Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Holiday Break: "The Grim Reaper" - Nate Boone Craft

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

We're continuing our holiday break, but you won't want to miss the episode we're highlighting this week. In this episode, our friends at Murder in America sit down and for an interview with a man who ...claims to have killed 30 people. This two-part series digs deep into the life of Nate "Boone" Craft, one of Detroit's most notorious hit men. You can listen to part two now, on the Murder in America feed. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:04 Hey everyone, it's Colin Browne here from the podcast Murder in America. 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. 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. 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. The man's name is Nate Boone Craft, otherwise known as the Grim Reaper. Nate has gained the reputation throughout his life
Starting point is 00:00:45 as Detroit's number one most notorious hitman. And his life's story is heartbreaking, infuriating, disturbing, disgusting, and most of all, shocking. 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,
Starting point is 00:01:04 in America. The episode has already been posted to our feed, and Courtney and I both do hope that you enjoy the show. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State killer, the unit bomber, it's tedious work to find what you're looking for. So if you're hiring, I've got news for you. You can skip the lengthy investigation and the tiresome process
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Starting point is 00:03:24 for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, exploding, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover
Starting point is 00:03:41 and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. For today's episode, I had the opportunity to sit down and interview a hitman who worked for,
Starting point is 00:04:03 for a Detroit gang known as the Best Friends, a gang infamous in Michigan that was responsible for dozens, if not hundreds of murders. Nate Boone Craft 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. 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. It was an intense experience setting up our equipment, inviting Boone over to our Airbnb in Detroit and preparing for the sit down interview. I had never interviewed a murderer or even someone who had killed somebody before that I couldn't
Starting point is 00:04:48 believe that we were actually going through with this. 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. This is going to be an intense, disturbing, and graphic episode, so listener discretion is heavily advised. I'm Colin Browne. I'm Courtney Browne. And you're listening to Murder in America. 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. 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. This new production process allowed the company to produce vehicles
Starting point is 00:06:46 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. 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. 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:07:37 There was also the threat of violence in the South, as black people feared being targeted, lynched, harassed, and discriminated against. So oftentimes, in an effort to escape racial violence, they too sought out Detroit for a chance at a better life. It was true. The people of Detroit were really living the American dream. They earned good money, had a steady, reliable job, and overall, life was good. The city was clean and prosperous, there were plenty of jobs, and there was a hell of a lot of money moving hands in the metro area.
Starting point is 00:08:11 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 in states where labor was cheaper. In addition, foreign automaker competition, specifically in countries like Japan, Korea, and Germany, threatened the American car market. Eventually, the money and job opportunities dried up, Detroit factories began to shut down, and people lost their jobs. Unfortunately, life for African Americans in Detroit didn't appear to be the golden opportunity that they had hoped for.
Starting point is 00:08:43 Even in the north, they were often discriminated against and were blocked from purchasing and renting homes in predominantly white areas. 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. 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. 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. This only further drove a wedge between the
Starting point is 00:09:25 white and black communities, and despite their determination to move on, the black community was often met by unwelcoming committees that showed up when African Americans attempted to move into white neighborhoods. 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. 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. During a summer, slum clearance, government agents would go into predominantly African-American areas and demolish black-owned businesses, schools, homes, and churches. Once again, throughout all of this, the black
Starting point is 00:10:06 community was displaced and in search of new areas to live. But things didn't get any better, and on July 23rd, 1967, the Detroit police raided an unlicensed black-owned club, located at 9-1-25-12th Street. This initial raid led to some violence, which erupted in some of the worst riots the nation has ever seen. The 1967 Detroit riot lasted a total of five days, and it resulted in 43 deaths. 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, with the ongoing, violence including criminal acts like arson, looting, and violent clashes with the National Guard. One man who spoke with the Detroit News stated, quote, we are sick and tired of the treatment we're
Starting point is 00:11:06 getting. We're going to show Whitey. If things don't change, we burn the whole damn city down. End quote. Ultimately, the riot accelerated the departure of white residents from the city in what would become known as the white flight. 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. The city that had once thrived started to fall. This rapid departure of middle-class residents leaving the city
Starting point is 00:11:43 created a steep and sudden decline in the city's revenue that had once been used to provide essential services. The lack of tax money coming in then further escalated the decay of the city and buildings, homes, and businesses were abandoned. As of today, there are still over 18,000 abandoned homes in the city of Detroit. 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.
Starting point is 00:12:13 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. As the years progressed, the ghost town atmosphere of Detroit became a breeding ground for criminal activity. 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. In fact, after the drug really began showing up on the market around the year 1984, tens of thousands of Detroit's citizens, both male and female, found themselves roped into the new
Starting point is 00:12:47 crack economy. At that time, the crack epidemic was touching people from all portions of society. 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. When there's a demand, there will always be a supplier. 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. And all of 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 drug market
Starting point is 00:13:29 themselves. 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. And one member of the best friends gang would go down and hear. history as Detroit's most dangerous hitman, 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 Craft. Like many black residents who lived in the Jim Crow South during that time period, Nathaniel Boone
Starting point is 00:14:04 Kraft'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. Born in 1957, Boone witnessed the challenges faced by the black community during a time of economic decline. 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. From an early age, Boone didn't associate with the other neighborhood kids and he considered himself to be somewhat of a loner. 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.
