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

 

 

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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

 

 

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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.

 

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Posted: 2007-02-24 09:21

 

 

 

 

As legend has it the Aryan Brotherhood formed at San Quentin Prison in California in 1967 in the cauldron of the prison race wars to fight the Black Guerrilla Family, a black prison gang led by the notorious Black Panther, revolutionary and author of Soledad Brother, George Jackson. The white supremacist group, which later became known as the Brand was originally comprised of prisoners of Irish descent and former members of 50’s biker tips such as the Diamond Tooth gang and the Bluebird gang. The tips came together in the gladiator school style type prisons under a neo-Nazi banner. The Aryan Brotherhood was for whites only and its members were the most Violent and ferocious of their race who sported Nazi and Viking tattoos, big handlebar mustaches, thick bull necks and massive forearms. A shamrock or clover leaf tattoo was the designated brand of gang members who wore a collage of swastikas, Nazi lightning bolts, white pride, 666 and 88 tattoos. By 1975 the gang was all throughout the California system.

 

 

 

“They formed to take care of the whites in the California system because of the black prison gangs,” says Dog* an AB associate. “It was a way for them to make money. A protection racket.” Rebel* another associate concurs.

 

“What really got them originated was the white boys had to come together for protection purposes. The blacks were acting like they ran shit so the white boys got together to say you can run it but you ain’t running us.” And in the middle of a race war, as documented by convict author Edward Bunker in Education of a Felon the whites came together to hold their own as one of the big four prison gangs that started in the California system. Along with the Black Guerrilla Family, the Mexican Mafia and the Nuestra Familia the Brand took their place in prison legend as lore as one of the most fierce. But the Aryan Brotherhood wasn’t for everyone. They choose prospective members carefully. It was an exclusive membership of only the most violent and loyal convicts.

 

“You have to kill a black to get in. Blood in, blood out.” Dog says. “There’s nothing wrong with that in my mind.” And a lot of other gang members agree. “We believe in being separatists,” Rebel says. “We got freedom of speech, freedom of religion. Being a separatist is a form of religion. It’s like them old bylaws- blacks can’t eat here. AB’s do time the way we want. We get high when we want to get high. We drink when we want to drink and we fight and kill when we want to fight and kill.” And the killing is what made their reputation inside and outside the walls. They killed in full view of guards. They killed in order to impose a culture of terror that would solidify their power base. They killed rival gang members, blacks, homos, snitches, people who stole from them and owed them money and prison guards.

 

“They’re the most treacherous,” Dog says. “They can just reach out and touch someone. Like that AT&T commercial.” The Brand killed by garrote and bludgeon and prison-made knives. They were violent, disciplined and fearless. “They wouldn’t sneak up and stab you.” Dog continues. “They’d do it right in the open. If a brother told you he was coming to kill you he was coming to kill you. They were not scared of nothing that I ever saw.” Rebel adds, “Lots of killings. Putting hits on baby rappers and snitches. They don’t hide from the police. They’re doing life sentences. Even if their guy was wrong they ride with him. They don’t fight fair. They’ll all jump on you. Shit they’re like the Musketeers, all for one and one for all. They got shanks all over the yard. Easy access.” And as the gang expanded into the federal system and other prisons across the nation in the 80’s and 90’s their reputation preceded them.

 

“They’re feared. They’re basically feared on every yard because it’s known if any of them are fucked with there’ll be consequences.” Dog says. “They will do whatever they have to do. Fuck with you fuck with them all. They’re given a wide berth. Even the niggers. Dudes that clicked with them were given a wide berth. They didn’t say boo to them. They would get drugs and stuff at a discount. Instead of 3 bags for 50 they’d get 6 for 50. You don’t want to start nothing with them. If they perceive you’re weak and you have something, especially heroin, they’ll take it.” Rebel concurs.

 

“They want their issue of everything.” He says. “I had to hide their shanks of drugs or whatever. That’s how I did my time. If you screw up you’re dead. They don’t take no excuses.” And as their notoriety increased and membership grew they established a chain of command modeled loosely on the structure of the Italian Mafia with commission that communicated via correspondence through 3rd parties passing orders to their prison based branches all across the US. The 3 man commissions were also a way to channel the gangs’ violence and resolve in-house feuds. They established drug trafficking, security, extortion and gambling rackets in prisons all over the country. The leaders who had multiple life sentences worked out of solitary confinement cells in some of the most secure prisons in the world. From Pelican Bay, the supermax in California, and ADX Florence, the Alcatraz of the Rockies, the Brand ran a prison empire through coded invisible ink letter. The FBI investigated them from 1982 to 1989, but the US Attorney declined prosecution. But the FBI reported that “the purpose of the AB is now power and is not a racial organization as it has been in the past.” They even took a hit from John Gotti, the Mafioso, who offered the Brand $100,000 to kill the black prisoner who assaulted him at USP Marion in 1996.

 

“The AB was an inspiration for all the other cliques.” Rebel says. “They saw what they did and that they got theirs and they cliqued up too.” Spawning mini-AB groups like the Dirty White Boys, and Nazi Low Riders who often worked with the Brand. “I don’t think the AB’s are as racist as they’re made out to be.” Rebel continues. “It was a nation of white boys so they called themselves Aryans. It’s a title the government put on them. The racist thing. Separatists just want to be separated. White Pride across their backs. A clique of people that grouped up, so they made it out to be a racist thing. They fuck up a white dude as quick as they fuck up a black dude. All the AB is a society within a society. If they would leave them alone it wouldn’t be broadcasted so much as a violent thing versus a positive thing.” But leaving them alone wasn’t to be and as the killings and a new race war jumping off in the federal pens between the Brand and the DC Blacks the feds started investigating again and in Y2K they struck.

 

On August 28, 2002, AUSA Greg Jessner indicted virtually the entire leadership of the gang. The indictment reached back 20 years spanning 3 decades and 32 murders. Forty members were indicted of federal racketeering charges in a 140, 10 count indictment. The majority of the gang members were already doing life sentences, so 23 of them are eligible for the death penalty. “This is a homicidal organization,” Jessner announced. “That’s what they do. They kill people I suspect they kill more then the Mafia. They may be the most murderous criminal organization in the United States.” The indictment is the largest capital case in the history of California and the AUSA indicted the Brand, a prison gang with laws originally passed to target Mafia leaders. “Inmates and others who do not follow orders of the AB are subject to being murdered as is anyone who uses violence against an AB member or anyone who cooperates with law enforcement.” The indictment reads.

