Speaker 1: Richard Wheeler, who we believe was the mastermind of the
Speaker 1: robbery at Chicken Man's House, seemed to have gotten away
Speaker 1: with the perfect heist, but then body started showing up
Speaker 1: dead from Atlanta to New York, Houston. Hammonds was busted
Speaker 1: on another charge, and fast Eddie Parker was nowhere to
Speaker 1: be found, and who had all of the stolen cash
Speaker 1: and jewelry? Had fast Eddie Parker connected with Wheeler and
Speaker 1: split the rest of the take. One thing was certain
Speaker 1: Frank Moten and the Council of Twelve would ultimately retaliate,
Speaker 1: and about the boy's gonna kill him. I'm here, And
Speaker 1: then they always did good. They were investigating, they were
Speaker 1: watching him. You know, my dad was being investigating because
Speaker 1: who's hot on the radar there? I don't app I
Speaker 1: went to people, Now bring me the head of the man.
Speaker 1: My dad said, no, I can't do it. I can't
Speaker 1: do it. My dad didn't want to be involved in
Speaker 1: the Pomasie size from my Heart and Radio and Doghouse Pictures.
Speaker 1: This is fight Night. I'm Jeff Keaton. In the late
Speaker 1: sixties and early seventies, there was a huge influx of
Speaker 1: cocaine and heroin into black communities across the country. Drug
Speaker 1: dealers had plenty of product and money in their possession.
Speaker 1: This would have been a great opportunity for hustlers who
Speaker 1: were stick up guys to rob them. One of those
Speaker 1: stick up hustlers was Richard Wheeler. They called him Cadillac
Speaker 1: Ritchie for his car of choice. We spoke with a
Speaker 1: former girlfriend who wanted to remain anonymous and not be recorded.
Speaker 1: After this story, you might understand why we'll call her
Speaker 1: Easy Trigger. For the case of the story. Easy described
Speaker 1: Wheeler as wildly handsome and that he moved with the
Speaker 1: fluidity of a dancer. She said they met in the
Speaker 1: mid sixties while he was in the Air Force stationed
Speaker 1: in the Pacific Northwest. Wheeler and his friends would take
Speaker 1: their weekend furloughs in Vancouver, Canada, where they met Easy Trigger.
Speaker 1: They reconnected in Harlem a few years later, when Wheeler
Speaker 1: was moving up the gangster ladder. He was into everything
Speaker 1: from the numbers racket to drugs, but his crime of
Speaker 1: choice was armed robbery. He was known simply as the
Speaker 1: stick up man. He liked to hire Vietnam vets as
Speaker 1: his gunners and bodyguards. He frequented high end clubs like
Speaker 1: the Village Vanguard where John Coltrane used to play, as
Speaker 1: well as the Plaza nine, which was in the Plaza Hotel.
Speaker 1: Some of his early stick up jobs involved using a
Speaker 1: young woman like Easy Trigger, posing as a prostitute so
Speaker 1: they could gain access to the drug dealer's crib. When
Speaker 1: the dealer would answer the door, Richard would rush in
Speaker 1: the door with a pistol and robbed the place. Some
Speaker 1: of the earlier jobs brought in about thirty thousand in cash,
Speaker 1: but after they would split the take, and with the
Speaker 1: way they would blow through the money, they would need
Speaker 1: another job within a week or so. Cadillac Ritchie advanced
Speaker 1: into larger crews and ran hold ups with this top enforcer,
Speaker 1: fast Eddie Parker. Fast Eddie was a killer and kidnapper.
