Moderating an evening’s conversation with White Boy Rick at an Italian supper club is a lot like attending a weekend matinee at the freak show at the Coney Island, Brooklyn.
The joint was chock-full of misfits, the mismatched and the mad hatters. They wore fur and flannel.
There sat the faded Motown star with her evening’s escort, bedazzled Dave, who was dressed in a sequin jacket and a shaggy, raven-colored toupee. There was Rick’s entourage, where two men were having difficulty dividing three shrimp amongst themselves. There were DEA agents seated stage left. FBI agents stage right. Detroit police officers near the soundboard and a public school principal near the bar. The very sort of people Rick had hoped to have left far behind.
And there, backstage, stood Rick himself, dressed in white and diamonds, marveling at the amenities of the modern world: namely, the smartphone and legalized grass.
“Look,” he said with real astonishment as he scrolled through the online receipts of his premium cannabis brand, The 8th. “I just made 11 grand!”
After 32 years in prison, Rick Wershe, 53, is rolling in it. A fleet of luxury automobiles. A condo in Miami, a wad of bills in his pocket and his own line of marijuana.
And last Saturday night, White Boy Rick Wershe was hosting his own coming-out party at the sold-out Andiamo Showroom in Warren. “To set the record straight,” he said.
Yes, he rolled cocaine in the 80s, and he deserved to do time. He admitted as much. He ratted out crooked cops, he said, but claims he never ratted out fellow drug dealers.
And it cost him dearly. Three decades behind bars for a teenager who naively crossed the Detroit power clique to get himself out of a life sentence for the possession of 8 kilos of cocaine. This informant work for the FBI sent the niece and brother-in-law of Mayor Coleman A. Young to prison. But the feds never sprang Rick, and he moldered through decades of incarcerated purgatory. He lost his family. He lost his youth. He lost his hair.
It was an injustice that adults in the law enforcement world would entice a 14-year-old child into a life of crime, only to throw him away when they had gotten what they needed. Consider that Nate “Boone” Craft, a hitman who was hired to wipe out White Boy Rick during his time in the streets, confessed to 30 contract killings and spent just 17 years in prison, about six months per body.
“I was the longest-serving non-violent juvenile offender in the history of Michigan,” Rick said.
Now, I am no fanboy. I was asked to moderate. To be real about things. No holds barred. My own brother was in the crack business at the same time as Rick. My sister died in the dope life. There is nothing nonviolent about massive quantities of narcotics. And I said as much to him.
“Cocaine is a death business,” I said.
That’s when Rick’s demeanor changed. His nostrils flared. His eyes flashed. He flushed crimson. The old bulldog in his designer heels (Louis Vuitton).
Since I was moderating, I didn’t make notes. But what he said in effect was what about the connected who hurt people? What about the opioid makers? What about the Sackler family who invented and pushed Oxycontin on the public. That killed thousands of people. None of them went to prison. It’s always guys from the neighborhoods who go down. How’s that fair?
What could I say? Rick was right. The bankers and the businessmen, the pill pushers, the railroad executives, and the politicos. None of them pay for their misdeeds, their avarice, the damage they create.
This sort hides behind incompetence and connections and are protected by wealth while men of lesser means are locked away behind iron bars. Start putting some of the privileged away and the real violence and inequity that has swallowed the country might calm itself down.
Rick did his time. And in a way, he did many other men’s time too.
Welcome home, White Boy.
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Transcript:
(00:01):
Live downtown Detroit. It’s no news out with my
(00:31):
Breaking bullshit. Bullshit.
(00:48):
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. Rick is actually back there right now selling weed on his phone. How? What a trip, how it all comes around. You know what I mean? Can you turn that light down a little bit, brother, please? Thank you. I noticed some faces deas over here that, no joke. F B i, right over there. Koit police right back there. D p s principle right there. Everybody, Rick never wanted to see again. Oh, Rick, it’s a homecoming. My name’s Charlie LeDuff. I apologize for the voice. I’ve been fighting bronchitis. I’m going to try to get through a show’s Got to go on. Nobody likes to hear the sound of my voice more than me, so I’m heartbroken. But this is one of the most notorious gangster tales in the second half of the American 20th century. If you think about it, Jimmy Hoffa Poofs, this one. We know Paul Castellano gets wiped out in front of Spark Steakhouse in Manhattan by the Underboss. John Gotti. Pablo Escobar, the life, the trials, the spectacular violence of that guy. And then white boy Rick, that that is a, that’s a top five everywhere in this country. Except Rick Washi was never charged with violence ever.
(02:28):
He was never charged with ordering violence. He never operated a dope house. He was never charged with conspiracy because he never ran a narcotics gang. And yet he spent three decades in prison. Was he a villain? Was he a victim or was he something in between? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome home break worship. Well, bro,
(03:17):
Thank
(03:18):
I never drink before a show, but I always drink during one. I
(03:21):
Drink a Mountain Dew with them. Cheers
(03:26):
To you all to your children.
(03:32):
Thank you, God.
(03:33):
All right, Rick, I wrote these cause you paid and I think you deserve some kind of order, but this is a really trippy twist and tail, man. So I think we should start by being honest. We have not rehearsed any of it. I’ve met the man once we had lunch, so I know about as much as you do. Nothing’s off the table. He doesn’t know what I’m going to ask him and I don’t want to have to ask him that much. Having said that, you said to me, we should get this out of the way. Right now, he got a hundred million dollar lawsuit against different branches of the government for scooping him up as a 14 year old. Some things he is going to talk about, some things he isn’t. I don’t know what it is. So forgive me if we have to jump because no one wants to watch him take the fifth five times in a row, right? So bro, first question for you. What are we doing here tonight? Yeah,
(04:41):
We’re going to set the record straight a little bit.
(04:45):
So
(04:46):
First, thank everybody for coming. None of you guys had to come out. I greatly appreciate everybody that’s here. My family, my friends, my loved ones, the people that I don’t know. Thank all of you very much. I appreciate you coming out. I appreciate you giving me your time. So I hope we could give you a good show and help fill in some blanks that you guys don’t know about. So thank you all very much.
(05:08):
My sister’s birthday.
(05:10):
Happy birthday sister Sherry. I love you.
