The Unauthorized Story Of Haitian Jack
TREATMENT WRITTEN BY DETECTIVE WILLIAM COURTNEY
A story based on the real life exploits of the music industry’s most notorious gangster and the members of law enforcement who controlled him.
William Courtney Title and Concept Registered WGAW and Library of Congress Copyright Office May 23, 2009
“Listen while I take you back (NIGGA SAY HIS NAME!) and lace this rap A real live tale about a snitch named Haitian Jack Knew he was working for the feds, same crime, different trials Nigga, picture what he said, and did I mention Promised a payback, Jimmy Henchman, in due time I know you bitch niggas is listenin, The World Is Mine…”
‘Against All Odds’ -Tupac Shakur
Haitian Jack was the most feared man in the music industry. Jack, AKA Jacques Agnant, was born in Haiti to a family of privileged politicians. They were highly educated professionals. His older siblings attended medical schools and universities in the United States. His family attended parties at ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier’s mansion. After the coup, his family fled to Brooklyn, New York with limited funds and connections. Jack, speaking only French, was placed in a tough, local public school and forced to fight on a daily basis. He became one of the toughest street thugs in the history of Brooklyn, New York.
Jack began committing burglaries during his teen years. He specialized in drug dealers’ apartments. Jack formed a gang known as the Black Mafia. He recruited the toughest street robbers in the borough. His posse consisted of thugs such as, Tut, Nubs, Stretch, and other sociopaths, all looking to cash in on the drug economy. His crew was so feared; they could walk down the lines of New York’s hottest night clubs and take every drug dealer’s Rolex and wallet without as much as a peep. Jack began befriending such people as Mike Tyson and some local professional ball players. He used his charm to get into their pockets and when that failed, he produced a firearm. He invented the ‘friendly’ extortion game in the Black community. He is said to be the only man Mike Tyson ever feared.
In the early 1990′s, rap music could be heard on every comer of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn -a neighborhood so bad, the local residents coined the saying ‘Bed-Stuy Do or Die.’ Jack went out of his way to get to know Biggie Smalls, a young, local rap artist with a lot of promise. Tupac Shakur heard about Biggie, travelled to Brooklyn, and the two began to perform together. Tupac put Biggie on the map. Biggie introduced Jack to Tupac, a day that would forever seal Mr. Shakur’s fate. Jack felt that rap artists should pay homage to him; after all, he lived the life they exploited through song.
Jack and Tupac hit it off. Tupac loved Jack’s street creds and the feeling of power this mobster exuded through his swagger and earned reputation. He wanted what Jack had almost more than fame and fortune. Jack provided protection, women, and marijuana. Tupac picked up the tab at all the hot clubs. Jack was unofficially managing Tupac; the two were inseparable. The duo found themselves partying at clubs such as Nell’s with the likes of Madonna and other hot stars. Jack felt that his ride with Tupac would never end.
Jack whispered in a girl’s ear one evening at Nell’s. She smiled and walked over to Tupac. The two danced and later returned to his hotel suite. The following day she returned. Tupac took her to his room; they began having sex when Jack’s crew entered the room. The young woman became the victim of date rape. She left in tears. The police later arrived and arrested Jack and Tupac. The two hired the best attorneys and planned strategy for their defense. Jack’s attorney, Paul Brenner, decided to sever Jack’s case from Shakur’s. He got Jack a six-month plea deal. The Manhattan D.A.’s office wasn’t so kind to Tupac. He went to trial, was found guilty, and was due back in court for sentencing at a later date.
Tupac felt betrayed by Jack. He thought they should have gone to trial together. He knew Jack could handle prison; he wasn’t so sure about himself. Tupac stopped taking calls from Jack and his crew. Tupac began clubbing again. He returned to Nell’s and made a fatal mistake: he commented on Jack’s criminal dealings to New York Post reporter AJ. Benza. After making Page Six the following day, Jack plotted his revenge.
Puff Daddy feared Jack so much, he once handed him ten grand and his Rolex. Jacks’ crew coaxed Shakur to Quad Studios in Manhattan to lay down some tracks with Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy roster. Tupac entered the lobby with one of Jack’s crew, a kid named Stretch Walker. Jack’s boys confronted Tupac in the lobby. He resisted a beat down and was shot several times, suffering gunshot wounds to the head and groin. Stretch was shot in the melee as well. Shakur felt that Puffy and Biggie had set him up. He was sentenced to prison a few weeks later. Jack’s muscle within the prison system relentlessly sought Shakur out. One day, Tupac received a visit from Los Angeles gangster and owner of Death Row Records, Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. Suge convinced Tupac to sign with his label. The east coast-west coast wars were set in motion.
