Chapter 77

T-money was already known as T-money when he met Lee in ’73.

He was a small time pimp from East Palo Alto. He’d been arrested for pimping and pandering once, but that didn’t stop him.

A pimp was what he was, and he was good at it.

When he met Lee, it was love at first sight, and because she loved him she allowed him to talk her into selling herself.

It was for them she reasoned, so they could be together.

So they could move in together and start their new lives. She did what he said, but it was never enough, not even when he began selling drugs. Soon Lee became just one of many hoes.

The only difference was T-money happened to love Lee whether he showed it or not.

T-money was a third generation pimp and hustler. Pimping and hustling were both deeply embedded in his blood.

In his mind he could sell sun to the desert, water to the sea. He was that damn good, so selling drugs was nothing; he was a salesman. He and his best friend J.B. Johnny Boy.

The two were inseparable; they shared everything except for Lee. Although T-money sold her to the highest bidder, he truly loved her. He planned that once he got enough, whatever enough was, they’d move away together. She was his wife or at least was going to be. He planned to marry her.

In ‘79, Lee had a son and T-money was a father. The child’s name was Freemen. Lee had given him both her and T-money’s last name.

“Freemen Wells-Gibbs,” she said his name was.

T-money had to change. He had a son and Lee was his son’s mother.

The problem was T-money only knew one way to take care of his family. He stopped Lee from prostituting and began hustling hard. He stayed pimping and on the grind.

In ’84, T-money was arrested and put in jail for pimping and pandering. While serving a twelve month sentence, he was visited by a federal marshal who claimed to have enough evidence to lock him up for a long time.

In exchange for information, he was promised immunity.

T-money was doing business with a Columbian drug lord. He was the Man and brought millions in cocaine from them. At the time, he even had several people copping from him.

It ain’t snitchin’ if it’s not true, T-money thought as he gave up the name Johnny Iverson. And the investigation began.

T-money would testify against his friend. He’ll get off T-money justified. Besides, I have a family now… not J.B.

T-money was released from San Mateo County’s Redwood City jail in ’87.

T-money asked Lee not to correspond with him while he was in jail because they’d have charged him with pimping her also. He dodged that charge by claiming he had no idea who Lee was.

When T-money got out, Lee was no longer living where she had been. Her mother did not like him at all and would not tell where she’d moved to. While searching for his future wife and child, he’d learned from the streets that Lee had yet another child while he was away. But no one knew where she was.

T-money wanted to see his new child. He went to Chope hospital where his first son was born, and he was pretty sure his other child was also. He was going to find out where she was. He was going to tell them he was the father and wanted to make sure the address was right.

He gamed up an orderly who searched for his firstborn, Freemen Wells-Gibbs.

No such baby existed.

T-money knew it had to be a mistake. The orderly, concerned and truly trying to help, looked up the mother’s medical records.

Two children were born to Lee Sharon Wells. The babies were the Wells babies.

T-money was given an address in East Palo Alto and a look at the newborn’s birth certificate and what he saw stopped his heart, freezing it over and boiling his blood.

He asked to see the first child’s birth certificate and flew in a rage.

Lee Sharon Wells' first child’s full legal name was Freemen Johnny Iverson and her daughter’s name was Scheyenne Henrietta Iverson.

In a blind rage, he got a gun and kicked in the door at their West Park apartment with every intention of slaughtering Lee, her two children, and his ex-best friend Johnny Boy.