White Boy Rick set to be released from a Florida prison in July

May 25, 2020 at 12:42 pm

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Michigan Dept. of Corrections

Richard Wershe Jr.'s mugshot circa 1987, left, and circa 2012, right.

Richard “White Boy Rick” Wershe Jr. may finally see freedom this summer after spending his entire adult life in prison.

Wershe, who was sentenced to life in prison for selling cocaine in 1988, is scheduled to be released from a Florida prison on July 20, two days after his 51st birthday, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

Wershe’s previous release date was October 26. It wasn’t immediately clear why his release date was moved up.

Wershe the younger was paroled from a Michigan prison in 2017, but he was never set free. Instead, he was sent to a Florida prison to serve time for a 2006 conviction for his role in a car theft ring while in prison in Michigan.

Wershe’s story was dramatized in a 2018 film starring Matthew McConaughey.

At 14, the youngest FBI informant ever, Wershe helped bring down a cocaine trafficking ring. But after the FBI didn't need him anymore, he couldn't leave the drug world and was eventually busted selling cocaine himself, and was convicted at 18.

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About The Author

Steve Neavling

Steve Neavling is an award-winning investigative journalist who operated Motor City Muckraker, an online news site devoted to exposing abuses of power and holding public officials accountable. Neavling also hosted Muckraker Report on 910AM from September 2017 to July 2018. Before launching Motor City Muckraker,...