Die Young: December 2015

by Ran Britt

Calvin Bacote was born on May 30, 1966 in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, New York. Bacote was raised in Brooklyn's Red Hook Houses, one of the largest public housing projects in the United States. At two years of age, Bacote along with his older brother and sister, witnessed a violent home invasion during which a man attempted to rape his mother. At the age of five, he accidentally shot a childhood friend, and his older brother, Savior, in the hallway outside the family apartment after discovering his father's handgun.

Bacote's criminal career began when, at 13-years-old, he indulged in petty theft, including gold chain and purse-snatching. He routinely targeted shoppers along Manhattan's 14th Street.

Bacote acquired his first handgun at the age of 14 and proceeded to perform strong-arm robberies. That same year, he and other teens from his neighborhood committed an armed hold-up of several cars belonging to the F Sixth Avenue Local line, locally referred to as the F train, of the New York City Subway system. Bacote and the others robbed the passengers in the compartment they'd boarded at gunpoint and after demanding that the train riders place all of their cash and jewelry in bags, as well as beating some of the victims, the teens proceeded to make their way to the next car and so on.

At age 15, Bacote served time at New York's Riker's Island jail facility, in the C-74 section, which was used to house juvenile offenders. During his incarceration, he met other teenaged criminals, including James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond. Both Bacote and Rosemond held leadership positions among their fellow-inmates during their detention. Bacote was given his nickname, "Calvin Klein", which he initially disliked, by fellow-armed robber Kelvin "50 Cent" Martin. Martin gave Bacote the moniker as a reference to his penchant for wearing clothing by the Calvin Klein fashion label. At 17-years old, Bacote followed Martin's example and began robbing local drug dealers.

Bacote frequently listened to New York's popular "98.7 KISS FM" (WRKS-FM) radio station, which primarily broadcast rap and R&B music, in order to learn the locations of parties and social gatherings around New York City promoted and sometimes hosted by the station. Bacote would then proceed to travel to the location and rob the patrons of the gathering. During one of these exploits, Bacote and fourteen of his associates robbed the attendees at one such party held at a city park. The robbers, armed with shotguns and several handguns, blocked the park's two exits and ordered those present to surrender their cash and valuables, at gunpoint.

In 1983, Bacote was imprisoned for four years for armed robbery. He served his sentence at the Elmira Correctional Facility, located in the southwestern part of New York State and the Coxsackie Correctional Facility, located in southeast central New York State, both maximum security state prisons . Upon his release, in 1987, he resumed his career of robbing local drug traffickers. Three weeks after returning to Red Hook, Bacote decided to traffic in narcotics himself. Though his older brother, Savior, had already established a small-time drug operation by this time, the two never worked together, owing to Savior's promise to their mother not to involve Calvin in his drug business.

Bacote's first step towards establishing a narcotics operation was to minimize the competition. He called a meeting of 20 known armed robbers, or stick-up kids, residing in the Red Hook Houses. Bacote instructed them to rob all of the dealers operating in the neighborhood, keeping what they stole, and to notify the victims that Bacote was responsible. After the robberies, Bacote was contacted by the targeted the dealers, to whom he explained his policy that no non-residents should be allowed to conduct drug business in the community.

The meeting and what followed earned Bacote the nickname, "Godfather", amongst the neighborhood criminals.

While Bacote championed the practice of insulating Red Hook from outside dealers, he himself soon began selling crack-cocaine in Coney Island. Not long after relocating his low-level operation to Red Hook, Bacote met a more established drug trafficker from Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, widely known as Danny Diamonds. The two met immediately following a violent altercation between Bacote and a customer who'd tried to cheat him. During the ensuing fight, Bacote stabbed the customer and still had his blood on his clothes when he had the chance meeting with Diamonds, who happened to be nearby. After learning what had taken place, Diamonds advised Bacote, who was still on parole, to change clothes and to dispose of the clothing that he was currently wearing in his apartment building's incinerator. Not long after, Diamonds supplied with Bacote with 28 grams of cocaine. After selling all of it, Bacote called Diamonds back for 62 more grams an hour later. This pattern continued every few hours until Bacote called Diamonds to notify him that he'd come to pick up a kilogram of cocaine around noon the next day.

The two quickly formed a partnership, and together, soon went on to control 33 retail locations for crack sales in Brooklyn. They also expanded their business to New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington, DC, North Carolina and South Carolina.