(05:16):
Oh, you knew her? Okay. Does she even like her sister?
(05:21):
She is my sister.
(05:22):
Oh,
(05:24):
Not my real sister. That’s a little more controversial.
(05:27):
That’s just some more I can,
(05:28):
This is my other sister.
(05:31):
Okay? So again, set the record straight on. What are we doing here? You why? I know your, is your lawyer out there?
(05:41):
Probably.
(05:41):
He don’t want you doing this, does he?
(05:43):
No.
(05:44):
So why?
(05:46):
Something I want to do. I want the people that support me to know my side of the story, what I can talk about. There’s some things I can’t talk about because of the lawsuit. I apologize. Hopefully all that comes out soon and we get it out of the way. Whatever it is. Good, bad, indifferent, whatever it is, okay? I just want it over with.
(06:04):
And everything here is brotherly, man. Like, don’t take any offense.
(06:07):
I’m not going to hit you, Charlie. Okay?
(06:08):
Man, you wouldn’t win motherfucker. You’ve been back to the old neighborhood. That’s how that clip starts. You’re making a movie about your life
(06:21):
From the day I walked out, we started filming a new documentary
(06:24):
And I’ve noticed where you, where’d you grow up? Near Harpo’s over there?
(06:28):
Yeah. Harper and Dickerson.
(06:29):
Okay,
(06:30):
So that was my grandmother’s house. My dad was born in that house. My aunt died in that house. And lot of I drive by there. Sometimes
(06:39):
You shouldn’t say drive by, bro. Take me back to 84. Let’s begin with 14 year old Rick Wasey. What happens? How do you get tied up with the fbi? Your dad? How do you become an informant and they’re asking you to infiltrate a drug gang? Cause this is the eighties and
(07:05):
It was never about a drug gang. It was about corruption. That’s the biggest misconception. There wasn’t infiltration of drug gangs. They knew that these politicians were taking money from drug dealers as they continue to do today. Some of them, sorry, but corruption’s never going anywhere. We live in a world where money corrupts and people take bribes and they’re going to, we look on TV every day and you see people today. You see a guy get arrested and you see another politician three months later things they’re not going to get caught. But corruption’s going to exist till the end of time. And my case was more about corruption than drugs. It was corruption in the city of Detroit. I didn’t realize what I was getting into as a kid knowing that if you tell on these politicians or say something about ’em that 30 years later that it would affect your life.
(07:57):
Okay, so how do they find some blonde haired, blue eyed kid living on Harper
(08:05):
Hamshire.
(08:06):
Right? Get it. All right. How does this happen? A lot of people here don’t even know. My wife doesn’t know my
(08:15):
Friends. Listen, the feds see everything. Like they watch, they see I was in a neighborhood. They saw people that I associated with. They saw things, and I guess they figured out that they could use me in some way, shape, or form to get information out of me. And I was young enough and dumb enough to do that.
(08:37):
And they pay you.
(08:39):
Yeah, they paid.
(08:40):
And your dad was underpaid.
(08:42):
The biggest. That’s bullshit. I
(08:44):
Look, wait, wait, wait.
(08:46):
The biggest lie there is that my dad got me involved in this, that the government blames my dad. You see this jerk off F agent in the documentary blaming my dad. He’s the one to blame. He got me involved in this. They did this. My dad didn’t have anything to do with it. My dad never wanted me involved. He never wanted me to sell drugs. He’s not here today to defend himself. So for me, the hardest part about walking out of prison was walking out and basically my whole family was dead. Everybody that the people that meant the most to me were gone. And that’s partly because the government lied to keep me in prison. If I would’ve came home in oh 3, 0 3, the parole hearing was the biggest sham in the world. There was all they talked about was murders and violence and this and that. I’d never been charged with any of that in my life. Then one of the cops that testifies against me ends up in prison with me and starts telling the truth about everything. Bill Rice, who was a decorated homicide investigator.
(09:58):
I know Bill. I’m sorry man, I didn’t think about that. 30 years of law. It’s a life. Nobody even knows that you are a myth. You’re actually a myth. And there’ve been a lot of lies. You are a storybook.
(10:14):
Listen, 80% of the things that have been said or written about me are lies. People they say that I told on that are my best friends today. I never told on any of my friends that I sold drugs with. That was we were all young. I don’t brag about the drugs that I sold. I don’t don’t want any kid to think it’s all right to do it. You see people go on TV and these drug dealers say, oh, I sold a hundred million dollars in cocaine, but I can show you a text where they asked me to borrow $300. So for me, I’m not going to go on TV and brag about the drugs that I sold or what I did. Listen, I did something as a kid, I don’t think any other kid can do. I watched a movie. I knew if I got to a certain place that I could make money. I found my way to that place and I made a lot of money in a short period of time. Should I have been punished? Probably, but not for three fucking decades.
(11:12):
Let’s hold on that for a minute. Should I have been punished? You heard him probably, yeah. Three decades. That’s the point, I think. But I don’t know where. There’s so much shit out there, dude. I don’t know where the truth begins and the lies and you know.
(11:33):
You know what? Sometimes I don’t know anymore.
(11:36):
Yeah, I bet. Let me just one more, one more here. Because of your creation of adults, the man sitting next to me, your creation of adults as a kid, did your dad know you were working for the defense?
(11:49):
He knew up until the point that I got shot, and that was when he told them, stay the fuck away from me. He didn’t know to what extent that they would pick me up and maybe drive by. And things happened that a lot of things that happened were mistakes that people made and the corruption that went on. None of my friends set out. A lot of times the police would come to us for a bribe. We didn’t seek that out. They came to you. They knew what was going on. They watched very well in the neighborhood. They saw what car you drove. They saw how you dress. They would shake you down. It wasn’t us going to them saying, Hey, would you help us? We didn’t need them. They were coming to us. I can’t tell you how many times that me or my friends have jewelry taken from us or money taken from us for no reason.
(12:46):
From the authorities.
(12:47):
Yeah, absolutely. They’d catch you with a Rolex on you. Rolex would be at Ziemans for sale the next day. I would call my friend and say, Hey bro, your Rolex is here. Did you pawn it? No, I didn’t pawn it. The police took it. Well, it’s for sale at Edmond’s.