Speaker 1: As we said an episode seven, we think fast Eddie
Speaker 1: was the muscle at the front door of the robbery,
Speaker 1: holding the three fifty seven with a silencer, and we
Speaker 1: imagine he was in charge during the heist. Frank Morten
Speaker 1: said there was nothing Robin Hoodie about these cats. They
Speaker 1: were rough, they took care of people who gave them trouble,
Speaker 1: and there was quite a long list. Easy told me
Speaker 1: about one of the bigger hold up that he and
Speaker 1: his crew staged. They rented a house on Long Island
Speaker 1: and spread the word about a big gambling party. They
Speaker 1: picked up hustlers in New York with cabs and limousines
Speaker 1: and dropped them off at the party house miles away. Unsuspecting,
Speaker 1: these hustlers walked into a hold up. It took under
Speaker 1: an hour to collect all the jewelry and cash Wheeler, Parker,
Speaker 1: and the crew drove away. The hustlers were left stranded
Speaker 1: because no one knew the address. A summer robbery up
Speaker 1: and they prospected. Easy said he would just laugh and
Speaker 1: laugh whenever he was counting all the money and jewelry
Speaker 1: they stole. When Easy asked if he was scared that
Speaker 1: they would retaliate, Richard would just scoff and say, what
Speaker 1: are they gonna do. Richard Wheeler arrived in Atlanta for
Speaker 1: the Aliquary fight with Fireball on the same day as
Speaker 1: Frank Molten. In one interview, chicken Man says that he
Speaker 1: was surprised to see that Richard had one of those
Speaker 1: fancy invitations to the party at his house. My instructions
Speaker 1: from from the people who did or used the house,
Speaker 1: not for me, not to jail nobody that I did
Speaker 1: invite nobody. Chicken Man was picking up Frank Molten from
Speaker 1: the airport and as a favor, gave Fireball and Richard
Speaker 1: a ride to the Biltmore Hotel along the way. According
Speaker 1: to chicken Man, they stopped at the Varsity for some
Speaker 1: hot dogs. While they were there, Richard noted that the
Speaker 1: Varsity would be an easy target for a robbery. So
Speaker 1: when we get to the advisor, du boy was with
Speaker 1: five balls and man helm place to rob seems like
Speaker 1: he had that in his blood in saying this about
Speaker 1: their hometown, Richard piste off chicken Man and Frank Molten.
Speaker 1: They must have said something to Richard about it. Chicken
Speaker 1: Man reported that Richard flew back to New York City
Speaker 1: the day of the fight the fellow that the dimitte
Speaker 1: the apple with Fiba. He came to the house one time,
Speaker 1: he came in, and then the fight he left, and
Speaker 1: he went back to New York and told the people
Speaker 1: even that I know that me and him and had
Speaker 1: some words. Richard Wheeler was still unknown to Frank Molten
Speaker 1: and the Council of Twelve. We tried to piece together
Speaker 1: what happened to him. The night of the robbery. We
Speaker 1: know he was with his girlfriend, Jackie, who we spoke
Speaker 1: about an episode six. She said, after they watched the
Speaker 1: closed circuit showing of the Ali Quarry fight at Madison
Speaker 1: Square Garden, they went to a fancy party at the
Speaker 1: Americana Hotel near Times Square in New York City. Jackie
Speaker 1: remembered plain closed cops and Feds attending the party because
Speaker 1: they got a tip that several mob members be there.
Speaker 1: One of the Feds came up with a flash camera
Speaker 1: trying to get a picture of everyone, and she remembered
Speaker 1: Wheeler ducking down to tie his shoes right before the
Speaker 1: flash went off. Jackie always wondered what the police thought
Speaker 1: when they developed those photos, and it was just her
Speaker 1: big smiling face in the picture. One night, a few
Speaker 1: weeks after the heist, she heard his booming laugh in
Speaker 1: the bedroom. She went to check it out and saw
Speaker 1: a newspaper article about the hold up. Lying on his bed,
Speaker 1: he kept laughing louder and louder, and Wheeler implied what
Speaker 1: he had done. Jackie said it made him laugh the
Speaker 1: loudest when he imagined everybody lying down there on the
Speaker 1: basement floor. A few months after the robbery, Chicken Man
Speaker 1: had cleared his name with Frank Moten and other high
Speaker 1: level gangsters, but the heat from the press the police
Speaker 1: did not go away. As a hustler, being in the
Speaker 1: spotlight is just not good for business, and unfortunately he
Speaker 1: paid a price for even hosting the party. Here's Gordon
Speaker 1: Williams Jr. Talking about the consequences of that event. After
Speaker 1: the fight, after he got cleared, after he convince everybody
Speaker 1: it wasn't him, he went back to his business and
Speaker 1: went back to the business of selling a cocaine and stuff. Well,
Speaker 1: they were investigating, they were watching him. You know, my
Speaker 1: dad was being investigated because he was hot on the
Speaker 1: radar them. And this is Chicken Man talking about his
Speaker 1: experience at the beginning of nineteen one. So it's the
Speaker 1: months aldo by the January came up. That robbery took
Speaker 1: a toll because I was bussed for cocaine. But the
Speaker 1: funny thing how that happened. I had had a date
Speaker 1: with a girl and I had went in a hotel
Speaker 1: puoting the dust. But of uh, I kept a little
Speaker 1: I said all that with whisky stuff to the hotel room.
