Chicken Man

hit put on this man, how did he survive? If he didn't set up the robbery, who did Why didn't he ever follow up with the police or the press to let them know that they'd gotten it wrong. I had to find Chicken Man and get the answers. No more. He was the repretation was on the line most definitely, because everybody had faith in him to pull it off.

The gamblers and the jewelry and the minks and the diamonds in the cash, it's all going to converge at Chicken Man's house where he's putting the Twitter five up to the face. You know there was I was standing there, nervous because there's two guys behind me, nervous because of this man in front of me, and nervous because I was in a setting where I had no reason to be. Every hustler, drug dealer, thief, number runner, bootlegger. You can think of all these people came in for this party.

Party from my heart radio and doghouse pictures. This is fight night. I'm Jeff Keating. After a few weeks, I was able to track down Gordon William's number and I called him on the phone and I said, Hey, my name is Jeff Keating. I don't want to bring up any bad memories. What are you the chicken man? And the phone goes dead for literally like five to ten seconds, and he says, so, oh, jee man, I'm just bad to have story my last time when I will call

it a hustler. Who Yeah, we're the we're running the moon, try and whisker the numbers in violation, I guess, saying the first ground put me in prison was the lottery. I will what's called the pickup bar. I'm just so shocked and excited to meet this man. And he greets me at the door and he's just kind of this soft spoken, quiet man and just greets me, say hey, hey, how you doing. Oh, Jeff you know, it's nice to

reach you. I tell him, you know a little bit about myself, and we talk family at first, and I'm just excited that I finally have this guy alive and in front of me, and we get into the discussions about the raw bringing that night, and he tells me his whole story. B name, school guys and money in the pockets. Okay, I'll be able to buy the little thing in the communities that I wanted to buy. Okay, that real quickly going. And when you get to that,

tell me how you met Short Papa. I met self proper, self proper. We're living in the problems, self problems coming up and connect from people in the probity. Okay, so I got cancer medium because they're about me. The guy he's talking about here is Short Papa, real name Robert Van Brose. He was Chicken Man's earliest connection to running

the lottery in the Life and Crime. Chicken Man and Short Papa could have easily met at Wesley Merritt Pool Hall, and Short Papa was a hustler that tussled with Mr Hudson early in his career. For Short Papa was the first opportunity you got to buy and do some of the nice things you wanted to do. Dude. I started driving from on the weekend and then mom sing upset back. So I was fashion and running a droll and so rest she said out without money whatever she said, well,

I'm going to a subce. She sees the money that I would go to working to bu gest delivering goes the barbershop. Then of course he was both money like that, no, not money love. So then you becomes hydra make more money. So you're working for short POPA and you're doing that stuff. What comes after short pop? Had you kind of move up after self prop and I wanted to work for brother Mirk, I thought chicken Man moved on from Short Pop Up and started working for a guy named Buttermilk.

He began selling moonshine and picking up numbers. But I didn't realize the kind of money we were talking about. For a high school kid in the late nineteen forties, what kind of money could you have made? You know, a couple of about a couple of times we wait, a couple of hundred dollars a couple of times a week in high school back in those days, that's a lot of money. We could have been making more than your dad. Well at one point you were pulling in

a couple of all the weeks. Just to be clear, a hundred dollars back in the late forties early fifties would have been worth a round a thousand dollars today. So Chicken Man was a high school kid bringing in around a thousand to two thousand dollars a week, no wonder he wanted to be a hustler. Chicken Man then moved up to his next lucrative venture, drug dealing. So the mare water came about. There was small I guess you were two dollars bags and that kind of thing.

You know. My dream always uh from the wholesale side. So I was there to meet people to get it into the cross was number one product and Mason League League or whatever. I guess you would say. It's like all the ice crime. There was a part of it became like I was a number one, you know, I was a guy man going away. Yeah, I got and he slowly built up a little mesday. You know what, do you got a business and you got houses and all that. I'm a man one time, what would you

do with yeah? Right right, Chicken Man was the embodiment of the hustler culture from Miami and Atlanta all the way to New York City. Chicken Man was the hustler's hustler, so it really wasn't surprising at all that he was asked to host this party. And again, the dichotomy of this man in front of me at the time was just hard for me to grasp because I've been reading so much and hearing some uch about the hustler's world.