 

“Mainstream America is gonna go by what the prosecutor says,” Dog says of the case. “But the brothers are honorable men. As far as trying to hit all these boys with the RICO, they already serving Jurassic park numbers and the government told them they’re animals, locking them up 24 hours a day in solitary confinement, so fuck it, why not become vicious animals.” Rebel feels the same. “The government knows what’s up. It’s the government trying to crush any type of anarchism.” He says. “They perpetrate these myths, these lies. They don’t know what it is. All they got is their snitches. They took everything from the brothers. But for the AB’s, they’re not taking our manhood, fuck that.” And there’s been allegations of the feds running a snitch school also to manufacture evidence and testimony against the brotherhood’s leaders. With coached and paid for testimony how can the government loose?

 

Barry “The Baron” Mills

 

US vs Mills, No CR02-938 (C) (C.D. Calif.) is the docket number and the alleged leaders of the Brand have become legendary figures. Barry “The Baron” Mills, aged 57 and TD “The Hulk” Bingham, aged 58 are the leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood the government alleges. The indictment says that they’ve orchestrated the brotherhoods campaign from their cells at ADX, the federal supermax. Mills is doing life for a 1979 prison murder, but Bingham is scheduled for release in 2012, but if both are convicted they’ll face the death penalty. Another primary in the case is Thomas “Terrible Tom” Silverstein who started the AB-DC Black race war by killing Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, the leader of the DC Blacks in 1982 by stabbing him 67 times in the Marion Control Unit.

 

TD “The Hulk” Bingham

 

“Within the gangs’ lore, Silverstein has become the Christ figure,” AUSA Jessner said. And to an associate like Rebel they are all legends. “To an extent I would say they are prison legends,” he relates. “Because they did the time how they wanted to do it. Fuck the niggers. Fuck the police. Fuck everyone.” And the race war with the DC Blacks is the central factor in the governments case as the 1997 killing of 2 DC Blacks at USP Lewisburg was allegedly ordered by Bingham in an invisible ink message written in urine.

 

AB’s at USP Leavenworth

 

“The reality is federal penitentiaries are violent and dangerous places and all these guys- white guys- are a small minority and they’re just trying to survive.” Dean Steward, Mills Attorney said. And Mills testifying for himself at a previous trial concurred, “We live in a different society then you do. There is justified violence in our society. I’m here to tell you that.” And Bingham who benches 500 pounds and is known as Super Honkey backed this up also in his folksy manner, “There’s a code in every segment of society. Well, we have a different kind of moral and ethical code.” But the patron saint. Terrible Tom Silverstein said it best at one of his numerous murder trials, “I have walked over dead bodies. I’ve had guts splattered all over my chest from race wars.” And nowadays the AB’s are a bunch of old geezers though no less deadly and they might get the death penalty, but their trial has shown the public the dark world of prison life and gang membership. And like Dog says, even if they kill all the leaders “it’ll never be over. Especially in California. It will spring up again. It will come back. As long as blacks and whites don’t get along it will be back.”

 

Enemies of The Brand

 

The AB was originally formed to fight the Black Guerrilla Family, which was founded in San Quentin by George Jackson in 1966. The Former Black Panther, revolutionary and author of Soledad Brother had a vile hatred of the system and all things white. The BGF would beat, kill and maim random white when they caught them out of their cells for no other reason than that they were white. This cauldron of hate and atmosphere of tension, which existed at San Quentin at the time fermented the race wars in the California system and led to the rise of the big four prison gangs, which were divided along racial lines-The Aryan Brotherhood, Black Guerrilla Family, Mexican Mafia and Nuestra Familia. The BGF allied with the Nuestra Family and fought a constant battle against the AB’s who allied with the Mexican Mafia who was constantly at war with their counterparts from the northern part of California, Nuestra Familia while they represented the southern part of California.

 

The BGF was the most politically oriented of the gangs. It was formed as a revolutionary organization along paramilitary lines. Its goal was to overthrow the US government. They were led by a Supreme Commander or Chairman and the lowest echelon of gang members were known as soldiers. They originated out of the MAD Adjustment center at San Quentin, the first SHU in the country. They recruit members of black street gangs like the Crips, disenchanted members of radical black organizations and are aligned with the Black Liberation Army. Their founder George Jackson was killed by guards at San Quentin in the early seventies. A victim of his fame and notoriety.

 

The race wars in the federal system started on Nov 22, 1981 when the body of Robert M Chappelle, a member of the DC Blacks was found dead in his cell at USP Marion. Thomas “Terrible Tom” Silverstein was the killer and Chappelle’s death worried bureau official who thought it might spark a war, which it certainly did.

 

Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, the alleged national leader of the DC blacks was the next person killed. Terrible Tom struck again on Sept 27, 1982 stabbing Cadillac 67 times in the Marion control Unit and dragging his body up and down the tier so that those locked in their cells could see. The race wars against the DC blacks raged across the feds in the early 1980’s and again in the 1990’s when 2 DC blacks were killed at USP Lewisburg by AB members who stabbed them 35 and 34 times to death. The violent campaign against the DC Blacks and the alleged race war are at the center of the government’s 2002 indictment against the Aryan Brotherhood.

 

The DC Blacks are prisoners from Washington DC who usually make up the largest single ethnic group from any single city making up 10 percent of the overall federal prison population. They are well schooled in violence from their time spent at Lorton the infamous DC penitentiary, and are known as notorious locker knockers, petty thieves and for pressuring prisoners for sex. A lot of DC Blacks were members of the Moorish religion at one time.

 

Timeline

 

“The most ferocious and notorious of any of the prison groups is the Aryan Brotherhood,” the FBI reported. Over its four decade history the gang has evolved from an organization focusing on aggression against blacks to a violent white supremacist group that runs sophisticated gambling, extortion and dope operations in prison across the nation.

 

The Brand as the gang is called makes it members read The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Machiavelli’s, The Prince and Nietzsche as well as, exercising vigorously to stay in shape and studying Anatomy books, so as to know where to stab enemies and inflict killing blows. They’ve been accused of running-a barbed wire empire of terror, drugs and extortion. The case reached back 40 years to include stabbings, strangulations, poisonings, contract hits, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery and narcotics trafficking. A brief history of the gang-

 

1967: The Aryan Brotherhood is formed in California’s San Quentin maximum security prison. Irish bikers and remnants of the Diamond Tooth Gang and a 50’s gang known as the Bluebirds come together with some Neo-Nazi leaning prisoners of German descent to found the brotherhood specifically to fight against the Black Guerrilla Family and to get paid for protecting white prisoner against them.

