Holiday Break: "The Grim Reaper" - Nate Boone Craft

Speaker 1 Hey everyone, it's Colin Browan here from the podcast Murder in America.

Speaker 1 If you don't know, Murder in America is a weekly show that takes a deep, dark look at some of the most disturbing murder cases that have ever rocked the country that we call home.

Speaker 1 Courtney, my wonderful wife, writes the show, we co-host the show together, and it's a passion project of ours that we're so lucky and fortunate has grown to be what it is today.

Speaker 1 In this episode that you're about to hear though, I actually sat down in Detroit, Michigan with a man who claims he's murdered over 30 people.

Speaker 1 The man's name is Nate Boonecraft, otherwise known as the Grim Reaper.

Speaker 1 Nate has gained the reputation throughout his life as Detroit's number one most notorious hitman, and his life story is heartbreaking, infuriating, disturbing, disgusting, and most of all, shocking.

Speaker 1 So after listening to this episode, if you want to hear the conclusion to Nate's story, which is a crazy episode, just check out our show, Murder in America.

Speaker 1 The episode has already been posted to our feed, and Courtney and I both do hope that you enjoy the show.

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Speaker 6 Warning.

Speaker 1 The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences.

Speaker 1 We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.

Speaker 7 Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

Speaker 1 This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.

Speaker 1 For today's episode, I had the opportunity to sit down and interview a hitman who worked for a Detroit gang known as the Best Friends, a gang infamous in Michigan that was responsible for dozens, if not hundreds, of murders.

Speaker 1 Nate Boone Kraft is one of the most infamous figures in Detroit gang history, as he's appeared on the History Channel, in documentaries, and has told his story many times across various forms of media.

Speaker 1 Boone himself claims that he has murdered almost 30 people in his life and claims that he can't even recall every single kill that he's carried out, and he has quite the life story.

Speaker 1 It was an intense experience setting up our equipment, inviting Boone over to our Airbnb in Detroit and preparing for the sit-down interview.

Speaker 1 I had never interviewed a murderer or even someone who had killed somebody before, and I couldn't believe that we were actually going through with this.

Speaker 1 But it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit down with a hitman, to hear his story, and to try and figure out when and where the darkness began.

Speaker 1 This is going to be an intense, disturbing, and graphic episode, so listener discretion is heavily advised. I'm Colin Browan.

Speaker 7 I'm Courtney Browan.

Speaker 1 And you're listening to Murder in America.

Speaker 7 Detroit is a city in northern Michigan, and it's known as the motor city due to its role in the production of the American automobile industry.

Speaker 7 In the early 20th century, Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. And in 1913, Ford introduced the moving assembly line at their Highland Park assembly plant in the city.

Speaker 7 This new production process allowed the company to produce vehicles in a new way that was cheaper and faster. And it cut the amount of time and money originally spent on producing a single car.

Speaker 7 Not only were cars made affordable for the average American through this new process, but it also boosted Detroit's economy and earned the city a reputation as the heart of the automobile industry.

Speaker 7 By 1950, the population of Detroit had grown to 1.8 million as people arrived in droves to work at one of the three big automobile companies, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.

Speaker 7 You see, in the mid-1940s, African Americans in the South wanted to escape the harsh realities they faced during the Jim Crow era, a law that prevented them from voting and pushed them into working low-paying labor jobs.

Speaker 7 There was also the threat of violence in the South, as Black people feared being targeted, lynched, harassed, and discriminated against.

Speaker 7 So oftentimes, in an effort to escape racial violence, they too sought out Detroit. for a chance at a better life.

Speaker 1 It was true, the people of Detroit were really living the the American dream. They earned good money, had a steady, reliable job, and overall, life was good.
The city was clean and prosperous.

Speaker 1 There were plenty of jobs, and there was a hell of a lot of money moving hands in the metro area.

Speaker 1 However, as the years went on, the rise of technology reduced the need for manual labor, and many factory jobs were outsourced to other countries and states where labor was cheaper.

Speaker 1 In addition, foreign automaker competition, specifically in countries like Japan, Korea, and Germany, threatened the American car market.

Speaker 1 Eventually, the money and job opportunities dried up, Detroit factories began to shut down, and people lost their jobs.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, life for African Americans in Detroit didn't appear to be the golden opportunity that they had hoped for.

Speaker 1 Even in the North, they were often discriminated against and were blocked from purchasing and renting homes in predominantly white areas.

Speaker 1 In fact, real estate agents at that time were told to steer the black community away from white neighborhoods in an attempt to keep the area segregated.

Speaker 1 The black community's presence in Detroit wasn't welcomed, and at the time, the white population felt threatened as there was now an increased competition for housing and jobs, which eventually led to racial tensions within the city.

Speaker 1 In June of 1943, a race riot broke out and 25 African Americans were killed, 17 of those people being killed directly by the Detroit Police Department.

Speaker 1 This only further drove a wedge between the white and black communities, and despite their determination to to move on, the black community was often met by unwelcoming committees that showed up when African Americans attempted to move into white neighborhoods.

Speaker 1 The black community was then forced to move into small, segregated portions of the city, areas that had names like Black Bottom and Paradise Valley.

Speaker 1 However, white people in Detroit blamed the black people for the growing racial tensions in the city, and in 1949, the federal government funded what would be known as slum clearance.

Speaker 1 During a slum clearance, government agents would go into predominantly African-American areas and demolish black-owned businesses, schools, homes, and churches.

Speaker 1 Once again, throughout all of this, the black community was displaced and in search of new areas to live.

Speaker 7 But things didn't get any better. And on July 23rd, 1967, the Detroit police raided an unlicensed black-owned club located at 9125 12th Street.

Speaker 7 This initial raid led to some violence, which erupted in some of the worst riots riots the nation has ever seen. The 1967 Detroit riot lasted a total of five days, and it resulted in 43 deaths.

Speaker 7 The deaths there were firemen, one police officer, many innocent bystanders, and multiple looters. The Detroit News referred to the ordeal as the street of nightmares.

Speaker 7 with the ongoing violence including criminal acts like arson, looting, and violent clashes with the National Guard.

Speaker 7 One man who spoke with the Detroit News stated, quote, we are sick and tired of the treatment we're getting.

Speaker 7 We're going to show Whitey, if things don't change, we burn the whole damn city down, end quote.

Speaker 7 Ultimately, the riot accelerated the departure of white residents from the city in what would become known as the White Flight.

Speaker 7 These white residents would end up moving to the suburbs outside Detroit, and middle-class black citizens also joined and left the city for a more stable home environment. But the damage was done.

Speaker 7 The city that had once thrived started to fall.

Speaker 1 This rapid departure of middle-class residents leaving the city created a steep and sudden decline in the city's revenue that had once been used to provide essential services.

Speaker 1 The lack of tax money coming in then further escalated the decay of the city and buildings, homes, and businesses were abandoned.

Speaker 1 As of today, there are still over 18,000 abandoned abandoned homes in the city of Detroit.

Speaker 1 There are abandoned vehicle production plants, abandoned schools, abandoned hospitals, any type of building or former business, you name it, and I can guarantee that there is an example of one that is abandoned in the city of Detroit.

Speaker 1 In fact, on my YouTube channel, I recently released a documentary where we explored a number of abandoned buildings in Detroit, and it is shocking stuff.

Speaker 1 As the years progressed, the ghost town atmosphere of Detroit became a breeding ground for criminal activity.

Speaker 1 In the 1980s, the rapid increase in production and distribution of the addictive drug crack cocaine opened doors for drug traffickers in the city to make a lot of money.

Speaker 1 In fact, after the drug really began showing up on the market around the year 1984, tens of thousands of Detroit citizens, both male and female, found themselves roped into the new crack economy.

Speaker 1 At that time, the crack epidemic was touching people from all portions of society.

