On this episode of Our American Stories, Brewel Curry tells us the story of how he was saved from gang culture just days before his father's death.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Up next to story from a man you
don't know that you'll be happy to have met here
(00:30):
to tell the story of how we went from street
crime too well, let's not give it away, but to
a better life. Is Brule, Curry, take it away, Brule.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Where my life actually began. It is in Virginia, in Richmond, Virginia.
That's where I was born at My mother was married
to my father, who I'm named after, and they had
gotten divorced when I was about five, and that was
very traumatizing to me because how my father and my
mother had it up was because of my father cheating
(01:02):
on my mother and he was hanging out with another
son that was the same age as me, so instead
of spending time with me, he was with another woman
and her son. That was very traumatizing to me. And
we moved back to Johnson City, Kansas, where my mother
was from, moved in with her mother, and then my
(01:24):
mother met my father my stepfather, but I called him
father because he actually fathered me, and I was the
one that pretty much introduced him because as a kid,
I would go to his house cause he lived across
the street, and him being very young black man. I
think at that time it was hard on African American man,
you know, because they were still going through that period
(01:46):
of how to be a man, you know, and to
make the work and to make the money. So it
was a lot of pressure on man to be a man.
And he was that though he worked all the time,
but he drank a lot, so that would cause a
lot of fights with.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
My mother and him.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Of course I would get in the middle of it,
and then my mother would use me, as I would say,
as like a blanket, because when they would get into it,
my mother would come to me and lay down on
me and tell me things. At a young age of nine,
I can remember, tell me how she's gonna leave him,
and tell me things probably at a nine year should
not hear. Of course, when they would separate, I would
(02:24):
see him come back through the door, maybe four or
five days later. So I felt like my mother was
always lying to me, you know, giving me this false
hope of peace and some joy in my life. And
the older order I got, the more fights me and
him started to get into because he started to be
jealous of my relationship with me and my mother. So
(02:45):
that kind of tore the home apart, and I knew
I had to leave. When I left, I joined the military,
and I would have to say, the militaries where I
start learning how to how.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
To sell drugs. I was in Fort Bliss, Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
By Warrest Mexico Go, and at that time, you can
just go across the border and you know, get whatever
you wanted. It started from there, you know, and I
would learn how to get the drugs from one company
to the other without me being really the one to
be looked at as doing it. And I did that
by of course manipulating people. I worked as a mail
(03:19):
clerk for a captain, so I was able to move
around freely everywhere and get to know a lot of
people and of course find out the ones who liked
to do drugs, so and I make sure they would
get 'em through other women, friends I would know, or whoever.
But I knew how to keep myself out of the
main light of it. So as my military career was
starting to diminish, and it diminished cause I joined the
(03:42):
military to travel and then Desert storm happened. Through desert Storm,
my orders got canceled go to Germany. So I lost
any taste to uh be in the military anymore. So
I asked to get out early, which they gave me
an honorable discharge, but by granted me that, I still
had this shame on.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Me cause I knew I disappointed my mother.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And so I was lying to my mother probably for
a year, and I was kind of living place to
place in Texas friends' houses and her thinking that I'm
working and I'm doing good, but really I was doing
really bad. So then I get a phone call though
from my mother and she tells me to come home,
that my stepfather he left and come home and I
(04:24):
need you to help me and take care of you know,
take care of the house and be the man of
the house. So as I come home once again, about
three or four days later after I'm there, he shows up.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Again.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So this time I really was broken, you know, and
and I just felt like man, she just you know,
I felt betrayed like my mother. I couldn't trust my mom.
I couldn't trust anybody and everything. So I ended up
moving out, having my own place, and I probably was
a full blown alcoholic at that time. Then I found
my first baby's mother, which I met, we got married,
(04:56):
but we had a child, and that when I first
seen her, it was like I seen an angel, you know,
like somebody who now I can love and care for
and give her something different than I had growing up
and being very broke and feeling that pressure like I
could see my father probably felt. I felt like I
had to be a man to take care of the household.
I started going out and I would I was still
(05:18):
diapers from stores. I would do all this stuff, not
to get into that street game game that I knew
a lot of people were getting into.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I felt like I was trying to find a way out,
but it seemed like there was no way out, you know.
But I had this new born baby.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
So I remember going to uh Calhoun.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Which is in Junjes City is referred to as the ghetto,
and I knew everybody pretty much in the city. So
I hooked up with somebody from New York City that
would go there and we became good friends.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So this is where my really.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
My drug selling began, and I remember starting just with
a eight ball of crack cocaine, and my idea at
this time.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Was just to put food on the table.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And I had to do this, you know, I had
to do this so I can make it for my family. Well,
of course that led to not the eight ball led
to oounces, and then it started leading to half kilos
and then you know, from there even bigger. So I
start trafficking drugs. And then the people I hung out with,
all of them were they were killers. I mean, just
(06:21):
be transparent. They were killers. They were drug dealers. And
that's all how they thought day and day, you know,
day in day out. As it grew that big, it
really consumed me, you know, where it wasn't no more
about my kids, it wasn't about my wife.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It was really about me, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And you've been listening to Brule Curry tell one heck
of a story, tragic story. In the beginning you experienced,
but so many young people experience in this country. Too
many broken homes, the divorce that chattered them, and the
father who was hanging with another woman and hanging with
another boy, and what heartbreaking thoughts that boys and girls
(07:03):
around the country experience when they experience that, and then
we learn about as inevitable well inevitable, broken family and
his steps straight towards the drug life and drug trafficking.
When we come back more with the story of Brule
Curry here on our American Stories. This is Lee Habib,
(07:30):
host of our American Stories, the show where America is
the star and the American people, and we do it
all from the heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But
we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows
will always be free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you hear, consider
making a tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go
(07:51):
to our American Stories dot com. Give a little, give
a lot. That's our American Stories dot com. And we
returned to our American Stories and with Bruel Curry telling
(08:13):
the story of his life. When we last left off,
Brule was telling us about his rough childhood, an unstable family,
and so much more, including selling drugs. Let's return to
the story. Here again is Bruel Curry.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
If anybody knows about drug selling. To sell drugs in
New York City, you can't just anybody can't just go
and sell drugs there. You have to have well, we
would call a crew that had to have bodies, you know,
that knew they would kill to keep those territories because
very territorial. And I was just with that type of
a crew that had a lot of clout. I remember
(08:49):
being in New York and I had a friend that
had murdered somebody and I was there. I witnessed it,
but I helped him, you know, and I held that
in like I felt like part of it, but I
wasn't a part of it, you know, But I was
going down real fast. They knew rap stars. I've smoked
marijuana with famous people that being videos and even learning
(09:13):
that in that industry, those guys were just as broke
as I was trying to find money. They were hustling,
but their hustle was selling albums. And we even had
connections where rap stars would give us money to flip
the money. Cause when they get record deals, they give
'em this money to cut these albums, you know, and
to cut these albums.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They gotta pay that stuff back.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
That's just a front to uh money up front to
get the album made, you know. And this was back
in the nineties. So going further, being in uh New York,
I had this dream that I was gonna get murdered,
like at some I was gonna die, you know what
I mean in this situation, I seen had this dream
of these angels taking me off the block. And uh,
(09:52):
that's the last time I went to New York. So
I left out there and listened to that dream, and
I believe that that was a warning telling me to
stop that life. For less I would my life would
go to death. But of course I didn't stop, but
I just stopped in New York City, you know. But
when I first left, I uh went back to college
and I tried to change my life and start with
(10:13):
the drugs.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
But I started getting into other crimes.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So I started knowing club owners, dating high profile I
mean women who had money, you know, uh lawyers, and
they doing the most too, you know. But that's where
drug dealers make the most money. So we being around
these type things, it's hard to get out of it.