(13:02):
Well then you can go get it.
(13:04):
Yeah, you go buy it back. It’s all right.
(13:06):
Fucking game, man. You are my brother. Jimmy’s age, same age. How old are you now?
(13:14):
50, 53.
(13:16):
My brother be 53. Got arrested at the same time you were running around with the curries. My brother was working in the rock house in Brightmore. Death Cat was the guy’s name that right. Frankie death Cat. My ma went over there and wouldn’t get off the fucking porch until they presented her son. So that’s where I’m from. We kind of from the same place. But how come nobody in your life came to get you out before you lost it? You had a lot of time to think about it.
(13:52):
Listen, you can’t get someone out of something. I didn’t want to be out of the streets. I love the streets. I love that life. I was 16 years old. I had a hundred thousand. I spent $120,000 on a car in 1987. What kid wants out of that life? I had everything. I thought I had everything. You know what I mean? I thought I had friends. I thought I had women. I had all the money in the world as a kid. You know what I mean? I bought everything I wanted. I bought my first house when I was 17 years old. I thought it was a mansion. Now I look at, it’s a piece of shit.
(14:33):
So what were you doing? What did you do for the feds and what do you say? What were you
(14:39):
Doing? The main thing I did for the feds to get it out of the way. Yep. I told on Gill Hill covering up a murder. That’s what I did. And it was an accident and I didn’t know what I was getting into. Nobody set out to do it. It was an accident. I got caught up in the middle of it. They arrested an innocent person. I tried to help the innocent person and Gil kept me in prison for 30 years. That’s the truth. My lawyer’s probably going to kill me when I leave
(15:05):
That fucking so fuck him. You pay him, man. Yeah.
(15:08):
Oh, actually, I don’t.
(15:13):
Okay, so I could tell you kind of want to jump on this side, across that side. Feel that you are done when people, there are a lot of drug busts, right? There’s information you’re given kicking in.
(15:31):
I wouldn’t say a lot like no. I mean,
(15:34):
When did the feds feds toss you? When are you expendable? When are
(15:41):
About to? When I got real deep in the drug game go on. When I ended up starting to move a lot of drugs, they kind of like, I think they pulled back, but they knew all along that I was selling drugs. They knew everybody was selling drugs. They knew Al Chapel was selling drugs. Reid, they know what goes on. I just picked a guy up from prison. Everybody in this room knows my name. A friend of mine got indicted in 1988 in the city of Detroit for seven tons of cocaine. Listen to what I’m telling you. Seven tons of cocaine in Detroit. Nobody in this room knows his name. And he got 11 year sentence. I just picked him up from prison for his second offense. He was Pablo Escobar’s, main smuggler. He was also the Lamborghini dealer in South Florida. I love cars. So we became friends.
(16:37):
Yeah. It’s funny you showed when I first met you showed me a picture of the guy and he’s wearing the nice linens and he’s in a mansion in Miami and he is driving nice cars. And I’m thinking, you fucker’s just got out of prison. How do you got all this stuff?
(16:56):
Hustlers,
(16:58):
Hustler.
(16:59):
You got in you or
(17:00):
You don’t explore that?
(17:02):
It’s got to be a hustler, bro.
(17:04):
A lot of guys coming out of prison after a long bid and they’re not that savvy.
(17:09):
You got to stay mentally strong, bro. My whole time in, there’re always planned what I wanted to do. I always never gave up. I always thought one day I would get out. So mentally for me, physical health, you have to take care of your health. But mental health is the biggest part. And Sherry is sitting here and a company I work with, team Wellness. We’re huge mental health company in the city of Detroit. And it’s something that’s near and dear to my heart because mental health is a huge problem in our country. We talk about these mass shootings and we talk about guns and gun control. It’s really men a mental health crisis.
(17:50):
It’s back. It’s back. You start rolling on your own. You don’t have a gang. You don’t have a crew. You’re moving weight. You’re getting few kilos from Miami, right? Yeah. Did you fly down there? Did or were they driven up to you
(18:14):
Both.
(18:16):
What I’m getting at is Art Derrick, right? Yeah. Like I had an airplane. Did you fly with him? Absolutely. Is he the one that named gave you the nickname White Boy?
(18:24):
Absolutely not. That’s what he says. Yeah. A lot of people say a lot of shit.
(18:30):
That’s why they’re paying. They want to hear it through.
(18:32):
A lot of people say a lot of shit.
(18:34):
No. When did you first hear that one? How judged You get the name white boy?
(18:37):
I don’t listen. I grew up in a neighborhood. I was a white kid. Some people as a reference would say Rick and they’d say, which Rick White Boy Rick. But the person that beat it into the ground was probably Chris Hansen.
(18:51):
Ah, media.
(18:53):
Yeah. They’re the ones that brainwash society to call me a mass murder, a drug kingpin. All these things that people believe, what they read in the media, they put me at the hierarchy of best friends. I never in my life was associated with the best
(19:10):
Friends. And you’re from the West side anyway.
(19:12):
They were from an area that I wasn’t from. Right. But here you are on the news. You put me at the head of a hierarchy of this crew that killed 80 people. The biggest lie in the
(19:22):
World. They made a myth out of you. Absolutely. You knew how to deal dope. You decided to go on your own. Everybody threw you away.
(19:27):
I was a smart kid.
(19:28):
Yeah. Listen dude, you are a smart man.
(19:32):
L listen, we just sold the 11 G’s worth of weed backstage. Me and you.
(19:36):
I ain’t nothing in them, motherfucker.
(19:46):
He helped me.
(19:48):
Y’all heard it? Your lawyer heard it. He did. He’s going
(19:52):
Wing
(19:53):
Wing. And I’m like, man, they tried to lock you up 30 years ago for that shit. Now he’s wing.
(19:58):
Now it’s great. I love it. We’re helping people. We’re doing good things. We’re giving back to society. We’re giving kids vans. We’re giving kids shoes. We’re doing things that everybody says that they do, but we really do ’em.
(20:18):
Okay, now back to you being a kid. We’re going to, we going to get, we’re going to get to all that. So you’re on your own. You don’t have a gang. You haven’t ordered anybody killed. Right? You haven’t killed anybody. Is this all true? All true. Okay.