Starting point is 00:14:52 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. 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. 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 to see how they moved, how they operated, and how they made their money.
Starting point is 00:15:29 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. In his mind, Goon knew that the people there were making money inside of the house. And from a young age, he wanted a piece of that pie. I started when I was nine years old.
Starting point is 00:15:51 I was watching the neighborhood, seeing what was going on. Even though if you hear from my sister, she's going to say I was seven. No, I just never associate with anyone. Even though I was the kid, I wouldn't associate with none of the other kids and none because she went there playing in the mud and dirty. And I was always a clean kid. I always wore clean. Everything was clean.
Starting point is 00:16:17 But my ladies that I remember, I was nine years old, me and Germany, and just came back from pharmacy biol. And we were sitting on the porch and our cookies. And then I told him, I said, hey, man, Charlie over there selling dope. He said, what? I said, yeah. I've been watching them. We sat there for a couple more hours
Starting point is 00:16:39 And I explained it to the jury I said, look, see that man right there? He'd go in there to cops some And see how quick he come back out He did, he went in and we just Sit there and, of course, nobody paying us no attention because we're kids But we watched him come out
Starting point is 00:16:57 And then we watched several more come out Journal, like what we're going to do, sit there and watch all that I said, no, we're going to figure which one we're going to rob. So one day, Boone and his own. 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. 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. So after a few hours of sitting and scoping out the scene,
Starting point is 00:17:31 Nate set his sights on a man named Jesse. After observing Jesse Enter the Drughouse, 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
Starting point is 00:17:43 where they sat and waited for Jesse to emerge. We had a ski mask on, but of course, most people know who we are because we're only two short kids in the neighborhood, but we got gun.
Starting point is 00:17:55 So when we caught him going through the house, he was going through the side of, it's just the side of this Loretta house and we was back in the back waiting on as soon as he came through don't move
Starting point is 00:18:11 man get y'all little bed put the way I said don't move Janjan already came out on his side and he got his gun at him I got a 32 so you got a man what's
Starting point is 00:18:26 give us what you got I ain't got no money we know that give us that bag man I can't the guy killed I said It's gonna be too late Because you don't give it to us We're gonna king
Starting point is 00:18:39 So he threw the bag down Jern reached down to pick it up And he kicked Jern I started to bust his butt But Jerry was like Don't don't don't Don't you're gonna try everybody
Starting point is 00:18:53 From the neighborhood back in So the guy running off screaming They robbed me they robbed me So we ran through the alley Jumped three houses Over My Mama house We go in the garage, we digby up the pack, and we see what it was.
Starting point is 00:19:09 Okay, this is heroin. So, Judge 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. Now, we're going to ask the guy to give us some, but right now, we're going to sell these 40 packs we got. 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. Having watched his parents and family struggle with poverty, Boone hoped that hustling the streets and doing whatever he could,
Starting point is 00:19:38 even if it was illegal, could provide a stable source of income for his family. 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. 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. Of course, Charlie didn't take Boone and Germ seriously, as at the time, like we said, they were only nine years old. However, both boys refused to take no for an answer.
Starting point is 00:20:12 Boone knew that this may be his only opportunity to prove himself and gain entrance into the lucrative criminal underworld of Detroit. 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. 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. So, acting on Charlie's orders, Boone and Jerm went down to Bluebird and confronted Jesse. We went down to the street, sure enough, Jesse was down at Bluebird. He was down there at Bluebird, and we walked up to him. He finally realized who he was.
Starting point is 00:21:00 You two little nigger robbed me and this us. We ain't robbed nobody. Now we're hearing because you old Charlie, and Charlie sent us to get the money. And what? How are y'all gonna get something? Tilt my coat up, showed him the gun. Do we gotta do this all over again?
Starting point is 00:21:25 Because I think that you believe that we won't kid you, don't you? Man, pooh, shot him in the thigh. And putting a potato on the gun, don't make it that goddamn quiet. I was like, man, my brother told me to put a potato on him. It sort of like a silence. It wasn't no silent. But we didn't worry about because we kids,
Starting point is 00:21:52 we just stand around looking like this. And people with that spot and figure out what's going on. We told, uh, Jess did it. man, if you scream or holler, the drug will shoot you in the head. And if we got time, we're going to drag your body off somewhere. They're going to find it down one of them drains, sewer drain.
Starting point is 00:22:10 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, where he kept a large stash of money. And while being held at gunpoint, Jesse handed over what was owed to Charlie. Boone and Germ then returned to Charlie's house with the money.
Starting point is 00:22:34 And needless to say, Charlie was shocked. But he agreed to let Boone and Germ collect his debts for him. 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. 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. When Boone eventually confided in his sister about what was going on,
Starting point is 00:23:07 she told him that he either had to stand up for himself and fight the bullies or come home and fight her instead. So Boone opted to fight the bullies, saying that his sister would have, quote, beat the hell out of me. 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. 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
Starting point is 00:23:51 engaging in illegal activities. During the summer of 1967, When the racial riots in 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. At one point, he and his friends looted a local gun shop, where they took knives, guns, and bows and arrows. He admitted that he always had a fascination with knives, and he had been playing with them since he was a young kid.