But I got into like w more of different crimes,
like insurance frauds and different schemes with documents, you know
(10:41):
what I'm saying, to get money and different stuff like that.
At this time, I'm like thirty years old, and being
thirty years old, I'm with kids going to school that
are like twenty one, twenty twenty one, but I looked younger,
so they never knew.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
So this is kind of where my akas started.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And I started living by akas from from probably thirty
years older than my forties, and I would go by
Emmanuel some places. I'd go buy all these crazy names.
And I laugh now because it's like crazy, how.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
We can get so deep and the devil can get
you so deep and lost from who you are in Christ.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know what you were created to do, you know,
and he was just getting me so lost within myself
of who I was, you know. And these women I
would date, they would later sometimes find out who I was,
because you know, they women were searching, they were searched
for you, you know. And then they still would call
me by their ks, you know. But yeah, I dropped
(11:38):
out of school with two classes left, and at this time,
meth is really big in the scene in Kansas City.
This is like early two thousands. I don't know nothing
about no myth, but I know how to make some
money and I know how to talk to people.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
So that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I start getting with some big time people that
on the meth part, and I'm talking about like they
would have businesses that would be twenty four hour businesses,
but in the business they're selling meth out of it
and going to farms out here in Missouri, you know
where they would be making it on these farms, and
I didn't. This was crazy to me because I knew
about cocaine, I knew about crack, but this was a
(12:16):
whole other level of really poison.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I took that to another level too.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And of course, when I go into anything, I go
in to do it big, and that's what I did,
and I never forget when I left Kansas City. One
reason why was because I felt like the FEDS.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Was on me.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So I had my mail going to my Auntie's house
because she lived in Kansas City. I never had nothing
going to where I lived. Everywhere I would go, I
felt like they were watching me. So I fled back
to Judge, the city to my mom's house. My mom
knew something wasn't right. I could tell, but I ended
up finding a place and that's when I catched that
five year case. Because just all this stuff catching up
(12:54):
with me a guy had owed me money. So what
I do is I send some guys to beat this guy.
When I sent him to beat him up, I just
have to be in everything. So I went to and
the guy got put in the hospital. He got beat
up real bad, severely that he had to be hospitalized.
And that's when he told my name that I did.
So I went to prison that time for distribution and.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Battery.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
That really kind of hit home to me, you know
it did, But at the same time, only for a
little while. I'll get out again. And at this time
I met my third wife. And when I met her,
she met me kind of liking the brink of me
about to go in, you know. So we're not married,
we're just kind of seeing each other. But when she
sees me, she never she was the first woman. After
ten years, I would say that I actually told her
(13:41):
my real name. It really threw me, It like scared me,
and I felt something inside like that this was somebody
I was gonna get married to.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
That's her, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I never forget thinking that it was different, not her
like just to have a fling with. It was like her,
like somebody who would be special to me, you know,
I'd be around her with wads of money and buying stuff,
and she never.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Would question that. She never would be like like wonder,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And I just threw me cause I didn't have respect
for women, because I felt like all women just wanted
you for your life, that I wanted you for money,
cause that's what I did, you know, all the time,
for all these years. But she she seemed to like
me for not just for money or who what I
did or who I was. So it was like peaceful
to me. Okay, So back up to the five years,
(14:28):
I just I just meet my wife. I ended up
doing my prison time with the five years, but I'm
not married to her yet. I've only known her for
like about four months. And I'd go to prison and
this woman waits for me, actually waits for me.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
M I mean like I kind of did wrong by her.
I really cared about it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
But I still was doing selling drugs and and kind
of showing her how to selling drugs, cause that's what
we do when we're doing We bring the mess to
the house, you know. But uh, she stays here and
waits for me, and I I come home and uh,
she gets pregnant and we have my baby, Brielle, And
when we have Brielle, I have this dream Brille's probably
(15:11):
uh at this time when I had the dream, she's
probably not even a month.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And I have this dream again, A dreams that that
come true, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And the dream I have is that sh she's in
my arms and the police come to arrest me and
I go to prison. So so I tell my wife,
I say to her, and I I say to her, Uh,
wouldn't that be something if I get arrested, you know,
with her in my arms, And my wife's like, you're
(15:42):
talking to this craziness.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
No, You're not going to prison.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
That would not happen, you know, cause I did stop
selling drugs, but I was still using drugs and I'm
on parole, and uh cause I would kind of go
to people who I knew, cause you know, when you
sell drugs at that level, you still got your little
people and then they know, you know, they have respect
for you.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So kind of come through the back door and I
do my smoke, my little weed and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So anyways, I get a knock on the door and
guess what, it's the police and they had a hunch
that I had drugs in the house and I did
I think I had just smoked maybe who knows how
long ago?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well I had.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I had the drugs underneath my baby's bed and the
wrong place. And now looking at it, sounds so bad.
He had it on the baby's bed. No, I hit
it there because you think people won't go there. So
I have my baby in my arms. The police come
and they get her, and I have to call my
wife to let her know, and she's left with this baby.
(16:39):
And that really broke me, You know that, that broke
me to pieces.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And we're listening to Brule Curry share his story. My goodness,
what a crooked course it took to New York City
with his crew, because you got to have a crew
when you hit the streets of New York. Back up, Muscle,
and there he is, and he has this dream that
he's gonna get murdered in the city. There are angels
that lift him up, and so he leaves New York,
but he does not leave a life of crime. By
(17:06):
the way, these dreams kept recurring. He meets that third
wife and he's about to go away to jail, and
when he's freed, he talks to her about a dream
that he's getting arrested and his little girl is going
to be separated from her dad in prison. What a
horrifying dream to have, What a horrifying dream to have
it there he is can't shed that old life, still
(17:27):
doing drugs, still probably hanging with the wrong people, and
on probation. So he's one thin wire away from returning
to prison. When we come back, more a brutal Curry,
his struggles is overcoming here on our American stories. And
(18:09):
we returned to our American stories and with Brule Curry
telling the story of his life. When we last left off,
Brule had gotten into selling drugs and had found himself
in a jail cell. Let's return to the story. Here
again is Bruel.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And this why I may never forget. I go to
that cell and I just like I just at first,
it was almost like a weep that was only pity,
you know what I mean, like pity, just weeping, like
oh my god, what did I do? But then it
was a changed when it finally got me to my
cell and I sat there and it changed and it
(18:45):
turned into more of now was like weeping to be
delivered from all this mess. And I was tired of losing,
you know, like God has something bigger for you. And
I always knew this, like inside, and then all these
dreams and like what is all this that's going on
with me? All this stuff just started Like it was
like God just slowed everything down and now just focused
(19:05):
on me, and that light was on me and he
was bringing me home. You know, I just surrendered it all.
I just surrendered it all. Just fell on my knees
and surrendered it. I didn't know how, but I just
cried out for Jesus to save me.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And I just asked him to show me.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I didn't know what how I was gonna do it,
but I know one thing right now, I'm gonna ask him.
And as I did that, I remember getting up and
I got a Bible and I had all these questions
in my head.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
You know, how do you pray? How do I talk
to you? Lord?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I wanna hear from you? And I had this this
such passion to wanna hear from so bad. I wanted
him to talk to me. And I wasn't gonna give up.
So every I never forget. I was like, I'm gonna
have the schedule. I'm aa pray, I'm a pray, and
sometimes I wake up and I didn't pray. Oh you
didn't pray, But I would say, okay, I'm praying. So
I was like it was almost like God was training
me now to have a habit of praying and change
(20:01):
my habits. So I never forget I was praying and praying.
