DETROIT – The former drug kingpin at the center of the "White Boy Rick" Wershe saga said he's got nothing against the man who ratted on him to police.
Johnny Curry sat down with Local 4 Defender Kevin Dietz with no topics off-limits. He said he has no ill-will for Wershe, even though he helped put Curry in prison.
In the 1980s, Curry was one of the biggest drug dealers in Detroit. He said he made a lot of money and he doesn't apologize for it.
"Somebody was going to do it," Curry said. "(If) it wasn't me, somebody was going to do it. So at the time, it was money."
Curry's little brother was friends with Wershe, who won over the entire Curry family.
"My brother let him come around and we started hanging around together," Curry said. "I felt like he was cool. It was alright with me, so I didn't have any problem with it at all."
The family didn't know Wershe, at 14 years old, was working for the FBI as an informant.
"You never suspected he was meeting with police?" Kevin asked.
"No," Curry said. "I didn't suspect that he was meeting with police. I never even expected that because he was so young."
Wershe's information helped send several members of the Curry organization to prison. Curry spent 14 years behind bars, and while he was serving time, Wershe started dating his wife, Cathy Volsen Curry.
Johnny Curry said it's all water under the bridge, insisting after all the years, he has no hard feelings toward Wershe.
"I've got nothing against him," Curry said.
In the new movie about Wershe, "White Boy Rick," it's implied that Curry ordered a drive-by shooting that accidentally ended in the death of 12-year-old Damian Lucas. The Lucas murder remains unsolved today, and Curry said he has nothing to do with it.
"I don't know," Curry said. "I have no knowledge of that. I know it ain't got nothing to do with me."
Curry insists he gave Wershe the nickname, "White Boy Rick."
"I came up with it," Curry said. "He started hanging around with us, so we were saying, 'He's cool because he's a little white boy.'"