Starting point is 00:24:22 This fascination even led him to his nickname Boone, A name taken from the legendary American frontiersman, Daniel Boone. Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection. At Sephora, spritz on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with he fresco paraizzo. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with chiqui bikini. Or caps your sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janito's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. Every outfit starts with a choice.
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Starting point is 00:25:27 Vanity Fair lingerie. During the race 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. However, Boone soon noticed that a lot of the Army men were also heroin users. 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. 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. Soon enough, Boone had earned a reputation as a hustler at just 10 years old. So, seeing that his illegal business
Starting point is 00:26:17 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. Let's talk about how we're going to make this money. I can't give y'all more money. Then I ain't making nothing. I said, well, we ain't making nothing now. And just to let you know, we've been following you too. We know when that guy come from out of town up here and y'all meet up at the restaurant,
Starting point is 00:26:50 you're like, how do you know that? We're little kids. We can easing out of the areas and places and people never pay us no attention. I'm not giving y'all nothing. I'll beat your eyes. That's one. What the head you're doing?
Starting point is 00:27:09 Don't keep threatening us because we don't appreciate that. That's two. What's going to happen when you get to whatever number you get to us? You won't be around. Man, I, boom! Tell you walked through.
Starting point is 00:27:30 Did I not tell him? Let's get all the dope and the money he got around. We know where some of his eyes finds that. We got all that shit together. Took it down to my mama's basement. Well, about two hours because it took us two hours to find everything. We had a lot of shit that was already bagged up there. He bagged up and had rubber bands around.
Starting point is 00:27:53 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. Boone had just killed his first individual at just 10 years old by shooting him. 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. 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. At just 10 years old, the two friends then dug a shallow grave and buried Charlie's body in his own backyard,
Starting point is 00:28:31 leaving the corpse to rot and decompose in their neighborhood. He was like, man, what are we going to do? So we're going to go back down there and throw him in the yard and bury it as. Man, you got us out of the house. I ain't got you. I ain't doing nothing. You did it because you're my boy. And we're going to be boys until the end of time.
Starting point is 00:28:51 I already felt that. So we took care of that. We made the money and then. Boone and Jerm believed that the stash of stolen dope and money would be safe in Boone's basement. However, not long after the murder of Charlie, Boone's older brother Willie discovered the stash of cash and drugs, and he stole it. But as the money continued to roll in, the two young boys decided to take the money in drugs and stash them at Germ's house. However, this also proved to be a mistake after Germ's mother found the money. and took it for herself.
Starting point is 00:29:31 I took some of the money to my house, and my brother, Willie Fountain, and stole it. But, of course, he didn't know where I got it from. He thought, I just got it from going up there to Cibylos, A&P, going to the shoe shop, working around the neighborhood, making a little money, and I always came home with money before I started doing that.
Starting point is 00:29:54 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 brother. I mean, my big brother. So next time we made the money, I told him, hey man, you take it to your house. He took it to his house, but his mama found him and took it in his printing.
Starting point is 00:30:17 You're gonna tell me, hey man, my mama bought the money and just took it in. And you're like, I tried to get it back on, but she told me to sit by little. I said, yeah, I figured that. his mother was not kind to him. Without any money left, the two friends had to put their heads together
Starting point is 00:30:36 and figure out another plan to replace what had been stolen. 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. However, word on the street was going around that Boone and Germ were wrong.
Starting point is 00:30:58 wreaking havoc around the neighborhood. 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. 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. 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. 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. He also told her that Boone had used a knife to cut up his arm after he attempted to reach
Starting point is 00:31:46 inside of his back. But Boone continued to deny any involvement or use of violence as he was aware that his age allowed him to evade certain consequences. A weed man house and of course I taught my brother in helping us rob. So we go in there and rob the place, get the weed, get the money. They always kept trying to look us. If you look up, you're going to die. Now, you keep on trying to turn that head. If you think I want to shoot you in your head,
Starting point is 00:32:23 okay, man, look at I ain't looking, you better not. But if you really want to look, I'll make you stand up. 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. So we took the weed, put it in my little red wagon. I didn't know we had that much.
Starting point is 00:32:43 I said, man, just too bulky and shit. We ran down the street with that. We kept looking back to see what they were going to run out the house. By the time we tucked down one of the side houses to run through the yard, and back then we had alleys. We ran down the alley. and got behind my mama garage, poured that little board out,
Starting point is 00:33:02 we ran up in there with it. But for the next 15 minutes, we just kept looking, listening, trying to see, did anybody recognize, or was, you know, like anybody going to chase after us. But they didn't.
Starting point is 00:33:17 So, of course, my brother Poppe, he wanted, he won quite a bit of weed. I didn't know nothing about no weed at the time because you didn't know. I learned about the heroin. So Pop, too, big-child bag, talking, okay, this is cool with me.