Speaker 1: But I got a little what they called a half
Speaker 1: of a smoke marijuana and left it in the hotel
Speaker 1: room in the astray some kind of way. I came
Speaker 1: down read the room about ten o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'm going to play god. So I go out in
Speaker 1: my car park under the character right from the house
Speaker 1: of the End where is our head told him about
Speaker 1: the State troop pull in. And when the State two
Speaker 1: put in, he was putting me get that cook in
Speaker 1: that car. He whooped her out. So he come out.
Speaker 1: Now this time I do have my congestion from drugs.
Speaker 1: But I took and throw it out the window, and
Speaker 1: they were trying to pull him over, and he took
Speaker 1: the cocaine hole keyload to the cocaine and open it
Speaker 1: and start throwing it and just started trying to empty
Speaker 1: it out the window. The cocaine flew back into the
Speaker 1: window on the back seat of the car. So after
Speaker 1: my dad emptied out the hokey load out, he pulled
Speaker 1: over and he asked me, what what's the problem, afsir,
Speaker 1: And they said, well, you know, we need to step
Speaker 1: out of the car. He said, for what, I haven't
Speaker 1: done anything, And they talked to look at your back
Speaker 1: seat and the back seat was covered with white powder.
Speaker 1: So the police and the record garden shot. I thought
Speaker 1: somebody's cocaine at the wood to look like a five
Speaker 1: smoke or something. So that was that hard for the
Speaker 1: dB I to believe because they thought I had I
Speaker 1: was doing that kind of business. Newspaper came out and
Speaker 1: they spoke about the cocaine, but the thought about the
Speaker 1: driving cocaine they associated the bust, the publicity and all
Speaker 1: this they associated with the driving. Several law enforcement agencies
Speaker 1: had been keeping a close tab on chicken Man and
Speaker 1: trying to catch him doing any illegal activities. When they
Speaker 1: finally busted him, it didn't take long for the gavel
Speaker 1: of justice to come down hard I can call it jayware.
Speaker 1: I was about three weeks I'll try and went to Deen.
Speaker 1: I mean that's that fair, Okay. They wouldn't give me
Speaker 1: a pier bar. Chicken Man was sentenced to seven years
Speaker 1: in the state penitentiary. He served most of that time
Speaker 1: at Stone Mountain Correctional Institute just east of downtown Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Here's Gordon Williams Jr. Talking about how tough the confinement
Speaker 1: was for his father and my mom. We're going to
Speaker 1: visit almost every weekend because he's crying for some attention.
Speaker 1: He don't like being incarcerated because my dad is so
Speaker 1: used to go on a time, so he didn't like
Speaker 1: the idea of being incarcerated the way he was. When
Speaker 1: he was sentenced, Chicken Man had large red o C
Speaker 1: letters on his prison uniform. They stood for organized crime.
Speaker 1: This confounded him because he never put himself in that
Speaker 1: category of criminals. Chicken Man always thought of himself as
Speaker 1: a hustler. After a few months, he received a surprise visitor, J. D.
Speaker 1: Hudson's partner in the robbery investigation, Detective Joe Amos. I
Speaker 1: am was coming to back and uh, he as, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. There were three of them. That's listen, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk to the police period. Okay.
Speaker 1: Then they told him say, oh, did you hear about
Speaker 1: the boys getting killed in Brooklyn? As I was board,
Speaker 1: so they showed me to cliply that happened, but they
Speaker 1: showed it to me so as I always had than
Speaker 1: the one to pull the trigger. But since I'm here
Speaker 1: and then Dad, they already did good in all the
Speaker 1: Nie crack. But I spy to suppose I had no
Speaker 1: lot about I didn't talk to him about none of that.
