Speaker 1: This podcast contains adult content. Some of the themes or
Speaker 1: topics may include information on murder, kidnapping, torture, dismemberment, maybe
Speaker 1: some demonic content with information on positions and paranormal activity.
Speaker 1: This podcast will also include explicit, horrible, and foul, socially unacceptable,
Speaker 1: totally uninhibited adult themes language. So if you're easily offended,
Speaker 1: if you're easily triggered, then I highly suggest you turn
Speaker 1: this off now, and if not, just keep in mind
Speaker 1: parental discretion is advised. John Willis claims to have been
Speaker 1: the only white person within Chinese organized crime, and that
Speaker 1: claim is backed by FBI agent Scott O'Donnell, who stated
Speaker 1: he has never seen a case just like Willis. John
Speaker 1: Willis would become a crime boss for a sect of
Speaker 1: the Chinese mafia and ended up loyal to a group
Speaker 1: of people way different from the Boston natives he grew
Speaker 1: up with. From the mid nineteen eighties to the late nineties,
Speaker 1: Willis's rank grew within one of Boston's larger mob groups,
Speaker 1: starting as a loan collector and bodyguard before he became
Speaker 1: the trafficker behind a multi million dollar oxycodone ring. They
Speaker 1: called him back Guy whereas the FBI translated it, white Devil,
Speaker 1: my name is Justin and you're listening to mysterious circumstances.
Speaker 1: Willis Junior was born on May eleventh, nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 1: His parents were Francine and John Senior. He grew up
Speaker 1: in a triple decker in Dorchester. Dorchester was a scrappy
Speaker 1: Boston suburb, and it's famous for producing the legendary and
Speaker 1: infamous gangster Whitey Bulger and later the Wahlberg brothers. Willis
Speaker 1: fit right in with all the other neighborhood kids growing up.
Speaker 1: According to Willis, his father, John was a hard drinking
Speaker 1: carpenter who collected money for the Irish mob When Willis
Speaker 1: was about two or three, his dad broke the jaw
Speaker 1: of another mobster, and after getting his life threatened for it,
Speaker 1: he left the family and headed back to his home
Speaker 1: state of North Carolina and just never came back. His mother, Francine,
Speaker 1: she struggled to support the family by working in a
Speaker 1: shoe store called Stride Right, and she would always tell him,
Speaker 1: just don't be like your dad, and he promised her
Speaker 1: that he wouldn't never be. John himself said, I just
Speaker 1: knew that I didn't want to be like my father
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to be a drunk and I
Speaker 1: didn't want to be abusive towards women. Although John's older
Speaker 1: half brother, Richie, and his half sisters they all went
Speaker 1: into some hardcore drug abuse, Willis himself he never drank
Speaker 1: or did drugs, but he definitely had his dad's temper,
Speaker 1: and Willis channeled all of this anger into hockey. He
Speaker 1: was playing goalie six hours a night, and he was
Speaker 1: trying to capitalize on his size because he was a
Speaker 1: bigger kid than the rest of him. And one day,
Speaker 1: while in middle school, a kid stole his shoes and
Speaker 1: Willis beat him with a chair and ended up getting
Speaker 1: sent to alternative school for kids with bad behavior. Now.
Speaker 1: Within the next year, his mother had her legs amputated
Speaker 1: because of diabetes, and because of that, she couldn't keep
Speaker 1: her job at the shoe store, so John ended up
Speaker 1: skipping school to wheel her around the house, help her out,
Speaker 1: bathe her pretty much anything she needed. Now. That next year,
Speaker 1: shortly after he turned fifteen, while John was off with
Speaker 1: his friends, his mother suddenly dies of a blockage to
Speaker 1: her heart, and John absolutely broke down when he got
Speaker 1: the news. Like she meant everything to him. She was
Speaker 1: all he had left in the world, and now she
Speaker 1: was gone. So then he really doesn't know what to
Speaker 1: do with himself. He's kind of, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: talk to his half siblings, and after one of his
Speaker 1: niece's friends kicked him in the groin, he spit at
Speaker 1: her and his older half brother, Richie, who was thirty
Speaker 1: four at the time, he hit him and he knocked
Speaker 1: him down the steps of their three decker home, and
Speaker 1: Willis just yelled at him, I hope you die. And
Speaker 1: two days later, Ritchie drops dead of a heart attack.