Starting point is 00:33:35 She'll take it on, and pop, come on now. I love you, but don't try to rob us. I ain't going to rob you. Plus, I've been hearing things about two little kids out there shooting people. Why are you telling us that somebody out there going to shoot us? He said, no, I think y'all would be doing it terrorized in the neighborhood because my sister friend went and told my sister I just happened to be in the front room when he came with it and told him like the Louise came with him boom did you
Starting point is 00:34:12 hit him with a axe or a hanger or something who me man quit lying on my little brother that's my little baby brother why people always send I did something I'm sitting here Sister cuss him out After Charlie's murder, the money started to dry up and Boone and Germ knew that they were going to have to go out and find a new way to make money. It was obvious that even from an early age,
Starting point is 00:34:46 Boone had a strong desire to obtain as much wealth as he could and no one was going to get in his way. 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. and so wanting to drum up some business, Boone himself picked up and answered the phone call.
Starting point is 00:35:08 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. Since Charlie was dead, Boone and Germ knew that it would be their one opportunity to try and persuade the powerful drug connection to work with them instead. Back then you got the roll of the phone. I called Jordan, told him what went down. Jordan said, what? I said, yeah, man. He downstairs on the front porch. We got to make a zap for this food.
Starting point is 00:35:44 He was like, or what? I said, we're going to make, we're going to beat the hell out of him. So, Jordan came over within like three minutes. He was there, he only nil just a couple blocks over on Mel Conquins. He came over, and we, uh, I went out the back door to come down through the side, told you, oh, he, over here, still watching. Louise is still talking to them. They're smoking a big old blood.
Starting point is 00:36:14 Well, of course, back then, they just rolled them up with paper. They ain't only got the cigar that you got nowadays. But, uh, so I said, what are we going to do? I said, we're going to fuck him up with these bats. He said, what? We're going to fuck him up with these facts. Now, listen up, man. I don't want to talk to you a lot in my head.
Starting point is 00:36:32 Then, of course, the first time I got that anger, and Louis, like, boom, is that you over there? So me and Jers stepped out. Yeah, what's you over there doing? Looking for some worms. Now, I don't know why my sister didn't know I was lying. I'm always clean. I don't play in muddle dirty nothing.
Starting point is 00:36:56 I look, just looking for some worms. Me and Jers were going to go fishing. Boy, y'all come from the side of that house. You know that man don't like it. We're on the side of Charlie House. But the Warren was good back there because playing with Charlie. We caught him later on that night, beat the hell out of him.
Starting point is 00:37:19 And said, next time you come over with my sister's house because my sister lived it downstairs, my mother lived it upstairs, and she was always watching us when my mother went to work. That's why I consider my sister, my mama. my mama was my mother, but she was always working. She had to feed all of us kids. But after that, me and Jones said,
Starting point is 00:37:46 we got to do something to get some quick money. Of course, we had enough money to recop, but we had to wait. Then when time came, Charlie phone rang, we asked, yeah, and I tried to torture. Yeah. Charlie said Beat him at the same place
Starting point is 00:38:07 I hung up real quick Sure enough Next following day The guy was there What do you think, John? Hey, what? You got the money? I said, yeah, I got the money.
Starting point is 00:38:27 You ain't thinking about robbing them I said, it did cross my mind So I said, okay, you watch the back I'm going over and sit at his table I'm going over there and sit down at his table A little kid what you want We still might coat, pull out the package, put it up there, he looked at it. What the hell is that?
Starting point is 00:38:54 It's money. You know when you used to get it with the Talley? Well, we want that. Where's Charlie? I know he ain't sent child up there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, uh, Charlie ain't no more. What you mean? Charlie got arrested.
Starting point is 00:39:14 And he either upstairs or downstairs, but he ain't here no more. Looked at me, I'm like, The job, shh, that's our business. We don't ask you, any question or ask us. We got the money. The other do is give us the stuff. Let me, that. What's your name, not doing?
Starting point is 00:39:40 They call me, Boone. He still don't know that Germans over there, wait for him to do something stupid and Jerry's going to light him up. But we talked about a half of them. We talked about a half an hour. We had a piece of custard pie and a coffee. And at a while, he said, listen,
Starting point is 00:40:02 when I get up here, there's a can outside. Yeah? He said, look in there. He got up and left. Journey to me, we looked at each other. I told you, I told you, she go look. Oh, you go look. So we both went to look.
Starting point is 00:40:25 And there was a bag in the package. We picked it up. Damn. We're in business. Man, I hope we don't go to prison or jail. I said, we minors. They can't do nothing to us. They can't even lock us up.
Starting point is 00:40:43 Where you get that from? I read. But I love reading. So we went on and debby that up and I was like, well, here. here, you take another part of it. Dude, you don't want you? He said, man, you know me.
Starting point is 00:41:04 I got to try to cut down on the money. The money is, my mama keep searching and this and that. I really don't need that much to get stuff I need outside. I do because I need a car. After getting their hands on another big cash of drugs, it was only a matter of time before the money started to roll in again. but suddenly, Germ started having second thoughts. He told Boone that he didn't need that much money,
Starting point is 00:41:31 and that his mother was always searching the house, finding his profits and stealing them. So what was the point? 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. He decided that it wasn't smart to continue walking around the streets, though,
Starting point is 00:41:51 so once he had enough money, he approached his older brother Pop and asked for his help. 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. He knew his brother would be the best person to ask
Starting point is 00:42:07 as he worked at the nearby Chrysler plant. At first, Pop laughed and told him he was way too young to drive. 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 Popp just couldn't refuse. So he took the money from Nate and purchased the car in his name.
