White Boy (2017) - full transcript

[waves splashing]

-[camera shutters clicking]

-[indistinct chatter]

[Dana] Um, we're here today

on a motion for relief

from judgement filed

by Mr. Wershe.

As both parties know,

the parties are not...

[Wershe]

Being in prison



the last 29 years-

is like being dead.

[Dana]

"Now based on my readings of...

[Wershe]

The only connection I have

to the free world-

is this telephone.

You see your kids grow up-

but you have no part

of anything.

It's like living in

the ultimate purgatory.

[Dana] "The case law



over the last decade

has demanded

that we treat juveniles

constitutionally different

than adults.

That difference requires us

to consider

the defendant's age

at the time when crime... "

[Wershe]

Sitting here in front

of the judge-

scared as hell-

I know this is the best chance

of getting my life back.

And I know everything rides

on what this judge is

about to say.

Everyone knows who I am-

but no one knows the

real reason I'm in here.

[splatters]

[Chris] The teenage drug dealer

nicknamed "White Boy Rick,"

was busted at age 17.

And has served 28 years

behind bars,

the longest ever in Michigan

for a non-violent juvenile.

[Steve] You're not gonna

convince any judge

in this day and age

that somebody deserves life

for selling drugs.

How many of you have heard

about the drug problem

in our schools?

The only thing

that I legitimately remember

about the War on Drugs

in the '80s

when I was a child,

was seeing Nancy Reagan

on Diff'rent Strokes,

telling, you know, Gary Coleman,

"Just say no."

All drugs are dumb.

[Scott] He was moving kilos.

When you're 17 years old

and you're moving kilos,

you know, you're at a status

of drug dealer

that most 17-year-olds

don't reach.

And I'll tell you

from what I can see

as a judge now,

the War on Drugs is over,

and drugs won.

[Joe] Young Boys Incorporated,

originally, was the gang

that really institutionalized

and industrialized

the distribution of heroine.

Detroit's heroin market

gave way to cocaine

which quickly gave way

to crack cocaine.

[Tom Brokaw] Crack is a plague

of the inner cities

in this country,

and that's been especially true

in Detroit.

[Kevin] The city, literally,

right in front of your eyes

was falling apart.

It was chaos.

And nobody knew

how to handle it.

This chamber here holds

12 shotgun shells

and everything...

As part of a five-part series

on the crack problem,

I went on dozens and dozens

and dozens

of narcotics raids

with the No Crack Task Force.

-[policeman #1] Police!

-[policeman #2] Get them out!

-[clatters]

-[shatters]

It was crazy.

I mean, today, you probably

wouldn't get away with that.

[Chris] Agents say

the gang was well armed.

In many of the homes,

they found assault weapons.

It was very, very violent.

We had officers shot,

uh, a couple of them killed.

And I was right

in the middle of it.

[Herm] I was on, uh,

the drug squad for the FBI.

But in the course

of some of these raids,

they discovered a cache

of videotapes.

[Chris] And this is one

of the drug homes

owned by the Chambers Brothers,

the notorious drug gang.

[gang member #1]

Money, money, money!

We're rich, goddamn it!

A hundred and fifty

thousand dollars. Cash.

[Chris]

They go through the homes.

The faucets, 24 karat gold.

And this was amazing stuff.

[William] Once upon a time,

drug dealers was truly idolized.

They had all the man toys

that they wanted.

Cars, planes, housing,

weapons.

[Gregg]

The money was just unlimited.

And it becomes a problem

because it's a cash business.

[gang member #1] Should we

throw these ones away, man,

since we got $500,000?

What do you do

with all that cash?

[gang member #2]

I tell you what we can do,

we can give it to the poor.

[gang member #1]

That's exactly what I said, too,

we'll just donate those

to the poor.

It seemed like every week,

a new drug gang emerged.

The Chambers Brothers,

Best Friends,

Young Boys Incorporated,

Maserati Rick,

Johnny Curry and Leo Curry

had started a drug organization.

[Johnny] Say, for instance,

I got a key of cocaine,

and two or three keys

of cocaine.

You might have

a hundred bales of weed.

I make more off this cocaine

than you do off the weed

with less headaches.

That's how I got into that game.

When we talk

about Young Boys Incorporated,

or the Chambers Brothers,

there's not one single

white person involved

in any of those gangs.

[upbeat music]

[Chris] During the coverage

of the Chambers Brothers,

I had a conversation

with a source or sources

who said, "You know,

there's this kid

who's dealing cocaine.

Richard Wershe, Jr. He's 17.

And he's white,

in a largely

black-dominated world.

And his nickname

is "White Boy Rick."

[Chris] The teenage drug dealer

nicknamed "White Boy Rick."

[reporter #2] "White Boy Rick."

[reporter #3] "White Boy Rick."

[reporter #2]

His name is Richard Wershe, Jr.

[Joe] One of the things

you don't wanna do

if you're a criminal,

I would advise you

never to get a nickname

and especially,

a really catchy nickname.

[Scott] I just remember

the name and the face.

I recall me and my friends

joking around

when we were 16, 17

in the suburbs,

and someone would be

dealing weed out of his car

and we joked,

"Oh, who do you think you are,

White Boy Rick?"

[Seth] In the 1990s,

when I first entered

the federal prison system,

you hear about all

the different street legends

from the different cities.

I, I was mainly

on the East Coast,

but one of the guys,

you know, that there

was a lot of talk about,

was White Boy Rick.

And, to me, I was

kinda mesmerized, because,

you know, being

a white drug dealer myself,

in the suburbs and in colleges,

I was like,

"Who was this white kid

you know, that was supposedly

running all these black gangs

and running

the city of Detroit?"

At that time,

I really didn't know anything

about White Boy Rick.

[Scott] I didn't know

who Rick Wershe was.

I just knew

there was this caricature,

almost like

a comic book character

being splashed across

the newspapers all the time.

He had to be at least 15,

16 years old when I met him.

[Johnny] But he was smart.

He was socializing

and doing business

with the biggest drug dealers

in Detroit.

We all bought motorcycles

together,

rolled up to see my brother

in prison together.

[Scott] It became

a very iconic moniker.

It has been name-dropped

in Kid Rock songs.

[Kid Rock] ♪ Got more cash

Than White Boy Rick ♪

[Scott] Johnny Curry

would buy him a mink coat.

They'd walk around

with their twin mink coats.

To integrate like he did,

I mean, that's not...

Not everyone can do that.

And my point is,

he wasn't a poser.

That's who he was.

He was a product

of his environment.

He was a white kid

that was brought up

his... basically, his whole life

around all black people.

A lot of the DPD

that were working in the Detroit

drug scene at that time,

knew Rick was a race traitor.

They did not like the fact

that he talked black,

that he acted black,

that he dated black women,

and definitely didn't like

14 to 15-year-old kids

rolling around in BMWs,

and flashing cash wads

that equal more

than their entire paycheck

for the whole year.

Half million a week.

Two million dollars a month.

[Scott] It bred a lot of resent.

-[gunshots]

-[police dispatcher] Dispatch 8.

There were sections

of the city in the mid '80s

that were war zones.

[reporter #4]

This drug operation

was so heavily-fortified,

that police could not

get through the front door.

-[police dispatcher] Calling in.

-[thuds]

-[man #1] Oh!

-[man #2] Ooh.

[Scott] In Detroit in the 1980s,

there were dozens upon dozens

of proficient,

professional killers.

The most menacing,

the most feared,

was without question,

Nate "Boone" Craft.

[Nate] In the '80s,

I was a hitman

that worked for many different

drug lords and kingpin.

Even some that weren't even

in this country.

[reporter #5] Law officers say

there are direct links now

between gangs

and Colombian drug dealers.

They were hiring me to do hits.

[Nate] I was, uh, involved

with about 30 murders.

I was responsible

for almost 30 murders.

They paid 50,000 and up.

And I was looking to gain.

Anything that was 50,000,

I'll always will be,

"Come on with it.

What do you want?

The guy's head?

You want his arm?

You want his private part?"

[reporter #6] Rice was in charge

of the Detroit Police

Department's

Homicide Division.

Crack cocaine changed

the whole complexion

of homicide cases

in the city of Detroit.

We were actually having

almost 800 homicides per year.

Probably 85%

was due in some part

to the narcotics trade.

Now this is what happens to you

when you become a gangster,

a hitman, or whatever.

You get shot up.

Either you didn't pay

what you owe me,

or jealousy takes over.

Leg, tore up.

I had to walk with a cane.

AK. I can't even move my hands.

Shotgun blast.

They hit me with everything,

nine in the back.

I'm like the Grim Reaper.

If you make my list,

I'm coming for you,

whether you're good or bad.

White people have left this city

in record numbers.

It goes from almost

two million people,

now it's down

to a million people.