Speaker 1: Richie died. The death did affect John Willis quite a
Speaker 1: bit traumatized him because he was young, he was vulnerable,
Speaker 1: and he blamed himself for cursing him, you know, saying
Speaker 1: I hope you die. And John Willis, looking back now
Speaker 1: thinks that the heart attack was just his older brother
Speaker 1: on a coke binge and he ended up just not
Speaker 1: being able to take anymore. So after his brother dies,
Speaker 1: the house is still in Richie's name, so John could
Speaker 1: remain there, but he had no clue how to provide
Speaker 1: for himself, and as far as like Social service Is knew,
Speaker 1: he was being taken care of by his half sisters,
Speaker 1: but they were all living elsewhere, addicted to hardcore drugs,
Speaker 1: and they were just not around. And he did have
Speaker 1: some other relatives around town, but they refused to take
Speaker 1: him in. So now John Willis is roughly sixteen years
Speaker 1: old and he's an orphan. And John said it was tough.
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna lie. You grow up. You become a
Speaker 1: man in an hour. Because of his circumstances and his
Speaker 1: already bad temper, he starts getting into more trouble. He's
Speaker 1: just super angry all the time. John Willis was still
Speaker 1: trying to go to school, you know. Afterward he came
Speaker 1: home to an empty house and he's struggling to survive.
Speaker 1: And in the winter of nineteen eighty five, he had
Speaker 1: no money, no heat, no one that even really cared
Speaker 1: about him, and he slept under blankets in a chair
Speaker 1: in the kitchen and he was warming himself up by
Speaker 1: an open oven. Even though he was scared and alone,
Speaker 1: he absolutely refused to take handouts from people. He didn't
Speaker 1: want any help from anybody, and he made sure that
Speaker 1: nobody would fuck with him either. He threw himself into
Speaker 1: weightlifting hardcore that was one of the only things that
Speaker 1: he did. And he also started using some steroids. His
Speaker 1: childhood friend Sean said, he went from a chubby kid
Speaker 1: to an absolute monster. And he fit right in with
Speaker 1: this boyhood crew around his neighborhood and with his size.
Speaker 1: Another old friend said, he was a regular neighborhood kid.
Speaker 1: We all used to run around in the streets getting
Speaker 1: into trouble. Now John would eat some meals at friends' homes,
Speaker 1: but he was too stubborn and proud to take that
Speaker 1: many handouts. He would rather go hungry than beg And
Speaker 1: at this point there's a lot of unforeseen circumstances and
Speaker 1: events that happened. So when John Willis is sixteen, one
Speaker 1: of his friends helped him make the most of his
Speaker 1: size by getting him a job as a bouncer at
Speaker 1: a club near Fenway Park, and he lied and said
Speaker 1: he was eighteen so that he could work there. Now.
Speaker 1: He was already into steroids and bodybuilding at this time,
Speaker 1: so he was a big kid. He was breaking up
Speaker 1: bar fi and it was actually a good way for
Speaker 1: him to get his aggression out too. And his cousin
Speaker 1: Deborah said, Johnny has a lot of rage. He's never
Speaker 1: dealt with his mother's death, never dealt with the fact
Speaker 1: that his father left. So you know, this bar that
Speaker 1: he got a job as a bouncer at just happened
Speaker 1: to be where a lot of Asians would show up
Speaker 1: and hang out. Sundays were always Asian knights at the bar,
Speaker 1: and Willis was impressed by all the sharp dressed younger guys.
Speaker 1: I mean they had the spiky hair, they had these
Speaker 1: big brick cell phones, they had all these super high girlfriends.
