Ear To The Street
Kidnapped Infant Grows from Villian to Hero
On the morning of Thursday, July 5, 1979, Walthon "RB" Lee was born to 24-year-old Linda Jackson at George Washington University Hospital. Later that night, RB turned up missing, taken out of the hospital's nursery room at a time when things like that seldom happened. The case made national headlines and, for 3 weeks, the Robbery Branch of the FBI scoured the region in search of the kidnapped new-born baby that left the child's mother a nervous wreck.
The young mother resorted to drinking and drug use as she tried to escape the pain of losing her firstborn. Finally, after the pressure of the news coverage buckled the nerves of the kidnapper's family, Sharon Rector's brothers arranged to turn the baby over to the FBI at Fort DuPont Park, and Walthon "RB" Lee was reunited with his mother.
Thereafter, the Robbery Branch that was investigating the case nicknamed the infant after their own division, thus Walthon Lee became known as RB, and he still carries the name to this day.
Ironically, RB grew up to live up to the name in a very negative way. After making All-Met and All-Inter High playing football at Eastern and Anacostia High Schools, excelling at playing the tenor drum for the Hines Junior High School marching band, and even playing for President Bill Clinton during the 1993 inaugural parade, RB fell to the pressures of the innate desire to impress others and to quickly escape the poverty that shackled so many that lived in the neighborhoods he was raised in. Nevaland, where RB moved to from East Gate, is located in South East Washington, perched right in the middle of Stanton Oaks and Wellington Park. These neighborhoods have seen their share of beefing, death, and mayhem.
In 1997 during his senior year in high school, RB was arrested for murder and attempted murder, two totally separate cases. He beat the murder conviction due to lack of evidence but was convicted for attempted murder and spent the beginning of his adult life, age 18-21, behind bars at the infamous Lorton Reformatory. Three years later he was convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and stayed in prison until he was 31-years-old.
He's now 34-years-old and sees life totally different. "I teach my boys the downside of the life I lived. I don't completely hide it from them," RB admits, "because the streets, TV, the music and the rest of it are teaching them anyway, so I make them understand that the smoking, the fighting, the guns, the money, the cars ain't all what it's cracked up to be. I make them see the consequences of that lifestyle in my life right now. My life ain't pretty. It's hard out here."
RB is now the leader of one of D.C.'s hottest Go-Go bands, and he's working hard to stay away from all negative influences. Hosea "Heartbeat" Williams has taken on the task of helping the young man be all that he can be and everybody around RB can see the transformation for the better. RB has even adopted Garsone as a member of his extended family because they share much in common, and Garsone gives all that he can to make RB a successful business man and entertainer. Now, RB using his powerful influence to help the new generation of inner-city dwellers see the road they're traveling on in a vastly different way.
He wants to help them find their way out of the violence as he himself did and is still doing by changing his mindset. Nine years after the ordeal, his mother recovered from the drug addiction resulting from the weeks following the kidnapping and has become a Christian minister, remaining clean ever since. Stay tuned as this story develops and RB succeeds in giving back to a community that is in desperate need of role models that can make a true difference.
95.5 WPGC has invited RB as a guest on their primetime rush hour show this evening to have a candid discussion about these things and what the community can do to help turn it all around. Tune in to hear what this young man has to say to encourage all the youth that are out there that are living in the same turmoil of street violence he grew up in.
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RB is a reformed young man and will give the mental blueprint needed to overcome the powerful draw of street credibility, the very thing at the core of most of all the violence. Tune @ 6pm on 95.5 FM…Listen online at http://betaplayer.radio.com/listen/station/955-wpgc
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TICKETS TO THE BIG SHOW
Town Hall Meeting
This Saturday there will be a meeting to address the youth violence that has cause quite a stir in Ward 4. Come out and hear what the community is going to do to address the issue.