(20:32):
I had friends, we have, some of my friends are here today that, listen, when you grow up in this city, there’s people that you call your friends, but there’s people that are your friends. And the people that were my friends, we trusted other with a lot of money, a lot of drugs or whatever. We never robbed each other. We never, but I have other people, other friends that killed their friend for drugs. So if that’s what you call a friend, but that’s what they did for a few keys of Coke. They blew their brains out. The circle that we had, we all trusted each other. We all looked out for each other. We were young. We made money and we lived good.
(21:12):
So you’re not violent, you’re just moving.
(21:15):
Listen, we all came from a very poor neighborhood. It’s not an excuse, but we all grew up in poverty. We all wanted nice things and we took the wrong way of going about getting the nice things. You know what I mean? That for me now, I watch on TV and this fentanyl shit that’s going around and I’ve lost friends to it. And I’m not making excuses. I was a kid. I don’t condone it. But it was an easy way for us. And we were young and dumb and we wanted some money. We didn’t think we were hurting anybody. Listen, people say drugs is a victimless crime. It’s really not like it. It’s you choose to do drugs, but you also have the provider of the drugs. But in the same token, if you look at it the other way, I’ve done drugs before. I did it one time. I didn’t like it. I’ve had friends that did it one time. They had a love affair with it for 30 years. Art Derrick being one of them.
(22:25):
And I got to say, I thought about you a lot over the years in small snatches. And again, we’re going to be honest and I’m going to be honest. And I said to myself, I couldn’t give a fuck if this dude’s doing 30 years. I’m just being honest. Because you talk about people dying from the needle and from the fentanyl. That’s my family. And I know that cocaine is a death business. That’s the money around. That shit is a death business. So if you didn’t kill somebody directly, the business you were in, somebody died touching that.
(23:08):
What’s the pill? Business? Huh? What’s the pill business?
(23:11):
I know. I know,
(23:13):
Bro. Biggest cartels in the
(23:14):
World. I know.
(23:15):
500,000 deaths since 99. One person incarcerated. Yeah, exactly. Biggest scam in the world.
(23:21):
Exactly.
(23:22):
Biggest scam in the world.
(23:24):
Got no argument.
(23:25):
But people take these kids from the inner city and they give them 30 or 40 fucking years. But these dudes that run these fucking pharmaceutical companies, they don’t do dick to ’em. And they kill kids every day. There’s people in here, their kids died from fucking pills. They don’t do a fucking thing to ’em. I
(23:42):
Know. And you
(23:43):
See, and I take offense. You’re right. Cocaine’s a death business. I’ve been shot. I survived it. But the fucking pill mills, they’re way worse. And everybody accepts ’em because, oh, it’s a pill from a doctor. They’re fucking drug dealers.
(23:56):
Everybody I think knows that. But nobody’s asking for anything to be done.
(24:01):
To me, I take it personal. I hate pills in the worst way. You ask my girl, I don’t. I try not to take a fucking Tylenol. I, because I know what they do. They pumped all these pills in people now. They can’t get the pills. So they’re running down the fucking six mile in Woodward to get heroin. Those people don’t give a fuck. Jimmy Walberg right now is making a documentary about the shackler and this fucking oxycodone and all this. They laugh and joke about it. These kids made a billion dollars. It’s funny to them that these people, they know how addictive it is. Nobody’s locking these fucking kids up. But all my friends and me, we all got locked up for decades. Why? Because we’re from the east side of Detroit and we’re not from Birmingham. Or our parents aren’t a doctor or don’t own a pharmaceutical company.
(24:50):
Well, you’re not connected.
(24:54):
So we fill up the prison system because we’re poor inner city kids. All these motherfuckers that locked us up, they should all be ashamed of theirself. All of them. They look in the mirror every day. They lied. Every one of them. But every day they wake up, they look in the mirror, they smile and tell theirself a lie
(25:13):
And go have a nice latte.
(25:15):
Yeah.
(25:17):
Yeah.
(25:17):
But now some of them that used to talk about me, I can show you texts from state senators at one in the morning. They text me and ask me questions, but I don’t blow smoke up their ass. I’ll tell ’em what I want to tell ’em, but I won’t tell ’em what they want to hear.
(25:36):
So I want that to be clear for the record. That’s how I felt about it. The year that you went to prison, death on the streets, not death in your bedroom, not death in the alleyway, blam blam with 686 murders, which was a second highest ever in the history of this city. More than the war of 1812. But now that I’m looking at the circumstances, see, you understand you are a myth.
(26:08):
What is it now? What’s the murder rate today? Oh, it’s the murder rate in Detroit. Murder over 300. The
(26:13):
Murder rate’s about the same, but Oh, okay. Nobody knows
(26:15):
That. O over half the It’s it’s cut in half. Exactly. But half the people move. Exactly. So it’s the same fucking
(26:20):
Thing. No, but it’s come back downtown, bro. It
(26:23):
It’s the same per capita if you look at it. Yeah. Nobody’s, half the people moved away. Oh, the murder down to 350. Okay. Half the people left.
(26:30):
I know
(26:31):
It’s common sense.
(26:35):
Nobody wants to hear it. Rick, we’re back,
(26:38):
Baby. No, they’re doing a good job. They’re doing a great job. The murder rate’s down. They’re doing a great job.
(26:44):
But then I find out who we are and I’m like, wait a minute. I mean, I rolled fucking weed. You know what I mean? Three decades. Three. So it’s, here’s the deal. He’s on the FBI payroll, he’s on Detroit Police payroll. It’s a task force. Then they throw you away and you’re out doing your own business. And they hit what’s her name? Kathy Olson, the mayor. Coleman Young’s niece. His favorite. You are there. You have a relationship with her. Is that when the mark comes on you because they’re They’re surveilling you. Now, you’re not the biggest guy in town.
(27:27):
No. I listen.
(27:28):
Why did you get set up? And I do believe he got set
(27:32):
Up. They didn’t like that I was in a relationship with her. My friend that’s sitting here tonight told me not to get into a relationship with her. I was a young kid. I didn’t listen. But that was one of the reasons they didn’t like that.
(27:46):
Was it also police knew that you were working to take out crooked police?