Speaker 1: And his boss at the bar warned him, said, they're gangsters.
Speaker 1: Whatever happens, stay out of their business. But one night
Speaker 1: Willis saw a guy who he says, looked like a
Speaker 1: Chinese Rod Stewart get maced by a big Korean guy.
Speaker 1: So John punched the attacker, pulled the victim away, and
Speaker 1: rushed him back to the bathroom and started flushing out
Speaker 1: his eyes. And when John turned around, there were four
Speaker 1: of this guy's friends staring him down like crazy. For
Speaker 1: all they knew John was the one that was attacking
Speaker 1: their buddy. But just as they were about to retaliate
Speaker 1: against John, the man yelled at them in Chinese, and
Speaker 1: then on his way out, the young gangster whose name
Speaker 1: was Vipaying Joe. They called him John Joe for short.
Speaker 1: He handed Willis a card and he said, here's my number.
Speaker 1: If you ever need anything, call me. A few days later,
Speaker 1: John is down to his last seventy six cents to
Speaker 1: his name. He had to spend what little money he
Speaker 1: did make on food. So he goes walking through the
Speaker 1: snow to the home of his half sister. But she
Speaker 1: refused to answer the door and slipped a piece of
Speaker 1: paper under the door, telling him to go away. And
Speaker 1: John said, I didn't understand it at the time. I
Speaker 1: was a kid. She probably getting high though. So he's
Speaker 1: too broke to afford any kind of cab home, and
Speaker 1: he walks to a phone booth and called the one
Speaker 1: person he could think of who had a car, and
Speaker 1: that was John Joe. So John Joe answers, says, hey,
Speaker 1: white boy. When Willis told him that he needed help,
Speaker 1: John Joe didn't even hesitate. He says, Okay, where are you.
Speaker 1: Five minutes later, two BMW's pulled up with seven Asian
Speaker 1: guys in these fancy ass suits, nice haircuts. One of
Speaker 1: them asks are you John Willis? He said, yeah, said okay,
Speaker 1: come with us. So Willis checked for a familiar face
Speaker 1: in the car, and he says, where's John Joe. The
Speaker 1: guy says, don't worry, We're gonna go see him. And
Speaker 1: at this point Willis has nothing left to lose, so
Speaker 1: he got inside the car and they took him to
Speaker 1: this big ass house in South Boston. There's so many
Speaker 1: rooms in this house and they're just overflowed with they.
Speaker 1: He said it was like an Asian gangster frat house
Speaker 1: full of just young tough dudes and their girlfriends. And
Speaker 1: Willis said, I could see all these guys with different tattoos,
Speaker 1: crazy haircuts, guns, all kinds of shit. Willis later said,
Speaker 1: I see all these guys with different tattoos, crazy haircuts, guns,
Speaker 1: all kinds of shit, and I'm like, what the fuck
Speaker 1: am I doing? But John Joe sees them and welcomes
Speaker 1: them right in the house. And the house is just
Speaker 1: filled with Chinese people and that includes mothers, children, other
Speaker 1: guys in the gang. And this gang at the time
Speaker 1: was called Pingon, and this group controlled a large sector
Speaker 1: of Boston's illegal gambling dens, massage parlors. And this is
Speaker 1: from the nineteen seventies to the mid eightieses right, around
Speaker 1: the time they met John Willis. So that night he
Speaker 1: had dinner with them, and the next day they took
Speaker 1: him shopping for clothes and started showing him the ropes
Speaker 1: and essentially just welcomed him into their group. And it
Speaker 1: sounds simple, but Willis couldn't find any crazy explanation for
Speaker 1: being accepted into the gang except that he showed them
Speaker 1: respect and they showed him respect in return. So over
Speaker 1: time there's this bond that is formed. He was basically
Speaker 1: trained up in the gang and initiated into gang life
Speaker 1: in Boston. Willis was eventually sent to New York to
Speaker 1: act as a bodyguard, loan collector, and bagman for a
Speaker 1: Chinese gangster in the city. When he was in New York,
Speaker 1: the gang used to go out to Chinese places and
Speaker 1: try to pick up girls and there were mostly Asians there,
Speaker 1: and one of his good friends that he was training
Speaker 1: with in the gang told him he needed to learn
Speaker 1: Chinese if he wanted to pick up women. So while
Speaker 1: he's in New York, Willis began to learn Chinese, the
Speaker 1: Cantonese and Toysonese dialects as a way to pick up
Speaker 1: Asian women, and he eventually became fluent. Willis eventually also
Speaker 1: learned Vietnamese and became fluent in that as well. His
