WEBVTT - Aftermath 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.960 Richard Wheeler, who we believe was the mastermind of the 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.600 robbery at Chicken Man's House, seemed to have gotten away 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.680 with the perfect heist, but then body started showing up 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:16.320 dead from Atlanta to New York, Houston. Hammonds was busted 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.840 on another charge, and fast Eddie Parker was nowhere to 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.360 be found, and who had all of the stolen cash 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.560 and jewelry? Had fast Eddie Parker connected with Wheeler and 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.320 split the rest of the take. One thing was certain 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:37.320 Frank Moten and the Council of Twelve would ultimately retaliate, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:43.000 and about the boy's gonna kill him. I'm here, And 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.879 then they always did good. They were investigating, they were 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.120 watching him. You know, my dad was being investigating because 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:55.280 who's hot on the radar there? I don't app I 0:00:55.320 --> 0:01:01.120 went to people, Now bring me the head of the man. 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:04.800 My dad said, no, I can't do it. I can't 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.679 do it. My dad didn't want to be involved in 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:12.920 the Pomasie size from my Heart and Radio and Doghouse Pictures. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:22.280 This is fight Night. I'm Jeff Keaton. In the late 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.720 sixties and early seventies, there was a huge influx of 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.520 cocaine and heroin into black communities across the country. Drug 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.319 dealers had plenty of product and money in their possession. 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.200 This would have been a great opportunity for hustlers who 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.280 were stick up guys to rob them. One of those 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:44.679 stick up hustlers was Richard Wheeler. They called him Cadillac 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.320 Ritchie for his car of choice. We spoke with a 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.520 former girlfriend who wanted to remain anonymous and not be recorded. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.920 After this story, you might understand why we'll call her 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.120 Easy Trigger. For the case of the story. Easy described 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.600 Wheeler as wildly handsome and that he moved with the 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.920 fluidity of a dancer. She said they met in the 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.040 mid sixties while he was in the Air Force stationed 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.000 in the Pacific Northwest. Wheeler and his friends would take 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.639 their weekend furloughs in Vancouver, Canada, where they met Easy Trigger. 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.120 They reconnected in Harlem a few years later, when Wheeler 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.680 was moving up the gangster ladder. He was into everything 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.640 from the numbers racket to drugs, but his crime of 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.880 choice was armed robbery. He was known simply as the 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.919 stick up man. He liked to hire Vietnam vets as 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.960 his gunners and bodyguards. He frequented high end clubs like 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.359 the Village Vanguard where John Coltrane used to play, as 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.680 well as the Plaza nine, which was in the Plaza Hotel. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.360 Some of his early stick up jobs involved using a 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.520 young woman like Easy Trigger, posing as a prostitute so 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.240 they could gain access to the drug dealer's crib. When 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.480 the dealer would answer the door, Richard would rush in 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.040 the door with a pistol and robbed the place. Some 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.960 of the earlier jobs brought in about thirty thousand in cash, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.280 but after they would split the take, and with the 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.919 way they would blow through the money, they would need 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:24.000 another job within a week or so. Cadillac Ritchie advanced 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.320 into larger crews and ran hold ups with this top enforcer, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.919 fast Eddie Parker. Fast Eddie was a killer and kidnapper. 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.920 As we said an episode seven, we think fast Eddie 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:37.960 was the muscle at the front door of the robbery, 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.640 holding the three fifty seven with a silencer, and we 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.520 imagine he was in charge during the heist. Frank Morten 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.840 said there was nothing Robin Hoodie about these cats. They 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.160 were rough, they took care of people who gave them trouble, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:58.560 and there was quite a long list. Easy told me 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:00.440 about one of the bigger hold up that he and 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.840 his crew staged. They rented a house on Long Island 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.480 and spread the word about a big gambling party. They 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.240 picked up hustlers in New York with cabs and limousines 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:15.320 and dropped them off at the party house miles away. Unsuspecting, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.160 these hustlers walked into a hold up. It took under 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:23.560 an hour to collect all the jewelry and cash Wheeler, Parker, 