Speaker 1 In fact, it was a reported fact in local newspapers that many members of the Detroit Police Department themselves were penalized for doing crack on the job, which obviously led to violent, erratic behavior when dealing with reports and responding to calls.

Speaker 1 When there's a demand, there will always be a supplier.

Speaker 1 And in Detroit, when the demand for drugs grew, multiple gangs sprung up and began vying for control of the supply and distribution of crack cocaine in the city.

Speaker 1 And all the demand and money involved in the drug trade, of course, led to a violent and bloody competition between rival gangs who wanted to control the Detroit Detroit drug market themselves.

Speaker 1 Out of the chaos and devastation of Detroit's crack cocaine epidemic rose a group of young men who would go on to become what some would call street legends in the city, a group known as the Best Friends Gang.

Speaker 1 And one member of the Best Friends Gang would go down in history as Detroit's most dangerous hitman.

Speaker 1 And at one point, the mere mention of his name struck fear in anyone within Detroit's criminal underworld. That man's name was Nathaniel Boone Kraft.

Speaker 7 Like many black residents who lived in the Jim Crow South during that time period, Nathaniel Boone Craft's family left the abuse and corruption of Mississippi in search of a better opportunity, and they ended up planning their roots on the east side of Detroit.

Speaker 7 Born in 1957, Boone witnessed the challenges faced by the Black community during a time of economic decline.

Speaker 7 His family members suffered multiple job losses, and the persistent racial tensions in the once prosperous city of Detroit led to a fractured, dysfunctional childhood for him.

Speaker 7 From an early age, Boone didn't associate with the other neighborhood kids, and he considered himself to be somewhat of a loner.

Speaker 7 While his mother worked to provide a stable home environment for her children, his father was away in the army and Boone found himself alone.

Speaker 7 He spent a majority of his time checking out the action happening around his neighborhood. He witnessed his mother and older siblings continuously struggling to make ends meet.

Speaker 7 Day after day, they worked full-time jobs, leaving early in the morning and returning home late in the day, tired, beat, and with only a small amount of pay.

Speaker 7 Boone knew from an early age that he didn't want that life, and instead, he used his free time to observe the others around him.

Speaker 7 to see how they moved, how they operated, and how they made their money.

Speaker 7 At just nine years old, Boone would sit outside on his front porch with a friend named Germ, and the two would watch the comings and goings of a local drug house across the street.

Speaker 7 In his mind, Boone knew that the people there were making money inside of the house, and from a young age, he wanted a piece of that pie.

Speaker 2 I started when I was nine years old. I was uh watching the neighborhood seeing what what was going on

Speaker 2 Even though if you hear from my sister, she's going to say, I was selling. No,

Speaker 2 I just never associate with anyone.

Speaker 2 Even though I was a kid, I wouldn't associate with none of the other kids and none because she went there playing in the mud and dirt. And I was always a clean kid.
I always wore clean.

Speaker 2 Everything was clean. But

Speaker 2 my latest dad, I remember I was nine years old, me and Jeremy had just came back from

Speaker 2 Pharmacy, Bilo.

Speaker 2 And we were sitting on the porch eating our cookies. And then I told him, I said, hey, man, Charlie over there selling dough.

Speaker 2 He said, what? I said, yeah.

Speaker 2 I've been watching him.

Speaker 2 We sat there for a couple more hours. And

Speaker 2 I explained it to Jerome. I said, look, see that man right there? He going in the cops up and see how quick he come back out.

Speaker 2 He did. He went in and we just sat there.
Of course, nobody paid us no attention because we kids.

Speaker 2 But we watched him come out. Then we watched several more come out.
Jeremy, like, what are we gonna do? Sit here and watch all that. I said, no, we're gonna figure which one we gonna rob.

Speaker 7 So one day, Boone and Jerm decided that they were going to rob one of the men going into the drug house and take whatever money and drugs he had on him.

Speaker 7 Boone believed that if they stole the drugs, they would be able to turn it around and sell the product themselves at nearby Jefferson Avenue. which was a known drug trafficking hotspot in town.

Speaker 7 So after a few hours of sitting and scoping out the scene, Nate set his sights on a man named Jesse.

Speaker 1 After observing Jesse enter the drug house, the two young boys then went inside Boone's home, put on ski masks, and snuck around to the back alley of the drug house where they sat and waited for Jesse to emerge.

Speaker 2 We had a ski mask on, but of course, most people know who we are because we're the only two short kids in the neighborhood, but we got guns. So when we caught him going through the house,

Speaker 2 he was going through the side

Speaker 2 of, it's just the side of Miss Loretta house. And we was back there in the back waiting on him.
As soon as he came through,

Speaker 2 don't move. Man, get your little bed, put away.

Speaker 2 I said, don't move. Janden already came out

Speaker 2 on his side and he got his gun at him. I got a 32.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 you got it. Man, what's

Speaker 2 give give us what you got. I ain't got no money.
We know that. Give us that bag.
Man, I can't guy kill. I said,

Speaker 2 it's going to be too late because you don't give it to us. We're going to kill you.

Speaker 2 So he threw the bag down. John reached down to pick it up and he kicked John.

Speaker 2 I started to bust his butt, but Jerry was like, don't, don't, don't, don't. You're going to draw everybody from the neighborhood back in.

Speaker 2 So the guy running off, screaming, they robbed me, they robbed me. So So we ran through the alley, jumped three houses over,

Speaker 2 my mama house. We go in the garage, we did be up the back, and we see what it was.

Speaker 2 Okay, this hair out.

Speaker 2 So Java said, what are we going to do with it? I said, we're going to sell it. I'm going to show you that we can get in on this deal.

Speaker 2 Now, we go ask the guy to give us some, but right now, we're going to sell these 40 packs we got.

Speaker 1 The drug in the package was heroin, and Boone knew that what he had just acquired was worth a lot of money to all of the drug-addicted adults around him.

Speaker 1 Having watched his parents and family struggle with poverty, Boone hoped that hustling the streets and doing whatever he could, even if it was illegal, could provide a stable source of income for his family.

Speaker 1 So, Boone and Jerm flipped the drugs and made a profit. Keep in mind, all of this is happening when Boone is only nine years old.

Speaker 1 After the two friends had sold off all of the heroin they had acquired, Boone and Jerm then decided to go across the street and have a conversation with the local drug dealer, a man named Charlie.

Speaker 1 Of course, Charlie didn't take Boone and Jerm seriously, as at the time, like we said, they were only nine years old. However, both boys refused to take no for an answer.

Speaker 1 Boone knew that this may be his only opportunity to prove himself and gain entrance into the lucrative criminal underworld of Detroit.

Speaker 1 So, in order to prove himself, Boone told Charlie that he knew Jesse, the man that they had robbed, owed him money for the 40 bags of heroin that they had stolen.

Speaker 1 Boone then said that he and Jerm knew where Jesse was, and to prove themselves, they would either bring Jesse back to Charlie or they would get Charlie the money that he was rightfully owed for the stolen drugs.

Speaker 1 So, acting on Charlie's orders, Boone and Jeram went down to Bluebird and confronted Jesse.

Speaker 2 We went down the street, and sure enough, Jesse was down

Speaker 2 at

Speaker 2 Bluebird. He was down there at Bluebird, and we walked up to him.

Speaker 2 He finally realized who we was.

Speaker 2 You two little niggas robbed me and this

Speaker 2 we ain't robbed nobody.

Speaker 2 Now we here because you owe Charlie and Charlie sent us to get the money.

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 2 How y'all gonna get something?

Speaker 2 Tilt my coat up, showed him the gun.

Speaker 2 Do we gotta do this all over again?

Speaker 2 I think that you believe that we won't kill you, don't you?