Speaker 1: language skills were crucial to his rise within the Chinese
Speaker 1: organized crime That was very important. As he moved along
Speaker 1: with the gang, he had to deal with a lot
Speaker 1: of first generation Chinese that didn't really speak much English,
Speaker 1: if any at all, and he learned these languages by
Speaker 1: paying attention during group conversations as well as watching Chinese
Speaker 1: movies and listening to Chinese music. He became really fluent,
Speaker 1: including correct grammar and the spot on accent. He would
Speaker 1: semi brag that he was the only white guy in
Speaker 1: a Chinese gang. Even the FBI said his position was
Speaker 1: extremely rare. The Chinese were very insulated. They did not
Speaker 1: trust out siders. They still don't. John was about as
Speaker 1: far outside as you can get. Some people think that
Speaker 1: it was the way he was brought in as a kid,
Speaker 1: and just kind of being different led him to get
Speaker 1: ingrained over like a long period of time. He also
Speaker 1: became a talking point because his boss thought it was
Speaker 1: interesting that this white kid could speak Chinese. Most important, though,
Speaker 1: he was willing to do whatever it took, and he
Speaker 1: did whatever was asked of him, and he succeeded in everything.
Speaker 1: He was also extremely trustworthy and very very loyal. So
Speaker 1: if he was let's say, introduced to the gang as
Speaker 1: like a twenty eight year old or thirty eight year
Speaker 1: old guy, most people don't think that it would have
Speaker 1: gone as smoothly. But he was like a sixteen year
Speaker 1: old kid. That pretty much helped him a lot. And
Speaker 1: he was not a trailblazer because there weren't any white
Speaker 1: guys who followed him into this mob group. He was
Speaker 1: legitimately the only one. So after training in New York
Speaker 1: in the early nineties, he was shipped back to Boston
Speaker 1: to work for a man named by Ming. This guy
Speaker 1: was not that high up on the list of gangsters
Speaker 1: in Boston's Chinatown at that time. He was probably sixth
Speaker 1: or seventh in rankings, which was still fairly high. But
Speaker 1: soon enough the gang leaders in Boston Chinatown were taken
Speaker 1: out of the picture one by one because a turf
Speaker 1: war broke out, one escaped back to China, a couple
Speaker 1: of them killed each other, and suddenly by Meing was
Speaker 1: the one who was left standing. He was the number
Speaker 1: one guy now and most important gangster in Boston's Chinatown,
Speaker 1: and John Willis was his right hand man, and because
Speaker 1: of that his status in Chinese organized crime went through
Speaker 1: the roof. He was one of the top guys. He
Speaker 1: was literally number two. He was by Ming's bodyguard. He
Speaker 1: was a guy who checked the car in the morning
Speaker 1: for bombs, the guy who took him safely into restaurants
Speaker 1: public places, plus the guy who collected money from the
Speaker 1: gambling dens for him. He was the second in command
Speaker 1: of the Chinatown gangs because he was the assistant to
Speaker 1: the leader. When he went to New York and learned
Speaker 1: how to speak Chinese. He rose in the ranks because
Speaker 1: he could communicate, but also because he was bigger and
Speaker 1: stronger than everybody else, and he was willing to do
Speaker 1: whatever dirty work was required. He did whatever was asked
Speaker 1: of him. So during this early nineties period, obviously he's
Speaker 1: still fairly young and his boss by Ming ran mostly
Speaker 1: gambling dens and some prostitution rings, but was not really
Speaker 1: into drug dealing. Now. John went to jail at one
Speaker 1: point and came out with a few connections that got
Speaker 1: him involved in selling marijuana. Soon it became large quantities
Speaker 1: of marijuana, and then it became cocaine, and John's boss
Speaker 1: told him not to do it, but he did it
Speaker 1: on his own outside his crew and started making a
Speaker 1: lot of money doing that. For a while, he kind
Speaker 1: of drifted away from strictly working for the Chinese gang,
Speaker 1: but he still maintained his strong connection there. He started
Speaker 1: trafficking all this ship from Florida to Massachusetts and selling
Speaker 1: in Cape cod in the Boston area, and there was
Speaker 1: a year long investigation that started in Chinatown with a
Speaker 1: couple of other targets that Willis had got associated with,
Speaker 1: which led to him ultimately getting busted here in the future.
