All language subtitles for Motown.Mafia.The.Story.of.Eddie.Jackson.and.Courtney.Brown.2011.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

(music)

Voiceover: 1973 the Detroit
Free Press' front page proclaims

Dope Kingpin Get Away with It.

They had names like
Jesse James, Pretty Rick,

the Black Greek and Mr. Klean.

2 of the 12 men listed as
Detroit's biggest heroin dealers

were next door neighbors
and in reality,

they were the 2 largest
heroin dealers in Detroit

dwarfing the other
men on the list.

Eddie "The Fat Man" Jackson,

charismatic son of
a pool hall owner

and his chief lieutenant,

Courtney "The Field Marshal"
Brown, a former city bus driver

had built an empire on a par
with men like Nicky Barnes

and Frank Lucas of New York.

But theirs was a very
different and in many ways,

more sophisticated operation
than Barnes' and Lucas'.

Based on family
ties and finesse,

more than murder and mayhem.

They truly were the Motown Mafia

and the saga of Eddie
Jackson, Courtney Brown
and their families

stretch from the 1960
and into the present day.

Starting in 1969,

Eddie Jackson had built a tight
inner circle of lieutenants

like Charles Rudolph,
Russell Clayton,

Ronald "5-0"
Garrett, Black Butch

and his right-hand
man, Courtney Brown.

All of them had grown
up together in Detroit's
old Black Bottom

and Paradise Valley
neighborhoods

forming an
unbreakable foundation

for the soon to
come heroin empire.

(music)

Black Butch: Well we all grew
up in the same neighborhood.

It's called the Paradise Valley.

Charles: I came to Detroit
from Alabama in the late 50's.

Dr. Carl: When you
looked at Black Bottom

you looked at musicians

but you also looked at more.

You had a spirit of
great entertainment.

(music)

Voiceover: The
saloons and nightclubs

that once made Paradise
Valley's Hastings Street

famous around the country
are long gone now.

Replaced by urban renewal
and shining new stadiums.

But when Eddie Jackson and
his crew were growing up,

it was the heart of
a vibrant community.

Dr. Carl: A lot of
black folks were there

and they needed
the very essentials

that most people just need.

They needed that housing.

They need to be able to
maintain those houses.

They needed employment.

They need social relationships.

All of that took
place in Black Bottom.

Charles: During this time you
could leave your doors open.

Cornell: Being a young boy
growing up in the Black Bottom

when we talk about neighborhoods
and the good old days

that was a neighborhood.

When they talk about
leaving your door open

and the ladies down the
street or the men of street

will whoop you for
doing something wrong.

Dr. Carl: You will go out
if you were Caucasian.

You will party in
other parts of Detroit

but after midnight if you
really wanted to have a party

you really wanted to eat good

you came down to Black Bottom

and the senselessness
of crime didn't exist.

They weren't going to
rob you they enjoyed you.

Charles: I met Eddie Jackson,
he lived around the corner.

My sister used to
rent from his father.

Voiceover: Eddie Jackson
and Courtney Brown first met

in the late 40's
when they were kids

and formed a fast bond.

Courtney: Eddie had
to be at least 5 or 6

and I had to be at least 10.

Charles: Their father used to
didn't let them go anywhere

unless Courtney took them.

So he looked up to Courtney.

Eric: Eddie when I was
about 6, 7, years old

I used to rock sit him
because he was sort of heavy

and I was a little guy.

He couldn't catch me

but I loved him because he
was always a cheerful guy.

Voiceover: Eddie
Jackson's father fled
the South in the 1920's

possibly after some
trouble with the law

and became a prominent
businessman in Paradise Valley.

Dr. Carl: The audience
needs to understand

the significance of
black entrepreneurship

that was not considered
simply a doctor or a dentist.

They were businessmen.

Courtney: Eddie's father was
a very successful businessman.

He's one of the few black,
he couldn't sell liquor

but he had beer and
wine license back then

because it was during the war.

Charles: You came to Detroit
from Hot Springs, Arkansas.

He was a different guy then

but he changed his name,
he had killed someone.

Dr. Carl: You had black
men who were independent

like Mr. Jackson and others
will come into the community.

They ran legitimate businesses

but sometimes they also ran
like the numbers business.

Courtney: Bootleg
and continental with
push button windows

which was unheard
of in 1947, 1948.

Charles: Made his fortune at
the beginning of his fortune

selling homemade liquor,

put that into real estate.

Voiceover: While Paradise
Valley was relatively
safe in the 1950's

there was a thriving
but well controlled

underground economy in effect.

Dr. Carl: Now you also had
your Red Light District.

There was a great
hypocrisy also.

Courtney: That was drug addict's
den, there was alcoholism

and all the gambling
and all the recipe,

but as kids we was ...

There's no know.

Black Butch: Money everywhere.

Nothing but hoes
and pimps into town.

Dr. Carl: Because you
had strong prostitution.

So I'm speaking of
white businessmen,

white [fappy] workers and others

will come over to the
house of ill repute.

Black Bottom was a
spiritual, a social enactment

more simply than just economic.

Charles: Even though we was poor

and it was hard times,

I always think pleasantly

you know, back from that time.

Dr. Carl: It all
balanced out very well

and then suddenly
it got blown up.

Voiceover: By the early 60's,

Paradise Valley and Black Bottom
were fast becoming memories

as urban renewal
cleared the area.

Eddie and his brother Elijah,

took over their
father's pool hall

when the elder Jackson died.

Charles Rudolph
joined the military

and Courtney Brown got
married, started a family

and became just another
working class guy

in the ultimate blue collarship.

Courtney: I got married 1961.

My daughter was born later
on that year Christmas.

My son was born 3
years 3 days later

on 28th of December 1964.

I started driving a bus, a DSR.

Voiceover: Little did they know,

Detroit's fortunes were about
to take a turn for the worse

but Eddie Jackson's fortunes
were about to take off.

Charles: This city
had started to slide

but you couldn't see it yet.

It was just barely
beginning to go down.

Dr. Carl: I don't think you
can ignore the social levies

that broke in '67.

They were coming all along

but once that riot broke

then the social norms and the
parameters changed immensely.

Voiceover: The Detroit
Riot of 1967 was by far

the worse to hit the
country during that time

and was the final nail in the
coffin of Paradise Valley.

Voiceover: As governor
of the State of Michigan,

I do hereby officially request

the immediate deployment of
federal troops into Michigan

to assist [date]
local authorities

in reestablishing law and
order in the City of Detroit.

Voiceover: The city had gone
from the land of opportunity

to a nightmare of
unemployment and [blight]

then the heroin moved in.

Charles: The heroin is so
strong over in the Orion.

You can't snort it,
you can shoot ...

They would smoke it.

Guys came back with a habit.

that the local drug
couldn't support it.

Voiceover: When Eddie
Jackson's father died,

he left his sons Eddie and
Elijah a substantial inheritance

but by 1969, the
money was long gone

thanks for the brother's
pension for the good life.

Eddie went to work at an
auto plant but was injured.

Courtney: This one
company won't pay me

so you got a pretty good
understanding of procedure

once you read these
papers to the [C].

Eddie enlisted his
childhood buddy Courtney

to help him receive a
disability settlement

and use the proceeds
to make his 1st foray

into the heroin game.

Courtney: He gave
me $800 then he says

then he turns to me and say,

"Courtney, I'm going
into drug business."

I say, "Is you crazy?"

I said, "What do you
know about drugs, Eddie?"

For him you can
make a lot of money.

Jap: I'm the original.

As far as selling drugs
for Eddie Jackson,

I'm the first guy
that ever did it.

