How a white kid from Dorchester became a Chinatown kingpin

John Willis standing with a group of friends in prison in Cumberland, Maryland.

In the summer and fall of 2013, Boston was engrossed in the trial of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey’’ Bulger, who was eventually sentenced to life in prison in November of that year. But while the Bulger saga played out, a lesser-known kingpin — known to FBI agents as “White Devil’’ — was also facing trial.

John Willis was sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

“Twenty years in federal prison is well deserved for Mr. Willis, a career criminal and the mastermind behind this organization,’’ US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said during sentencing. “Not only did this investigation expose a world of illegal gambling, prostitution, and extortion, but also revealed a significant oxycodone distribution operation.’’

What makes Willis noteworthy is how the born-and-raised Dorchester native rose to a top position as a gang leader in Chinatown’s underworld, an ecosystem that rarely accepts outsiders. His journey from a poor Dorchester orphan to a leader in the Ping On gang fluent in Chinese (both Cantonese and Toisanese) and eventually a Maryland prison cell is the subject of journalist Bob Halloran’s book, White Devil, available today from BenBella Books.

Halloran is best known as a weekend sports anchor for WCVB, but he has also written two books about prominent Boston figures. Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward, was the basis for the Mark Wahlberg movie, The Fighter, while Impact Statement: A Family’s Fight for Justice Against Whitey Bulger chronicles the Whitey Bulger saga from the perspective of Steven Davis, a longtime advocate for the families of Bulger’s victims who lost a father, two sisters, and a brother due to the actions of Bulger and his gang.

We spoke to Halloran about the White Devil’s rise, his downfall, and whether the stories of gangsters like Bulger and Willis deserve to be told.

A teenage Willis in a tuxedo before his sister’s wedding (L) and Willis at age 10 (R).

Give me some background of how John Willis the “White Devil’’ came to be.

When John was growing up in Dorchester, he had no one. His father left, his mother died when he was 15, and no one in his family went out of their way to take care of him. He eventually got a job as a bouncer at a bar in Kenmore Square. He was a big strong kid, taking steroids and lifting weights. Then, one night, he helped a Chinese guy get out of a jam. When that happened, the guy, who was a member of a Chinatown gang, gave him a phone number to call if he ever needed anything.

So he ended up calling.

He was starving, lying on a cold floor in Dorchester, and called the number. Long story short, he ended up in a Chinese gang. He was picked up by a bunch of Chinese gangsters, who brought him to a house. The next day, he was indoctrinated. He went out shopping with them and learned the ropes.

Willis as a teenager.

How did he go from being a hired thug to running the Chinese mafia?

Over time he learned to speak Chinese, to pick up girls. But because he’s the biggest and strongest and baddest, he was the assistant and enforcer for a guy named Bai Ming. He was his right-hand man, the second in charge of the gang in Chinatown in the early 90s.

What started his downfall?

He ended up branching out on his own over a number of years. Thanks to connections he made in prison, he started selling drugs, which was something Bai Ming wasn’t interested in doing. He became known to authorities a bit more because of that. As a result of an investigation into the brothels and gambling dens, they found out he was selling drugs, mostly OxyContin from Florida, up to Cape Cod and other parts of Massachusetts. Now he’s serving 20 years in Cumberland, Maryland.

In the process of writing this book, you visited John in prison for a total of seven hours. How would you characterize him as a person?

I’ve said this to other friends and family, but it’s strange to know the guy is a violent drug dealer who ruined so many lives. If you just met him, you might say he’s an engaging, charming, intelligent fellow. He’s funny – he doesn’t tell a lot of jokes, but he has a dry wit. He’s very easy to talk to, and quite honestly he’s easy to argue with.

So what did you argue about?

When he rationalized his life choices, I would debate him like a father talking to a kid. Saying, “you had plenty of chances to go get a GED and get out of this, but you stayed in it because you liked it.’’ So I argued with him on this, and it was very congenial. There was no raising of voices. It was very philosophical. He likes to think that he thinks deeply, and maybe he does. I put it out of his thoughts into the book so people will get a chance to know him and how he thinks, and the choices he made. To me, it’s the best part of the book, that I had seven hours to talk with John, so the reader gets to read his voice directly.

I read that during his trial he thought his sentencing was unfair. Was it your impression that he is still rationalizing his crimes, or do you think he’s learned something?

