All language subtitles for 02 Jemeker Thompson Crack Queen of L.A.

Someone was buying a pound of cocaine and
said, "Do you have any crack for sale?"

And we didn't know what the crack was.

Eventually, we found out
about how to cook crack.

The high from crack cocaine
was better than sex.

They would ask me,
"Do you know anybody have drugs?"

Within 24 hours, I gave him 100 keys
and our business just blew up from there.

It went from 100 keys to 500 keys.

Then I went to another city,
met another guy, same thing.

I made millions and millions of dollars.

I wasn't afraid of nothing and nobody.

I wasn't afraid to die,
so they named me Queenpin.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Beverly Hills, 1988.

Diamonds, designer clothes,
Ferraris and crack.

Flash and cash are king,

and the Queenpin, Jemeker Thompson,
has both.

The crack business is booming
and Jemeker's lifestyle shows it.

But it's not enough for her

to be one of the richest
and most feared drug lords in LA.

She wants to go global.

[Thompson] I made so much money
that I was unstoppable and untouchable.

It became a high to me.
The more money I made, the more I want.

The more drugs I sold,
the more I wanted to sell.

[Jackie Hickey]
There were homicides, overdoses.

There were babies and children run over
because they were high on crack cocaine.

We knew it was coming from her

'cause there was no one else
that was competing with her.

She saw the money. That's all she saw.

[Mike Vigil] She was intoxicated by
the power that came with money.

It was very hard for her to let it go.

I just never got enough of it.

[narrator] Jemeker's passion for power

begins outside her South Central LA home
when she's just eight years old.

[Thompson] Walking home that day,

I can see a big note...

taped on the door and we couldn't go in.

On the front yard, I see my Easter dress,

my bicycle, my dolls, my toys,

the things that was mine
that my mother bought for me.

The day that we got evicted,

I knew then that I wanted money,

I knew that I wanted
to control everything.

That's the day that Queenpin
came in to my heart.

[narrator] She finds
that control in high school,

both as a track star and as
the girlfriend of Anthony "Daff" Mosley,

the 'hood's most notorious gambler
and marijuana dealer.

My goal at that time
was to run in the 1984 Olympics.

Daff and his friends would always come
to my track meets wherever I was,

then him and his buddies
would bet on me running.

Of course, he would always win because
I was one of the fastest runners in LA.

[chuckles] I'd say,
"That's gonna be my man,

I love him, I want him so bad."

He took me to the mall, took me shopping,
bought me some diamond earrings.

He was just spoiling me
and giving me everything I want.

[narrator] Including an entrée
into a new world...

the marijuana business.

Jemeker begins her sales game
on familiar turf.

Her own school.

And it's not long before she finds herself
a connection of her own.

A bail bondsman who supplies her
with a far more profitable product.

[Thompson] He took me to a room
and he showed me

how to use a triple-beam scale
and to weigh cocaine.

And I had never seen cocaine before.

He showed me how to package it up
and everything

and I took it home and I showed Daff,
and I said,

"This is what we're gonna do.
We finna get rich."

He said, "I'm not going to jail.

I don't wanna sell no cocaine.
That's some heavy stuff."

And I said, "You don't have to do it.
I'll do it."

I would sell out of my bedroom window
when I stayed with my mom

on the corner of 12th Ave. and Venice.

I was the only girl out there selling.

Nobody even thought I was selling.
They just thought I was hanging out.

But I was really selling cocaine.

The first day,
I started with a half a key.

Then the next day, I went to a whole key.

And within two weeks,
I was doing three and four keys.

I made so much money in high school,

I ended up getting a safe deposit box
in Beverly Hills,

and I would just stack my money
until I couldn't stack it no more.

I had five best girlfriends,

and I would take them to Rodeo Drive
on a shopping spree

to Louis Vuitton, to Gucci,

and I would tell them to shop
and pick whatever they want.

[Anita Kaufman] It was no limit.

Bought me a Chanel purse, Chanel shoes,
Gucci purse.

We would just spend like crazy.

They may have had an idea of what I did,

but they never questioned me
and they never asked me.

They thought that it was Daff's money.

They didn't know
that I was the instigator.