Speaker 2 Man, poo, shot him in the thigh.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 putting

Speaker 2 a potato on the gun don't make it that goddamn quiet.

Speaker 2 I was like, man,

Speaker 2 my brother told me to put a potato on him.

Speaker 2 It's sort of like a silent. It wasn't no silent.

Speaker 2 But we didn't worry about it because we kids, we just standing around looking like this.

Speaker 2 And people just finally figure out what's going on. We told Jesse Dennis, man, if you scream or holler, Dream will shoot you in the head.

Speaker 2 And if we got time, we're going to drag your body off somewhere. They're going to find a die one who drained suicide.

Speaker 7 The gunshot wound to Jesse's thigh only grazed the side, but it was enough for him to read the message loud and clear. Armed with a gun, Boone then ordered Jesse back into his sister's house.

Speaker 7 where he kept a large stash of money. And while being held at gunpoint, Jesse handed over over what was owed to Charlie.
Boone and Jerm then returned to Charlie's house with the money.

Speaker 7 And needless to say, Charlie was shocked, but he agreed to let Boone and Jerm collect his debts for him.

Speaker 7 From an early age, Boone proved himself as a violent enforcer, and unfortunately, Charlie, the drug dealer himself, would have to find out the hard way that no one should ever get on Boone's bad side.

Speaker 7 In a later interview, Boone admitted that he had a lot of pin-up aggression during his childhood due to him constantly being bullied in school.

Speaker 7 When Boone eventually confided in his sister about what was going on, she told him that he either had to stand up for himself and fight the bullies or come home and fight her instead.

Speaker 7 So Boone opted to fight the bullies, saying that his sister would have, quote, beat the hell out of me.

Speaker 7 And over time, As he became more involved in the drug business, he admitted that he used to tie the sheets from his bed together and use it as a rope to lower himself down from his second-story bedroom window at night to collect money from customers on Jefferson and Continental, two known drug trafficking streets in the city.

Speaker 7 But eventually, he would get caught. One night, his older sister found him sneaking out and she beat him mercilessly.
But it wasn't enough to stop him from engaging in illegal activities.

Speaker 7 During the summer of 1967, when the racial riots in Detroit Detroit were at an all-time high, Boone used this opportunity to further his criminal career by looting stores and stealing money from the cash registers.

Speaker 7 At one point, he and his friends looted a local gun shop where they took knives, guns, and bows and arrows.

Speaker 7 He admitted that he always had a fascination with knives, and he had been playing with them since he was a young kid.

Speaker 7 This fascination even led him to his nickname Boone, a name taken from the legendary American frontiersman, Daniel Boone.

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Speaker 1 during the race riots riots of 1967, the violence and destruction was so intense that the National Guard and Army had to be called in to help maintain control.

Speaker 1 However, Boone soon noticed that a lot of the Army men were also heroin users.

Speaker 1 So, during the riots, in the dead of night, Boone would sneak around the streets of Detroit, locate heroin users that were in the Army and National Guard, and sell them drugs.

Speaker 1 Soon enough, the Army men who saw Boone prowling about started to inquire about liquor, and Boone, who had looted a lot of the local stores, informed them that they could come down to his house, located at 814 Continental, and buy whatever they wanted.

Speaker 1 Soon enough, Boone had earned a reputation as a hustler at just 10 years old.

Speaker 1 So, seeing that his illegal business was growing, Boone decided to approach the first drug dealer he was working with, Charlie, and ask him to give him some more opportunities to make money.

Speaker 2 Let's talk about how we're gonna make this money.

Speaker 2 I can't give y'all more money, then I ain't making nothing.

Speaker 2 I said, well, we ain't making nothing now.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 just to let you know, we've been following you too.

Speaker 2 We know when that guy come from out of town up here and y'all meet up at the restaurant. You're like,

Speaker 2 how do you know that?

Speaker 2 We little kids. We can ease in our little areas and places and people never pay us no attention.
So he said, well, I'm not giving y'all nothing. I'll beat y'all.

Speaker 2 That's one.

Speaker 2 Look, what the hell you doing? Don't keep threatening us because

Speaker 2 we don't appreciate that.

Speaker 2 That's two.

Speaker 2 What's going to happen when you get to whatever number you get to us? You won't be around.

Speaker 2 Man, I, boom.

Speaker 2 Turn and walk toward. Boom!

Speaker 2 Did I not tell him,

Speaker 2 Let's get all the doping and money you got around here, because we know where some of his highest fights is. We got all that shit together, took it down to my mama's basement.

Speaker 2 Well, about two hours, because it took us two hours to find everything.

Speaker 2 We had a lot of shit that was already bagged up that he bagged up and had rubber bands around.

Speaker 1 As it turned out, Boone didn't like being talked down to. And after issuing two warnings to Charlie to no avail, he pulled the trigger and ended his life in what would be his first of many murders.

Speaker 1 Boone had just killed his first individual, at just 10 years old, by shooting him.

Speaker 1 Once Charlie was dead, Boone and Germ then spent the next two hours going through his house and robbing him of all the drugs and money that he had.

Speaker 1 They then took the stash they had recovered, hid it in Boone's basement, and returned to Charlie's house to dispose of his dead body.

Speaker 1 At just 10 years old, The two friends then dug a shallow grave and buried Charlie's body in his own backyard, leaving the corpse to rot and decompose in their neighborhood.

Speaker 2 He was like, Man, what are we gonna do? So we're gonna go back down there and throw him in the yard and bury his ass.

Speaker 2 Man, you got us out of here. I ain't got you.
I ain't doing nothing. You did it because you my boy.
And we're gonna be boys until the end of time.

Speaker 2 I already

Speaker 2 felt that.

Speaker 2 So we took care of that and we made the money. And then

Speaker 7 Boone and Jurham believed that the stash of stolen dope and money would be safe in Boone's basement.

Speaker 7 However, not long after the murder of Charlie, Boone's older brother Willie discovered the stash of cash and drugs and he stole it.

Speaker 7 But as the money continued to roll in, the two young boys decided to take the money and drugs and stash them at Jerm's house.

Speaker 7 However, this also proved to be a mistake after Jerm's mother found the money and took it for herself.

Speaker 2 I took some of the money to my house and my brother,

Speaker 2 Woolly, found it and stole it.

Speaker 2 But of course he didn't know where I got it from. He thought I just got it from going up there to Ence Bilos, A ⁇ P, going to the shoe shop, working around the neighborhood, making a little money.

Speaker 2 And I always came home with money before I started doing that. But he found it, took it.
I was like, okay, we can't do this no more. I don't want to kill my little, I mean,

Speaker 2 my big brother.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 next time we made the money, I told Jerry, hey, man, you take it to your house. He took it to his house, but

Speaker 2 his mama found him, took it, and spent it.

Speaker 2 You ain't going to tell me, hey, man, my mama bought the money and just took it.

Speaker 2 And you're like, I tried to get it back, mama, but she told me to sit my little. I said, yeah, I figured that.

Speaker 2 His mother was not kind to him.

Speaker 7 Without any money left, the two friends had to put their heads together and figure out another plan to replace what had been stolen.

Speaker 7 So with the help of Boone's older brother Pop, they decided to rob another drug house down the street, a well-known drug establishment that sold weed. The robbery was successful and no one got hurt.

Speaker 7 However, word on the street was going around that Boone and Germ were wreaking havoc around the neighborhood.

Speaker 7 And since Boone and Germ didn't deal with weed, they allowed Boone's brother Pop to take as much of the drugs as he wanted.

Speaker 7 Boone also made it clear to his older brother that no one was ever going to rob him. It was a small threat, but a threat nonetheless.

Speaker 7 And as Pop listened to his younger brother, an alarm bell went off inside of his head. He mentioned that word on the street was that two young kids were going around shooting people.

