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The Bmf Documentary Blowing Money Fast Season 2 Episode 1
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00:00I had a saying, police men get shot, firemen get burned, and gangsters go to prison or get killed.
00:25When you're hustling, those things come about, so I knew what I signed up for, the streets, violence, everybody don't make it to go to prison, prison's the lucky stage, but it was life's choices that made us lean toward hustling.
00:55A pair of infamous brothers known for heading up an international cocaine empire called the Black Mafia family.
01:01Who began their drug trafficking career selling crack in the mid-80s.
01:04It all came crashing down when they were convicted of running a criminal enterprise.
01:08The BMF story is one of rags, to riches, to wretchedness, the American dream and nightmare at the same time.
01:21BMF!
01:23Nobody did it like BMF.
01:25There ain't no other crew like this in the world, and there never will be another.
01:28They weren't being influenced by the culture, they were the culture.
01:33They was hiding in plain sight because who you would see with that kind of jewelry?
01:36Hip-hop artists.
01:37These are two brothers, like, cane and apple.
01:40BMF was the largest cocaine organization in U.S. history.
01:44Money was just everywhere.
01:46There's always somebody that wants more.
01:48Somebody has to be fucked up.
01:49It's a bad apple.
01:50We're playing the chess game.
01:52They can never make a mistake.
01:54Meek was so respected.
01:56And he also paid like he weighed.
01:59Harry Flinner, he operated as a ghost.
02:01He was always about his business.
02:03This dude was a genius.
02:04He wondered, is this real or is this just urban legend?
02:08And then all of a sudden, the break we needed happened.
02:11Harry and Demetrius Flinnery were sentenced to 30 years.
02:15One of those brothers got released.
02:17Everybody move like brothers.
02:25Everybody move like brothers.
02:36Everybody's shining like little money.
02:38Little money.
02:39Little money.
02:39Little money.
02:40There ain't no other school like this in the world.
02:49There never will be.
02:50Never will be.
02:50Never will be.
02:51Never will be.
02:51Never will be.
03:05Demetrius and Terry Flinnery were very close growing up.
03:08They had personalities that complemented each other.
03:12We've been had money.
03:13Money ain't nothing.
03:14Demetrius was the definition of charismatic.
03:18He knew how to sell the vision.
03:21I met the Black Mafia family prior to 2003.
03:25You know, people really wanted to be down with them and gravitate to them.
03:29We got our own cars.
03:30We got our own holes.
03:31We got our own clothes.
03:32You know what I'm saying?
03:33And we can't be stopped.
03:34They really bought into Meech's theology.
03:36Everybody move as one.
03:38Everybody is prospering in some kind of way.
03:42Terry was more reserved, quieter.
03:45He had tremendous mind for logistics.
03:48Terry was the boss.
03:49He was in the background calling shots.
03:52I'm going to tell the car you.
03:53That's who you're fucking with.
03:55Quit doing what you want to do and do what I tell you to do.
03:58Yes, sir.
03:59You could just tell by the aura, he was the dawn.
04:03He was the brains of the whole shit.
04:06Terry and Demetrius' diverging personalities is what allowed them to build Black Mafia family
04:11into the biggest drug organization in American history.
04:15But that push and pull and that dynamic is what also led to their downfall.
04:20During the rise and the fall of BMF, the only real storyteller you had from within was Demetrius.
04:29You never heard from Terry.
04:32He's kept it so close to the vest for 30 years.
04:37You might have heard of me, but you never seen me.
04:41My name is Terry Flinery, and this is my story.
04:44This is the first time you're on camera telling your story.
04:51Why do you think the BMF story resonates with so many people?
04:55The American dream is always talked about, but not everybody gets a chance to live it.
05:03When you come up in southwest Detroit, as poor as Mitch and I came up, family is everything.
05:09When I was a child, being poor in school, I knew the answers to the questions often when
05:17the teachers would ask the class, but I didn't want anyone to focus on the outfit that I had
05:24on or the shoes that I had on.
05:27I wanted to be invisible.
05:29But I often looked up to my brother because despite our poverty, people would always recognize
05:36him, they would always look up to him as being a leader.