Speaker 1: So in the late nineties, Willis was convicted and jailed
Speaker 1: for extortion, and then in two thousand he received a
Speaker 1: five year sentence for dealing heroin. While in prison, Willis
Speaker 1: met some connections and organized an oxy cotton trafficking ring
Speaker 1: from Florida to Massachusetts. And when he gets released from prison,
Speaker 1: he became heavily involved in drug dealing and money laundering
Speaker 1: against the wishes of his Chinese organized crime leaders, mainly
Speaker 1: by me and probably a few others as well. In
Speaker 1: less than two years, John Willis trafficked over two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty thousand pills up from Florida to the northeast
Speaker 1: for profits of more than four million dollars. John Willis said, realistically,
Speaker 1: the numbers are ten times that. And like everybody who
Speaker 1: sells drugs in you know, the movies, whatever else. Uh,
Speaker 1: he blew his cash on ocean front homes in South Florida,
Speaker 1: sports cars, strip clubs, speed boats. He was at this
Speaker 1: point in time a very dangerous and violent man. So
Speaker 1: we fast forward a little bit to twenty ten. A
Speaker 1: wire tapped phone call recorded Willis talking to a brothel
Speaker 1: operator who wanted to avenge an injured employee. He knew
Speaker 1: he was being filed and that the FBI was on
Speaker 1: to him. He had five burner cell phones going at
Speaker 1: once and was definitely working, you know, covertly or the
Speaker 1: best that he could. But he got stopped for speeding
Speaker 1: at one point in North Carolina, and they took about
Speaker 1: eighty thousand dollars cash from him because he couldn't account
Speaker 1: for it. You know, they pulled him over there like, hey, uh,
Speaker 1: why the fuck do you have eighty thousand dollars cash
Speaker 1: on you. He's just like, I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: just basically kept his mouth shut. So of course they
Speaker 1: took it. You know, that makes sense. I'm not even
Speaker 1: surprised at that. So in twenty eleven, early one morning
Speaker 1: in Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Willis at this point is a big,
Speaker 1: thirty nine year old with close cropped gray hair, bright
Speaker 1: blue eyes, and he had been away in Florida and
Speaker 1: came back to celebrate his girlfriend's daughter's ninth birthday that weekend.
Speaker 1: His Vietnamese a Ma American girlfriend on guy In suggested
Speaker 1: that they bring my Linn to bed with them so
Speaker 1: she could wake up and see his face first thing.
Speaker 1: Shortly after putting her to bed, there was a pounding
Speaker 1: downstairs at the front door. Willis told Guyan and her
Speaker 1: daughter stay in the room, stay upstairs. I love you,
Speaker 1: it's okay, don't come out, shuts the door behind him.