Didn't hear nothing, didn't hear praying and praying, didn't hear nothing,
And never forget. I picked up that Bible and I
opened it up and then went to Jeremiah twenty nine
to eleven. And then when it went to that Jeremi
twenty eleven, he spoke to me through that scripture. You know,
I want that future and hope. I said, that's what
I want. And God spoke to me, tell me he
(20:23):
had a future and hope. And the first thing I
prayed for was him to show me how to love.
I said, God, show me how to love people.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
That's what all I asked. I asked for that, and
then I just asked.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I left it there, and I tell you what, it
seemed like everybody would come through that cell was the
hardest people to deal with.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You know that I'm trying to read the Bible.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
They loud turn the TV up on purpose while reading,
I mean purposely, like look at me back there and
then turn it up, you know, And he was showing
me and then.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Just to be a light.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And then I just started just reading about love and
acting just praying about God helped me out with this,
you know, and calling my wife and telling her how
I never I told my wife, I said, I never
loved until now. I said, I'm sorry, I love you
though I did not love you.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I it was like loard.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I hope she doesn't take this wrong, cause you know,
that's a whole other level what you're talking about, especially
if y if you're in a natural hearing it from somebody,
you know, she got it though I said I didn't
love you. You can't love somebody doing what I did. But
please forgive me. I stopped trying to manipulate it. I
started waking up on time and cleaning the cell and
(21:33):
saying hello to the guards and it's being polite. And
they had me in uh, they would never let me go.
They had me in supermacs on the jails. They looked
at me as a violent criminal. That's how they looked
at me, because they heard stories about me and I
and I was ruthless like that. I was the type
of guy that if you was making no money, I
didn't care, and if you didn't have my money, it
(21:53):
was gonna be some problems.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I would literally, I never forget in Calhoun as the ghetto,
and I would know ru places in there that had
nobody living in there, and if they didn't pay my money,
I would have guys take them in there and they
would you know, beat them up, beat them down, and
they better go get the money. I think that's how
I took care of my own pain, you know. But
they send me to prison. When they send me to prison,
(22:17):
God had already gave me the discipline of reading my
Bible in the morning praying. He already gave me that
biblical discipline, you know. And I knew I was going
He's gonna be with me, and he told me he'd
be there, and I trusted that. So as I went there,
you know, you meet the people there and everything, and
the first thing I wanted to do was connect to
god fearing people, which I couldn't. It's hard to find anybody,
(22:40):
I mean seriously. But other things started happening where even
though I was alone, people who were not walking with
Christ would come see me the late nights, like when
it's Darwin no one else knew, like I'm talking about
shot call game, shot callers and stuff, and they would
come to me and go, man, there's something about you.
You have cur you have great courage. I wish I
(23:01):
had what you had. And I'm telling them I have Jesus,
you know, and tell 'em and they already said they
knew that. And then guys I would go eat, and
when I go eat at tables, guys that would sit
with me, you know, they would seem to watch their
mouth when they cuss. They would say, excuse me, So
I became like they looked at me, asked, oh, that
guy's not about no non He's not about no nonsense,
(23:21):
you know. But guys would murderers, they would come see
me and want sit down and ask me questions and
and they would want to uh to just want the fellowship.
And they du tell me that the reason why I
come to you is I know you came from what
we came from, and I know you're sincere about what
you're doing, you know. And even guards, and they got
to where guards would ask me to pray for 'em guards,
(23:44):
this one guard and never forget.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
He had brought me.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Some food chicken wings that you couldn't get and I
didn't feel don't feel comfortable with that type stuff. But
he said, no, take it. He said, you are a
light in here. I see it, He said, I watch
you all the time. You are a light to these guys.
I would have murderers that were talking about doing murders
when they would leave and would come to me before
they would get out. I'm about to get out. I'm
(24:07):
gonna go kill my father. I'll never forget this guy
and me going through At the time, I didn't. I
haven't had had not reached that point in my own
father at that time, my stepfather that I was talking
about in the beginning, that we had all this not
a good relation at all healthy and the abuse and stuff.
(24:29):
It wasn't worked out yet, but something in my heart
was just like I forgave him, you know, I actually
forgave him. So I'm sitting here ministering this this young
man not to kill his father and to give him
a chance. And he listened to me and he said
to me, he said, since you, she said, the only
one I would probably listen to is you that told
me that? Because I know you come from what I
(24:52):
come out of, and I see you're really sincere about
what you're doing with Jesus. He's like, I'm gonna give
my dad a chance, like you said, you know. And
I'm sitting there thinking that he's leaving though I minister
this y this man, but I still haven't made that point.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
With my dad, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So anyways, he leaves and I finished that prison time
up there, and I knew something.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Abody knew that I was never going back.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Like God was sharing with me, this is my last time,
you know, going to prison. And I was free, you know,
I was free, you know. So then when my wife,
uh come together, they have this thing where most places
injunction you can't if you have you have a feeling
that you can't go to and it's like all these
obstacles start coming up. You know, you're free, and you
(25:39):
think you just as a man of God, that everything
just supposed to just be perfect. And that's not how
it is, you know, but it is. It is perfect,
but in in.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Jesus' sight, as far as he's got.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
The plan already there. But when we think in our plan.
It's just supposed to go right, you know, right like
how we wanted to. Well, as I go home, they
tell me, my pro officer tells me, well, I'm gonna
give you a month, but you got to move out
of there.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Blah blah, you know said it.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Uh, Well, God had got us out of that apartment,
and I think in two weeks, and we moved to
a duplex and we felt like it was a penthouse.
And because it was to us, I mean, we came
from you know, living really bad, you know, to now
living into a nice place.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
And we knew that God had got that for us.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And you're listening to Brule Curry share his story and
his transformation in prison. When he got in the cell,
he just started with self pity. But that quickly, well
that quickly got tiring. He was tired of losing, he said,
all of those dreams. He was starting to wonder about
putting him together. God, he said, was slowing everything down
(26:48):
to a halt. So he got a Bible and those
questions had started. Well, anybody who has these kinds of
experiences that many of you have, how do I pray?
I want to hear from you God? And he didn't
hear from God, at least not the way he thought
he might. And then he opened Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
for I know the plans I have for you, declares
(27:09):
the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. God was
talking to him. When we come back more of this
beautiful story Bruel Curry's story here on our American stories,
(27:38):
and we returned to our American stories and the final
portion of our story with Bruel Curry. When we last
left off, Brule had found God while incarcerated and decided
to make real changes in his life. Let's return to
the story here again. Is Bruel Curry.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
My all load of life.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You know, I wish I could do it more a sequel,
but it's like I all this stuff happened in so
many stages. Cause then my dad kind of took place.
It took place, uh well, it took place before actually
before the school uh and stuff. But when my dad
I come home and my dad, of course we haven't
(28:18):
had no talkings or whatnot. And my mom tells me,
she says to me, uh, she goes, you'll probably be
the one to bring dad to Jesus. That's what she
tells me. And I'm, you know, being humble, and I say,
I said, I said, uh me, you know, Okay. She goes,
You'll probably be the one. So as I as I
(28:40):
come home, Uh, they get into it about something, right
and uh, I go to the house and everything and
talk to my dad and he says like, yeah, I'm
tired of this blah blah blah. And I kind of
stayed out the way and it's left alone and I
kind of leave. I'm at work, Uh, at work, and
my dad calls me and he says, so I need
to see. So he comes to me and he goes,
(29:03):
we haven't really we haven't really made had those like
that time to really like make up and just talk
about it and let it go. He's just kind of
like maybe he pushed that aside. He's got so much
going on. But he comes to my job and he
uh just falls in my arms and me and him
start crying again. He says, so I'm leaving. I gotta go.