[narrator] In 1980,
Jemeker graduates high school

and soon marries Daff
in a Las Vegas wedding chapel.

Jemeker and Daff's newfound wealth

not only pays for their trip,
but a new Cadillac as well.

[Thompson] So, I bought him an Eldorado.

I actually could've paid cash for the car,

but I was trying to build my credit up
and get established.

I wanted to be a legal person.

[chuckles]

[narrator] But Jemeker has no idea there's
a new form of coke hitting the streets

that will change her life forever.

Crack.

[John Brown]
It all started right here in LA.

People figured out a very simple procedure

for turning powder cocaine
into smokable cocaine.

And all you needed was cocaine...

baking soda, little bit of water
and a flame.

That's all it took.
And they would rock it up.

It would have the same effect
as powder cocaine but magnified 50 times.

Hit the system quicker, harder.

It lifted people off,
it put 'em into orbit.

As soon as it started to wear off,
people wanted to recapture it.

They wanted that feeling again.

It was incredibly addictive.

Someone came
that was buying powder cocaine

and said, you know,
"Do you have any crack for sale?"

And we didn't know what the crack was.

Eventually, we found out
about crack and how to cook crack.

So, we ended up having, like,
four or five crack houses

that we could sell crack cocaine to.

[narrator] Cheap to make
and even easier to distribute,

crack becomes the street drug of choice
for addicts.

Cheap, addictive and destructive.

Even cops in South Central LA
are shocked.

[Hickey] They were slinging dope
on every corner.

They were slinging dope in churches,
at liquor stores...

During Christmastime, you could buy
a Christmas tree for crack cocaine

without having the cash.

Back in the day,
there were antennas on vehicles.

The antennas would be broken off
and used as crack cocaine pipes.

[narrator] And the aspiring Queenpin
meets the demand.

I had a source that
I could pick up the phone at any time

and get whatever I needed,
how much I needed,

and when I needed and delivered.

I didn't have my own cutting operation

because the head person that worked for me
run all of that.

I just called the shots,

tell him what to do
and he knew where to go from there.

She had the corner market, it was her.
She had that place locked down.

[narrator] Jemeker dodges police

by avoiding direct contact
with the product itself.

But for those in the game,
she's infamous and feared.

[Rodney Hairston] Jemeker was tough, man.

Jemeker...

Wow... I mean...

She's definitely an alpha, no doubt,
'cause it didn't matter to her.

Man, woman, she just was
not gonna be disrespected in any way.

She was a beast.

One evening, I was at Muhammad Ali's
birthday party in Hollywood.

Jemeker pops in, she wasn't invited,
and she starts swinging on me.

I was really shocked.
We were actually in a fistfight.

I had her hair in my hand,
she had my hair in her hand.

Security broke it up
and they escorted her out.

She thought that I was trying to introduce
Daff to Redd Foxx's daughter.

And that wasn't true.

With Jemeker, it's her way or no way.
She had a bad temper.

[Thompson] I carried a gun
after I graduated out of high school.

A gun that I'd bought in my own name
and that was registered to me.

And if I had to use it,
I would use it at any cost.

[narrator] Daff himself
learns this the hard way

when Jemeker discovers
he's cheating on her.

[Thompson] I shot at him,
trying to hit him, and I missed.

[narrator] To make amends,
Daff buys his wife a new BMW,

and a house in the LA suburb of Encino,

just down the street from Michael Jackson.

It was just amazing.

The house was beautiful.

Couldn't believe it.
It was like, "What's going on here?"

I thought we were celebrities.

[laughs]

I'm her right hand and I'm thinking,
"How much are we really making?"

And we're on top of the world now.

I made millions and millions of dollars.

And I had everything
that there was to have in life.

I was comfortable
and I took care of my whole family.

[narrator] But Jemeker and Daff's
extravagant lifestyle

also begins attracting some
unwanted attention on the federal level.

[Vigil] They started to
come up on DEA's radar

as very significant cocaine traffickers.

Informants started to provide information
about Jemeker, her husband,

the fact that they
were significant drug traffickers.

That they were trafficking
in 100-kilogram lots of cocaine.

[narrator] But Jemeker's too busy
concentrating on her growing empire,

and family, to notice.

In 1982, at 20,
the Queenpin becomes a mother.

