Word: marianna
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Several HRE officials, including President Kristen S. Demong and attorney Marianna C. Pierce `78 yesterday declined comment on the decision...
...runners, couriers and dealers were threatened and abused. The trick in the crack trade, police say, is to keep people in line. If the Chamberses' recruits tried to flee, the brothers knew where to find them. "A Chicago kid might be able to leave, but not a kid from Marianna," says the town's police chief, Mark Birchler...
Youths caught sampling the cocaine were roughed up. The punishment for stealing could be permanent: one Marianna boy returned with mangled fingers. To exact obedience, the brothers sometimes deliberately shorted the boys on the crack that was parceled out for them to sell. When the receipts came up short, the boys were forced to work off their shortages, which kept them in bondage for months at a time. "They ran everything on fear and intimidation," says Birchler...
...everyone stayed intimidated. In February tips from disaffected Marianna youths led to criminal indictments in Detroit against the four Chambers brothers, as well as 18 others, including many from Marianna...
...Today Marianna is a town traumatized by its past. Some of the young men who left as country bumpkins returned as hardened criminals. About half of those indicted are still at large, and people are terrified that the Chamberses will try to get even. There have been several fire bombings, including one directed at a woman who testified against a Chambers brother. Yet one fact about Marianna remains the same. Says Councilman Roy Lewellen: "I can't think of eight black teenagers who are employed...