05:40Me, I just kind of always used to be a Mitch little brother.
05:43For all the crew and all the people around, I was my brother's only protector.
05:48It used to be him and I.
05:50This call is from Demetrius Flinery.
05:53An inmate at a federal prison.
05:56Me and my brother, we was poor, man.
05:58You got to keep switching clothes.
06:00You know, he'd wear the jeans and on a shirt one day, I'd wear it the next day.
06:04That's just, you know, that's what you're mental, you know.
06:07For the most part, you know, it was about me and G sticking together and making it happen,
06:13you know.
06:17Terry and Mitch did everything together.
06:19When you saw one, you saw the other.
06:21And a lot of times you saw me as the third wheel.
06:24You know, Demetrius and Terry and Nicole, in the earlier years, they were inseparable.
06:30As time went on, though, they managed to kind of develop their own, you know, personality,
06:37own ways.
06:40Poverty being so bad kept my parents fighting and arguing with each other.
06:46When they get to arguing, Mitch would try to either block out, would cover his head with
06:53a pillow.
06:54I kind of stayed there to try to, like, make sure it wouldn't get into nothing violent.
07:00So I grew up being my mom's protector.
07:04We knew that it was hard times and poor times.
07:08I had no idea that, you know, the times that we were going through had affected them in the
07:15way that it did.
07:16Poverty, arguing, made me often think that the answer was somehow getting some financial
07:24gain to stop them from even having to argue or fight.
07:28So I was already programming myself young to feel that the answer was getting to money.
07:41It's called rap music, and few thought it would last.
07:44When hip-hop hit, we felt the music because it related and resonated with the streets.
07:51Hip-hop was an education because they were telling their story, and they related to that
07:56story.
07:57Hip-hop was a protest.
07:58Hip-hop has always been a form of empowerment.
08:03Hip-hop has always been a form of empowerment.
08:05We ate, drank, slept it.
08:06Hip-hop, slept it.
08:07It was ours.
08:08People spoke like us, the people who were in reform schools like us.
08:12It was just our music because it was all about what the times were.
08:16It's something we had not seen before, and it took off in Detroit.
08:24Run-DMC did a free concert in Detroit.
08:28We skipped school that day and caught the bus downtown and actually seen a free-run DMC.
08:34I said, we was amazed by these guys in the crowd.
08:41Wearing the Panama straws and the big chains.
08:44These guys drive these Mercedes or these Jaguars.
08:48These were the hustlers.
08:50That type of money and that type of influence, he had to get on the ball.
08:53He had to do something fast.
08:56You know, we wanted a better way of life, and that's what started us coming up in the
09:00game.
09:01We talked about it all the way back home on the bus ride.
09:04Kind of like dreaming.
09:06And that's when Meach and I made a decision to start hustling.
09:10Your dreams have now been fulfilled.
09:12Detroit at the peak of the crack era, the 80s, was the Wild West.
09:22You could be a low-level foot soldier and make a million dollars in a couple months.
09:28There had never been a time where getting rich was so easy.
09:33It proved an inspiration for Terry and Demetrius that were looking to dive into the game themselves.
09:39Before selling folk, we were selling weed.
09:43We'd roll up 100 joints out of ounces.
09:46While we were DJing out of the club, the guys would come up and make a request, and then
09:51we'd sell them a couple of joints.
09:53At first of all, they'd start selling weed.
09:55Start selling little bags of weed.
09:56That didn't do anything.
09:58Demetrius was tired of, you know, not having nothing.
10:02So he started working for a guy named E.D.
10:09The game is an addiction, you know, just like the drug.
10:13The money, the fame, the shine.
10:16And you see that, you're like, oh, that's what I want.
10:20E.D. was a guy in the neighborhood he the one to talk to because he was out there giving
10:25work out.
10:26I would ride up and down the street, and Meech would be, like, on the next block.
10:31Every time I ride down the street, you know, he'd be like, what's happening?
10:35What's happening?
10:36And he always stayed on that corner waiting for me.
10:40E.D. was sharp.
10:41We had a lot of people jealous of him.
10:43He was a good guy, you know what I'm saying, for the most part.