Years of violence between Bad Boy and Death Row left Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur dead. Knight’s organization had been crippled by numerous police investigations. Jack reinvented himself through The Fugees; Wyclef Jeans’ pockets were deep and Jack had both hands in them. Wyclef didn’t mind so much. Jack was a fellow Haitian and he kept all the extortion crews far away. After touring with the Fugees, Jack fell in love with Beverly Hills. He started his own management company and attached himself to artists’ publishing rights by way of fear and the gun. He broke ranks and had amassed a small fortune. Jack wasn’t happy though; he wanted more.
In 1997, Tupac was killed in Vegas and Biggie was later murdered in Los Angeles. Haitian Jack broke ranks from his crew. Nubs was murdered, and Tut went away on a Rico. The rest were bottom feeders unable to drive through the Hills without attracting attention. Jack was solo. Haitian knew he could have problems with L.A. gang members, so he established a geographical zone to stay in. He never ventured farther north of Sunset, south of Pico, east of Fairfax, orwestofthe405. It kept him away from gang bangers and the police. Jack was getting rich, but he was also getting bored.
Detective Bill Courtney was an undercover detective in the NYPD’s elite Intelligence Division. He was given his own unit and tasked with an impossible mission: taking the mob out of the music industry. Bill knew Jack’s rep from back in his Robbery Squad days. He had heard about Jack again while assigned to the DEA. Jack had robbed half the drug dealers in New York. Wire taps were abuzz about being done by the ‘Haitian One’, but no one knew where he had gone. His name was legendary, as the killer of Tupac. A little homework revealed that Jack had never earned his citizenship. As a predicate felon, Jack was deportable. Bill felt that if he found Jack, he could make him an offer he couldn’t refuse: join Team America or go back to Haiti.
One of the last times Bill heard about Jack was on the ‘Kendu’ case. Bill’s wiretap took down East New York’s biggest drug dealer, Darryl “Kendu’ Riley. A cooperator told an interesting story about Jack back when Tut was still on the streets. Jack and Tut once kicked in the door of Kendu’s top lieutenant, a gunslinger named T.T. They stole hi8 stash and threatened to kill his girlfriend if she called the police. His girlfriend Crystal foolishly called 911 as T.T. was rushing home to her aid. He beat the cops to the apartment. When the police entered, they found one of his AK-47′s under a bed. He was the victim of a robbery and now he was going to prison. Jacks’ crew later raped Crystal to keep her from testifying. T.T. wouldn’t cooperate, but a source of information on the case promised to deliver Jack.
Bill revisited the source, who was more than happy to help. The subject told him an interesting story about Jack’s exploits. One day the source was standing with a group of males in the East New York section of Brooklyn. Jack drove by, saw them and decided to stop and say hello. Jack exited his vehicle and exchanged pleasantries with the gang. The men heard muffled moaning and banging sounds coming from Jack’s trunk. Jack smiled, popped the trunk which exposed a dark skinned African male, bound and gagged with duct tape. Jack pulled the tape from the African’s mouth and said ‘Nigga where’s the money?’ The male cried ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jack placed the tape back over his mouth and shut the trunk. Jack smiled at the group and exclaimed ‘Nigga needs another hour!’ They laughed; Jack changed the subject and eventually drove off. No one knew the male or his outcome.
The source slept with half of Jack’s girlfriends, who reported on Jack’s whereabouts. He knew where Haitian dined every Friday night: the L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills. Bill made some inquiries and was referred to a sharp Los Angeles Sheriffs Department detective named Mark Gayman. Bill called Mark on and off for weeks, with no response. Mark was making calls, checking Bill out. Mark kept a tight ship on his informants and cases. Like Bill, he dreaded dealing with the F.B.I. An Orange County D.A.’s investigator cleared Bill and they started talking. Mark had learned that Jack was doing music industry scams with an L.A. mobster named Ori Spado. Ori sought Jack out to rob Colombian drugs dealers with stash houses in Beverly Hills.
Bill sent a photo out and Mark visited the L’Ermitage Hotel. The head of security knew him and confirmed that he was in fact a regular. Bill hopped on a plane with an INS warrant in hand and met with Mark at a bar on the Sunset Strip. They talked about Jack, police work, and their constant battles with the Bureau. During the briefing, Mark received a call from the L’Ermitage, Jack was at dinner a day earlier than usual. The two saddled up and visited the hotel. Mark brokered a deal with the Beverly Hills P.D. for backup and promised the hotel to wait for Jack to leave before pouncing on him. One problem… Jack dined for four or more hours at a clip.