Speaker 7 Even Boone's older sister Louise had heard the stories and confronted her brother after her drug user boyfriend had told her that Boone had been the one to sell him the drugs.

Speaker 7 He also told her that Boone had used a knife to cut up his arm after he attempted to reach inside of his bag.

Speaker 7 But Boone continued to deny any involvement or use of violence as he was aware that his age allowed him to evade certain consequences.

Speaker 2 We made a house, and of course, uh,

Speaker 2 i talked my brother into helping us rob him

Speaker 2 so we go in there rob the place get the weed get the money

Speaker 2 they was always kept trying to look us if you look up you're gonna die now you keep on trying to turn that head if you think i want to shoot you in your head

Speaker 2 okay man i ain't looking i ain't looking you better not

Speaker 2 But if you really want to look, I'll make you stand up. But of course, you're going to go down hard.
You're like, man, I don't want no trouble. I don't want no trouble

Speaker 2 so we took the weed put it in my little red wagon

Speaker 2 I didn't know we had that much I said man just too bulky and shit we ran down the street with that we kept looking back to see was you know like they gonna run out the house by the time we turned down one of the side houses to run through the yard And back then, like, we hit alleys.

Speaker 2 We ran down the alley and got behind my mama garage, pulled that little board out. We ran up in there with it.

Speaker 2 But for the next 15 minutes, we just kept looking, listening, trying to see, did anybody recognize her or was, you know, like anybody gonna chase after us?

Speaker 2 But they didn't.

Speaker 2 So of course my brother Pop,

Speaker 2 he want quite a bit of weed.

Speaker 2 I didn't know nothing about no weed at the time because usually

Speaker 2 I learned about the heroine.

Speaker 2 So Pop took a big giant bed toy. Okay, this is cool with me.
She would take it on. I said, Pop, come on now.

Speaker 2 I love you, but don't try to rob us. I ain't gonna rob you.
Plus, I've been hearing things about two little kids out there shooting people.

Speaker 2 Why are you telling us that somebody out there is going to shoot us? He said, no, I figure out the one we've been doing is terrorizing the neighborhood because

Speaker 2 my sister friend went

Speaker 2 and told my sister. I just happened to be in the front room when he came with them and told her.
I'm like,

Speaker 2 until Louise came in there, boom,

Speaker 2 did you hit him with an

Speaker 2 axe or a hanger or something?

Speaker 2 Oh man,

Speaker 2 she said,

Speaker 2 man, quit lying on my little brother. That's my little baby brother.

Speaker 2 I was like, why people always said I did something? I'm sitting here.

Speaker 2 Sister cussed him out don't get the hell out.

Speaker 1 After Charlie's murder, the money started to dry up and Boone and Jerm knew that they were going to have to go out and find a new way to make money.

Speaker 1 It was obvious that even from an early age, Boone had a strong desire to obtain as much wealth as he could and no one was going to get in his way.

Speaker 1 So one day, Boone and Germ were hanging out at Charlie's house when the phone rang. Boone knew that it would probably be the drug connection, calling to speak with Charlie, who was dead.

Speaker 1 And so wanting to drum drum up some business, Boon himself picked up and answered the phone call.

Speaker 1 In a deep tone of voice, trying to act like an adult, he told the person on the phone that Charlie wanted to meet him at the usual spot, a local restaurant, to talk about business.

Speaker 1 Since Charlie was dead, Boone and Jerm knew that it would be their one opportunity to try and persuade the powerful drug connection to work with them instead.

Speaker 2 Back then, you got the rollable phone.

Speaker 2 I called Jerry and told him what it went down. Jerry said, What? I said, Yeah, man.
He's downstairs on the front porch.

Speaker 2 We got to make example of this fool.

Speaker 2 He was like, What? I said, We're going to make, we're going to beat the hell out of him.

Speaker 2 So, John came over. It would have been like three minutes.
He was there because he only lived just a couple blocks over on El Gonquin.

Speaker 2 He came over and we

Speaker 2 I went out the back door to come down through the side and told you, oh, we don't hear, still watching.

Speaker 2 Louise is still talking to him. They sitting there smoking a big old blit.

Speaker 2 Well, of course, back then they just rolled them up in paper. They ain't only got the cigar that you got nowadays.
But

Speaker 2 I said, what we gonna do is we gonna buck him up with these bats. He said, what? We're gonna buck you him up with these bats.
Now, listen up, man. I don't want to talk too loud.
He might hear us.

Speaker 2 Then, of course,

Speaker 2 first time I got that anger.

Speaker 2 And Louis, like, boy, is that you over there?

Speaker 2 Oh, man.

Speaker 2 So me and George stepped out. Yeah?

Speaker 2 What you over there doing? Looking for some worms.

Speaker 2 Now, I don't know why my sister didn't know I was lying. I'm always clean.
I don't play in mud or dirty or nothing. I look just looking for some worms.
Me and Joe's gonna go fishing.

Speaker 2 Boy, y'all come from the side of that house. You know that man don't like it.

Speaker 2 Oh yeah, we're on the side of Charlie's house.

Speaker 2 But the word was good back then because they fit playing with Charlie.

Speaker 2 We caught him later on that night, beat the hell out of him. I said, next time you come over to my sister's house because my sister lived it downstairs.
My mother lived it upstairs.

Speaker 2 And she was always watching us when my mother went to work. That's why

Speaker 2 I consider my sister my mama. My mama was my mother, but she was always working.
She had to feed all of us kids.

Speaker 2 But after that, me and John said, we got to do something, get some quick money. Of course, we had enough money to recop, but we had to wait.
Then when

Speaker 2 time came,

Speaker 2 Charlie phone rang, we answered, yeah.

Speaker 2 And I tried to talk to him. Yeah,

Speaker 2 charlie said

Speaker 2 meet him at the same place i was look real quick sure enough next following day the guy was there i was like

Speaker 2 what you think turn

Speaker 2 like what you got the money i said yeah i got the money

Speaker 2 You ain't thinking about robbing him. I said, it did cross my mind

Speaker 2 So I said, okay, you watch the back. I'm going over there and sit at his table.
I'll go over there and sit down at his table.

Speaker 2 Little kid, what you want?

Speaker 2 Reached him out of the coat, pull out the package, put it up there. He looked at it.

Speaker 2 What the hell is that?

Speaker 2 It's money.

Speaker 2 You know when you used to get with the charlie, well, we want that.

Speaker 2 Where's Charlie? I know he ain't sent Charlie up here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 I was like, uh,

Speaker 2 Charlie ain't no more.

Speaker 2 What you mean? Charlie got arrested. And

Speaker 2 he either upstairs or downstairs, but he ain't here no more.

Speaker 2 Looked at me

Speaker 2 to Charles, shh, that's our business. We don't ask you any questions or ask us.

Speaker 2 We got the money. All for you to do do is give us the stuff.

Speaker 2 What's your name?

Speaker 2 They call me Boom.

Speaker 2 He still don't know that German's over there waiting for him to do something stupid. German is going to light him up.

Speaker 2 But we talked for about a half an hour. We had a piece of custard pie and a coffee.

Speaker 2 And at a while, he said, listen, when I get up up here, there's a can outside.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he said, look in there.

Speaker 2 He got up and left.

Speaker 2 Jeremy and me, we looked at each other.

Speaker 2 I told John,

Speaker 2 she go look.

Speaker 2 No, you go look.

Speaker 2 So we both went and looked.

Speaker 2 And there was a bag in the package. We picked it up.
Damn.

Speaker 2 We in business, my man. I thought, well,

Speaker 2 man, I hope we don't go to prison or jail.

Speaker 2 I said, we minors.

Speaker 2 They can't do nothing to us. They can't even lock us up.

Speaker 2 Where you get that from? I read.

