.

 

What is the angle? Law enforcement or street?

 

A little of both. I try to walk right down the middle. I don’t make judgments and I’m not rooting for one side or the other. What I’m rooting for is a decline in the death toll and try in some small way to put a stop to the waste of lives.

 

Did you grow up around the people you write about?

 

I grew up in New York where I was surrounded by the original Mafia, the Cosa Nostra. Almost everybody in my old hood was connected in some way to the Mob. I moved to California in my 20s and found the street gang phenomenon both familiar and alien. They operate a lot differently here than in New York. As bad as the Italian mob is. they never put as many bodies on the street as the Surenos do in So Cal. The body counts are just radically different.

 

The body count seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of money at stake. A made guy in the Mob can organize a million dollar kickback scheme and not have to fire one bullet. In LA, I quickly realized that people get killed over chump change. I mean, a low level dope dealer one day decides that he doesn’t want to pay his lousy $40 a week tax money to a shot caller and the guy gets whacked. I mean, how cheap is $40 a week to stay alive? The LCN never operated at that level. Neither do the Russians. So it was kind of a gang culture shock and that alien aspect has never stopped fascinating me. I can understand criminal violence when the stakes are huge. I can’t understand it when so little money is involved.

 

So there’s something about this criminal culture that goes beyond greed and the lure of easy money. Some of the gangsters I’ve come across here in LA have hustled their ass off for years and years and have practically nothing to show for it. But they’re still in the life. So there’s some attraction there that goes beyond money. I’ve come to believe that some people just love the kick of the gangster life.

 

What are your thoughts on the Eme or Surenos?

 

The Eme is clearly the most powerful organized force in the prisons and on the street. There is no other organization that can compare to its power projection beyond prison walls and the number of soldiers under its command. Their intelligence network is phenomenal. Something can happen in Whittier this morning and by the afternoon, the brothers in Pelican Bay know about it. And by the next morning, they’ve already issued instructions to address the problem. The Crips, Bloods, AB, NLR — none of them have that level of command and control. Admittedly it’s chaotic and the Eme tends to rip itself apart from the inside with its politics, but it nonetheless functions on a level far above anything else on the street or in the prison system.

 

In the Mexican American community in Southern Call are they really prevalent? How prevalent?

 

Hugely present. Keep in mind that we’re now going into our fourth and fifth generation of street gangsters. Diamond Street, for instance, was one of the original players in the Zoot Suit riots in 1942. That neighborhood is still around sixty years later and still producing shot callers and brothers.

 

Even if you’re a squeaky clean, stand-up Latino working guy, chances are there’s somebody you grew up with or in your own family that in some way is connected to a street gang. And chances are, that street gang is connected or affected by the Eme.

 

The gang culture, and by extension the Eme culture, has permeated deep into the Latino community. You’ve got families where one cousin is a validated shot caller and another is a decorated Sheriffs deputy or an LAPD copper. Thanks to large extended families, Erne-friendly or Eme sympathetic individuals can be found in every occupation you can imagine. There are even a few girlfriends and relatives of known shot callers who work in the DA’s office downtown, the LAPD, LASD, County Clerk’s office, the FBI field office in downtown, you name it.

 

Who reads your blog?

 

Tough to say. I know some cops read it because they email me with questions about general aspects of gang dynamics and trends. And of course, you can tell be the comments section that a lot of homies read it.

 

I’ve gotten emails from more than a few journalists asking about specific crimes and individuals. When I first got these enquiries, I was very helpful. Then I realized they were using me as the cheap and fast way of doing research. They were getting paid to dig this stuff up. I don’t make a nickel doing this. It’s a labor of obsession with me. They were taking advantage of my naturally cooperative nature and taking the credit from their editors without attributing it to me. So now I ask these “reporters” for either byline credit or money. They run away fast.

 

I’ve also gotten emails from school officials asking some fairly lame questions. These are things they should already know. It’s amazing how uninformed these people can be about something that’s staring them in the face every day, six hours a day.

 

What do you think readers get out of it?

