Notorious figures
Richard Wershe Jr.
born 1969 · former teenage FBI informant and drug trafficker
East Side Detroit teenager known as White Boy Rick who became the FBI's youngest known informant, then served decades in prison for a drug conviction at 17.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 57- Also known as
- White Boy Rick
- Detroit years
- 1969–1980s
- Field
- Notorious figures
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Richard Wershe Jr. grew up in a working-class family on Detroit's east side, about seven miles from downtown, during the cocaine and crack epidemic of the 1980s. At 14 he was recruited as a paid confidential informant by the FBI and Detroit police, feeding them information on drug gangs; he is considered the youngest known informant in the bureau's history. At 15 he reported that a major dealer spoke of bribing a Detroit homicide inspector to quash a murder investigation, information later tied to officials close to Mayor Coleman Young. After his informant role ended he began dealing himself, and in 1987, at 17, he was arrested with about eight kilograms of cocaine and sentenced to life in prison under Michigan's strict drug laws. Advocates argued that his long imprisonment reflected his earlier cooperation against powerful figures. He was paroled in Michigan in 2017, then served a separate Florida sentence before his release in 2020. His story inspired the 2018 film White Boy Rick.
Highlights
- Became an FBI informant at 14, the youngest known in its history
- Arrested at 17 in 1987 and sentenced to life for cocaine possession
- Paroled in Michigan in 2017 after about three decades in prison
- Subject of the 2018 film White Boy Rick