Ike walked down the long narrow corridor to his prison cell without receiving much notice from the other inmates. As Ike learned, an air of excitement would ripple through the prison population when a “star” inmate showed up. As the word spread of the arrival of a notorious new inmate, the other inmates pressed up against the bars of their cells to see the arriving celebrity, and they would shout his name. But such was not the case for Ike. “Nobody but a few guys from North Carolina really knew who I was when I arrived at the Atlanta pen,” Ike recalled. “Gradually, that changed. The word spread about who I was and what I had done.”

  BY PUTTING IKE in prison, Uncle Sam had won a battle in the War on Drugs, but Ike still had not surrendered. He remained determined to retain control of his drug trafficking ring and smuggle as much dope as possible out of Southeast Asia while the U.S. still had a presence there. In 1975, Uncle Sam began a three-day operation to withdraw the last of its B-52 bombers from Thailand. The B-52s were leaving under an agreement between Thailand and the U.S. that mandated the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Thailand by March 1976. Ike planned to take advantage of the U.S. withdrawal from Thailand to ship the largest quantity of heroin he had ever smuggled out of the country since he entered the drug trade in 1968. Always an over-achiever criminal-wise, he even hoped that one day, before his drug trafficking days were over, he could smuggle a 1,000-kilo load of heroin in a single shipment. He could not do that, though, by smuggling heroin in the false bottom of AWOL bags, one or two kilos at a time. Instead, he planned to use teakwood furniture with specially built false bottoms that departing U.S. military personnel could send back to the U.S. with their household goods after they completed their tours of duty in Thailand. The teak furniture could carry as much as 50 kilos of heroin, or more.

  While in jail, Ike chose Freddie Thornton to be his second in command and to implement the teakwood smuggling plan. Thornton’s first experience with the emerging teakwood connection came in March 1975 after Ike had paid him $12,000 for three successful deliveries of heroin using the crew chiefs AWOL bag smuggling procedure.

  “Could you do me a favor?” Ike had asked Thornton.

  “What is it?” Freddie replied.

  “Could you go to California for me and pick up some stuff?”

  The “stuff” was some heroin that Ike’s drug ring had smuggled from Bangkok to California inside teakwood furniture for the first time. The smuggling operation marked the launch of a new phase for the Atkinson drug ring: the “Teakwood Connection.”

  Thornton picked up the furniture and delivered it to the home of Ronald Ward, who was stationed at Beale Air Force Base near Maysville, California. Established in 1943 and located about forty miles from Sacramento, Beale Air Force Base is the home of the 9th Renaissance Wing of the Air Combat Wing. The base accommodates about 4,000 military personnel stationed there.

  Ronald Ward, a staff sergeant and military police officer with thirteen years service, had known Thornton since 1968. Ronald’s wife, Delores, was like a sister to Thornton; in fact, Thornton called her “Sis.” Thornton phoned Delores about once a month to see how she and her family were doing. The Wards had two teenage sons, one of whom was mentally retarded and required expensive special education. As the bills piled up, Freddie tried to help. One time, Thornton gave Dolores $1,000; another time, he gave Delores $200 to buy her kids bicycles.

  One morning in early March 1975, Delores returned home from a shopping trip to find her buddy Freddie Thornton sitting in a U-haul truck parked in the driveway.

  Delores and Thornton hugged each other and Thornton said: “Sis, I’ve got something for you.”

  “What is it?” Delores said.

  “I’m going to show you,” Thornton said. He lifted the back end of the truck and revealed two heavy dining room buffets, each about six feet long.

  Delores was not surprised. Thornton was always bringing her exotic gifts from his overseas assignments. The previous time Thornton had called, he asked her what she wanted from Thailand. Delores had said “china.” This time, in buying the buffet furniture, Freddie had bought something extra special for Delores, and she was delighted.