Me and [Sideo] King K.

At the time, Eddie was just
hustling around the pool

and hustling crap games,

and he went and
bought little stuff

and put it in the building
across from the pool room

me and [Sideo]
went to selling it.

Courtney: I don't see Eddie
again for another couple months.

I come back down
there and he tells me

that the guys had ran
off with his money

and he broke again.

Well, I fill his income tax out.

So I fill his income tax out.

He went back in business again.

Jap: The guys ran scams on us,

Sissy Sam and Buddy.

They used to have ...

They used to sell the
weight down in the valley.

Eddie think and he's
under the impression,

he's buying a quarter pure

because he gave him 250 for it.

It's not pure, it's mix jag.

Me and [Sideo] we're struggling
selling this, you know?

Voiceover: Eddie kept at it.

Parlaying his income tax
return into another small load.

This time he started
making money.

Charles: I was
visiting Eddie once

and he had a guy over his house.

It was a heroin dealer.

He had an Eldorado, a
guy named Young Blood.

He was snorting some heroin

and I was looking at him hard,

and Eddie hunched me and said,

"Don't look at the man
like you're crazy."

This guy had a grocery store,

drove an Eldorado,
he was real sharp.

He was dealing drugs

because I was over there
helping them cap up dollar caps.

They used to call
them penny caps.

Voiceover: While
the Italian Mafia

still dominated the
Heroin trade in Detroit

by the late 60's black dealers
were striking out on their own.

Chief among them
was Henry Marzette.

Dr. Carl: Now in my research
we go back to the 50's

and found out that
heroin was there.

You start talking
about Henry Marzette.

Scott: Marzette was
really the first

urban godfather here in Detroit.

Dr. Carl: Who was
a police officer

and then became a
big V man in drugs

but he wasn't the only one.

Scott: He was kicked
off the police force

in I believe 1956 or '57

for shaking down numbers
operators in Detroit

as well as drug
dealers and purveyors.

Huckabuck: I knew him.

I ain't like Milo
but I knew him.

I knew all of them.

See Marzette then
was into murder

and kidnapping and all that.

Scott: As a police officer,

everything he learned
about the drug game

and now he was gonna
apply it to himself

becoming the godfather.

Dr. Carl: I was given
money as a young man

on Washington Boulevard
by Henry Marzette.

I had an uncle who
was a major player

and I was bedazzled by Marzette.

He was wearing house shoes.

He had a black Fleetwood 1965,

he had a black
Fleetwood Cadillac

that I thought was the
coolest car in the world

and he gave me money for school

and that's what he said.

The money wasn't for
me to go and get clever

in those Italian [knit].

He gave me that
money and he said,

"I expect for you to go
and use this for school

"and nothing else."

Voiceover: Eddie Jackson's
meteoric rise in the dope game

came when he met a shadowy
figure in Detroit's underworld,

John Classen.

Courtney: Marzette had the name

but actually Classen was the guy

who we really had to wait.

Scott: The Italian mafia
around here in Detroit

had really been the
primary wholesalers

dating back to prohibition.

You had men like Giovanni
"Papa John" Pritziola

and Raffaele "Jimmy Q." or
"Jimmy "The Goon" Quazarano.

Mr. Quazarano as
well as Mr. Pritziola

had very, very solid
ties over in Sicily

as well as ties into
the French connection.

Courtney: Classen he had met
a connect out an old park

some Italians.

Voiceover: Classen was
being fed top quality heroin

through Sam "The
Mustache" Norber.

A remnant of Detroit's
infamous Jewish Purple Gang.

Courtney: He was getting some
of the best dope in the city.

No question about it.

Scott: This territory was
always recognized nationally

as not just a hub
for Detroit Italians

but a hub for national
Italians to get their drugs.

Jap: We're scuffing and
scuffing with it, you know?

We did this for
like 4, 5 months.

Voiceover: In '69, Eddie
Jackson finally caught a break.

A well-known junkie in Paradise
Valley by the name of Box

claimed he could hook
Eddie up with someone big.

Jap: Box, he was just another
average guy, an addict

who happen to know Classen.

Courtney: First name Box,
give me a blow I'm sick.

Eddie said, "Man, you
ain't dumb, what you say?

"Don't worry about
it man, big man.

"Don't worry about it.

"Who is this guy
you're talking about?

"John Classen.

"Man and you junkie
and you don't ...

"I know him.

"He just bought a house in
Palmer Park cost $40,000."

I said, "Man, ain't no
nigger got $40,000."

So showing him, he
did know Classen.

He took Eddie out there.

Eddie came back with some jag.

I'm looking at the pack
I figure sugar flour.

I said, "What is that?"

He said, "That's dope."

I said, "Man, a person
pay you for this shit?"

He said, "Yeah."

He started capping up the jag.

I'm fascinated because
I had never seen heroin

or cocaine in my life.

I'm 30 years old,
I've never seen it.

I say, "What do you do?"

He's capping up these penny caps

and he'd sell them
for a dollar a piece.

Voiceover: With Eddie now
being supplied by John Classen,

his operation took off.

And soon Eddie could be
seen riding the streets

in a brand new red
convertible Cadillac.

Black Butch: I was
working at the gas station

on [Grayson] and Madison.

Eddie used to come
through it in Cadillac

and stuff this
thing but you know,

every black guy in this town
wanted to drive a Cadillac.

I used to tell Eddie to
let me hustle with him.

He said, "Man, you know
I can't hustle with you

"because you understand,

"you know, your
mama would kill me."

Courtney: Eddie come
flying around the corner

in a 1969 red Cadillac
convertible brand new.

Jap: Sand [boteo] red.

I know where to get it

because we had went out
to the car dealership

out on Grand River

and he had picked that car out
when we were first starting

and I was like, "Man, if we
gonna make that kind of money

"to buy a new
Cadillac, you know?"

Because I'm not thinking
that beat but he is.

And when I came home
he had that Cadillac.

Courtney: Get in the car.

I said, "I'm not getting
in the car, it's stolen

"and lodge it let
him broke [lapse]."

"No, Eddie just bought it at
Coffee Cadillac for $6,900."

I say $6,900?

"Yeah, he paid cash for it."

Jap: Once Eddie
hooked with Classen,

he started getting a product

that he could work
with, you know?

Voiceover: Seeing his buddy's
business was now booming,

Courtney Brown decided
to supplement his day job

by moonlighting with Eddie.

Cornell: My mother and
father had separated

and my father went to stay at
this house on Mark Twain Street

and that morning, I
woke up in the morning

and I hear these men
talking in the kitchen

and I peeped in the kitchen
and it was a powder,

a white substance on the table.

I had no idea what it was.

The powder had to
be like 4 feet high.

My father he ushered
me back in the room.

Voiceover: Eddie soon
assigned him the task

of finding an apartment
building he could purchase

to use as a headquarters
for the operation.

Courtney founded on
Hancock Street and John R

in Midtown Detroit.

Charles: They was
getting a little bigger.

They opened a place on Hancock.

Jap: He kept saving his money

and then he bought that
building up there on Hancock

and then he started
selling quarters.

(music)

Charles: They wanted
somebody that could come

and pick up the money.

And Courtney was already
working with him.

Courtney: He said,
"Berming, you 5-0,

"you're all gonna
stay upstairs then.

"When he asked for the dope
you all drop it down here,

"he bring you all the money."

Voiceover: As
Detroit was changing

and crime was
skyrocketing in the city,

the Hancock building quickly
became one of the city's

most thriving heroin spots.

Charles: On my shift,
I would open the door.