I can't do it no more blah blah. But I'm
(29:25):
God has let me. I ain't choosing no side. I
love both of y'all. But something told me to be
there with him. You know what I'm saying, like, I
have to be there with him. So he cries. He
said he's leaving. I said, okay, Dad, okay, whatever you need,
what you need. He goes, I'm packing my stuff tonight.
He said, if you can come there and help me,
just get myself loaded, blah blah, be fine. So I said, okay.
(29:47):
So I go up to the house. My mom's sitting
on the couch. She's not cause my mom's like, hey,
I don't condone you leaving or whatever. I'm not urging that.
So I'm gonna stay out the way and trust God
blah blah, you know, and everything.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So she stays out the way and I tell.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Him Mom, I'm kind of feeling torn, like, hey, Mom,
I'm not you know, I'm on both y'all. My mom says,
I understan I said, God's leading me to do this.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
I help him pack. He's talking to me. He leaves.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
He comes back about six months later just to visit,
and he's bragging about his job. He's got out the
tying mar you know, make this and that, and we're
all kind of just like this. So something to me,
said said, which I know is God. Let me say, really, Dad,
you know, really, you know, we're we're we're happy to
see you here, and you're telling us about how good
it is out there, you know, and it kind of
(30:33):
he kind of stopped and he went back. Well, he
ends up coming back maybe two months later, and is
he coming back?
Speaker 3 (30:39):
He comes back my.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Mom telling me he's back home and everything, and then
he calls me again. He says, Son, can we meet
at McDonald's. He says, Son, it is nothing, I'm bad.
I just want to meet with you, and he pretty
he just pretty much laid it out, you know, to
forgive him, and he wants something to raceship, you know,
in his own way.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
And I knew where he.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Was getting that, you know, and I just I had
already forgiven him, and that was the beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
And I had already forgiven him.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I was just seeing what God was having for me
to do for him.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
More of it is for his soul, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
So we talk, We start kind of hanging out and stuff,
and he even calls me like taking him to the hospital.
I'll go ' ten o'clock at night, I get him
my truck, go get him, take him to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We talk all the way.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Well, then one Sunday, Uh, he goes to church. He
had you know, he goes to church and I believe
he was there brother when he gave his life to
the God. And uh, he gives his life to Christ,
you know. And my mom looks at me and was like, see,
you know, gives his life to Christ. And my mom
s always tells me, you know, my father's past now,
but tells me that she believes that he needed to
(31:50):
cease when he see my life I got turned around.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
That's what it. It nudged him.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Cause he used to brag about me and this this
this animal, this guy that I have wanted, no good
for me. Before he passed away, all he did was
talk about me, my son, My son is doing great things.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
My son is doing this.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
He goes into prisons and all this, you know, and everything,
and how God restored that was just remarkable.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
He didn't just restore us together.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
He restored him, you know, like brought him, you know,
gave him eternal life, you know, brought him to where
he can have a return of life for himself.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And the last thing I heard him say to me,
he calls me and uh before he passed, Cause he
passed a day after he.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Called me, and he called me. He said, son, there
are sponge sponging records. There are sponge records, and you
can get your resisponse for a little or nothing. Son.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
You know, this would be big for you and you
can you know. And I always wanted to tell him, like,
cause one of my biggest testimony when I go to
prison is I don't need a spongeing record.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
God has already a sponger like.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
With this working for the state, I worked for the
federal Feds, now you know, I mean for all these
different entities that I worked for.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
So my thing is you get on God's playing none
of that. You don't have to worry about that stuff,
you know, And maybe God will later, I don't know,
but he's not moving. And I wanted to tell him
that on the phone, you know, but something in me said, no,
he's excited for something he's trying to do for you.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
So I left.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I said, yeah, Dad, we'll talk later. We'll talk later, Dad,
And then uh, that next day I was I was
taken out. I used to take mothers and children out
to uh their moms with their kids, single parents out
to eat for lunch, and I was just like bonding
with the kids and showing them how to have healthy
uh times out and how to eat cause a lot
(33:35):
of times uh youngsters they don't know how to do that.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
They weren't raised and know how to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I got a phone call from my mom that he
had passed away, you know, and I had uh left,
but it was something about I.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
You know, I wept, but I was at peace. It
was like God that.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Time restored my relationship with him, and I was at
peace from all that past. But if I didn't allow it,
I coulda stayed hard in my heart. I ain't gonna
forgive him. He did this and that, and I look
at him as a human being, as a person like
me that's done many wrong. And that's what we do,
you know, we he did this, you did that, but
w you done did a million things. Like Jesus said,
(34:11):
throw the first stone, you know, if you have not
never seen you know, And I gave him that, that
that opportunity. But the peace I have now and now
all I see is the good, you know, the good
that h he he did for me. You know what
I'm saying, but he was man, he was like he
was my at the end.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
He was my.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
He was my everything, I was his, you know, and everything.
I mean everywhere I went people he bragged about me
everywhere and the same God thought, well, didn't want no
good at good from me, you know, but God, you know,
and everything, yep, well God sees us. He don't see
no m he he doesn't. He knows we have mass,
(34:51):
but he sees the good in us. What he put
in there, you know, what he put in there. And
I think that's what something when I was doing all
the mess, some of those people were seeing something. There's
something different here, you know. All that other stuff I
was doing was garbage, you know. But I mean, and
I knew it. That's the thing that's crazy. I would
(35:12):
be around these guys who I knew they were the
real part, and I was like, damn, it don't seem
like I'm really in this part. But it's like I
almost had to go through that to do what I'm
doing now. Like I had to go through it, you know,
And I thank God that he called me. You know,
I'm just time we got we got a little bit.
What's funny is before I gave my life that last
time went to prison, right.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I would.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I knew I was filling my heart. What's my purpose?
I called my mother up and I said, Mom, I'm
looking for my purpose. She goes, keep looking for it,
keep looking for it, right, And I'm like, she ain't
telling me nothing, you know, dang what I want to hear.
You know, you want to be like right there. But
as we know, the purpose is right there inside us,
and the connection to it is God. Someone wants to
(35:57):
be connected. We're good, you know. But I wanted a
different answer. I didn't want that, So that's what she
told me. And I would be watching movies of people
helping people and start crying like a baby. And I'd
be sitting there with people like my brother right here
could be sitting there with me, and I'd play it
off and I'd get up, like we can watch something
(36:19):
that someone rescues somebody out of a fire, and it
was having to be a cat still in there, and
they went in there and got the cat, you know,
and I just start like just like balling. But I'd
be like, excuse me, and I go and I played
off all tough.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
You know. I'd be in the bathroom. I was like,
what is going on with me? You know what I'm saying?
Guy was dealing with me.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
And then and then at the time I even had
this guy, you know, he came to me. He's like
the cartels was they was short with stuff products, so
if I would be get the last bit of it
and I could put a price whatever I wanted.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
On it, and poising side said don't do.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
It, you know, and the voice, like I said, I
always had a sensitivity to hear it. You're right, you know,
but I wasn't strong enough to say no. And then
you know, but I knew, you know, I knew. I
knew the whole time God was dealing with me, he
was dealing with me. But when I fell on those knees,
I tell you I never forget it.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
And a special thanks to Brule Curry. What a story
we heard. I had to go through what I had
to go through to do what I do now to
be where I am now. And that's so many of
us listening. I know it's me and the way the
father and son kept getting put together by God. And
each time the son is trying to lead the father
(37:39):
to God, but doing it with great patience and kindness.
That last call when the father calls his son excited
with the news that he could get his record expunged.
