Ep. 168: MICHIGAN - Detroit's #1 Most Notorious Hit Man, Nate "BOONE" Craft (PT. 1)
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We all have plans in life, maybe to take a cross-country road trip or simply get through this workout without any back pain. Whether our plans are big, small, spontaneous, or years in the making, good health helps us accomplish them.

At Banner Health, we're here to provide more than health care. Whatever you're planning, wherever you're going, we're here to help you get there. Banner Health. Exhale. Warning. The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder,

For today's episode, I had the opportunity to sit down and interview a hitman who worked for a Detroit gang known as the Best Friends, a gang infamous in Michigan that was responsible for dozens, if not hundreds, of murders. Nate Boone Craft is one of the most infamous figures in Detroit gang history.

as he's appeared on the History Channel, in documentaries, and has told his story many times across various forms of media. Boone himself claims that he has murdered almost 30 people in his life and claims that he can't even recall every single kill that he's carried out, and he has quite the life story. It was an intense experience setting up our equipment, inviting Boone over to our Airbnb in Detroit and preparing for the sit-down interview.

I had never interviewed a murderer or even someone who had killed somebody before, but I couldn't believe that we were actually going through with this. But it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to sit down with a hitman, to hear his story, and to try and figure out when and where the darkness began. This is going to be an intense, disturbing, and graphic episode, so listener discretion is heavily advised.

I'm Colin Brown. I'm Courtney Brown. And you're listening to Murder in America.

Detroit is a city in northern Michigan and it's known as the Motor City due to its role in the production of the American automobile industry. In the early 20th century, Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in Detroit and in 1913, Ford introduced the moving assembly line at their Highland Park Assembly Plant in the city.

This new production process allowed the company to produce vehicles in a new way that was cheaper and faster, and it cut the amount of time and money originally spent on producing a single car. Not only were cars made affordable for the average American through this new process, but it also boosted Detroit's economy and earned the city a reputation as the heart of the automobile industry.

By 1950, the population of Detroit had grown to 1.8 million as people arrived in droves to work at one of the three big automobile companies, Ford,

General Motors, and Chrysler. You see, in the mid-1940s, African Americans in the South wanted to escape the harsh realities they faced during the Jim Crow era, a law that prevented them from voting and pushed them into working low-paying labor jobs. There was also the threat of violence in the South, as Black people feared being targeted, lynched, harassed, and discriminated against.

So oftentimes, in an effort to escape racial violence, they too sought out Detroit for a chance at a better life. It was true. The people of Detroit were really living the American dream. They earned good money, had a steady, reliable job, and overall, life was good. The city was clean and prosperous, there were plenty of jobs, and there was a hell of a lot of money moving hands in the metro area.

however as the years went on the rise of technology reduced the need for manual labor and many factory jobs were outsourced to other countries and states where labor was cheaper in addition foreign automaker competition specifically in countries like japan korea and germany threatened the american car market eventually the money and job opportunities dried up detroit factories began to shut down and people lost their jobs

Unfortunately, life for African Americans in Detroit didn't appear to be the golden opportunity that they had hoped for. Even in the North, they were often discriminated against and were blocked from purchasing and renting homes in predominantly white areas. In fact, real estate agents at that time were told to steer the black community away from white neighborhoods in an attempt to keep the area segregated. The black community's presence in Detroit wasn't welcomed, and at the time, the

the white population felt threatened as there was now an increased competition for housing and jobs, which eventually led to racial tensions within the city.

In June of 1943, a race riot broke out and 25 African Americans were killed, 17 of those people being killed directly by the Detroit Police Department. This only further drove a wedge between the white and black communities and despite their determination to move on, the black community was often met by unwelcoming committees that showed up when African Americans attempted to move into white neighborhoods.

The black community was then forced to move into small segregated portions of the city, areas that had names like Black Bottom and Paradise Valley. However, white people in Detroit blamed the black people for the growing racial tensions in the city, and in 1949, the federal government funded what would be known as "slum clearance." During a slum clearance, government agents would go into predominantly African American areas and demolish black-owned businesses, schools, homes, and churches.

Once again, throughout all of this, the black community was displaced and in search of new areas to live.

But things didn't get any better. And on July 23rd, 1967, the Detroit police raided an unlicensed black owned club located at 9125 12th Street. This initial raid led to some violence, which erupted in some of the worst riots the nation has ever seen. The 1967 Detroit riot lasted a total of five days and it resulted in 43 deaths.

The deaths there were firemen, one police officer, many innocent bystanders, and multiple looters. The Detroit News referred to the ordeal as the street of nightmares, with the ongoing violence including criminal acts like arson, looting, and violent clashes with the National Guard. One man who spoke with the Detroit News stated, "...we are sick and tired of the treatment we're getting."

We're going to show Whitey, if things don't change, we burn the whole damn city down." Ultimately, the riot accelerated the departure of White residents from the city in what would become known as the White Flight. These White residents would end up moving to the suburbs outside Detroit, and middle-class Black citizens also joined and left the city for a more stable home environment.

but the damage was done the city that had once thrived started to fall this rapid departure of middle-class residents leaving the city created a steep and sudden decline in the city's revenue that had once been used to provide essential services the lack of tax money coming in then further escalated the decay of the city and buildings homes and businesses were abandoned

As of today, there are still over 18,000 abandoned homes in the city of Detroit. There are abandoned vehicle production plants, abandoned schools, abandoned hospitals, any type of building or former business, you name it, and I can guarantee that there is an example of one that is abandoned in the city of Detroit. In fact, on my YouTube channel, I recently released a documentary where we explored a number of abandoned buildings in Detroit, and it is shocking stuff.

as the years progressed the ghost town atmosphere of detroit became a breeding ground for criminal activity in the 1980s the rapid increase in production and distribution of the addictive drug crack cocaine opened doors for drug traffickers in the city to make a lot of money in fact after the drug really began showing up on the market around the year 1984 tens of thousands of detroit citizens both male and female found themselves roped into the new crack economy at that

At that time, the crack epidemic was touching people from all portions of society. In fact, it was a reported fact in local newspapers that many members of the Detroit Police Department themselves were penalized for doing crack on the job, which obviously led to violent, erratic behavior when dealing with reports and responding to calls.