[Ralph] Today,

we're probably down

to 600,000 people.

[Scott] Rick grew up

on the east side of Detroit

which is, uh, notoriously

a very tough, tough area.

We were very normal.

We were a normal family

coming up.

My grandparents

lived across the street from us.

[Dawn] And it was my brother,

and my dad and I, and...

[Darlene] Rick's father and I

divorced when Rick was 5.

And they stayed with him

at the house

which I wasn't happy about.

But they wanted to be there,

so I left them.

[Dawn] It went, you know,

from a nice,

working class neighborhood

regardless of race or color,

to just horrible.

Like, there was crack houses

across the street

from our house.

My grandmother, I remember her

getting robbed for her purse

in her own driveway.

I mean, it was bad.

[Scott] He played

Little League Baseball.

He was the star

of his league baseball team,

a pitcher.

Eventually, he went out

and spent his eighth-grade year

out in the suburbs

in Macomb County with his mom.

He did really well out there.

He got good grades,

he was popular in the school.

But he was seeing his father

on occasion,

and he decided

to go back with him.

[Scott]

Richard Sr. was a gun dealer...

street hustler.

And the joke became, you know,

that there was White Dad Rick,

and White Boy Rick.

[Scott] Rick himself,

really idolized his father,

and spent most of his childhood

at his father's side.

To the point

where he was kinda known

in those gun shows

when he was 11,

12, 13 years old,

as like one

of the best salesmen

at those gun shows.

It was an adventurous life.

[Herm] I mean,

it was cowboys and Indians

in Detroit at that time.

And he just got caught up in it.

[Se Everything that I knew,

you know, that was like

the glamorized version

of White Boy Rick.

But once I started talking

to him,

and researching the case

with all the documents

and newspaper articles

and court records,

I found a very different

story emerged.

[male ad narrator]

One out of every five people

who try cocaine get hooked.

But that's not your problem.

[sniffs]

-[children laughing]

-[male ad narrator] Or is it?

[slams]

[Ralph]

What the legislators tried to do

was make the law so harsh

that people would think twice

before getting

into the drug trade.

Now we're gonna pass the statute

that provides

for mandatory life.

[Steve]

Anybody who's in possession

of over 650 grams of cocaine,

they got convicted,

they got mandatory life.

[Scott] Hundreds of people

were prosecuted

underneath the 650 Law,

including Tim Allen,

the actor in Hollywood.

Well, historically, penalty

has never been a factor

in stopping a crime

from occurring.

As long as there's enough money

in the crime,

the penalty isn't gonna make

a big difference.

[Steve] There was a lot of money

to be made,

and a lot of people

tried to make money.

And I represented

quite a few of them.

[Ralph] That kind of money

began to corrupt everything.

It corrupted the government,

it corrupted the police.

There can be no progress

in the suburbs

unless there's progress

in the city.

[crowd] Yeah!

[Kevin] Coleman Young is the

most powerful politician

in the history of Detroit.

Coleman Young was a machine.

And his niece was Cathy Volsan,

and she was married

to Johnny Curry,

one of the biggest drug dealers

in Detroit.

My wife's uncle

was Mayor Coleman Young.

[Gregg] There was

a protective detail

that Coleman Young

wanted placed on Cathy Volsan

knowing full well

that she was married

and living with all

these drug dealers.

And then she heard

about the Curry Brothers

and what we was into

in our life,

so we started dating.

[Johnny] And then,

the next thing you know,

we was married.

I just find it crazy

that he had a protection detail

of police officers

guarding his drug dealer niece.

[Scott] Including Jimmy Harris,

who was Mayor Coleman Young's

head of security.

They were specifically

instructed

not to intervene

in this interactions

and in these transactions.

One time, I got picked up by,

uh, one of the police officers.

He knew I had something

in the car.

He's seen it on the backseat.

He said, "Go ahead

and go about your way.

You want me to escort you in

or something like that?"

So, I was fine.

'Cause they really never

messed with me too tough.

Their only job

was to follow around Cathy Curry

and prevent her from harm.

It was a slippery slope,

I think, for...

for these people.

They went downhill,

uh, very, very fast.

It was wide open

for greedy people.

And cops is just greedy

as we are.

If they got debts and so forth,

they're gonna turn to crooks.

Everybody, every police officer,

down at 1300 was crooked.

[Johnny] When I was down there,

I walked there like...

Shit, I did bad as myself.

[Scott] Johnny Curry,

because of his marriage

to Cathy Curry,

had a direct line to Gil Hill,

who, at the time, was

the Detroit Police Department's

head of the Homicide Division.

Gil Hill had bigger aspirations.

[Kevin] He had, uh, become

uh, a movie actor.

Was in this wildly popular

Eddie Murphy movie,

Beverly Hills Cop,

where he played the boss

of Eddie Murphy in the movie.

Inspector T., how you doing?

Where the [bleep]

you've been, Foley?

[Kevin] In Detroit,

everybody knew Gil Hill,

they wanted to talk to Gil Hill

and be around Gil Hill.

He was probably

the biggest celebrity

in the city of Detroit

at the time.

Gil Hill, to me, was a lot more

than the Beverly Hills Cop

that you see on TV.

[William]

He actually trained me.

He actually taught me

the ins and outs

of investigations

and interrogations.

[interviewer]

Was Gil Hill affiliated

with the drug world?

Affiliated?

Yeah, he was affiliated.

He basically got us

to stay away from certain people

that he wanted to protect.

He'd tell us, "Hey, man,

don't be hitting this.

Don't do this and that.

'Cause if you made our list,

you was gonna be killed."

I have nothing bad

to say about Gil Hill.

[William]

He wanted homicides closed.

And he wanted

to get some resolve

to the brutality

of taking another person's life.

[interviewer]

So you're telling me that the

head of homicide came to you-

and asked who you've got on

your hit list?

Yeah.

Gil.

As Gil would say,

"Anybody else on your list?

I don't give a fuck."

That's not the Gil Hill

that I know.

That doesn't mean

that, of course,

people don't have dark sides.

'Cause I, too, believe

that all people have dark sides.

So we would have

to listen to Gil

because he gonna do us

a favor later.

In order for us

to get favors from him,

we got to do favors

for him as well,

one hand washes the other.

He was a guy

with quite a bit of cache.

He had, he had his eyes set

on the mayor's office himself.

[Scott]

I think he viewed himself

as Coleman Young's successor.

One of the nation's

best-known mayors,

Coleman Young of Detroit,

is getting a kind of

national attention these days

that no politician wants.

[Scott] Coleman Young was

a notoriously corrupt mayor

that never got convicted

or indicted.

[reporter #7]

The latest involves charges

that his police chief

stole from a fund set up

for undercover drug buys.

And who the [bleep]

do you think you are

to come in here

and cross-examine me?

[Joe] He drew enormous animosity

from a number of white residents

who blamed him

for great social ills.

And I know a number of people

including a number of federal

and local

law enforcement figures

that thought that he was steeped

totally in corruption.

I don't buy that.

I think there are people

around him were.

[Scott] So, lots of members

of federal law enforcement

had a giant agenda

to go get Coleman Young.

And try to tie parts

of his administration

into the Curry organization.

[Kevin] Johnny and Leo Curry

were convicted

and did a plea agreement

for 20 years.

I did 14 years.

I got a 20-year sentence,

I did 14, and came out.

[Chris] And one day, I get a tip

that they were gonna raid

Cathy Volsan-Curry's townhouse.

The Feds go in there,

and guess who's in there,

in bed with Cathy Volsan-Curry?

Richard Wershe, Jr.

[Chris] Imagine my editors

asking me,

"What have you got going today?"

I said, "Well,

an alleged notorious

17-year-old drug dealer

was caught in a raid,

sleeping with the niece

of the mayor

on a Friday afternoon."

That's a bad day

for the Mayor's Office.

[Scott] You had race,

you had drugs,

you had sex,

you had political intrigue,

you had police corruption.

So now, Rick Wershe

is dating Coleman Young's niece.

[Kevin] And that's a problem

for Coleman Young.

And it becomes a problem

for Rick Wershe.

[Chris] Wershe was busted

for possessing eight kilos

of cocaine.

The charge which now has him

serving a life sentence.

You're not trying

to tell me that...

you're an angel,

that you never did

anything wrong, right?

I've been involved

in wrongdoing,

but I don't feel I did anything

to receive a life sentence.

[Herm] The 650-Lifer Law

that, uh, Wershe

was convicted under,

uh, was repealed in 1998.

[Ralph] So the Supreme Court

of the State of Michigan said,

"That constitutes cruel

and unusual punishment,

so you can't sentence people

to life without parole

for a non-violent crime.

[low unnerving music]

[Gregg] But to be incarcerated

for 28 years,

he's now a grandfather.