Speaker 2 But I love reading. So we went on and divvied that up.
And I was like, well,

Speaker 2 here,

Speaker 2 you take another part. I'm like,

Speaker 2 dude, you don't want you? He said, man, you know know me. I got to try to cut down on money.
The money is my mama keep

Speaker 2 searching and this and that. I really

Speaker 2 don't need that much to get the stuff I need. I said, I do, because I need a car.

Speaker 1 After getting their hands on another big cache of drugs, it was only a matter of time before the money started to roll in again. But suddenly, Germ started having second thoughts.

Speaker 1 He told Boone that he didn't need that much money and that his mother was always searching the house, finding his profits and stealing them. So what was the point?

Speaker 1 But Boone at this point was already too deep into the game and was hungry for more. His next big purchase was going to be a car, despite the fact that he was only 10 years old.

Speaker 1 He decided that it wasn't smart to continue walking around the streets though, so once he had enough money, he approached his older brother Pop and asked for his help.

Speaker 7 Nate told Pop that he was going to give him enough money to purchase a car, and he said he wanted his brother to put the car in his name.

Speaker 7 He knew his brother would be the best person to ask as he worked at the nearby Chrysler plant. At first, Pop laughed and told him he was way too young to drive.

Speaker 7 However, money talked and Nate said if his brother did him the favor, he would reward him with $100 every month. It was an offer that Pop just couldn't refuse.

Speaker 7 So he took the money from Nate and purchased the car in his name.

Speaker 7 Pop instructed both Boone and Germ that that if the cops ever stopped them and asked what they were up to, they were to tell them that they had stolen the car while he was asleep.

Speaker 7 After a few days, the car was purchased and the young boys were now driving around the abandoned streets of Detroit.

Speaker 7 Of course, the cops would eventually stop them on multiple occasions, but somehow they were always able to play it off.

Speaker 2 How are you gonna get a car? That's what my brother Pop is for.

Speaker 2 I get healing when they tell tells him, go get me a car in your name and everything, you know. And, of course, I'm going to be driving it.
And he did.

Speaker 2 And, of course, I got caught many times by the police.

Speaker 2 What the hell? Give me no keys. They take the keys off of the trunk, throw them in there and lock it.
Say, now, whoever car this is, they're going to beat you.

Speaker 2 They find out you got the keys thrown in the trunk.

Speaker 2 Of course,

Speaker 2 I was like, ooh,

Speaker 2 they're going to beat me, nigga. The cops like, like, yeah, good for you.
Then they drive off. When they drive off,

Speaker 2 of course, I got another key.

Speaker 2 It's my car.

Speaker 2 I pop the trunk, get back in, look around. You know, police crank it up and go straight on.

Speaker 2 I had to party like six houses down from my mama's house. Sometimes

Speaker 2 I used to park it over there by the school because nobody really, you know, messed with anything over there.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 that went on for about two years.

Speaker 2 I can't remember his name, but he had

Speaker 2 it was my sister husband.

Speaker 2 My other sister husband.

Speaker 2 We had to leave my car there because we couldn't keep driving. The police was running around looking for it.
So we just left it parked. They can't do no with a park car.

Speaker 2 They ain't only gonna have a parked car found in somebody's house. So we would take his deuce in the corner and we would drive that around.
Jerry was like, man, if the police catch us, man, we going.

Speaker 2 I said, they ain't going to do nothing but take the keys and lock them in the truck. They done did that how many times on me?

Speaker 2 That's all they going to do because what are they doing? They put the handcuffs on us.

Speaker 2 You see how little I really see? That's not going to fall right on.

Speaker 2 But Jerry was like, man.

Speaker 2 Why we keep? I said, because we better learn how to go to the west side.

Speaker 2 Because I'm thinking about moving over there. What? I said, yeah.
I seen you like this apartment building. Well, nice.

Speaker 2 Collin Woods apartment. So we go over there and

Speaker 2 checking it out. I done got a little taller, a little more cut up.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I was always a little bit taller than John. I used to tease him.
And I have facial hair. I would grow up facial hairline.

Speaker 2 Somebody's trying to get a little hair on the cheek.

Speaker 2 We pull it out. Leave my hair along.
Oh, come on, let me pull it out. Maybe two were growing in front of him for a long time.
Jordan couldn't grow no mustache, no slab, no nothing.

Speaker 2 I think he didn't grow anything. He got about 20 or 30.

Speaker 2 I believe I can't be for sure.

Speaker 7 For two years, Boon and Jeram used the car for their growing drug business, and they lived the lives of street hustlers.

Speaker 7 The money was good, and for the first time in their lives, girls started to pay attention to them.

Speaker 7 At this time, Boone had earned the reputation that if anybody wanted someone gone or needed something done, he would do it for a hefty price.

Speaker 7 But after a while, with his growing popularity in the streets, Boone decided he wasn't happy with the amount of money he was making. He needed more.

Speaker 7 So at 12 years old, he decided it was time to find a way to make some quick cash.

Speaker 7 But instead of hustling the streets like he was used to, he and Juram made an elaborate plan to rob the local grocery store, Bilo.

Speaker 7 Armed with guns, the boys walked into the grocery store, but they were immediately stopped by a security guard.

Speaker 7 Upon walking into the store, the security guard grabbed Boone, believing that the gun he was holding was only a toy.

Speaker 7 But unfortunately for the employee, as the security guard attempted to restrain Boone, he reached inside of his pant pocket, retrieved the gun, and fired it once behind his shoulder, grazing the side of the security guard's face.

Speaker 7 The security guard dropped Boone, and the two young boys quickly fled the scene.

Speaker 1 As word spread, the witnesses inside the Bilo were able to identify the two boys inside the store, and soon the police were at Boone's mother's house.

Speaker 1 Interestingly, the Bilo workers were able to identify him as, from time to time, he he had worked odd jobs at the grocery store for extra cash.

Speaker 1 Both Boone and Germ were then arrested and sent to a youth home, and Boone was eventually made a ward of the court once it was determined by a judge that his mother simply had too many children inside the house.

Speaker 1 So, Boone stayed at the youth center for a few months before he was transferred to the Wayne County Child Development Center.

Speaker 1 Eventually, he was placed into a foster home with a white family who owned a farm.

Speaker 1 And in a later interview, Boone said that he had never been called derogatory names such as the C C-word and the N-word until he went to live with the white family.

Speaker 1 But while he was there under that roof, he had faced extreme racism.

Speaker 1 While he was in foster care, Boone was forced to sleep in the farm family's attic, and they made him wake up early in the morning to tend to the miscellaneous farm chores in and around the house.

Speaker 1 Eventually though, Boone found himself in trouble again, this time with his foster father, after he walked in on Boone having sex with one of his daughters.

Speaker 1 Not welcomed back at the home, Boone was then sent back to the youth home home and then transferred once again to the Wayne County Child Development Center, where he stayed for a significantly longer time.

Speaker 1 He admitted that the other kids at the development center had issues and ran around and acted crazy. At one point, Boone used a baseball bat to hit another kid and escaped on foot.

Speaker 1 He ended up at his mother's house, but the police quickly came and detained him and he was brought back to the development center.

Speaker 1 However, the harassment from the kid didn't stop, and once again, Nate used the baseball bat to defend himself.

Speaker 1 This time, after the assault, he was taken to the quiet room, where he was kept until it was decided what they were going to do with him. There were other instances of violence from Boone as well.

Speaker 1 And he himself even admitted to me that he also hit a kid with a fire extinguisher after he continued to mess with him.

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Speaker 2 Available at your local Walmart. We got caught trying to rob biolog as a kid.
I ain't gonna worry that too much on that one, but yeah, they took us, locked us up, and put us in the youth home.

Speaker 2 That's when the people like,

Speaker 2 we got to keep getting all these little kids, bro.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 we just little kids.

