To many in his hometown of Washington, D.C., during his 1980s reign as the city's biggest cocaine and crack dealer, Rayful Edmond was public enemy number one. At the height of Dodge City's brutal crack epidemic in 1987, this 22-year-old man was responsible for distributing 60 percent of the cocaine that flooded the city's streets. In the Chocolate City, Rayful was the undisputed king of cocaine. He was street royalty with a certified gangster resume. At his peak Rayful sold 2,000 keys a week, reaped gross profits of $70 million a month and ran an operation with over 150 soldiers to support him. By his early twenties he had established himself as the city's most notorious drug kingpin. In the high profile and glamorous life he led, champagne flowed like water, trips to Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles were commonplace and $50,000 shopping sprees were the routine. Rayful personified the big city drug lord and his stature epitomized all the accolades that position demanded. To the mainstream media, he encompassed all that was wrong with the city's crack epidemic, but in the streets Rayful was a hero, an inner-city gangster who made it to the top echelons of the drug trade. A Lucky Luciano, Billy the Kid-type figure. But there were consequences to his reign. His volcanic rise coincided with an unprecedented explosion of street violence and drug addiction in the capital city. The era is remembered for murder, mayhem and bloodshed. Historians have blamed the crack storm that seized D.C. on Rayful, but Rayful maintained he was only trying to help his family live a better life and enjoy the finer materialistic trappings of capitalism that were often denied denizens of the ghetto. To the block huggers, four corner hustlers and hood mainstays Rayful was beloved, even worshipped. His appeal crossed boundaries and he was adored by children and adults alike. But to others he was feared, a man who wreaked havoc on his community. Neighborhood people saw the effects of his crack enterprise outside their front doors and it wasn't pretty. A community divided was in essence, a community destroyed. But regardless of what people thought of Rayful, he was an enigma, the president and CEO of what authorities called "the largest network for cocaine street sales in Washington D.C." He was a gangster legend of epic proportions, until he tarnished his legacy by turning snitch.
Seth Ferranti, federal prison register 18205-083, is the Gorilla Convict Writer. In 1993, after spending two years as a top-15 fugitive on the US Marshal's most wanted list, he was captured and sentenced to 304 months under the federal sentencing guidelines for an LSD Kingpin conviction and committed to the custody of the Attorney General. A first-time, non-violent offender, Ferranti has served 19 years of his 25-year mandatory minimum sentence. His case was widely covered by The Washington Post and Washington Times, and his story was profiled in the pages of Rolling Stone and Don Diva magazine. His current release date is October, 2015. During his incarceration Ferranti has worked to better himself by making preparations for his eventual release back into society. Ferranti earned an AA degree from Penn State, his BA degree from the University of Iowa through correspondence courses, and Masters from California State University, Dominguez Hills. Along with his studies, Ferranti writes about the prison experience. Numerous magazines including "Don Diva", "Slam", "Vice", "FHM", "King", "Feds", "The Ave" have shown love, publishing Seth's articles. His work as a prison basketball journalist has led to international recognition in Spanish, French, Italian and Mexican magazines and his articles on prison ballers appear on www.hoopshype.com and www.prisonerlife.com. Check out his work and other books on www.gorillaconvict.com.