(27:52):
Absolutely. They all knew. They knew. Listen, I’m sure there’s law enforcement in this audience. And
(28:00):
I was telling the truth in the, that’s fbi. Listen,
(28:03):
Troy, I’m friends with a lot of good law enforcement officers. I have tremendous respect for the job that they do every day. But if you ask them, a cop doesn’t want to tell on a cop. So they have a difficult job to do. And if they cross that line, they might be looked at a certain way. So the ones that were doing wrong, the other ones knew they were doing wrong. They just didn’t care.
(28:36):
And so you, I’m not going to be light on him. I believe it was a plant. But
(28:44):
You’re guys, listen, the drugs I was convicted of,
(28:46):
Yes,
(28:47):
I’m free. I’m sitting on this fucking stage. Right? I never touched them. I never put a box of cocaine in a backyard.
(28:54):
Should I let them know what we’re talking about?
(28:57):
I hope they know. Well, no, they don’t. I was convicted of putting a box of cocaine in a backyard. May 22nd, 1987. Summertime, they asked me for my palm prints. I offered to give them my palm prints without a warrant. I knew my prints weren’t on the box. I gave them the palm prints. My prints weren’t on the box. They still charged me with the drugs. They got people to say, oh, I saw ’em with a box. I never touched the drugs I got convicted of. I’ll say that now. I’ll say it on my deathbed. I never touched the drugs.
(29:29):
Were they yours?
(29:31):
I was responsible for ’em, but I didn’t put ’em
(29:34):
There. So they were yours. But
(29:36):
I didn’t put ’em there. Exactly. That’s not, it doesn’t matter. They were, I do what they said I did to convict me.
(29:43):
Right. I just find that interesting. That’s, you hear me madam? Like he’s, yeah, they were mine. I didn’t touch ’em.
(29:52):
They said I don’t put a box in a backyard that I was in a traffic
(29:56):
Stop that I got. They stopped you in a traffic. You grabbed the shit and ran. Nobody saw you grab shit and run that. You threw it under reports that they found eight hours later and your fingerprints were not
(30:07):
’em, never nothing. Today. This would never happen because of these Yeah, would never, I never would’ve went to prison if this happened today. Because the whole thing would be on video
(30:20):
Tracking.
(30:20):
That’s true. That is true.
(30:26):
So then you get the, we had a law in Michigan. It was to get the tough on cocaine law, where if you had 650 grams, which is a little bit more than half of a kilo, about a pound, if you get caught, what a pound you get life. So he was 17. 17. And you, and they changed that law. And they changed that law, but they still wouldn’t let him out. We’ll get to that. But that’s when you get 30 in the state penitentiary. Correct. Jeremy, can we roll this clip please? Place now we move into the incarcerated. You see how I kind of planned
(31:07):
This operation was called Operation Backbone. And the reason I named it backbone, I figured you need some backbone to work this case. At that time, it was the most significant police corruption investigation in the state of Michigan.
(31:19):
And he called out of the blue and I said, what’s going on, Rick? He said, well, the FBI is here and they want me to help them. They’ve said that they will help me if I help them.
(31:32):
But if you cooperate on this undercover project and everything works fine, the best I can do is maybe take you out of state custody and put you in the Federal Witness Protection Program in a federal facility with other informants. And it might just be a better situation. And if you ever become eligible for parole, I’ll come back and testify for you. The
(31:52):
FBI wanted to use my relationship with Kathy to target the mayor as well as police corruption within the city of Detroit. And
(31:59):
What you’re talking about is no prompt. Right? I got three Detroit Police officer cell, that’s four. Okay. All right. These people have been with me. You can trust them. 40, 50 grand. So we get a deal. Yeah. Yep. We go. Partners in crime, brother. Here we go.
(32:14):
Willie and Kathy, along with Detroit Police Sergeant Jimmy Harris, were charged last month in an FBI corruption case alleging that police officers took payoffs to protect drug and drug money shipments coming into the city in metro airports.
(32:27):
Any other mayor would’ve been glad to have corruption out of their police department unless your brother-in-law’s the head of the corruption. And then this guy goes on to call me a stool pigeon. That’s like an old gangster term for a rat.
(32:40):
Did that put your life in danger having Coleman Young call you a stool pigeon?
(32:44):
Oh, there’s no doubt about it.
(32:46):
18 corrupt police officers and politicians as a result of worship’s direct involvement in this thing went to prison. And without white boy Rick or Richard Wor Jr. That never would’ve
(32:56):
Happened. Nothing. Helping the FBI with Operation Backbone was the biggest mistake of my life. Cause it created enemies that I couldn’t even imagine. I was a kid. I didn’t think of the political aspects of it.
(33:10):
Do you remember your first day in prison?
(33:15):
Absolutely.
(33:17):
Can you tell us about it?
(33:21):
My first day in prison, you go through quarantine, you’re stripped, you’re, you’re put into the system, so to speak. And I was on the yard that day on the phone, and I saw Shank getting passed and the kid on the end of the phone, he got stabbed repeatedly in the neck. That was my first day in prison. So I won’t forget it. I was on the phone with my mom watching this kid get his neck tore out. First day, 18 years old.
(33:53):
First day.
(33:54):
First day. I told Justin Timberlake that story. I got to help him with his last movie. And I told him that story and he said, I’ll never forget it. I said, I’ll never forget it. I watched it.
(34:09):
Wow. Where was that? Marquette.
(34:12):
No,
(34:13):
Ionia. Ionia. Okay man. So you, you’re 18, your blonde hair, your blue eyes, it’s out there that you are an informant for the fbi. Why didn’t you catch one in the neck or wanting the asks for that matter?
(34:33):
It really wasn’t out there. People didn’t really know what I did for the government or, and listen, a lot of people in prison, they love if you tell on the police, they know so many police, so many people in prison. If you watch now, there’s so many people being freed for wrongful incarceration or lies that were told. So people in there, you’re kind of like a folk hero. If you tell on the police they, because it’s exposing that the police do lie.
(35:06):
So again, so we have it clear because there’s volumes of shit about you. You were never informing on dope gangs. Dope crews, dope dealers.