When there's a demand, there will always be a supplier. And in Detroit, when the demand for drugs grew, multiple gangs sprung up and began vying for control of the supply and distribution of crack cocaine in the city. And all of the demand and money involved in the drug trade, of course, led to a violent and bloody competition between rival gangs who wanted to control the Detroit drug market themselves.

Out of the chaos and devastation of Detroit's crack cocaine epidemic rose a group of young men who would go on to become what some would call street legends in the city, a group known as the Best Friends Gang. And one member of the Best Friends Gang would go down in history as Detroit's most dangerous hitman. And at one point, the mere mention of his name struck fear in anyone within Detroit's criminal underworld. That man's name was Nathaniel "Boone" Craft.

Like many black residents who lived in the Jim Crow South during that time period, Nathaniel Boone Craft's family left the abuse and corruption of Mississippi in search of a better opportunity, and they ended up planning their routes on the east side of Detroit. Born in 1957, Boone witnessed the challenges faced by the black community during a time of economic decline.

His family members suffered multiple job losses, and the persistent racial tensions in the once prosperous city of Detroit led to a fractured, dysfunctional childhood for him.

From an early age, Boone didn't associate with the other neighborhood kids and he considered himself to be somewhat of a loner. While his mother worked to provide a stable home environment for her children, his father was away in the army and Boone found himself alone. He spent a majority of his time checking out the action happening around his neighborhood. He witnessed his mother and older siblings continuously struggling to make ends meet.

Day after day, they worked full-time jobs, leaving early in the morning and returning home late in the day, tired, beat, with only a small amount of pay. Boone knew from an early age that he didn't want that life, and instead, he used his free time to observe the others around him, to see how they move, how they operated.

and how they made their money. At just nine years old, Boone would sit outside on his front porch with a friend named Germ, and the two would watch the comings and goings of a local drug house across the street. In his mind, Boone knew that the people there were making money inside of the house, and from a young age, he wanted a piece of that pie. I started when I was nine years old. I was watching the neighborhood, seeing what was going on.

Even though if you hear from my sister, she gonna say I was seven. No, I just never associated with anyone. Even though I was a kid, I wouldn't associate with none of the other kids or nothing because she went to playing in the mud and dirty. And I was always a clean kid. I always wore clean, everything was clean. But my latest death, I remember I was nine years old, me and Germ had just came back from a pharmacy vital.

And we were sitting on the porch eating our cookies and then I told him, I said, "Hey man, Charlie over there selling dope." He said, "What?" I said, "Yeah, I've been watching him." We sat there for a couple more hours and I explained it to the jury. I said, "Look, see that man right there? He going in to cop some and see how quick he come back out." He did, he went in and we just sitting there. Of course, nobody paying us no attention because we kids.

But we watched him come out, then we watched several more come out. Jerry was like, "What are we going to do, sit here and watch all this?" I said, "No, we're going to figure which one we're going to rob."

So one day, Boone and Germ decided that they were going to rob one of the men going into the drug house and take whatever money and drugs he had on him. Boone believed that if they stole the drugs, they would be able to turn it around and sell the product themselves at nearby Jefferson Avenue, which was a known drug trafficking hotspot in town. So after a few hours of sitting and scoping out the scene, Nate set his sights on a man named Jesse.

After observing Jesse enter the drug house, the two young boys then went inside Boone's home, put on ski masks, and snuck around to the back alley of the drug house where they sat and waited for Jesse to emerge. We had a ski mask on, but of course, most people know who we are because we're the only two short kids in the neighborhood, but we got guns. So when we caught him going through the house, he was going through the side of, it's just the side of Miss Loretta's house.

And we was back there in the back waiting on him. Soon as he came through, "Don't move! Man, get y'all little bag put away." I said, "Don't move." Jandon already came out on his side and he got his gun at him. I got a .32. So, "Man, what's cool? Give us what you got." "I ain't got no money. We know that. Give us that bag." "Man, I can't. The guy killed him." I said, "It's gonna be too late 'cause if you don't give it to us, we gonna kill you."

So he threw the bag down, Jerm reached down to pick it up and he kicked Jerm. I started to bust his butt but Jerm was like, "Don't, don't, don't, don't. You're gonna try everybody from the neighborhood back here." So the guy running off screaming, "They robbed me, they robbed me." So we ran through the alley, jumped three houses over. My mama house, we go in the garage, we, she did me up the back and we see what it was.

Okay, this is heroin. So, uh, judge said, what we gonna do with it? I said, we gonna sell it. I'm gonna show you that we can get in on this deal. Now, we gonna ask the guy to give us some, but right now, we gonna sell these 40 packs we got.

The drug in the package was heroin, and Boone knew that what he had just acquired was worth a lot of money to all of the drug-addicted adults around him. Having watched his parents and family struggle with poverty, Boone hoped that hustling the streets and doing whatever he could, even if it was illegal, could provide a stable source of income for his family. So, Boone and Germ flipped the drugs and made a profit. Keep in mind, all of this is happening when Boone is only 9 years old.

After the two friends had sold off all of the heroin they had acquired, Boone and Germ then decided to go across the street and have a conversation with the local drug dealer, a man named Charlie.

Of course, Charlie didn't take Boone and Germs seriously as, at the time, like we said, they were only 9 years old. However, both boys refused to take "no" for an answer. Boone knew that this may be his only opportunity to prove himself and gain entrance into the lucrative criminal underworld of Detroit. So, in order to prove himself, Boone told Charlie that he knew Jesse, the man that they had robbed, owed him money for the 40 bags of heroin that they had stolen.

Boone then said that he and Germ knew where Jesse was, and to prove themselves, they would either bring Jesse back to Charlie, or they would get Charlie the money that he was rightfully owed for the stolen drugs. So, acting on Charlie's orders, Boone and Germ went down to Bluebird and confronted Jesse. We went down the street, and sure enough, Jesse was down at Bluebird. He was down there at Bluebird, and we walked up to him.

He finally realized who he was. He went, "You two little niggas robbed me and this other..." "Shh, shh, shh, shh. We ain't rob nobody." "Now we here because you owe Charlie." "And Charlie sent us to get the money." "And what?" "How y'all gonna get something?" Tilt my coat up, showed him the gun. "Do we gotta do this all over again? 'Cause I think that you believe that we won't kill you, don't you?" Man, poof, shot him in the thigh. And putting...