Starting point is 00:42:30 Pop instructed both Boone and Germ 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. After a few days, the car was purchased, and the young boys were now driving around the abandoned streets of Detroit. Of course, the cops would eventually stop them on multiple occasions. occasions, but somehow they were always able to play it off. How are you going to get a car? That's what my brother Popp is for. I get in hell and get him and say, go get me a car.
Starting point is 00:43:05 In your name and everything, you know, and of course, I'm going to be driving it. And he did, and of course, I got caught many times by the police there. What the hell? Give me no keys. They take the keys off in the truck, throw them in there and lock and say, now, whoever car this is, they're gonna beat you. They find out you got the keys thrown in the trunk. Of course, I was like,
Starting point is 00:43:30 beat me, the cops and yeah, good for you. They drive off. When they drive off, of course I got another key. It's my car. I pop the trunk, get back in, look around, you know, police crank it up
Starting point is 00:43:46 and go straight on. I had to party like six houses down from my mama house. Sometimes I used to park it over there by the school because nobody really, you know, mess with anything over there. But that went on for about two years. Came from his name that he had, it was my sister husband. My mother's sister husband.
Starting point is 00:44:20 We had to leave my car there because we couldn't keep driving, the police were running around looking for it. So we just left apart. They can't do no one to par a car. They ain't even have a far compound of somebody's house. So we would take his deuce in a quarter, and we'll drive that around. Jeremy was like, man,
Starting point is 00:44:39 and do police catchers, man, we're going, I said, they ain't going to do that but take the key in the locker and in the truck. They didn't do that how many times going to be. Then that's all they're going to do, because we're going to put the handcuffs on us. You see how a little lot of rich seat? That's not going to fall right on the hall.
Starting point is 00:44:55 But Jerry was like, man. Why don't you? We better learn how to go to the west side. Because I'm thinking about moving over there. What? I said, yeah. I seen this apartment building. Look nice.
Starting point is 00:45:09 Collinwood's apartment. We go over there and checking it out. I only got a little tall, a little more cut up. But I was always a little bit taller than germ. He used to tease them. And I didn't have facial hair. I would grow up facial handling. Somebody's trying to get a little hair on the cheek.
Starting point is 00:45:35 When you were pulling it out, leave my hair along. I go, come on, let me pull it out. Maybe two were growing this great. You can't grow long. John couldn't grow no mustard, no slab, no nothing. I think he didn't grow any man. He got about 20 or 30. I believe I can't be for sure.
Starting point is 00:45:55 For two years, Boone and Germ used the car for their growth. growing drug business, and they lived the lives of street hustlers. The money was good, and for the first time in their lives, girls started to pay attention to them. 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. 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, so at 12 years old, he decided it was time to find a way to make some quick cash.
Starting point is 00:46:35 But instead of hustling the streets like he was used to, he and Jerm made an elaborate plan to rob the local grocery store. Bilo, armed with guns, the boys walked into the grocery store, but they were immediately stopped by a security guard. Upon walking into the store, the security guard grabbed Boone, believing that the gun he was holding was only a toy. But unfortunately, for the employee, as the security guard attempted to restrain Boone,
Starting point is 00:47:04 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. The security guard dropped Boone, and the two young boys quickly flood the scene. As words spread, the witnesses inside the Bilo were able to identify
Starting point is 00:47:24 the two boys inside the store, and soon the police were at Boone's mother's house. Interestingly, the Bilo workers were able to identify him as, from time to time, he had worked odd jobs at the grocery store for extra cash. Both Boone and Jerm 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. So, Boone stayed at the youth center for a few months before he was transferred to the Wayne County Child Development Center. Eventually, he was placed into a foster home with a white family who owned a farm, and in a later
Starting point is 00:47:59 interview, Boone said that he had never been called derogatory names, such as the C-word and the N-word, until he went to live with the white family. But while he was there under that roof, he had faced extreme racism. 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:48:30 Not welcome back at the home, Boone was then sent back to the youth home and then transferred once again to the Wayne County Child Development Center, where he stayed for a significantly longer time. 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. 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. However, the harassment from the kid didn't stop, and once again, Nate used the baseball bat to defend himself. 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.
Starting point is 00:49:10 There were other instances of violence from Boone as well, and he himself even admitted to me that he also hit a kid with a fire extinguisher after he continued to mess with him. gasping during sleep, feeling fatigue, ask your doctor about Zepbound, terseptite. The first and only FDA approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.1.1.1.1.1.
Starting point is 00:49:50 or 15 milligram injection. Zepound contains terseptitide and should not be used with other terseptide containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pins or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia.
Starting point is 00:50:30 If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulfonelioria or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsened kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99 or visit Zepbound.lily.com. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice.
Starting point is 00:51:05 Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. We got caught trying to rob Bios as a kid. I don't go in that too much on that one, but yeah, they took us, locked us up,
Starting point is 00:51:30 and put us in the U-Pone. That's when the people are. We keep getting on these little kids, though. Yeah, we're your little kids. They put us on three in. But of course, after a while, we see what's going on there, there and old people in there, I mean, no kids in there was, they was kids, but they were eating in there and cravy, running around, chasing each other and doing this and that. So I said,
Starting point is 00:52:00 what we're going to do, man? He said, my mama ain't going to come get me, I said. My sister probably come and get me. And sure enough, she came down there, but by the time she got there, I didn't hit this kid in the head with a fire extinguished. He kept on back me in my head running. Turned him like, ain't you gonna do so? Yeah, I got just waiting. I had it on the side of me.
