By Cara Crawford

A headline from the October 7, 1997 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reads “WE’RE NUMBER ONE.” This formal title was not awarded for Richmond’s sports teams, education, culture, or nightlife. Instead, it was recognized for the most bloodshed. In 1997, Richmond, Virginia became the murder capital of the nation, with 140 recorded murders that year, the highest of any major metropolitan area.

A June 9, 1997 Richmond Times Dispatch article on the increase in drug-related killings. 

While the drug epidemic had fatal consequences for Richmond during the late 1990s, it did not originate here. The drug that sparked the city’s downward spiral, as it did for many other major cities, was crack cocaine–which first started appearing in U.S. cities in the 1980s.

Initially crack cocaine was trafficked in Southern Los Angeles, California before spreading across the US to the East Coast. The CIA was rumored to have been involved in the spread of drugs in the U.S., although, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, no factual evidence has been found to support this theory. 

On August 18, 1996 a San Jose newspaper, The Mercury News, insinuated that the drug trade in the U.S. was directly related to individuals in a Nicaraguan rebel group named ‘the Contras’ who brought the cocaine up from Colombia. In the late 1980s, the Contras, a counter-revolutionary group, were being funded by the US government to fight against the Sandinista socialist government in Nicaragua. 

The Poison Clan.

Red-lined communities in cities around the country were hit the hardest by the drug trade, exploiting their economic vulnerability and crack cocaine’s low street cost. Organized drug gangs created interstate trafficking networks to spread crack and other illegal narcotics across states. For the state of Virginia, one of the most notable drug organizations responsible for this in the early ‘90s was a gang called The Poison Clan.

The Poison Clan originated in New York City and was founded by two brothers, Dean and Devon Beckford. In an effort to expand their operation, their drug network spread across states along the East Coast. Richmond became an ideal target for the Poison Clan. Its untapped drug market meant that they had no competition with other dealers for clientele or competitive pricing. 

A map of the Poison Clan’s influence in the city.

Richmond’s connection to the I-95 criminal pipeline not only made it easy to blend in but also to reach other locations, such as Washington, DC, and Virginia Beach. According to United States v. Beckford (1997), federal prosecutors proved that the Beckford brothers “knowingly employed persons under 21 years of age” to distribute crack cocaine in Richmond. Juveniles became at risk of recruitment for low-level roles in the drug trade due to their susceptibility to receiving lighter sentencing and less suspicion from law enforcement. 

With increased drug and gang traffic comes an increase in violent crimes and shootings, which was further fueled by Richmond’s open air drug markets. Drug transactions would often occur in broad daylight—on street corners, outside apartment complexes, and even in schools. Consequently, this resulted directly in turf wars, in which rival drug organizations would violently compete over geographic areas.

As a result, gun violence surged to new heights, and the dangerous intersection of illegal guns and drugs caught Richmond in its crossfire. In 1994, Richmond recorded 160 homicides, ranking Richmond 2nd in the nation for murders per capita after New Orleans, Louisiana. By 1997, while numbers had declined to 140, Richmond murders per capita surpassed any other American city, earning Richmond the grim distinction of murder capital of the nation. Approximately 85 percent of the homicides committed in 1997 involved the use of a gun. 

In an interview with PBS, David M. Hicks, Richmond’s Commonwealth Attorney from 1994 to 2005, recalled that the Medical College of Virginia  (MCV) did not keep data of how many individuals were clinically dead from gunshot wounds when brought in for treatment and then brought back to life. Yet Hicks recounted that our 1994 rate of “160, which is just mind-boggling, could have easily been three or four hundred because of the level of violence that was happening in the city.”

It wasn’t until February 1997 that Richmond developed a plan to combat this violence with the emergence of Project Exile. Then Managing Assistant US Attorney for Richmond’s Eastern District (and future director of the FBI) James Comey, Hicks, Richmond Chief of Police Jerry Oliver, and Virginia’s Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore worked relentlessly together to create and implement this federal program. 

March 7, 1997: Richmond Deputy Chief of Police Theresa Gooch in front of confiscated guns, verbalizing support for Project Exile’s stricter gun laws.