Customer give me the money.

I will go up the steps,

put the money through
a chute in the door.

They had made a
pipe in the ceiling.

They would drop the dope down
right in front of the door.

Customer would pick it up.

I took their money but I
never hand them any product

then I would open the
door and let them out.

Cornell: With
Hancock's rebuilding,

my father was the
caretaker there.

And I used to go and visit
my father and at this time,

Courtney and Eddie used to
be in and out this building

and so they gave me the job
when I get out of school

to come over there
and vacuum the floor,

you know, tidy up the building,

I'll stay at the building.

Courtney: Pretty
catch downstairs

and we sell what we call
weed then was like a gram

or 2 grams or 8 [boulder].

Charles: Penny caps which is
dollar caps at the backdoor

and they were selling
half quarters and
eighths out the front.

Dr. Carl: The drug
dealer's the first time

that we begin to see money
that went well beyond pimps.

You started seeing a different
type of young black men.

You started seeing
Mercedes Benzes,

you started seeing a
Rolls-Royce occasionally.

Cornell: My father
used to tell me,

"Do not go in the basement."

But me being a young guy

and you know, being mischievous,

I go in the basement anyway

and I see the same thing again.

AMP bags full of
money only this time,

another section of the
basement had AMP bags

and these little
brown packages in it

which what we've
known as eighth.

Each bag was filled
all the way to the top.

Courtney: First time
we made a $1,000.

We thought we just held them
doing a hell of a thing,

that was '69.

The first time we ever
made a $1,000 in 1 day.

Cornell: I just see people
come there and get packages.

A whole bag full of eighth.

I've never seen nobody
come get a single nothing.

Voiceover: Violence and
other problems were avoided

by strategy and focus.

Eddie Jackson ran things
differently than most dealers.

Customer service was his
number 1 commandment.

Charles: We didn't have
security problems at the joint

because only 1 person,

you couldn't come in 3 people
and only 1 person buying.

That doesn't leave room
for a robbery on that part.

Courtney: On the average
we was doing $10,000 a day.

On a weekend we do 15,000.

Charles: You needed
2, 3, 4, 5 people

that'd be going through
it different times
picking up the money.

Courtney: We had
guys working 3 shift

and [unintelligible]
they working the fourth.

We pay vacation.

They work 8 hours a day.

They got paid for overtime

and we had a bunch
of law workers.

Cornell: My father
would call me and say,

"The Fat Man wants you
to go to store for him."

I used to have to catch some bus

from Lafayette and Chene

all the way to
Hancock and John R

just to go to store
for him for orange pop

and he would give me $100.

Voiceover: As the
Hancock took off,

an arrangement was made with
the 13th police precinct

to provide protection from raids

in exchange for a share
of the drug proceeds.

Charles: After the
business really got big,

yeah, police used to come
once a month to get paid.

Voiceover: This paid off when
Eddie and Courtney got tipped

by the Detroit Police
of an impending raid

by federal narcotics officials.

Courtney: They approach
Eddie and told him,

"Look here man.

"We got word that
they're gonna raid

"because they hear there's a
big dope house on Hancock."

Voiceover: The local
cops told the dealers

to leave a small amount of
heroin packs in the spot

but diluted to less
than normal strength,

so when the feds came,

they'd think the
Hancock building

was just another
small time operation.

Courtney: Showed up,
they raided that night.

Showed up they found the few
packs that we left around.

The workers seem they they're
just junkies, let them go.

Dr. Carl: But he was a thinker

and I think that's what you saw.

A thinker minus the
violence temporarily anyway.

When I say that, he knew
how to move his kilos.

He knew about connections.

For the first time,

we were seeing a young
black man with an option of

you can do this not
be on Wall Street

but you can do this
and be a thinker,

and that was very different.

(music)

Cornell: He was always ...

He was the business man.

He was always ...

People would come
and talk to him

and it was like he
was giving directions.

It was like he was
the facilitator.

Eric: I've never seen Courtney

do a whole lot of
talking and stuff.

He was always smooth.

Cornell: I never seen
him get loud with nobody.

I never seen him with a
confrontation in a way.

He was always cool.

A well [armor]
scene all the time.

Charles: People see Eddie as a
great businessman which he was

and he got this from his father.

But I've always said myself,

Eddie was the expert on
understanding human nature

and a lot of people might
not remember well enough

to give him credit for that.

Courtney: That's
one of the stands

that Eddie would always
apply and look at you,

"You do not mistreat
the customer period."

If they ain't got no money,
enough money, so what?

You take the $8
and ride with him

and call in whatever he needs.

His philosophy was this:

"As long as I get
95% of the money,

"I could care less
about the 5%."

Charles: This another
reason probably

that kept a lot of things
from happening to him

is how he didn't get
played on his life,

because a lot of
drug dealers did.

Courtney: No harassment,
no talking about him,

no degrading him

and not trade sex for
favors and sex for drugs.

If a woman come in there
and they have no money,

you can't tell her to
have all sex with you

and you will give
her the credit.

That was a no-no.

If you cut that you were fired.

Cornell: I've never
been in a situation

where a guy might owe
someone some money

and he can't pay him
and anybody will.

You got your daughter
in the backroom,

let me go back there with her

and you know, we'll
kill this deal.

We never did nothing like that.

Voiceover: Though the
money was beginning

to really pour in for
Eddie and his crew,

Courtney Brown decided
he'd had enough

and went back to working
full time as a bus driver.

Courtney: I went on back to work

and bought a house
on Mark Twain.

For a whole year I
didn't see Eddie then.

Voiceover: By 1970,

Eddie was one of the
biggest dealers in the city

and Courtney was growing
tired of the street life.

Courtney: Later in the
year of 1970, Halloween,

I don't know, it came to
a crossroad in my life

where I said, will I go
back to work for the state

or go back and
hustle with Eddie.

I decided to go to see Eddie.

He said, "You can help
Rudolph, 5-0 and Russell

and Farah Lee mix up.

I was behind in my
house and all that

and he said, "Don't
worry about it.

I'll speak to you
when I get back."

Black Butch: Every street
between here and port

called American Car
Park, it was a joint

and everybody was getting money.

Everybody was getting
money that time.

This was since ...

Like I say at '69 all
the way to early 70's.

No guy selling drugs
can make as much money

who's making [unintelligible]
or selling mix jag.

That's where your
money was made.

That was quinine,
dorman and lactose.

We would take a key
and make 9 keys.

Voiceover: Just as Courtney
returned to the crew,

John Classen, Eddie's
main supplier disappeared.

Under indictment and facing
a lengthy jail sentence,

he fled Detroit and became one
of DEA's number 1 fugitives.

Classen was never seen again.

Eddie continued to briefly do
business with Classen's wife

but he desperately needed
a new source for Heroin

if he wanted to
keep getting rich.

Eddie had a plan.

Courtney: They had just granted
Ali his license back to fight.

And the buzz was
everybody's going New York.

(music)

When Eddie goes to the fight,

he go dressed all up
and drive his Fleetwood

bank to the fight.

Voiceover: Eddie Jackson
and his entourage

made such an impression
at Madison Square Garden

that Ebony Magazine
published a photo of them

alongside the now infamous
shot of Frank Lucas

in his chinchilla hat.

In New York, Eddie,
so the story goes,

bumped into some Italians.

Most likely members of the
Bronx-based Gambino crew,

that distributed most of
the French connection heroin

entering the country.

The Italians observed
that Eddie appeared

to be in the same
business as them

and that maybe they
could work together.

Courtney: He comes
back and so we meet.