And the son, well, he wasn't that excited about that,
because well, he's a believer and he believed his record
was already expunged by God.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
But he didn't say that.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
He wanted the father to enjoy his excitement, and he
lost his father not that long thereafter the story of
Bruel Curry a story of triumph over tragedy and redemption
and love. Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Up next to story from a man you
don't know that you'll be happy to have met here
(00:30):
to tell the story of how we went from street
crime too well, let's not give it away, but to
a better life. Is Brule, Curry, take it away, Brule.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Where my life actually began. It is in Virginia, in Richmond, Virginia.
That's where I was born at My mother was married
to my father, who I'm named after, and they had
gotten divorced when I was about five, and that was
very traumatizing to me because how my father and my
mother had it up was because of my father cheating
(01:02):
on my mother and he was hanging out with another
son that was the same age as me, so instead
of spending time with me, he was with another woman
and her son. That was very traumatizing to me. And
we moved back to Johnson City, Kansas, where my mother
was from, moved in with her mother, and then my
(01:24):
mother met my father my stepfather, but I called him
father because he actually fathered me, and I was the
one that pretty much introduced him because as a kid,
I would go to his house cause he lived across
the street, and him being very young black man. I
think at that time it was hard on African American man,
you know, because they were still going through that period
(01:46):
of how to be a man, you know, and to
make the work and to make the money. So it
was a lot of pressure on man to be a man.
And he was that though he worked all the time,
but he drank a lot, so that would cause a
lot of fights with.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
My mother and him.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Of course I would get in the middle of it,
and then my mother would use me, as I would say,
as like a blanket, because when they would get into it,
my mother would come to me and lay down on
me and tell me things. At a young age of nine,
I can remember, tell me how she's gonna leave him,
and tell me things probably at a nine year should
not hear. Of course, when they would separate, I would
(02:24):
see him come back through the door, maybe four or
five days later. So I felt like my mother was
always lying to me, you know, giving me this false
hope of peace and some joy in my life. And
the older order I got, the more fights me and
him started to get into because he started to be
jealous of my relationship with me and my mother. So
(02:45):
that kind of tore the home apart, and I knew
I had to leave. When I left, I joined the military,
and I would have to say, the militaries where I
start learning how to how.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
To sell drugs. I was in Fort Bliss, Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
By Warrest Mexico Go, and at that time, you can
just go across the border and you know, get whatever
you wanted. It started from there, you know, and I
would learn how to get the drugs from one company
to the other without me being really the one to
be looked at as doing it. And I did that
by of course manipulating people. I worked as a mail
(03:19):
clerk for a captain, so I was able to move
around freely everywhere and get to know a lot of
people and of course find out the ones who liked
to do drugs, so and I make sure they would
get 'em through other women, friends I would know, or whoever.
But I knew how to keep myself out of the
main light of it. So as my military career was
starting to diminish, and it diminished cause I joined the
(03:42):
military to travel and then Desert storm happened. Through desert Storm,
my orders got canceled go to Germany. So I lost
any taste to uh be in the military anymore. So
I asked to get out early, which they gave me
an honorable discharge, but by granted me that, I still
had this shame on.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Me cause I knew I disappointed my mother.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And so I was lying to my mother probably for
a year, and I was kind of living place to
place in Texas friends' houses and her thinking that I'm
working and I'm doing good, but really I was doing
really bad. So then I get a phone call though
from my mother and she tells me to come home,
that my stepfather he left and come home and I
(04:24):
need you to help me and take care of you know,
take care of the house and be the man of
the house. So as I come home once again, about
three or four days later after I'm there, he shows up.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Again.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So this time I really was broken, you know, and
and I just felt like man, she just you know,
I felt betrayed like my mother. I couldn't trust my mom.
I couldn't trust anybody and everything. So I ended up
moving out, having my own place, and I probably was
a full blown alcoholic at that time. Then I found
my first baby's mother, which I met, we got married,
(04:56):
but we had a child, and that when I first
seen her, it was like I seen an angel, you know,
like somebody who now I can love and care for
and give her something different than I had growing up
and being very broke and feeling that pressure like I
could see my father probably felt. I felt like I
had to be a man to take care of the household.
I started going out and I would I was still
(05:18):
diapers from stores. I would do all this stuff, not
to get into that street game game that I knew
a lot of people were getting into.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I felt like I was trying to find a way out,
but it seemed like there was no way out, you know.
But I had this new born baby.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
So I remember going to uh Calhoun.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Which is in Junjes City is referred to as the ghetto,
and I knew everybody pretty much in the city. So
I hooked up with somebody from New York City that
would go there and we became good friends.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So this is where my really.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
My drug selling began, and I remember starting just with
a eight ball of crack cocaine, and my idea at
this time.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Was just to put food on the table.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And I had to do this, you know, I had
to do this so I can make it for my family. Well,
of course that led to not the eight ball led
to oounces, and then it started leading to half kilos
and then you know, from there even bigger. So I
start trafficking drugs. And then the people I hung out with,
all of them were they were killers. I mean, just
(06:21):
be transparent. They were killers. They were drug dealers. And
that's all how they thought day and day, you know,
day in day out. As it grew that big, it
really consumed me, you know, where it wasn't no more
about my kids, it wasn't about my wife.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
It was really about me, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And you've been listening to Brule Curry tell one heck
of a story, tragic story. In the beginning you experienced,
but so many young people experience in this country. Too
many broken homes, the divorce that chattered them, and the
father who was hanging with another woman and hanging with
another boy, and what heartbreaking thoughts that boys and girls
(07:03):
around the country experience when they experience that, and then
we learn about as inevitable well inevitable, broken family and
his steps straight towards the drug life and drug trafficking.
When we come back more with the story of Brule
Curry here on our American Stories. This is Lee Habib,
(07:30):
host of our American Stories, the show where America is
the star and the American people, and we do it
all from the heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But
we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows
will always be free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you hear, consider
making a tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go
(07:51):
to our American Stories dot com. Give a little, give
a lot. That's our American Stories dot com. And we
returned to our American Stories and with Bruel Curry telling
(08:13):
the story of his life. When we last left off,
Brule was telling us about his rough childhood, an unstable family,
and so much more, including selling drugs. Let's return to
the story. Here again is Bruel Curry.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
If anybody knows about drug selling. To sell drugs in
New York City, you can't just anybody can't just go
and sell drugs there. You have to have well, we
would call a crew that had to have bodies, you know,
that knew they would kill to keep those territories because
very territorial. And I was just with that type of
a crew that had a lot of clout. I remember
(08:49):
being in New York and I had a friend that
had murdered somebody and I was there. I witnessed it,
but I helped him, you know, and I held that
in like I felt like part of it, but I
wasn't a part of it, you know, But I was
going down real fast. They knew rap stars. I've smoked
marijuana with famous people that being videos and even learning
(09:13):
that in that industry, those guys were just as broke
as I was trying to find money. They were hustling,
but their hustle was selling albums. And we even had
connections where rap stars would give us money to flip
the money. Cause when they get record deals, they give
'em this money to cut these albums, you know, and
to cut these albums.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
They gotta pay that stuff back.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
That's just a front to uh money up front to
get the album made, you know. And this was back
in the nineties. So going further, being in uh New York,
I had this dream that I was gonna get murdered,
like at some I was gonna die, you know what
I mean in this situation, I seen had this dream
of these angels taking me off the block. And uh,
(09:52):
that's the last time I went to New York. So
I left out there and listened to that dream, and
I believe that that was a warning telling me to
stop that life. For less I would my life would
go to death. But of course I didn't stop, but
I just stopped in New York City, you know. But
when I first left, I uh went back to college
and I tried to change my life and start with
(10:13):
the drugs.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
But I started getting into other crimes.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
So I started knowing club owners, dating high profile I
mean women who had money, you know, uh lawyers, and
they doing the most too, you know. But that's where
drug dealers make the most money. So we being around
these type things, it's hard to get out of it.