 

1975: The gang grows developing a reputation for violence, discipline and fearlessness. They ally with the Mexican Mafia and start protecting mob figures in the federal prison for money further developing their protection racket. This money and connection allows them to get into organized crime.

 

1980: The gang becomes more organized developing a chain of command modeled after the Italian Mafia. Two factions of the gang emerge- the California state faction and the federal one. The federal faction creates a 3-man commission to control activity in federal prison. Barry “The Baron” Mills and TD “The Hulk” Bingham are allegedly running the commission.

 

1982: With the killings of DC Blacks Robert Chapelle and Raymond “Cadillac” Smith by Thomas “Terrible Tom” Silverstein at USP Marion the DC Black/AB race war in the feds starts leading to 2 decades of revenge/retribution killings. An FBI investigation into the gang also starts.

 

1983: Two guards are killed at USP Marion by AB members Thomas Silverstein and Clay Fountain marking the first time in federal prison history two guards are killed on the same day and this event further enhances the AB’s penchant for violence.

 

1989: The FBI concludes their 7 year investigation of the gang, but the US Attorney declines to prosecute as the only witnesses to the prison crimes are convicted killers, former gang members, and jailhouse informants. The FBI report states that members of the AB are recruiting new members from prisons around the country.

 

1990: Authorities relocate most of the brotherhoods leaders to supermax prisons like ADX FLorence and Pelican Bay where prisoners are held in single cells 24 hours a day with minimal human contact. The gangs operations continue unhindered as secret coded invisible ink messages are sent out of the restricted environment by means of being written in urine or citric acid, which when heated becomes readable.

 

1992: AUSA Gregory Jessner begins investigating the gang after it’s linked to a strangulation at USP Lompoc in California.

 

1994: Michael “Big Mac” McElhiey transfers to USP Leavenworth from USP Marion with instructions from alleged AB leader Barry Mills to take over all operations and rackets at the prison. Big Mac does with violence and efficiency, but catches a heroin case in the process due to jailhouse snitches.

 

1997: Barry Mills and TD Bingham allegedly order a race war at USP Lewisburg leading to the death of two DC Blacks who are murdered viciously.

 

1999: Letters written by Barry Mills to paroled gang members are intercepted. The letters attempt to cajole the paroled gang members to polish the rock, meaning to expand the gangs’ rackets on the outside of prison.

 

2002: AUSA Gregory Jessner indicts all the suspected leaders of the AB with a sweeping 40 person 10 count racketeering indictment charging 32 murders over 3 decades. The government seeks the death penalty.

 

2006: The first in a series of gang member trials begin in Orange County California. The alleged leaders Barry “The Baron” Mills and TD “The Hulk” Bingham are accused of ordering or participating in 15 murders in the last 25 years. 19 members have already pled guilty and the defense alleges a snitch school comprised of 6 gang dropouts that was located in the H unit at ADX Florence where testimony was manufactured, coached and paid for. 42 jailhouse informants testify for the prosecution.

 

October 2006: The rest of the gang including Michael “Big Man” McElhiey and Thomas “Terrible Tom” Silverstein are expected of go to trial on similar RICO charges.

 

November 2006: Most members of the gang including alleged leaders Mills and Bingham are given life sentences on top of the life sentences they were already serving.

 

Aryan Brotherhood Lexicon

 

The Brand- the name the brotherhood is known by to members and refers to the shamrock or clover leaf tattoo found on members that denotes membership and signifies the Brand.

 

Blood In, Blood Out- This is the process by which someone is accepted into the gang meaning they have to kill to get in and the only way to get out is by death.

 

Making Your Bones- This is the initiation into the gang. When you kill someone to get in it is called making your bones.

 

Rocking Someone To Sleep- This is the process of disarming a target for murder by making him think you are friends. By rocking someone to sleep it makes them easier to kill when they aren’t expecting it.

 

Lie or Die- When questioned by law enforcement types the Brand’s motto is to lie or die because if you tell the truth and cooperate with law enforcement you will be marked for death, so you must lie to them and make them think you are telling the truth.

 

Getting Writted- This is when one AB member has a case and his defense lawyer gets all his brothers and fellow gang members writted in to be defense witnesses in the case at hand so that all the brotherhood members can be gathered at one place to discuss gang business.

 

Keistered- This is when a gang member in transit or in the hole sticks contraband such as drugs, tobacco or shanks up his ass so that it won’t be found in strip searches and body searches.

 

In the Hat- this term is used when someone is marked or targeted for death. If someone is in the hat in gang parlance it means he will be killed soon.

 

Burpees- this exercise consisting of a combination of push ups and jumping jacks is performed by AB members on lockdown to stay in good shape. Sometimes thousands of burpees will be done a day.

 

Polishing the Rock- this term refers to gang members on the outside doing things to further gang and brotherhood business on the outside. Before leaving prison they will be urged to keep polishing the rock.

 

Kytes- this is what letters or notes to fellow prisoners are called. They might be in invisible ink or coded and are often sent via transferring prisoners or via a third party on the outside who will mail it to the appropriate gang member. Kytes typically contain instructions and order for furthering brotherhood business.

 

Runners- this term refers to girlfriends, associates and people on the outside who help the gang to achieve their goals by ferrying messages into and out of various prisons. They also gather mail at designated mail drops and forward them to other gang members in different prisons, smuggle drugs for the brotherhood into prisons through the visiting rooms and gather and collect monies sent to the higher ups in the gang either to put on their account or to pay for more drugs coming into the prisons,

 

Snitch School- the defense lawyers for the AB members currently on trial allege that the government set up a snitch school in unit H at ADX FLorence for the express purpose of manufacturing and coaching evidence and testimony to indict the alleged leaders of the AB. Most of the informants who are alleged to have participated in the snitch school at ADX Florence are gang dropouts. Its been said that they were given access to Bureau of Prison files on gang members, FBI information and computer files that shouldn’t have been made available to them so that they could all corroborate their stories and get them straight with the evidence that the US Attorneys would be presenting at trial.

 

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.

Posted: 2007-01-21 16:05, Edited: 2007-01-29 09:18

 

 

To live by a code, to embody that ideal, to be the real deal that is death before dishonor. A lot of dudes talk about keeping it real and staying true to the game but when they get busted and snitch they say, “Charge it to the game.” The drug game is fucked up, that’s a fact. With Mandatory Minimums, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and our government’s War on Drugs snitching has become the norm. A man who sticks to his ideals is a rarity. A throwback to the past when principles, omerta and honor among thieves stood for something other than a rap video. This new “Stop Snitching” fad embraced by the hip-hop culture is all well and good but will it harken back to the times of old when men where men, gangsters kept their mouths shut and crossing your brother was obsolete?