Speaker 2 They put us on three in.

Speaker 2 But of course, after a while, we see what's going on there. No people in there, I mean, no kids in there was,

Speaker 2 they was kids, but they was ignorant and crazy, running around, chasing each other and doing this and that. So I said,

Speaker 2 what are we going to do, man? He said,

Speaker 2 My mama ain't gonna come get me. I said,

Speaker 2 My sister probably come and get me. And sure enough, she came down there, but by the time she got there, I done hit this kid in the head with a fire extinguisher.

Speaker 2 He kept on back me in my head, running.

Speaker 2 James, like, ain't you gonna do that? Yeah, I gotta just wait.

Speaker 2 Okay,

Speaker 2 go get that fire stickers.

Speaker 2 Turn him over again. We hit on, I hit on the side of me.

Speaker 2 I can see the kid, he looking. I see, yeah, he's gonna run his boy down here and try to hit me again.
But sure enough, here he comes.

Speaker 2 I done slid my hand to the side just before he got about maybe six steps away from me. Jumped up and hit him in the sneak.
Whoo! He went, ah!

Speaker 2 Shut up, boy. I'm gonna hit him in the head.
The guard that should protect the plow, he came over there. you better not hit him so he kept hitting me

Speaker 2 I was just playing yeah he was playing kept hitting me and hitting me and hitting me so I hit him back

Speaker 2 you don't pick up something and hit somebody you trying to murder him or something

Speaker 2 no

Speaker 2 next time I'm gonna kill you

Speaker 2 so they locked me in the room until my sister came when she came they gave me and germ to her because she got germ out too.

Speaker 2 We get out to U-Haul. I mean, we go back home, and of course, Louise beat our butt.

Speaker 2 I'm like, why are we getting a butt beat? We didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 They caught you out to Robinson. I don't even want to talk to you, boom, go in your room and stay.
Of course, I don't never stay outta my seats together, climb out the window.

Speaker 2 But I got a business to run.

Speaker 2 Nobody still didn't know I was selling shit.

Speaker 1 Eventually, he was sent to the nearby Hawthorne Center for a psychiatric evaluation.

Speaker 1 The mission statement for Hawthorne Center stated that it, quote, is to provide emotionally disturbed children and adolescents with evidence-based, supported, and trauma-informed inpatient mental health services that meet the highest standards of quality in the context of an integrated, patient-centered, proactive safety culture.

Speaker 1 However, after six months at what Boone dubbed, quote, the nut house, he was released after it was determined that he didn't suffer from any mental disturbances, but rather, he just didn't care about life in general.

Speaker 7 But the Wayne County Development Center didn't want him back, and he was given a bus ticket, food, and papers that listed his mother's last known address.

Speaker 7 So from there, Boone boarded the bus, rode it downtown, and walked back to his mother's house. However, when he arrived, He noticed that the house was no longer there.

Speaker 7 As he walked up and down the street in confusion, one of the neighbors came outside and told him that the Kraft family house had been demolished and they had moved somewhere else.

Speaker 7 So Boone then walked to the next location where his family had supposedly moved. He spent the next few hours searching up and down the streets for his loved ones, but he couldn't find them.

Speaker 2 Jeremy ran off already, but I had to stay a little bit longer. That's when I hit the kid in the head with the baseball bat.
They threw me in Hawthorne's center to Crayley crazy house.

Speaker 2 Of course, in there, after about 60 days, they were like, ain't nothing wrong with this kid. Why did he send him here?

Speaker 2 They told us he was crazy at that. He hit somebody with a baseball bat.
So they queue in on me that for 30 more days. And ain't nothing wrong with this man.
He just don't give a damn.

Speaker 2 So they called the place and told them, hey, y'all come pick him up. Ain't nothing wrong with him.

Speaker 2 The man got it on the speaker. And I'm sitting there listening.

Speaker 2 We don't want them, you got them, y'all sign for them. We don't want, don't send them back here, we're not letting them in.

Speaker 2 What the hell are we gonna do with them? That's our problem. We hung up on them.
He looks at me and said,

Speaker 2 You got your mother phone number, or anything, or somebody? I ain't got nothing.

Speaker 2 Do you think you could get somebody to come get you? I don't know nobody.

Speaker 2 So he went into my father, he said, Okay, you lived at 814 Continental

Speaker 2 Main Street, Jefferson. I said, that brings back memories.
It's been a long time.

Speaker 2 He said, well,

Speaker 2 the guards down there packing up your room for you. You can't go back into that unit.

Speaker 2 We releasing you. What do you mean you're releasing me? I still got some more time to serve.
He said, the people don't want you back, and we ain't going to keep you.

Speaker 2 So they took me up to the bus stop, gave me the bus ticket, and 30 bucks, and told me, Detroit that way. Here, go to the map, gonna show you how to take this bus, which was the Grand River bus.

Speaker 2 It will take you all the way downtown. Down there, you can take this, and it's gonna tell you how to go over there.

Speaker 2 You're gonna have to walk to you know a Jefferson, catch that Jefferson bus, and it'll take you right to your street. You know your neighborhood when you see it.
I'll be yeah, okay, so I did all that.

Speaker 2 When I got in the neighborhood, that's when I realized neighborhood had changed.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 Where the hell is our house at?

Speaker 2 The lady across the street,

Speaker 2 excuse me, sir, what you looking for?

Speaker 2 8.1.

Speaker 2 They tore that house down a couple years back, sir. Dr.
Kraft found me out there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 She went to look at it.

Speaker 2 Is you little boy?

Speaker 2 Ain't nothing little here no more, baby. She was like, oh my God,

Speaker 2 where you been? I said, locked up.

Speaker 2 But they released me and I come back in trying to find my mom, sister named by it. It's gone.
They see, yeah, they moved over on Sheridan.

Speaker 2 I don't know the address or what it's between, but I think it's between

Speaker 2 Kircherbill and

Speaker 2 Mac. I was like,

Speaker 2 whatever.

Speaker 2 So I'm walking down

Speaker 2 Shelton,

Speaker 2 Sheridan. I walk back and forth, back and forth.
I don't see nobody out there I recognize or anybody. I know I got a lot of brothers and sisters.
They should be outside playing.

Speaker 2 But of course, I forgot that they were older than me, so they probably got married or moved out or something. So

Speaker 2 I go back up, catch the bus back downtown. I'm sleeping at the

Speaker 2 Grand Circus

Speaker 2 bus area.

Speaker 7 With nowhere to go, he walked back to the bus stop and fell asleep. He was now young, homeless, without loved ones, and eager to get back into the drug game.

Speaker 7 While sleeping at the bus stop, he ended up meeting a young prostitute who offered to let him stay at her apartment.

Speaker 7 Boone took her up on the offer, but it wouldn't end up being a relaxing and pleasant experience.

Speaker 7 At one point during the night, Boone awoke to the sound of screaming and fighting, and he saw a man beating on the woman. He tried to intervene, but she stopped him.

Speaker 7 She told him that the man was her pimp and that she owed him money. So in her mind, the violence was okay.

Speaker 2 Here come this guy. He comes in.

Speaker 2 Bit of where my money? What you leaving the goddamn set for? We can still make money out there.

Speaker 2 It's almost six o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 When the giants and the tricks stop, you can stop.

Speaker 2 The cars are still riding up there on Woodward Mac area, Birdo, whatever that street is.

Speaker 2 Once you cross over, it's not the other side.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 he starts screaming at her, and I'm laying over there on the couch. He can't see me because I'm laying down on the couch.
I ain't hiding. I'm laying on the couch.

Speaker 2 Talking about,

Speaker 2 bitch, that's my tell you to do something,

Speaker 2 he hit her.

Speaker 2 So, so that's when I sat up and looked,

Speaker 2 who in the hell is that?

