Drug figure facing hearing in homicides

EVERY AFTERNOON about 4, husky 6-foot-3 Will "Pooh" Hook Jr. would show up in a bulletproof vest, his henchmen surrounding him, on a Strawberry Mansion corner.

As far as the eye could see from that corner of Susquehanna Avenue and Corlies Street spreads the drug territory under his domain, say neighbors and law-enforcement sources.

"Every day, he stands outside his mom's house, always with four or five guys around him, like he's John Gotti or something," said a neighbor, recalling Hook's onetime glory days as a big-time drug dealer.

That was after he finished a five-to-10-year drug sentence in state prison on May 13, 2006, and before his arrest in July.

Today, Hook, 40, and six co-defendants face a preliminary hearing in a high-profile double-murder in Northern Liberties.

Police say Hook masterminded a drug robbery that was botched and that turned into a frightening case of homicide about 5:30 p.m. on June 27, as new tenants moved into loft-style apartments at the upscale Piazza at Schmidts, a retail-and-apartment complex that features a theater-size screen and outdoor dining in the courtyard.

Hook's co-defendants are charged with fatally shooting Rian Thal, 34, and drug associate Timothy Gilmore, 41, outside Thal's seventh-floor apartment, where police later found four kilos of cocaine and $111,000.

Through his attorney, Hook, of Susquehanna Avenue near Corlies Street, said that sources for this story are either "seriously misinformed or blatantly lying."

"If any of this information was reliable, my client would have been arrested and convicted a long time ago," said the lawyer, Chris Warren. "As for police sources, this is a smear campaign, pure and simple."

Court records show that Hook said he was self-employed, working full time in real estate for two years, making $400 every two weeks, and living at his mother's house.

Now he's jailed - under the alias of Keith Epps - at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on State Road.

Some neighbors still call him "Pooh-Pooh," his childhood name, but police have arrested him under the aliases Keith Epps, James Wilson and Willie Hook.

According to a source close to the drug world and law-enforcement sources, Hook had about 15 drug associates working for him and first made a name for himself in North Philadelphia's underworld.

He took on North Philly's major drug dealer - and his onetime mentor - Jack "Fussy" Jarmon, now 35, who sources said grew up on the same block as Hook, Cleveland Street between Dauphin and York.

As often happens in the drug business, the two had a falling out over money, according to sources. Thus began a years-long drug war in the 1990s.

"They were shooting up Cleveland Street like it was the OK Corral," said one neighbor.

Hook was drawn to his younger rival's money, drugs and persona, but most of all to his turf, according to sources.

Jarmon didn't look like a typical drug dealer, said an associate. At 6 feet 4, he was quiet, extremely thin, neat, clean-shaven and played amateur basketball, usually wearing sports attire off the court.

He lived in a luxurious waterfront apartment at Pier 3 Condominiums on Columbus Boulevard near Chestnut Street, said an associate. He married a beautiful, red-haired rapper, Charli Baltimore, 35, the stage name for Tiffany Lane Jarmon, said North Philly neighborhood and law-enforcement sources.

Jarmon's drug business was so lucrative that he rode his high-priced Bentley down the four blocks he appeared to control on Cleveland Street, from Lehigh Avenue south to Dauphin Street, the sources said.

After one of his rivals was paralyzed during a gunbattle, Jarmon expanded his operation, allegedly taking control of the rival's drug operation on Cleveland Street near Dauphin, said the source close to the drug world.

Neighbors say that at one time, Jarmon's customers lined up four or five deep just to buy cocaine and crack from his 24/7 operation.

One house on Cleveland Street near Dauphin - where customers placed money in a door slot and received a drug package in return - was pulling down $10,000 a day, said the source.

But the drug war took its toll on both Fussy and Pooh, spreading from 16th to 19th Street, with battles waged on Gratz, York, Cumberland and Cleveland streets. The North Philadelphia gunfights disrupted the drug operations, upset neighbors and commanded the attention of cops.

Hook's drug dealing finally caught up with him. On Oct. 14, 1998, he entered state prison on a five-to-10-year sentence, but was back on the streets by 2001.

In summer 2001, Michael "Cub" Stevens - who Jarmon considered his "brother" - was fatally shot. Jarmon's gang suspected that Hook and his right-hand man, Brandon Edwards, may have been behind the slaying, according to the source close to the drug world.

As street violence increased, Jarmon disappeared, leaving his lieutenants in charge. By then, the drug-war victims were wounded, paralyzed, dead - or missing.

Hook claimed that he had run his rivals out of the 'hood, the source close to the drug world said. Soon, Hook was driving expensive, late-model cars, and so were a couple of his relatives, the source said.

About 2 a.m. on June 3, 2004, Hook was driving a silver Jeep Cherokee the wrong way on a one-way street when he took off, with cops in pursuit. He was arrested for driving under the influence and reckless driving.

At the time, Hook said he was working full time at International Cleaning Services, making $750 a month, according to court records.

His parole was automatically revoked, yet the state prison system would not send him to Philadelphia for a DUI court hearing. A note in his file read: "Due to the overcrowded prison population, defendant won't be brought down due to an 'unavailability of beds,' " according to court records.

The charges were dropped, but the state parole board issued a technical violation because Hook had drunk alcohol, and he found himself serving the rest of his 1998 sentence. He was released on May 13, 2006.

Meantime, Jarmon was convicted in a 2004 drug-dealing case last fall, and is now serving a four-to-eight-year sentence in Mahanoy State Prison, in Frackville, Pa. His Bentley was mentioned prominently in the trial.

Yet rivals still target Hook and his loyalists. Last year, Hook allegedly was shot in the Spring Garden neighborhood, according to law-enforcement sources. The source close to the drug world said it was widely thought to be the work of a rival drug gang operating in the area of 16th and York streets.

Hook and Edwards, his then-top lieutenant, began hunting for informants, said a law-enforcement source.

Edwards, who protected his boss on the Strawberry Mansion corner, got into promoting clubs, much like Rian Thal, 34, the party-planner who was killed at the Piazza, said a police source.

Edwards promoted parties by putting post-card-size invitations on windshields, inviting customers to nightclubs. Once partygoers arrived, Hook and/or Edwards started hunting for informants, said a police source.

When a suspect was found, Edwards humiliated him, taking the alleged informant's belt off, then beating him with it, according to a police source.

On June 17, 2008, Edwards was partying at a club at 21st and Market streets in Center City, when he left about 1 a.m. to get a batch of promotion cards from his car.

A gunman - or gunmen - lay in wait. Edwards was fatally shot multiple times near his car.

Hook's gang, meanwhile, had developed another moneymaking scheme: ripping off drug dealers, who would not report the thefts to the police, according to sources close to the drug world and in law-enforcement.

"Anybody [Hook] knows who's making money in the neighborhood, he goes and [allegedly] takes it," said that source. "And then he takes over the territory and puts his people out there.

"Donnell Murchison - that's the kind of guy [Hook] has around him, [allegedly] cold killers," the source added.

Murchison, 33, is accused of firing the fatal shots at Thal and Gilmore, a drug associate from Ohio, outside Thal's seventh-floor apartment at the Piazza, according to law-enforcement sources.

"You never see Pooh-Pooh alone," said the source close to the drug world.

"He did so much dirt to people, he's scared to be by himself."