Speaker 1: But after they told me about the boys, I got killed,
Speaker 1: I said bood. Richard Wheeler was one of the empty
Speaker 1: seats at the night, along with Barbara Smith, who never
Speaker 1: got to leave the house. Frank Moten reported at George
Speaker 1: Plimpton that Richard made himself a little too visible at
Speaker 1: a few clubs in New York City that night, even
Speaker 1: attending that closed circuit screening at Madison Square Garden. For Frank,
Speaker 1: this gave him reason to suspect Richard's involvement in the robbery. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: as Plimpton relates in the story, the Black Mafia had
Speaker 1: figured out who was the mastermind and put a hit
Speaker 1: on Richard Wheeler and fast Eddie Parker. That hit fell
Speaker 1: apart when the guy they hired to carry it out
Speaker 1: was killed in a shootout with police in New York City.
Speaker 1: The Black Mafia then approached fast Eddie Parker to carry
Speaker 1: out the hit on his boss, Richard Wheeler. At the time,
Speaker 1: Richard was living with his girlfriend Jackie. Here's how Jackie
Speaker 1: tells it to George Plimpton. Fast Eddie and another guy
Speaker 1: showed up at Richard's house to help him with an
Speaker 1: errand one morning they all got into a car driven
Speaker 1: by Richards chauffeur, a guy named Stephen. She thinks fast
Speaker 1: Eddie Parker sat behind Richard and shot him in the
Speaker 1: head as soon as the car started down the road,
Speaker 1: and that his accomplice shot Stephen in the head as well.
Speaker 1: Dead Stephan plowed the car into a storefront just down
Speaker 1: the street from Richard's house. Fast Eddie Parker and his
Speaker 1: accomplice jumped into a car they had parked around the corner,
Speaker 1: the very same one that Richard had given fast Eddie
Speaker 1: a week before. In early two police arrested fast Eddie
Speaker 1: Parker and charged him with the whole string of crimes
Speaker 1: from Georgia to New York. Jackie and Frank Moten reported
Speaker 1: that he had several hand grenades in his black bag
Speaker 1: at the time of his arrest. Early on during his
Speaker 1: prison term, chicken Man was able to leave the prison
Speaker 1: for work. Details sentencing and prison guidelines obviously hadn't yet
Speaker 1: been pressured by the law and order swing that happened
Speaker 1: through the Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Clinton years. Here's chicken
Speaker 1: Man and j D in two thousand and three talking
Speaker 1: about seeing each other on a public golf course at
Speaker 1: Atlanta's Piedmont Park while Chicken Man was still serving time.
Speaker 1: We almost played together one day, almost one and I
Speaker 1: was at that playing garden and you were in prison.
Speaker 1: He was on the prison farm because that that chipping
Speaker 1: golf balls around and we stopped and talked. He was
Speaker 1: saving his prison time on the golf course, shipping and pladant.
Speaker 1: See me this prison dad, Yeah, that's some kind of
Speaker 1: story the world, Ways of the world. Billy McKinney was
Speaker 1: elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives in nineteen
Speaker 1: seven four. He was one of the first black police
Speaker 1: officers in Atlanta in the late nineteen forties, along with J. D. Hudson.
Speaker 1: Like j D, he knew Chicken Man from the streets.
Speaker 1: He was always a law and order guy, a firebrand
Speaker 1: public speaker. One day he saw Chicken Man driving a
Speaker 1: truck around Stone Mountain, Georgia, and he called the prison
Speaker 1: to get Chicken Man back inside the walls. Billy McKinney
Speaker 1: saw my dad driving and called in and told him
Speaker 1: that I just saw Chicken Man driving a truck in
Speaker 1: Stone Mountain. He tried to get my dad to ship
Speaker 1: to another prison way down south, because he don't think
Speaker 1: that my dad should be out driving. He should be
Speaker 1: doing some hard time. They changed my dad's job detail
Speaker 1: so then let him drive out in They took the
Speaker 1: privilege away from him, and then he locked him down,
Speaker 1: and I think he started working in the kitchen or
Speaker 1: something like that. That's where he met Doug Pierce and
Speaker 1: they became good friends in prison and out. Even in prison,
Speaker 1: Chicken Man still had to support his family. So while
Speaker 1: he was in prison, my dad still wanted to make money.
Speaker 1: He's still I still gotta make me some money. Always
Speaker 1: a hustler, Chicken Man arranges for someone to bring him
Speaker 1: a pound of marijuana week to prison. The guy dropped
Speaker 1: it off in a trash can near the prison gates.