Speaker 1: He ran down the steps and he finds dozens of
Speaker 1: armed cops with helmets and bulletproof vests. And the wild
Speaker 1: thing is they never caught him with one pill. They
Speaker 1: never found any drugs on him or in the house,
Speaker 1: but they connected him to a different investigation in court.
Speaker 1: At the sentencing hearing, Willis looked very much like an
Speaker 1: effective enforcer. At this point. He's forty two years old.
Speaker 1: He's baby faced, but he's just super muscular. He's got
Speaker 1: a tattoo on his left arm Chinese characters for strength
Speaker 1: and righteousness. And he was upset that somebody turned on him,
Speaker 1: and he was upset that he got his girlfriend involved too.
Speaker 1: The thing was is they got her for witness tampering,
Speaker 1: and in order to keep her out of jail, he
Speaker 1: had to take the plea deal no matter what, even
Speaker 1: though they'd found no drugs on him at all. And
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, they can throw a witness
Speaker 1: tampering charge on a loved one or whoever pretty fucking easily.
Speaker 1: So you know, criminals do a little dirty. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: cops gotta be a little dirty to get an arrest.
Speaker 1: I get that. I'm not justifying any drug dealing or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but the fact that he was caught
Speaker 1: with absolutely no drugs and he was tied into a
Speaker 1: different investigation got his girlfriend for witness tampering, and basically said, okay,
Speaker 1: if you want to keep her out of jail, you're
Speaker 1: gonna take the plea deal. So on August fifteenth, twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: Willis was convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering for
Speaker 1: his role in the four million dollar oxy cotton drug ring.
Speaker 1: He received a twenty year prison sentence, and Willis is
Speaker 1: currently serving his sentence at Cannon USP. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's pronounced right, cnain whatever, and his projected release
Speaker 1: date is June tenth of twenty twenty eight. Scott O'Donnell,
Speaker 1: the FBI agent whose task force eventually caught the White Devil,
Speaker 1: was quoted as saying he had never seen a criminal
Speaker 1: quite like Willis due to his high status within the
Speaker 1: Chinese mafia underground. Now, Willis ended up agreeing to the
Speaker 1: twenty year plea deal even though they didn't really have
Speaker 1: any evidence other than wire taps when he was talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, few random things. It was not the strongest case,
Speaker 1: but he did accept the twenty years to keep his
Speaker 1: girlfriend out of jail. Let's be honest, he was doing
Speaker 1: this shit. Just because it wasn't the strongest case doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he wasn't guilty. Assistant US Attorney Tim Moran has
Speaker 1: a binder of court documents with a label that says
Speaker 1: White Devil. That was Willis's Cantonese nickname. Back Guy. John
Speaker 1: Moran said Willis's ability to straddle different worlds is unusual
Speaker 1: in a criminal. A criminal who has this sort of
Speaker 1: ability and these connections to other areas of crime is
Speaker 1: more dangerous. That's what we mean by organized crime. It's
Speaker 1: the associations that make these types of criminals more dangerous.
Speaker 1: Now the Pingong Gang is no longer active, and this
Speaker 1: is what prosecutors have said, although John Willis has maintained
Speaker 1: connections in the Asian crime world. Now, I know this
Speaker 1: seems like, you know, super short episode. Whatever they're legitimately
Speaker 1: is not that much information on John Willis or the
Speaker 1: cases for that matter, or his Chinese underground partners or
Speaker 1: people involved. Like when they say, you know, people kept
Speaker 1: their mouth shut. People kept their mouths shut. But I
Speaker 1: will say this is from the US Attorney's Office District
Speaker 1: of Massachusetts on August fifteenth, twenty thirteen. This was from
Speaker 1: a newspaper article. It says the leader of an organized
Speaker 1: crime group was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison
Speaker 1: for drug trafficking and money laundering after a multi year
Speaker 1: FBI Task Force investigation into illegal activity in Boston's Chinatown.
Speaker 1: John Willis, forty two, of Dorchester, also known by his
Speaker 1: Chinese nickname back Guy John, which means white Devil John,
Speaker 1: was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Joseph Toro.