Starting point is 00:52:39 I could see the kid, he's looking. I said, yeah, he's gonna run the butt down here trying to hit me again. So sure enough, here he comes. I'll slid my hand to the side. Just before he got about maybe six steps away from him, jumped up and hit him in his knee. Woo!
Starting point is 00:52:55 He went, ah, shut up. I'm gonna hit him in the head. The guard that, uh, He said protect the floor. He came over there. You bet not hit him. So he kept hitting me. I was just playing.
Starting point is 00:53:09 Yeah, he was playing. He kept hitting me and hit me and hit me. So I'm hit him back. You don't pick up something and hit somebody. You're trying to murder him or something on it? No. Next time I'm going to kill. So they locked me in the room until my sister came.
Starting point is 00:53:30 When she came, they gave me and germ to her. Because she got germ out too. We get out to you, Paul, I mean, we go back home and, of course, Louise beat our butt. I'm like, why we get the butt beat? We didn't do anything. The country, I don't want to talk to you from going to your room to stay. Of course, I don't know. I'll never stay. I tie my seats together, clam out to winter. But I got a business to run. Nobody still didn't know I was selling, shit.
Starting point is 00:54:02 Eventually, he was sent to the nearby Hawthorne Center for a psychiatric evaluation. 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. However, after six months at what Boone dubbed, quote, The Nut House, he was released after was determined that he didn't suffer from any mental disturbances, but rather, he just didn't care about life in general.
Starting point is 00:54:38 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. 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. As he walked up and down the street in confusion,
Starting point is 00:55:03 one of the neighbors came outside and told him that the Kraft family house had been demolished and they had moved somewhere else. 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. Jeremy ran off already, but I had to stay a little bit longer.
Starting point is 00:55:28 That's when I hit the kid in here with the baseball bat. They threw me in Hawthor and Scent of the Cravey House. Of course, in there, after about 60 days, they were like, ain't nothing wrong with this kid. Why did he send him here? They told us he was in crazy a dad. He hit somebody with a baseball bat. So they cue in on me that for 30 more days.
Starting point is 00:55:49 And he said, ain't nothing wrong with this man. He just don't give a damn. So they called the place and told us, hey, y'all come pick him up. Ain't nothing wrong with him. The man gathered on the speaker. And I'm sitting there listening. We don't want them. You got them. Y'all signed for them.
Starting point is 00:56:07 We don't want, no send them back here. We're not letting them in. What damn we're going to do with them? That's our problem. He hung up on him. He looks at me and says, you got your mother phone number or anything or somebody? I ain't got nothing. Do you think you could get somebody to come get you? I don't know nobody. So he went into my father and said, oh, he said, oh, he didn't know.
Starting point is 00:56:32 to my father, he said, okay, you lived that 814 Continental Main Street, Jefferson. I said, that bring back memories. Been a long time. You said, well, the guards down there packing up your room for you, you can't go back into that unit. We're releasing you. To me, you're releasing me.
Starting point is 00:56:58 I still got some more time to say, said the people don't want you back. And we ain't gonna keep you. So they took me up to the bus stop, gave me the bus ticket and 30 bucks and told me Detroit that way. He goes to map. I'm going to show you how to take this bus, which was the Grand River bus. It'll take you all the way downtown. Down there, you take this and you're going to show you how to go over there.
Starting point is 00:57:21 You're going to have to walk to you in Jefferson. Catch that Jefferson bus, and then take it right to your screen. You know your neighborhood when you see it. I'll be, yeah. Okay, so I did all that. when I got it in the neighborhood, that's when I realized the neighborhood had changed. I'm like, where the hell is our house at? The lady called the street, look.
Starting point is 00:57:49 Excuse me, sir, what you're looking for? 8.14. They tore that house down a couple years back since, sir. That was the craft family, I said. Yeah. See what to look at you? Is you little bone? There ain't nothing little here no more, man.
Starting point is 00:58:09 She was like, oh my God, where you be? I'm locked up. But they released me and I come back in trying to find my mom, my sister and everybody. It's gone. They moved over on Sherty. I don't know the address or what's it between. I think it's between Kirchville and Matt.
Starting point is 00:58:31 I was like, so I'm walking down shelter, Sheridan. I walk back and forth back and for. I don't see nobody or I don't recognize or anything. I know I got a lot of brothers and sisters. They should be outside playing. But of course, I forgot that they was older than me, so they probably got married or moved out or something. So I go back up, catch the bus back downtown.
Starting point is 00:59:00 I'm sleeping at the Grand Circuit's bus area. With nowhere to go, you walk 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. While sleeping at the bus stop, he ended up meeting a young prostitute who offered to let him stay at her apartment. Boone took her up on the offer, but it wouldn't end up being a relaxing and pleasant experience. 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.