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:27.280 and the crew drove away. The hustlers were left stranded 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:33.880 because no one knew the address. A summer robbery up 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.200 and they prospected. Easy said he would just laugh and 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.719 laugh whenever he was counting all the money and jewelry 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.839 they stole. When Easy asked if he was scared that 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:49.320 they would retaliate, Richard would just scoff and say, what 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:55.080 are they gonna do. Richard Wheeler arrived in Atlanta for 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.600 the Aliquary fight with Fireball on the same day as 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.599 Frank Molten. In one interview, chicken Man says that he 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.360 was surprised to see that Richard had one of those 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.680 fancy invitations to the party at his house. My instructions 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.719 from from the people who did or used the house, 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.280 not for me, not to jail nobody that I did 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:20.680 invite nobody. Chicken Man was picking up Frank Molten from 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.839 the airport and as a favor, gave Fireball and Richard 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.000 a ride to the Biltmore Hotel along the way. According 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.760 to chicken Man, they stopped at the Varsity for some 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.880 hot dogs. While they were there, Richard noted that the 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.480 Varsity would be an easy target for a robbery. So 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.960 when we get to the advisor, du boy was with 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:46.039 five balls and man helm place to rob seems like 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.320 he had that in his blood in saying this about 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.080 their hometown, Richard piste off chicken Man and Frank Molten. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.640 They must have said something to Richard about it. Chicken 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.480 Man reported that Richard flew back to New York City 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:05.359 the day of the fight the fellow that the dimitte 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:10.200 the apple with Fiba. He came to the house one time, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.080 he came in, and then the fight he left, and 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.279 he went back to New York and told the people 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.039 even that I know that me and him and had 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:26.919 some words. Richard Wheeler was still unknown to Frank Molten 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.080 and the Council of Twelve. We tried to piece together 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.120 what happened to him. The night of the robbery. We 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.039 know he was with his girlfriend, Jackie, who we spoke 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.640 about an episode six. She said, after they watched the 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.640 closed circuit showing of the Ali Quarry fight at Madison 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.200 Square Garden, they went to a fancy party at the 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:53.600 Americana Hotel near Times Square in New York City. Jackie 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.560 remembered plain closed cops and Feds attending the party because 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.520 they got a tip that several mob members be there. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.200 One of the Feds came up with a flash camera 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.800 trying to get a picture of everyone, and she remembered 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.320 Wheeler ducking down to tie his shoes right before the 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.720 flash went off. Jackie always wondered what the police thought 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.600 when they developed those photos, and it was just her 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:23.760 big smiling face in the picture. One night, a few 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.720 weeks after the heist, she heard his booming laugh in 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.680 the bedroom. She went to check it out and saw 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.320 a newspaper article about the hold up. Lying on his bed, 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.800 he kept laughing louder and louder, and Wheeler implied what 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.320 he had done. Jackie said it made him laugh the 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.840 loudest when he imagined everybody lying down there on the 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:53.680 basement floor. A few months after the robbery, Chicken Man 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.680 had cleared his name with Frank Moten and other high 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.600 level gangsters, but the heat from the press the police 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.280 did not go away. As a hustler, being in the 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.800 spotlight is just not good for business, and unfortunately he 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:14.080 paid a price for even hosting the party. Here's Gordon 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:22.760 Williams Jr. Talking about the consequences of that event. After 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.800 the fight, after he got cleared, after he convince everybody 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.000 it wasn't him, he went back to his business and 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.000 went back to the business of selling a cocaine and stuff. Well, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.520 they were investigating, they were watching him. You know, my 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:35.520 dad was being investigated because he was hot on the 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.560 radar them. And this is Chicken Man talking about his 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:43.079 experience at the beginning of nineteen one. So it's the 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.800 months aldo by the January came up. That robbery took 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.560 a toll because I was bussed for cocaine. But the 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.400 funny thing how that happened. I had had a date 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.800 with a girl and I had went in a hotel 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.199 puoting the dust. But of uh, I kept a little 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.959 I said all that with whisky stuff to the hotel room. 