Prisoner of War

The full title of the book is Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs.

Richard J. Wershe, Jr., also known as White Boy Rick, can rightfully be regarded as a Prisoner of War. In his case, he’s been a prisoner of the War on Drugs.

Wershe was recruited, at age 14, to be a paid undercover informant for the FBI regarding Detroit, Michigan’s drug underworld. Even though he was young, he was street savvy and knew all the wrong people. If the nation’s struggle against the tsunami of illegal drugs has been a “war” then Wershe was a recruit assigned to intelligence duties behind enemy lines.

The young soldier performed his duties admirably, until he told the FBI about a homicide involving top-level corruption in the Detroit Police Department. Wershe had infiltrated the Johnny Curry drug gang and he learned members of the group had inadvertently killed a 13-year old boy, Damion Lucas, in a dispute with the boy’s uncle over a drug debt. Later, the FBI learned Johnny Curry had paid a ten-thousand-dollar bribe to Inspector Gilbert Hill, the head of the police Homicide Section, who oversaw the investigation of the killing of Damion Lucas. In covering for the Curry gang, police homicide detectives brought charges against an innocent man.

FBI agent Herman Groman, who had been young Wershe’s “handler”, tipped the man’s lawyer that the FBI had an informant who said the Curry gang was responsible for the killing. This led to a courtroom showdown. The trial judge ordered Groman to bring his informant to court to testify or the judge would order Groman sent to jail. This caused a crisis that went to the top levels of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition to protecting Wershe’s identity as an informant, there was an additional problem: Detroit FBI agents had falsified their own files to make it appear the teen’s father, Richard J. Wershe Senior, was the informant. Falsifying federal investigative records is a felony. To avoid the Wershe informant matter from exploding in to a major scandal, young Wershe was suddenly and completely dropped as an FBI informant.

With no where to turn, White Boy Rick turned to dealing drugs—briefly. He was soon caught by local narcs and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The FBI did not come to his defense. They let him face a life sentence. Unlike the U.S. military, with its tradition of never leaving a soldier behind on the battlefield, federal law enforcement abandoned Richard J. Wershe, Jr. They allowed him to become a Prisoner of War.