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Vince Wade

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White Boy Rick—Soon to be Free

The youngest paid drug informant in the history of the FBI has spent his entire adult life in prison. He’s about to go free.

White Boy Rick, Rick Wershe, Jr., drugs, FBI, informant
Latest prison photo of Richard J. Wershe, Jr., known to the public as White Boy Rick. He was a teen drug informant for the FBI until he got caught dealing drugs. (Image: Florida Dept. of Corrections)

Richard J. Wershe, Jr.—known to the public as White Boy Rick—will know freedom for the first time since he was a teenager.

He’s been behind bars since 1988 for a non-violent drug crime, even though he was one of the FBI’s most productive paid drug informants.

To say he got screwed by the criminal justice system is an extreme understatement.

I spent over two decades reporting on violent crime and public corruption in Detroit. I never covered a story like the tale of White Boy Rick.

A Prisoner of the War on Drugs

Prisoner of War, War on Drugs, White Boy Rick, FBI, Detroit
The story of how Richard J. Wershe, Jr., the youngest paid FBI drug informant was sent to life in prison in another failed episode in the failed War on Drugs.

I wrote a book about him, and called it Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs.

In a very real sense, Wershe was a prisoner of war: the war on drugs. My book shows how his story typified the nation’s failed effort to stop the relentless flow of illegal drugs on our streets.

In the 80s his story attracted worldwide attention, like an article in The Guardian, a London newspaper.

Rick Wershe was a white kid in the black ghetto. He got to know and consorted with major, politically-connected black drug dealers. That led to his recruitment as a secret, underage paid informant for the FBI.

White Boy Rick, movie, Matthew McConaughey
The movie about White Boy Rick starred Matthew McConaughey but a big star couldn’t save a muddled and confusing script about the FBI’s youngest paid drug informant. (Image: Sony Pictures)

Hollywood’s Sony Pictures made a second-rate, poorly-written movie about him starring Matthew McConaughey. It was called simply, White Boy Rick.

I wrote the book about White Boy Rick and I can say the movie did NOT tell the story.

Scene from the trailer for White Boy Rick:

“It’s Ricky. He white.”

Ya don’t say. For real?

Hollywood Ignored the Real Story

Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith, White Boy Rick, father-and-son film
Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, was a father-and-son-against-the-world movie. A film about White Boy Rick Wershe appeared to try to imitate the story but failed.

Hollywood seemed determined to make this a father-and-son-against-the-world tale like another Sony Pictures release, the 2006 Will Smith film called the Pursuit of Happyness. Unlike the Will Smith character in Pursuit of Happyness, Rick’s dad was far from the hero type.

Scene from the trailer for White Boy Rick:

“You realize you’re the worst father ever.”  

That line by an actress playing Rick’s sister, is one of the few things the movie got right about this story.

Sold Out by his Father

Richard Wershe, Sr. was a street hustler and con man, always chasing get-rich-quick schemes and seldom home. Richard Wershe, Sr. didn’t drink, but he indulged in domestic violence against his family, including his son, Rick.

Rick Wershe Jr. roamed the streets and adapted to the changing complexion of the neighborhood. He befriended some rising stars in the ghetto drug underworld. This caught the attention of the FBI.

Richard J. Wershe, Sr., White Boy Rick
Richard J. Wershe, Sr., father of Richard Wershe, Jr., also known as White Boy Rick, was a con man and street hustler who lived on the edge of the law. When the FBI wanted to recruit his teen son as a drug informant, Richard Wershe Sr. agreed because he wanted the informant cash.

Through his father, the FBI recruited Rick—age 14—to become the Bureau’s youngest drug informant. Richard Wershe Sr. readily agreed to put his adolescent son in a dangerous high-stakes secret life in exchange for FBI cash.

Since father and son were Richard Wershe Sr. and Jr. the FBI cleverly listed the father as a secret paid informant in FBI files but it was the son who was the real snitch. The informant on the books was simply known as Richard J. Wershe.

Young Rick was a gold mine of information about top-level drug dealing. When he told the FBI about possible connections between a drug gang and city officials, the feds assigned special agent Herman Groman to be his so-called “handler.” Groman worked with Rick Wershe on and off for years.

Lured by easy money, Wershe, the ghetto kid, was sucked in to the drug-dealing world and tried to become a player on his own. He got caught by local cops and was sentenced to life in prison.

FBI: Reputation Over Integrity

The FBI and Justice Department didn’t come to his aid because they had recruited a teenager. To avoid public criticism for using an adolescent informant, the federal government let one of their best informants rot in prison for 32 years.

Herman Groman, FBI, Detroit, drugs, police corruption
Herman Groman is a retired FBI agent who investigated major drug conspiracies and police corruption in Detroit. He was the designated “handler” for Richard J. Wershe, Jr. when he was an FBI informant. (Image: The Florida Channel)

I recently spoke by phone with Groman about Wershe finally becoming a free man:

“It’s a difficult thing for me to process. He was locked up when he was 17 years old for a non-violent drug crime—possession—and largely in part because of his cooperation with the FBI, more specifically with me, on a major police corruption case, he ended up not getting any credit for that and he ended up spending more than 30 years in prison.”

Wershe has been a model prisoner for three decades. He was paroled in Michigan on the drug conviction in 2017 after years of appeals work by his attorney Ralph Musilli.

But Wershe had an outstanding conviction and prison sentence in Florida in a car theft fraud case. That’s where he’s been since 2017.

Groman:

“As a result of his cooperation, a lot of major crimes were put together (prosecuted) and it was always my thought that at some point he would be given some consideration by the government for that and it never really happened.”

After three decades in prison, Richard Wershe, Jr. is going to have challenges adjusting to freedom, even if he gets plenty of help and support.

Groman:

“I think it’s going to be an interesting journey for him. I think it could be fraught with a lot of peril.

Think, Vince, how much the world has changed in the last 30 years. You know, in every way. His world is going to be completely different.

My feelings are, I’m very, very happy for him. I’m happy for his family and I wish him a lot of success.”

Wershe has been keeping a low media profile. At the time of his parole hearing in Michigan, Rick Wershe, Jr. said the person known as White Boy Rick doesn’t exist anymore. He said when he gets out of prison, he wants to disappear from the headlines and public view. That’s a worthy goal and he deserves the chance to achieve it.

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