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.200 But I got a little what they called a half 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:15.600 of a smoke marijuana and left it in the hotel 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.120 room in the astray some kind of way. I came 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.240 down read the room about ten o'clock in the morning. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.559 I'm going to play god. So I go out in 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.120 my car park under the character right from the house 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.880 of the End where is our head told him about 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.880 the State troop pull in. And when the State two 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.160 put in, he was putting me get that cook in 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.440 that car. He whooped her out. So he come out. 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.680 Now this time I do have my congestion from drugs. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.840 But I took and throw it out the window, and 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.640 they were trying to pull him over, and he took 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.600 the cocaine hole keyload to the cocaine and open it 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.360 and start throwing it and just started trying to empty 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.120 it out the window. The cocaine flew back into the 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.720 window on the back seat of the car. So after 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.920 my dad emptied out the hokey load out, he pulled 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.080 over and he asked me, what what's the problem, afsir, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:12.960 And they said, well, you know, we need to step 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:14.920 out of the car. He said, for what, I haven't 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.240 done anything, And they talked to look at your back 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.600 seat and the back seat was covered with white powder. 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.160 So the police and the record garden shot. I thought 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.040 somebody's cocaine at the wood to look like a five 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.800 smoke or something. So that was that hard for the 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.720 dB I to believe because they thought I had I 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.600 was doing that kind of business. Newspaper came out and 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.040 they spoke about the cocaine, but the thought about the 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:44.880 driving cocaine they associated the bust, the publicity and all 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.800 this they associated with the driving. Several law enforcement agencies 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.920 had been keeping a close tab on chicken Man and 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.920 trying to catch him doing any illegal activities. When they 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.520 finally busted him, it didn't take long for the gavel 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:05.760 of justice to come down hard I can call it jayware. 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.560 I was about three weeks I'll try and went to Deen. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.120 I mean that's that fair, Okay. They wouldn't give me 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.400 a pier bar. Chicken Man was sentenced to seven years 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.880 in the state penitentiary. He served most of that time 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.439 at Stone Mountain Correctional Institute just east of downtown Atlanta. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.400 Here's Gordon Williams Jr. Talking about how tough the confinement 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.480 was for his father and my mom. We're going to 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.760 visit almost every weekend because he's crying for some attention. 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.120 He don't like being incarcerated because my dad is so 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:40.760 used to go on a time, so he didn't like 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.360 the idea of being incarcerated the way he was. When 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.800 he was sentenced, Chicken Man had large red o C 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:52.240 letters on his prison uniform. They stood for organized crime. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.800 This confounded him because he never put himself in that 0:11:55.920 --> 0:12:00.600 category of criminals. Chicken Man always thought of himself as 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:06.920 a hustler. After a few months, he received a surprise visitor, J. D. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:11.840 Hudson's partner in the robbery investigation, Detective Joe Amos. I 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.680 am was coming to back and uh, he as, yeah, 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.800 I agree. There were three of them. That's listen, man, 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.840 I don't want to talk to the police period. Okay. 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:22.800 Then they told him say, oh, did you hear about 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.760 the boys getting killed in Brooklyn? As I was board, 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.200 so they showed me to cliply that happened, but they 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:31.320 showed it to me so as I always had than 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.480 the one to pull the trigger. But since I'm here 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.160 and then Dad, they already did good in all the 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.800 Nie crack. But I spy to suppose I had no 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.920 lot about I didn't talk to him about none of that. 