‘White Boy,’ a true-crime documentary directed by Shawn Rech, tells us the fascinating story of Richard “White Boy Rick” Wershe Jr., who gained tremendous notoriety in the 1980s as an alleged drug kingpin who was also an FBI informant. He was arrested for possession of cocaine when he was 17 years old and was sentenced to life without parole under the rather harsh 650-Lifer Law in Michigan. If you’re curious to know where he is now, we’ve got you covered. 1
The tale of a Detroit boy recruited by the FBI—at age 14—to be a paid informant against a politically-connected drug gang is so amazing it inspired a Hollywood film—White Boy Rick—starring Matthew McConaughey as the teen’s father.
What kind of father would take FBI cash to let his youngest child be an undercover operative in the murderous drug underworld? This book answers the question.
White Boy Rick became the Detroit FBI’s most productive drug informant of the ‘80s, but as the book explains, things went awry amid FBI misdeeds. Rick tried to become a cocaine wholesaler, got caught and has spent 30 years behind bars. He became a Prisoner of War: The War on Drugs. Rick Wershe is the central character in a wide-ranging exploration of the nearly half-century trillion-dollar policy failure known as the War on Drugs. It explains “testilying”, the widespread perjury felony committed by the police in pursuit of drug felonies, it examines CIA pressure to get charges dropped in a Detroit drug case and it shows how a basketball star’s drug death led to mass incarceration.
- The Cinemaholic, Viswa Vanapalli, April 1, 2021 – Is White Boy Rick Still in Jail Today?