He said, "Look here man.

"I met some Italians
and they say

"they let the stuff
go for 16,000 a key."

He asked me, he say,
"What do you think?"

I said, "Eddie, you
know more than I know."

He said, "I'll tell you what,

"we're gonna send Dolph up
there with 50,000 get 3 keys."

Voiceover: Eddie didn't
know it at the time

but he had just made one
of the great connections

of the golden age of heroin.

Charles: Back at the hotel room,

I put the heroin in the clothes.

When I get on the plane, I put
it in the overhead compartment

and it was just that easy.

Voiceover: Realizing the gold
mine they had on their hands,

Eddie and Courtney began
flooding the streets of Detroit

with their new product.

Black Butch: That
was my first job.

Transporting from
New York to Detroit.

I would take 2 or
3,000,000 at a time.

Courtney: Every
couple weeks or month

we make a trip up to New York

and cap and come on back.

Black Butch: I never had no
problems because like I said,

we were protected from
the time I pick it up

to the time I get across
George Washington bridge.

Voiceover: As the
organization grew,

Eddie stuck to his old
circle of childhood
friends from the Bottom.

Jap: When I came
home from the joint,

that's who he had running.

We had 5-0, Rudolph,
Courtney was there

and Russell was there, yeah.

That's who he had around.

Black Butch: Everybody had
a bag from different people,

you understand they
was getting from Eddie.

At that time,
Eddie was supplying

if not everybody
direct or indirect.

Courtney: Eddie had an uncanny
ability to inspire people.

Charles: He had a very
good grasp on human nature.

You know, what people might do,

what people wanna do.

Courtney: He would
say, "Look here man."

He is a couple ounces then
after that he would say,

"You ain't no half ounce person.

"You're half a kilo man here.

You know, pay me
when you get [fan]."

And Eddie is dialing him up
from the the ground floor up.

Voiceover: Eddie
Jackson's legend

was growing in the streets

just as fast as his bank roll.

Eddie Jr.: Well, first of all,

I told you he was
a people person

and a lot of people
that was his audiences,

customers and their
family and kids,

even people that
wasn't in his class.

You didn't have
to be his customer

to be in his audience.

You understand,
all you had to do

was catch him on a right day

and be there and you was on.

You was gonna see something

that you probably ain't gonna
witness again in your lifetime.

A lot of stories other
people told to me

because he was sort of
bashful in telling me this.

When he came home, we
go out hanging together

and other people kept
telling me stories

that he sit there
kind of bashful.

That's my ...

Did you really do that pop?

"Ah, you know how that is.

"You understand, niggers
push your button on me

"and at that time I
had to be superman.

"You understand, when
they push that button,

"I turn into superman,
you understand.

"And that's how it was."

Richard: We've turned the corner

on drug addiction in
the United States.

Drug addiction in the United
States is under control.

Voiceover: Richard
Nixon might have thought

he had the country's drug
problem under control

but he certainly didn't have
Eddie Jackson under control.

Jap: It was Eddie Jackson,
Eddie Jackson's crew

and then it was
just everybody else

that probably got stuff
through Eddie Jackson.

Courtney: Everybody in the
city knew Eddie Jackson

and everybody knew he was
on top of the pyramid.

I was his right-hand man.

Charles: Yeah, he
was real charismatic.

Wore diamonds, flashy stuff.

Wear his hair in this super
fly hairstyle and so forth.

Jap: Ain't nobody compare
with Eddie Jackson

since Eddie Jackson left.

He could be emulated
but never duplicated.

Eric: He used to come to the
joints that I used to be at

and buy everybody
everything they want

and give us some money
and do the same thing.

Open up the crack table

and have us to gamble with him.

He beat us all because
he keep on betting.

Sooner or later he
gonna throw us some more

and he'd turn around

and give us all back
the money that he gave

and leave out.

Eddie Jr.: If he
go out, he rolling.

Okay, I'm gonna take 250 people.

I've got a meeting to blow.

We all gonna go down and
blow this meeting together.

So, we all go into the fight.

We all going
wherever we're going.

Nobody gonna be short changed.

You ain't got to worry
about being hungry

if you got enough
money to gamble.

Eric: Eddie was an entertainer.

He entertained us.

When he walk, he talks
shit all the time.

Jap: He had a bag full
of $1 bills in the car

It was all the $1 bills
that came from the joints

and from the streets,
he throw that away.

You know, he'd ride
down in Wheelers Street

and just throw that
out the window.

Charles: He was throwing
money out of the car

down in the Brewster Projects.

Eric: Eddie used
to ride down John R

and throwing money out
the window and everything.

Black Butch: We'd be
riding down the street

and I don't have nothing to do

and we have a sack of money.

Eddie say, "Man, we
just take this money,

"just throw it out the
window, right now with it."

Charles: He just go crazy
grabbing the money and so forth.

Black Butch: A stampede,
stampede and running.

Turning cars would try to
get the money. (chuckles)

Jap: All the $1 bills
he ain't keep them.

He kept $100 in his pocket.

Damn, you got all the
$100 bills in America.

Charles: I remember Eddie
giving a lot of people money

and say "We need you all."

And turn them on
to the business.

Eric: And then sometimes
the personal ones

he would stop and ask
you, "Are you all right?"

You would say, "Yeah, well,
I'm sort of all right."

He would go in his pocket

and no telling
what he might give.

No telling.

That was a life that they
don't have nothing, you know?

Charles: This is
another reason I believe

that he threw the
money out of the car.

Because he appreciated
his customers.

He also knew without
his customers

even though they
was using heroin,

there would be no him

Dr. Carl: What these
men represent was

a new way of entrepreneurship

and also what he
did with that money.

They're the ones who start
showing up at the fights.

that were Ali and Frazier.

They were the ones that were
traveling for the first time.

We never saw that before.

You talked about travel,

you get in your Cadillac
and go to Chicago.

You get in your
Cadillac go to Alabama.

But suddenly these young
men that had drug money

and it spread very quickly.

The girl I want to get
with Eddie or whoever

because they're going
down to the Bahamas.

Be there all day

even someone talking
about going overseas.

They were really just a
whole new frame of thinking

that the black community
had not seen before.

Black Butch:We've been
to Amsterdam, Holland.

Paris, France.

[Be true] I was the only one
really traveling you understand

going around just any
country, you know?

If you guys would
you understand,

but like I said most
of everybody else
are getting homesick

and me and him we keep on going.

It was beautiful.

Whenever you see a
black guy with Eddie,
the way he was dressed

and the way kind of
[journeys] that we had

they thought we was
entertainers or something

you understand, but we wasn't.

South America from
Rio de Janeiro

all the way up to
the Panama Canal.

Voiceover: By 1971,
Eddie and Courtney's
crew were so legendary

that when Courtney bumped in

to prolific black
author Donald Goines,

a Detroit native
and heroin addict.

Goines told him that the
streets of the city knew

that they were the best that
ever did it in the heroin game.

Goines even based many
events in his novels

on the real exploits of
Eddie Jackson and his crew.

Courtney: His [own
company] knows going

I've been seen at all.

from all the guys who
saw come from Marzette,

Nick The Greek to John
Classen, the whole crew.

As far as we're concern,
you all number 1.

Voiceover: With
their strong plug

to the French connection
heroin pipeline ,

the Jackson Organization
was operating

at the absolute highest
levels of the drug world.

Dr. Carl: It's a very
complex subject I would say

but it was a time that
was I think revolutionary.

These new men came on the scene

and they were doing
cutthroat business,

but they were businessmen.

No different than Al Capone

and company doing prohibition.