[Steve]

And everybody kinda recognized

it was a fool's errand

from the beginning.

Just like almost all

tough on crime things

turned out to be

a fool's errand.

Until the law was changed,

I don't think they caught one,

not one large-scale drug dealer.

[Chris] Were you ever

a cocaine kingpin?

[Gregg] And then in the press,

they come out and say,

"Drug kingpin White Boy Rick."

Kingpin of what?

Who?

He didn't have a drug gang,

he didn't have crack houses.

-[Chris] You ever kill anyone?

-No.

-Ever ordered anyone killed?

-No.

[Gregg] I'm sorry to tell you,

that the legend

of White Boy Rick

is just not true.

[Chris] Why would a juvenile,

non-violent drug offender

be kept in prison

beyond 29 years?

[Johnny] I did way more than he

could possibly ever had done

to get that kind of a sentence.

Third world countries

don't incarcerate like this.

[Chris] How does a 16

or 17-year-old kid,

Richard Wershe, Jr.,

how does he get connected

to the Curry family?

[Wershe]

Here's the truth.

At the age of 14,

I was recruited by the FBI-

to become an informant.

[foreboding music]

[Herm] It's a convoluted story.

So when I met, uh,

Richard Wershe, Sr.,

he had been opened up

as an informant

and operated, uh,

for a period of time

by two other agents.

He was a gun dealer,

uh, he was an entrepreneur.

There was no end

to what he was doing.

If he was in one thing,

he was always dabbling

in the next.

[Darlene]

But he was very brilliant,

he invented a lot of things.

And I think he probably held

more patents

than anyone

in the state of Michigan.

I think he also had a business,

where he would illegally

sell guns on the black market.

And help people get permits.

He even sold silencers.

He could get you anything.

He could get you grenades.

[Scott] And then, kind of played

both ends of the game,

he would then divulge

who he was selling

these guns to, to the FBI.

At the top of the list

of their targets

is Johnny Curry

and the Curry gang.

[Herm] So the first time

I met Wershe, Sr.

Uh, it was at a McDonald's

on the west side of Detroit.

And, uh, when I walked

into the restaurant,

and after introductions

were made,

I noticed, uh, he's got

this young kid with him.

It appeared to me

to be 15 or so.

And when we got talking about

the Curry, uh,

drug investigation,

I noticed the father

would defer to the son.

[Wershe]

My dad didn't really know

who these people were.

[Herm] And pretty soon,

it became apparent to me

that really, the kid is somehow

the real source

of the information.

[Wershe]

And I kind of interjected and

told them who they were-

and recognized them from

the neighborhood.

I just didn't feel comfortable

with it.

I didn't think

it was appropriate.

But I wanted to keep

the channels

of communication open.

[Scott] I believe Richard

himself, quickly realized

that the target for this

was big game.

[Herm] He was using his son

to get paid.

It's not the role of a father

to do something like that.

[sirens blaring]

[Scott] And this was something

that I think

started off as one thing,

and ended as another thing.

It started off where they would,

you know, sometimes pick Rick up

and they drive him

through the neighborhood.

And they say, "Rick, tell us

who this guy is.

Tell us what that spot is.

What's that spot?"

[Kevin]

So here's this 14-year-old kid

getting paid money

to inform on narcotics dealers

in the city of Detroit.

In the short time he was

an informant for the police,

he collected about $35,000

from law enforcement.

[Wershe]

I went shopping, I bought stuff.

I bought a car when I was

15 years old.

It's funny to me how people

always talk about

what criminals will do

to make a dollar.

But, you know,

on the same regard,

you got to look

at what the FBI will do

to make an arrest.

[Scott]

He was actually instructed

to infiltrate

the Curry Boys gang.

And start hanging out

with the Currys,

pretending that you wanna

learn the drug game

to start making controlled buys.

We had started letting him do

little errands

and then he started knowing

a few people that...

you figured that

when a white boy sells it,

the dope is good or whatever.

You know, so he started

doing his thing.

He didn't play

a really major role.

Nobody would mess

with him, though,

because they knew

he was coming from us, so.

[Scott] You know,

within a couple of months,

Rick is right by

Johnny Curry's side.

And has become a protégé

of Johnny Curry's.

I don't think anybody realized

that Rick would be able

to do that.

Let alone, do it so quickly.

[interviewer] And were they able

to make any arrests

out of your information?

[Wershe]

Oh, yeah. Numerous.

[policeman] Go, go, go!

-Police!

-[thudding]

[Kevin] When Rick would say,

"Hey, the dope's coming

to this house,"

the dope would come

to that house.

The police would make a raid,

they would confiscate

the drugs and money,

and, uh,

they would be successful.

[Wershe]

Yeah I believe in one time-

in '85 I think it's-

eleven or thirteen in one day.

[Herm]

You know, the whole business

of operating informants,

it's a cat and mouse game.

And just because somebody

has an informant

designated as the handler

for the informant,

doesn't preclude that informant

from being utilized

by other agencies,

Such as the Detroit

Police Department.

[Gregg] Uh, we had DEA involved,

the FBI involved.

We had United States Customs,

Michigan State Police,

we had Detroit Police.

That's actually

what was going on.

[Herm] The Detroit Police

Department officers

were also using, uh, this kid

in undercover capacity.

Uh, using him to make buys,

undercover buys.

[Scott] He's going

in unmarked police cars,

uh, at night, with the police.

Driving around,

identifying people

at certain clubs.

And he ain't getting home

till three in the morning.

And he's got to wake up at 7:00

to go to school.

[Wershe]

I mean they weren't saying,

"Oh, quit school."

But they were saying-

you know,

"we need you to do this."

And I'd say

"well I've got school tomorrow."

And they said

"so what, we still"-

you know,

"go down to this club for us."

"You're wasting too much time

in Math class.

You need to be

on the street for us,

getting us information."

[car whooshing]

[Scott] At some point,

as the fall progressed in 1984,

Johnny Curry

was given information

that Rick Wershe

was an informant.

Rick Wershe was giving

the Feds information

and people were getting busted.

So they knew somebody

was, was leaking information,

and they would have meetings,

talking about who

the informant might be.

[Scott] There were a lot

of people on the street

that believed that Johnny Curry

ordered Rick Wershe's murder.

So I remember being at the home

that my boyfriend and I shared,

and he said,

"Here comes your dad."

And I said,

"Tell him I'm not here."

[Dawn] And I was standing

in the bedroom

listening to him talk to my dad

at the front door

and my dad said,

"Tell her,

her brother's been shot."

And right then,

I fell to the floor.

I got in the car with my dad

and we went to the hospital.

Rick was with a, uh,

another Curry lieutenant,

who was a couple years

older than him.

[Wershe]

We were in the house

Approximately five minutes.

We were both

skipping school that day.

He went upstairs.

[Scott]

And after a couple of minutes,

says, "Hey, Rick.

Come over here.

Come to the stairs."

[Wershe]

As soon as I hit the

top of the stairs

he comes out of the bedroom,

shoots me in the stomach.

[Dawn]

He was shot at close range

with a .357 magnum.

Went in the front, out the back,

blew his large intestine

in half.

[Wershe]

I believe I rolled down

the stairs.

I was asking them to call 911.

He wouldn't call 911-

he was in a panic.

By the grace of God his

girlfriend walked in the house.

And she's the one

that called 911.

The guy that shot me- his older

brother and a friend of his were

putting me in the car.

I don't know if they were going

to take me to a hospital or take

me somewhere and dump me.

Finally an ambulance showed up

and blocked them off and-

told them to give me

to them and-

basically that ambulance ride

saved my life.

[Johnny] I had nothing to do

with his getting shot.

If an agent said it

or whoever said it,

a police officer,

whoever said it,

they're way out of order, then.

Rick's family

and the task force all arrived

in the waiting room

of the hospital.

There's a physical altercation

between Richard

and the FBI handlers.

[Scott] Richard blames them

for getting his son shot

and, at that time,

thinking he might die.

The task force were kind of

huddled by the snack machines.

They had realized

that if he died,

the fact that they had been

using a 14-year-old kid

to infiltrate druggings

was gonna come to the surface

and it would be a scandal

of all scandals.

The surgeon, Dr. Bowles,

that performed surgery

and saved Rick's life

sat next to his bedside.

I believe it was for ten

or twelve hours.

Because he didn't think

he was gonna make it.

But he did, thank god.

I really honestly believe

this is a turning point.

Because he could've

pumped the brakes.

He could've said,

"You know what? This is crazy.

We almost got this kid killed.

We need to stop everything

right now

and just do this, you know,

by the book."

[Scott] But, instead,

members of that task force

came with a conclusion

this would increase

his credibility.

[Wershe]

The police told me to say the

shooting was an acident-

because it was the best way to

sweep it under the rug-

and I could continue to work for

them if I said it was an

accident.