 

With black gangsters newfound relevance in pop culture due to rappers putting them on pedestals and mythologizing their crime exploits in verse a new kind of anti-hero from the inner city is taking their place next to the Mafia and Billy the kid in American folklore. With magazines like Don Diva and FEDS, Ethan Brown’s Queens Reigns Supreme and BET’s American Gangster series wetting the public’s appetite for the street legends long idolized by rappers a movement is afoot. But for real don’t get it twisted. Let’s not get it fucked up. A lot of snitches, rats and informants are getting their shine on and being held up as an example of the American black gangster. Cats like Alpo who was featured in FEDS, and Freeway Ricky Ross, Fat Cat, and Leroy “Nicky” Barnes who were profiled on BET’ s American Gangster. Just like the mafia turncoats before them they are getting all the hype. About the only publication that keeps it real is Don Diva who refuses to pay tribute to snitches or those who turn their back on and betrayed the criminal code and the drug game.

 

Don Diva goes hard like the gorilla convict blog and only honors true gangsters like Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, who is going to trial in January and facing the death penalty. He is a man who embodies what death before dishonor means. To both law enforcement and a generation of rappers and hustlers Supreme is a black John Gotti, a larger than life figure whose underworld reach seems limitless.

 

“The streets will always respect Preme for who he is,” says David “Bing” Robinson, a former Supreme Team member who was with Supreme since the jump off in the 80’s. Bing, who grew up in South Jamaica first met Preme as a teen and was arrested with him on a l985 drug case in New York City. Bing came home in 1989, hooked up with Preme’s nephew, Prince, while Preme was in prison and subsequently got a 19 year sentence on the infamous Supreme Team racketeering case from 1993.

 

We always been good.” Bing says looking back on his association with the notorious gangster. “Everybody had their good ways and their bad ways to them. But Preme is a brother to me. I have no complaints. He was always good to me. We lived the life. I’ll love that nigga forever.” And for real when black American gangsters are mentioned Supreme’s name is at the top of the list along with Frank Mathews aka Black Ceaser who is still a fugitive from justice 30 years after he was indicted. All these other dudes got it fucked up.

 

“The biggest names come out of Queens,” Curtis Scoon said in an allhiphop.com interview where he trashed fellow gangsta writer Ethan Brown as a fraud. But who is Curtis Scoon? A Queens native and aspiring screenwriter that was a suspect in the Jam Master Jay homicide who is now capitalizing on his notoriety and the gangsta craze. Along with Ethan Brown he appeared in BET’s American Gangster segment on Fat Cat, Lorenzo Nichols and according to Scoon he played a big part in Ethan Brown’s book, Queens Reign Supreme. “I came up with the idea to put all the guys in Queens in one book and then connect it to hip-hop.” He said. And with his Fat Cat piece in the new King Scoon is really pushing Cat who he said, “Is the biggest name in his time in the 80’s.” But it’s been circulating that Fat Cat snitched on Howard “Pappy” Mason, his cohort in crime for years. Even 50 Cent rapped about that but to a lot of Queens dudes from the era, Cat is still the man. But they don’t know who Curtis Scoon is. With so many dudes jumping on the bandwagon its hard to see who’s legit and who’s not. But one things certain and two for sure- Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff is that dude, always has been and anyone associated with him is certified.

 

“They always gonna remember him as a top legend from the hood,” Bing says. “He was one of the main generals who represented Southside Jamaica Queens to the fullest. He’s a person the streets will always remember as a legend. He reaped the hood and made Southside Jamaica shine.” But his legend has also been his downfall. Hence, his 2005 federal indictment and the allegations he provided seed money and muscle to record label Murder Inc., which has largely been disproven with Irv Gotti and his brother’s acquittal last year. But still Preme has to face the music.

 

The feds contend that Supreme has been responsible for Mafia style murders while moving kilos of cocaine in multiple states following his release from prison in the mid 90’s after a 12 year bid in the feds on a drug kingpin charge. The feds are trying to give Supreme the death penalty, alleging he directed co-conspirators to kill associates in Baltimore and that he arranged other murders in New York City. He was originally indicted with the people accused of committing the murders and the Murder Inc honchos but his trial was severed several times until he stood alone and after numerous delays and no co-defendants he will finally go to trial in January.

 

“All I know is that they ain’t letting no black man win no federal trial, no murder case.” Bing says. “Especially a dude like him with his history. He got more shit against him then we did in the RICO act case. I don’t think he can beat that. I hope he does for his sake.” But with all his former co-defendants and those accused of the murders in the government fold ready to testify against him. It doesn’t look good for Supreme. He even admitted as much in a Vibe magazine interview last summer.

 

Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff

 

“You can put the death penalty on me,” Supreme said. “I’ve lived my life already. I’ve done everything I wanted to do. I’m gonna stick to my values and face certain death. Every shooting they point the finger at me, the bad guy.” It seems in a way as if Preme has already conceded the government the victory. But how did it all evolve and come to this point.

 

“They painted this picture themselves,” Antoine Clark the publisher of FEDS magazine who recently appeared in the BET American Gangster segment on Leroy “Nicky” Barnes and who regularly pays tribute to rats in his publication said in a NY Times interview, concerning the whole Murder Inc/ Supreme situation. “There’s something that comes behind bringing in a king pin to ride with you. There’s a certain ghetto pride and ghetto respect, but there’s also a police investigation into the ties.” But to dudes like Bing, real dudes who know what’s really up, the whole thing is a travesty.

 

“Shit was good. He was going legit.” Bing says of Preme’s hook up with Murder Inc and production of the DVD Crime Partners in early Y2k. “I was glad for that. He was with a legitimate organization that was making millions of dollars. That was like hitting the lotto. Especially, how they looked up to him like they did.” But with the subsequent investigation into Murder Inc, because of Supreme’s past it all fell apart, the dream of legitimacy that is.

 

“At first, I didn’t think nothing of it,” Bing says. “Because they were always putting his name out there, because of who he was. They linked him to everything, because of his name.” And Supreme’s name stayed ringing bells, because of all the rappers like Biggie, Nas, The Game, and 50 Cent who big upped him and the Supreme Team in their songs mythologizing them for their 80’s crime exploits. -

 

“It was good to that they paid homage to us for who we were and what we did,” Bing says of the verses. “But I felt different about it when I first heard that shit. It is what it is.” And in Vibe, Supreme had even more to say about it. “When we was coming up, there was a code of conduct. You didn’t speak about dudes who may still e in the streets.” But in Y2k with everything gangsta going popular culture the rules are all getting twisted. And this leads to the biggest allegation and one that is uncharged in his indictment. The allegation that he ordered the shooting of 50 cent in 2000.