10:46That's just to be my brother.
10:48We learned a lot.
10:49Messing with him for the time that we was with him.
10:52E.D. was always fly.
10:54He was from New York.
10:56We looked up to him.
10:58So one day, Demetrius was going to meet him, but Terry wanted to come, and Demetrius didn't
11:02want him to come.
11:04So Demetrius told Terry to stay home, and like I say, Terry is the type of person, he's not
11:09going to listen to you.
11:11He ended up going to sell.
11:13Meech and I left my mom's house and went through the path and met him at the gas station,
11:18and he just wanted to hire one person.
11:20And I was like, no, we do it together for the same pay.
11:24At the time, it was like me, T, and D-Meet.
11:28We took off from there.
11:31Me, Terry, Demetrius, and Edric had the same heart, which is rare to find.
11:37So when we found out he was cool like that, we was good to go.
11:41I have respect for all of them, because everybody played their part.
11:45Everybody had a part to play, and they played it.
11:48Terry had the business part.
11:49I had the street part.
11:52Demetrius had all the crews in check.
11:55Demetrius and I didn't start off selling crack.
11:57We started off selling powder.
11:59We were selling gram for gram, $100 grams of powder.
12:02Then later on, we started selling $50 packs of powder.
12:07There was no crack there.
12:08That come along later when we hit the block.
12:10In the summer of 1984, everything turned on its head.
12:17Crack cocaine hit Detroit.
12:19Powder cocaine had always been around.
12:21It was a drug for the rich and powerful, very exclusive.
12:25Cocaine, it was selling well.
12:27That was the cool drug.
12:28That's when the guys, black and white, Latino, and whoever wanted to get high,
12:33you know, it was more a superfly.
12:35You want to snort?
12:36That was cool.
12:37Then somebody got smart and started cooking the cocaine,
12:45making it go much farther, and they sold it as crack.
12:49Crack cocaine.
12:51In Detroit, the problem has reached epidemic proportions.
12:55They wanted to know why these kids keep selling drugs.
12:58They don't realize that we just walk out your house,
13:01make $1,000 in an hour.
13:03So how you tell these kids not to do it,
13:07somebody's distress, is another man's opportunity.
13:11Just like in any business, you got to climb the ladder.
13:14And the first couple rungs of the ladder in the drug game
13:16is selling small quantities, hand-to-hand buys.
13:20I give you the package, you give me $50.
13:22And in the world of the drug game,
13:23that's where Terry and Demetrius had to start.
13:25When the crack trickled in,
13:28we observed the guys that were selling crack
13:31noticed that a lot of them wouldn't have a lot of packs on them.
13:34They would always have to go home.
13:36Me always being in tune with business,
13:39I came up with the concept,
13:41and we just have packs already cooked
13:43to make them a little larger,
13:45and we sell them for $50 a pack.
13:47Sure enough, for about a week or so later,
13:50we had like $10,000 worth of crack rocks
13:54and $50 packs.
13:56That's how we got the name 50 Boys.
14:0050 Boys come from a name that people gave in the street.
14:03People would say,
14:04Man, the 50 Boys, go ask the 50 Boys, man.
14:07They got them 50s.
14:08So the name just came from out the street.
14:11By word of mouth, you know, we had the 50 Rocks,
14:14and they were like bigger than everybody else.
14:16So our competition couldn't handle what we were selling.
14:21Our 50 Rocks were so big
14:23to where you can take it and cut it down
14:26and make $200 out of a 50 Rock.
14:30The money like that
14:31becomes an addiction, you know what I'm saying?
14:34You got everything from the clothing,
14:36the money, the jewelry.
14:38Come on, man, I'm living seven days.
14:40Meech was a big dreamer.
14:41Anything he's seen, his touch it, he wanted.
14:44A new diamond ring,
14:46a new chain.
14:47Demetrius was ready to go get a bunch of Adidas track suits.
14:51I'm an out-front person.
14:53I'm just trying to enjoy myself
14:54and have everybody around me.
14:56Enjoy the moment.
14:58And, you know, the jealousy came with us getting money.