A potato on the gun don't make that guy damn quiet. I was like, man, my brother told me to put a potato on him. It's sort of like a silence. There wasn't no silence. But we didn't worry about it because we kids, we just stand around looking like this. And people just find out what's going on. We told Jesse Davis, man, if you scream or holler, the judge will shoot you in the head.

And if we got time, we gonna drag your body off somewhere. They gonna find it down one of them drains, sewer drain." The gunshot wound to Jesse's thigh only grazed the side, but it was enough for him to read the message loud and clear. Armed with a gun, Boone then ordered Jesse back into his sister's house, where he kept a large stash of money. And while being held at gunpoint, Jesse handed over what was owed to Charlie.

Boone and Germ then returned to Charlie's house with the money. And needless to say, Charlie was shocked. But he agreed to let Boone and Germ collect his debts for him.

From an early age, Boone proved himself as a violent enforcer and unfortunately Charlie, the drug dealer himself, would have to find out the hard way that no one should ever get on Boone's bad side. In a later interview, Boone admitted that he had a lot of pinup aggression during his childhood due to him constantly being bullied in school.

When Boone eventually confided in his sister about what was going on, she told him that he either had to stand up for himself and fight the bullies or come home and fight her instead. So Boone opted to fight the bullies

saying that his sister would have "beat the hell out of me." And over time, as he became more involved in the drug business, he admitted that he used to tie the sheets from his bed together and use it as a rope to lower himself down from his second-story bedroom window at night to collect money from customers on Jefferson and Continental, two known drug trafficking streets in the city.

But eventually, he would get caught. One night, his older sister found him sneaking out and she beat him mercilessly. But it wasn't enough to stop him from engaging in illegal activities.

During the summer of 1967, when the racial riots in Detroit were at an all-time high, Boone used this opportunity to further his criminal career by looting stores and stealing money from the cash registers. At one point, he and his friends looted a local gun shop.

where they took knives, guns, and bows and arrows. He admitted that he always had a fascination with knives, and he had been playing with them since he was a young kid. This fascination even led him to his nickname, Boone, a name taken from the legendary American frontiersman, Daniel Boone. During the race riots of 1967, the violence and destruction was so intense that the National Guard and Army had to be called in to help maintain control.

However, Boone soon noticed that a lot of the army men were also heroin users. So, during the riots, in the dead of night, Boone would sneak around the streets of Detroit, locate heroin users that were in the army and National Guard, and sell them drugs. Soon enough, the army men who saw Boone prowling about started to inquire about liquor. And Boone, who had looted a lot of the local stores, informed them that they could come down to his house, located at 814 Continental, and buy whatever they wanted.

Soon enough, Boone had earned a reputation as a hustler at just 10 years old. So, seeing that his illegal business was growing, Boone decided to approach the first drug dealer he was working with, Charlie, and ask him to give him some more opportunities to make money. Let's talk about how we're going to make this money. I can't give y'all more money? Then I ain't making nothing. I said, well, we ain't making nothing now. And just to let you know, we've been following you too.

We know when that guy come from out of town up here and y'all meet up at the restaurant. We like, "How you know that?" I said, "We little kids. We can ease in and out of areas and places and people never pay us no attention." He said, "Well, I'm not giving y'all nothing. Beat y'all's." I said, "That's one." He's like, "What the hell you doing?" "Don't keep threatening us 'cause we don't appreciate that." "That's two."

He said, "What's gonna happen when you get to whatever number you get to?" I said, "You won't be around." Man, I... Boom! Turned and walked over. Boom! Did I not tell him? Let's get all the dope and the money he got around here, 'cause we know where some of his eyes find that. We got all that shit together. Took it down to my mama's basement. Well, about two hours, because it took us two hours to find everything. We had a lot of shit that was already bagged up there. He bagged up and had rubber bands around.

As it turned out, Boone didn't like being talked down to, and after issuing two warnings to Charlie to no avail, he pulled the trigger and ended his life in what would be his first of many murders. Boone had just killed his first individual, at just 10 years old, by shooting him. Once Charlie was dead, Boone and Germ then spent the next two hours going through his house and robbing him of all the drugs and money that he had.

They then took the stash they had recovered, hid it in Boone's basement, and returned to Charlie's house to dispose of his dead body. At just 10 years old, the two friends then dug a shallow grave and buried Charlie's body in his own backyard, leaving the corpse to rot and decompose in their neighborhood. He was like, man, what are we going to do? So we're going to go back down there and throw him in the yard and bury his ass.

Boone and Jerm believed that the stash of stolen dope and money would be safe in Boone's basement.

However, not long after the murder of Charlie, Boone's older brother Willie discovered the stash of cash and drugs and he stole it. But as the money continued to roll in, the two young boys decided to take the money and drugs and stash them at Germ's house. However, this also proved to be a mistake after Germ's mother found the money and took it for herself. - I took some of the money to my house and my brother

Willie Fountain had stolen it, but of course he didn't know where I got it from. He thought I just got it from going up there to and said, "Buy those, A&P, going to the shoe shop, working around the neighborhood, making a little money." And I always came home with money before I started doing that. But he, Fountain, took it. I was like, "Okay, I can't do this no more. I don't want to have to kill my little brother, I mean, my big brother."

Next time we made the money, I told Jerry, "Hey man, you take it to your house." He took it to his house, but his mama popped it, took it, and spent it. Jerry gonna tell me, "Hey man, my mama popped the money and just took it, and you're like, 'I tried to get it back for me, but she told me to sit my little.'" I said, "Yeah, I figured that." His mother was not kind to him.

Without any money left, the two friends had to put their heads together and figure out another plan to replace what had been stolen. So with the help of Boone's older brother, Pop, they decided to rob another drug house down the street, a well-known drug establishment that sold weed.