 

As everyone know 50 Cent was shot 9 times in front of his grandmother’s house in Jamaica Queens. He went on to rap about surviving the attack and even raised the question in verse of whether Preme had anything to do with it. “This dude sensationalizes everything. All his statements are incendiary.” Preme said in Vibe. “The government believes every lyric and then he (tells the police), ‘read my lyrics.’ Where I come from, that’s dry snitching.” And in the Murder Inc trial super snitch Jon “Love” Ragin who worked on the Crime Partners DVD with Supreme testified that Supreme told him he put the hit on 50. The whole scenario will most likely be replayed in the upcoming trial. Could 50 Cent make an appearance? On the whole 50 cent deal Preme broke it down in Vibe, “Kid, you’ve never been through nothing. I was around wolves, man. I walked among giants, he said and recently in XXL 50 fired back.

 

“He fuckin on trial. He shouldn’t be talking. He should be keeping his fuckin mouth shut. I’m sure if he had a lawyer his lawyer would tell him not to have that fuckin article.” 50 said alluding to the fact that Preme has a public defender representing him and in the same interview 50 even questioned Preme’s motives.

 

“Are you an organized crime mob boss, or were you a nigga from Baisley Projects that sold crack?” 50 asked and went on. “Preme loves to be out in the eye. He wants to be a fucking celebrity. He was a nigga you would look at and say, he the real deal. But the nigga at this point is broken. You mean to tell me none of the crew is making enough money in the streets to handle your lawyer fees, I don’t recall John Gotti ever having a problem getting his lawyers’ fees paid.” But maybe that solidifies the defenses point. Supreme was trying to go legit. There is no crew. This whole indictment is just some gangsta rap fantasy the government has concocted by lifting the evidence straight from 50 cent’s lyrics. Talk about reality TV.

 

“I feel for him,” Bing says of his man Supreme. “But if you choose to live that life you got to suck it up. Dudes getting life everyday, Everybody got to fight their battle. We fought ours back in the day. A life sentence is not a good thing but when you choose that lifestyle its one of the consequences. ”

 

Consequences to one’s actions is what magazines like Don Diva stress in their pages. It’s why they don’t glorify or promote rats, because snitches don’t pay the consequences of their actions. They put someone else in the line of fire. That is not honorable. And a true gangsta like Supreme represents what death before dishonor means. He prefers death, is willing to face death, rather then dishonor his name, his hood, and his reputation. And concerning the indictment Supreme said in his Vibe interview, “It’s like a desperation grab. I’ve never been known as a murderer and all of a sudden I’m this psychotic killer.” Even 50 Cent rhymed as much in Ghetto Quaran- Preme was the businessman and Prince was the killer- so if the feds are really reading 50’s lyrics, it seems they got it all fucked up.

 

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.

Posted: 2006-12-02 07:00, Edited: 2006-12-02 07:08

 

In the chronicles of the ever expanding gangsta files and criminal underworld, different crews at different times have gotten props for their various MO’s whatever they may be. Some crews are about territory, protecting the home turf as it is, while others are known as money getting muthafuckas. Some crews go the flamboyant route and are recognized for their extravagant lifestyles while others are known as finesse hustlers, putting their B.I. above all else. Some crews are all about power and respect. They disdain violence and work from the shadows to get that dollar while others are on front street living large and in charge. And then there are the crews that use violence as a means to an end. They thrive off the fear and paranoia that they inspire whenever they step on the block.

 

 

Javier “Panama” Card and his crew were one of the latter. They allegedly left a trail of bodies from New York to Philly to Washington DC. Court records indicate that the ruthless gang dealt up to fifty kilos of cocaine a month from the Deli Den, a lunch spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave in Southeast Washington DC; where 7th District police officers often ate lunch. A DC police officer was even said to be a part of their crew. A crew that prosecutors said ran one of the largest drug operations ever encountered in the city. But the story only ended in the Chocolate City. It began in Panama.

 

“My hood was Santa Cruz,” Card says. “It was located in the city of Panama. Its one of the most notorious hoods in the city. Poverty was thick in my hood. I started robbing tourists at a young age. The police would murder you for this. This was one of the reasons I came to America. I didn’t want to get killed like a dog in the streets with a wallet in my hand. In America, I knew I could get rich like my homies that took the trip before me.”

 

 

And one of those homies was Santa Cruz and Brooklyn street legend Julio “Jack” Guerrero who hit US streets in the 80’s with cocaine and machine guns, chasing his piece of the American Dream. “Julito (as Panama called Guerrero) taught me everything I know,” says Panama. “When Julito said that he would bring me up I was ready to go.” And the 20 year old with nothing but a few hundred dollars and the clothes on his back made his way to the states via Canada in the summer of 1986. And this is when Assistant United States Attorney G Paul Howe said the double digit body count began. “He came to New York city in the mid 80’s,” AUSA Howe wrote in court papers. “Ostensibly as a student and quickly established himself as a violent purveyor of drugs, with a charismatic flair that attracted followers to do his bidding.” But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

 

In the Red Hook projects of Brooklyn New York, Julito taught Panama the intricinsies of the drug game. Julito’s crew, La Banda, had a stronghold on Columbia Road and Panama who never held a gun in his hand back home soon was one of the Uzi-spraying frontrunners for the crew. Seeing that Panama was catching on to the American way, Julito put him behind the door of his Red Hook coke spot. Panama ran the spot with an iron fist. Allegedly opening fire as a first recourse for all infractions when he was behind the door. Up to $25,000 a day came through the door and most of the money lined Julito’s pockets.

 

How was Red Hook Projects for you?

 

Panama: Red Hook was a dog eat dog world where only the strong survived and the weak perished. Julito was the first Panamanian around there and he was definitely not welcomed. They were not willing to share the profits with an outsider. Keep in mind that we are talking about 1986, the crack epidemic was in full blast. Gates as we called them were bringing in 25 to 30 thousand dollars a day sometimes. The wars were always about money, power and respect. Red Hook was another world in the middle of Brooklyn. Big up to the Red Hook Massive.

