Before Paid in Full: The Dark Story of Rich Porter and The Preacher Crew

Harlem in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a place where enormous money, street fame, crime and fear could exist on the same block. Few stories represent those two sides of the era better than Rich Porter and Lorenzo “Preacher” Heatley. Rich Porter became one of Harlem’s most recognizable street figures, remembered for the luxury cars, jewelry, money and larger-than-life reputation surrounding his rise. But while Rich Porter represented the flashier side of Harlem’s drug era, Preacher Heatley became associated with something much darker. Known throughout the streets as “Preacher,” Heatley built a reputation surrounded by fear, and allegations of brutal enforcement as federal investigators closed in on his organization.