When Rick Wershe Jr. became an informant at the age of 14, his main assignment was to get information on the Curry family.
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Wershe Jr. had to find a way to gain the trust of one of Detroit's most powerful families.
At the top of their organization was Big Man Leo Curry and his twin brother, Little Man Johnny Curry. Their younger brother is Boo Curry. And Boo and Rick already happened to be friends.
"I mean, there was times where people would ask me, I'd go to a house to buy drugs and they'd say, "Who do you know?" As soon as I dropped Johnny Curry, I know Little Man Curry, they'd be like, "Oh okay, here you go." You had to know whose name to drop, you had to know certain lingoes, you had to know certain things," said Wershe Jr.
"We would go play basketball at the rec center. We would hang out." said Wershe Jr. "It didn't start out as any criminal way or anything. He was my friend, you know what I mean? He was, me and him were super close."
Johnny Curry, now 60, said he never suspected Rick was an informant at the time.
"I didn't suspect that he was meeting with police. I never even expected that," said Curry. "We and him had a little fun together. I didn't have a problem with him."
For more, check out our podcast: Listen to Shattered: White Boy Rick
When he was 14 years-old, Rick Wershe, Jr. became one of the youngest FBI informants in American history. The inside information he provided led to the downfall of some of Detroit's biggest drug dealers. Once the FBI no longer needed Rick, he became a dealer in his own right, only until being busted on a cocaine possession charge when he was 17. Wershe has been in prison ever since.
Hosted by WDIV investigative reporter, Kevin Dietz, Shattered: White Boy Rick chronicles Wershe's improbable life story. Listen and subscribe here.
Related: The Story of White Boy Rick