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For decades the story of convicted drug trafficker Richard Wershe Jr. -- aka "White Boy Rick" -- was pretty much confined to the Detroit media with the exception of an article here or there in recent years.
That has changed. Two movies and a documentary about his life are in the works. One of the movies titled "White Boy Rick," will star Matthew McConaughey as Wershe’s father, Bruce Dern as his grandfather, Bel Powley as his sister and Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rory Cochrane as FBI agents who worked with him.
Now the latest: Wershe, 47, who has been behind bars since he was a teenager, has signed to write a memoir with HarperCollins imprint Dey Street Books, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Rick Wershe Jr. as a teen and an adult.
Freelance journalist and author Scott Burnstein of Oak Park, who'll co-write the book, tells Deadline Detroit it "will be completely written in his voice."
Andy Lewis of The Hollywood Reporter writes:
The movie and memoir are separate but complementary projects that have the blessing of each other. The book is Wershe’s chance to tell his story in his own words.
Former Detroit TV reporter Vince Wade, who resides in California and operates a blog, Informant America, which has focused on Wershe's ongoing saga, has also been working on a book since the summer of 2014.
"I"m trying to write a book that puts Rick Wershe in context with the war on drugs," Wade tells Deadline Detroit.
Wade said he's writing how Wershe as a teen became an FBI informant and got involved in the drug trade in Detroit in the 1980s right when the whole crack cocaine trade was exploding, not only in Detroit but around the nation.
"He's a central character in a much bigger story," Wade said. "So much of what happened to Wershe was political."
Wershe, serving a life sentence, has been denied parole repeatedly even though some former FBI agents have advocated for his release. As a teen, Wershe worked as an informant for the FBI and Detroit Police while he sold dope, and at some point, dated Mayor Coleman A. Young's niece.
While behind bars in the 1990s, he was instrumental in helping the FBI conduct an undercover drug and money laundering operation that resulted in the arrest and convictions of cops and Mayor Young's common-law brother-in-law.
On Tuesday, he met with the head of the Michigan Parole Board at the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee in northern Michigan, with hopes of getting a full hearing before the board. That could possibly happen in June.
"He asked me what I thought about drugs,” Wershe told the Free Press about the meeting. “I said, ‘I take full responsibility for selling the drugs that I did … but as a grown man today, I know the damage and harm that they do to society.' ”
“I’ve been in here a long time, and I feel that I deserve a second chance.”
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy had opposed his release until recently, claiming he remained a menace to society.