[Thompson] Once I was pregnant,

Daff told me that he didn't want me
selling drugs anymore.

So, I didn't sell drugs anymore,
but I still would collect the money.

Having my son was one of the best things
that happened for me and my world.

[narrator] Anthony Mosley Jr. is born
into a life of luxury

far different than the one his parents
knew growing up in South Central,

a life afforded
by his folks' massive cocaine sales.

[Thompson] Anthony had his bedroom,
he had a toy room.

His toy room had everything
that a kid could want or imagine.

[narrator] But Jemeker has no idea that,
two years later,

her perfect world will come crashing down
in the back room of an LA car wash...

one of Daff's favorite spots
to shoot craps.

He called me and he said,

"Jemeker, I love you, I'm sorry.

I'll be home. I'm winning,
I'm doing good."

And I remember saying to him,

"I love you too
and I'll see you when I get home."

[narrator] But someone
who wants Daff out of the game

knows he's at the car wash.

Later, something in my gut said,
"He's dead."

I just felt it in my spirit.

That day, even though it's...

a long time ago...

I miss Daff. You know, I miss him so much.

[cries] And I mourned for my son
because he didn't know his dad.

He never got to know his dad.

[Mosley] I really hear certain things,

certain parts, it's like little glimpses
of the story.

It still hurts me to this day, you know,

I hear a lot of different rumors
and whatnot.

Someone walked up to him and shot him.

It's an unsolved mystery, still.

[Thompson] Someone was hired to kill him.

What happens in the game stay in the game
and you just roll through the game.

I know and the person know.

You know who killed Daff. They know.

And it was personal.

[Greg Underwood] If you live by the gun,
you die by the gun.

And that's what happened to him.
Lights out and the game is all over with.

[Vigil] We felt that,
once Daff was killed,

that might be the end
of the cocaine trafficking for Jemeker,

simply because
drug trafficking is male-dominated.

It's not an equal-employment
opportunity enterprise.

For a woman to be able to make it
in the drug trade,

has to be extremely cunning,

extremely bright
and she has to be very ruthless.

Jemeker had all of those qualities.

[Underwood] Simply because
of her being married to him,

she had a lot of contacts
within that particular gang.

And she had some very ruthless people
who she associated with, within that gang,

and they would do anything for her.

[narrator] But Jemeker
doesn't take up Daff's reins

and goes into seclusion instead.

Here I am, a single mother...

and I'm depressed...

and saddened...

and lost and confused.

And I'm isolating myself.
I go into hibernation.

Until one day I woke up
and I said, "Let's go shopping."

In the Valley,
we walked into a high-end store.

Nobody would help me.

So, when they see me
put all these outfits

they was like, "Can I help you?"

and I was like, "Yeah, I want this,
I want this, I want this,

and I don't wanna try on anything."

She was like,
"Well, how are you gonna pay for it?"

and I said, "Cash."

And then I stepped back into the world,
and I just said to myself,

"I'm gonna take this game
to a whole other level."

[narrator] With her new CEO look,

Jemeker goes all-in
on the business in 1984...

upping her game from selling cocaine
and distributing crack just in LA,

to selling coke around the world.

[Thompson] I began
to travel to different states.

Next thing you know,
I was traveling all over the world.

But it started
with me going to the fights in Las Vegas

by myself or with a girlfriend,

and I would meet a different man that
had money that was in the same life as me.

They would ask me,
"Do you know anybody have drugs?"

And I would say, "Okay, let me check
and see." But it was really me.

They would say,
"Well, can you get me 100 kilos?"

And, like, within 24 hours,
I gave him the 100 keys,

and our business just blew up from there.

It went from 100 keys to 500 keys.

Then I went to another city,
met another guy, same thing.

I made a lot of money.

Jemeker got big enough that
someone agreed to introduce her...

to the Colombian suppliers directly.

That's who she dealt with from then on.

She got her cocaine
directly from the Colombians.

[narrator] Jemeker is a multimillionaire
solo entrepreneur,

employing virtually no one.

Instead, serving as a supplier to dozens
of freelance distributors nationwide.

In 1988, she's living a double life

even her son Anthony Jr.
doesn't know about.