We're gonna push it

into high gear.

[Scott] We're gonna send him

back in to the Curry gang

and if there was any belief

that he was an informant before,

that belief was gonna go

out the window

because if he was a snitch,

Johnny Curry would be

in handcuffs right now.

So, by the mere fact

of him going back

to his old neighborhood,

it built up his reputation

as a drug dealer,

uh, not an informant.

It almost helped him

in that regard.

[Scott] During Rick's recovery,

Johnny Curry called him

and, you know, said,

"Where have you been?

What's going on?"

Eventually, Rick met him

and was kinda like

confronted him.

"You thought I was an informant.

You had me shot."

And Johnny denied it.

Now, he might've mentioned it.

I don't know.

I had nothing to do with it.

[Scott]

But from that point forward,

Rick was in tighter than ever.

[funky music]

[commentator] And we're live

from Caesars Palace

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Where Top Rank presents

World Championship Boxing.

[Herm] Johnny Curry

and his entourage

had gone to Las Vegas

to the Hearns-Hagler fight.

[announcer] Fighting out

of Detroit, Michigan...

[Scott] Tommy Hearns who was

Detroit's favorite son

in the boxing game at that time,

was facing off against

"Marvelous" Marvin Hagler.

And all of the major

urban drug dealers of Detroit

went to the fight.

[Kevin] And this was

the golden era of boxing.

The Tommy Hearns-

Marvin Hagler fight

was all anybody

was talking about in sports.

[Scott] Tommy Hearns grew up

and socialized

with a lot of the black

drug dealers in the era.

And the kind of joke was,

last guy in Detroit

turn off the lights.

[crowd cheering]

[Wershe]

I was asked to go out there and-

get information about some

people that were-

involved in the drug trade-

and their corrections and-

how the drugs were coming in

and-

just basically as much intel as

I could from out there.

I was given a fake ID.

I was 15 at the time- the ID

made me 21 years old.

So, they gave him money,

they gave him false ID,

and they set him up in a casino.

[Ralph] This is insanity.

[Wershe]

There's an FBI report detailing

that and it shows-

I think they gave me-

like $1,500-

on a receipt and then I think

they gave me like another-

thousand or 1,500 bucks for

pocket money.

[Scott]

While they're at the fight,

Johnny Curry and his entourage's

reservations and fight tickets

mysteriously disappear.

Or maybe disappear

is the wrong word.

They never really existed

to start.

[Scott] Johnny had reached out

to a member of his crew

by a guy of a name of Leon Lucas

and him and Johnny

had kinda gotten into a beef

over drugs and money

that had been

confiscated in a raid.

Johnny Curry

held him responsible

for the drugs and money.

[Scott] And Leon said,

"Let me start

to try to make it up for you.

I will provide you

hotel arrangements

and tickets

for the Hagler-Hearns fight.

Now, he assured Johnny Curry

that it would all

be taken care of.

Well, when Curry

and his posse got out there,

nothing was handled,

nothing was taken care of.

[Herm] And when he

got back to Detroit,

some of his lieutenants

not at the direction

of Johnny Curry himself,

but some of his lieutenants

went over to Leon Lucas' house

in an effort to intimidate him.

What those individuals

that went there decided to do

was to shoot the place up

in a drive-by shooting.

Unfortunately, for them,

Leon Lucas isn't there.

[911 operator]

[911 operator]

[caller]

[911 operator]

[Kevin] And in the process,

Leon's nephew, Damion Lucas,

who was 13-years old,

and was living with him,

was shot and killed.

And this becomes

a very hot topic

in law enforcement.

[Scott] On the news,

"13-year-old Killed

in Drive-by."

[Herm]

You know, I heard Johnny Curry,

uh, on wiretaps.

Uh, shortly after we got

the authority to tap his phone.

And he was lamenting,

whoever he was talking with,

that, "You know, those guys

shouldn't have gone over there.

I told them don't go

over there."

He was sorry that this whole

thing had taken place.

Probably because it was

bringing a lot of heat

on him, uh,

and his drug organization.

[somber music]

Rick Wershe comes back

into play in this whole story.

And that Rick says

he was, uh, listening in on

a phone conversation

over a speakerphone,

and he heard Johnny Curry

talking to Gil Hill.

[Wershe]

And that's when I found out that

Gil Hill was responsible for

covering up the kid's murder.

Johnny placed a call to Gil, put

it on speaker-

we were riding around in

Johnny's BMW.

Basically Gil told him

everything that was going on,

and-

you know- that he had it under

control, and that he would be in

touch-

not to worry about anything.

He had already been to meet with

Gil and-

he said he gave Gil ten grand to

cover up the kid's murder.

This information made him

incredibly dangerous

to a lot of people.

Johnny Curry told this to me

while he was incarcerated

at the Texarkana

Federal Correctional Facility

in Texas.

[Herm] So, ultimately,

what happened

is the, uh,

Detroit Police Department,

under the direction of Gil Hill,

uh, framed, basically,

an innocent man, LaKeas Davis.

I had information.

Part of it was

from Richard Wershe, Jr.,

and part it was from

the wiretaps that we had

that strongly suggested

that they had the wrong guy

locked up.

And he's facing a life term.

[Nate] Well, sometime

he had tell us

to put the gun

in somebody's car.

One of our enemies.

And then he had the police

pull up on them

and said, "Wait, wait.

Is that a gun hanging out

on your seat?"

Well, the people don't know

that we just slipped the gun

in their car.

[laughter]

Same way we did

with a pot of drugs.

He used to tell us to set

people up with drug bust too.

That's the way they get busses.

[Gregg] Subsequently,

I was ordered

by my special agent in charge

to gather all

of the information that we had

with regards to

the Damion Lucas murder

and take it directly

to Chief Hart

of the Detroit

Police Department.

I did so and nothing

ever occurred.

To this day, it's still

an open investigation.

[Herm] In fact, LaKeas Davis

remained in jail

was facing a trial.

And so I made sure

Davis' defense attorney

got the information

that he needed

to get him exonerated.

Ultimately, that resulted

in me being subpoenaed

to state court.

And where demands were met on me

to reveal the source

of the information.

Well, it became

very touch-and-go

because there would be

extreme retaliation

against the Wershe family.

And so I refused to do it.

And, um, I was threatened

with contempt of court.

Ultimately, they dismissed

the case against LaKeas Davis

and they freed him

at that point.

[Scott] And Gil Hill

was investigated

for his role

in taking a possible payoff

and possibly

burying these charges.

He was never charged.

And when Gil Hill ran for mayor,

this case came up

and was a detriment

to his campaign.

At that point, I didn't realize

to, uh, what extent

the corruption had spread

throughout

the police department.

[Gregg] When we did the raid

on Cathy Volsan-Curry's house

which was in June of 1987,

we found a laminated card

exactly like this one,

holding the personal

and confidential information

from Gil Hill and Jimmy Harris

which ended up being

the beginning of all the rumors

that we had heard

with regards to

the funneling of information

from the Detroit

Police Department

to the Curry organization.

So was that uncommon for Cathy

to have that kind of access?

She had access

to anything she wanted.

[Chris] Like what?

Police reports,

surveillance reports,

whatever you wanted.

[Chris] On Johnny?

Johnny, myself,

other people

who needed this stuff.

[Chris] So, if she said

to Sgt. Jimmy Harris,

"I need to know what

the narcotics cops are doing

on Rick, on Johnny,

on anybody else,"

he would flip them to her?

No problem.

[Herm] The matter

of the Damion Lucas murder

was never resolved.

I knew who did it

and, but, uh, proving it

is something else.

[Wershe] Truthfully I wish I

never woulda got roped into the

Damion Lucas thing, because-

I didn't know 30 years later it

would still be affecting my

life.

[ominous music]

Well, I was, uh, told

to kill White Boy Rick.

We heard that he was telling.

So, they say,

"We gotta kill that white boy."

[Todd] My career is finished.

But I promise you,

I won't go down alone.

[Nate] I know after he did, uh,

Beverly Hill Cops and all that,

he was trying to stay away

from everybody.

But he would meet you somewhere

as long as he feel he was safe.

Like he would meet you out

at The Island in Waterfront.

But, yeah, uh...

He said that basically,

he wants us to make sure

that we kill White Boy Rick.

Make sure that boy is dead.

But we gotta make sure that

it don't lead back to no one.

I said, "Well, you know me.

All my hits don't lead back

to no one."

[Scott] Rick had got in deeper

and had risen higher

than anyone ever thought

he could.

[Wershe] At some point these

guys said-

sooner or later something's

going to go bad-

and we're going to be held

accountable.

[Ralph] They don't debrief him.

They don't send him

to a boarding school

where he can get over

what they've just

subjected him to.