Starting point is 00:59:44 She told him that the man was her pimp and that she owed him money. So, in her mind, the violence was okay. Here comes this guy. He comes in. Where's my money? What you need with the goddamn set for? We could still make money out there. It's almost 6 o'clock in the morning.
Starting point is 01:00:05 When the jobs and the trick stopped, you could stop. But cars were still riding up there. Where in the back area, bird off, whatever that screen. Well, it's Mac. What you should cross over is the other side. But he started screaming at her, and I'm laying on the couch. He can't see me because I'm laying down on the couch. I ain't hiding.
Starting point is 01:00:29 I'm laying on the couch. Talk about, bitch, that time I tell you to do something, he hit her. So that's when I sat up. He said, who in the hell is that? Oh, 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 paid her right here.
Starting point is 01:00:53 She said, but I make the money. Oh, so you're trying to get tough? She shat it up and he looked over at me. You need to get your butt up off that couch and get the hell out. I just sat there and paying him no attention because this is her house as far as I care. She grabbed, I mean, he grabs her and start choking her so I can stir it up. boy, you pulling a knife on me? I said, if you keep doing that to her, I'll cut your hands off.
Starting point is 01:01:29 She was like, don't, don't, don't. He'd throw her in the bedroom and closed the door. Then he comes over to me. I guess because, you know, I was short. I wasn't in that short, but I was shorted than him. You're talking about, give me that knife. You're going to get it. And I cut my ass down there.
Starting point is 01:01:46 I'm like, boy, who are you? I said, they called me boom. You gotta get the hell out of here. Nah. He pulls out his knife. I also got a gun too. I pull out my gun. Like, what's your ass?
Starting point is 01:02:08 You brought a knife to a gun fight. Boy. I caught my boy. Hey man, I'm gonna need your help. He comes. We get rid of that body. and she was so tired she had fell asleep in the room, so we had to clean up out there.
Starting point is 01:02:32 It wasn't that much mess because he had that thick old coat out, so that kept most of the blood in that. But we got that going. But after that, we stayed basically away from that area for a while. 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. 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 since the night that he spent at her house.
Starting point is 01:03:06 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. 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. 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. 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. It was about three weeks. Then I went back.
Starting point is 01:03:45 I wanted to make sure she was all right, and she cornered me up. She said, what happened to, Jamies? I said, what did you ask for me for? I don't know. What happened? He in hospital? I'm gonna. No, I ain't seen them since then. I said, oh, I don't know. She said, all these pimps are here trying to make us work for them because they said, oh, that Jerome ran off. I don't know. If he ran up, you make money. Just keep your own money. He said, no, we can't do that. These guys want us to choose who we want to be with. I was like, told Jerry, man. What the hell should we do? I don't know.
Starting point is 01:04:29 I said, well, if you want somebody to keep eye on you and watch you, I got Jern and my other boy, we can make sure nobody mess with you. She said, what, you want to be our pimps? I don't know. We know what pimps do. We don't do that. But we said, no, we're just going to be y'all body yards.
Starting point is 01:04:55 Ain't nobody going to mess with you can get away with. If they do, they're going to see us. That's one. I'm two. No mind. What do you mean? No mind? You never hear it.
Starting point is 01:05:13 If you go one and I go two, don't even worry about it. I said three because you're never here if we're coming at you. So for a while, she was bringing me the money. She told her friends that she ain't got the right,
Starting point is 01:05:29 give my money to me. A friend talking about, what, he a pimp? And no. He just watches it out to make sure nobody takes my money. And he is holding my money. He's going to give it all back. I haven't seen he. He got bad for it.
Starting point is 01:05:46 I was like, yeah, it's your money. So, a friend talking about, will you hold my money and watch me too? Yeah, I'm probably doing that. So she started bringing those money. Skinny the Pimp.
Starting point is 01:06:05 He the one that kept talking about, y'all out here taking people women's we here. We ain't taking nobody. They asked us to be their bodyguard. Now, at that time I was getting on, you know, I was getting cut up. I'm known to a person up real quick. So he was like, man, you weird. You ain't like nobody ever known of that. I said, you can bet on that.
Starting point is 01:06:32 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. But the hustle of the pimp life wasn't long lived after Boone met a young woman and the two became boyfriend and girlfriend. Eventually, Boone left the game entirely to pursue a family life with his girlfriend after they found out that she was pregnant. 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. 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. During this time period, a song called The Freaky Deaky was popular,
Starting point is 01:07:17 and Boone found himself propped up against the bar watching everyone else do the dance. At one point, one of the women dancing approached Boone and started to grind up against him. This apparently infuriated the woman's boyfriend, and he walked up to Boone and hit him on the side of the dance. head. The next thing I know this guy came over there and popped me red in my jaw. Boom. Oh, hell no.
Starting point is 01:07:43 Now, I got on my army pants, my army shirt, but there's nothing on it saying that, but I got the long green coat on. So he told me, I'm going to cut you, so I'll open my coat. Oh, so you got a gun. Yeah, and if I pull it, you did. I don't pull this out just to be showing it. I was taught. To take no hostage, no prisoners, no nothing, you did, buddy.
Starting point is 01:08:12 He reached down and I was like, I got it halfway because he minded as a drop host. I just had to push it down in my mouth ready. So I'm going to leave that there. 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. 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. If convicted, Boone was facing a lengthy prison sentence. 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.