Jack sat with a female and another couple in their high-end private dining room. Bill and Mark decided to wait in the lobby, occasionally monitoring the happy couple’s dining experience. The elevator doors opened in the lobby and actor James Woods stepped off. He saw Mark and came over to say hello. Mark had known James for some time. Mark introduced his new NYPD buddy to Mr. Woods, who proceeded to tell an interesting story he knew the New Yorker would enjoy.
James Woods was a passenger on a New York-to-Los Angeles flight when he observed males gesturing to each other with hand signals every time the flight attendants opened the cabin doors to service the flight crew. They did this repeatedly and were alarmingly open and obvious about it, at least to Mr. Woods. He petitioned the flight attendant in First Class repeatedly to secure the plane and call the authorities. She forced herself to show interest and finally told Mr. Woods that the police would meet the plane at LAX. When the plane landed at LAX, Mr. Woods was asked to remain seated and was assured that the authorities were waiting for this strange group at the gate. After the plane emptied, two F.B.I. agents boarded the plane to interview Mr. Woods. The police didn’t detain anyone. They listened to Mr. Woods’ story and took a report. Weeks later, those males became famous as the 9/11 hijackers.
James Woods went on his way, and Bill and Mark talked about the story and the Bureau once again. They took seats at the bar, ordered some drinks, and waited for the Agnant Party to finish up. Finally, Jack’s party was on the move. Bill and Mark followed them to the valet and got Beverly Hills P.D. on the ready. The cruisers stopped Jack a few blocks away with one of the longest felony vehicle stops in the history of California. Officers critiqued each other as they pulled passengers from the car. It was bizarre. One woman was the Minister of Gabon, Africa’s daughter, known to the locals as a money launderer. Finally, everyone was identified and cut loose, except for Jack of course.
At the Beverly Hills P.D. interrogation room, Bill worked on Jack for two hours. Jack agreed it would be a shame to send such a fine Haitian American back to his homeland. He agreed to join Team America. Jack was shipped off to Terminal Island on an INS hold. Bill had to move fast to get Jack paroled to him, a task that required a U.S. Attorney, I.N.S. approval, and a mountain of federal bureaucracy. Bill petitioned his favorite U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, Tracy Lee Dayton. Tracy and Bill worked together, partied together, and were almost car jacked in Baltimore six months earlier. Bill gave Tracy the rundown. She flew out to L.A. and got Jack out about six weeks later.
Mark picked up Jack at Terminal Island, signed Bill’s name to the parole paperwork, and drove Jack back to Beverly Hills. Jack promised Mark he would sleep with three women that night to celebrate. Mark called Bill and put Jack on speakerphone. Jack promised to deliver good Intel, the occasional bad guy, and to be well behaved. This was a scary prospect, putting Jack out on the street. Tracy’s name was riding on it. Bill and Mark wouldn’t fare well with any mishaps either. Bill and Tracy opened an OCDETF case in New York. This provided funds for travel, informant payments, and any equipment necessary needed for the furtherance of justice. The goal was to utilize Jack to take out Organized Crime in the music industry. Bill and Mark didn’t know it, but the case would last for seven years, net huge seizures, and remove a lot of bad guys from the entertainment industry.
With a full war chest, Bill decided to head west. He and Mark hit it off and had similar styles in policing. Bill grabbed a hotel room in Beverly Hills and Mark moved into the suite for the week. They hit all the mob bars at night and dropped business cards everywhere. They put the word out that NYPD and LAPD were working together and meant business. Calls started coming in; bad guys were feeling uneasy. The boys invited Jack over for his first debriefing. Jack loved telling war stories. He spoke about how hard it was to rob a stash house. He had to convince people that he really was the police, steal their money or drugs, which were usually quite heavy, and then escape, sometimes with heavy gunfire coming from both sides. He talked about Tupac and how foolish he was. He denied any knowledge of the killing.
A month or two later, Bill received a call from a hit man-turned-informant back east. The hit man had been approached to kill rap artist 50 Cent. He gave the hit over to an associate named Ta Ta. Bill brokered a deal through Jimmy Iovine at Interscope Records to get access to 50′s camp and prevent the murder. Mark got a posse of deputies together and off they went for two night’s of rap at the House of Blues. At the end of the second night, Bill and Mark went to speak with 50 and his manger, Chris Lighty. As they were escorted to his table, they saw Jack sitting with 50 Cent, pointing his finger at the rap artist. Jack, 50, and his manager all seemed to have heart attacks as Bill and Mark approached. Jack excused himself and a serious conversation ensued.