 

“I was a kid back then,” Panama says. “I know I made Julito over a million dollars in that first year I was in Brooklyn. I was young. “Eventually Panama opened up his own Red Hook spot and brought his little brother Pimpo to New York. “Pimpo was making a nice piece of change when he hit Red Hook. I made way for him and everybody in the crew honored it. When Pimpo was running my spot it was making $8,000 a day. I didn’t want Pimpo to go through what I went through.” So he set his little brother up but it didn’t last. Pimpo was murdered at the age of 19. His death was somewhat the beginning of the end as far as Panama was concerned with Red Hook. His welcome in New York wore out when he allegedly opened fire with a Mac-11 sub machine gun inside a Brooklyn nightclub one May night in 1988. A former girlfriend was killed. On the run for murder there was only one thing to do, leave New York.

 

How did Pimpo’s murder affect you?

 

Panama: I was devastated by Pimpo’s murder. That was my baby brother. Thinking things out of the equation. That was a very dark time. A great warrior’s time was cut short. The game is not fair nor just. It shouldn’t be called the game, its as serious as cancer.

 

North Philly was Panamas first stop where he established a base around Dauphin Street. “No one in New York could connect me to Philly,” he says. “One of the first things Julito taught me was that America had 50 states, when shit get hot a nigga just roll to the next city and the next city after that and set up shop.” He hooked up with dudes from the notorious 11th and York projects. One thing led to another and he ended up in the Logan section of Philly where police and prosecutors say he and his drug gang evolved into a murderous organization that dealt crack cocaine by the kilo. The crew’s alleged base of operations was Marvine Street. This was where Panama met Jerome “Rome” Edwards who prosecutors say became the enforcer of the alleged drug gang.

 

How was your run in Philly?

 

Panama: Philly was a gold mine back in those days (88-89). We had a few productive strips. We also pulled some major capers on Colombians and Dominicans and so on. I mean serious moves. Philly was good to us, it wasn’t as intense as it was in New York or DC. Nevertheless the city was good to us. We brought some of our Philly soldiers to DC with us, most of them crumbled under the pressure when the feds vamped down. My man Rome didn’t do no crumbling, that’s my brother. We walked through the fire together.

 

 

Rome was a street-smart, aggressive 18-year old when he met Panama some time in 1988. Witnesses called him a little man that carried big guns and wouldn’t think twice about using them. Their desire to get paid brought them together. They were so close that outsiders often thought Rome was also Panamanian. When homicide detectives investigated murders the crew was suspected of witnesses said, “The Panamanians did it.” Another Philly cat Yusef Battle was brought into the fold and after allegedly ripping off some Colombians the crew moved on to the murder capital of the world, Washington DC.

 

When Panama, Rome, and Yusef hit DC in 1989 the city was a war zone. On Valentines Day 1989, 13 people were shot dead in one twenty four hour period. Then DC mayor Marion Barry told reporters, “Washington is not Dodge City.” Referring to the gun slinging town of legend. But naysayers thought otherwise. With the crack epidemic holding city hostage Panama and his comrades knew that DC was no place to play. According to AUSA Howes, Panama established himself in Southeast DC through his homie Julito how had moved his La Banda cocaine ring south from New York to Maryland’s Prince Georges Country. Through Julito, Panama hooked up with heavyweight southeast drug trafficker Jimmy Murray, court documents relate. This led to the Deli Den setup which became Panama’s and Murray’s headquarters on Martin Luther King Ave in Southeast. Murray’s mother owned the deli and 50 kilos flew out its door a month bringing in tens of thousands of dollars a day.

 

 

What role did Jimmy Murray play in the crew?

 

Panama: Jimmy was our backbone in DC, a jack of all trades. We started off as business partners but became closer than friends. We became brothers. You wouldn’t see one without the other. Nothing came between us, not money, not cars, not women, I mean nothing.

 

By the mid 1990’s, the crew was well established in the Washington area with cocaine sales allegedly over one million dollars. Authorities claimed the crew was the prime drug organization between South Capital Street and Chesapeake Street, Southeast. Prosecutors said that Panama and Murray processed cocaine, stored fully automatic weapons and conducted whole sale drug transactions out of the Deli Den. Meanwhile Rome, Yusef, and Antoine Rice operated out of apartments around Chesapeake Street. Prosecutors also contended that award winning DC police officer, Fonda C Moore, was also a member of the crew. She allegedly served as an armed driver when large sums of cash, weapons or cocaine were transported, obtained police photos of rivals so the crew could identify and eliminate them and warned the crew of drug sweeps and undercover operations. Witnesses told police that Moore was so cool with the crew that she was seen in the Deli Den comparing her Glock with Panamas.

 

 

According to AUSA G Paul Howes, Moore became involved in the drug ring through her relationship with Jimmy Murray. Government witness, James Crallie testified, “Jimmy was having sex with her, that’s why we never got raided at the deli. She was keeping Jimmy informed.”

 

How did ex-DC police officer Fonda Moore get caught up with your case?

 

Panama: Fonda was in love with Jimmy, she just got caught up in a bad situation. Her association with Jimmy and us was what created the whole fiasco. Fonda and I became friends. The rats and the media painted a whole different picture, they went as far as to insinuate that she and I had a romantic relationship. As if I would fool around with my comrades woman. That would be dishonor. Fonda is a stand up sister, she was facing life and could have told lies on me as a vehicle to obtain her freedom but she chose to fight for her freedom and eventually obtained it like a trooper. She took a stand when so-called gangsters folded under pressure.

 

Court documents alleged that by the end of 1990, the drug gang headed by Murray and Panama was at its zenith. It all came to a murderous halt on October 29, 1990. Jimmy Murray, 26 at the time, was found shot three times in the head and neck, dumped upside down in the passenger seat of his new BMW with a Glock in his waistband and $2,000 in his pocket. He had supposedly been robbed of $40,000, five kilos of cocaine, a Rolex watch, and a diamond ring. According to homicide detectives, first blood had been drawn and the so-called trail of bodies began.

 

Furious, Panama and Rome allegedly called a series of meetings at 4018 South Capital Street, Southeast. Just hours after Murray’s body had been found. The crew’s objective, according to government witness, James Crallie who was present, was to avenge Murray’s murder. Crallie said that Fonda Moore was present at one of the meetings. The crew came to the conclusion that an associate of Murray’s, Billy Ray Tolbert, who had met him the night of his death to buy some weight, was Murray’s killer, Crallie said. Witnesses said that the crew not only planned to kill Tolbert, but three other men as well, all of which were deemed to have taken part in Murray’s robbery and murder.

 

A short while after the first meeting at 4018 South Capital street, Crallie said that Tolbert was lured to the apartment under the impression that he would be helping the crew find Murray’s killers. Once Tolbert was inside the apartment “Panama excused himself and went to the bathroom. When he returned, he had a Glock in his hand and demanded to know why Tolbert had killed Murray.” Crallie said from the witness stand during trial. “He pointed the gun at Billy and asked where his coke and money were.”