No, he’s not contrite. He’s angrier. His main point is that they never caught him with even one pill. They never found any drugs on him. They boot-strapped him to a different investigation. He knew he was being followed and that the FBI was on to him. He had five burner cell phones going at once, and was definitely working covertly. But he got stopped for speeding in North Carolina and they took about $80,000 from him because he couldn’t account for it. So we argued about that.

He said, “I could have been saving that money since I was 10 years old, my entire life savings. I don’t believe in banks, and they just take the money because I can’t explain how I earned it? Does that seem fair?’’ And I said to him, “you didn’t save it since you were 10, that was part of a drug deal.’’

The Bentley John Willis was driving when he was stopped in North Carolina.

So he thinks he got a raw deal.

He was upset that somebody turned on him. He was upset that he got his girlfriend involved, Anh Nguyen. They got on her for witness tampering and in order to keep her out of jail he was more likely to plea. He ended up agreeing to 20 years when they didn’t really have evidence other than wiretaps when he was talking about some things. It wasn’t the strongest case, but he did accept the 20 years. And he was guilty. Just because it wasn’t the strongest case doesn’t mean he wasn’t guilty.

Warner Bros. is currently planning to make a movie about John Willis with James Gray (The Immigrant) attached to direct, and you’re a consultant on the project, correct? Knowing that a movie is in the works, how do you feel in general about the burgeoning Boston gangster movie genre? Do you feel the movies are fair, or do they overly glamorize some people, like Whitey Bulger or John Willis?

I guess it’s okay for me to say publicly, but I don’t think Black Mass was very good. I’ve enjoyed many of the other Boston-based crime dramas. I don’t give too much thought into how it depicts Boston nationally or internationally. I’m just a moviegoer looking to see drama played out on the screen. I think my biggest problem with Black Mass was I felt like if you didn’t know the story intricately, you could barely follow the movie. All they did was introduce characters in order to kill them.

As far as the general part of Boston and crime being played out on the screen, I think that the John Willis story has a unique hook to it. We haven’t seen Asian gangs depicted. I don’t know what the situation is in 2015 or 2016, but John’s story takes place in the early ’90s. That time period was something that I think there’s an interest in, and that this white guy is able to live and thrive and teach himself Chinese, and to be adopted by a culture and adopt that culture. I would like to see how [a big-screen adaption] would play it out.

I haven’t seen James Gray’s script but I assume it would focus on the early 90s. I would say the first half of my book is about that, and the second half is about everything he did to run into trouble and find himself in jail. The book spans many years, and I assume the movie would focus on a short period of time, the “White Devil’’ period.

A Pompano Beach, Florida property owned by Willis.

It makes sense that a movie would focus on his rise and his unique assimilation into Chinese gang culture, because that has entertainment value. But given the recent national coverage of heroin addiction [HBO recently aired a documentary on Cape Cod addicts] and the effect opioid addiction has had on people and their families in the area, do you think it’s fair make a movie that’s entertainment-based, based on someone who brought drugs to this area and irrevocably changed a lot of lives?

It’s definitely a conflict. I’ve gotten emails from people not pleased that I was making a star out of John Willis. I don’t know if that’s accurate.

The word “notoriety’’ gets misused a lot. People take it to mean “popular,’’ but it really comes from “notorious,’’ which is being known for bad reasons. His notoriety on the screen will play itself out and people will come to know him, but they’ll come to know him as a guy who irrevocably changed lives and brought increased addictions to the area and does it without any empathy or concern for others.

I’m not a psychologist, so I can’t throw out words like “psychopath,’’ but he does strike me as someone who has no remorse and very little empathy for others. If that’s portrayed properly, people will come to know him, but won’t necessarily come to like him.

We see that with the way that some people still try to convince you that Whitey Bulger was good for Southie, the way he protected the streets and didn’t sell drugs. Or in Black Mass where he’s nice to the old lady or he’s a good father. I don’t know how much you need to see those sides of the bad guys. But there is some romance [in White Devil]. There’s a love story. His wife — John refers to his girlfriend, Anh Nguyen, as his wife — has a daughter, and John is very good to her.

I don’t know about making a star out of a bad guy, but there’s a story there to be told, and if done properly I don’t think people will come to love or respect John Willis. I think they’ll recognize him as just another drug dealer.

White Devil by Bob Halloran is available in stores or online now.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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