But now I was talking to this man, quiet, soft spoken, but I will say I do remember occasionally as we start talking about the old life, you get a little glint in his eye, or a little smile out of the corner of his mouth, or just a little twinkle as he was remembering some of the different stuff that happens. So there was still some connection to Chicken Man, and that's what I was really trying to grab hold of. One of the things that they have them we haven't

been children to decide to have. The party was in New York, and here's something about the fight. I thought it was an opportunity for me to host a pot and make some money too. People come. This party was the one the Chicken Man hosted for all the hustlers and gangsters in town following the Muhammad Ali Jerry Corey fight. And then somebody can live in New York told me to was passing invitations out in New York, invited anybody. Here's Gordon Williams Jr. He was access to the party.

The reputation was on the line most definitely, because everybody had faith in him to pull it off. When the party was getting real to happen, he stayed there more than he stayed at home because he wanted everything to be so perfect. A few days prior to the party, he started getting really, really nervous about things and he wanted everything to go so good. He wanted to be just like Vegas. And I was like, wow, this is incredible.

I had no idea that he was gonna get it serious, and it had gotten every hustler, drug dealer, the number runner, blue legger you can think of across the country, checked the motels and stuff like that. But as they were coming in, I could hear the excitement in his voice. They were coming from everywhere because this was a big event. They were coming from Chicago, Detroit, louis Ville. Remember my

guy from Louisville. They called him Big Daddy. He was a drug dealer too, And all these people came in for this party, and my dad was really really excited. Think about this. All this money is coming into Atlanta now, the gamblers and the jewelry and the means and the diamonds and the cash, it's all going to converge on Atlanta, and it's all going to converge at Chicken Man's house.

When you've got that kind of money and those type of people and that type of invitation on the streets, somebody's gonna get winded this, and somebody's gonna jump on that opportunity. And who would dare try to stick up these gangsters anyway, But in the shadows, underneath everyone's noses, somebody is planning a heist that's going to be talked about for the next fifty years. There was engraved invitations being printed in Harlem. These invitations stated that the party

was gonna last for days. And we know with these invitations that are being sent out all across New York and down in Atlanta, that one of these got in the wrong hands. My dad was really excited about this. This was the cream of the crop. This is the most excited I've ever seen him. And he said that this is gonna be. This right here is gonna you know, we're gonna live good forever after this. He figured that this right here will take care of us forever. But

they don't told me. And listen to people get in a lot of we don't want to know where to party. One of them better remember, Buddy Gloss was one of Chicken Man's competitors that Gordon Williams Jr. Told us about in episode one. He owned a sir verstation right here, a little five points and we used to take so much drugs and hot clothes. And that service station was

just like the hub for everybody to go to. If you had something you want to get rid of, anything you want to get rid of that was hot or stolen, you go right there, buddy what I don't care what it was? Come by hot and you don't never know, So we don't need to know, and we don't want We didn't don't want him to know. I don't know been. They never explained to me why you need it, but

they told me, don't tell nobody in a line. And after they explained Chicken Man is talking about Buddy Gloss, one of his competitors, who the gangsters in New York told him not to tell about the after hours party. Dude, I hadn't told no about because that was my old It's chicken man was getting this house set up. Another guy right down the street is buying a shotgun. Whoever is trying to pull this off. They got to be arrogant. They got to be able to navigate the world of

these hustles. They are these hustlers. They got to be able to fit in right under the noses of these gangsters without them even knowing it. Maybe these gangsters just never considered that anyone would have the balls to rob them. But if you think about it, something was bound to happen. There were just too many riches being flaunted in one place, one community, at one time, in the hands of people celebrating,

people with their guards down. For they're not to be opportunists who would try to take advantage of this window. Not to mention a criminal mastermindy have a by championship fan always attracts the superstars rich in the famous Here's J. D. Hudson, the lead investigator on the case. That's just the way they just always have historically. And with Muhammad Ali, with the controversty of his refusing the goodness everything, all that legal propecy he had had his Chile taken from him,

that just generated more interest. But they were throwing big parties, you know, no money limit. They were playing coca and shooting dice, no for and back in the those years three and four and five thousand dollars a roll and stuff like that, and they had that body guards entire rages with them, and it was just a very festive I went to the trains and all everything where he trained at and everything he had, made a public appearance or something, because that was kind of like a Hustle