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.400 But after they told me about the boys, I got killed, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:59.280 I said bood. Richard Wheeler was one of the empty 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.880 seats at the night, along with Barbara Smith, who never 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.840 got to leave the house. Frank Moten reported at George 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.200 Plimpton that Richard made himself a little too visible at 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.040 a few clubs in New York City that night, even 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.920 attending that closed circuit screening at Madison Square Garden. For Frank, 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:23.000 this gave him reason to suspect Richard's involvement in the robbery. Furthermore, 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.880 as Plimpton relates in the story, the Black Mafia had 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.000 figured out who was the mastermind and put a hit 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.880 on Richard Wheeler and fast Eddie Parker. That hit fell 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.280 apart when the guy they hired to carry it out 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.720 was killed in a shootout with police in New York City. 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:47.040 The Black Mafia then approached fast Eddie Parker to carry 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:51.240 out the hit on his boss, Richard Wheeler. At the time, 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:56.320 Richard was living with his girlfriend Jackie. Here's how Jackie 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:01.480 tells it to George Plimpton. Fast Eddie and another guy 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.760 showed up at Richard's house to help him with an 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.640 errand one morning they all got into a car driven 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:12.080 by Richards chauffeur, a guy named Stephen. She thinks fast 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.240 Eddie Parker sat behind Richard and shot him in the 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.720 head as soon as the car started down the road, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.960 and that his accomplice shot Stephen in the head as well. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.480 Dead Stephan plowed the car into a storefront just down 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.480 the street from Richard's house. Fast Eddie Parker and his 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.480 accomplice jumped into a car they had parked around the corner, 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.080 the very same one that Richard had given fast Eddie 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:44.160 a week before. In early two police arrested fast Eddie 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.000 Parker and charged him with the whole string of crimes 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.480 from Georgia to New York. Jackie and Frank Moten reported 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:52.920 that he had several hand grenades in his black bag 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.600 at the time of his arrest. Early on during his 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.840 prison term, chicken Man was able to leave the prison 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:05.520 for work. Details sentencing and prison guidelines obviously hadn't yet 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.800 been pressured by the law and order swing that happened 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:13.320 through the Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Clinton years. Here's chicken 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:16.040 Man and j D in two thousand and three talking 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.840 about seeing each other on a public golf course at 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.680 Atlanta's Piedmont Park while Chicken Man was still serving time. 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:28.560 We almost played together one day, almost one and I 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.360 was at that playing garden and you were in prison. 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.880 He was on the prison farm because that that chipping 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.120 golf balls around and we stopped and talked. He was 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:44.360 saving his prison time on the golf course, shipping and pladant. 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.720 See me this prison dad, Yeah, that's some kind of 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:56.400 story the world, Ways of the world. Billy McKinney was 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.600 elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives in nineteen 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.040 seven four. He was one of the first black police 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:07.440 officers in Atlanta in the late nineteen forties, along with J. D. Hudson. 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.160 Like j D, he knew Chicken Man from the streets. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.880 He was always a law and order guy, a firebrand 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.680 public speaker. One day he saw Chicken Man driving a 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.000 truck around Stone Mountain, Georgia, and he called the prison 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:27.440 to get Chicken Man back inside the walls. Billy McKinney 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:31.720 saw my dad driving and called in and told him 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.760 that I just saw Chicken Man driving a truck in 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.320 Stone Mountain. He tried to get my dad to ship 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.360 to another prison way down south, because he don't think 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.720 that my dad should be out driving. He should be 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.720 doing some hard time. They changed my dad's job detail 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:47.720 so then let him drive out in They took the 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:49.640 privilege away from him, and then he locked him down, 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:51.720 and I think he started working in the kitchen or 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.440 something like that. That's where he met Doug Pierce and 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.360 they became good friends in prison and out. Even in prison, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.040 Chicken Man still had to support his family. So while 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.000 he was in prison, my dad still wanted to make money. 