They turn him loose

on the streets.

[Wershe] It wasn't like they

ever said-

"Rick, stop selling drugs."

"Rick, stop buying drugs."

One day they just never called

again-

and that's how we broke ties.

He wasn't gonna go

back to school.

He knew the drug trade.

So, he became a drug dealer.

[Wershe] I became addicted to

the lifestyle.

I became addicted to the money.

I became addicted to the women.

I became addicted to that life.

[Scott] The only difference was,

you know, he wasn't getting

a government stipend.

They had gleaned enough

information and intelligence

from him regarding

the Curry gang

that the indictment

was on the horizon.

The indictment would drop

within a couple months.

[Kevin] Rick will tell you that

it wasn't the smartest thing

to do, to date the wife

of a man you put in prison

or help put in prison.

Uh, but it happened.

I still wouldn't hold nothing

against that.

She was getting high.

What can you say, so...

[Wershe] I was a 17 year old

kid- I was having fun.

To be honest, dating her back

then was like-

dating a movie star or

something.

I remember one time,

back in those days,

I had a '63 black

Corvette convertible

with red interior.

[Chris] And I'm driving it

downtown.

Who comes driving by?

Rick Wershe and his friends.

And I forget what kind of car

but it was relatively

new and nice.

"Hey, Chris. What's going on?"

-[car whooshes]

- You speed off.

He was enjoying

the celebrity moment.

He was a kid.

And he was famous for all

the wrong reasons

but he was living the life.

But I knew that was

White Boy Rick's ride.

[Nate] So we followed him.

I speeded up

trying to get to him.

[Wershe] Me and Roy were sitting

at a stoplight in a car-

and I happened to look over my

shoulder and I seen a van

pulling up.

And I saw the door sliding-

it was like cracked open.

And I told Roy, I said, "Roy,

run the light!"

We stopped.

That side door pulled open.

[Nate]

Who's siting in the chair?

[imitates gun firing, jamming]

"Man, hand me

another gun," I said.

I think we better reach

up in the...

By that time,

they had speeded off.

[Wershe] I mean they got shots

off- the car was hit.

That's the only reason why

he was still alive.

That MAC jammed on us.

[Wershe] I had friends that were

murdered.

To be honest, you're a kid and

you don't realize-

everyday that you were playing

with fire-

that you could walk out your

door one day and your life would

be over.

[ominous music]

[Ralph] And in that period

of time,

he became what is known

as a "wait man."

As a wait man,

he had a line of credit

with some drug importers

in Miami.

He brought a lot of drugs

into Detroit

in a very short period of time.

He was not a drug dealer

for very long,

but he was nowhere near

the big-time drug dealers.

[Johnny] From a scale

to one to ten,

I'm a ten,

I'd say he was about a two.

Rick was nowhere near me.

Guys like the Chambers

or guys like the Currys

they controlled whole sections

of the city.

Rick didn't control anything.

I used to say,

"Where did they...

Where is they getting

this stuff from?

I guess this Chris Hansen guy.

I don't know."

I never set out

to make Rick look like

a bigger drug dealer

than he was.

[Chris] Were there

some exaggerations?

Perhaps.

[Scott] There were

seeds of truth

to what they were saying.

He was socializing with all

of the major players,

so it was hard for the media

to divorce that.

You know, whether he was

a drug kingpin,

a drug lord, a drug prince,

a drug prodigy,

he was a 17-year-old kid

dealing multi-kilos of dope

and very few adults do that.

Rick couldn't deal

with a lot of guys...

A lot of people

that I've dealt with,

Rick couldn't even see them.

Johnny and his brother,

and his people,

they were grown men.

These are grown men.

[Steve] And this was a kid.

That's the difference.

A 17-year-old white kid?

It was impossible for him

to have been

what people have pretended

that he was.

[Wershe] It wasn't like I went

out and said-

I want to become this big drug

dealer and-

want everyone in the state of

Michigan to know me.

I was led down this path by law

enforcement.

I think about every day if I

would have walked away.

I was a kid. I was stupid.

So, when you look at it

at the end of the day,

you know, law enforcement

created, almost

a perfect criminal.

[Scott] And law enforcement

created the perfect persona,

a perfect character

for the local news,

for the local media,

and they ate it up.

I covered it a lot.

Rick will say

I had him on TV every day.

Obviously, that's not true.

He's just saying that

to make a point.

They convicted me

through the media,

through the papers.

I was the public enemy

number one

and they said stuff

that was totally untrue.

Were there stories about him

ordering hits on people

that weren't true

floating around?

Absolutely. I heard them.

But they never

prosecuted him for it.

My grandfather who was

a judge in Detroit

at the time of Mr. Wershe's case

had presided over his case

for a brief period of time.

[Dana] And he calls him,

"Worse than a mass murderer,"

and gave him

a one-million-dollar bond.

It was the highest bond

my grandfather had ever set

for any defendant.

If you have so much evidence

that he's been involved

in a drug hit,

bring a case.

If not,

rumors don't count in court.

On May 23rd, 1987,

Rick Wershe and a man

named Roy Grissom

were arrested driving

down Hampshire near Dickerson.

[Ralph] It ended with his arrest

which is kind of

an interesting story

because it was probably a setup.

[Scott] Rick, at this point,

has hooked up

with two Colombian

wholesale cocaine dealers

in Miami.

They would send kilos up

to Detroit in trailers.

He got a shipment. I believe,

it was an 18-kilo shipment.

They drop off ten kilos

of cocaine to a customer

and they have a pile of cash

in the car.

And they passed a police car

that was just, um,

routine traffic duty.

And I believe he actually waved

at the police officer

because he knew him.

[Kevin] They're driving home.

They get pulled over.

Allegedly for going through

a stop sign.

[Scott] At this point,

there's a bunch of people

on the porch

including Rick's sister, Dawn.

And we watched it all unfold.

He said, "Okay, guys,

what's going on?"

And they said,

"You're under arrest."

And he said, "For what?"

And they said,

"Possession of drugs."

And he told them,

"I don't have any drugs."

And they said they were

in the car.

He said, "Search it."

One of the police officers

reaches into the back of the car

and pulls out a bag

with the cash.

So my dad ran out there

and grabbed the bag of money.

Officers say a tussle started.

A fight almost between Wershe,

Grissom, and the officers.

Investigators say

that Wershe took off running.

[Scott] About 25 minutes,

a half-hour later,

the police find him

and they roughed him up

pretty good.

To the point where he had

to go to the hospital.

So, the next three

or four hours,

the police are combing

the neighborhood

looking for drugs.

They got an anonymous tip.

[Chris] Later,

more police arrived

and eventually they found

a box containing

eight kilos of cocaine

under this back porch,

a block away

from the traffic stop.

[Wershe]

I was responsible for those

drugs. I had to pay the people

in Miami for those drugs.

[Kevin] Rick believes

that it was a setup.

That they were watching him

and they knew

he would have drugs or money.

And they say that when he

ran out of the car,

he hid the cocaine

underneath a porch

and continued to run away.

And he's charged

with that crime.

The attorney that was

representing him at the time

was an attorney

by the name of William Bufalino.

And he brought motions

to suppress the evidence.

[Ralph] Shortly thereafter,

Coleman Young's niece told Rick,

"Everything will be okay

but you need to get

different attorneys."

[Kevin] They decided

that they needed

an African-American attorney.

And that it would look better

to the jury.

[Ralph] "Hire Ed Bell

and Sam Gardner

and everything will be okay."

When they went forward,

they changed their strategy.

They, they decided

not to heavily pursue the idea

that these drugs

where not Rick's.

Fatal mistake.

[Wershe]

Sam Gardner was Coleman Young's

lawyer at the time, and-

the only reason they were

brought in-

was to watch me.

It wasn't to help me.

Basically, every time I went

to see him, he just told me,

"I had nothing to worry about.

Things were looking good."

I was told at one time

that I wouldn't go to trial.

He didn't think

that we would go to trial.

Before they went to trial,

his trial attorneys agreed

to withdraw all

the pretrial motions.

[Ralph] They agreed not to admit

any evidence

in front of the jury

that he had been working

for the government

since he was 14.

So, the jury never heard that.

[Wershe]

Basically I think the fix was

in-

and Coleman didn't want me on

the streets anymore.

So them being my attorneys-

I think they tanked the case.

[Steve] I think it was

like a whirlwind

that just kind of swept them up.

'Cause the phone conversation

I remember having with him,

he was kind of baffled

by his notoriety.

And then that time

when I saw him,

you know,

he's waiting on his jury

and all these assholes

are around him.

All of them wanted him

to be convicted

I'm sure, that's why

they showed up.

Rick took the nickname

and ran with it.

I mean, he didn't have

to wear the fur coats.