It's estimated that Bacote and Diamond's narcotics operation generated revenue in excess of $250,000 every four days in 1987. The proceeds were so great that the cash had to be weighed on scales in order to be counted. Bacote, who'd earned a reputation for flamboyant spending, is rumored to have never worn the same pair of sneakers more than once during this period. He also made a practice of giving away his entire wardrobe and replacing it every season. Bacote's BMWs, a 535 and a 318, as well as his gold Audi, were well-known throughout New York City. During this period, Bacote also met then-aspiring rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and took him under his wing.

The partnership ended when Diamonds was killed in an auto accident during which his Nissan Pathfinder flipped over five times.

In 1988, business associates of Bacote were arrested after being found with two kilograms during a raid of their motel in New London, Connecticut. Bacote was one of two present who escaped arrest. The raid itself was initiated when police acted on a tip from a confidential informant. Bacote later encountered the informant at a party they both attended where he unknowingly danced with the informant's girlfriend. The informant later confronted Bacote about dancing with his girlfriend and Bacote shot him in the groin.

After being arrested on an unrelated charge in New York, Bacote was also charged in connection to the New London shooting. In all he was charged with two counts of murder and five counts of weapons possession. He was later charged with robbery as well and incarcerated on Riker's Island. While in detention, Bacote received two more charges for assault. He faced a potential sentence of 7-21 years in prison and was detained for ten months awaiting trial. During his incarceration, a cousin of Bacote's was murdered by her boyfriend, who stabbed both she and her baby in a jealous rage. After the stabbing, he doused both in gasoline and set them on fire.

Bacote was acquitted of all but the assault charges in 1989. He pleaded guilty and was credited with 55 days time served. Though Connecticut prosecutors neglected to extradite Bacote for the shooting, they sent him a letter barring him from the state for five years. Upon his release, he was gifted a kilogram of cocaine, a car and $10,000 in cash from his narcotics associates for a shopping spree. Shortly afterward, Bacote moved from Red Hook to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of northern Brooklyn. His new residence was on the St. James Street segment of Fulton Street, a major cross-street. Within four days of his release, Bacote had made $100,000 from drug sales. He was one of the first to purchase the then-new LS400 model, made by car manufacturer Lexus. During this period, Bacote befriended James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd, one of his neighbors would go on to launch a successful career as part of the rap group, Junior M.A.F.I.A., in the mid-90s.

Forty-five days after his acquittal for murder, Bacote attended a party in Maryland with eleven associates, including Carter. The group got involved in a brawl at the event that resulted in the arrests of Bacote and Carter, who were both charged with attempted murder, maiming, assault and possession of a deadly weapon. All of the charges against Carter were dropped after Bacote allegedly bribed a police official with $50,000 in cash. Following Carter's release, Carter bailed Bacote out and testified on his behalf at trial, which took place eighteen months later. Bacote, who faced forty years in prison, was convicted of assault and sentenced to four years in prison. The four years were to served consecutively with a 21-year sentence for the other convictions. In 1991, when Bacote began serving his sentence, he was worth an estimated $28 million.

In 1996, five years into his sentence, Bacote called fellow-Brooklyn native Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith, in order to catch up on neighborhood news. Smith, a close friend of Bacote's former protege, Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, intended to allow the two former co-defendants to converse for the first time in years. However, Carter's debut rap album was released earlier that year, and Bacote, who was under federal investigation at the time for his continued drug trafficking, refused to speak to his old acquaintance in order to protect him from being linked to his criminal activity.

Eventually, Bacote succeeded in having the assault conviction overturned and the remaining sentence was reduced to 15 years. In all he served 13 years, 3 months and 12 days in prison before being released in 2004.

Successful DJ and producer and Rodolfo "Clark Kent" Franklin, who was a longtime friend of Bacote's brother, Saviour, maintained telephone contact with Calvin for much of the final three years of his sentence. Following his release, he established a friendship with Senegalese singer Akon, whom he'd met during his stay at a half-way house in South Carolina. The two were introduced by Akon's cousin, who was a fellow resident of the half-way house. Bacote was hired by the singer in an executive position at his record label, Konvict Muzik. In 2005, Bacote appeared alongside Akon in the music video for his hit song, "Soul Survivor".