Chris and 50 wanted nothing to do with solving the last attempt on his life. His album was number one and they knew they were on their way to untold riches. When asked about the light-skinned gentleman who had just left the table, the duo shrugged and said he was an A&R guy from the label. Bill and Mark pulled Jack in later on. Jack went on to tell them that 50 had promised him a young R&B singer named Governor. When asked why, Jack just smiled. Jack needed some more discipline; it was hard to keep Jack in check. Bill and Mark texted Jack on his Blackberry later on that night: it was the weather report in Haiti. Jack texted back, ‘Very funny, I’ll be good.’
In a few months, Bill and Mark were running strong. Mark was pulling in some great cases: hits on music industry executives, pump-and-dump scams, extortion of a variety of artists, and other mayhem. Bill stayed around to help whenever he could. One day, Mark received a call from a solid informant, who reported that a mobster named Ori Spado had a big marijuana connection through a guy named Haitian Jack. Ori was Mark’s initial reason for looking into Haitian Jack. The two were orchestrating the transportation of marijuana from Canada to Syracuse, New York. Once the pot hit the private airport, Pagan MC Members from Long Island would transport the contraband down to New York City. A meet was scheduled the next day in a midtown hotel.
Bill got his crew together and established surveillance at the hotel. Mark had limited contact with the informant. Mark called to tell Bill the meeting was ending; the crew was leaving the hotel with the buyers. Bill saw Ori and his crew leave with two Palestinian males. Bill’s team followed the Palestinians. A license plate check revealed that the occupants were the famous Ayesh brothers from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The Ayesh brothers were known to the F.B.I as marijuana and methamphetamine dealers.
They laundered their money home through funds established for Palestinian relief that were nothing more than fronts for Hamas and the P.L.O. Bill called the Joint Terrorism Task Force and flipped them the case. They were quite happy to finally have the Ayesh clan. They established surveillance and months later took down the Pagans and Palestinian connection. Jack was becoming a serious liability.
Bill received a call from investigators at ~he Bureau of Prisons. Members of their Intelligence Division intercepted prison calls from Five-Percent Nation leader Kenneth ‘Supreme’ McGriff. Supreme had instructed his top lieutenant to ‘check out’ Detective Courtney. A week later when Bill was exiting a plane in Richmond, Virginia, he checked his voicemail and received a chilling message: the sound of a semi-automatic pistol being racked back and fired. Bill’s home in New York was placed under surveillance, complete with Kevlar curtains and panic buttons throughout the house.
Bill decided to get Jack on it. When Jack took the call, he became enraged. He told Bill that he knew who the guys were and would take care of them. Bill told Jack the connection was bad and instructed him to call back from a payphone. Jack called back an hour later. Bill ripped into him. Bill told Jack that his phone could be tapped at any moment and really wasn’t particularly happy about getting involved in a murder conspiracy with him. Jack apologized and told him that he would make inquiries just like the police, only with faster results. Bill called Mark and talked. Haitian was great for getting bad guys numbers, locating fugitives, and having the inside info on all the scams in the music industry, but he was becoming a nuisance. Mark decided to follow him around.
Jack called Bill often to complain. He became Jack’s father confessor. Jack complained that Lyor Cohen and Dr. Dre had produced Governor’s album and were demanding a million dollars for the production. They wouldn’t wait for album sales to pay the tab. Jack wanted to know how to make them comply without, you know, hurting them. Lyor and Dre had off-duty law enforcement as security; getting to them was impossible. Jack also complained about suing Tupac’s estate for damages. Tupac alleges that Jack was a rat in the song ‘Against All Odds’. It wasn’t true. The case was thrown out of federal court. Bill told Jack if he won, Bill would give him up. He wasn’t the least bit amused.
For a month, Mark followed Jack all over the Hills and documented every step. He knew Jack would mess up sooner or later, but wanted to show he and Bill had tried to keep him in check. Mark pulled Jack over one day and told him Bill wanted to jam up some guys from 50′s Posse. Jack threw a party at a restaurant in the Hills called Crustacean. He invited 50′s crew and a lot of famous artists. Mark wired Bill up and sent him in the restaurant. The goal was to get 50′s guys on tape, talking about a feud they had back east. Jack introduced him to Aretha Franklin and placed him at her table. Stevie Wonder later joined the fray. It was bizarre. Bill decided to have smoke.
