#138 - Blood Diamonds & Guns: Charles Taylor’s Rise from Boston Student to African Warlord

In this episode Truth talks with Nate Homan,  author of “Diamonds and Blood : An Infamous West African Warlord’s Bay State Jailbreak.”  Nate is a south Shore-born punk rock amateur boxer who graduated from Emerson College and has written for the Boston Phoenix, Metro Boston/NYC/ Philly, Front Page Detectives, DigBoston, and the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.

The two discuss the plight of Charles Taylor – and his rise from college campus radical to mass-murdering megalomaniac.   This began the night he slipped out of the Plymouth House of Correction in Plymouth, MA and made his way across the Atlantic Ocean to his homeland of Liberia, and he led a brutal coup d’etat in 1989.

In 1991, Charles Taylor bankrolled a ruthless rebel army in Sierra Leone known for the abundance of child soldiers who hacked the arms off of enemies and innocent civilians alike.

By conquering the mountains along the Liberian border, Charles Taylor hijacked the international diamond trade for nearly 15 years.

After a bogus election in 1997, Charles Taylor became the 21st Commander in Chief of theRepublic of Liberia. 

Perched on a throne of blood, Charles Taylor stacked fortunes in Swiss bank accounts. He broke bread with world leaders, Fortune 500 executives, mercenaries, mass murderers, gem trading jihadis, and big time American televangelists.

At the end of his reign, Charles Taylor was convicted of international war crimes in 2012.

For more info:

IG: @natehomanboston

WEB: https://binj.news/2024/01/07/an-infamous-west-african-warlords-bay-state-jailbreak-2/

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