  Ronald Ward helped Thornton lug the buffets into the house. They put one piece in the hallway and the other in the dining room. Thornton gave Delores $100 and told her to go shopping. For the next two and half hours, Ward helped Thornton with carefully removing the dope from the false bottoms of the buffets. One of the plastic bags broke and Thornton used a brown paper bag to clean up the white powder that had spilled on the floor. When through, Thornton paid Ward $1,000 for his help

  It was now 2:30 in the afternoon, and Ward had to go to work. Thornton said he would wait for Delores to return home so he could get a ride to the airport. When Delores returned, Thornton put the brown paper bag in the back seat of Delores’s red 1973 Buick and asked his friend to get rid of the bag after she dropped him off. When Ronald Ward returned home from work at 11: 30 p.m., his wife was not home yet. Still, Ward was not concerned. The Wards were planning to move off base to nearby Atwater soon, so they were getting a place they had rented in the city ready. Delores planned to go there later in the day and stay the night. So, while Thornton traveled cross country to North Carolina carrying Ike’s dope, Delores drove to Atwater, stopping only to throw the brown paper bag in a dumpster.

  GIVEN THE LIBERAL visitation policy at the Atlanta pen, Ike knew he would have no problem communicating with Thornton, even though Thornton was spending a lot of his time in Thailand. Relatives who visited Ike in the penal institution could smuggle his messages out of the prison and give them to Thornton. By the time Thornton retired at the end of March 1975, he was delivering what Ike called “notes” to Luchai “Chai” Ruviwat, Jimmy Smedley, Rudolph Jennings and other drug ring members based in Bangkok. In the first note Thornton delivered to Ike’s gang in Bangkok, Ike stated unequivocally that, in his absence, Thornton was in charge of the Thailand end of the operation. The notes also provided instructions as to how many pieces of furniture Thornton needed to get for future shipments. Ike put Chai in charge of buying the heroin and the furniture. “Money would be coming shortly to pay for future shipments,” Ike assured. The notes acknowledged that Ike owed Chai and Smedley money and that Thornton would repay them soon. Luchai and Smedley had no doubts that the orders came from Ike, for in reading the notes, they recognized Ike’s handwriting.

  THE MONEY FOR the teakwood drug shipments arrived in Bangkok in three postal service boxes five to eight days after Thornton had brought the first set of instructions from Ike. The money was stored at Smedley’s house at Soi 53 in one of the bedrooms. Thornton came over to wake up Smedley so he could help him count the money, but Smedley was sound asleep. Thornton busied himself for a couple of hours before he finally woke Smedley up.

  “Jimmy, good news, the money has arrived,” Thornton said.

  Dressed in a white undershirt and flowery designed boxer shorts, Smedley reached for a cigarette and propped himself up on the edge of bed. “Bring it over to me,” Smedley ordered, acting as if he was still the boss in Thailand.

  When he saw the boxes, Smedley blew up. “Who opened the box,” he snapped.

  “We did; I mean I did,” Thornton said, taken aback by Smedley’s aggressive manner.

  “You don’t open the boxes when you are by yourself,” Smedley said.

  “Well, you wouldn’t get up.”

  “You still shouldn’t have opened them,” Smedley insisted.

  “Why?” Thornton asked.

  “Because I’m responsible for the money.”

  “How are you responsible for the money?” Thornton asked. “Nobody sent you anything.”

  Smedley stopped arguing and lit his cigarette. Thornton phoned Chai and asked him to come over and help count the money. Thornton had to wait about two hours before Chai finally arrived.

  WILLIAM KELLEY BROWN was the second soldier that Ike’s drug ring recruited for his teakwood smuggling operation. On his second tour of duty in Thailand, Brown worked in Bangkok at SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) in an Army medical research facility that collaborated closely with the Thai Government. There he met Wallace Walker (not his real name), a co-worker, ten-year military veteran and a friend of Ike’s. Walker and Brown belonged to the Black Masonic Lodge in Bangkok and they had developed a friendship and socialized on occasion.

  A native of the Washington, DC area, Walker was a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Army on his second tour of duty in Thailand. Walker was fluent in Thai and had a Thai wife whom he married in 1969 during his first tour of duty. Walker was hard working, and while in Bangkok, he attended night school, studying business. Despite his tight schedule, Walker still found time to join the regular weekend poker game at Jimmy Smedley’s place. Walker would also socialize with Ike at the poker game at Smedley’s house at one of the NCO clubs, whenever Ike was in Bangkok.