The robbery was successful and no one got hurt. However, word on the street was going around that Boone and Germ were wreaking havoc around the neighborhood. And since Boone and Germ didn't deal with weed, they allowed Boone's brother Pop to take as much of the drugs as he wanted. Boone also made it clear to his older brother that no one was ever going to rob him. It was a small threat.

but a threat nonetheless. And as Pop listened to his younger brother, an alarm bell went off inside of his head. He mentioned that word on the street was that two young kids were going around shooting people. Even Boone's older sister Louise had heard the stories and confronted her brother after her drug user boyfriend had told her that Boone had been the one to sell him the drugs. He also told her that Boone had used a knife to cut up his arm

after he attempted to reach inside of his back. But Boone continued to deny any involvement or use of violence, as he was aware that his age allowed him to evade certain consequences. - A weed man house, and of course I talked my brother into helping us rob. So we go in there, rob the place, get the weed, get the money. Babers always kept trying to look us. If you look up, you gonna die.

Now, you keep on trying to turn that head. If you think I'm gonna shoot you in your head, then I'll keep my aim looking. I ain't looking. You better not. But if you really wanna look, I'll make you stand up. But of course, you're gonna go down hard. Man, I don't want no trouble. I don't want no trouble. So we took the weed, put it in my little red wagon. I didn't know he had that much.

i said man just too bulky and we ran down the street with that we kept looking back to see what you know like they gonna run out the house by the time we turned down one of the side houses to run through the yard and back then like we hit alleys we ran down the alley and got behind my mama garage pulled that little board out we ran up in there with it but for the next 15 minutes we just kept looking listening trying to see

Did anybody recognize or was, you know, like anybody gonna chase after us? But they didn't. So, of course, my brother Pop, he want quite a bit of weed. I didn't know nothing about no weed at the time because I learned about the heroin. So, Pop too, big time, bad time. Okay, this cool with me. She'll take it on. I said, Pop, come on now.

I love you, but don't try to rob us. I ain't gonna rob you. Plus, I've been hearing things about two little kids out there shooting people. Why are you telling us that somebody out there's been to shoot us? He said, no, I think y'all wouldn't be doing it terrorizing the neighborhood because my sister friend went and told my sister. I just happened to be in the front room when he came up there and told her. And then Louise came in and, boo, did you hit him with a

or an axe or a handle or something? Who, me? Man, quit lying on my little brother. That's my little baby brother. Why people always saying that I did something? I'm sitting here. Sister, cuss to him. I don't want to get the hell out.

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After Charlie's murder, the money started to dry up and Boone and Germ knew that they were going to have to go out and find a new way to make money. It was obvious that even from an early age, Boone had a strong desire to obtain as much wealth as he could, and no one was going to get in his way. So, one day, Boone and Germ were hanging out at Charlie's house when the phone rang. Boone knew that it would probably be the drug connection, calling to speak with Charlie, who was dead.

And so, wanting to drum up some business, Boone himself picked up and answered the phone call. In a deep tone of voice, trying to act like an adult, he told the person on the phone that Charlie wanted to meet him at the usual spot, a local restaurant, to talk about business. Since Charlie was dead, Boone and Germ knew that it would be their one opportunity to try and persuade the powerful drug connection to work with them instead.

Back then you got the rollable phone. I called John and told him what went down. John said, "What?" I said, "Yeah, man." He downstairs on the front porch. "We gotta make a sign for this fool." He was like, "A what?" I said, "We gonna beat the hell out of him." So John came over within like three minutes he was there. He only lived just a couple blocks over on El Conqueror. He came over and we, uh,

I went out the back door to come down through the side and told the boy over here, still watching. Louise is still talking to him. They sitting there smoking a big old blunt. Well, of course, back then they just rolled them up the paper. They ain't got the cigars that you got nowadays. But Jerry said, "What we gonna do? We gonna bleed bats." He said, "What? We gonna fuck him up with these bats?" Now listen up, man. I don't want to talk too loud. They my ears.

Then, of course, first time I got that anger. And Louie was like, "Bone, is that you over there?" So me and Jarvis stepped out. "Yeah?" "What you over there doing?" "Looking for some worms." Now, I don't know why my sister didn't know I was lying. I'm always clean. I don't play in mud or dirt or nothing. "Just looking for some worms. Me and Jarvis gonna go fishing."

"Boy, y'all come from the side of that house. You know that man don't like it." We were on the side of the Charlie house. But the word was good back then because they playing with Charlie. We caught him later on that night, beat the hell out of him. Said, "Next time you come over to my sister's house because my sister lived downstairs, my mother lived upstairs, and she was always watching us when my mother went to work. That's why I consider my sister my mama."

My mama was my mother, but she was always working. She had to feed all of us kids. But after that, me and Jeremy said, "We gotta do something to get some quick money." Of course, we had enough money to recop, but we had to wait. Then when time came, Charlie's phone rang. We asked, "Yeah." And I tried to talk to him. "Yeah, Charlie said meet him at the same place." I hung up real quick. Sure enough,

Next following day, the guy was there. I was like, "What you think, sir?" "What?" "You got the money?" I said, "Yeah, I got the money." "You ain't thinking about robbing him?" I said, "It did cross my mind." So I said, "Okay, you watch the back." I'm going over there to sit at his table. I go over there and sit down at his table. "Little kid, what you want?" Reached in my coat, pulled out the package, put it up there. He looked at it. "What you think of that?" "It's money."

You know when you used to get with the Charlie? Well, we want that. "Where's Charlie at? I know he ain't sent child up there, blah blah blah blah blah." I was like, "Uh, Charlie ain't no more." "What do you mean? Charlie got arrested?" "Nah." He either upstairs or downstairs, but he ain't here no more. Looked at me, I'm like, "The child's in the shoe. That's our business. We don't ask you any questions or ask us. We got the money. All you have to do is give us the stuff."

What's your name? They call me Boom. He still don't know that Jeremy's over there waiting for him to do something stupid and Jeremy's gonna light him up. But we talked about a half an hour. We had a piece of custard pie and a coffee. And after a while, he said, listen, when I get up up here, there's a can outside. Yeah. He said, look in there. He got up and left.

Charm and me, we looked at each other. I told Charm, "You should go look." "No, you go look." So we both went and looked. And there was a bag in the package. We picked it up. Damn. We in business, my man. Charm said, "Man, I hope we don't go to prison or jail." I said, "We minors. They can't do nothing to us. They can't even lock us up." "Where you get that from?" "I read." Which I love reading.

So we went on and did that up and they were like, "Here, you take another part of it." "Dude, you know what you want?" He said, "Man, you know me. I got to try to cut down on money. The money is my mama keep searching and this and that. I really don't need that much to get the stuff I need outside. I do because I need a car."