[Thompson] I don't tell Anthony anything
when I'm away from home.

I would just always, you know,
say I'm on a trip or whatever.

"I've gotta go take care
of some business."

But I really never had to explain myself.

There wasn't a lot of questions asked,

because I kind of leveraged Anthony
with gifts and money and toys.

[Mosley] My other life was Ferraris,
Porsches, Mercedes,

shopping sprees almost every day.

I had 11 bikes and sprint cars
and go-karts in my driveway.

You had celebrities coming through,
we're floor seats at the football game...

we would fly to Vegas,

and Mike Tyson would bring the tigers
to my hotel room.

It was normal to go to school
with $200 in my pocket.

"Here's your lunch money."

[narrator] By 1990,
Jemeker's coke business is booming.

[Brown] It comes up
through Mexico, hits LA.

As it heads east, the further away from
LA it gets, the higher the price goes.

If she bought a kilo for $20,000,

sold it for 40 back east,
she made $20,000 profit.

And if she did 50 of that, 50 kilos,
she made a million dollars profit.

The money was coming in so fast
at that time

and people were buying so much dope,

it was like you couldn't just sit up
and count all the money.

You had to have money counters.

We had counted so much money
that the money counter heated up

and got hot and started malfunctioning.

So, we used to have to have several
so you can run this one for a while,

let it cool off,
and then run the other one.

[narrator] Jemeker Thompson is now one of
the most powerful, wealthiest drug lords

in the United States, among men or women.

I seen how people respected my mom
when she's...

Like, you just don't question.

When she's gonna tell you something,
she's gonna tell you something, and...

that'd be that. [chuckles]

[narrator] But Jemeker has a problem.

She's now making millions every week
and must find a legal way to launder it.

During a conversation
with her hairstylist,

Jemeker has an epiphany
and flies to Italy,

where she pours her drug profits

into the world's finest hair
for wigs and extensions.

Jemeker names her front
Hair Distributors Incorporated

and herself company president.

She's just 26 years old.

[Thompson] That was actually
a legitimate business.

Totally legitimate.

I ended up selling hair
to different celebrities.

Nat King Cole's daughter, Michael Jackson,
Janet Jackson.

If you had money,
you had my mom's hair on.

People would just be coming in and out,

so that's why
I thought that was her real job.

They didn't actually know who I was.
I was actually living a double life.

I was one of the first black hair
distributors in LA or in the world.

[Kaufman] It sold just as good
as the drug business,

but with Jemeker...

it wasn't exciting
as the other business.

It wasn't exciting for her.

[narrator] Jemeker's hunger
to return to the drug game

puts her back on the road.

And back on the DEA's radar.

Jemeker was an individual that
wanted to broaden her criminal enterprise.

She wanted to make more money

and in order to make more money,
she had to get more clients.

[narrator] It's not long
before she meets the next man

who will forever change her life.

Musician and coke dealer Percy Bratton,
aka Cheese,

in the small town of Alton, Illinois.

The pair begin a personal
and professional relationship,

with Cheese
becoming Jemeker's Illinois distributor.

[Vigil] She started to front him,
in other words,

give him quantities of cocaine
on consignment,

usually at $25,000 a kilogram,

which he then distributed in that area

through probably about
half a dozen distributors.

And he would pay her in cash.

On one occasion,
we know that he paid her $100,000.

[narrator] But Jemeker has no idea that

Cheese is unknowingly selling her drugs
to a DEA informant.

When we were dealing with
that confidential informant out there

who met her a few times face-to-face,

even told us point blank, he says,

"You are dealing
with somebody who's a killer."

He said "She would kill me just as soon as
you would spray Raid to kill a roach."

[narrator] But the DEA agents aren't
the only ones monitoring Jemeker.

Back in LA, the cops are looking at her

for the mass distribution
of crack cocaine.

The two sides joined forces in pursuit
of the Queenpin and the hunt heats up.

I came into contact
with all these federal agencies

and learned how they operate
and how we could operate together.

Jemeker gave the city an incurable disease

which we never recovered from,

and that was the drugs,
cocaine, crack cocaine...

It was everywhere.

When she was moving product,

there were 5-year-old lookouts
on the corner when people were selling.

They were all over the place.