Voiceover: Along with
men like Nicky Barnes,

Frank Matthews and Frank
Lucas' supplier, Ike Atkinson,

Eddie Jackson was
on the short list

of most powerful black
gangsters in the country.

Courtney: There's only
it was 2 or 3 people

that I'd tell you the
black were dealing with.

Eddie was one, Frank Matthews

and one [Gold Fingers].

Voiceover: September 1971,

the Jackson Organization
suffers its first setback.

Eddie's girlfriend Farah Lee
is spotted at the airport

traveling with 2 men

and a large sum of
cash to New York.

Courtney: When they
get to New York,

the team DEA was tipped off
by the clerk at the airport.

A black woman with 2 black guys

had large sums of money
going to New York.

She calls my house and tell me,

tell Eddie she got the package.

I tell Eddie to tell her
don't go back to the airport,

get away from the airport.

Anyway, she gets to the
airport they stopped her.

She had 2 kilos of heroin.

She refused to cooperate period.

She wouldn't tell them nothing.

But one of the guys,
Reynolds who was with her,

tipped them, told the DEA

that she was working for
a guy named Eddie Jackson,

she was his girlfriend,

and that's where the
dope was going to.

Voiceover: With Lee incarcerated

and Eddie's name now known
to federal drug agents,

the Field Marshal,
Courtney Brown

was dispatched to New York
to deal with the problem.

Courtney: When Eddie got ready
to post the bond for her,

they said no they're gonna do
harm to the girl if she got out

to tell Mr. Jackson to
post another $50,000

if he wanted the girl out.

So, I flew back to Detroit.

Picked up $50,000, took it
back to the bond in company.

The girl got out.

Voiceover: After being hooked up

with F. Lee Bailey's legal
partner, H. Ross Black,

Farah Lee was
finally granted bond.

But Eddie Jackson and his crew

were on the fed's
radar in a major way.

Courtney: They
gave her a 7-year.

She done 3 years or
something like that.

Voiceover: With all the
heroin they had coming in,

Eddie decided to get out
of the retail business

and become strictly wholesale.

He called a meeting at
Courtney Brown's house.

Courtney: He calls a
meeting Charles Rudolph,

Ronald Garrett and
myself and Eddie.

Charles: Eddie figured he
had went as far as he could

in the business that way.

Courtney: Meeting in my kitchen.

Eddie announced that
he's getting out

of that part of the business.

You all gonna have in.

You're all gonna split
it up among yourself

and beyond bolts.

He says only person got a
choice in this is Courtney.

"He can stay with me

"or he can be is own boss

"and I can understand that."

He says, "Plus you all been
good and loyal workers.

"I'm gonna give each one
of you all $10,000 a piece.

"You're all free to do
whatever you want to do.

"The business is yours.

"As of Monday, I'm
through with it."

Charles: Myself, 5-0 we
set our own operation up.

5-0 had his crew
and I had my crew.

Jap: Him and 5-0 feuded a lot.

He started the price war thing

and ran the prices stuff down
to half a quarter for $20

and they was just ...

Charles: Instantly
my business took off.

5-0's took off anywhere
from $40 to $50,000 a day.

Jap: Rudolph was my man.

He would drop off the big
bags of quarters to me.

Big shopping bags
full of quarters

and pick up the shopping
bags full of money.

Black Butch: I started off
with 5-0 Ronald Garrett

and then like I said,
he was the fool.

He was the fool out
of the whole group.

You understand I'm saying?

I'm not gonna pull
this out and all that.

Like I said when I
started off with him

you understand I stayed in jail
fighting the police with him.

I mean he used to knock them
out 2 and 3 and 4 at a time.

5-0,he was a renegade. (laughs)

I used to pick up his money.

Anywhere and no never
no less than 50,000,

you understand, a day.

Voiceover: By this time,

Eddie himself was grossing
roughly $2,000,000 a month.

Over $10,000,000
in today's dollars.

Triple that figure by
the time Rudolph, 5-0

and others sold
it in the street.

Courtney: Eddie by
the time would after

to tell you what I mean,

Eddie has shot past everybody
in the city put together.

When we do we can dump
10 kilos at one time

and we're gonna see
the guys for 2 weeks.

I go collect the money.

2 weeks they get
another package.

Voiceover: Insulated
from the streets,

Eddie and Courtney spent
their time with family

and have nabbing with
every black celebrity

that passed through Detroit

at the height of the Motown era.

Eric: Eddie comes
on to Heatwave Bar

it was all right off of
Vernon in the express way.

He's sitting there with
every gang people out there,

waiting on him and
they close the bar down

so he can eat chicken in
the basket. (chuckles)

That's all he would want
chicken in the basket.

And then goddammit, he have
to sneak out the backdoor

and then goddamn rolls

or one limo pull up in
the back and pick him up

you know, because
Eddie looked up one

so they would see if they
could get a few boxes of it.

Basically, he did give
everybody something.

He said that he comes
to see about you,

he ask somebody Butch or
one of them to come find you

and give you what he said.

Dr. Carl: I'm not
there to glorify

but it was a time of
wine, women and song.

The entertainers
wanted to take pictures

with the likes of those
men like Eddie Jackson.

You'd see the OJays and the
beautiful like Felice [Hayman].

They were the ones that

will go to the little private
parties after a concert

and those men were utterly good.

Voiceover: Redd Foxx crossed
paths with Eddie and Courtney

at a show in Detroit

and they showed him all
the best hospitality.

Courtney: He say,"Where
are you all guys from?"

We say, "Detroit."

And he said, "You know,
I like the white girl."

White girl?

Me and Eddie look
[unintelligible].

There's no white
girls around here.

We knew he was
talking about cocaine.

"I'm having a new TV show."

"Yeah, what's it?"

"Name's Sanford and Son."

So, we got his cocaine.

He had his own suite up
in the [Ponsel] training.

Voiceover: It was once said

that 80% of Motown
music at that time

was done under the influence
of Eddie Jackson's drugs.

Black Butch: Anytime any
entertainers came to the city,

we were supplying
them with cocaine

because we was
giving it to them.

Richard [Prah],
The Deo, The OJays.

Charles: [Luigi], The
Dramatics, Eddie Kendricks.

Black Butch: You name
them, we served them

and they got it all free

because me and Eddie used to
buy 2 and 3 keys of cocaine

just for our personal.

Voiceover: By this time,

Eddie was more of
a celebrity himself

than many of the Motown acts.

And he floated through
streets like a movie star.

Dr. Carl: There were
these names of guys

who also hung out

with the very stylish
and important men

who were part of
Berry Gordy's Motown.

You're looking at that
[Halen Doge or Halen Doge]

Those are young men
writing songs making money.

You had this whole image of who

that had changed.

Courtney: But back then it
wasn't about no territory.

It was about having a good time

who was the sharpest,

who had the biggest
diamond ring.

Voiceover: While the
Jackson Organization

handled their business
like a Fortune 500 company,

most of Detroit's other dealers

seem more concern with
murder than making money.

Charles: It was coming
up in the paper then.

People was getting
crossed out their life

you know and large
sums of money missing.

Voiceover: By '72, Detroit's
murder rate led the country

and Detroit had become
known all around the world

as the murder city.

Voiceover: The 750
murders last year

was a record for Detroit,
murder capital of the country.

Detroit's murder rate is twice
that of New York and Chicago.

It is 4 times that
of some cities.

Scott: And for the
next 2 to 3 years

you had an all out
drug war in Detroit.

Voiceover: Drug pushers,
procurers, killers

are considered heroes of sorts.