He didn't have

to show up to trial

with a whole crew of little kids

wearing beepers and gold chains.

He came to court

like a drug dealer.

I said, "Rick, if those jurors

see all these little crooks

running around with you,

you're dead."

We was told

to show up down there

with our expensive cars,

jewelry,

and just get in front

of the news.

[Nate] These all his workers.

Kingpin is on trial.

Drug lord is on trial.

And his friends down here

trying to free him.

Of course, it hurt him. There's

no doubt about it, it hurt him.

Same police officers

paid us to do that.

[Nate] Ain't nobody ever

heard of him being no drug lord

until they print that shit

in the paper.

Where the hell

was he a kingpin of?

Us blacks?

Oh, hell no.

We made it seem like that,

but he wasn't.

They had this newspaper article

where they actually listed him

as the leader

of the Best Friends gang.

Which is crazy, you know.

Best Friends were like

this hit gang

that had over a hundred murders.

It's just incredible and crazy.

[Joe] We had to rely

on law enforcement.

We saw the documents.

We saw them firsthand.

They were shared with us

and we did our best to vet them.

But we were certainly

not making stuff up

or fabricating.

There was enough going on

to keep us all busy

with crazy-enough stories.

You had characters

like Maserati Rick

who survived

an assassination attempt

and then was murdered

in his hospital bed.

And in the nightstand

was a pistol

and a crucifix

and, uh, rosary beads.

He was buried in

a Mercedes-Benz coffin.

So you didn't have

to make stuff up.

But that's how the cops

had it set up.

And that's how they listed him

and that's how we reported it.

And that's how we sourced it

in the story

and the graphic illustrations,

that this was based

on law enforcement documents

and sources.

It was a political move.

[Nate] That's why they

could put him away forever.

[Wershe]

Nate was showing up down there-

which we saw Nate there- to try

and do some harm to me.

[Nate] I was trying to shoot him

out at the courthouse.

We had the van

already parked up on Gratiot.

I already had the scope

and everything scoped in,

but, at that point,

they walked him underneath

into the courthouse.

"What do you mean

he in the courtroom?"

They said, "Yeah,

he in the courtroom."

[Wershe]

Of course we were a little more

careful and-

when we left the

courthouse, or where we parked

the car, or whatever.

He wasn't

there to wish me well at trial.

And he was convicted

and, after that, it was easy.

[Ralph] You're going to jail.

You're never gonna see

the light of day.

[foreboding music]

[Herm] This operation

was called Operation Backbone.

The reason I named it Backbone,

I figured you need some backbone

to work this case, you know.

At that time,

it was the most significant

police corruption investigation

in the state of Michigan.

The objective was

I knew through

the Curry investigation

and the Damion Lucas homicide

that that investigation

was partly compromised.

And I knew that there were

corrupt police officers

involved in this thing.

So, that was the objective,

to get these corrupt cops.

[Ralph] 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 have said

that they will help me

if I help them."

"But if you cooperate

on this undercover project

and everything works fine,

the best I can do is,

maybe, take you out

of the 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.

I'll tell them what you did."

He said, "You know what?"

We shook hands and that

was the agreement we made.

And the Feds, during that time,

were chasing Coleman Young hard.

They wanted to bring down

the mayor of Detroit.

[Wershe]

The FBI wanted to use my

relationship with Cathy-

to target the mayor-

as well as police corruption

within the city of Detroit.

They were targetting Willie

Volson.

He was married to the mayor's

sister.

He was Cathy's father of course

and-

everyone knew that Willie had

pull-

throughout the city of Detroit.

The other target of operation

was Jimmy Harris.

He was a high ranking Detroit

police official.

He did whatever mayor Young told

him to do.

He covered up the thinks that

the mayor's family did.

To my knowledge, for the right

price-

they were willing to protect

drug shipments-

from anywhere, I mean-

if it was in the city of Detroit

and they could make a buck off

of it-

they were willing to provide

that police protection.

[Herm] So, I got

Rick Wershe's sister, Dawn,

to cooperate with me as well.

And she had a relationship

with Cathy.

I had an agent

by the name of Mike Castro

who had served extensively

in the Caribbean

and knew the Caribbean

pretty well.

[Wershe]

I introduced Mike Castro- who

was the undercover FBI agent-

to Cathy. He posed as my

supplier from Miami.

And me knowing Cathy and her

family- how greedy they were-

I knew Cathy would cut into

him-

and that's exactly what

happened.

[Herm] We arranged a dinner

with Wershe's sister,

Cathy Volsan-Curry,

and Mike Castro.

Which I attended,

but I was off to the side

and it was recorded.

So, during that conversation,

uh, Cathy was just enamored

with the prospect

of getting back

into the cocaine business

and so forth.

Uh, her eyes lit up.

And at that point, she offered

her police assistance.

[FBI Agent]

So basically we're businessmen-

we're in the drug business.

[Herm] We invited Willie Volsan

and James Harris

down to Florida.

Had an undercover yacht.

[Herm] Sat down there,

and on videotape,

and negotiated the deal.

[FBI Agent] We'd like to-

fly something in.

We're going to look like

businessmen delivering packages.

[James] Okay.

- Only us and you will know it's

drugs.

No one else is going to know

anything.

[Harris]

Okay.

[FBI Agent]

We're going to probably-

ship up in the plane around 100

keys.

- You provide protection-

and protection from the police.

Think you can handle that?

[Harris]

What you're talking about is no

problem.

[FBI Agent]

Right.

[Harris]

I've got three Detroit police

officers myself- it's cool.

[FBI Agent]

Okay.

[FBI Agent]

Alright.

[Harris]

These people have been with me.

[FBI Agent]

You can trust them.

We'll have out equipment, our

van or whatever-

load it up.

Just like the money laundering

operation- you escort us away

from the airport-

out on the highway and-

sayonara!

- For a successful mission and

a-

a good escape and all of that-

40-50 grand?

So do we got a deal?

[Volson & Harris]

Yep.

[James]

We go. We go.

[FBI Agent]

Partners in crime brother!

- Here we go.

[Chris] Willie and Cathy

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 Airport.

[Wershe]

Any other mayor would have been

glad to have corruption out of

their police department.

Unless your brother-in-law is

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.

Did that put your life

in danger,

having Coleman Young

call you a stool pigeon?

[Wershe]

Oh, there's no doubt about it.

[Herm] Eighteen

corrupt police officers

and politicians,

as a result

of Wershe's direct involvement

in this thing, went to prison.

[Herm] And without

White Boy Rick

or Richard Wershe, Jr.

it's I think he'd prefer

to be called at this point,

that never would have happened.

And they haven't even

scratched the surface.

The corruption runs so deep

in there it's...

[Wershe] It's insane, man.

[Chris]

During the FBI investigation,

Hill met with Harris,

a longtime friend, Volsan,

and the undercover agent

posing as the drug dealer.

[Herm] Willie would, uh,

constantly brag

about his relationship

with Gil Hill.

[Herm] And so, toward

the end of the operation,

we wanted to see

if he'd actually set up

an introduction to Gil Hill,

and he did.

We got a wiretap authority

to install wiretaps

inside of Willie Volsan's car.

[Herm] And we arranged it

for both undercover agents

to meet with Gil Hill

and Willie Volsan,

and that happened.

During that conversation,

Mike Castro let it be known

that he was a money launderer

and they were drug dealers.

Uh, that plainly.

[Herm] It was my thought

that, uh, if Gil Hill

wanted to get up

and run out of that meeting,

so be it.

He's an innocent guy.

But if he stayed,

that meant something else.

And not only did he stay,

but he had a conversation

which was taped.

And in that conversation,

Gil Hill said he wanted

to get money

from Mike Castro.

I got authorization

to pay him the money,

$20,000.00.

The thing languished,

and it languished,

and it languished

before the bureaucrats

could make up their mind.

When they finally

made up their mind,

uh, the trail had cooled.

[Herm]

I think Gil, at that point,

uh, being a smart guy,

he smelled a rat

and, and didn't take the bait,

so we lost an opportunity.

[Chris] But Hill refused

to get involved.

He says the entire probe

smacks of entrapment.

[Chris] It seems

like this upset you.

Tremendously.

Now, is he

this major criminal mastermind?

I don't think so.

Was he a guy who played fast

and loose, and...

Perhaps.

And maybe have crossed

the line a couple of times.

But try as they might,

and I know the Feds

who were chasing him,

trying their damndest.

These were solid

hardworking guys after him.

They were not dogging it.

If they could have caught him,

they would have. They didn't.

[Kevin] Reporters

were chasing Gil Hill

down the street,

asking him if he was involved

in taking bribes.

[Kevin] And that's very damaging

if you wanna be the next mayor

of the city of Detroit.