World series. Here's Dr Hobson. Muhammad Ali's exhibitions and training at Morehouse College was done so by design. Morehouse College means so much to the Atlantic community. It is the institution of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Dr Benjamin Elijah Mays, Dr Samuel Archer. It was also kind of a safe haven. It was one of those places to where he was tucked away, he was protected, and it was in the

heart the skull and Bones of Black Atlanta. Here's J. D. Telling me about the amount of money coming in to Atlanta from Muhammad Ali's comeback fight. These hustlers who flew

in the Rose Ross Is driven to Atlanta. These people had money, a lot of a lot of money that must have been editing Rose Ross is a kind of because and hustlers and camp stress, okay in front of the So the Highatt Regency Hotel being this new, chic, modern hotel, was particular to the black community, and it was even made to be the headquarters for the Ali fight, and it filled up with droves of black people wanting to see the champ come back in this black city.

So if you were anybody coming to Atlanta, you better believe you rode in your finest car, you had on your finest clothes, and you'll stand in the finest hotel downtown. The Regency Hyatt was very prominent in the news because it opened on May one, nineteen sixty seven. This is my mom. She and my dad met at the Regency Hyatt and had recently gotten married. And it created quite a frenzy in the world because it was the first atrium hotel. Atlanta in nineteen seventy was a city evolving

into a contemporary cosmopolitan city. The Regency wasn't just a hotel in downtown when it first opened in nineteen sixty seven. It actually had a deep connection with Atlanta's black population in its culture. And here's my dad again. Tom Keating had been in the Regency the Sunday before or even the day of the fight. And I had seen all the regality of all the black elite and also the black criminal elites. And so I had seen things I had never seen before. And I would have been out

of my element. I would have been saying to myself, Oh my goodness. And then the next thing I would see, I would have said, oh my goodness, even bigger. And the third thing I would have seen, I would have said, oh my God. People coming to Atlanta, visitors from out of town were fascinated with this hotel. A wreath of Franklin, Jesse Jackson, John Wayne, all the presidents from Nixon to Clinton actually stayed at that hotel. It had a lounge

called the Little Parasol Lounge. It was a cocktail lounge that hung in the air by a wire, and it had a three story avery with live exotic birds in it. The because and parents and cocky the rock, which is tropical bird, and it was constantly filling the air with native sounds. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference tried to get their first annual meeting at a hotel in Atlanta, and it was the only hotel that would allow them to be hosted there. King called the

Hyatt Regency the Hotel of Hope. The latest iteration of Atlanta is the Black Mecca. Is black expressive culture. It is a young, sexy, active kind of city. And why not wrapped it around Muhammad Ali, who's fighting at the age of eight, and hey, let's come down here, let's stunt, hey, let's show the world what we're made of and have a good time. Not only was the Regency Hotel the place where all the celebrating and parties took place, it was also where Muhammad Ali and his entourage were staying.

My dad, who was a teacher across the street at St. Joe's, got up the nerve to track down his room number with the intention of asking Ali to speak to his students. Here's my mom describing the scene my dad encountered as he walked into the lobby. It had a twenty two story Florida's ceiling atrium. The elevators were all glass, and they raced up and down the atrium at a speed of seven and ten ft a minute. It had sparkling

lights in each elevator. So I went up and knocked on the door and two of the largest black guards who were protecting him came to the door. Maybe one had that gout out, remember too very tall, certainly to me overwhelming side guards came and I told them who I was, and I asked them if I could please ask Mr Ali that I was hoping he would meet children at St. Joe's. I was feeling anxious and determined to get to where I could ask him to come talk to students. And for some reason, they let me

buy that little alcove area. When I stepped into the room, he was in bed with sheets up to his just flow his chest. I was standing there, nervous because of the two guys behind me, nervous because of this man in front of me, Nervous because I was in a setting where I had no reason to be. But I

plunged on. I asked if he would consider motivating the students at St. Joe's and we had some quick discussion about the fee he would receive, and I think he mentioned it he would he was used to five hundred dollars, and I volunteered that the best I could do would be too hot dogs and a coke. He said that he'd get back to me when he got back from his next venture, which was to go to Hawaii, if