 

They get stuff they can’t find anywhere else. For instance, I broke the Kenny Wilson, Robert Hightower, Christopher Bowser homicides on my blog 3 years before the LA media ever got wind of it. Eventually, those murders led to a Federal hate crime indictment against a bunch of Avenues gangsters that’s about to go to trial in January of 06. Once the indictment came down, the LA Times ran a few graphs on it. But the back story and everything that ramped up to that indictment is an amazing tale that I’ll only tell after the Federal case is over. I’m not giving stuff away anymore. Let them do their own homework.

 

I also ran a post about two kids who grew up together, played football on the same team and hung out at each other’s houses. Then one kid goes Avenues. The other kid goes Highland Park. And they become mortal enemies tothe point that one of them shot and killed his lifelong friend. Nobody has picked that up yet. It would make a hell of a magazine piece. But the media doesn’t want to hear it, at least not from me.

 

Is In The Hat doing for Surenos what Ganglandnews did for the Mafia?

 

I’m not familiar with Ganglandnews. Give me chance to look at it and I’ll let you know.

 

Do a lot of gang members/prisoners read your blog?

 

Lots. I understand that copies of some of my posts have made the rounds of the High Power unit in County Jail. One guy released from County told me that he overheard two shot callers talking about it. He said they seemed to like it. My sense is that as long as I tell the truth and don’t spin it or try to put cases on people or make speculations that could hurt a guy’s case, then they’re okay with it. That’s where Olmos got his tit in a wringer. He made stuff up about Cheyenne Cadena and the brothers disapproved with extreme prejudice. Three people were killed over Olmos’ “creative license.”

 

Tell me about your book that is coming out and when? What is the title? What does it cover?

 

The publisher and I haven’t finalized the title yet. The book is about the history of the Mexican Mafia and an up close, blow-by-blow look at a huge trial that’s making its way through the DA’s office right now.

 

Do you have notoriety in your community from your writing?

 

Nobody knows who I am and I prefer it that way. Notoriety, fame or any kind of public image is an obstacle to getting at people and the truth.

 

Why write under Wally Fay?

 

Death threats. I’ve gotten a few.

 

Are you an expert on Surenos/Emes?

 

I think so.

 

Do you work with law enforcement?

 

No. I interview and pester cops and DAs the same way I interview homies and gangsters. Sometimes I get answers and sometimes not. I rely on public records, FOIA, contacts on the street, in the jails and sometimes in police stations. Some cops think I’m too sympathetic to the hoods. And some homies think I’m a shill for the cops. So I must be doing my balancing act just right.

 

Are you pro Surenos or not, or do you just write?

 

I’m pro not having kids killed. The gang life is a dead end. The last
gangster to die old and wealthy was Carlo Gambino. And that’s a one in a million shot. I write about this because I’m trying to understand it. I figure once I get a real handle on it, maybe I can be of some use trying to end it or reduce it. Every time a kid gets shot off a bike or blasted at his front door, the politicians dust off the boiler plate copy and look sternly into the cameras and say crap like, “This has to stop.” But then nothing happens. They’re clueless. I’m trying not to be.

 

Do the dudes up in Pelican Bay have any thoughts on your blog?

 

I know some dropouts are aware of it because they told me. I’ve been told that as long as I don’t make shit up or put cases on people, I’ll be
tolerated. They like reading about themselves. They just don’t like lies. I don’t either.

 

Have you been told not to write it ever? Explain.

 

Yes. On several occasions. I’ll spare you the details. Somebody thought I was a cop stirring up the pot on the web and they took exception to a post. So now I finesse stories and try harder to put stuff between the lines. It’s worked so far. No death threats in quite some time.

 

ORDER PRISON STORIES TODAY

 

 

Prison Stories is the hottest prison book of Y2K6, taking over where “In the Belly of the Beast” and Hothouse took off. Check out what the book reviewers of the major magazine are saying -

 

“Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system.” - Smooth Magazine

 

“Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop’s street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim’s pimp tales or HBO’s ‘OZ’ series will really dig this.” - Elemental Magazine

 

“Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry.” - The Ave Magazine

 

“An episode of ‘OZ’ couldn’t capture prison drama the way Soul Man does in Prison Stories.” - Don Diva Magazine

 

Find out for yourself by ordering the seminal prison book of this decade. Take a journey behind the walls and experience convict life and culture through Soul Man’s stories and insights. You can order the book at gorillaconvict.com or at Amazon.com for $15.00 plus shipping & handling or request it at a bookstore near you.