There was a moment when Whitney Houston he would do anything for his love, Bobby Brown – even when it meant paying a $400,000 ransom to save the lifetime of R&B’s bad boy.

David “Popcorn” Collins, a former Harlem, New York, mobster, said Bobby Brown had no conflicts when his gang, the Preacher Crew, led by Clarence Heatley, also often called “Preacher,” kidnapped him in 90. Collins was an eyewitness to all the conspiracy and has shared his account of what happened on various platforms, most notably in his books Preacher of the Streets andHarlem No More: The David Collins Story“

“It was April 1993. Whitney’s film ‘The Bodyguard’ and its album were huge hits,” he said. he said in an interview with The National Enquirer in 2009, before telling what happened the night his gang decided to kidnap certainly one of music’s biggest stars.

Preacher, the leader of the gang, and his crew decided to go to Atlantic City, New Jersey to taste some bottled beer. Going out on a whim was a lifestyle for The Preacher Crew, an enormous spender known for making huge amounts of cash selling cocaine, crack, heroin, PCP, and other drugs in Harlem and the Bronx.

The night was filled with loud parties. However, things took a special turn once they met a dealer named “Luke” from New Jersey, who claimed that he and his crew had an argument with Bobby Brown. The “Don’t Be Cruel” singer reportedly owed them $25,000 for a kilogram of cocaine he purchased from them via consignment.

“When we see that motherfucker Bobby Brown, we’re going to kill him,” Collins tells Luke in an interview with Preacher. – He borrowed a Coke from us about three months ago and has been avoiding us.

Brown was a star in 1993. His second solo album sold over 7 million copies, and five songs from the project reached the highest ten of the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

He also married Whitney Houston in 1992. The couple shared a lavish mansion in Mendham, New Jersey, and since Mendham was situated right over the George Washington Bridge, Bobby often traveled to New York to frequent The New Yorker, the identical club where Sean’s “Puffy” Combs., Jennifer Lopezand rapper Bad Boy Shyne years later, he took part within the infamous shooting.

Knowing where Bobby frolicked at night, Preacher and his crew offered to settle Bobby’s debt.

“Preacher came up with the idea of ​​making a lot more than $25,000,” Collins told the National Enquirer.

“Tell you what, let me buy this beef from you. I’ll give you $10,000 now and it’s not your problem anymore. It is my problem. You have nothing to do with this” – Preacher he saidaccording to Collins.

The Preacher Crew, which terrorized the Bronx and Harlem, was liable for 47 murders within the early Nineteen Nineties. The notorious gang was known for its torture tactics. They cut off body parts and even killed to get what they wanted.

After paying Luke and his crew $10,000 to fix the issue, Preacher hatched a plan and in a clever move, the crew recruited a horny Harlem vixen to lure Bobby Brown at The New Yorker nightclub.

Dressed to impress, she sat down nearby, hoping to strike up a conversation with him. The first night, Bobby didn’t talk to the sexy lure; nonetheless, the subsequent night she managed to lure the R&B star outside, leading Brown directly to The Preacher Crew’s van, which was waiting to kidnap him for a fast but discreet kidnapping.

The kidnapping was a part of the Preacher Crew’s 1987 plan kidnapped Joanna Nichols, wife of Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols, holding her for a ransom of $77,000. She was finally released. On December 5, 1989 Donnell PorterThe 12-year-old brother of a Harlem legend Rich Porter, which Mitch was based on within the movie “Paid In Full”, was kidnapped and held for a ransom of $500,000. The family failed to raise funds to save the 12-year-old. After Rich Porter was killed on January 3, 1990 and was now unable to collect the ransom, The Preacher Crew killed Donnell, wrapped him in 14 black plastic bags, and dumped his body on a Manhattan bike path. On January 30, his body was present in a state of deep decomposition.

Rich Porter and Donnell Porter. 1984. pic.twitter.com/XVClcTK4dJ

— Boss (@_ValTown_) March 24, 2024

After Brown was kidnapped, The Preacher Crew transported him to a Bronx apartment illegally occupied by Preacher, in certainly one of the various abandoned buildings within the borough.

Inside, a person named Malik took charge, stripped Brown naked, tied him up and stuffed a rag in his mouth.

“He was a weird guy from Virginia,” Collins says, describing Malik. “He was a military brat. As you understand, he had military experience.

Upon learning that the person he had tied up was a multi-platinum selling singer from New Edition, Malik bizarrely tried to force him to perform.

“Sing a song fn,” Malik recalls demanding to Collins.

When Brown refused to sing, Malik took a lighter, grabbed the naked Brown’s penis, and then allegedly burned the hair from his scrotum.

Throughout the ordeal, Brown remained reserved and exposed.

“Then the Preacher came and took the rag out of Bobby’s mouth. “It’s a shame we have to kill you,” Collins reveals in his book. The R&B star begged for his life, begging for his wife to repay the debt.

“Preacher left the venue and his men terrorized Bobby for two hours. They kicked him. They told him they would kill Whitney. One of them put a gun to his head. “Bobby was crying when the Preacher returned to the room and begged for the Preacher to let him call Whitney.” excerpt from Collins’ book reads.

In the tip, Preacher allowed Brown one call to his celebrity wife. After the phone call, Preacher and his men took advantage of her husband’s miserable situation to negotiate a $400,000 payout.

Upon learning of the conditions for his freedom, the mobsters told Whitney Houston not to involve the authorities.

Houston, wearing oversized glasses and a wig, arrived alone in a taxi on the Bronx facility with a bag containing money that will secure her husband’s release. Unfazed by the dingy apartment and the damaging and armed hustlers within the room, she entered the apartment, boldly threw money on the ground and demanded someone tell her where Brown was.

The men told her he was in the opposite room, and when she discovered where he was, she wasted no time in reaching him, untiing him, and demanding that the lads who had kidnapped her man take his clothes.

“They came to an agreement. Personally, she was going to bring in $400,000 to get her man back. The next day she did just that. She wore a wig. She paid the money. “Bobby could have left,” Collins recalled.

Collins says that while the “I Will Always Love You” singer was composed and strong in the course of the ordeal, her husband was a crying wreck.

“You know, you have gangsters sitting there with guns in their hands,” he said. “She was a gangster. … She got here for that motherfucker.

Witnessing her assertiveness, Collins said he and his crew rediscovered the lads’s respect for Houston’s strength, loyalty and devotion to the one they love.

Houston and Brown were married from 1992 to 2007. Their marriage was tormented by drug addiction and physical abuse. At the identical time, Houston recorded her best-selling album “The Bodyguard”, which sold over 45 million copies worldwide.

Clarence “The Preacher” Heatley was indicted on July 15, 1996, on three counts of murder and conspiracy to aid racketeering on the age of 43. In February 1999 he accepted a settlement, pleading guilty to racketeering and murder conspiracy in reference to 13 drug-related killings to avoid the death penalty. He is currently serving a life sentence.