(35:16):
My friends that I saw drugs with are in the back row. They all have jobs. Families. Yeah. My real friends that are still to this day, my friends. You
(35:25):
See what I’m sitting here doing? Absolutely. What I’m trying to do. Absolutely. That is what, I
(35:29):
Didn’t stay in prison because I told on drug gangs or help. I stayed in prison because I told on corruption, end of story point period. I told on corruption in the city of Detroit, I cooperated against the wrong people and they tried to make me die in prison. Period.
(35:45):
Do you regret it?
(35:47):
Absolutely. Biggest mistake in my life. Biggest mistake in my life. They didn’t do shit to ’em.
(35:55):
They never do, man.
(35:56):
So why would I sit here and tell you I’m glad I didn’t do anything. I didn’t stop. They’re still arresting Detroit cops all the time for corruption. I’ve read. They shut down our narcotics unit. We were the largest city without a narcotics unit because of corruption. What does that say about us as a city?
(36:19):
Well, it’s funny you say that because we could get in the Gill Hill and all you want, you want fuck Gil Hill, right? You want to
(36:33):
Right on.
(36:34):
Right on.
(36:35):
You made submission sheen. You made the machine mad, bro. You didn’t get a parole hearing for 15 years. And you’re entitled to a parole hearing every five years. Correct?
(36:48):
Correct. You’re supposed to be everybody but me.
(36:52):
All right. I got a little, let me see here. You get your parole hearing in 2003. And we have a new prosecutor at that time. His name is Mike Duggan. And he writes a letter to the parole board in which he calls you, quote, a gang leader quote, A violent kingpin who quote, disappears witnesses accuse you of running criminal rackets. And a full quote here. This is one inmate that needs to remain in prison for his entire life. Now fast forward, you got out. Kwame Klp just got married. You got invited. Mike Duggan was there. That must have been interesting.
(37:49):
Life full circle.
(37:52):
What’d you guys talk about?
(37:55):
The weather.
(38:03):
You didn’t get out. How did you meet Kwame to kill Patrick, by the way.
(38:09):
I met Kwame in prison and I looked out for him. Ask him
(38:14):
Up in Marquette.
(38:16):
Standish maximum facility. Standish, Michigan.
(38:19):
Where’s that one? Where’s Stand is
(38:21):
Up by Traverse City, west side of the state.
(38:25):
They got a nice beer up there.
(38:27):
Yeah, they do. It’s a nice area.
(38:31):
Have Have you seen the movie White Boy Rick?
(38:34):
Never. Never.
(38:38):
Well, we have a clip. Spoiler alert. You do 30 years in prison. Can we roll that please?
(38:50):
State
(38:51):
That’s you.
(38:51):
Guilty.
(38:53):
Thank you. The
(38:54):
Penitentiary.
(39:02):
You going get yourself shot knocking on the stranger’s door like that kid.
(39:05):
You was she right? Yeah. You’ve made a baby with my sister. Who? Brenda Moore. You need to come and be a man about it. Look,
(39:14):
I only been with Brenna like a couple times.
(39:16):
Only take one time to make a baby size kiss. Damn. As what? As you is. Who the fuck Keisha? My niece. Your daughter
(39:23):
Ricky. Shut the fucking door. Will you look all the heat out?
(39:28):
Who the
(39:28):
Hell are you? You as daddy. That’s right. Well, not you a granddaddy. Be a man. Call my sister. If you don’t, I’ll be back and you don’t want me to come back.
(39:39):
What’s he talking about?
(39:40):
I don’t know. A chill with a S sister
(39:45):
Ain’t even wear nothing. Ah, fuck Rick. Fuck Rick.
(39:54):
Wow, man. Did that happen?
(39:58):
No.
(40:02):
I have a daughter named Keisha. But that didn’t happen
(40:06):
Really well. No. So you had nothing to do with this. You washed your hands in this movie.
(40:14):
Things happened and I worked with Scott Silver. He’s one of the, he is the biggest writer in Hollywood now. Very dear friend of mine. He wrote Eight Mile. He wrote The Fighter. He got kicked off my movie. He went and wrote Joker the first billion dollar rated R movie ever. He just signed on the teaser you guys saw. He’s going to produce my new documentary. So very good guy. The only person in Hollywood he came to every one of my hearings offered for me to live wherever I wanted to pay for a year. The rest of ’em never after they got the script and whatever they wanted, I never heard from him again. But Scott and me have a brotherhood that I love him. Not because who he is, but when he got kicked off the movie, I kind of checked out of the movie and they fucked it up.
(40:59):
Yeah, they did. They did. That didn’t even happen. No. Yeah. Fucking Hollywood bro. I just could have told you. Listen man, then write us a movie, please. Just quickly. I We write a movie for us. Prison. Prison. We just watch Eyes. This is seriously, the man was a child and 33 years behind bars for Okay, fine. He admits it. He was dealing in cocaine, a death business. But he didn’t death anybody. 30 years. Dude.
(41:37):
It’s not always a death business.
(41:39):
Well, it’s
(41:40):
Usually sounds good though, for the media. It
(41:42):
Is when you’re moving in that kind of weight.
(41:44):
Not a I I’m not dead.
(41:46):
I know, but my
(41:47):
Friends aren’t
(41:48):
Dead. I know, I know. Not
(41:50):
Always,
(41:51):
Bro. But then 30 years sounds
(41:53):
Good, but it’s not always true.
(41:54):
Well, let me do some drama, man. For
(41:56):
I know, but I’m just telling you
(41:58):
30 years though. I’ve heard you say it felt like a death sentence.
(42:04):
30 years. A long fucking time, bro.
(42:06):
Can you give us some kind of window or description or, I know it’s a big thing to do, but prison,
(42:19):
I went in as a kid. I was a kid. I was 17. My friend was 16. They called us drug kingpins and gave us life without parole. Who does that? We’re the only country in the world. Listen what I’m going to say, we’re the only country in the world that ever gave juveniles life for anything other than murder. But we also say we’re the most humane country in the world. It’s kind of an oxymoron.
(42:46):
That is true. You want to skip the Give me a day in prison. Movie.
(42:51):
Listen, prison’s a dark, lonely, dangerous, dirty, nasty. It’s hell on earth. You, you, you’re in America. You’re still okay. You committed a crime. You’re still supposed, you’re supposed to be treated like a human being. A lot of times you’re not. So they try and break you. I saw people hang themselves. I saw people cut themselves. I seen people get murdered. I’m fortunate I didn’t do any of those things.