[narrator] But Jemeker keeps
a very tight rein on her distributors,

and law enforcement can't gather
enough evidence to indict her.

[Underwood] Nobody would snitch on her

because they knew
what the outcome would be.

I don't put it past her

that she could order homicides
at that particular time.

If she didn't,

those people who crossed her
certainly thought that she could.

[narrator] Jemeker
believes she's untouchable,

so law enforcement targets a weaker link
in Jemeker's chain of command.

One of her distributors.

In 1991, Jemeker makes a deal in Vegas

to sell 30 kilos of cocaine
to a local dealer.

She then hires an associate named Dino
to transport the coke to Sin City.

Dino rents himself a limousine

with a stocked bar
to carry his cargo in style.

[Underwood]
Dino had 30 kilograms of cocaine

in his trunk and all this alcohol.

I could just visualize
that Dino was probably doing both.

The traffic began to get on Dino's nerves.

He pulls up alongside of somebody

'cause he tells the limo driver,
"Hey, pass this car up."

Dino rolls down the window,
takes out his gun

and points it at the people,

cursing at them,
telling them to get off the road.

[narrator] The terrified driver
calls police.

It's not long before the highway patrol
pulls over Dino's limo

and discovers his enormous stash.

The feds think
they finally have the evidence

to connect the coke to Jemeker.

But they don't know Jemeker's power.

Dino kept his mouth shut.

And you could imagine
that with 30 kilograms of cocaine,

plus a gun in the car,
plus a convicted felon,

the amount of time that he got.

This is the type of people
that Jemeker had working for her.

Dino would rather do
20, 30 years in prison

than to snitch on Jemeker.

[narrator] Jemeker remains
one step ahead of the law again.

But some months later,

one of Cheese's couriers
makes his own fatal blunder.

He's arrested
on a one-day round-trip flight to LA,

carrying thousands in cash.

The courier gives up Cheese,

who was arrested and charged
with intent to distribute cocaine.

Facing a lengthy prison sentence,
Cheese refuses to rat on Jemeker.

But then the DEA gets the break
they've been waiting for.

Cheese decides to risk betraying

his powerful ex-lover
and business partner.

He said, "Look, if you give me immunity,
I will testify against Jemeker.

Jemeker is actually the Queenpin.
She is the boss.

She is the source of supply

and I can give her to you
on a silver platter."

He was astute enough to keep documents
of wire transfers from Western Union

to Jemeker for payment of the cocaine,
so that became very critical evidence.

In exchange for his freedom,
he ratted on me, conspiracy,

and because I used to sell drugs to him
I was caught up in his conspiracy.

The government wanted me.

[narrator] Thanks to Cheese,

obtaining evidence
to indict Jemeker is simple.

Arresting her is not.

When I found out
that the feds was looking for me,

I went on the run.

They would have to kill me
before I turn myself in,

because I wasn't turning myself in.

I just started hanging out and partying,

going from city to city
and just changed my name

and I became a whole other person.

And I wore wigs and disguise.

And in the middle of the night, I would
sneak in my mother's house

and climb in bed with my son.

And on the weekends,
when he wasn't in school,

I would sneak him away for the weekend,
me and him.

I would just tell him it was a game
that we was playing.

You know, I really didn't tell him nothing
because I didn't want,

if the feds came back to the house,

that they would question my son
or ask him anything.

[narrator] Jemeker Thompson
goes on the run,

traveling nonstop for months,

trying to stay one step ahead of the law.

We started to try to locate her,

we started to work
with the US Marshals Service,

with other agencies.

Jemeker was very elusive.

She had the means to hide, to travel,
to change locations.

We knew that
Jemeker was using many aliases,

and she also had different IDs
for each alias.

[indistinct chatter]

[narrator] In 1992, frustrated DEA agent
Greg Underwood

travels from Illinois to LA
to personally hunt Jemeker down.

She hid her address
and she hid her assets.

The only thing that we knew
was where her business was located.

While we were at the studio,
we were looking around.

We also had the assistance
of the Los Angeles Police Department.

[narrator] Jemeker leaves no evidence
of her criminal life

to be found at her hair studio.

But Agent Underwood has no idea

that a major clue to help track down
the Queenpin is hidden in plain sight.