[Scott] Gil Hill ran for mayor

and lost,

but Gil Hill blames Rick

for him not becoming the mayor.

[Wershe]

I think helping the FBI with

Operation Backbone-

was the biggest mistake of my

life.

Because it created enemies that-

I couldn't even imagine- I was a

kid.

I didn't think of the political

aspects of it.

There's still

a lot of angry people

in the city of Detroit

in positions of power.

[ominous music]

In Michigan, you're supposed

to have an opportunity

to have a parole hearing

every five years.

Rick Wershe has only had

one parole hearing

in 28 years in prison.

That parole hearing was in 2003,

and it was a spectacle.

[dramatic music]

[Ralph] When you're up

for parole,

what the parole board does

is they send letters out

to the original trial judge.

[Ralph] In Rick's case,

it was a judge

by the name of Thomas Jackson

who's recently retired.

And Judge Jackson wrote back

and he said,

"I have no problem with this

young man getting out.

He's served a long time

in jail."

They then send the letter

at the same time

to the prosecuting

attorney's office.

[Ralph] The chief prosecutor

was a fellow

by the name of Michael Duggan.

And Michael Duggan

is now the mayor

of the city of Detroit.

[Ralph] The first response

from that office was,

"We have no problem

with him getting out."

Two weeks later,

another letter comes

from that office saying,

"Disregard the first letter.

We don't want him out."

In the letter, which was

a multipage letter,

they were saying

that Richard Wershe, Jr.

was responsible for the downfall

of the city of Detroit.

Rick Wershe was involved

in cases as a juvenile

where the witnesses

just disappeared.

That this kid is so dangerous

that he should never be

let out of prison.

And it was signed

by Michael Duggan.

[Ralph] If you ask him today,

he'll tell you he doesn't

remember that letter

and he didn't remember

signing it.

If you look at the letter,

the name right

underneath Michael Duggan

is that of his chief assistant,

Samuel Gardner.

Rick's two defense attorneys

at the time he was convicted

was Samuel Gardner and Ed Bell,

who were law partners.

[Wershe]

He wanted to keep me in prison

as long as he could.

I mean here's a guy that was my

lawyer-

and was the number two

prosecutor-

told me I had nothing to worry

about.

And then this letter that was-

so outlandish and crazy gets

sent to the parole board.

I think it proves that they

threw the case from the

beginning-

and that their ultimate goal was

to keep me in prison.

[Kevin] So I went over

to the hearing,

and, in, in the first day

of the hearing,

I heard federal agents say

that Rick Wershe

was very helpful.

Instrumental in bringing

down dirty cops

and other drug dealers

in Detroit,

and that they believed

he should be let out of prison,

that he should be paroled.

You come back the next day,

and it's a completely

different story.

The Wayne County

Prosecuting Attorney

brings in three or four

homicide detectives.

I was approached by Deputy Chief

Dennis Richardson,

and was told that I was gonna go

to the parole hearing.

The goal of the hearing

was to make sure

that he was not released.

That Richard Wershe

was considered to be dangerous.

They characterized him

as, uh, Al Capone.

[Ralph] And they start detailing

the collapse of the city.

And then I talked about,

in generalities,

the damage that drugs had did

to the city of Detroit.

- The story of all

of the homicides,

and all of the drugs,

and all of the murders.

- That was the extent

of my contact

with the parole board.

But the other members

of the police department

and, and law enforcement

that was there

went into generalities also.

[Ralph] And if you read it,

the transcript, carefully,

they just keep throwing

Rick Wershe, Jr.'s name in.

They never say

that he does this stuff.

It's fair that you could

have implied

that they knew

about Richard Wershe.

Because they slanted it

to whereas he was

to be considered dangerous

when they didn't know anything

at all about him.

They never even worked drugs.

And some of them

ended up in prison themselves.

In order to prepare

for the parole hearing,

I was given information

to review and look at

so that I can familiarize myself

with Richard Wershe.

They went to

the Detroit Free Press

and said,

"We need to have

all of the news articles

with regards to Rick Wershe

because we wanna review

a bunch of this information.

Well, now we know

that half of the stuff that's

in print wasn't true at all.

It was made up

by the news media.

Listening

to these police officers

say that Rick Wershe

was violent and dangerous

and should not be

let out of prison

was hard-hitting.

And it was powerful.

It was a powerful testimony.

You had some people

that testified

in favor of Rick Wershe

including Kid Rock,

the musician.

[Kevin] Kid Rock did not show up

with a big entourage.

He came by himself.

He drove himself

to that hearing,

and he told the parole board

very plainly

that, "This could have been me

if the circumstances

were different,"

and that Rick Wershe

deserves to get out.

And he quietly went away.

[Kevin] But ultimately,

the story didn't play out

that way.

The police jumped on the fact

that Kid Rock was there

and they basically put out

the story line that,

"What? Is White Boy Rick

gonna get out of prison

and go be a roadie for Kid Rock?

[Kevin] There's a real recipe

for success.

Let's take this drug dealer

and put him

with a big-time rapper,

and let's see how well he does.

Let's see

if he's really reformed.

This is not gonna work."

And that played well.

It played well with the public

and I think it played

with the parole board.

[Herm] And, uh, the result

was they turned down his parole.

It was a sham.

There was absolutely no reason

for any of us to be there

to try to prevent him

from being released.

I voted to have

Rick Wershe released.

It made sense.

There was no reason

in this world

that he should still be there.

This whole thing

stinks to high heaven.

[Wershe]

I think it goes back to Gil

Hill.

All roads lead back to him.

I mean-

there's someone or some thing

that's keeping me in prison and

it's not the crime that I

committed.

[wind howling]

[Herm] So, uh, a couple of years

after the parole hearing, uh,

probably around 2005,

Wershe, Jr., uh,

was of course in, uh,

federal, uh, protective custody,

uh, witness protection program

doing his life sentence.

I became aware

that he was involved,

in a very minor way,

in an auto theft ring.

He became aware of the ability

to obtain a car for his mother.

Consisted of him making

some phone calls

on behalf of the people

that were actually involved

in the auto theft ring.

When the Wayne County

Prosecutor's Office found out,

they made phone calls

to the United States

Attorney's Office

down in Miami saying,

"You make sure he's indicted

and the full extent of the law

comes down on him."

[Wershe]

I was told, "You take a plea

bargain, or I am going to arrest

your mom and your sister."

So what do I do?

I took a plea bargain.

So he pled guilty

and got a five-year sentence.

[Scott] Ninety-nine-point-nine

percent of all other cases,

the five years

will run concurrently

with the life sentence

that he's under in Michigan.

But because Rick's Rick,

the sentence was ruled

to run consecutively.

If and when he's released here,

which I pray is soon,

he has to go to Florida

and finish out time.

[Scott] And if you look

at the guy's prison record,

with the exception

of that one incident,

he is someone

that is a model prisoner.

"He has remained misconduct-free

during his entire sentence

with the MDOC which started

in February 5th, 1988.

Mr. Wershe has maintained

steady employment

and has never been

a management problem for staff.

[Dana] He has

good communication skills

and interacts well with staff

and other inmates alike."

In my opinion,

that would show that Mr. Wershe

was a model prisoner.

[Dana] And there's no reason

that he should have been

denied parole for so long.

[somber music]

[Dana] "Now, based on my reading

of the briefs,

all parties agreed

that defendant's

original sentence

of life without the possibility

of parole

for a juvenile who committed

a non-violent offense

involving drugs

was unconstitutional.

The case law

over the last decade

has demanded

that we treat juveniles

constitutionally different

than adults.

That difference requires us

to consider the defendant's age

at the time the crime

was committed.

[Dana] Where

a defendant's sentence

violates the constitution,

recent case law holds

that remedy for that violation

is resentencing."

[Kevin] Suddenly in 2015,

Judge Dana Hathaway decided

that she wanted

to resentence Rick Wershe

and it was a major decision.

[Ralph] Uh, he's stunned.

I mean, you can see

in the courtroom, uh,

he, he doesn't know where to go.

I mean, he is just

almost in shock.

We need him out.

He's been in long enough.

I'm a bit overwhelmed

because I've only seen

my father in person

maybe two or three times

in my life,

so it was a difficult

relationship to know someone

your whole life and not really.

[Dawn] They wouldn't even

allow him out

for my dad's funeral.

When my dad was dying

of cancer, we, um...

We asked and they said, "No.

It's too high

of a security risk."

[Wershe]

I wold like to spread my dad's

ashes somewhere and-

visit my grandparents' grave.

I just wanna see him,

like I said,

and spend time with him

before I die.

[Wershe]

My mother's not in good health,

I mean-

after twenty-nine years you

don't hit the ground running-

but I think I have a good

support team.

He's supposed to get out.

And if he doesn't get out,

I want you, news guys,

to be investigating

as to who in the hell

wants him in

and who has that kind of power

to keep him in.