(43:25):
You ever got hurt or abused while you were in the can?
(43:28):
I got in fights. I got in fights.
(43:32):
No rape. No. You didn’t go after anybody. You didn’t belong to a prison gang.
(43:36):
No. I have my own respect. I have my own friends I grew up with. I was respected. I ran the biggest prison store in prison. Kept that hustle going. Stay sharp.
(43:52):
I got some news for you dude. You finally got that parole hearing. What was it? 2017? Is that when finally you were to the parole board, you were granted and then you had to go to court? Yeah. Okay. Because you asked me to do this and I very much, I want to thank you for asking me to do this. It’s a big respect. This is, so I decided to do some work because I don’t know a lot about this story. I called the old cops, the old precinct that called the courthouse. Do you know up to the last, before you were granted that parole that very high reaches of the city, you can take us to the bank that they were trying to pin a 30 year old murder rap on You. Do you know you still got people that hate your guts in the city power. That is a truth. A 30 year, there’s no statute of limitations for murder. And they were pedaling a case.
(44:54):
They can pedal whatever they
(44:57):
Want. It was worthy. It wasn’t worthy.
(44:58):
They can pedal whatever they want. They can peddle lies. They can say whatever they want. I was never charged. I never committed a murder. I never had anything to do with a murder. They were looking to make themselves look good for what they did. To me,
(45:17):
When I heard this reput 100% reputable, it came to this person. This person would get the fuck out of here knowing exactly what it was. So in my experience, knowing you, I can fully say from that small incident that yeah man, there’s a gang out there looking to eat you alive. You. You know what I mean? Yeah.
(45:43):
I love them. That my success, that’s what drives me. I love pulling up in 150,000 or $200,000 car. I’m waving to ’em or $150,000 watch or living in a nice house, living a good life, doing good things. That’s my fuck you to them.
(46:03):
That’s interesting. Cause let’s, let’s get to your by. We have to go to Florida though. You get paroled and all a sudden they’re going to stick you on that bullshit. Yeah.
(46:15):
I introduced someone in prison and they made up a whole story. It was
(46:18):
Great. Yeah. Well every stolen car ring, right? He’s charged with daddy gets five years. Because if this is correct, you got a 30 year state charge. So you’re supposed to do your time in the federal pen or the state penitentiary. But because you help the feds with police
(46:35):
Corruption,
(46:36):
They put you in the, I guess, federal ni nicer federal.
(46:39):
Yeah. So they say it’s prison,
(46:41):
Right? Yeah. And they kind of promised you you’re going to get out altogether.
(46:44):
They lied. That guy’s a fucking scumbag liar.
(46:47):
Yeah. And nobody in Michigan wanted
(46:49):
Biggest liar in the world.
(46:52):
Is that okay with your lawyer?
(46:54):
Sorry. Sorry. Nabi.
(46:57):
So you’re in Florida. This is interesting. Kind of cool. You talk about they put you on work like you said it just that
(47:07):
I I’ll tell the
(47:08):
Story. Please. Yeah, it is a good story, man.
(47:12):
So I get a parole in Michigan. Michigan made sure that I was sent to the state of Florida because they didn’t want to let me out. So I’m extradited to the state of Florida. They say, oh, he needs to be in prison. He got charged with racketeering. This, this, and this. I get down to, they give me a fucking gate pass and a chainsaw and let me go in society to go work every day. I said, I’m thought I’m supposed to be in prison. So I’m not going to lie. My girls here. My second day there in the cemetery, what did I do? I reverted back to my old ways. I bribed the guard.
(47:49):
I didn’t want to work. I’m not going to lie. It’s fucking 90 degrees in the summertime. Guys are falling over. I went up to the window, I said, Hey bro, you know who I am. We’re in the cemetery. He goes, I know who you are. I said, you want to make some money? He goes, what do you want me to do? I said, I don’t want to work like this and I want to eat what I want and sometimes I want to use your phone. He goes, give me 500 bucks a month. I said, give me your phone. I called my girl. I said, send ’em a thousand dollars. I didn’t have to work anymore.
(48:24):
Keep going.
(48:26):
Listen, that’s it. In prison, you have to find ways around things. If you have a little money, it’s easier to find your way around things. That’s what I did.
(48:35):
Keep going.
(48:39):
I bought a Porsche on his phone, I think I told you about that. Told me he didn’t charge me enough because I sent my girl a Porsche from his telephone.
(48:49):
So I’m hearing this going. Maybe the curtain thing’s true. Maybe it’s not. Whatever this
(48:53):
Story’s, no, it was a, this legitimate car. I bought it from a Porsche dealer. She didn’t like it. She sold it.
(49:04):
Okay
(49:04):
Man, you’re out. You’re out now. You’re out.
(49:11):
I’m out.
(49:11):
Yeah.
(49:13):
Woo. That’s to see.
(49:25):
But you still got all the trappings of the old life. You like the show you how many cars you got?
(49:32):
Oh God, man. Now you’re going to get me in trouble. I don’t know. Six
(49:38):
Liar.
(49:40):
Maybe more. Maybe.
(49:44):
So you still like the
(49:46):
Yeah, everything’s in my name now. They can’t take shit,
(49:48):
Right? Huh?
(49:49):
Yeah. I pay taxes now.
(49:55):
You still have that sweet tooth for the old life.
(50:01):
Listen,
(50:03):
I love flashy things. I love nice things. I work hard. I just spend a week in Massachusetts launching my brand there. I work hard. I play hard. I live my life now. They stole 30 years of my life. So now I’m fortunate to live a good life and do good things. I also give back. I buy flashy things. I love nice things, but I back way more than I should. And I, I’m not mad at it, but I help people because that’s what I wish people had done for me. So I have an amazing circle of friends that the cannabis industry allows me and Kim is here somewhere. She owns Wayne Relief. They helped me so much. I love you. And if I call and say, Hey, I want to give this kid a handicapped van in any other industry. I can’t raise $90,000 in one day in the cannabis industry. They all tell me, Rick, what do you want? And I gave the kid a brand new handicap man. I changed his life and he couldn’t be here tonight because he has covid. So covid does still exist.