  In the spring of 1975, about two or three months before he was going to be re-assigned back to the States. Walker got into a financial bind, the result of a car deal in which he was supposed to sell a car to a Thai movie star for $9,000. But when the movie star backed out of the deal in July, Ike helped Walker out by buying his car for $8,000 cash and allowed Walker to keep it until he left for the U.S. in the early fall.

  When Smedley saw Walker at the poker game or NCO club, he would invariably ask: “When are you going home?”

  “I don’t know,” Walker would say: “Maybe February or March (1975).”

  “Well, I may have something for you to ship”

  One day, Walker agreed to do it and told Smedley: “Yeah, I got the weight; I’ll ship something for you.” As a Chief Warrant Officer, Walker was authorized to ship up to 1,100 pounds of household goods to his next duty station. For the U.S. military in Thailand, it was not unusual for someone with some spare weight to ship things to the U.S. for other people.

  Smedley said: “Let me tell you about it.”

  “What do you mean?” Walker asked. “Tell me about it?”

  Smedley took Walker to the back of the house in a secure area near the kitchen and the maid’s quarters. Walker saw Thornton standing next to a piece of furniture that was turned upside down.

  “What are you all doing?” Walker asked.

  “Look, let me tell you,” Smedley said. “It’s a sure thing.” Then with a sly smile, Smedley added, “We are going to put dope in this thing.”

  Walker watched as Thornton drilled screws into the bottom of the furniture. Later, Walker explained to a Federal court in Raleigh, North Carolina: “I told him (Smedley) he was crazy. At this point he never mentioned it again.” Walker also claimed that while he delivered $10,000 for Smedley to Herbert Houseton at the post office, he did not get paid anything for doing it.

  However, Walker, in fact, had agreed to find someone else to smuggle the heroin-laden furniture to the States. After work one day, Walker dropped by the NCO club at the Windsor Hotel for a few drinks and some conversation with William Brown and Joyce, his wife of fifteen years, Joyce Watson, and some other friends. Walker explained to the group that he was going back to the U.S. soon and that before he left, he wanted to buy some furniture, although he didn’t know exactly what he wanted. Joyce Brown said: “Well, if you want to buy some furniture, we will be glad to show you around Bangkok.” By “we” Joyce meant herself and Joyce Watson, the wife of Major George Watson, a military doctor.

  Walker thought it was a good idea and asked William Brown: “If I get some furniture, would you ship it for me back home?”

  “That would be no problem,” Brown said.

  A few days later, Joyce Watson came by Walker’s house in a red black-topped Pontiac and picked Walker and his wife up before stopping by Joyce Brown’s house to pick her up. The shopping excursion lasted all day and ended on Sukhumvit Road where they checked out a number of furniture stores and Walker bought some teakwood furniture.

  On July 8, 1975, the day William Brown was preparing his furniture and household goods for shipment to Fort Gordon, near August, Georgia, Chai came by his house and explained that he had some furniture for him from Wallace Walker: seven pieces of heavy teakwood furniture. Brown shipped the furniture that day and it arrived at Fort Gordon in Augusta on September 3rd. Hidden inside the false bottoms of the furniture that Brown had shipped was an incredible fifty-two kilograms (114.2 pounds) of heroin. For being a drug courier, Brown had been promised $100,000.

  SOMETIME IN JUNE 1975, while setting up the Brown shipment, Thornton stopped by the NCO club at the Windsor Hotel for a drink. Jasper Myrick, a young GI who worked at the club and had earlier helped Houseton with the postal drug smuggling connection, approached Thornton. Myrick told Thornton that before Rudolph Jennings left for the U.S. to attend Ike’s trial in North Carolina, Jennings had asked him if he wanted to make some money.

  “I’m always interested in making some money,” Myrick told Jennings.

  “Talk to me or Thornton about it when you are ready,” Myrick said Jennings had told him: “If I’m not available, don’t talk to anybody but Freddie.”

  Jennings had said nothing to Thornton about his conversation with Myrick, so Thornton was wary about saying too much to Myrick. “I will get back with you,” Thornton told Myrick.