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:07.600 He's still I still gotta make me some money. Always 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.840 a hustler, Chicken Man arranges for someone to bring him 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:15.080 a pound of marijuana week to prison. The guy dropped 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.280 it off in a trash can near the prison gates. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.639 His new jail house friend, Doug Pierce, picked it up 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.400 while on garbage duty, and the two of them would 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.720 break it up, roll it into joints, and sell to 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:32.760 other prisoners for a dollar a joint inside prison. Just 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.200 as out, Chicken Man was always able to make it 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:45.520 as a hustler. In February nineteen seventy five, Frank Molten, 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.280 known as the Black Godfather, was arrested in New York 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.840 and charged with running a two million dollar gambling operation 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.880 in Atlanta. Such was the reach of the Black mafia. 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:02.639 In November ninety he was also convicted of conspiracy for 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.119 importing and selling a hundred and fifty pounds of cocaine 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.239 and twenty six pounds of heroin from nineteen sixty eight 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:15.440 to nineteen seventy five. In January nineteen seventy seven, Frank 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:20.080 Moten was sentenced to twenty five years in prison. At 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.119 the sentencing, according to The New York Times, judge Richard 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.560 Owen said Frank Moten had been and I quote the 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.720 leader of the Council of twelve and responsible for decision 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.119 making at the highest level for black organized crime end quote. 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.840 Frank Morten gave his interview to George Plimpton while in prison. 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.639 One of the last things they talked about was the 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:49.199 aftermath of the million dollar heist. Moten said people were 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.840 very upset, their egos were involved. They had been pushed around. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.679 The guy had even tumbled down the stairs when they 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:02.560 got together. It wasn't surprising, it turned out. Then Plimpton 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.840 asked him, do you suppose there were meetings to decide 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.840 what was going to happen? And how to coordinate things. 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.680 I don't know, Frank said, didn't mean much to me. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:22.560 I just lost some credit cards. I'm just a Coco distributor. Ultimately, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.960 the Fight Night Team concludes that Frank Molten and his 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.240 higher ups had called a guy named Fireball to plan 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.160 a party to celebrate Tobe's birthday after the Muhammad Ali 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:39.679 Jerry Corey fight on October nine, seventy in Atlanta. They 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.439 wanted a Vegas style gambling party. Fireball got Chicken Man 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.360 to host it since he had all these properties all 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.600 over town and they were all tight. They ran in 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.840 the same circles and even financed each other. There was 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.320 definitely hierarchy though, and Frank Moten was as high up 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.800 as you can go. Richard Wheeler, we believe, separately planned 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.400 to rob the party when he saw the invitations, having 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.080 pulled off similar robberies like this in New York. There's 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:14.560 a chance that Cadillac Ritchie connected with Emerson Dorsey to 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.560 recruit the local Atlanta area gangsters who pulled off the 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:24.840 robbery under fast Eddie Parker's guidance. Those people were McKinley, Rogers, 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:31.320 James Henry Hall, Houston Hammonds, Lillian Dabney, Baby, Ray Humphrey, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:36.320 and Charles Lee. Most of those folks were dead by 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:42.440 nineteen seventy two, except for Houston. Hammond's final retribution came 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.800 early in nineteen seventy two when Richard Wheeler was assassinated 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.159 by fast Eddie Parker, who was then in jail by 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.359 the end of the year. It's possible that Frank Molten 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.800 and the other members of the Council of Twelve called 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.240 in that hit. Remember this is how it all started 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.160 back in episode one. So when did the investigation end? 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:20.840 You want the truth? What about dead Dad? After the 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:25.800 robbery investigation concluded, j D returned to his duties as 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.240 lieutenant in the ap D. He worked his way up 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.240 the ladder and eventually became a captain. Then, in the 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.560 mid to late seventies, he was offered a new career path. 