Wershe will be back here

in two weeks

to hear the judge's sentence.

If it is the time served,

it's possible he could walk out

of here a free man.

[Kevin] It would definitely mean

that his time as a prisoner

is near its end.

[Kevin] Kym Worthy

objected to that.

She's the prosecutor

in Wayne County.

In 2015, she said,

"We believe the law says

that Rick Wershe

must stay in prison

until the parole board

releases him."

[Kevin] So as it stands

right now,

Rick Wershe

will not be resentenced.

[Dana] When Prosecutor Worthy

objected to my resentencing,

I was disappointed.

I didn't think that there was

a legitimate basis for it.

And then

when the Court of Appeals

sided with the prosecutor,

[stutters]

I was disappointed again.

I thought that, uh, my opinion

had strong legal footing

given the fact

that his sentence was ultimately

an Eighth Amendment violation

and I thought the remedy

should have been resentencing.

[Wershe]

Oh, I'm disappointed. I mean-

let down a little bit, but-

I expected it to be honest with

you.

After all this time in here you

don't believe you're doing to

get out of here-

until the day you walk out of

here.

[Kevin] Kym Worthy is one

of the main people

standing in his way

of becoming a free man.

And she's

made no public statement

over the years.

She's never given any indication

why she's so dead set

on Rick Wershe staying

in prison.

[Kevin]

I've done dozens of stories

on the injustice of Rick Wershe

still being in prison.

And I've truly felt

that the stories I've done

should have been enough

for people

to do the right thing,

but that hasn't happened.

[Dana] His sentence

shocks the conscience.

How long he was in

shocks the conscience.

I'm not saying he was innocent,

but part our job is letting

the punishment fit the crime.

And here, it absolutely did not.

For a juvenile defendant

to never have his age

taken into consideration

was highly inappropriate

and inconsistent

with the case law

that's been evolving

for the past decade.

He's a juvenile

non-violent offender

who served 29 years.

He should be out.

He is a political prisoner.

[Scott] He is being held

against his will

by the politicians of Michigan

for crimes he never did!

There is a relationship

between the current

Wayne County prosecutor

and Gil Hill.

[Joe] From what I saw,

Kym Worthy and Gil Hill

had a professional

and political relationship.

[Herm] Uh, she

and Gil Hill worked together

especially when he was,

um, city council,

so they have a long history.

So I think

that's where the issue is.

Well, the city lost

a good one today.

Gilbert Hill,

or Gil as we knew him,

died today peacefully

with family by his side.

[reporter #8] He was a legendary

homicide detective in Detroit

and, of course, landed the role

of Eddie Murphy's

foul-mouthed boss

in Beverly Hills Cop.

[somber music]

[Kevin] Two huge stories today.

First is statement

from Kym Worthy

that she gave exclusively

to the defenders.

Kym Worthy saying she is

going to reconsider her stance.

She may no longer object

to Wershe being locked up.

[Kevin] This decision

by Kym Worthy

coming the very same day

that a hitman says he was hired

by a police officer

to kill Rick Wershe

back in the '80s.

Maybe they need to step down

and let the boy out

before I start

really naming names

and they know who they are.

[Kevin] In that documentary,

I'm told that Nate Craft

is going to say

that former Mayor Coleman Young

and former City Council

President Gil Hill

went to great lengths

to make sure

that White Boy Rick Wershe

would stay in prison

for the rest of his life.

So, finally,

after all of this time,

Kym Worthy says she's not

going to stand

in Rick Wershe's way,

but she's not gonna do

anything to help him either.

[Kevin] She's going to leave

that up to the parole board.

[Gregg]

Well, that's the problem,

is the parole board.

They believe whoever

is sitting there talking to them

and they never ask

any questions.

[Gregg] They just listen

to it all and then they vote.

And half the time,

they've listened

to the wrong information.

The Supreme Court

in, in the State of Michigan

needs to take a look at this,

or the governor

needs to pardon him.

Every time I've called

the Governor's Office,

I've been told by his Office

of General Counsel

that the governor

doesn't get involved.

In any of the parole instances,

he turns it over

to the parole board.

Think about that concept.

These are unelected people

that are on the board.

They're just regular people

and they're appointed

by the governor.

And you as the governor

of the state of Michigan

that get elected by the citizens

you're going to say,

"Oh, what do you want me to do?"

The parole board says

they shouldn't do anything."

That's crazy.

[Kevin] I think people

in Michigan

are finally realizing

that this story

is not going away

and it's not staying local.

It's going to get bigger.

It's going to get national.

It's gonna get international.

And someone's gonna

have to answer

as to why Rick Wershe

is still in prison

because nobody

has answered for that yet.

This is the Claus von Bülow case

uh, that, uh,

I was the appellant lawyer.

And you don't get too many cases

where the reversal

of the conviction

makes the front page

of the New York Times.

[Kevin] Attorney Alan Dershowitz

has an office full of memories

from the big cases.

OJ Simpson, Mike Tyson,

Patty Hearst, Jim Baker.

He can't see any reason

Rick Wershe should still

be behind bars.

[Alan] This is a terrible,

terrible injustice.

This sentence has

so many constitutional problems

that one would hope

a court would look at it

very skeptically.

[Alan] One might

at least have the hope

that they will see

the thing in context,

and say to themselves,

"Oh, my God.

Young man, drug offense.

Look at how much time he spent.

That doesn't make sense."

Alan Dershowitz

has agreed to assist

Rick Wershe's attorney,

Ralph Musilli, saying,

"An injustice like this

needs as much public attention

as possible."

Who's gonna be the hero here

and do the right thing?

[Dana] I don't really think

anyone can look

at all the facts

surrounding this case

and not feel bad for him.

And whether it's appropriate

or not for me to say,

I, I am still a human being

despite being the judge

that just happened

to inherit this case.

[Dana] I can't check that

at the door,

and I think part of, uh, my job

is to have compassion

for people and the people

that come before me,

and to see all sides

of the story.

And I don't know how anyone

can look at this

and not feel bad for him.

I say Rick shoulda did

seven, eight years

and been home.

Should have been home.

20 years ago.

Even my daughters,

everybody say,

"Yeah, they should

let the boy go.

He did enough time."

Murders ain't--

He did more time than murderers.

[foreboding music]

[Scott] The leader of the

Young Boys Incorporated,

Butch Jones,

the Henry Ford of heroin

as he'd like to call himself,

responsible for hundreds

and hundreds

of kilos of drugs being sold.

Responsible

for multiple murders,

alleged and convicted,

did seven years.

[Scott] Kurt McGurk

was Butch Jones' protégé.

A 16-year-old hitman

did 25 years.

He's out.

The Curry Boys.

Johnny Curry,

Rick's mentor in the game.

Arguably the biggest Eastside

drug dealer of the 1980s,

ran an empire for ten years.

Went into prison in 1987.

Came out in 1999, 12 years.

Nathaniel "Boone" Craft.

Here I am.

Hitman, murderer,

however y'all wanna put it.

Admitted to killing 30 people

in open court

did 17 years, he's out.

I'm not in prison no longer.

I'm free,

and hoping one day y'all will

free White Boy Rick.

[Chris] What rational human

being would say

that a man who has admitted

30 execution-style killings,

who then cooperates

with law enforcement,

should get out in 17 years

and Richard Wershe, Jr.

should be in for 28 years?

[Nate] I know I'm going to hell.

There's nothing that I could do

to change that

because my life

had so much violence,

so much everything but, yet,

White Boy Rick

is still locked up.

[Ralph] The government takes

a 14-year-old boy

out of high school

and places him in imminent peril

so that they can do their job.

[Ralph] And after

they used him up,

they kick him to the curb,

and send him to jail

for the rest of his life.

He done served a lot of time

for something that he wasn't.

Bottom line,

for something that he wasn't.

What happens if...

three, or four, or five,

ten years down the road,

Rick, you get out of prison?

What do you do, then?

Start my life over.

Try and start

from the beginning, you know?

I wanna go home,

be able to raise my kids,

have a family,

get a job somewhere,

and then lead a normal life.

[somber music]

[Kevin] Hello. I'm Kevin Dietz

with a breaking news story.

A decision is in

on the Richard Wershe

"White Boy Rick" case.

The parole board has voted,

and they have voted

to parole Richard Wershe.

He will be freed

of his life sentence in prison

-in the state of Michigan.

-[clapping]

Oh, my God!

-[clapping]

-[chuckles]

- Is that it?

[Darlene] He did it.

[Wershe]

The administrative assistant

came and called me in the office

and-

-he basically told me, "Listen,

it's over."

"You're done. Michigan paroled

you."

And what did you do?

[Wershe]

I cried man.

I cried.

[dramatic music]

[splatters]