Cocaine was at that time far less popular in low-income neighborhoods than back-tar heroin, marijuana, and PCP. Ross claimed he first saw cocaine in South Central Los Angeles in 1982. He joined a network of auto thieves known as the Freeway Boys and became part owner of a chop shop which dealt in stolen vehicles. Ross briefly attended Los Angeles Trade Technical College where he first engaged in illegal activity.

He was recruited to play football for Dorsey High School in Baldwin Hills, considered the “black Beverly Hills” of the Los Angeles area, but was expelled when school officials learned he was a functional illiterate. Ross worked several jobs, played tennis at Manchester Park daily, and initially avoided gang membership and violence. Mother and son moved to 87th place under Interstate 110, possibly the source of his pseudonym. His Father, Sonny Ross, was an ex-Army cook and pig farmer. Ross grew up in Los Angeles, California, moving there in 1963 with his mother Annie Mae Mauldin, who came from a sharecropping family. He is better known as “Freeway Rick,” the convicted drug trafficker turned philanthropist who established himself as kingpin in the 1980’s.

Late 20th Century drug lord Ricky Donnell Ross was born on January 26th, 1960 in Troup, Texas.

Freeway crack in the system documentary