Out on the smoking deck, several local gangsters had spied Bill talking to Jack. They took him for a gangster. An Armenian male approached Bill and asked him what he did. Bill told him he ran a warehouse back in Brooklyn. The male smiled and told him he could put some ladies in the warehouse. Bills’ wire was transmitting to a surveillance truck a few blocks away. Bills’ phone started to ring off the hook. Bill saw Mark trying to ring in, but tried to ignore it; he was in the middle of a drug deal after all. Finally, Bill gave in and excused himself to call Mark. Before Bill could speak, Mark told him that the male talking to him was one of his operatives. Get away and we’ll set him straight later on. 50′s guys never showed. Bill decided to hang with Stevie and Aretha for the rest of the evening.
Bill and Mark had run nonstop for a year, grabbing fugitives, handling mob cases, and terrorizing the local Mafia community. Jack went missing and didn’t answer his phone. Bill received a call from a trusted informant: Calls to Miami P.D. revealed numerous shootings, but no deaths or reports to confirm the tip. Things were getting out of control. Tracy Dayton’s husband had cancer and was dying; Bill didn’t have the heart or nerve to give her an update.
One Sunday afternoon, Bill was back east sitting in his office, a secret offsite location in the old Nabisco Cookie Factory in Chelsea. Mark told Bill to sit down. It seemed that Jack and female rap artist M.C. Lyte were in a West Hollywood club when some Black Mafia Family members disrespected Jack. Jack calmly left the club with the rapper and returned a few minutes later. Jack was laughing hysterically, yelling ‘where you guys at?’ He found his target and chased him under some tables in the club, calmly shooting the male in the legs and smiling quite proudly. He calmly exited the club. One of Mark’s informants was in the club and decided to make the call.
Bill hung up the phone and called the airlines. Bill left a message for Jack: ‘I finally have your S Visa and you’re officially a U.S. citizen.’ Jack called Bill back hours later. With a lump in his throat, he told Bill how much he loved him and what a straight up guy he was. He told Bill that he had some problems, but ”we’ll talk when you get here”. Bill arranged for Jack to meet him at the Hyatt House on the Sunset Strip. Jack came inside and ventured up to the upstairs lobby and gave Bill a hug. Bill introduced Jack to U.S. Marshal Tony Burke and had a chat. Bill told Jack to stand up and the West Hollywood detective squad rushed out of a nearby conference room and jumped him. He looked up from the ground and calmly said, ‘You lied to me, Bill.’
Bill took Jack’s keys and sent a West Hollywood detective to get a search warrant for Jack’s apartment. Hours later they were inside. It was the most tastefully decorated apartment Bill had ever seen and Bill knew some well-to-do people. The gun was found rather quickly. There was also a large safe in the apartment. Bill called a locksmith. The locksmith called the safe company with his credentials. They received the original safe code; Jack had never changed it and the safe popped right open. Inside, they found a large amount of crisp, new U.S. currency and a cache of photos. Amongst the pictures were racy photos of Madonna with another woman, a photo of Jack and Tupac giving the finger, and a photo of Jack and President Clinton.
Bill fought his way out of the apartment with the photos, promising the search team copies. Bill visited Jack in the lockup. Jack told Bill he was foolish to recover the gun; after all, his victim had been paid off and Bill really could have used him. Jack explained the photos recovered from his apartment. Haitian used to sleep with a Beverly Hills socialite. She raised money for the Foster Care program. Jack delivered top name artists to her fundraising galas. Jack raised more money than anyone in the history of Foster Care fundraising. They made Jack Man of the Year, a title he shared with President Clinton. The two shared a photo at an event honoring their efforts. If the Secret Service only knew…..
Jack talked about the old days and how lucky he was. He told Bill that he would come through, but Bill knew that Jack had played everyone all along. Jack took a plea and was deported to Haiti a year later. Mark and Bill still get calls about Jack… he returns once in a while to visit, but knows staying is a mandatory five-year sentence if caught. Last Bill and Mark heard, Jack was managing Shaquille O’Neal. Apparently Shaq had some problems in Miami that Jack took care of.
Jack now resides legally in the Dominican Republic. He is supported by Wyc1ef Jean, and whatever riches he has stashed over the years. He was truly the greatest gangster ever to manipulate the music industry. He was charming, funny, and charismatic. He was also a killer. If his mother had filled out his Visa application properly, he would still be driving around in his little piece of Los Angeles.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.
William Courtney Thursday May 21, 2009