I remember. And so I'm kind of the way you do with royalty back down of the room, I'm sure stuttering or being nervous, and left the floor and went downstairs with some confidence that at least I had gotten through the experience and had asked him to do something to help the kids. You have all of these different forces coming together at the Regency. You have j D and his policeman and his security detail for Ali. You've

got Ali and his entourage. You've got chicken men and all the hustlers that were coming back from the fight that we're about to be prepared to go to the party. You've got celebrities that are in town party. You've got journalists from all over the world that are there. Everybody is coming in to one spot. The Regency was just like the central location of Atlanta, and the whole time this is happening in the background. You have a mastermind at work preparing for the biggest heights in history, and

people just converged into Atlanta. All the hotels were sold out. But one guy thought the whole tense Florida GA. My hotel Blue about out paid for to be relocated. So but what Apple was Now, we got it all set and the day that the people started arriving into a Lanta. So when I get to the Apple and we get out, we runned up that people coming into Alantic with the fire I mean, the Apple was busy. That's when the Apple was sitting back up on the man. When I

get there to pick up JB, I meet Fireball. So Fireball introduced me to this guy. He said, listen, when you brought us by the hotel, Chicken Man is picking up JB, his friend from New York, and he meets Fireball, who we already knew from his earlier years in Atlanta and Fireballs friends. He greas to take them to Atlanta's built more hotel and then he'll run JB to the Regency where all the action is going on. So we're getting the car Fireball and the fellow that were with

fire Ball. We're talking about Atlanta's bosses having better hot dogs than having New York and the little car. So that was a conversation between them. Here's Dr Hobson. The Varsity is an establishment in downtown Atlanta that borders Georgia Institute of Technology. It's off of North Avenue. So as a result of this, the Varsity also becomes a place where some young people black and white, had an opportunity to get jobs. So they wanted to go to the

build my hotel. Fireball, being from the line, knew where the boss was, you know, the dvosity was there at the Bill Moses and so he wanted me to care by Advisor to get some hot dogs. Chicken Man just picked up two of his friends from the airport, Fireball and another guy from New York. These are dangerous guys who've committed violent crimes and they're headed to the Varsity,

which is cash heavy. The Varsity was able to serve massive amounts of people in very short period of time, and so we all know that there was serious exchange of cash. That the managers that be were cash heavy. I mean they had a lot of cash on them because it was, you know, a fast transaction. So when we get to the visitor, the boy was with fireballs. That man him placed the rob So he said that de b my friend, he's really didn't matther time about

rob somebody. So I said, well that's five balls, friend, I don't know. He upset. The guy who says this would be a hell of a place to rob, we believe is Richard Wheeler. Chicken men and his friends are piste. This guy is talking about sticking up the Varsity, one of the hotspots in their town. However, this is nothing compared to what Richard Wheeler has in store for them. So we took five ball of them on to the

build mo. So we go to the regions then, so you know, he's still upset about it by what about the robbery car? But when I get to the hotel, we read the route we're going. They got a renovation, but they want credit card, right, so he ain't got no credit card. So I say, he put up like twenty five thousand, so they give us. They get right, he get all the room, his victim right on that floor right, well, he put the twenty up and to say it, the uh, you know, they were to talk

of business dead. So now is the night before the fight. I wouldn't got my wife and went checked in the hotel. I knew this thing was told me to go out some serious dudes in his house. I have been one of the guys who got robbed. The Chicken Man has checked his wife into a hotel, we assumed to keep her away from the action and the girls that he's entertaining. One of his buddies just dropped twenty grand for a

whole floor at the Biltmore Hotel. And another guy, Richard Wheeler, who wanted to rob the Varsity right when he got into town, we believe, is casing Chicken Man's house for a huge score. And one of Chicken Man's girls recognizes there are some serious gangsters at their house party. Looking back, he knows that one of these guys set up the

robbery at his house and changed his life forever. Fight Night is a joint production from My Heart Radio, Will Packer Media and Doghouse Pictures in association with Psychopia Pictures, produced and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Will Packer, James Lopez, Kenny Burns, Dan Bush, Lars Jacobson, and Noel Brown. Supervising producer is Taylor Scoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown and Dan Bush. Written by Jeff Keating and Jim Roberts.

Edited by Matt Owen. Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolonnie Prescott. Music written and performed by the Diamond Street Players. Additional music by Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB News Film and Videotape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia Libraries. Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and David Davis