But I got into like w more of different crimes,
like insurance frauds and different schemes with documents, you know
(10:41):
what I'm saying, to get money and different stuff like that.
At this time, I'm like thirty years old, and being
thirty years old, I'm with kids going to school that
are like twenty one, twenty twenty one, but I looked younger,
so they never knew.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
So this is kind of where my akas started.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And I started living by akas from from probably thirty
years older than my forties, and I would go by
Emmanuel some places. I'd go buy all these crazy names.
And I laugh now because it's like crazy, how.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
We can get so deep and the devil can get
you so deep and lost from who you are in Christ.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know what you were created to do, you know,
and he was just getting me so lost within myself
of who I was, you know. And these women I
would date, they would later sometimes find out who I was,
because you know, they women were searching, they were searched
for you, you know. And then they still would call
me by their ks, you know. But yeah, I dropped
(11:38):
out of school with two classes left, and at this time,
meth is really big in the scene in Kansas City.
This is like early two thousands. I don't know nothing
about no myth, but I know how to make some
money and I know how to talk to people.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
So that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I start getting with some big time people that
on the meth part, and I'm talking about like they
would have businesses that would be twenty four hour businesses,
but in the business they're selling meth out of it
and going to farms out here in Missouri, you know
where they would be making it on these farms, and
I didn't. This was crazy to me because I knew
about cocaine, I knew about crack, but this was a
(12:16):
whole other level of really poison.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
I took that to another level too.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And of course, when I go into anything, I go
in to do it big, and that's what I did,
and I never forget when I left Kansas City. One
reason why was because I felt like the FEDS.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Was on me.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So I had my mail going to my Auntie's house
because she lived in Kansas City. I never had nothing
going to where I lived. Everywhere I would go, I
felt like they were watching me. So I fled back
to Judge, the city to my mom's house. My mom
knew something wasn't right. I could tell, but I ended
up finding a place and that's when I catched that
five year case. Because just all this stuff catching up
(12:54):
with me a guy had owed me money. So what
I do is I send some guys to beat this guy.
When I sent him to beat him up, I just
have to be in everything. So I went to and
the guy got put in the hospital. He got beat
up real bad, severely that he had to be hospitalized.
And that's when he told my name that I did.
So I went to prison that time for distribution and.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Battery.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
That really kind of hit home to me, you know
it did, But at the same time, only for a
little while. I'll get out again. And at this time
I met my third wife. And when I met her,
she met me kind of liking the brink of me
about to go in, you know. So we're not married,
we're just kind of seeing each other. But when she
sees me, she never she was the first woman. After
ten years, I would say that I actually told her
(13:41):
my real name. It really threw me, It like scared me,
and I felt something inside like that this was somebody
I was gonna get married to.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
That's her, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I never forget thinking that it was different, not her
like just to have a fling with. It was like her,
like somebody who would be special to me, you know,
I'd be around her with wads of money and buying stuff,
and she never.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Would question that. She never would be like like wonder,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And I just threw me cause I didn't have respect
for women, because I felt like all women just wanted
you for your life, that I wanted you for money,
cause that's what I did, you know, all the time,
for all these years. But she she seemed to like
me for not just for money or who what I
did or who I was. So it was like peaceful
to me. Okay, So back up to the five years,
(14:28):
I just I just meet my wife. I ended up
doing my prison time with the five years, but I'm
not married to her yet. I've only known her for
like about four months. And I'd go to prison and
this woman waits for me, actually waits for me.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
M I mean like I kind of did wrong by her.
I really cared about it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
But I still was doing selling drugs and and kind
of showing her how to selling drugs, cause that's what
we do when we're doing We bring the mess to
the house, you know. But uh, she stays here and
waits for me, and I I come home and uh,
she gets pregnant and we have my baby, Brielle, And
when we have Brielle, I have this dream Brille's probably
(15:11):
uh at this time when I had the dream, she's
probably not even a month.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And I have this dream again, A dreams that that
come true, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And the dream I have is that sh she's in
my arms and the police come to arrest me and
I go to prison. So so I tell my wife,
I say to her, and I I say to her, Uh,
wouldn't that be something if I get arrested, you know,
with her in my arms, And my wife's like, you're
(15:42):
talking to this craziness.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
No, You're not going to prison.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
That would not happen, you know, cause I did stop
selling drugs, but I was still using drugs and I'm
on parole, and uh cause I would kind of go
to people who I knew, cause you know, when you
sell drugs at that level, you still got your little
people and then they know, you know, they have respect
for you.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So kind of come through the back door and I
do my smoke, my little weed and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So anyways, I get a knock on the door and
guess what, it's the police and they had a hunch
that I had drugs in the house and I did
I think I had just smoked maybe who knows how
long ago?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well I had.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I had the drugs underneath my baby's bed and the
wrong place. And now looking at it, sounds so bad.
He had it on the baby's bed. No, I hit
it there because you think people won't go there. So
I have my baby in my arms. The police come
and they get her, and I have to call my
wife to let her know, and she's left with this baby.
(16:39):
And that really broke me, You know that, that broke
me to pieces.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
And we're listening to Brule Curry share his story. My goodness,
what a crooked course it took to New York City
with his crew, because you got to have a crew
when you hit the streets of New York. Back up, Muscle,
and there he is, and he has this dream that
he's gonna get murdered in the city. There are angels
that lift him up, and so he leaves New York,
but he does not leave a life of crime. By
(17:06):
the way, these dreams kept recurring. He meets that third
wife and he's about to go away to jail, and
when he's freed, he talks to her about a dream
that he's getting arrested and his little girl is going
to be separated from her dad in prison. What a
horrifying dream to have, What a horrifying dream to have
it there he is can't shed that old life, still
(17:27):
doing drugs, still probably hanging with the wrong people, and
on probation. So he's one thin wire away from returning
to prison. When we come back, more a brutal Curry,
his struggles is overcoming here on our American stories. And
(18:09):
we returned to our American stories and with Brule Curry
telling the story of his life. When we last left off,
Brule had gotten into selling drugs and had found himself
in a jail cell. Let's return to the story. Here
again is Bruel.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And this why I may never forget. I go to
that cell and I just like I just at first,
it was almost like a weep that was only pity,
you know what I mean, like pity, just weeping, like
oh my god, what did I do? But then it
was a changed when it finally got me to my
cell and I sat there and it changed and it
(18:45):
turned into more of now was like weeping to be
delivered from all this mess. And I was tired of losing,
you know, like God has something bigger for you. And
I always knew this, like inside, and then all these
dreams and like what is all this that's going on
with me? All this stuff just started Like it was
like God just slowed everything down and now just focused
(19:05):
on me, and that light was on me and he
was bringing me home. You know, I just surrendered it all.
I just surrendered it all. Just fell on my knees
and surrendered it. I didn't know how, but I just
cried out for Jesus to save me.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And I just asked him to show me.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I didn't know what how I was gonna do it,
but I know one thing right now, I'm gonna ask him.
And as I did that, I remember getting up and
I got a Bible and I had all these questions
in my head.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
You know, how do you pray? How do I talk
to you? Lord?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I wanna hear from you? And I had this this
such passion to wanna hear from so bad. I wanted
him to talk to me. And I wasn't gonna give up.
So every I never forget. I was like, I'm gonna
have the schedule. I'm aa pray, I'm a pray, and
sometimes I wake up and I didn't pray. Oh you
didn't pray, But I would say, okay, I'm praying. So
I was like it was almost like God was training
me now to have a habit of praying and change
(20:01):
my habits. So I never forget I was praying and praying.