Speaker 1: His new jail house friend, Doug Pierce, picked it up
Speaker 1: while on garbage duty, and the two of them would
Speaker 1: break it up, roll it into joints, and sell to
Speaker 1: other prisoners for a dollar a joint inside prison. Just
Speaker 1: as out, Chicken Man was always able to make it
Speaker 1: as a hustler. In February nineteen seventy five, Frank Molten,
Speaker 1: known as the Black Godfather, was arrested in New York
Speaker 1: and charged with running a two million dollar gambling operation
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Such was the reach of the Black mafia.
Speaker 1: In November ninety he was also convicted of conspiracy for
Speaker 1: importing and selling a hundred and fifty pounds of cocaine
Speaker 1: and twenty six pounds of heroin from nineteen sixty eight
Speaker 1: to nineteen seventy five. In January nineteen seventy seven, Frank
Speaker 1: Moten was sentenced to twenty five years in prison. At
Speaker 1: the sentencing, according to The New York Times, judge Richard
Speaker 1: Owen said Frank Moten had been and I quote the
Speaker 1: leader of the Council of twelve and responsible for decision
Speaker 1: making at the highest level for black organized crime end quote.
Speaker 1: Frank Morten gave his interview to George Plimpton while in prison.
Speaker 1: One of the last things they talked about was the
Speaker 1: aftermath of the million dollar heist. Moten said people were
Speaker 1: very upset, their egos were involved. They had been pushed around.
Speaker 1: The guy had even tumbled down the stairs when they
Speaker 1: got together. It wasn't surprising, it turned out. Then Plimpton
Speaker 1: asked him, do you suppose there were meetings to decide
Speaker 1: what was going to happen? And how to coordinate things.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Frank said, didn't mean much to me.
Speaker 1: I just lost some credit cards. I'm just a Coco distributor. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: the Fight Night Team concludes that Frank Molten and his
Speaker 1: higher ups had called a guy named Fireball to plan
Speaker 1: a party to celebrate Tobe's birthday after the Muhammad Ali
Speaker 1: Jerry Corey fight on October nine, seventy in Atlanta. They
Speaker 1: wanted a Vegas style gambling party. Fireball got Chicken Man
Speaker 1: to host it since he had all these properties all
Speaker 1: over town and they were all tight. They ran in
Speaker 1: the same circles and even financed each other. There was
Speaker 1: definitely hierarchy though, and Frank Moten was as high up
Speaker 1: as you can go. Richard Wheeler, we believe, separately planned
Speaker 1: to rob the party when he saw the invitations, having
Speaker 1: pulled off similar robberies like this in New York. There's
Speaker 1: a chance that Cadillac Ritchie connected with Emerson Dorsey to
Speaker 1: recruit the local Atlanta area gangsters who pulled off the
Speaker 1: robbery under fast Eddie Parker's guidance. Those people were McKinley, Rogers,
Speaker 1: James Henry Hall, Houston Hammonds, Lillian Dabney, Baby, Ray Humphrey,
Speaker 1: and Charles Lee. Most of those folks were dead by
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, except for Houston. Hammond's final retribution came
Speaker 1: early in nineteen seventy two when Richard Wheeler was assassinated
Speaker 1: by fast Eddie Parker, who was then in jail by
Speaker 1: the end of the year. It's possible that Frank Molten
Speaker 1: and the other members of the Council of Twelve called
Speaker 1: in that hit. Remember this is how it all started
Speaker 1: back in episode one. So when did the investigation end?
Speaker 1: You want the truth? What about dead Dad? After the
Speaker 1: robbery investigation concluded, j D returned to his duties as
Speaker 1: lieutenant in the ap D. He worked his way up
Speaker 1: the ladder and eventually became a captain. Then, in the
Speaker 1: mid to late seventies, he was offered a new career path.
Speaker 1: Here he is telling chicken Man about it. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, I went from captain to the head
Speaker 1: of Department of Corrections. I was a captain and I
Speaker 1: was reluctant to take the job, Nichols. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be assistant Chief of Definite Chiefs. You know, that was
Speaker 1: what I wanted to be At that time, you know,
Speaker 1: because hell, I didn't know what this job meant. The
Speaker 1: tile of that job, I beli at that time, I
Speaker 1: supered under the prison and uh when the mayor and
Speaker 1: Madonnall and he be Weaves say hey man, you will
Speaker 1: be the same two corressions. The chief of police is
Speaker 1: two police as give me the job. So it was
Speaker 1: I was appointed four years alter she was full year appointment.