Huckabuck: [unintelligible]
murder or shooting and all that.

That was the law for me.

That's what me and
Eddie wouldn't agree at.

The guys I was running with

that was the norm for them

but Eddie wouldn't ...

He would never
tolerate that and-

Scott: A lot of people
that I've spoken to

have referred to him as
the gentleman gangster.

You know, the guy
that was street savvy,

that knew how to make
a living on the street,

in the underworld,

knew how to ...

You know, the
ultimate politician.

Meet the right people,
make the right connections

and make everyone happy

and do it all without having
to really brandish a gun.

Courtney: Somehow
we avoided all that.

We knew who the characters was

but like I said, they
wouldn't bother us

and we didn't bother them.

Scott: He fancied
himself a businessman

that happen to sell drugs

as opposed to a psychopathic
drug dealer killer

that happen to also
kind of dab on business.

Voiceover: While Courtney
and Eddie were able to

steer clear of much
of the killing,

they were also prepared and
ready to deal with dangers

that lurked in the murder city.

Charles: Somebody had
mentioned to somebody else

that they was gonna rob him

because he used to wear
diamonds and stuff.

I remember they were shooting
at the people down the alley.

Jap: I remember this one guy.

He had robbed Eddie a
couple times over in Chicago

where Farah Lee used to stay.

He'd call Eddie in the hallway

and he'd rob him once,
took the jewelry and stuff

and he'd call him again
and he rob Eddie at times.

Look man, I'm gonna hit
you a couple of [licks].

You know, I know you're a
hustler just like I'm a hustler

but cut those [own] now.

Dude didn't pay heed

so you know, he came
up on the missing end.

Huckabuck: He was one
of the main figures

that they stick up man,
all that one dude again.

Courtney: Everybody
knew in the city,

also called bad guy, good guys.

5-0, Charles Rudolph,
Courtney and Eddie

ain't nothing to play with.

If it comes down to a gun play,

they're gonna be scared
to do what they got to do.

Dr. Carl: They were players

and they were also
part of urban legend.

There would be a lot of
younger guys looking at them.

They would watch Eddie Jackson.

They wanna see what
he was wearing.

If he wore a certain style even
if they couldn't afford it,

they ...

It's kind of like
the Nike commercials

with Michael Jordan,
be like Mike.

They wanted to be
like that gangster.

He was the man and it
wasn't a lot of puffing up.

I never even saw anything
remotely close to violence

because those guys
were too smart.

They didn't do anything violent.

Courtney: Went to
the house of [men]

to alleged conduct some vendor

with this guy Norman Burton

and him and I was in
the kitchen talking.

A friend of mine's who was
with me named Joe Weaver,

he overheard a conversation,

he didn't get all
the conversation

but it was enough to alert
him to come in the kitchen

and call me aside and say,

"Courtney, this guy
come in robbing us."

I said, "Give me the pistol."

I came back in the kitchen
and I'm near [Vasquez]

I put it to his head and I said,

"I should blow your goddamn
brains out right now."

He pleaded to me,
"Jay, John, Sean.

"Get Courtney, man I
ain't done nothing.

"I ain't said nothing."

I said, "That's only the
way you ain't dead now."

Voiceover: December
1971, Courtney and Eddie

received a huge load of
heroin from New York.

Courtney: December the
14th, the Italians called me

and said, "Tell your man
Eddie, everything is straight."

Eddie and I have a meeting

to plot how we're gonna do this.

We agreed that we
weren't gonna go back

to this address on
Hubbell, 19315 Hubbell

Voiceover: Unknown to them,

in the 3 months since Farah
Lee's arrest at the airport

with 2 keys of pure heroin,

they had been under
constant surveillance

and wiretap monitoring.

Courtney: Got 12 kilos.

We gonna cut it 10
times at the minimum.

So it had to be 120 kilos.

Voiceover: Just as
the cutting process of
the pure heroin began,

federal agents
burst in the stash

on the 19000 block of
Hubbell in Northwest Detroit.

Courtney: It was the
last day of the wiretaps.

Eddie and George Black
gets on the phone

and tells 4 or 5 people
that the dope is there.

Police, police and then
all of hell broke loose.

Eddie and I runs upstairs,
closed it upstairs.

We see the dope not
put in the stash

like it's supposed to have been.

The guy who's supposed
to be watching Reggie,

went down watching television
and went to watch in the door.

Voiceover: 22 kilos of
heroin were discovered

which stood for 40 years as
the largest heroin seizure

in Michigan history.

Courtney: Eddie threw
the dope up in the air.

It was so strong they
had to get gas masks.

They arrested us
all the 5 of us.

Eddie paid everybody
bond, we bond out.

When they raided
Eddie's house, my house

they don't find no drugs.

But with Eddie's house,
found a lot of paperwork

from real estate he owned.

Voiceover: Free on bail,

Eddie and Courtney laid
low for several weeks

but in January '72, a
massive 32-person indictment

came down on the crew.

Charles: I remember
I was at home,

I got a call one morning

and I answered the phone
and then they hung up.

And the next thing the
door went crashing in.

Voiceover: After everyone
was picked up by the feds,

Eddie hired famed
civil rights attorney

and Malcolm X's
confidant Milton Henry

to lead the criminal
defense team

and bailed out all
32 co-defendants

with his own money.

Charles: That was it.

It was a 16-count indictment.

Manufacturing and distribution
of heroin and cocaine.

Voiceover: The
indictments did little

to slowdown the
Jackson Organization.

Scott: A side note to
the Jackson story that
I find interesting

is that most of Jackson's
biggest making months or years

were at the time
that he was dealing

with a lot of legal wranglings.

He was under several indictments

under the same time that
he was making himself

the biggest wholesale
drug dealer in all Detroit

and possibly all
of the mid west.

That's a very
fascinating aspect of it.

Courtney: The Italians called.

They're always checking on us.

We informed them what happened.

They said, "Don't
worry about it.

"Send your men back up here."

Voiceover: With the
heroin still flowing,

Eddie and Courtney got
right back to work.

Courtney: And they
came back with 2 kilos.

Out of the 2 kilos we
made 30 kilos out of it.

But everybody then got busted

got scared to deal with us now

because due to the bust.

For about 1 to 2 weeks,

I mean we couldn't sell nothing.

Then about 2 days later
Eddie come to my house.

Blowing the horn
bamming, bamming here.

I say what?

Gave me the bag of money.

I said, "What's this?"

"$60,000, this guy named
JZ is flipping this stuff."

From that on things picked up.

Voiceover: Despite
their legal troubles,

1972 and '73 became the biggest

money making years for the crew.

Eddie Jackson
decided to buy a home

which he tore down and rebuilt

in one of Detroit's
most exclusive suburbs.

The mostly Jewish
city of Southfield.

Charles: When Eddie
moved to Southfield

he said, "I want these people
to know I got some help

"and I want you all to
come out here everyday."

Voiceover: Eddie
then made Courtney

his official partner
in the business.

Courtney: "Why don't you
move out here with your man?"

I said, "Move where?"

He say Southfield.

I say, "I can't afford to
live in the Southfield.

"I work for you.

"Oh bummer, fuck that shit.

"All right, here
what I tell you what,

"from now on, you ain't
on salary no more.

"You get percentage
of whatever comes in.

"So every time something come in

"you get X amount of dollars.

"Now can you afford it?"

I said yeah.

He said, "All right then."

Courtney Jr.: I remember vividly

when my parents told
me and my sister

that we were moving
to Southfield

and that we were gonna
moving next to Eddie

and I knew Eddie from coming by

when we lived off out
a drive on Mark Twain

you went out to
Northland Gardens

and it's got this olympic
size swimming pool.

