Sumith Prasad
In Peacock’s crime drama series ‘Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,’ Richard Wheeler, also known as “Cadillac,” is the right-hand man of Frank Moten, the gangster renowned as the “Black Godfather.” They are welcomed to Atlanta by Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams, who leads them to his house, only for them to be robbed by a gang of local thieves. While the guests are robbed, Cadillac tries to convince others to join him and retaliate, only for Moten to intervene. Even though he is second-in-command, Terrence Howard’s character is more courageous than the gangsters surrounding him. As far as his real-life counterpart is concerned, there are several astounding details to delve into!
Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler Was Reportedly a New York City-Based Gangster
Richard Wheeler is based on a real alleged gangster who was known as “Cadillac” or “Cadillac Ritchie” among his peers in the 1960s and the early 1970s. According to the iHeart podcast series ‘Fight Night,’ the source material of the crime drama, he served in the Air Force in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1960s. He then reportedly ventured into numbers racket and drugs but specialized in armed robbery. One of the primary sources to learn about Cadillac is the influential journalist George Plimpton’s non-fiction book ‘Shadow Box: An Amateur in the Ring.’ He interviewed Jackie, the supposed gangster’s girlfriend.
Jackie described Cadillac as a “good-looking man, tall, well over six feet, and a very powerful presence.” They lived in a building at 165th Street and Gerard Avenue in The Bronx, New York City. In October 1970, he arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, to watch Muhammad Ali fight Jerry Quarry. As the show depicts, Gordon Williams, AKA Chicken Man, drove him with Frank Moten. However, in reality, the apparent gangster did not watch the boxing match with the “Black Godfather.” He returned to New York City before “The Return of the Champion,” a decision that seemingly turned his life around. He was not one of the gangsters who were held hostage in Chicken Man’s house during the “million-dollar heist.”
Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler Was the Supposed Mastermind Behind the Million-Dollar Heist
Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler’s sudden disappearance from Atlanta raised suspicion among the group of gangsters who were held up at Chicken Man’s party. His roommate at the Biltmore set out to find out why his companion’s seat was empty during the boxing match. It might not have taken him long to find out where Cadillac was on the night. Frank Moten told George Plimpton that the alleged gangster “tried too hard to establish an alibi,” as per ‘Shadow Box.’
“He [Cadillac] flew up to New York on the day of the fight and went to the closed circuit in Madison Square Garden that night, taking a big party with him; afterward, he went to a number of nightclubs and had some photographs taken — his arm around a couple of girls, that sort of thing. He thought people might think him capable of pulling the Atlanta job, so he wanted to be sure he was seen in New York,” Moten told Plimpton. He and his fellow gangsters were not the only ones who were convinced that Cadillac was behind the heist.
During her interview with Plimpton, Jackie told the journalist that her boyfriend told her he was the mastermind behind the heist. “[…] he [Cadillac] shared the story with me — enough of it so that I knew he had done it. It really made him laugh — thinking about everybody lying down there in the basement… most of them, people he knew,” Jackie told the journalist. According to her, Cadillac had plans to leave the world of crime, and he possibly orchestrated the heist as a “last big fling — a last hurrah — before he went legit,” which gave him “a lot of pleasure to think back on what happened.”
As per Moten’s interview with Plimpton, Cadillac executed the heist through Fast Eddie Parker, his enforcer. Eddie supposedly recruited a group of local robbers, including McKinley Rogers Jr., James Henry Hall, and Houston J. Hammond, who were indicted on armed robbery charges following the police investigation led by Detective J.D. Hudson. The “Black Godfather” suspected that the enforcer himself was among the thieves during the heist in the absence of his boss.
Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler Was Allegedly Killed by His Enforcer
Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler died on February 3, 1972. According to Jackie, he was killed by his enforcer, Fast Eddie Parker, who was forced to murder his boss by the gangsters who were robbed during the “million-dollar heist.” “When guys who had been held up found out that Richard did it, they put a contract out on him,” Jackie told George Plimpton. “I think Eddie made a deal. They came to him and said we know you were involved in the Atlanta holdup… your only out is to blow Richard away for us. They didn’t give him much of a choice. They said it’s either you and him or, if you do it for us, it’s just him. So he accepted,” she added.
On the day Cadillac died, he was with Jackie, preparing to go on an errand. Eddie, with two other individuals, showed up at the couple’s house and offered to help his boss. Possibly because he didn’t suspect anything wrong, the alleged gangster went to his car with Eddie without carrying a gun. “I think Eddie shot him from the back just as he was leaning down to get into the car,” Jackie added. According to Cadillac’s girlfriend, one of the enforcer’s companions shot her partner’s driver, Stefan, only for the latter’s leg to remain on the accelerator. The car then drove into a drugstore across the street.
Cadillac’s dead body remained in the car for three hours. As per Jackie, the police couldn’t pin the murder on Eddie, and the case was closed without solving it. The supposed gangster’s funeral was a grand occasion. “Richard’s friends, very likely the guys who’d decided to kill him, gave him one terrific send-off,” Jackie said in the same interview. “He gave you the sense that he was invincible, that nothing could touch him,” she added. Even though Cadillac was the alleged mastermind behind the “million-dollar heist,” not many were aware of his supposed involvement in the crime. After his murder, he was seemingly forgotten as just another gangster who died on the streets of New York City.
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