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 that's my little friend. He didn't have no place to sleep.
Oh, so you're going to let him sleep here? Bitch, I pay no rent here. She said,

Speaker 2 but I make the money and get, oh, so you trying to get tough?

Speaker 2 She sat it up and he looked over at me. You need to get your butt up off that couch and get the hell out.

Speaker 2 I just sat there and paying no attention because this is her house as far as I care.

Speaker 2 She grabs, I mean, he grabs her and start choking her so I stood up.

Speaker 2 Boy, you pulling a knife on me?

Speaker 2 I said, you keep doing that to her, I'll cut your hands off.

Speaker 2 She was like, don't, don't, don't. He threw her in the bedroom and closed the door.
Then he comes over to me.

Speaker 2 I guess because, you know, I was short. I wasn't that short, but I was shorter than him.
Talking about, give me that knife, or you're going to get it.

Speaker 2 And I cut my ass down out of him. I'm like,

Speaker 2 boy, who are you? They call me Boom.

Speaker 2 Well, you got to get the hell out of here.

Speaker 2 Nah.

Speaker 2 He pulls out his knife. I also got a gun, too.

Speaker 2 I pull out my gun. Like, what the hell? I said, you brought a knife to a gunfight.

Speaker 2 Boy,

Speaker 2 okay. Hey,

Speaker 2 I called my boy. Hey, man, I'm going to need your help.
He come,

Speaker 2 we get rid of that body. And

Speaker 2 she was so tired, she had fell asleep in the room. So we had to clean up out there.
It wasn't that much mess because he had that thick old coat out so that kept most of the blood in there. But

Speaker 2 we got that going and

Speaker 2 but after that

Speaker 2 we stayed basically away from that area for a while.

Speaker 1 Boone wanted no part of that business so he left the apartment and went back to the Grand Circus bus stop where he slept on and off for a few weeks.

Speaker 1 Eventually, the same prostitute that he had stayed with for the night found Boone and told him that her pimp, a man named Jerome, had been missing ever ever since the night that he spent at her house.

Speaker 1 Boone played dumb and said he had no idea where he was, but in reality, Boone and his friend Germ had disposed of the pimp's body in a nearby dumpster.

Speaker 1 With Jerome now out of the picture, Boone then stepped in and offered to become the woman's protector, basically her bodyguard, for a fee.

Speaker 1 Eventually, word spread that Boone didn't harm women and actually wanted to protect them. and soon other prostitutes left their pimps to hire Boone as their protector as well.

Speaker 1 He earned 10% of everything they brought in for the night, and he made sure that no pimps or Johns laid a finger on the women.

Speaker 2 Well, about three weeks. Then I went back.
I wanted to make sure she was all right. And she cornered me up.
She said,

Speaker 2 what happened to Jerome? I said, what you asking me about? I want to know. What happened? He in the hospital or something.

Speaker 2 No, I ain't seen him since then.

Speaker 2 I said, oh, I don't know.

Speaker 2 She said, all these pimps out here trying to make us work with them because they said that Jerome ran off. I was like, if he ran off, you make money.
And keep your own money.

Speaker 2 She said, no, we can't do that. Do you guys want us to choose who we want to be with?

Speaker 2 I was like,

Speaker 2 I told Jerry, man,

Speaker 2 yeah.

Speaker 2 What the hell shall we do?

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 2 I said, well, if you want somebody to keep eye on you and watch you, I got German and my other boy.

Speaker 2 We can make sure nobody mess with you.

Speaker 2 She said, What, you want to be our pimp?

Speaker 2 Hell no.

Speaker 2 We know what pimps do.

Speaker 2 We don't do that.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 we said, no, we're just going to be your bodyyards.

Speaker 2 Ain't nobody going to mess with you and get away with it. If they do, they're going to see us.

Speaker 2 That's one.

Speaker 2 I'm two

Speaker 2 no mind

Speaker 2 what you mean no mind you never hear it

Speaker 2 if you go one and I go two

Speaker 2 don't worry about us saying three because you never hear it it'll be coming at you

Speaker 2 so for a while they was she was bringing me the money

Speaker 2 She told her friends that she ain't got nobody to give her money to but me. My friend told me, what, he a pimp?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 He just watches out to make sure nobody takes my money. And he is holding my money.
He's going to give it all back.

Speaker 2 I done seen it. He got bag full of it.
I'm like, yeah, your money.

Speaker 2 So a friend talking about,

Speaker 2 will you hold my money and watch me too?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm probably doing that. So she started bringing us money.

Speaker 2 Skinny the pimp.

Speaker 2 He the one that

Speaker 2 kept talking about

Speaker 2 y'all out here taking people women as we hear us.

Speaker 2 We ain't taking nobody.

Speaker 2 They asked us to be their bodyguard.

Speaker 2 Now at that time I was getting known, you know, I was getting cut up. I'm known to

Speaker 2 burst up real quick.

Speaker 2 So he was like, man, you weird. You ain't letting nobody ever know the met.

Speaker 2 I said, you can bet on that.

Speaker 1 Soon, Boone's street reputation grew, and before long, he was known across the city of Detroit as someone not to be crossed or messed with.

Speaker 1 But the hustle of the pimp life wasn't long lived after Boone met a young woman and the two became boyfriend and girlfriend.

Speaker 1 Eventually, Boone left the game entirely to pursue a family life with his girlfriend after they found out that she was pregnant.

Speaker 1 Now, at nearly 20 years old with a growing family, Boone decided that he wanted to join the United States Army. And so, he enlisted and was sent to basic training in boot camp.

Speaker 1 One night, while he was home for a few weeks on leave, he decided to go down to a local bar with Germ and some other friends from Detroit.

Speaker 1 During this time period, a song called The Freaky Deeky was popular, and Boone found himself propped up against the bar watching everyone else do the dance.

Speaker 1 At one point, one of the women dancing approached Boone and started a grind up against him.

Speaker 1 This apparently infuriated the woman's boyfriend, and he walked up to Boone and hit him on the side of the head.

Speaker 2 Next thing I know this guy came over there and popped me right in my jaw. Boom!

Speaker 2 Oh hell no.

Speaker 2 Now I got on my army pants, my army shirt, but there's nothing on in saying that but I got the long green coat on.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 he told me I'm gonna cut you so I opened my coat.

Speaker 2 Don't oh, so you got a gun.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and if I pull it, you did.

Speaker 2 I don't pull this out just to be showing it.

Speaker 2 I was taught to take no hostages, no prisoners, no nothing. You're dead, buddy.

Speaker 2 He reached down and

Speaker 2 I was like,

Speaker 2 I got it halfway because he mine is a drop hole, so I just have to post it down, and I'm fine ready.

Speaker 2 So he.

Speaker 2 Oh, I'm going to leave that there.

Speaker 1 The next day, the man's dead body was found in the alleyway behind the bar, and the police arrived at Boone's house to question him regarding his involvement.

Speaker 1 Boone denied shooting the man, but the police wanted to take him down to the station and book him on charges of manslaughter and carrying a concealed weapon.

Speaker 1 If convicted, Boone was facing a lengthy prison sentence.

Speaker 1 Eventually, though, the Army got involved and told the Detroit Police Department that Boone indeed had a license to carry a gun as he was still in the service.

Speaker 1 The charges were then dropped and Boone was allowed to go on and serve another tour in the Army.

Speaker 1 But after returning home from this tour, Boone's freedom would be short-lived after he was picked up by the police for armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Speaker 1 In an interview, Boone admitted that that time, he wasn't the one that committed the crime and it had really been his older brother Pop.

Speaker 1 But Boone didn't want to snitch on his own brother, so he went down for the crime and served two years for gun possession and two years for armed robbery at the state prison in Jackson, Michigan.