After getting their hands on another big cache of drugs, it was only a matter of time before the money started to roll in again. But suddenly, Germ started having second thoughts. He told Boone that he didn't need that much money, and that his mother was always searching the house, finding his profits and stealing them. So what was the point? But Boone at this point was already too deep into the game, and was hungry for more. His next big purchase was going to be a car, despite the fact that he was only 10 years old.

He decided that it wasn't smart to continue walking around the streets though, so once he had enough money, he approached his older brother, Pop, and asked for his help. Nate told Pop that he was going to give him enough money to purchase a car, and he said he wanted his brother to put the car in his name.

He knew his brother would be the best person to ask as he worked at the nearby Chrysler plant. At first, Pop laughed and told him he was way too young to drive. However, money talked and Nate said if his brother did him the favor, he would reward him with $100 every month. It was an offer that Pop just couldn't refuse.

So he took the money from Nate and purchased the car in his name. Pop instructed both Boone and Germ that if the cops ever stopped them and asked what they were up to, they were to tell them that they had stolen the car while he was asleep. After a few days, the car was purchased and the young boys were now driving around the abandoned streets of Detroit. Of course, the cops would eventually stop them on multiple occasions.

But somehow, they were always able to play it off. How you gonna get a car? That's what my brother Pop is for. I get hit on by them, "Go get me a car." In your name and everything, you know. And of course, I'm gonna be driving it. And he did. And of course, I got caught many times by the police.

"What the hell? Give me no keys!" They take the keys off of the truck, throw them in there and lock it and said, "Now, whoever car this is, they gonna beat you!" They find out you got the keys thrown in the trunk. Of course I was like, "They gonna beat me!" The cops said, "Yeah, good for you!" They drive off. When they drive off,

Of course I got another key. It's my car. I pop the trunk, get back in, look around, you know, police crank it up and go straight on. I had to park it like six houses down from my mama house. Sometimes I used to park it over there by the school because nobody really, you know, mess with anything over there. But that went on for about two years. I can't remember his name, but he had, it was my sister's husband.

my mother's sister husband. We had to leave my car there because we couldn't keep driving. The police were running around looking for us. So we just left it parked. They can't do nothing with a parked car. They don't even have a parked car found in somebody's house. So we would take his deuce in the corner and we would drive that around. Charlie was like, man, if the police catch us, man, we going. I said, they ain't going to do nothing but take the key, lock him in the trunk. They done did that how many times on me?

That's all they gonna do because what do you put the handcuffs on us? See I'm not really see that's not gonna fall right on my heart But Jerry was like man Why we here? I said because we better learn how to go to the west side cuz I'm thinking about moving over there. What? I said yeah I seen you like this apartment building. Look nice. Collinwood's uh, Collinwood's apartment. We go over there Checking it out. I only got a little taller a little more cut up

But I was always a little bit taller than Jerry. He used to tease him. And I had facial hair. I was growing facial hair like, "Oh, somebody's trying to get a little hair on their cheek." "Oh, you want me to pull that out? Leave my hair alone." I go, "Come on, let me pull that out." Maybe two would grow in this place. I was growing long time. Jerry couldn't grow no mustache, no side, no nothing. I think he didn't grow any, man. He got about 20 or 30.

For two years, Boone and Germ used the car for their growing drug business, and they lived the lives of street hustlers. The money was good, and for the first time in their lives, girls started to pay attention to them.

At this time, Boone had earned the reputation that if anybody wanted someone gone or needed something done, he would do it for a hefty price. But after a while, with his growing popularity in the streets, Boone decided he wasn't happy with the amount of money he was making. He needed more. So at 12 years old, he decided it was time to find a way to make some quick cash. But instead of hustling the streets like he was used to,

He and Jerm made an elaborate plan to rob the local grocery store, Bilo. Armed with guns, the boys walked into the grocery store, but they were immediately stalked by a security guard.

Upon walking into the store, the security guard grabbed Boone, believing that the gun he was holding was only a toy, but unfortunately for the employee. As the security guard attempted to restrain Boone, he reached inside of his pant pocket, retrieved the gun, and fired it once behind his shoulder, grazing the side of the security guard's face. The security guard dropped Boone, and the two young boys quickly fled the scene.

As word spread, the witnesses inside the by-law were able to identify the two boys inside the store and soon the police were at Boone's mother's house. Interestingly, the by-law workers were able to identify him as, from time to time, he had worked odd jobs at the grocery store for extra cash. Both Boone and Germ were then arrested and sent to a youth home, and Boone was eventually made a ward of the court once it was determined by a judge that his mother simply had too many children inside the house.

So Boone stayed at the youth center for a few months before he was transferred to the Wayne County Child Development Center.

Eventually, he was placed into a foster home with a white family who owned a farm. And in a later interview, Boone said that he had never been called derogatory names such as the C-word and the N-word until he went to live with the white family. But while he was there under that roof, he had faced extreme racism. While he was in foster care, Boone was forced to sleep in the farm family's attic, and they made him wake up early in the morning to tend to the miscellaneous farm chores in and around the house.

Eventually though, Boone found himself in trouble again, this time with his foster father, after he walked in on Boone having sex with one of his daughters. Not welcomed back at the home, Boone was then sent back to the youth home and then transferred once again to the Wayne County Child Development Center, where he stayed for a significantly longer time.

He admitted that the other kids at the development center had issues and ran around and acted crazy. At one point, Boone used a baseball bat to hit another kid and escaped on foot. He ended up at his mother's house, but the police quickly came and detained him and he was brought back to the development center. However, the harassment from the kid didn't stop, and once again, Nate used the baseball bat to defend himself.

This time, after the assault, he was taken to the quiet room, where he was kept until it was decided what they were going to do with him. There were other instances of violence from Boone as well, and he himself even admitted to me that he also hit a kid with a fire extinguisher after he continued to mess with him. We got caught trying to rob fire loads as a kid. I ain't going to go into too much on that one, but yeah, they took us, locked us up.

and put us in the U-Pont. That's when the people learned. "Where y'all keep getting all these little kids from?" "Yeah, we got little kids." They put us on 3M. But of course after a while we see what's going on there and no people, I mean no kids in there was, they was kids but they was eating out of their cravings, running around, chasing each other and doing this and that. So I said, "What we gonna do man?" He said.

