By now, if you haven’t watched The Wire or read Homicide and The Corner, the two astonishing books that acted as source material for the HBO series, something’s seriously lacking from your life. If you have you’ll know that Omar Little, the incredibly violent but still strongly moral stick-up artist, is one of the most compelling fictional creations ever to slam a shotgun into a dealer’s face.
Except he’s not wholly a fictional creation – his life and modus operandi was inspired by Donnie Andrews, a former stick-up artist, convicted murderer and all-round Baltimore bad-ass. After spending 18 years in jail he’s been working with his local communities back in Maryland and there’s currently a film being made of his life by Brad Pitt’s production company. I recently had a chat with Donnie. Read more »
