Marines and got a scholarship to play the sport at The Citadel - dropped out of college to sell crack. Tillman - who met Ross playing high school tennis in Los Angeles, served in the U.S.

Mark Konkol says the respect Tillman commands helps him reach those affected by addiction: In the documentary by filmmaker Marc Levin (with whom I worked on the CNN docu-series 'Chicagoland'), Tillman plays a supporting role in explaining Ross’s early years as a crack dealer. ghettos.Īnd now, Ross’s story is featured in two movies: the feature film “Kill The Messenger,” starring Jeremy Renner, and a soon-to-be-released documentary that’s already getting a lot of buzz, “Freeway: Crack In The System.” Ross was an important source in late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb’s controversial series, “Dark Alliance,” which alleged a link between the CIA and the flood of cocaine in L.A. The crack trade made him rich, landed him near the center of the Iran-Contra Affair and got him two life sentences, both of which were reduced.

The cocaine-trafficking career of Ross is legendary. In the late 1980s, the native Chicagoan helped flood his hometown - and a handful of other big cities - with crack cocaine distributed by his best pal, Los Angeles drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross.

ENGLEWOOD - Norman Tillman lives with regret.

Freeway crack in the system documentary