Speaker 1: He had more problems getting reappointed out of it because
Speaker 1: I got reappointed with without a new problems. Ingrid Wells
Speaker 1: was a cop in De capp County in Atlanta for
Speaker 1: a number of years and then work for J. D.
Speaker 1: Hudson for much of the time he was in corrections.
Speaker 1: Here she is talking about j D and his relationships
Speaker 1: with the inmates. One of the things that I admired
Speaker 1: about him all throughout the time I knew him as
Speaker 1: an employer was he would not let you hurt harm
Speaker 1: one of those inmates. He'd tell you in a minute.
Speaker 1: I've heard him tell so many people you are two
Speaker 1: pages from being where he is, don't you ever say
Speaker 1: anything over them? And so they all respected him. J. D.
Speaker 1: Hudson remained the director of prisons in Atlanta for nineteen years,
Speaker 1: and that's where he finished out his career. Chicken Man
Speaker 1: made several deals while he was serving time, having someone
Speaker 1: bring him in. Mayor wanted to the prison so he
Speaker 1: could sell it. He saved up a nice little nest
Speaker 1: egg before he was released. I guess by the time
Speaker 1: he got out he had a buy six grand, so
Speaker 1: he had him enough to get, you know, a start
Speaker 1: and get on his feet. Chicken Man was sentenced to
Speaker 1: seven years what Gordon Jr. Calls a five and two,
Speaker 1: meaning a five year sentence for cocaine, concurrent with a
Speaker 1: two year sentence for the half of the joint police
Speaker 1: found in his hotel room. He ended up serving about
Speaker 1: thirty six months as he was a model citizen in
Speaker 1: prison with very little discipline. And what does a hustler
Speaker 1: do when he gets out of prison. He goes back
Speaker 1: to hustle. And when I got out, I was determined.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I would do, but I started
Speaker 1: back to us. I get out and I'll be the guy.
Speaker 1: So he he beat the marijuana. You mean I started
Speaker 1: working with the marijuana, and that mean the funk that
Speaker 1: really liked me in mind, and I started getting trade
Speaker 1: attle tough load five eight pound man one at the
Speaker 1: same time. But he's real careful about what he does now,
Speaker 1: so you know, like he never drives drugs, so he's
Speaker 1: always employing somebody. And his big thing was, whenever you're
Speaker 1: driving my drugs and a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: they're driving drugs. You don't drink and you don't smoke.
Speaker 1: That's forbidden. You're gonna do the speed limit. He's paying
Speaker 1: them good. I'm gonna give you five dollars to drive
Speaker 1: his car from Florida. You drive that speed limit. You
Speaker 1: don't smoke, you don't drink, you ain't got no key
Speaker 1: to the trunk. You get the car to Atlanta and
Speaker 1: you get your money. Chicken Man was right back into
Speaker 1: hustling when he got out out and he used this
Speaker 1: Miami connection as well. Doug Pierce, the guy met in prison,
Speaker 1: had gotten out and apparently married a rich woman in Miami.
Speaker 1: So Chicken Man kept that relationship going. And on one
Speaker 1: particular trip that he made to Miami, he took his son,
Speaker 1: Gordon Jr. With him. They had a car loaded with
Speaker 1: marijuana ready to come back to Atlanta. They stayed in
Speaker 1: Miami one extra night, leaving the parked car at Doug
Speaker 1: Pierce's house. In the morning, Gordon Jr. Was ready to
Speaker 1: get on the road because I was a driver. I said, Dad,
Speaker 1: we're leaving. We went to doug house to pick to marijuana.
Speaker 1: It was gone. It was gone. A thousand pounds of
Speaker 1: marijuana was gone, vanished. So Doug said that somebody had
Speaker 1: broke in stolen marijuana. The wife boy framed hit moved
Speaker 1: for one place to another place to save keeper for
Speaker 1: some reason. But it had told me. Chicken Man takes
Speaker 1: a trip to Miami, as he's done a number of
Speaker 1: times and gotten thousands of pound fronted to him. He
Speaker 1: stored it overnight at Doug Pierce's house without telling Chicken Man.