My mama ain't gonna come get me, I said. My sister probably come and get me. And sure enough, she came down there, but by the time she got there, I done hit this kid in the head with a fire extinguisher. He kept on packing in my head, running. Turned up, ain't you gonna do something? Yeah, I got this weight, that fire extinguisher. Turned up, I had it on the side of me.

I could see the kid, he looking. I said, "Yeah, he gonna run his butt down here and try to hit me again." Well, sure enough, here he come. I done slid my hand to the side just before he got about maybe six steps away from me. Jumped up and hit him in his knee. He went, "Ahh!" Shut up, punk. I'm gonna hit him in the head. The guard that is to protect the floor, he came over there. "You better not hit him." So he kept hitting me.

I was just playing. Yeah, he was playing. Kept hitting me and hitting me and hitting me. So I hit him back. You don't pick up something and hit somebody. You trying to murder him or something? No. Next time I'm going to kill you. So they locked me in the room until my sister came. When she came, they gave me and Germ to her. Because she got Germ out too. We get out to U-Haul. I mean, we go back home. Of course, Louise beat our butt.

I'm like, "Why we getting a bug beat? We didn't do anything." They caught Dr. Robbins. "I don't even want to talk to you, boom. Go in your room and stay." Of course, I don't never stay. I tie my sheets together and climb out the window. But I got a business to run. Nobody still didn't know I was selling shit.

Eventually, he was sent to the nearby Hawthorne Center for a psychiatric evaluation. The mission statement for Hawthorne Center stated that it, quote, is to provide emotionally disturbed children and adolescents with evidence-based, supported, and trauma-informed inpatient mental health services that meet the highest standards of quality in the context of an integrated, patient-centered, proactive safety culture.

However, after six months at what Boone dubbed, quote, the Nuthouse, he was released after it was determined that he didn't suffer from any mental disturbances, but rather, he just didn't care about life in general.

But the Wayne County Development Center didn't want him back, and he was given a bus ticket, food, and papers that listed his mother's last known address. So from there, Boone boarded the bus, rode it downtown, and walked back to his mother's house. However, when he arrived, he noticed that the house was no longer there.

As he walked up and down the street in confusion, one of the neighbors came outside and told him that the Kraft family house had been demolished and they had moved somewhere else. So Boone then walked to the next location where his family had supposedly moved. He spent the next few hours searching up and down the streets for his loved ones, but he couldn't find them.

Jeremy ran off already, but I had to stay a little bit longer. That's when I hit the kid in the head with the baseball bat. They threw me and Hawthorne on center of the Cravey house. Of course, in there, after about 60 days, they were like, ain't nothing wrong with this kid. Why'd he send him here? They told us he was in Cravey and that he hit somebody with a baseball bat.

So they cue in on me that for 30 more days. And they say, ain't nothing wrong with this man. He just don't give a damn. So they called the police and told them, hey, y'all come pick him up. Ain't nothing wrong with him. The man got it on the speaker. And I'm sitting there listening. We don't want him. You got him. Y'all sign for him. We don't want no center back here. We're not letting him in. What the hell we supposed to do with him? That's y'all problem. I'm hung up on him. He looks at me and says, you got...

"You got your mother phone number or anything or somebody?" "I ain't got nothing." "Do you think you could get somebody to come get you?" "I don't know nobody." So he went into my file and said, "Okay, you lived at 814 Continental, Main Street, Jefferson." I said, "That bring back memories. Been a long time." He said, "Well, the guards down there packing up your room for you. You can't go back into that unit. We releasing you." "What do you mean you releasing me?"

I still got some more time to serve. He said, "The people don't want you back, and we ain't gonna keep you." So they took me up to the bus stop, gave me the bus ticket and 30 bucks, and told me, "Detroit that way. Here goes the map. Gonna show you how to take this bus," which was the Grand River bus. "We'll take you all the way downtown."

Down there, you take this and it'll tell you how to go over there. You're going to have to walk to, you know, at Jefferson. Catch that Jefferson bus and it'll take you right to your screen. You know your neighborhood when you see it. I'll be like, yeah, okay. I did all that. When I got in the neighborhood, that's when I realized the neighborhood had changed. I'm like, where the hell is our house at? The lady caught the screen, look. Excuse me, sir, what you looking for? 814.

They tore that house down a couple years back, sir. That was the Kraft family, I said. Yeah. See what you're looking at? Ain't nothing new to him no more, man. She was like, oh my God. Where you been? I said, locked up. But they released me and I come back in trying to find my mom, sister, and everybody else. It's gone. They moved over on Sheridan. I don't know the address or what's in between, but I think it's between Kircherville and...

So I'm walking down Shelter, Sheridan. I walk back and forth, back and forth. I don't see nobody that I recognize or anything. I know I got a lot of brothers and sisters. They should be outside playing. But of course I forgot that they was older than me so they probably got married or moved out or something. So I go back up, catch the bus back downtown. I'm sleeping at the Grand.

Grand Circus bus area. - With nowhere to go, he walked back to the bus stop and fell asleep. He was now young, homeless, without loved ones, and eager to get back into the drug game. While sleeping at the bus stop, he ended up meeting a young prostitute who offered to let him stay at her apartment.

Boone took her up on the offer, but it wouldn't end up being a relaxing and pleasant experience. At one point during the night, Boone awoke to the sound of screaming and fighting, and he saw a man beating on the woman. He tried to intervene, but she stopped him. She told him that the man was her pimp and that she owed him money. So in her mind, the violence was okay. - Here comes this guy. He comes in.

Bitch, where's my money? What you leaving the goddamn set for? We can still make money out there. It's almost 6 o'clock in the morning. When the Johns and the tricks stop, you can stop. The cops are still riding up there on what was it, back area, Bird Hall, whatever that street was. It's not the Ocean Cross over, it's the other side. But he starts screaming at her, and I'm laying over there on the couch. He can't see me because I'm laying down on the couch. I ain't hiding. I'm laying on the couch.

Talking about, "Bitch, next time I tell you to do something..." He hit her. So that's when I sat up and looked. He said, "Who in the hell is that?" I'm like, "Oh, that's my little friend. He didn't have no place to sleep." "Oh, so you gonna let him sleep here?" "Bitch, I paid her rent here," she said. "But I make the money." "Oh, so you trying to get tough?" She sat it up and he looked over at me. "You need to get your butt up off that couch and get the hell out."