Starting point is 01:08:58 The charges were then dropped, and Boone was allowed to go on and serve another tour in the army. 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. 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. 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.
Starting point is 01:09:31 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. He soon became known as the go-to guy for any items that someone might need while imprisoned in the clink. 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. Eventually, Boone was released from prison on parole after serving nearly four years behind bars. And having gone through the Special Forces training in the military, military, Boone soon became a deadly force to be reckoned with. At this point in his life, he was well integrated into the criminal scene in Detroit. And somehow, in this violent spiral,
Starting point is 01:10:20 he became entangled in the business of killing for profit. We couldn't track down the details of his first kill or exactly what went down and what led him down that path. But allegedly, Boone had killed many others in the past for minor infractions, or, since he said, and he was a simply for pissing him off. So it isn't surprising that he took his skills as a killer and began applying them to the streets. And so just a few years after his release from prison, Boone was awarded the nickname of the Grim Reaper.
Starting point is 01:10:53 The other men working the streets with him knew that he was ruthless, that his attacks were fatal, and that if Boone had his target set on you, there was no escape. 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. And shockingly, this is what he had to say.
Starting point is 01:11:18 Do you regret any of those deaths? No, to you say the same thing I told the judge. Why should I be regret? The judge just made because they didn't get any chance to prosecute him, sitting in some prison. Me, I said, well, see, I did it the easy way. I just cut you out, judged the civil straight to hell. So I'm gonna, but they need to been judged, I did. Judge that day was in his lifestyle. Boom!
Starting point is 01:11:46 What did somebody do that to you? Whoop he knew? I won't know it will. I'm dead. 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
Starting point is 01:11:59 Development Center. And I don't know if he's still alive or not. But if he is, Remember me? During his time spent in prison, Boone had earned himself the nickname 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. 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,
Starting point is 01:12:28 and had moved on to committing stone-cold murder for profit. I mean, he had been trained by the United States Army he would, was in the military, so at that point, he had the skill set to become a killing machine. 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. 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, at Detroit's Cobo Hall, where Boone frequently boxed to release his pent-up aggression.
Starting point is 01:13:03 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 Butterbee. 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. I get up, there pulling around, boom, he swung at me, almost hit me, too, I pulled back. throwing clobbers. He ain't boxing. He throwing, you know, hey little. Hey bones. So I stepped back again.
Starting point is 01:13:46 I said, I do what the army taught me. So I stepped up, faked it, came back and faked again. He thought it was going to fake that third time. Hoo! His nose! Yeah, you can hit that nose at the right point and it shoved it through his brain and killer. So I did that, but he didn't.
Starting point is 01:14:12 Paul. Hey, ref, I think this man is out. He came on, fight, fight. Look, you see how close I get, he still ain't doing nothing. This man is out. Keep fighting until we tell you to stop. Okay. So I stepped on in, till the head back, and I'm going to kill him. I'm going to give him a death blow. They grabbed me and grabbed me. They pitt me and knocked me to the side. Like, what the hell going on? You said, keep fighting. What you've been to do? I'm pretty put him in his grave. He said, man, get out this man. I said, no, I won this.
Starting point is 01:14:55 So they called it T-K-O. I got the little newspaper article too on it because I, after I won them, I had told them, why don't you all get Mr. T? He's both being the toughest man, and I feel like fighting somebody that got some, you know, power behind them. They never did it.
Starting point is 01:15:19 I was like, what to hell? They were like, we ain't going like that, Mr. Crabb. You are, you, I mean, you jump it too high up. This is kick karate boxing. Mr. T is just a man that they had running through doors. And they were a little thin door, just walked through the damn flat. I was like, well, I know he's from Chicago.
Starting point is 01:15:43 I know that he worked at the Godfather Club. club and that he knew some boxers and he had some people trained and so forth. I said, well, he got trained to put him in him with me. After defeating Butterbean, Oon's ego soared. 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. It was at this point in Nate's life when his criminal activities had reached an all-time,
Starting point is 01:16:16 high. And there was no turning back. What would happen over the next few years after he was introduced to the best friends gang sounds almost like the plot of a movie, failed assassination attempts, dozens of gruesome murders, corrupt cops, snitching, and the rise and fall of the most powerful gang in Detroit. 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. So join us next week for part two of Detroit's most notorious hitman, the life and story of Nate Boone Craft. Hey everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. This was crazy
Starting point is 01:17:12 conducting this interview with Boone. It was just wild here. 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. 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.
Starting point is 01:17:39 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. 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. 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.
Starting point is 01:18:05 So if you love the show, you hate ads, and you want bonus content. Definitely head to patreon.com and search Murder in America. Also, don't forget to follow us on social media. media, especially on Instagram at Murder in America. Join our group on Facebook. You can listen to our new podcast, The Conspiracy Files,
Starting point is 01:18:23 anywhere you get your podcasts, 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. Anyways, y'all, we will see you guys next week
Starting point is 01:18:36 for the conclusion of this two-part series. Definitely not one to miss. We love you, and thanks for listening. I'll catch you on the next. next one. I want to hear something spooky.
Starting point is 01:19:06 Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 01:19:33 A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm global news crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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