Didn't hear nothing, didn't hear praying and praying, didn't hear nothing,
And never forget. I picked up that Bible and I
opened it up and then went to Jeremiah twenty nine
to eleven. And then when it went to that Jeremi
twenty eleven, he spoke to me through that scripture. You know,
I want that future and hope. I said, that's what
I want. And God spoke to me, tell me he
(20:23):
had a future and hope. And the first thing I
prayed for was him to show me how to love.
I said, God, show me how to love people.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
That's what all I asked. I asked for that, and
then I just asked.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I left it there, and I tell you what, it
seemed like everybody would come through that cell was the
hardest people to deal with.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
You know that I'm trying to read the Bible.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
They loud turn the TV up on purpose while reading,
I mean purposely, like look at me back there and
then turn it up, you know, And he was showing
me and then.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Just to be a light.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And then I just started just reading about love and
acting just praying about God helped me out with this,
you know, and calling my wife and telling her how
I never I told my wife, I said, I never
loved until now. I said, I'm sorry, I love you
though I did not love you.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I it was like loard.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I hope she doesn't take this wrong, cause you know,
that's a whole other level what you're talking about, especially
if y if you're in a natural hearing it from somebody,
you know, she got it though I said I didn't
love you. You can't love somebody doing what I did. But
please forgive me. I stopped trying to manipulate it. I
started waking up on time and cleaning the cell and
(21:33):
saying hello to the guards and it's being polite. And
they had me in uh, they would never let me go.
They had me in supermacs on the jails. They looked
at me as a violent criminal. That's how they looked
at me, because they heard stories about me and I
and I was ruthless like that. I was the type
of guy that if you was making no money, I
didn't care, and if you didn't have my money, it
(21:53):
was gonna be some problems.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I would literally, I never forget in Calhoun as the ghetto,
and I would know ru places in there that had
nobody living in there, and if they didn't pay my money,
I would have guys take them in there and they
would you know, beat them up, beat them down, and
they better go get the money. I think that's how
I took care of my own pain, you know. But
they send me to prison. When they send me to prison,
(22:17):
God had already gave me the discipline of reading my
Bible in the morning praying. He already gave me that
biblical discipline, you know. And I knew I was going
He's gonna be with me, and he told me he'd
be there, and I trusted that. So as I went there,
you know, you meet the people there and everything, and
the first thing I wanted to do was connect to
god fearing people, which I couldn't. It's hard to find anybody,
(22:40):
I mean seriously. But other things started happening where even
though I was alone, people who were not walking with
Christ would come see me the late nights, like when
it's Darwin no one else knew, like I'm talking about
shot call game, shot callers and stuff, and they would
come to me and go, man, there's something about you.
You have cur you have great courage. I wish I
(23:01):
had what you had. And I'm telling them I have Jesus,
you know, and tell 'em and they already said they
knew that. And then guys I would go eat, and
when I go eat at tables, guys that would sit
with me, you know, they would seem to watch their
mouth when they cuss. They would say, excuse me, So
I became like they looked at me, asked, oh, that
guy's not about no non He's not about no nonsense,
(23:21):
you know. But guys would murderers, they would come see
me and want sit down and ask me questions and
and they would want to uh to just want the fellowship.
And they du tell me that the reason why I
come to you is I know you came from what
we came from, and I know you're sincere about what
you're doing, you know. And even guards, and they got
to where guards would ask me to pray for 'em guards,
(23:44):
this one guard and never forget.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
He had brought me.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Some food chicken wings that you couldn't get and I
didn't feel don't feel comfortable with that type stuff. But
he said, no, take it. He said, you are a
light in here. I see it, He said, I watch
you all the time. You are a light to these guys.
I would have murderers that were talking about doing murders
when they would leave and would come to me before
they would get out. I'm about to get out. I'm
(24:07):
gonna go kill my father. I'll never forget this guy
and me going through At the time, I didn't. I
haven't had had not reached that point in my own
father at that time, my stepfather that I was talking
about in the beginning, that we had all this not
a good relation at all healthy and the abuse and stuff.
(24:29):
It wasn't worked out yet, but something in my heart
was just like I forgave him, you know, I actually
forgave him. So I'm sitting here ministering this this young
man not to kill his father and to give him
a chance. And he listened to me and he said
to me, he said, since you, she said, the only
one I would probably listen to is you that told
me that? Because I know you come from what I
(24:52):
come out of, and I see you're really sincere about
what you're doing with Jesus. He's like, I'm gonna give
my dad a chance, like you said, you know. And
I'm sitting there thinking that he's leaving though I minister
this y this man, but I still haven't made that point.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
With my dad, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
So anyways, he leaves and I finished that prison time
up there, and I knew something.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Abody knew that I was never going back.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Like God was sharing with me, this is my last time,
you know, going to prison. And I was free, you know,
I was free, you know. So then when my wife,
uh come together, they have this thing where most places
injunction you can't if you have you have a feeling
that you can't go to and it's like all these
obstacles start coming up. You know, you're free, and you
(25:39):
think you just as a man of God, that everything
just supposed to just be perfect. And that's not how
it is, you know, but it is. It is perfect,
but in in.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Jesus' sight, as far as he's got.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
The plan already there. But when we think in our plan.
It's just supposed to go right, you know, right like
how we wanted to. Well, as I go home, they
tell me, my pro officer tells me, well, I'm gonna
give you a month, but you got to move out
of there.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Blah blah, you know said it.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Uh, Well, God had got us out of that apartment,
and I think in two weeks, and we moved to
a duplex and we felt like it was a penthouse.
And because it was to us, I mean, we came
from you know, living really bad, you know, to now
living into a nice place.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
And we knew that God had got that for us.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And you're listening to Brule Curry share his story and
his transformation in prison. When he got in the cell,
he just started with self pity. But that quickly, well
that quickly got tiring. He was tired of losing, he said,
all of those dreams. He was starting to wonder about
putting him together. God, he said, was slowing everything down
(26:48):
to a halt. So he got a Bible and those
questions had started. Well, anybody who has these kinds of
experiences that many of you have, how do I pray?
I want to hear from you God? And he didn't
hear from God, at least not the way he thought
he might. And then he opened Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
for I know the plans I have for you, declares
(27:09):
the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. God was
talking to him. When we come back more of this
beautiful story Bruel Curry's story here on our American stories,
(27:38):
and we returned to our American stories and the final
portion of our story with Bruel Curry. When we last
left off, Brule had found God while incarcerated and decided
to make real changes in his life. Let's return to
the story here again. Is Bruel Curry.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
My all load of life.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You know, I wish I could do it more a sequel,
but it's like I all this stuff happened in so
many stages. Cause then my dad kind of took place.
It took place, uh well, it took place before actually
before the school uh and stuff. But when my dad
I come home and my dad, of course we haven't
(28:18):
had no talkings or whatnot. And my mom tells me,
she says to me, uh, she goes, you'll probably be
the one to bring dad to Jesus. That's what she
tells me. And I'm, you know, being humble, and I say,
I said, I said, uh me, you know, Okay. She goes,
You'll probably be the one. So as I as I
(28:40):
come home, Uh, they get into it about something, right
and uh, I go to the house and everything and
talk to my dad and he says like, yeah, I'm
tired of this blah blah blah. And I kind of
stayed out the way and it's left alone and I
kind of leave. I'm at work, Uh, at work, and
my dad calls me and he says, so I need
to see. So he comes to me and he goes,
(29:03):
we haven't really we haven't really made had those like
that time to really like make up and just talk
about it and let it go. He's just kind of
like maybe he pushed that aside. He's got so much
going on. But he comes to my job and he
uh just falls in my arms and me and him
start crying again. He says, so I'm leaving. I gotta go.