I just sat there and paying no attention because this is her house as far as I care. She grabbed, I mean, he grabs her and start choking her so I can stir it up. Boy, you pulling a knife on me? I said, if you keep doing that to her, I'll cut your hands off. She was like, no, no, no. He threw her in the bedroom and closed the door. Then he comes over to me. I guess because, you know, I was short. I wasn't that short, but I was shorter than him. Tell him, give me that knife or you're going to get it.

And I cut my ass down there. I'm like, "Boy, who are you?" I said, "They call me Boom." "Well, you gotta get the hell out of here." "Nah." He pulls out his knife. I also got a gun, too. I pull out my gun. "What the hell?" I said, "You brought a knife to a gunfight." "Boy." Okay. I called my boy up. "Hey, man, I'm gonna need your help." He comes. We get rid of that body.

She was so tired, she had fell asleep in the room. So we had to clean up out there. It wasn't that much mess because he had that thick old coat on. So that kept most of the blood in there. But we got that going. But after that, we stayed basically away from that area for a while.

Boone wanted no part of that business, so he left the apartment and went back to the Grand Circus bus stop, where he slept on and off for a few weeks. Eventually, the same prostitute that he had stayed with for the night found Boone, and told him that her pimp, a man named Jerome, had been missing ever since the night that he spent at her house. Boone played dumb and said he had no idea where he was, but in reality, Boone and his friend Germ had disposed of the pimp's body in a nearby dumpster.

With Jerome now out of the picture, Boone then stepped in and offered to become the woman's protector, basically her bodyguard for a fee. Eventually, word spread that Boone didn't harm women and actually wanted to protect them, and soon other prostitutes left their pimps to hire Boone as their protector as well. He earned 10% of everything they brought in for the night, and he made sure that no pimps or johns laid a finger on the women. About three weeks. Then I went back.

I wanted to make sure she was alright and she cornered me up. She said, "What happened to Jerome?" I said, "What you asking me for? I don't know. What happened? He in the hospital or something?" "No, I ain't seen him since then." I said, "Oh, I don't know." She said, "All these pimps out here trying to make us work for them because they said that Jerome ran off."

I said, "Well, if he ran off, you can make money. Just keep your own money." He said, "No, we can't do that. These guys want us to choose who we want to be with." I was like, "I told Jerm, man, what the hell should we do?" "I don't know." I said, "Well, if you want somebody to keep an eye on you and watch you, I got Jerm and my other boy. We can make sure nobody mess with you." She said, "What, you want to be our pimp?" "I don't know. We know what pimps do." "We ain't gonna do that."

But we said, "No, we just gonna be your bodyguard. Ain't nobody gonna mess with you and get away with it. If they do, they gonna see us. That's one. I'm two. No mind." What do you mean no mind? "You're never here. If you go one and I go two, don't even worry about us saying three 'cause you're never here if we coming at you." So for a while, she was bringing me the money.

She told her friends that she ain't got nobody to give her money to but me. Her friend told her, "What, is he a pimp?" "No." "He just watches out to make sure nobody takes my money." "And he is holding my money." "He gonna give it all back." "I done seen it. He got bags full of it." "Yeah, that's your money." So her friend told her, "Will you hold my money and watch me too?" "Yeah, I'm probably doing that." So she started bringing us money.

Skinny the pimp. He the one that kept talking about, "Y'all out here taking people women's we hear." We ain't taking nobody. They asked us to be their bodyguard. Now at that time I was getting known, you know, I was getting cut up. I'm known to a person up real quick. So he was like, "Man, you weird. You ain't like nobody ever known or met." I said, "You can bet on that."

Soon, Boone's street reputation grew, and before long, he was known across the city of Detroit as someone not to be crossed or messed with. But the hustle of the pimp life wasn't long lived after Boone met a young woman and the two became boyfriend and girlfriend. Eventually, Boone left the game entirely to pursue a family life with his girlfriend after they found out that she was pregnant.

Now, at nearly 20 years old with a growing family, Boone decided that he wanted to join the United States Army. And so, he enlisted and was sent to basic training and boot camp. One night, while he was home for a few weeks on leave, he decided to go down to a local bar with Germ and some other friends from Detroit. During this time period, a song called "The Freaky Deaky" was popular and Boone found himself propped up against the bar watching everyone else do the dance.

At one point, one of the women dancing approached Boone and started to grind up against him. This apparently infuriated the woman's boyfriend, and he walked up to Boone and hit him on the side of the head. Next thing I know, this guy came over there and popped me right in my jaw. Boom! Oh, hell no. Now, I got on my army pants, my army shirt, but there's nothing on it saying that, but I got the long green coat on. So he told me, I'm going to cut you. So I opened my coat.

"Oh, so you got a gun?" "Yeah, and if I pull it, you're dead." "I don't pull this out just to be showing it. I was taught to take no hostages, no prisoners, no nothing. You're dead, buddy." He reached down and I was like, "I got it halfway because mine is a drop hole, so I just have to push it down and my mouth is ready." So he, "Oh, I'm going to leave that there."

The next day, the man's dead body was found in the alleyway behind the bar, and the police arrived at Boone's house to question him regarding his involvement. Boone denied shooting the man, but the police wanted to take him down to the station and book him on charges of manslaughter and carrying a concealed weapon. If convicted, Boone was facing a lengthy prison sentence. Eventually, though, the army got involved and told the Detroit Police Department that Boone indeed had a license to carry a gun as he was still in the service.

The charges were then dropped and Boone was allowed to go on and serve another tour in the army. But after returning home from this tour, Boone's freedom would be short-lived after he was picked up by the police for armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. In an interview, Boone admitted that at that time, he wasn't the one that committed the crime and it had really been his older brother, Pop.

But, Boone didn't want to snitch on his own brother, so he went down for the crime and served two years for gun possession and two years for armed robbery at the state prison in Jackson, Michigan. However, during this prison stint, Boone continued to conduct his illegal activities from behind bars. He sold drugs, knives, and ran a gambling table for other inmates while still in prison himself. He soon became known as the go-to guy for any items that someone might need while imprisoned in the clink.