 

Crallie said that Panama and Rome ordered their associates to duct tape Tolbert to keep him quiet. Meanwhile Crallie said, “Panama went to call an associate of Tolbert’s who was also suspected in Murray’s slaying, “hoping to lure him to the apartment as well.” “Others began to beat Tolbert,” Crallie continued. “Rome was kicking him in the face. He was bleeding so much that the duct tape kept sliding off his mouth. Then Tolbert stood up and tried to throw himself out the window but knocked himself out. Unconscious, he was hanging out the window. Panama got off the phone and returned to the bedroom and handed me his gun. He told me to shoot Tolbert.”

 

“What did you do?” Asked the prosecutor, “I fired.” Crallie said. “Why?” He was questioned. “Because I was ordered to do it,” Crallie said, “when Panama says do it, you do it.” Tolbert was shot several times at point black range, court documents indicate and Panama and Rome were believed to be among the shooters. Tolbert’s body was later found in his white 1990 Acura Legend under the 11th Street Bridge on Oct 30, 1990, one day after Jimmy Murray’s body was found in his BMW.

 

Fonda Moore was not present when Tolbert was murdered but was patrolling the alley behind the apartment building, witnesses said. They also said that in the days after the Tolbert murder while the drug gang was on the hunt for others suspected of Murray’s murder, Moore kept them up to speed on the investigation into the murders.

 

Meanwhile, bodies continued to drop. The AUSA said of the murders allegedly connected to Panama and his crew, most of which occurred in a nine-month period between ‘90 and ‘91, “One leads to the next. It’s literally a trail of bodies.”

 

How did you survive in Southeast DC?

 

Panama: Southeast was one of the most intense environments I have ever encountered. Murder was the order of the day, along with a side order of boo-koo money. I survived by staying sharp, trusting no one outside the circle, and never allowing fear to cause hesitation.

 

In the summer of 1990, a stash-house allegedly ran by associates of Panama was robbed. Days later of Sept 5, the handcuffed and bullet-riddled body of one of the suspected robbers turned up in the middle of Montello Avenue Northeast. On Christmas morning 1990, another body dropped. Antoine Rice and John Moore were arrested for the murder, both men were reputed associates of Panama and Rome. After an alleged drug deal gone bad, police said that Rice and Moore corned the victim outside his apartment on Wheeler Road Southeast and opened fire using an AR-15 and 9mm Taurus. Months later, Rice was arrested for the murder and was later acquitted. Moore was also arrested during a raid of 4018 South Capital Street. Police found cocaine and the 9mm Taurus used in the Christmas murder. However, Moore was not charged with the Christmas murder, police didn’t know the Taurus was used in the murder. Moore was released the morning after the raid on South Capital Street and found a week later, shot in the head execution style in Fort Greble Park.

 

AUSA G. Paul Howes said that Moore’s murder added a deadly twist to the already murderous events that were going on and put Panama and his long time friend/mentor Julito at war. According to court records, Moore was a member of Julito’s Maryland branch of La Banda, and had always been loyal to Julito, but worked with Panamas crew while Julito was in jail.

 

What led to the fall out between you and Julito?

 

Panama: Julito came home from prison with a different mentality. It was all about being on top again. He wanted to brind about a hostile takeover. Julito was very crafty one of the best in my book. The world was a chess board for him and he played the game well. His whole objective was to rule every dollar moving.

 

Around 3:00 AM Jan 23, 1991, the very day after Moore’s body was found, 19-year old Yusuf Battle, a close associate of Panama and Rome, who had come from Philly with them, was gunned down at 4018 South Capital Street, shot 22 times by two gunmen in a murder, detectives said was a message of some kind. Prosecutors alleged that Julito killed Yusuf for John Moore’s murder. The bond of brotherhood between Panama and Julito was supposedly broken when Yusuf was gunned down, according to AUSA Howes. Julito was the next body to drop.

 

AUSA Howes said that Panama “supplied an overdose of heroin to Julito in retaliation for the Yusuf Battle shooting.” Detectives said that Julito had inhaled too much of the drug and his heart stopped. He was found on the floor of his bedroom by his daughter. A week after Julito’s death, another suspect in the Jimmy Murray’s murder was gunned down in a hail of bullets. According to AUSA Howes, “the victim had been heard bragging about robbing Murray and then killing him, along with Tolbert.” The victim and an associate were walking down Hartford Street Southeast just after midnight on March 7, 1991 when they were ambushed by men with fully automatic weapons.

 

With the body count on the rise and growing out of control members of the different warring factions wanted a way out. They began to join law enforcement. At this time, as one homicide detective put it “the gang was on the verge of imploding.” The killing wasn’t over yet. The second suspected gunman in the Yusuf Battle shooting was found in the trunk of an Oldsmobile off of George Washington Memorial Parkway. The victim had been shot in the head twice, wrapped from head to toe in a quilt and thick plastic trash bags and tied with a rope. By the time firefighters and detectives got inside the trunk the body had been baked by the 86-degree summer heat.

 

Did you kill Julito?

 

Panama: That was all false propaganda. He died of a heroin overdose. Yeah we had our differences but I sleep good at night knowing I did not have to push the envelope that far even though things were going in that direction at one point. He brought me to this country and taught me a lot about the game and life period. Not a day goes by that I don’ t wish that Julito was still here. It was love in, love out with us.

 

At what homicide detectives call the peak of an explosion of murders fueled by crack, bodies began to turn up all over the Washington DC area. In Oct 1990 police found the bodies of three men- two in DC and one across the line in Maryland. All three had been handcuffed, their heads wrapped in duct tape, shot multiple times in the head at close range and left in their cars. Detectives called the murders the triple duct-tape murders. Two weeks later Tolbert’s body was found under the llth Street Bridge in his Acura Legend. He too had been duct-taped with multiple head shots at close range. DC police could not hide the fact that they needed outside help to contain the outbreak of what they called crack cocaine related violence. A special task force was called in and Redrum came to town and a two year investigation began.

 

 

What did you think of all the deaths during that era?

 

Panama: Losing my man Jimmy and Yusuf was a big blow to the game. Every year on their birthdays I cry real gangsta tears for my niggas. They live on in my soul forever.

 

Rome: Since we been in, a lot of bad rumors been put out in the streets about me and Panama. Don’t nobody know how we did things. Panama sacrificed a lot for the family and close friends. None of the people that we used to look out for looked out for us when we went through what we just went through. The most fucked up rumor is that we killed our man Yusuf, which was a fucking lie. Our brother got caught up in the war between two families. His murder had nothing to do with him or us. Those who killed Yusuf ain’t around no more, that came out in trial. Other than that, I just want to say that to the end my brother Panama stayed loyal to the game and to the code of the streets. I love him and respect him more each day.