(51:19):
How you afford all that? How you get your money, you got somebody backing you.
(51:24):
I have a couple of jobs. I work with a law firm out of Chicago. Hell and MoCo as a consultant. I work with team wellness. I have my cannabis line. So I do a lot of things.
(51:33):
You’re making good living.
(51:35):
I live very well.
(51:39):
Got to asks that. You know, be driving home, going let dunk and Nancy. I ain’t make fucking six cars. What the fuck? Because some people think like you stashed all the dough in the house and somebody,
(51:49):
All this is new money. You know what I mean? All this is new money.
(51:53):
Say
(51:53):
Again? All this is new money. Yeah, this is all legit money. Dude.
(51:57):
When they publicize this, they go to me, man, what’d he do? Did he hide it in the house? I go, how much could you hide in the
(52:02):
House? I still owe my girl some money for the last Lamborghini. So ask her.
(52:07):
Lamborghini man, I’ve been working 30 years, kept my nose clean. Motherfucker got a Lamborghini.
(52:12):
First one in the whole state ahead of everybody. Lambeau gave me.
(52:18):
Do you feel it happens to everybody this moment? Fame, notoriety. People care about you when it fades. And if those opportunities don’t stick, do you worry having the sweet tooth for things to be pulled back into the old life?
(52:37):
Never. Never crossed my mind. You’re an idiot. If you can’t make money in society, you’re an idiot. You, you listen, I told you we took the easy way. If you think and use your mind like we were kids. We took the easy way. But I consider my friends, my friend here that went to prison, he’s worked for Ford I think for 30 years. I think he’s successful. He lives a good life. He’s married, drives a nice car. He is got a beautiful house that’s successful. Just because he doesn’t do what I do, doesn’t make him not successful. He stayed out of prison. He changed his life.
(53:23):
It’s a good point. You think, I don’t know man, this is, you were a white boy, Rick, the 17 year old. You were Rick the prisoner who learned some things about life and now you’re Rick, the free man. Things are going well for you. Now if you could go back, and I know this is lame, but it’s actually feels deep to me. Would you change anything?
(53:56):
Listen, nothing I did was worth 30 years of my life. Of course, if you can go back, we can’t go back. I don’t look back. I look straight ahead. I don’t, can’t change yesterday. But today, tomorrow, next week, it’s all up to me. So, oh, that was the journey that I went on in life. Everybody in this room went on a journey that everybody was led here today. So that was my journey. I went on it, I survived. I’m living good. So no, I wouldn’t change anything.
(54:30):
I don’t want to say this man. I mean, I might have said it earlier cause I’ve said it a lot of times to people. My impression of a guy that’s got a seventh grade education formally and he does 33 years of his life behind Bards. I’m thinking, man, meathead. But you’re a fantastically deep, really authentic creative mind. That’s you are. And it’s really interesting to know you.
(55:04):
I appreciate that. I
(55:05):
Want to welcome you home.
(55:07):
Thank you.
(55:12):
He going to take some questions.
(55:16):
Rick, this isn’t a question. I just want to say you deserve all the good things and I am just so happy for how well you’re doing and so sorry for what you went through. But you deserve all the good things in life.
(55:29):
Thank you so much
(55:33):
Rick. I acquainted with the no crack crew, Greg Woods and other people. In fact, Greg is the one who got the eight kilos of cocaine
(55:46):
When he’s, he’s a lion piece of shit.
(55:48):
No, no.
(55:49):
Yeah, yeah. He’s a lion piece of shit.
(55:51):
I bet. That’s why I always wanted
(55:53):
To know. Yeah, he’s a lion piece of shit. Read the book.
(55:56):
I know what happened
(55:57):
To the other people. He’s a piece of shit, bro. Okay, I know you work with him. He’s your coworker, the guy scum of the earth. Okay. He lied to put people in prison. Not only me, my friends, other people. He’s a liar. I hate to say that. It’s the truth. I don’t have a good filter. The guy’s a liar. He wasn’t, wasn’t a good police officer. Oh, I know he wasn’t. He made you look bad if you were a good cop. He made you look bad. He made all the good cops look like bad cops. Absolutely. Another liar. They lied and they were thieves.
(56:39):
Hey Rick, I just went outside for a cigarette and the motherfuckers wouldn’t let me back
(56:42):
In. You shouldn’t have went to smoke. That kills people.
(56:51):
How you doing Rick? I’m Tracy McElroy. I’m from the neighborhood. I was from 48, 2 0 5. I lived on Field and Dickerson. Go Tires. I went to Danby. Yeah. So really, I’m not here to ask any questions. I’m just glad to see you home and wow to the room.
(57:10):
I appreciate Ev listen, I’m overwhelmed by the turnout and I wish I could thank everybody individually, but from my heart to everybody in this room. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to come here. Absolutely drive here. Hey, to listen to me talk. I can’t thank everybody enough. I wish I could hug everybody. I wish I could take a picture with everybody. I love you guys. I always say I love my supporters and fuck my haters. So,
(57:41):
Hi, I’m your sister and I’d just like to know how you feel. It’s okay to turn your back on me and not tell the truth about all I’ve done for you and your children from day one. Listen, because dad would be rolling
(57:53):
Over if you be an adult and don’t be a fucking idiot. You might have a relationship with me. So sorry. Keep it
(58:00):
Moving. Yes ma’am. Keep it
(58:01):
Moving.
(58:02):
Excuse me.
(58:10):
That’s a tough act if I see me
(58:12):
After the show.
(58:18):
How you doing? I just wanted to let you know that I wanted to bring something up. Cause I was on, I used to hang out on Chalmers and Olive Drive by Dale and I was locked up in the old county jail and he was across from us and we didn’t have no tv. And we looked, they said, that’s white boy Rick. I said, Hey man, can you get us a tv? Not even a fucking half an hour later, we had a tv. We used to watch that. Hey, we used to watch, Hey, we used to watch the Fall Guy Comedy classics, the three studios. So I came today to show my support for you. And I got you back
(58:53):
And we watched TV together.
(58:55):
Yeah, we did.
(59:03):
Welcome
(59:04):
Home, brother. Thank you for coming.