  Thornton thought it would be a good idea to write Ike a letter to find out how he should deal with Myrick. Ike sent Thornton a note back, giving him the go ahead to recruit Myrick, but advising Thornton to let Smedley handle it when Smedley returned from the States. After reading the instructions, Thornton burned the letter.

  Smedley went by the Windsor Hotel to see Myrick. Although there was a big difference in their ages, the two men hit it off. Later, Myrick described how Smedley became almost like a father figure to him. Smedley began dropping by Myrick’s house for a drink. In one of their conversations, Smedley learned that Myrick was going to be transferred to Fort Benning in September 1975. Smedley asked his young friend if he would be willing to ship some furniture for him through the U.S. postal system. Myrick did not see any problem with that. They agreed on a fee—$500.

  IN THE LATER part of June 1975, Ike’s drug ring received more money from the States—the $180,000 for the Jasper Myrick heroin shipment. Chai came by Smedley’s house to pick up the money he needed for his part in the operation. Thornton told Chai to buy forty-two kilos of heroin as well as the teakwood furniture that would be used for the shipment.

  But Chai began grumbling. “Ike owes me some money,” Chai complained to Thornton.

  “How much?” Thornton asked.

  “About $12,000.”

  “Well, we’ll have to get it straight with Ike,” Thornton said. “Let me write him to find out what’s going on.”

  Well, I need the money,” Chai insisted.

  An exasperated Thornton gave Chai $3,000 and said he would contact him about the rest of the money when he heard from Ike.

  Soon after, another $25,000 arrived in Bangkok, money Thornton planned to use to buy six more kilos through Chai. Thornton phoned Chai to tell him that the money had arrived. Chai’s wife answered the phone and told Thornton that her husband had gone “up country.” The next day, Thornton called Chai’s house again, but he still had not returned from his trip. ”Have your husband call me when he returns,” Thornton told Chai’s wife. But Chai did not call. The following day, Thornton called Chai’s house again and left another message for him with his wife. Still no response.

  Thornton could not believe it. Here he was trying to put together a major drug shipment and his main man had done a disappearing act. The next day Chai’s wife paid Thornton a visit. “The police have my husband and he needs $25,000 to get out of jail,” she explained.

  Thornton looked at Mrs. Chai with amazement. “Well, you are in Thailand and you don’t need that kind of money to get Chai out of jail. Why don’t you ask the gentleman Chai is working with to get him out of jail?”

  “Well, we can’t get in touch with him,” she explained.

  Mrs. Chai seemed to have an answer for every question Thornton fired at her. So he put $5,000 in a brown paper bag and gave it to her.

  “Here’s some money. Can’t you post bond?” Thornton asked. “See if this will do it. If not, bring the money back.”

  A couple of days later, Chai’s wife returned the money to Thornton. After she left, Thornton checked the bag. About $1,000 of the $5,000 was missing.

  Thornton was getting more and more pissed about how the operation was going. Three days later, when Smedley returned from a trip to the United States, Thornton complained to Smedley about how Chai was acting. Smedley got on the phone and called Chai. but he was not at home. Smedley left his name and phone number with the wife and told her to have Chai call him as soon as he arrived.

  Meanwhile, a friend of Thornton’s named Lamb came by Thornton’s place to borrow some money. Thornton told the friend about his problem in locating Chai. “I really think the police must have Chai,” Thornton said. “He’s been gone so long.”

  “But I’ve seen Chai,” Lamb revealed.

  “Where did you see him?” Thornton asked, surprised.

  “Over at his house,” Lamb said. “He told me not to tell you that I had seen him.”

  “So it’s a rip off!” Thornton shouted.

  “’Chai needs the money but is mad at you,” Lamb explained.

  “What did I do to him?” Thornton asked.

  “Chai said you’re too busy,” Lamb replied.

  Too busy! Thornton was livid. Here they were trying to arrange major drug deals that have to move half-way around the world and one of his key people is angry because he thinks he’s ”too busy.” Was he running a nursery or a drug ring?

  Thornton pushed Smedley. “You need to see Chai and get him to come over and talk. We can sit down and work out our problems. There is no need to have a mess.”