Speaker 1 However, during this prison stint, Boone continued to conduct his illegal activities from behind bars. He sold drugs, knives, and ran a gambling table for other inmates while still in prison himself.

Speaker 1 He soon became known as the go-to guy for any items that someone might need while imprisoned in the clink.

Speaker 1 He allegedly held so much power while behind bars that he even convinced one of the female prison guards to smuggle in a gun for him.

Speaker 7 Eventually, Boone was released from prison on parole after serving nearly four years behind bars.

Speaker 7 And having gone through the special forces training in the military, Boone soon became a deadly force to be reckoned with.

Speaker 7 At this point in his life, he was well integrated into the criminal scene in Detroit. And somehow, in this violent spiral, he became entangled in the business of killing for profit.

Speaker 7 We couldn't track down the details of his first kill. or exactly what went down and what led him down that path.

Speaker 7 But allegedly, Boone had killed many others in the past for minor infractions or simply for pissing him off.

Speaker 7 So it isn't surprising that he took his skills as a killer and began applying them to the streets.

Speaker 7 And so just a few years after his release from prison, Boone was awarded the nickname of the Grim Reaper.

Speaker 7 The other men working the streets with him knew that he was ruthless. that his attacks were fatal, and that if Boone had his targets set on you, there was no escape.

Speaker 1 My friend Josh, who was there in person conducting this interview with Boone with me, asked Boone if he regretted any of the murders he carried out during this time of his life.

Speaker 1 And shockingly, this is what he had to say. Do you regret any of those deaths?

Speaker 2 Nope, tell you the same thing I told the judge. Why should I feel regretting?

Speaker 2 The judge just met because they didn't get a chance to prosecute him, sentence in prison. Me, I said, well, see, I did it the easy way.
I just cut you out, judge, and sent them straight to hell.

Speaker 2 But they need to have been judged. I did.

Speaker 2 Judge that day was in his lifestyle. Boom.

Speaker 2 What if somebody do that to you? Whoopie-doo. I won't know it, will I? I'm dead.

Speaker 2 Y'all think I'm afraid of death? I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid that somebody might take my food.
like that sucker did in Wayne County Child Development Center.

Speaker 2 And I don't know if he's still alive or not, but if he is,

Speaker 2 remember me?

Speaker 1 During his time spent in prison, Boone had earned himself the nicknames Iceman and the Grim Reaper due to the fact that he didn't think twice about knocking off a prison guard if they made the wrong move.

Speaker 1 And this nickname, like I said before, had attached itself to him outside of the prison walls too. Boone had had enough of the drug peddling and minor crimes.

Speaker 1 and had moved on to committing stone-cold murder for profit.

Speaker 1 I mean, he had been trained by the United States Army, he was in the military, so at that point, he had the skill set to become a killing machine.

Speaker 1 And soon enough, after word of his military-trained killer capabilities spread around Detroit, Boone's reputation garnered the attention of a local gang called the Best Friends.

Speaker 1 On the night that Boone first met his future co-workers, a few best friends members had actually gone out to a tough man contest.

Speaker 1 at Detroit's Kobo Hall, where Boone frequently boxed to release his pent-up aggression.

Speaker 1 Boone, over the years, had proved himself as a ruthless boxer inside the ring, and so on that night, they decided to bring in a professional to face him named Eric David Scott-Esch, better known in the professional boxing arena as Butterbean.

Speaker 1 It was a highly anticipated match amongst locals that were in the scene, and the events of that night would prove to be life-changing for Boone.

Speaker 2 Boom, he swung at me, almost hit me, too. I pulled back.

Speaker 2 Throwing clobbers.

Speaker 2 He ain't boxing. He throwing, you know,

Speaker 2 hey, bones.

Speaker 2 So I stepped back again. I said, okay, wait a minute.
I know. I do what the army taught me.
So I stepped up,

Speaker 2 faked it, came back and faked again. He thought I was going to fake that third time.
Whoa! That's his nose.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you can hit that nose at the right point and shove it

Speaker 2 to his brain and kill him.

Speaker 2 So I did that, but

Speaker 2 he didn't fall.

Speaker 2 I'm like.

Speaker 2 Hey, Rap, I think this man is out.

Speaker 2 He came over.

Speaker 2 Fight, fight.

Speaker 2 Look, he see how close I get? He still ain't doing nothing. This man is out.
Keep fighting till we tell you to stop.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 So I stepped over there and tilted his head back and I'm finna just kill him.

Speaker 2 I'm gonna give him the death blow.

Speaker 2 They grabbed me and knocked me in. They grabbed me.
They pit me and knocked me to the side. Like, what the hell is going on? You said keep fighting.
What you been to do?

Speaker 2 I'm finna put him in his grave.

Speaker 2 They said, man, get out this range.

Speaker 2 I said, no, I won this. So they called it TKO.

Speaker 2 I got the little newspaper article too on it because after I won them, I told them,

Speaker 2 why don't y'all get Mr. T?

Speaker 2 He both be the toughest man and I feel like fighting somebody that got some, you know,

Speaker 2 power behind them.

Speaker 2 They never did it. I'm like, what the hell?

Speaker 2 They were like, we ain't going like that, Mr. Kraft.

Speaker 2 You jumping too high up. This is K-Karate Boxing.

Speaker 2 Mr. T is just a man that they had running through doors.

Speaker 2 and they were

Speaker 2 thin doors.

Speaker 2 He walked through the damn thing.

Speaker 2 I was like, well, I know he's from Chicago. I know that he worked at the Godfather Club and that he knew some boxers and

Speaker 2 he helped some people trained and so forth.

Speaker 2 I said, well, he got trained to put them in with me.

Speaker 1 After defeating Butterbean, Oon's ego soared.

Speaker 1 And after the match, he was approached by his nephew Bruiser, who said that the Brown brothers from the notorious Best Friends Gang wanted to speak with him about a potential job opportunity.

Speaker 7 failed assassination attempts, dozens of gruesome murders, corrupt cops, snitching, and the rise and fall of the most powerful gang in Detroit.

Speaker 7 In next week's episode, we take a deep dive with Boone about the murders he carried out, the methods he used in his executions, and how he managed to escape prison time for the murders of over 30 people.

Speaker 7 So join us next week for part two of Detroit's most notorious hitman: the life and story of Nate Boonecraft.

Speaker 1 Hey, everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America.
This was crazy conducting this interview with Boone.

Speaker 1 It was just wild hearing these stories coming from his mouth. And when he was telling stories about, you know, murdering somebody, he would be looking me in the eyes and it just gave me a chill.

Speaker 1 And yeah. Next week's episode is the finale of this two-part series.
And let me tell you, there is some truly shocking, disturbing stuff that we talk about in the next episode.

Speaker 1 So that's definitely not one to miss. In my opinion, it could be the best episode we've ever done.
That's just my opinion.

Speaker 1 Anyways, if you love the show and you want to help support what we do here, definitely go check out our Patreon. We have bonus episodes on there.

Speaker 1 We're changing the Patreon up as we speak, uploading higher quality content, longer content. So this is a great time to join us on there.
You can also get early ad-free access to all of our episodes.

Speaker 1 So if you love the show, you hate ads and you want bonus content, definitely head to patreon.com and search murder in America.

Speaker 1 Also, don't forget to follow us on social media, especially on Instagram at Murder in America. Join our group on Facebook.

Speaker 1 You can listen to our new podcast, The Conspiracy Files, anywhere you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 And if you're feeling a little spooky, Definitely go check out my YouTube channel, The Paranormal Files, where I post a lot of true crime documentaries and ghost hunting stuff.

Speaker 1 Anyways, y'all, we will see you guys next week for the conclusion of this two-part series. Definitely not one to miss.
We love you, and thanks for listening. I'll catch y'all in the next one.

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