I can't do it no more blah blah. But I'm
(29:25):
God has let me. I ain't choosing no side. I
love both of y'all. But something told me to be
there with him. You know what I'm saying, like, I
have to be there with him. So he cries. He
said he's leaving. I said, okay, Dad, okay, whatever you need,
what you need. He goes, I'm packing my stuff tonight.
He said, if you can come there and help me,
just get myself loaded, blah blah, be fine. So I said, okay.
(29:47):
So I go up to the house. My mom's sitting
on the couch. She's not cause my mom's like, hey,
I don't condone you leaving or whatever. I'm not urging that.
So I'm gonna stay out the way and trust God
blah blah, you know, and everything.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So she stays out the way and I tell.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Him Mom, I'm kind of feeling torn, like, hey, Mom,
I'm not you know, I'm on both y'all. My mom says,
I understan I said, God's leading me to do this.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
I help him pack. He's talking to me. He leaves.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
He comes back about six months later just to visit,
and he's bragging about his job. He's got out the
tying mar you know, make this and that, and we're
all kind of just like this. So something to me,
said said, which I know is God. Let me say, really, Dad,
you know, really, you know, we're we're we're happy to
see you here, and you're telling us about how good
it is out there, you know, and it kind of
(30:33):
he kind of stopped and he went back. Well, he
ends up coming back maybe two months later, and is
he coming back?
Speaker 3 (30:39):
He comes back my.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Mom telling me he's back home and everything, and then
he calls me again. He says, Son, can we meet
at McDonald's. He says, Son, it is nothing, I'm bad.
I just want to meet with you, and he pretty
he just pretty much laid it out, you know, to
forgive him, and he wants something to raceship, you know,
in his own way.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
And I knew where he.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Was getting that, you know, and I just I had
already forgiven him, and that was the beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
And I had already forgiven him.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I was just seeing what God was having for me
to do for him.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
More of it is for his soul, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
So we talk, We start kind of hanging out and stuff,
and he even calls me like taking him to the hospital.
I'll go ' ten o'clock at night, I get him
my truck, go get him, take him to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We talk all the way.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Well, then one Sunday, Uh, he goes to church. He
had you know, he goes to church and I believe
he was there brother when he gave his life to
the God. And uh, he gives his life to Christ,
you know. And my mom looks at me and was like, see,
you know, gives his life to Christ. And my mom
s always tells me, you know, my father's past now,
but tells me that she believes that he needed to
(31:50):
cease when he see my life I got turned around.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
That's what it. It nudged him.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Cause he used to brag about me and this this
this animal, this guy that I have wanted, no good
for me. Before he passed away, all he did was
talk about me, my son, My son is doing great things.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
My son is doing this.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
He goes into prisons and all this, you know, and everything,
and how God restored that was just remarkable.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
He didn't just restore us together.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
He restored him, you know, like brought him, you know,
gave him eternal life, you know, brought him to where
he can have a return of life for himself.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
And the last thing I heard him say to me,
he calls me and uh before he passed, Cause he
passed a day after he.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Called me, and he called me. He said, son, there
are sponge sponging records. There are sponge records, and you
can get your resisponse for a little or nothing. Son.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
You know, this would be big for you and you
can you know. And I always wanted to tell him, like,
cause one of my biggest testimony when I go to
prison is I don't need a spongeing record.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
God has already a sponger like.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
With this working for the state, I worked for the
federal Feds, now you know, I mean for all these
different entities that I worked for.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
So my thing is you get on God's playing none
of that. You don't have to worry about that stuff,
you know, And maybe God will later, I don't know,
but he's not moving. And I wanted to tell him
that on the phone, you know, but something in me said, no,
he's excited for something he's trying to do for you.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
So I left.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I said, yeah, Dad, we'll talk later. We'll talk later, Dad,
And then uh, that next day I was I was
taken out. I used to take mothers and children out
to uh their moms with their kids, single parents out
to eat for lunch, and I was just like bonding
with the kids and showing them how to have healthy
uh times out and how to eat cause a lot
(33:35):
of times uh youngsters they don't know how to do that.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
They weren't raised and know how to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I got a phone call from my mom that he
had passed away, you know, and I had uh left,
but it was something about I.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
You know, I wept, but I was at peace. It
was like God that.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Time restored my relationship with him, and I was at
peace from all that past. But if I didn't allow it,
I coulda stayed hard in my heart. I ain't gonna
forgive him. He did this and that, and I look
at him as a human being, as a person like
me that's done many wrong. And that's what we do,
you know, we he did this, you did that, but
w you done did a million things. Like Jesus said,
(34:11):
throw the first stone, you know, if you have not
never seen you know, And I gave him that, that
that opportunity. But the peace I have now and now
all I see is the good, you know, the good
that h he he did for me. You know what
I'm saying, but he was man, he was like he
was my at the end.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
He was my.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
He was my everything, I was his, you know, and everything.
I mean everywhere I went people he bragged about me
everywhere and the same God thought, well, didn't want no
good at good from me, you know, but God, you know,
and everything, yep, well God sees us. He don't see
no m he he doesn't. He knows we have mass,
(34:51):
but he sees the good in us. What he put
in there, you know, what he put in there. And
I think that's what something when I was doing all
the mess, some of those people were seeing something. There's
something different here, you know. All that other stuff I
was doing was garbage, you know. But I mean, and
I knew it. That's the thing that's crazy. I would
(35:12):
be around these guys who I knew they were the
real part, and I was like, damn, it don't seem
like I'm really in this part. But it's like I
almost had to go through that to do what I'm
doing now. Like I had to go through it, you know,
And I thank God that he called me. You know,
I'm just time we got we got a little bit.
What's funny is before I gave my life that last
time went to prison, right.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I would.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I knew I was filling my heart. What's my purpose?
I called my mother up and I said, Mom, I'm
looking for my purpose. She goes, keep looking for it,
keep looking for it, right, And I'm like, she ain't
telling me nothing, you know, dang what I want to hear.
You know, you want to be like right there. But
as we know, the purpose is right there inside us,
and the connection to it is God. Someone wants to
(35:57):
be connected. We're good, you know. But I wanted a
different answer. I didn't want that, So that's what she
told me. And I would be watching movies of people
helping people and start crying like a baby. And I'd
be sitting there with people like my brother right here
could be sitting there with me, and I'd play it
off and I'd get up, like we can watch something
(36:19):
that someone rescues somebody out of a fire, and it
was having to be a cat still in there, and
they went in there and got the cat, you know,
and I just start like just like balling. But I'd
be like, excuse me, and I go and I played
off all tough.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
You know. I'd be in the bathroom. I was like,
what is going on with me? You know what I'm saying?
Guy was dealing with me.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
And then and then at the time I even had
this guy, you know, he came to me. He's like
the cartels was they was short with stuff products, so
if I would be get the last bit of it
and I could put a price whatever I wanted.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
On it, and poising side said don't do.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
It, you know, and the voice, like I said, I
always had a sensitivity to hear it. You're right, you know,
but I wasn't strong enough to say no. And then
you know, but I knew, you know, I knew. I
knew the whole time God was dealing with me, he
was dealing with me. But when I fell on those knees,
I tell you I never forget it.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
And a special thanks to Brule Curry. What a story
we heard. I had to go through what I had
to go through to do what I do now to
be where I am now. And that's so many of
us listening. I know it's me and the way the
father and son kept getting put together by God. And
each time the son is trying to lead the father
(37:39):
to God, but doing it with great patience and kindness.
That last call when the father calls his son excited
with the news that he could get his record expunged.
And the son, well, he wasn't that excited about that,
because well, he's a believer and he believed his record
was already expunged by God.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
But he didn't say that.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
He wanted the father to enjoy his excitement, and he
lost his father not that long thereafter the story of
Bruel Curry a story of triumph over tragedy and redemption
and love. Here on our American Stories
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