15:01Okay, you can go get that,
15:03but I'm going to go put mines up.
15:04I'm going to get a safe,
15:05and I'm going to start saving the $100 bill.
15:08They make a joke.
15:10Every time they see the light on in Demetrius in our bedroom,
15:13they say, I'm up there ironing my $100 bills
15:16and putting them in the safe.
15:19I didn't think we'd make money again.
15:21Terry wouldn't do nothing but save money.
15:25One day we pull up.
15:27Terry opened up the window and say,
15:28take me to get my car.
15:31And we looked at each other, me and Demetrius,
15:33and ran in the house.
15:35Man, that boy had $100,000 laying on the bed.
15:39We like, damn, we got the stuff I gave up.
15:42We fucking up.
15:44Terry didn't drink, didn't smoke,
15:45none of that type of stuff.
15:47The perfect person to have Meach back,
15:49because, you know, Terry always held it down.
15:51If Meach would mess it up,
15:52he could always know Terry had his back.
15:55We often be able to help our parents out with the bills.
15:59Probably paid all the bills.
16:01When I found out that Demetrius and Terry were in the streets,
16:06I would do my best as a parent
16:08to try to discourage them
16:10that that was not the way to go,
16:12that was not the way to turn.
16:13It don't nobody like for their kids to sell drugs.
16:16They didn't like it.
16:17I'm not going to sit up and say they was for it.
16:19They didn't like it.
16:21Being Christian kids coming up,
16:24my goal was making my parents proud,
16:27at least graduating,
16:29and perhaps being the first to go to college
16:31until we started making all the money.
16:33After that, just never going to complete school.
16:36So you change with the money.
16:41It made me open up.
16:42It made me feel good.
16:44It gives you a surge of power.
16:47My self-esteem started loosening up.
16:50I was able to buy things that I never had before,
16:53thought I'd never get.
16:54Drury, alligator shoes, pads, suits for new Mercedes.
17:02Big T was cold.
17:04Now, when it was time to go out,
17:06Mitch would go step for step with him.
17:08But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
17:10Big Boy got on the Coojies with the slacks,
17:12with the gators.
17:13Big Boy was cold.
17:14Believe that.
17:16Me, Mitch, and Terry always got more money than everybody.
17:19So we was hated.
17:20Then, plus, we was three nice-looking guys.
17:23All the women loved us.
17:24But Terry is not the latest man.
17:27Terry more business.
17:28You know, he got one woman in mind,
17:30and that's about it.
17:31So he's a one-woman man.
17:35Rhonda, I was 17, maybe 18, when I met Rhonda.
17:40I met Terry through Meach.
17:42I was Meach homegirl.
17:43I used to drive for Meach,
17:45ride him around.
17:47Then from there,
17:48I became T-homegirl,
17:50driving him around,
17:53taking him to school.
17:58Now, Rhonda was just cool,
18:00round-the-way girl, street-savvy.
18:02By her living one or two streets over from the projects,
18:05it kind of fit into what I had going on.
18:09I used to stash to work over her house.
18:12As we got into a relationship,
18:16he showered with me with jewels, furs.
18:19That was the first guy I brought home to my mom.
18:22We ended up having our son.
18:24It was life-changing.
18:25It's different when you got kids now,
18:28because it made me focus more on
18:29rising above street level of the gang.
18:33Terry was a provider.
18:34He was really there, real supportive.
18:37He would look out for myself and little Terry.
18:40But he tried to keep us away from the gang,
18:44what he was doing.
18:45He tried to keep everything separate.
18:46Later on, I learned, you know,
18:48being in the game,
18:49different things came with that.
18:52No one knew back then
18:55what crack was going to do
18:56to the culture or the community.
18:59Meach and I never liked the fact that
19:02people would bring their microwaves,
19:05their TVs,
19:06because they didn't have the money.
19:07If they wanted it that bad,
19:08sometimes we'd just give it to them.
19:10We never dehumanized the people.
19:13It was just strictly about the money.
19:16Detroit, at the peak of the crack epidemic,
19:18was like something out of the Wild West.