Speaker 1: Doug moved it to another location, then the next day
Speaker 1: claimed it was stolen overnight. Now chicken men had to
Speaker 1: go to the suppliers and tell them what happened. I
Speaker 1: went to the people that one hand. Listen what I
Speaker 1: don't want to hear the story, get the money, and
Speaker 1: then tell me the story. I don't want you know
Speaker 1: fucking story, But nobody do you know? This is what?
Speaker 1: This is what the people we sold me to was.
Speaker 1: So now we're on the chance to find the people
Speaker 1: with there. My tail was five and thirty six thousand
Speaker 1: about now I got to start paying a bit right.
Speaker 1: I got a better two foot boat, sleep eight and
Speaker 1: everything in Florida. So the mass I don't want to
Speaker 1: hear the story. Then they give me the other lay
Speaker 1: bring me the head of the man who did it
Speaker 1: in the paper back and it did Claire. The people
Speaker 1: that my dad got the marri Wanta from. They said,
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay it back. Just give us
Speaker 1: Doug's name, give us his address, and we're settled just
Speaker 1: like that. And these people say all we need is
Speaker 1: his name, and well, you don't have to pay a penny.
Speaker 1: My dad said, no, I can't do it. I can't
Speaker 1: do it. My dad didn't want to be involved in
Speaker 1: no homicide. And the people want the money now. They
Speaker 1: want to give me that fifty kilos of cocaine and
Speaker 1: something to make the money prepare. But I was always
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be bothered for cam period. So
Speaker 1: but what I did. A man come to me, Uh,
Speaker 1: people got my son mar her daughter, which is cute girl.
Speaker 1: He come to me one day we can have He
Speaker 1: told me to go get a big truck on a
Speaker 1: big we now and a man comes to He gave
Speaker 1: me eight thousand lagership. So I had a bigger break
Speaker 1: of my life. As the audio was breaking up their
Speaker 1: chicken Man was telling the story about taking the marijuana
Speaker 1: he'd been given as a lifeline to pay the debt
Speaker 1: he owed the Colombians who gave him the marijuana that
Speaker 1: was stolen from or by Doug Pierce. Chicken Man sold
Speaker 1: the marijuana in Atlanta, got about four hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for it, and he had to give it all to
Speaker 1: the Colombians to pay back the debt, including his thirty
Speaker 1: eight foot boat. We got on a plane to Miami,
Speaker 1: me my dad, and he had in a briefcase in
Speaker 1: a briefcase almost five hundred thousand dollars. I gave a
Speaker 1: thing right, but anyway, I paid the debt. The man
Speaker 1: come along, gave me the eight thousands. Saved my life.
Speaker 1: Once Chicken Man paid off this final debt, he got
Speaker 1: out of the life for good. Over the years, Chicken
Speaker 1: Man would remind me that he never carried a gun
Speaker 1: because the last thing he wanted was to be involved
Speaker 1: in a murder. When Doug Pierce, who he thought was
Speaker 1: his friend, stole more than a half a million dollars
Speaker 1: worth of drugs. Chicken Man was forced to decide between
Speaker 1: his own life or the man who betrayed him. Through
Speaker 1: a stroke of good luck, Chicken Man was able to
Speaker 1: honor the code he lived by and somehow survive another
Speaker 1: close call. But this final deal forced him to make
Speaker 1: a decision that would transform him completely and in his mind,
Speaker 1: finally bury the legend of Chicken Man Forever. Fight Night
Speaker 1: is a joint production from I Heart Radio, Will Packer
Speaker 1: Media and Doghouse Pictures in association with Psychopia Pictures. Produced
Speaker 1: and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Will Packer,
Speaker 1: James Lopez, Kenny Burns, Dan Bush, Lars Jacobsen, and Noel Brown.
Speaker 1: Supervising producer is Taylor Hickoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown
Speaker 1: and Dan Bush. Written by Jeff Keating and Jim Roberts.
Speaker 1: Edited by Matt Owen. Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah
Speaker 1: Kolonnie Prescott. Music written and performed by the Diamond Street Players.
Speaker 1: Additional music by Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB
Speaker 1: News Film and Video Tape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University
Speaker 1: of Georgia, libraries. Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and
Speaker 1: David Davis. Fight Night is a production of I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, check out the
Speaker 1: i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.