Transcript
Traci Patton (0:00)
Wondery subscribers can binge all episodes of Hollywood and the Cotton Club murder early and ad free. Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.
Josh Lucas (0:26)
It's Friday 13th May 1983. Around 10:30am Roy Raiden stood in the kitchen of his hotel suite, staring into the refrigerator. He had no interest in food. His stomach was in knots, thinking about tonight's dinner with Laney. Jonathan sat at the breakfast counter sipping some strong coffee. Neither one of them had slept well. Roy remembered the sun coming up just as he finally dozed off. Jonathan started to speak, then stopped abruptly. Roy told him to just spit it out. Jonathan doubled down on why Roy shouldn't go to dinner with Laney. He was convinced that something sinister would happen. But Roy cut him off. He'd been doing some thinking and had come up with a plan to ensure he'd be safe. It involved Demond Wilson. Demand is going to come here before dinner. I'll make sure he brings his gun. At the word gun, Jonathan buried his face in his hands. Roy ignored him. Instead, he emptied some cocaine from a baggie onto the counter. He took a long sniff, then laid out the details of his plan. Right before Laney's arrival, Demand would go wait in his car so she wouldn't spot him. He would follow Roy and Lainey to La Scala and just happened to bump into them. Then after dinner, Roy would leave with Demand. The gun was insurance in case something went haywire. I wish you were joking, jonathan told Roy. Demond is no bodyguard. But Roy said he didn't have to be. He just needed to follow them to the restaurant, which was only a few miles away. He paused to inhale some more coke. Roy thought he had a solid plan, but by noon he wasn't so sure. Full blown panic began to take over. Roy paced back and forth, gulping down glasses of water, though he spilled most of it on the floor. Jonathan warned him he'd already used almost a gram of cocaine and he'd barely been up for two hours. Roy brushed off Jonathan's warning. Instead, he ranted about Lake and how they had schemed against him. Barely two weeks ago, he had been on the verge of signing a $35 million deal to produce the Cotton Club. Then Laney had shown up at Evans Place in New York. She'd blown everything up and tried to play him with her crocodile tears. Tonight they'd meet face to face for the first time since that fiasco. He'd show her who was in control. Roy finally collapsed in a chamber and ordered Jonathan to bring him the phone. He had business calls to make. Jonathan reluctantly handed him the receiver, saying he was in no shape to discuss anything. Around 4pm Damond Wilson arrived to go over the plan over more hits of cocaine. Roy laid out the details to Demond, who listened intently. He was all in. As a final note, Roy told him to make sure he'd had his gun just in case. Daman said that would be no problem. He never, never went anywhere without it. Roy's panic had once again given way to bravado. Flush with confidence, he told Demand about the call with Evans and the $2 million buyout offer. This deal is going to make me the king. You watch. I'm going to be the president of Paramount Pictures. Demond just laughed and said Roy was dreaming. That was like trying to knock over a building. But Roy insisted it would happen. He caught Jonathan glaring at him. You're too stubborn for your own good, jonathan told him bluntly. But it was more than stubbornness. Roy knew he had to be fearless. His old man, Broadway Al, would never have backed down in a situation like this. Just like Roy's idols in those old black and white movies, tough guys like Cagney or Bogart, that was Roy. But he was no movie hero. In real life, Roy was about to meet a tragic ending. By late that Friday night, he would be a dead man.