Project Exile’s main goal was to rid Richmond of its high gun violence rates by pulling the issue out at the root. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, of the homicides committed with a gun, 40 percent were drug-related, and over 60 percent were committed by previous offenders. This initiative combined the forces of both local and federal law enforcement, promising swift and harsh punishment to any individuals caught with illegal guns. 

Under Project Exile, if an individual was apprehended and found to possess a gun unlawfully, Richmond’s local police would then contact a federal ATF agent, available anytime, to see if they were in violation of any federal laws. If so, the individual would then be prosecuted in federal court instead of state court. 

The definition of illegal guns goes farther than just obtaining a stolen or unregistered gun. It encompasses circumstances when an otherwise legal firearm becomes illegal due to the surrounding situation. This includes, but is not limited to, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a gun during any illegal activity, and even borrowing or purchasing a registered gun for someone else, often known as straw purchases. 

These laws were the main source of arrests under Project Exile. If someone had a lawful gun and illegal drugs on their person, under federal law the gun could then be construed as illegal if it is aiding in their illegal activity, such as for intimidation purposes. Felonies, especially murder and drug trafficking, were most often utilized under Project Exile in prosecuting felons with firearms in federal court. 

A diagram from the February 5, 1998 Richmond Times-Dispatch, showing the disproportionate number of African Americans arrested and receiving harsher sentencing in the prison system.

Critics of Project Exile argued that the program relied too heavily on federal prison sentences, and that the program disproportionately affected Black communities. Opponents also suggested that Project Exile treated the symptoms of gun violence, rather than the root causes, such as poverty and lack of opportunity in these neighborhoods.

However, Project Exile earned simultaneous endorsements from both the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence—two organizations historically opposed on all things gun-related, which was a rare political alliance.

Project Exile’s evocative name was meant to send a specific message to Richmond’s criminals. While Virginia did have mandatory minimum prison sentences preceding Project Exile, the state’s mandatory minimums were limited to specific situations, such as using a gun in aiding a felony, which might result in a prison sentence of 3-5 years. Often, state judges had the discretion to be more lenient on offenders and their sentencing. 

However, federal courts had more harsh statutory mandatory minimums that ensured criminals serve fixed times with no parole. To add to this system, sentences were to be served in federal prison, often far away from home. Richmond’s law enforcement and government were sending a clear warning to its perpetrators: if you were caught causing harm to their city through illegal gun and drug activity, you would be “exiled” and punished for your transgressions. 

A July 7, 2000 Richmond Times-Dispatch article on the Project Exile ad campaign.

To ensure that this message actually reached criminals the Project Exile Citizen Support Foundation was formed in July 1997. By the end of 1997, they raised over $40,000, and in 1998 they raised more than $100,000. The funding was then used for an advertisement campaign, which included the slogan “An illegal gun will get you five years in federal prison.”

October 2, 1998: Members of Project Exile Citizen Support Foundation and local Richmond politicians in front of the Project Exile sponsored buses.

They etched this slogan into Richmonder’s everyday life to ensure that the message would not go unnoticed. The foundation put it on the radio, printed it in advertisements, broadcasted it on television traffic reports, and they even had their own painted bus which would change routes so that it went across the entire city of Richmond each week. They also partnered with nationally recognized organizations to spread their message, most notably the Boys and Girls Club—a nonprofit with after-school programs for kids and teens.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, firearm homicides dropped 41% within the first ten months of Project Exile, and homicides overall dropped 36%. The Department’s report found that, one year into the program, 440 people were arrested, 372 were indicted for federal gun violations, and 247 people were convicted. 

The front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch on he effectiveness of the Project Exile program, July 7, 1997.

What started as Richmond’s last-ditch effort to take back its streets spread across the country as a means to stop violent offenders from terrorizing our community. Many major cities, like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Oakland, and Denver, took notice of Project Exile’s success in Richmond and adopted similar models. 

For a city once defined by its violence, Richmond’s transformation did not come easily.  Project Exile did not solve every issue at the root source of the violence, but it marked a turning point that forced both criminals and communities to confront the serious consequences of illegal gun possession. Today, as cities across America continue to grapple gun violence, Richmond’s experience with Project Exile raises a lasting question: how far can law enforcement alone go in creating lasting safety?

All images courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch via Newspapers.com.