 

Redrum, murder spelled backwards, was a team of homicide detectives and DBA agents. The DC Redrum task force was formed in Dec 1990, a little over a month after the duct-tape murders. The task force was similar to the ones formed in New York and Miami in the mid 80’s when Colombian cartels began taking over the drug distribution networks. Redrum began following leads that took them across the country and down to the Caribbean where they went undercover buying guns and drugs. They got their lead in the Panama case when Caribbean based DEA agents caught a mule smuggling cocaine from Panama through the Caribbean to DC by way of Dulles International Airport. The mule named Panama as the killer of Tolbert in order to make a deal with the DEA. Panama was tracked down in Philly and arrested May 13, 1991. The rest of the crew was arrested over the next year. Fonda C. Moore was arrested at the 7th District police station. Overall the Redrum investigation into the Panama case led to the indictment of 13 people on charges ranging from drug distribution to murder. AUSA G Paul Howes was picked by the U.S. Attorneys office to prosecute the case because he was regarded as a seasoned, experienced prosecutor by the brass at the Justice Department. Howes had also served on the team that had successfully prosecuted Rayful Edmond and his crew.

 

By the time the trial came around in September of 1993, many of the people indicted on the case had joined forces with the prosecution. Only six defendants remained-

 

Javier “Panama” Card, then 28, who was named as the leader of the large scale cocaine trafficking organization.

 

Jerome “Rome” Edwards Jr., then 23, who was named as a large scale cocaine distributor and chief enforcer of the gang.

 

Antoine W. Rice, then 27, who allegedly received large quantities of crack cocaine on consignment for distribution and acted as an armed lookout for the Tolbert murder.

 

Fonda C. Moore, then 33, who allegedly gave Panama and Jimmy Murray confidential information about the Tolbert homicide and conspired in planning killings.

 

Eunice Y. Demyers, then 48, who was the owner of the Deli Den and Jimmy Murray’s mother. She allegedly aided in the planned revenge killings, accepted thousands of dollars for allowing her deli to be used for drugs and weapons storage and for large scale cocaine deals.

 

Tessie E. Thomas, then 26, who was then Panama’s girlfriend who transported weapons, cocaine, and cash, was involved in the planned killings and helped to hide evidence in the Tolbert slaying.

 

The prosecutions whole case was based on seven months of testimony of admitted criminals, drug lords, murderers and thieves. In AUSA Howes’ opening statement, he said, “There is no other way to tell you how a conspiracy works except by striking deals with people who were involved. In street terms, they are called snitches.” Forty-two witnesses testified on the behalf of the government. AUSA Howes used everything he could to win the case and take down Panama and his crew. He even had the Washington Post on his side who published high-profile information about the defendants that had nothing to do with the case at hand, some articles even linked them to murders that were known by homicide detectives to have been committed by others. According to defense attorneys and the motions they filed the articles alone were more than enough for a mistrial. Through the media, the defendants were found guilty long before the trial was over.

 

“There was a conspiracy but not a conspiracy between those people,” said Panama’s trial lawyer Billy L Ponds in his closing argument as he pointed at the defendants. “There was a conspiracy between the government and its witnesses- a conspiracy to deprive those people of a fair trial, a conspiracy to put false evidence before you.” Ponds went on to describe the witnesses as “trapped criminals willing to lie under oath to spare themselves long prison terms.” The jury began deliberating on April 5, 1994. The first verdict in the marathon trial came on April 11, 1994.

 

Panama was convicted of seven counts including: conspiracy to commit murder, felony murder while armed, and premeditated murder while armed. He was sentenced to 88-years to life. Both Rome and Antoine Rice were convicted of several counts including kidnapping while armed and felony murder while armed. They were both sentenced to multiple 30 years to life sentences. Eunice Y. Demyers and Tessie E. Thomas were both acquitted of all charges. A mistrial was declared in the case of Fonda C. Moore, who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence. She was sentenced to up to eight years. Case closed. But the case wasn’t closed. Not for Panama and Rome.

 

Nearly six years after being found guilty and sent off to prison for what was intended to be the rest of their lives- Panama, Rome, and Antoine Rice were still fighting for their freedom- they had vowed to never lay down. Their case finally made it before a panel of Appeals Court judges.

 

How did you all get back in court?

 

Rome: Panama had a lot to do with it, meaning he put in the most work. He stayed on our backs, you fell me? We were fighting our appeal on racial and religious grounds because the DA excluded a man from the jury because of how he looked saying that the man was with the Nation of Islam and that he couldn’t be a fair juror.

 

The Supreme Court prohibits prosecutors from striking jurors solely on account of their race on the assumption that black jurors as a group will be unable impartially to consider the states case against a black defendant. Sandra K. Levick, Antoine Rice’s lawyer said, “No white man in identical clothing or hairstyle would have stirred the same reaction.” Panama, Rome and Antoine just knew they had light coming.

 

So what happened after that?

 

Rome: While we were waiting on our en-banc hearing to come down Antoine’s lawyer was already checking into some other illegal business that Howes was under investigation for in another case. He was using witness vouchers illegally, meaning he was using money to pay off witnesses. These witnesses that he was paying never testified in our case, they were just on the list so he could pay more money to witnesses that were testifying against us.

 

So the prosecutor was crooked?

 

Rome: Yeah, we had the government right where we wanted them. Some time around July 2004, I got a letter from my attorney telling me that they found out about the prosecutor misconduct in our case. It had all come out after we had been locked up for almost 13 years. The DAs office had sent my lawyer a letter giving us three options- plead guilty to lesser charges, go for straight release or go for court room release. I picked plead guilty to lesser charges because I knew the government was going to put up a fight- they had already railroaded us once. We worked out a deal to give all of our life sentences back. I really got a lot of respect for Panama. Even in the end, he was still willing to sacrifice for the struggle. He told his lawyer and mine to tell the DA’s office that he would do 5 more years if they just let me and Antoine go. That’s real nigga shit right there. I was like, they ain’t just going to let me walk out of the door like that. They had me as the number two man in the whole case.

 

Rome was right. In the end, he walked away with only 2 and a half more years to do. Antoine Rice went straight to the streets with time served and Panama walked away owing only one more year on his sentence. They never laid down and after nearly 15 years they finally won. Beating the government at their own game while staying true to themselves and the streets that spawned them.

 

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