Voiceover: While Eddie
focused on the streets,

Courtney focused
on his family life.

Courtney: Paid cash for the
interior decorating cost

$50,000 for the
interior decorator.

Paid $65,000 cash for the house.

Bought 3 new cars,
jewelry and stuff.

Courtney Jr.: You knew once
I saw the new neighborhood

we were gonna be moving into

that this was a lot nicer

than where most people lived.

Cornell: First time I
walked in their house

I'm talking about
it was some ...

It was like it was magical.

Yellow carpet,
powder blue furniture

and a black baby grand piano.

I didn't see stuff
like that on TV

and there's a stairwell leading
upstairs to the bedroom.

Charles: Smokey Robinson
down the street,

Pete Moore, [Dart Neta], one
of the [Halen Doge] in Harlem.

Courtney Jr.: At this time
there may have been 6 black kids

in the whole public
school system.

Most all their parents
were professionals,

pharmacists, doctors or lawyers.

There was a few of the Motown
people who stayed around.

There's Smokey Robinson and
the Temptations and Spinner.

Cornell: Me and my brother,
we became celebrities

because people knew
that we were family.

We're like 16, 15, 16 and 17.

We used to drive
out to Southfield

and show these people,

our cousins live in
that house there.

Courtney: They never
saw me with no drugs.

There's no call to
my house and telling

"Tell Courtney Joe
Blow's on the corner

"or can we come back
and pick up a package?"

It didn't happen, it
wasn't gonna happen.

They didn't see nothing

and all they see me was
with a lot of money.

Courtney Jr.: It seemed
like there was always

bags of money coming
and going in the house.

Eddie Jr.: The stack
almost to the ceiling

just a room full of money
stacked to the ceiling.

Courtney Jr.: Even as a kid
you're able to put together

the fact that things
I want I can get.

Eddie Jr.: Just being
spoiled to death.

Getting anything that your mind

could even think
you wanted and more.

Courtney Jr.: The
doorbell rings,

I get on the intercom
and I ask who is it

and the guy says Joe Weaver.

I know Joe Weaver.

I know he's a good
friend of my father

and I know he's working
with my dad and everything.

He goes on to explain to me

that he needs to tell my father

that he's with Muhammad Ali.

And I look out the window

and I see somebody's
with Joe Weaver

and I'm like, "Okay,
let me go tell father

"that Muhammad
Ali's at the door."

I tried to tell my father
who was asleep basically.

I tried to explain to him

that Joe Weaver is saying

that he's got Muhammad
Ali at the door

and that we got to let him in.

My father's having no patience.

"Tell Joe Weaver to
see me in the morning.

"I don't got time
for this shit."

I go back and tell Joe

that my father says he's
not getting out of bed.

And then the next morning,

Joe Weaver comes back
with a bunch of pictures

of him and Muhammad Ali.

(music)

Black Butch: What really
started the problem with us

was me and Eddie started
getting half cocaine.

Huckabuck: Just about the
74 Fleetwood that blew him

until we went and
got 4 ounces cocaine.

Black Butch: I had drove
all the way to Texas.

We ran out of cocaine.

He said, "Well, let's
turn around and go back."

And another 300
miles, Huckabuck,

he was with me at the time

and he was really
mad at me and Eddie

because he thought me and Eddie

was 2 biggest fools in
the world. (chuckles)

Huckabuck: We get to riding
and they're getting high.

We had about maybe 100, $150,000

in the backseat with me.

[unintelligible] Missouri and
state too was pulling over.

Well, we couldn't hide the money

because we didn't ...

The money wasn't in a
suitcase or no bags.

We just had it spreaded
on the backseat.

He look and see the money

so he get on the
radio talking about

we got 3 bank robbers.

So the next morning Milton
Henry came and got us

and we got out.

Voiceover: The problems in
Missouri were small time

compared to what
happened in Pennsylvania.

He was pulled over driving
Courtney Brown's wife's Cadillac

In the trunk, state police
found 11 pounds of heroin

and 3 kilos of cocaine.

Milton Henry got Eddie
out of that jam too.

The Pennsylvania Supreme
Court dismissed the case

after certain donations
were delivered

to Philadelphia
by Courtney Brown.

Courtney: I went in
to that foolishness.

It was business to me

and family came first.

I could separate the
one from the other.

Courtney Jr.: He
kept it so separate.

He's my little league
baseball coach.

He's my little league
basketball coach.

A lot of the kids from
the neighborhood came by

and played at our house.

If you asked most of
the kids I grew up with

their memories of
my father would be

him out shooting
the hoops with us.

Cornell: And he had
taught basketball.

Come on, I ain't too
old, I'll whoop you.

I don't care how you are.

We started playing
basketball, he used to bet me.

He used to bet me that
I couldn't whoop him.

I never whooped
him in basketball.

Voiceover: But any illusions
anyone may have had

about their new
suburban lifestyle

was shattered in March of '73,

when the front page of
the Detroit newspaper

listed Eddie and Courtney
as 2 of the cities kingpins.

Courtney Jr.: Third
grade on my way to school

like every morning I walk out

and I pick up the newspaper

and I bring it back in the house

and the front page of it is

a picture of Eddie's
house and of our house.

And the caption reads,

"Kingpin Eddie Jackson
lives in life of luxury

and the house to the left
is his chief associate,

Courtney Brown," and I read it

and I throw the paper back
into the house like always

and then me and Eddie walked
to get on the school bus

and it hits me as I'm
getting on the bus

that everybody else just
read the same paper and-

Jap: The investigation
that the feds had

when they indicted
all those guys,

I was running the
house on Benson

and I was selling like
anywhere from like

$25,000 worth of quarters a day.

My name never came
back in that indictment

so the indictment
had to be kind of

ephemeral, you know?

A little short and compact.

You know what I'm saying?

They didn't know
the whole story.

It was a whole lot of people

that didn't get indicted man

that should have gotten
indicted but didn't.

Voiceover: When Courtney
took his daughter

to enroll in an
elite private school,

they knew just who he was.

Courtney: So we
went to Country Day.

We get to Country Day,
Joe [Jewel] with us

and the guy opened up a folder.

And I look in the folder
that got headlines

Drug Kingpin Lives
in Southfield.

Let me tell you like
this, I got enough money

to send them anywhere
in the world to school

and I would not allow my
daughter to be harassed

or victimized by what
some odd men did.

I mean I did because that time

I hadn't been
convicted of anything.

Courtney Jr.: One Christmas,

my mother and father
took us to Toys "R" Us

and you know, most kids
have a shopping list

or a Santa Claus wishlist

but we didn't have a list.

They just told us to
pick out what we wanted.

They didn't put a limit
on how many toys to get

or what toys to get.

And me and my sister just
went isle, isle after isle

and then after we got
our cart loaded of stuff

we just and that was Christmas.

Cornell: I had a little
younger brother and sister.

We used to come over their
house on the weekends

and when they used to come
back home Sunday night

it's like they've
been in Macy's.

Used to come home with
bikes, bags of clothes

and I'm like I
wish I was younger

so I can get some
of these stuff too.

Courtney Jr.: Like
any good father,

my father would pass
out candy at Halloween

but he would keep a pistol

at the bottom of
the Halloween bag.

Voiceover: The Jackson
trial finally came to a hit

and nearly 30 of
the 32 defendants

were convicted on
almost all counts.

But incredible Milton
Henry's legal maneuverings

kept everyone free
on appeal bond.

And they kept right on
going in the streets.

