Rainmania:
9. Jemeker Thompson
Jemeker Thompson came from very poor beginnings and was even evicted from her home as a young child. An extreme fear of poverty and feelings of desperation propelled her into the drug trade. Being young, inexperienced, and a woman made her an easy target in the deadly Los Angeles cocaine trade.

She met an older man named Anthony Mosley who took her under his wing. Together, they made a formidable team (and couple, eventually getting married and having a son). Although the profits for cocaine were consistent, a new drug soon began sweeping through Los Angeles and turning people rich almost overnight—crack. The pair made the switch from cocaine to crack trafficking and became some of the biggest players on the Los Angeles scene.They also made some mighty dangerous enemies along the way. One day, while washing his car, Mosley was shot and killed in cold blood. Though Thompson was saddened and alone, she would continue to traffic drugs through Los Angeles, making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

She continued making bigger connections in the Los Angeles scene and eventually met a man who called himself “Cheese.” He would help her continue to grow her empire. Things were going well until Cheese got arrested and shamelessly ratted out his partner. Having no other choice, Jemeker went on the run, leaving Los Angeles for five years without being apprehended.

She would return to Los Angeles for her son’s sixth-grade graduation only to be promptly arrested by authorities at the ceremony. Imprisoned for 15 years in a maximum security prison, she found peace in religion. Upon her release, she started her own ministry, which she still runs to this day.

stblessing:
Nice, but where's the rest of the post?

8. Thelma Wright
Thelma Wright was just a normal Catholic girl before she met her future husband Jackie Wright, a wholesale heroin supplier in the bountiful Philadelphia drug scene. They fell in love in a whirlwind romance, got married, and had a son in 1982.


Jackie had ties to the Black Mafia—a feared Philadelphia street gang infamous for murdering police. This made him a very powerful man who also earned himself a few very dangerous enemies. In 1986, Jackie was found rolled up in a rug with a bullet in his head. Thelma was suddenly left all alone to fend for herself and her four-year-old son. Forcing herself into her husband’s business, she became the primary source of heroin and cocaine in Philadelphia. She would even transport the drugs cross-country to Los Angeles.

At her peak, Wright was estimated to earn over $400,000 a month. This granted her high levels of respect among her male contemporaries as well as nicknames like “Boss Lady” and “Queen Pen.” But it was by no means a glamorous fairy tale. In July 1991, after years of avoiding the darker side of the drug business, she and her friends were caught in the crossfire of a deadly shootout at a Philadelphia nightclub.

Later that year, a member of her major clientele got arrested trying to transport cocaine by mail through the United States Postal Service. Thelma wisely saw the warning signs, and she decided to leave drugs behind before greed got her arrested or killed. She kept a low profile for more than a decade before publishing her life story, With Eyes From Both Sides—Living My Life In and Out of the Game.

Today, Thelma Wright is a motivational speaker who strongly advises nobody to follow in her footsteps and to avoid the drug game completely. Said Wright, “It is a ‘no win.’ Two options: death or jail. That’s it.”