19:21And as Terry Demetrius and their 50 Boys crew
19:24are growing bigger by the second,
19:27this put Terry and Demetrius
19:28on the radar of law enforcement.
19:29I've always wanted to be a cop,
19:37you know, since I was young.
19:39I was just kind of fascinated about the police.
19:42And so I went and signed up,
19:44got into the state police.
19:46But I came up in Detroit,
19:48so I wanted to be in the streets,
19:50you know, a street cop.
19:52So they sent me to gang squad.
19:54Like what they say,
19:54when citizens get in trouble,
19:56they call the police.
19:57Police get in trouble,
19:58they call gang squad.
19:59That was the baddest unit in the city.
20:03Our job was to build intelligence,
20:06get information on everybody
20:07at a lower level.
20:09In the early days of the 50 Boys,
20:12in the 80s, with crack cocaine,
20:14they were middle management,
20:16boots on the ground.
20:18The law enforcement knew who they were,
20:19but the intelligence they were getting
20:21was very piecemeal,
20:23and it was coming in drips.
20:24Vic Meach and his brother,
20:26we have heard about them.
20:27We know they were sounding dope,
20:29and doing really, really well.
20:30All of a sudden,
20:31they're on the radar.
20:32Law enforcement,
20:33they needed to get in from the inside,
20:36which means developing confidential informants.
20:39But what people didn't realize,
20:40Southwest Detroit was its own culture.
20:43Guys down there,
20:44they did a lot of everything,
20:45but they didn't do a lot of talking.
20:46Probably how they got big so quick.
20:48As Demetrius and Terry climbed their way up
20:55the criminal food chain in Detroit,
20:57working for E.D. Boyd,
20:59they were getting rich and getting rich quick.
21:02So with this newfound wealth came newfound jealousy
21:05and newfound enemies.
21:08They started to have beefs in their neighborhood.
21:11By us making a lot of money,
21:12our names was ringing out there.
21:16Terry and Demetrius saving money,
21:18got money,
21:19and all the other guys looking at them like,
21:21you know,
21:21oh man,
21:22here they come.
21:23In the early era of the Flannery's,
21:27their number one adversary
21:28would be Leighton the Beast Simon.
21:32Leighton was a tough guy.
21:34Pull a gun on you,
21:35he'll fight you.
21:36He used to torment the shit out of us.
21:39Leighton Simon was in jail for five or six years.
21:41He came out,
21:43and all the territory that had once belonged to him
21:45was now swallowed up by the 50 boys.
21:50Leighton Simon was of the opinion
21:51that that was his rightful territory.
21:55When you start losing a lot of money
21:57and it's going to somebody
21:58that's in your same neighborhood,
22:01you're really pissed.
22:03Our beef with Leighton starts
22:05the night that Hagler retired from boxing.
22:09We went to watch the fight,
22:11closed circuit TV,
22:13at a place called Crystal Gardens.
22:17After the fight,
22:19Leighton and his brother
22:20was at the light they see in Demetrius.
22:23Leighton's brother,
22:24Elvis was talking about,
22:26you young-ass motherfuckers
22:28don't know nothing,
22:29and Demetrius's never like,
22:31man, fuck you, man, fuck you, so.
22:34Leighton said,
22:34man, get out the car.
22:36Leighton's brother, Elvis,
22:37he said,
22:38I don't fight, I shoot.
22:40And then they pulled off.
22:44Leighton and Roland got me off that night,
22:46and they went to the bar.
22:48One night at the club,
22:51everybody partying,
22:53bunch of women.
22:54Leighton and his brother come in,
22:56talking shit,
22:57he talking to me,
22:59they got into it.
23:01Then that's when
23:02somebody shot Elvis,
23:05and Leighton,
23:06everybody ran out of there,
23:07Elvis was the only person
23:08laying on the ground.
23:09The spring of 1987,
23:11Leighton Simon saw his brother,
23:14Elvis,
23:14murdered in cold blood
23:16in front of his eyes.
23:17I woke up to hearing
23:18it was a shootout,
23:20and people were dead at the bar,
23:22but I actually wasn't on the scene.
23:24Leighton's beef had nothing to do with me.