In 1975, Eddie and Black Butch
were arrested in Las Vegas

for violating the
terms of their bond

by leaving the
state of Michigan.

Courtney: Well, I turn
myself in April the 1st 1977.

Voiceover: Eddie
Jackson got 30 years.

Courtney Brown got 21.

Courtney: I was
immediately transferred to

Atlanta Penitentiary which
was so called hard core.

I mean you have from baby
snatchers to stealing a check

to top mafia families
in the world.

Charles: I kept going
on and they came on me

and I got a revoke bail.

So me and Eddie wound up
at the same federal prison

which was 11-Worth.

11-Worth was ...

I used to watch
that on Untouchables

Walter Winchell narrating.

I never thought I'd grew up
to go some place like that.

40-foot wall.

When they me put in,
I said my life is over

because you can't see out.

Voiceover: Eddie and
Courtney's legal maneuverings

continued from prison

and Eddie was finally
released in 1984

with Courtney not far behind.

The streets had changed
since the early 70s.

Detroit was a more violent place

and a new breed of
teenage drug dealers

like the infamous Young Boys
Incorporated ruled the streets.

Cornell: As the atmosphere
got younger it got wilder

because I was part
of that scene.

It's like everybody
lost their mind.

It just wasn't no honor no more.

Courtney: I mean it was
central for fame then.

No one had really
no connections.

Be connected like Eddie had.

These guys had low connection

and they were local

and there was no direction,

nobody really, no leadership.

It just ...

Charles: That's the
problem with drugs now.

You got people
still selling drugs

but they ain't like
the horse trade

as we was back in the old days.

Voiceover: After only
18 months on the street,

Eddie Jackson was arrested
in a massive new indictment

and sent back to prison
for heroin distribution.

Courtney Brown managed to
maintain a lower profile

but he was still
the field marshal.

His son Courtney Jr.
was now old enough

to learn more about
the family business.

Courtney Jr.: The time my
father got out of prison

following the case with
him Eddie was in '84

which was at the exact time

that I was starting
college at WMU University.

Courtney: They got
a good education

and go to the right schools.

Got the right connections.

They can make just
as much money one way

or they could the other way.

If they become
educated legitimately

and if he decide
whatever he gonna do

it wasn't gonna
be on part saying,

come on join the club.

Voiceover: Running errands for
his father in the late 1980's,

Courtney Jr. got a
unique perspective

on the way the
world really works.

Courtney Jr.: Father once sent
me to see some guys in New York,

some banking guys.

They were like on 6th Avenue

right in the middle
of midtown Manhattan.

It's got these fancy offices
and pretty secretaries

and the stock market machine

printing out stock
market quotes,

and it looked like a
legitimate brokerage firm.

But you know, the real deal is

when you go in the back,

it's just a couple
of old white guys

sitting around a desk with
a whole bunch of people

bringing the money in.

What they were doing were

they were money launderers.

Some people from Israel,

there's some people
from South America.

There's some people
from West Africa

and then it's myself.

We were all taking
advantage of the services

that these people in
Lower Manhattan did.

They were people
that you could bring

$200,000 of singles and $5 bills

and then they'd end
up writing you a check

from some company, boom.

And it's funny because at the
same time I'm going to class

and I'm taking economics
and business 101

and marketing.

It's kind of a
hypocrisy of the world

because I'm like that ain't
how the real world works.

The difference between
corporate America

and the narcotics world,

that line is so much thinner

than people really, really know.

Voiceover: Courtney
Jr. eventually became

a successful retailer and
real estate developer.

His sister was a lawyer.

Courtney Jr.: Most people
start their businesses

start it from the
money they saved

or family or relatives

giving them their
money to get started.

In this case I asked my father

for some money to start
a store in Harlem.

I was fortunate enough

that he had the
resources and he did

and it allowed me
to live what I call

a poor man puffy's lifestyle.

I'm a 27-year old
African-American guy

store across the
street from the Apollo.

I made a lot of
money at the store

but a lot of drugs,
a lot of girls,

a lot of escorts, a
lot of limo rides.

And fortunate thing is

I was actually able to go
back to my family again

and get some more money

to keep my business going.

Voiceover: The legacy
of Eddie Jackson

and Courtney Brown
is a complex one.

Charles: Really only
regrets was that

that I got caught,
you know? (chuckles)

It showed me that
I learned a lot.

I got a chance to see
a lot of the world.

Cornell: But that's all
I knew at that time.

That's all we knew dude
was our role models.

That's not the road to take.

You don't have to
live like that.

There's a better way today.

Eddie Jr.: Well to
be honest with you,

I'm tired of all these
glorified snitches

such as Frank Lucas
standing up there

beating HRs like they
was hell of fellows

and in the end they turned
out to be worst than women.

So if you cannot handle
the pressure and the weight

don't get in the game.

If you got to tell
on anybody you know

and your mama your daddy,

everybody you know to
get out of trouble.

Just stay doing what you do now

because that game ain't for you.

Most people today you look
at cannot handle the weight.

Nicky Barnes snitched,
Frank Lucas snitched.

Where's the real ones?

This is a story
about a real one.

From the beginning to the end,

never telling on nobody.

Courtney Jr.: You know
as I've grown older

I understand that

the fact that I've been
able to travel the world,

the fact that I hung out with
princes, Fortune 500 people

and I've been able to
experience some things

just very few people on earth

that ever gonna be
able to experience

and a lot of those
things come from the fact

of the lifestyle that my father
and education opportunities

some of the things that
he did allowed me to do.

Cornell: All these
gangster movies on TV

about they're sending
their kids off

and it becomes successful
and things like that

but this is the only black
family I've seen do that.

It really did it.

Courtney Jr.: You
know, as a grown man,

as a 46-year old man,

I understand that you take
the bitter with the sweet

that me and my sister
have often conversed

well, what would
life have been like

if father would
have just, you know,

kept driving the bus?

Who knows, you know?

It wasn't in the
cards, you know?

It is what it is

and it was what it was.

Dr. Carl: Actually it's no
different than all of America

but for some reason, those
who report to history

have always left the
blacks on the plantation

even in those type
of activities.

I don't see a great
deal of difference

except that Kennedy was
making a lot more money

just when Kennedy
became an ambassador.

Eddie Jackson didn't
become an ambassador.

Voiceover: On the streets
of Detroit though,

Eddie Jackson and his crew

are still remembered as
the best that ever did it.

And the ties of
friendship and family

that started in Black
Bottom and Paradise Valley

so many years ago,

still holds strong.

Dr. Carl: We use
crime as a commodity

when we talk about economics.

You know, you ask yourself
questions like tobacco.

How many people died
last year from tobacco?

When we started talking
about the moral value

of what Eddie Jackson
and others do.

I'm not condoning what they do.

What I'm simply saying is that

they're many on
that playing field.

Courtney Jr.: I don't
separate our story

from the story really I mean,

of the history of ...

I mean of the of
the immigrant group.

The Jews,the Irish.

As every group in
America has attempted

to go to the next
level economically,

the story of organized
crime and narcotics

has played a part at it.

Dr. Carl: And the
jury is still on.

We don't know
what's gonna happen

to the African-American families

that were involved with serious
crimes and their children.

Courtney Jr.: These
are the trials and
tribulations that go on

as a family goes from Black
Bottom or Paradise Valley

to working class jobs
to sometimes that bridge

that set family into
the professional world,

into the entrepreneurial world,

into the next levels
or status of life.

In our case and the many
other families in America,

that bridge has been paid for

by activities in the underworld.

(music)

(end credits music)