Speaker 1: He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to distribute oxy
Speaker 1: codone and money laundry conspiracy. Judge Toro also imposed a
Speaker 1: criminal forfeiture money judgment of two million dollars. Willis, along
Speaker 1: with twelve others, was first charged in twenty eleven for
Speaker 1: leading an organization which spanned Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Rhode Island,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, and elsewhere. The organization trafficked hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of oxycodone pills and generated over four million dollars in proceeds.
Speaker 1: The FBI's Organized Crime Task Force led a long term
Speaker 1: investigation into drug trafficking, illegal gambling, extortion, prostitution, and other
Speaker 1: criminal activity in Boston's Chinatown and elsewhere. The investigation included
Speaker 1: a seven month court authorized wire surveillance of cell phones,
Speaker 1: including the phones of five of the defendants associated with
Speaker 1: the conspiracy. The investigation has resulted in the seizure of
Speaker 1: over four hundred and eighty thousand dollars in cash, a
Speaker 1: thirty eight foot speed by numerous luxury vehicles, thirteen firearms
Speaker 1: and approximately twelve thousand oxycodone pills. Investigators also uncovered extensive
Speaker 1: evidence of illegal gambling and prostitution, as well as the
Speaker 1: use of extortionate threats to collect loans to gamblers and others.
Speaker 1: US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, twenty years in federal prison
Speaker 1: is well deserved for mister Willis, a career criminal and
Speaker 1: the mastermind behind this organization. Not only did this investigation
Speaker 1: expose a world of illegal gambling, prostitution, extortion, but also
Speaker 1: revealed a significant oxycodone distribution operation. This case significantly disrupted
Speaker 1: the flow of this highly addictive, dangerous heroin substitute, which
Speaker 1: has been responsible for numerous deaths and Massachusetts. Mister Willis
Speaker 1: and his associates are an example of the opportunistic nature
Speaker 1: of organized crime groups whose members share a common bond
Speaker 1: of victimizing their communities through drug dealing, gambling and extortion,
Speaker 1: and exploitation of women in their quest for illegal profits.
Speaker 1: The methodical nature and duration of this investigation reflects the
Speaker 1: focus to secure justice for the victims and make the
Speaker 1: community safer. Court documents describe Willis as the kingpin, organizer
Speaker 1: and leader of a vast conspiracy with details that would
Speaker 1: sound like a Hollywood clash that would with details that
Speaker 1: would sound like a Hollywood cliche if they were not true,
Speaker 1: complete with cars, houses, guns, and speedboats. The book White
Speaker 1: Devil by Bob Hallerin it chronicles John Willison's rise in
Speaker 1: the mafia, including thoughts and anecdotes from the gangster himself.
Speaker 1: Bob Hallerin interviewed him in a small room outside his
Speaker 1: prison cell. He said, I spent seven hours with him
Speaker 1: over a two day period. So what may sound horrible
Speaker 1: to say, I grew to like him, or at least
Speaker 1: to understand him. He doesn't ask for forgiveness because he's
Speaker 1: not convinced that he did anything wrong. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I need to be the one forgiving him. But
Speaker 1: as he sat there telling his story from his own perspective,
Speaker 1: there was definitely reason to empathize with him, but also
Speaker 1: reason to dislike the way he went about his life.
Speaker 1: If you met him and didn't know his background, you
Speaker 1: would think he was a really smart, engaging, interesting guy
Speaker 1: that thinks things through, has varied interests, and reads a lot.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to expect because he has committed
Speaker 1: some violent crimes and was a drug dealer for many years.
Speaker 1: I don't meet a lot of criminals, so I didn't
Speaker 1: know exactly how that was going to go. Sitting down
Speaker 1: with him, he was extremely pleasant, almost docile. He never
Speaker 1: raises his voice, and there's a semi whisper to his dialogue.