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.400 Here he is telling chicken Man about it. In two 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:43.160 thousand and three, I went from captain to the head 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.240 of Department of Corrections. I was a captain and I 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.000 was reluctant to take the job, Nichols. I wanted to 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.040 be assistant Chief of Definite Chiefs. You know, that was 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:54.080 what I wanted to be At that time, you know, 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:56.840 because hell, I didn't know what this job meant. The 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:58.440 tile of that job, I beli at that time, I 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.280 supered under the prison and uh when the mayor and 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:08.200 Madonnall and he be Weaves say hey man, you will 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:12.440 be the same two corressions. The chief of police is 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:18.600 two police as give me the job. So it was 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.520 I was appointed four years alter she was full year appointment. 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.040 He had more problems getting reappointed out of it because 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:29.639 I got reappointed with without a new problems. Ingrid Wells 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:31.840 was a cop in De capp County in Atlanta for 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:34.680 a number of years and then work for J. D. 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.240 Hudson for much of the time he was in corrections. 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.480 Here she is talking about j D and his relationships 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:46.480 with the inmates. One of the things that I admired 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.560 about him all throughout the time I knew him as 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:55.440 an employer was he would not let you hurt harm 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.080 one of those inmates. He'd tell you in a minute. 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:00.400 I've heard him tell so many people you are two 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:04.120 pages from being where he is, don't you ever say 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:09.440 anything over them? And so they all respected him. J. D. 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.119 Hudson remained the director of prisons in Atlanta for nineteen years, 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:17.160 and that's where he finished out his career. Chicken Man 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.840 made several deals while he was serving time, having someone 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:22.960 bring him in. Mayor wanted to the prison so he 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:25.920 could sell it. He saved up a nice little nest 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:29.399 egg before he was released. I guess by the time 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:31.200 he got out he had a buy six grand, so 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:32.880 he had him enough to get, you know, a start 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:35.320 and get on his feet. Chicken Man was sentenced to 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.680 seven years what Gordon Jr. Calls a five and two, 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:42.760 meaning a five year sentence for cocaine, concurrent with a 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.520 two year sentence for the half of the joint police 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:49.000 found in his hotel room. He ended up serving about 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.040 thirty six months as he was a model citizen in 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:56.320 prison with very little discipline. And what does a hustler 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.440 do when he gets out of prison. He goes back 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:04.719 to hustle. And when I got out, I was determined. 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:07.720 I don't know what I would do, but I started 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:10.320 back to us. I get out and I'll be the guy. 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:15.000 So he he beat the marijuana. You mean I started 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:17.800 working with the marijuana, and that mean the funk that 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:21.120 really liked me in mind, and I started getting trade 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:26.320 attle tough load five eight pound man one at the 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:29.520 same time. But he's real careful about what he does now, 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:32.200 so you know, like he never drives drugs, so he's 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:36.320 always employing somebody. And his big thing was, whenever you're 0:24:36.400 --> 0:24:39.040 driving my drugs and a lot of people don't know 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:41.879 they're driving drugs. You don't drink and you don't smoke. 0:24:42.119 --> 0:24:44.680 That's forbidden. You're gonna do the speed limit. He's paying 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:46.720 them good. I'm gonna give you five dollars to drive 0:24:46.920 --> 0:24:49.720 his car from Florida. You drive that speed limit. You 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:52.479 don't smoke, you don't drink, you ain't got no key 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:55.320 to the trunk. You get the car to Atlanta and 0:24:55.440 --> 0:24:58.920 you get your money. Chicken Man was right back into 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:01.080 hustling when he got out out and he used this 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:05.800 Miami connection as well. Doug Pierce, the guy met in prison, 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:09.120 had gotten out and apparently married a rich woman in Miami. 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:13.960 So Chicken Man kept that relationship going. And on one 0:25:14.000 --> 0:25:17.320 particular trip that he made to Miami, he took his son, 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:20.560 Gordon Jr. With him. They had a car loaded with 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:24.080 marijuana ready to come back to Atlanta. They stayed in 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:27.520 Miami one extra night, leaving the parked car at Doug 0:25:27.600 --> 0:25:32.359 Pierce's house. In the morning, Gordon Jr. Was ready to 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:35.560 get on the road because I was a driver. I said, Dad, 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:37.760 we're leaving. We went to doug house to pick to marijuana. 0:25:38.359 --> 0:25:42.480