23:27The rumor on the street
23:28was that the hit
23:29had come from the Funnery crew,
23:32and that was a declaration of war
23:34between Leighton Simon
23:35and the Funnery brothers.
23:36You selling drugs,
23:38you gonna have a beef.
23:39You can't stop that.
23:41Somebody messaged your crew,
23:43and they tried to take him out.
23:44Will makes you think
23:45they want to try to take you out.
23:47Sometime retaliation is a must.
23:51After the tragedy happened
23:53with Leighton and his brother,
23:55one night,
23:56I see my brother at the Coney Island.
23:59I'm talking to Meech.
24:01This car pours up.
24:04Meech rolls down the window,
24:06and we see it's Leighton.
24:07And the look in his eyes,
24:09we knew it was just a problem.
24:11Meech actually gets shot in the neck.
24:19When my chain fell from around my neck,
24:22that's how I knew I was shot in the neck.
24:23I seen that I was shot in the shoulder.
24:25That night, I focused on getting him to safety,
24:29getting him to the hospital.
24:31Police end up taking him.
24:35To see your big brother,
24:37somebody you look up to,
24:38getting shot,
24:39knowing that he lost his life that night,
24:43you're angry,
24:44you want revenge.
24:45Fortunately, he was okay.
24:48He was released that night.
24:51Selling drugs,
24:52there comes consequences at times.
24:56Growing up with Terry and Meech,
24:58you are always looking over your shoulder.
25:00My parents were just trying
25:03to get their children
25:04to do the right thing
25:06and get a hold of their sons
25:10because they didn't want them
25:14to be in the street life.
25:22Back then,
25:23we always knew Leighton was coming back.
25:25We knew it was a threat.
25:28Terry really had nothing to do
25:30with this beef,
25:31but he was brought into it.
25:34It began this pattern
25:35where Terry was sucked into Demetrius' mess.
25:39It would be something
25:40that would foreshadow
25:41their relationship dynamic
25:43for the next 20 years.
25:47One night,
25:48I was with Rhonda.
25:50We went to a movie theater.
25:52Happened to run into Demetrius
25:54at the theater.
25:55Mech patted me down,
25:56playing with me,
25:57saying,
25:58where your gun?
25:58I bet you don't got your gun on you.
26:00And I said,
26:00no, it's in the car.
26:01It's under the seat.
26:02He said, see?
26:03Gun dude, you know,
26:04good in the car.
26:05When I got home,
26:07I was so tired,
26:08I passed out in the living room.
26:10We got home,
26:11and Terry laid on the couch,
26:12took a nap.
26:13And shortly after that,
26:14Mech was trying
26:15to get in touch with him.
26:17Demetrius was calling me
26:18and beeping me
26:19and calling me
26:19and beeping me.
26:20I wasn't answering,
26:21so finally,
26:22he calls Rhonda's house.
26:24And he told me
26:25he was going to meet Mech.
26:26I was leaving
26:27out of Rhonda's house,
26:29and I was getting
26:30into my Mercedes.
26:31I watched him
26:32get in the car,
26:33and on his way
26:34to shutting the door,
26:35I seen a shadow come up.
26:38I looked up,
26:40and the guy ran
26:41up on me
26:42with the pistol
26:43and tried to place it
26:44to my temple.
26:45My mind's racing,
26:46I'm thinking,
26:47I don't deserve to die.
26:49I don't deserve to die.
26:50I don't deserve to die.
26:51I don't deserve to die.
26:52I don't deserve to die.
26:52I don't deserve to die.
26:53I don't deserve to die.
26:54I don't deserve to die.
26:54I don't deserve to die.
26:55I don't deserve to die.
26:55I don't deserve to die.
26:56I don't deserve to die.
26:56I don't deserve to die.
26:57I don't deserve to die.
26:57I don't deserve to die.
26:58I don't deserve to die.
26:58I don't deserve to die.
26:58I don't deserve to die.
26:59I don't deserve to die.
26:59I don't deserve to die.
27:00I don't deserve to die.
27:01I don't deserve to die.
27:01I don't deserve to die.
27:02I don't deserve to die.
27:02I don't deserve to die.
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