Speaker 1: I found him very interesting and captivating, and he didn't
Speaker 1: intimidate me once we started talking. Even when I'd challenge him,
Speaker 1: he didn't get upset. One of the first things that
Speaker 1: John points out is that gangsters killed gangsters, and criminals
Speaker 1: kill criminals. He said that idiots killed civilians. I think
Speaker 1: he could have used a stronger word. What he meant
Speaker 1: was that when he was in the gang, he fought
Speaker 1: other gangs for turf and the rights to take money
Speaker 1: from the gambling den or the prostitution houses. It was
Speaker 1: important to him that I knew he didn't hurt innocent people.
Speaker 1: We haven't talked at all about his wife and daughter.
Speaker 1: When I interviewed him, the real tears came when he
Speaker 1: talked about how much he missed them. It was stunning
Speaker 1: to me because I thought that he was cold and
Speaker 1: sensitive and hard. I don't want to throw the word
Speaker 1: psychopath out there, loosely, but he had no remorse or
Speaker 1: regret for his crimes that he committed. He lived in
Speaker 1: denial with those types of things, but when it came
Speaker 1: to love and relationships, he kind of lost it in
Speaker 1: front of me for a minute. That really stood out
Speaker 1: to me because it it was in contradiction to every
Speaker 1: other facet of his personality as well as his criminal history.
Speaker 1: And here's a quote from John. My life's been pain.
Speaker 1: It hasn't been easy. You might look at a guy
Speaker 1: who's driving around in a Bentley and think that guy's
Speaker 1: got the world by the balls, but you don't know
Speaker 1: his mind, what he's been through. I've struggled for everything
Speaker 1: that I did. Look at me now I'm sitting in prison.
Speaker 1: It's not that simple. And of course Hollywood has already
Speaker 1: taken up on this. Warner Brothers is now working on
Speaker 1: a movie inspired by Willis's life, although Willis's defense attorney
Speaker 1: says he and his client have not been contacted about
Speaker 1: the project. A Warner Brothers spokesperson declined to give details,
Speaker 1: but did confirm that the studio has recruited James Gray,
Speaker 1: the filmmaker behind Russian mafia movies like Little Odessa. And
Speaker 1: we own the night to write and direct the film.
Speaker 1: It will be White Devil and its scheduled release date
Speaker 1: is June of twenty twenty seven. Whoo man, all right, guys,
Speaker 1: let's get a little bit of We gotta name some
Speaker 1: sources here. We got Rolling Stone article White Devil Kingpenn
Speaker 1: how John Willis became a Chinatown overlord. That was from
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. We got a Vice article by Sam Ferranti
Speaker 1: from twenty fifteen. Got Boston dot Com the story behind
Speaker 1: White Devil John, and that was from twenty sixteen. NPR
Speaker 1: John Willis also known as White Devil John and Cantonese
Speaker 1: was sence to twenty years in prison. As we also
Speaker 1: have an NPR article by Jane Collins. We got a
Speaker 1: Morning Edition article and it was called Chinatown's White Devil John,
Speaker 1: and that was from two thousand and fifteen. I want
Speaker 1: to say, it looks like we also have the US
Speaker 1: Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts with some information there as well.
Speaker 1: So I hope you guys liked this episode. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I know, it's not a real long one. I thought
Speaker 1: it was super fucking interesting. You know, there's there's really
Speaker 1: not that much information unless you go ahead and maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know, read the John Holler in book. I
Speaker 1: would highly suggest that if you want to get more
Speaker 1: in depth, I suppose or not John Holler and I
Speaker 1: should say Bob Haller and my fault. I hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed, and I'm probably not going to read any reviews,
Speaker 1: probably wait for a little bit. I got more bad
Speaker 1: ones than good ones here in the last year or so,
Speaker 1: so you know, we'll see what happens. But anyway, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you guys stuck around. I love all you motherfuckers. Cheers,
Speaker 1: have a beer for me, and I'll see you folks
Speaker 1: on the flip side productor Amber of count In, ms LA.