And there was a street sergeant who
pointed to this placard on the wall, said,

"This is your hook."

And when I looked at it,
I knew exactly what he meant.

It was a particular elementary school,
which showed the name of her son

and some type of award
that he had at the school.

[narrator] The DEA
discovers that Anthony Jr.

is about to graduate from sixth grade.

They devise a cunning trap
to catch his fugitive mother.

I called up the Marshals Service

and I passed this information
along to them.

He says, "Greg, don't worry about it."

He says, "I will assemble
a force of deputy marshals

and we will go there, and if she shows up,
we will arrest her."

And I say, "I don't think
this is gonna be fruitless.

I'm sure she's gonna be there."

So, he knew just about as much
on her as I did.

[narrator] Jemeker knows
the feds have searched her hair business

and are hunting her,

but she desperately wants to come home
for her only son's graduation.

[Thompson] Anthony used to always say

"Mom, you keep on saying you're coming
and you never come.

Are you gonna come to my graduation?"

[narrator] Jemeker must make
an excruciating choice.

Attend the ceremony
and risk being caught...

or stay away and remain free.

US Marshals are counting
on Jemeker's maternal instinct

to get the best of her...

and attend the graduation ceremony,

hidden in the crowd,
disguised as parents and school employees.

[Vigil] We didn't know if Jemeker was
gonna show up for her son's graduation.

We based the entire operation on a hunch.

You had law enforcement that were
equally motivated to make the capture.

We're on the stage, singing
Michael Jackson's "Heal the World,"

and then I see my mom walk in.

[Thompson] I knew it was very risky
going to my son's graduation,

but at the same time,
it was a chance worth me taking.

[Underwood] She had disguised herself,
but not quite good enough.

One of the marshals recognized
enough of her to feel that that was her.

The marshals came alongside of her...

says, "Don't make any moves.

Jemeker, you're under arrest.
Come with us. Don't make a scene."

[Thompson] I knew then. It's over.

But my son came up running and was like,
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy"

and he was hollering and crying,
"You came, you came!"

So, I asked,
"Can I please just hug my son?"

[Mosley] I don't understand, like,
"Why are they putting her in handcuffs

and why are my friends looking at me?

And why are the parents looking at me

and why are they doing this
at my graduation? What's going on?"

She goes, "They're gonna take me away now

and I'll tell you more about it later,
once you can understand it."

I was devastated
and embarrassed for my son.

He didn't wanna go to that school anymore.

It's still healing for my son to this day.

He felt the same thing I felt...

when I got evicted.

Embarrassed, ashamed, isolated, lonely.

Same pattern that my parents taught me,
I taught my son.

[narrator] The feds
extradite Jemeker to Illinois,

where she's charged with conspiracy

with her former lover and partner,
Percy "Cheese" Bratton.

The Assistant US Attorney tried to make
some offer to her, similar to Percy,

that if she would cooperate there would be
some type of plea agreement.

Jemeker was so hardcore
at that particular time

that she basically said,
"No. Thank you, but no."

[Thompson] Cheese got on the stand
and testified against me.

He ratted on me.

But I didn't choose
to turn over on anybody

because nobody put a gun to my head

and forced me to sell drugs
or to do anything.

I did everything willingly.

And like the judge says,

I'm a menace to society and I hurt
and destroyed a lot of people's lives.

I take full responsibility for my actions
and mistakes that I made.

[Vigil] She was indicted on seven counts.

Intent to distribute cocaine
and money laundering,

which came from
the Western Union money orders.

She was subsequently convicted.

She got concurrent sentences of 180 months
for each of the seven counts.

[Mosley] It kind of broke my heart

that I couldn't be able to come
watch movies and music videos

with you in bed anymore.

It was definitely hard.

[narrator] As years pass,

Anthony chooses
a very different career path for himself,

professional skateboarding.

The choice serves him well.

I think I made my first million
at, like, 17, 18.

[narrator] In 2005,
Jemeker is released from prison.

Today, she runs an evangelical ministry
in the Los Angeles area.

The Jemeker that was evicted
when she was a little girl...

and to be the Jemeker who I am today...

I'm very blessed and thankful of...

the journey that God allowed me
to go through.

[music playing]