He allegedly held so much power while behind bars that he even convinced one of the female prison guards to smuggle in a gun for him.

Eventually, Boone was released from prison on parole after serving nearly four years behind bars. And having gone through the special forces training in the military, Boone soon became a deadly force to be reckoned with. At this point in his life, he was well integrated into the criminal scene in Detroit. And somehow, in this violent spiral, he became entangled in the business of killing for profit.

We couldn't track down the details of his first kill or exactly what went down and what led him down that path, but allegedly Boone had killed many others in the past for minor infractions or simply for pissing him off. So it isn't surprising that he took his skills as a killer and began applying them to the streets. And so just a few years after his release from prison, Boone was awarded the nickname of the Grim Reaper

The other men working the streets with him knew that he was ruthless, that his attacks were fatal, and that if Boone had his target set on you, there was no escape. My friend Josh, who was there in person conducting this interview with Boone with me, asked Boone if he regretted any of the murders he carried out during this time of his life. And shockingly, this is what he had to say. Do you regret any of those deaths?

No, tell you the same thing I told the judge. Why should I feel regret? The judge just mad because they didn't get a chance to prosecute him, sentence him to prison. Man, I said, well, see, I did it the easy way. I just cut you out, judge, and sent you straight to hell. I'm like, but they need to have been judged. I did. Judged that they was in his lifestyle. Why would somebody do that to you? Whoopie doo.

I won't know it will I'm dead. Y'all think I'm afraid of death? I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid that somebody might take my food like that sucker did in Wayne County Child Development Center. And I don't know if he's still alive or not, but if he is, remember me?

During his time spent in prison, Boone had earned himself the nicknames Iceman and the Grim Reaper, due to the fact that he didn't think twice about knocking off a prison guard if they made the wrong move. And this nickname, like I said before, had attached itself to him outside of the prison walls too. Boone had had enough of the drug peddling and minor crimes, and had moved on to committing stone-cold murder for profit.

I mean, he had been trained by the United States Army, he was in the military, so at that point, he had the skill set to become a killing machine. And soon enough, after word of his military-trained killer capabilities spread around Detroit, Boone's reputation garnered the attention of a local gang called the Best Friends.

On the night that Boone first met his future co-workers, a few Best Friends members had actually gone out to a tough man contest at Detroit's Cobo Hall, where Boone frequently boxed to release his pent-up aggression. Boone, over the years, had proved himself as a ruthless boxer inside the ring, and so, on that night, they decided to bring in a professional to face him, named Eric David Scott Esch, better known in the professional boxing arena as Butterbean.

It was a highly anticipated match amongst locals that were in the scene, and the events of that night would prove to be life-changing for Boone. I get up there, I put in the round, boom, he swung at me, almost hit me too, I pulled back. I said, "This motherfucker throwing clobbers. He ain't boxing. He throwing, you know, haylots, hay bones." So I stepped back again, I said, "Wait a minute, I know. I do what the Army taught me." So I stepped up.

Faked it came back and faked again. He thought it was gonna fake that third time. Boom! Hit his nose. Yeah, you can hit that nose at the right point and shove it through his to his brain and kill him. So I did that but he didn't pause. I'm like, hey ref I think this man is out. He came on fight. Lookie see how close I get he still ain't doing nothing. This man is out. Keep fighting till we tell you to stop.

Okay, so I stepped on in to the head back and I'm gonna kill him I'm gonna give him death blow they grabbed me and not gonna grab me they hit me knock me to the side What the hell going on you said keep I what you gonna do? Put him in his grave He's making out this rain you I said no I won this so they call it TKO

I got the little newspaper article too on it because after I won them, I told them, "Why don't y'all get Mr. T? He's supposed to be the toughest man and I feel like fighting somebody that got some, you know, power behind him." They never did it. I'm like, "What the hell?" They were like, "We ain't going like that, Mr. Craft. You jumping too high up. This is kick karate boxing. Mr. T is just a man that they had running through doors.

And they was a little thin door. He would walk through the damn place. I was like, well, I know he's from Chicago. I know that he worked at the Godfather Club and that he knew some boxers and he had some people trained and so forth. I said, well, he got trained to put a man with me.

After defeating Butterbean, Boone's ego soared, and after the match, he was approached by his nephew Bruiser, who said that the Brown brothers from the notorious Best Friends gang wanted to speak with him about a potential job opportunity. It was at this point in Nate's life when his criminal activities had reached an all-time high, and there was no turning back.

What would happen over the next few years after he was introduced to the Best Friends gang sounds almost like the plot of a movie. Failed assassination attempts, dozens of gruesome murders, corrupt cops, snitching, and the rise and fall of the most powerful gang in Detroit.

In next week's episode, we take a deep dive with Boone about the murders he carried out, the methods he used in his executions, and how he managed to escape prison time for the murders of over 30 people. So join us next week for part two of Detroit's Most Notorious Hitman, the life and story of Nate Boone Craft.

Hey, everybody. It's Colin here. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. This was crazy conducting this interview with Boone. It was just wild hearing these stories coming from his mouth. And when he was telling stories about, you know, murdering somebody, he would be looking me in the eyes and it just gave me a chill. And yeah, next week's episode is the finale of this two-part series. And let me tell you, there

There is some truly shocking, disturbing stuff that we talk about in the next episode. So that's definitely not one to miss. In my opinion, it could be the best episode we've ever done. That's just my opinion.

Anyways, if you love the show and you want to help support what we do here, definitely go check out our Patreon. We have bonus episodes on there. We're changing the Patreon up as we speak, uploading higher quality content, longer content. So this is a great time to join us on there. You can also get early ad free access to all of our episodes. So if you love the show, you hate ads and you want bonus content, definitely head to patreon.com and search Murder in America.

Also, don't forget to follow us on social media, especially on Instagram at Murder in America. Join our group on Facebook. You can listen to our new podcast, The Conspiracy Files, anywhere you get your podcasts. And if you're feeling a little spooky, definitely go check out my YouTube channel, The Paranormal Files, where I post a lot of true crime documentaries and ghost hunting stuff. Anyways, y'all, we will see you guys next week for the conclusion of this two-part series.

Definitely not one to miss. We love you, and thanks for listening. I'll catch y'all in the next one.