Ex-Detroit Hitman Nate Boone Craft, Aka the 'Grim Reaper,' Has Died at 69
https://deadlinedetroit.com/articles/35011/ex-detroit_hitman_nate_boone_craft_aka_the_grim_reaper_has_died_at_69
August 28, 2026, 10:10 AM by Allan Lengel
Nate Boone Craft
Nate Boone Craft, a Detroit hitman and imposing figure who was associated with the notorious drug gang "Best Friends" and admitted to at least 30 murders, has died, according to relatives on social media. He was 69.
"R.I.P to my father Nathaniel Craft ÀKA BOONE LOVE U POPS," his son Nate Craft posted on Facebook on Thursday. His son told Deadline Detroit that he died in his sleep on Wednesday.
"He passed in Waterford in his bed while sleeping with a smile on his face," his son said. "It shocked me, but he had one, like he knew something, and smiled one last time, frozen in time."
Craft served about 18 years in federal prison before being released for cooperating with federal law enforcement.
"It was business," Craft told WDIV reporter Kevin Dietz in 2018 about being a contract killer. "You have to understand. These people was into illegal things anyway. I don't feel bad doing something to somebody that is in that lifestyle.
"Most of ya'll may know me as Nate 'Boon' Craft, the Grim Reaper," he told Dietz during an interview at his Detroit home that included surveillance cameras.
"If somebody paid me to hit you, I'm going to hit you...I believe in money. Friendship, no, I don't have friends."
Nate Boon Craft
Craft grew up on Detroit's east side. He told the YouTube station "Mogul State of Mind" in a 2023 interview that he started selling heroin for a dope dealer named Charlie at age 9. At age 10, he said he had a falling out with his boss and ended up fatally shooting him and burying him in the backyard.
He said he joined the U.S. Army and when he got out he was charged with armed robbery and possession of a gun. He said it was a family member who actually did it, but he took the fall and served about three years before being paroled.
Craft was doing hits and started working as a bodyguard for a big-time drug dealer, Rick Carter, aka "Maserati Rick," who he met at a shop in Southfield that sold beepers. Carter was eventually murdered in 1988 in Mt. Carmel-Mercy Hospital while recovering from a gunshot wound.
Craft also worked for the Best Friends drug gang, which he first met while fighting in a Toughman contest at Cobo Hall. Best Friends, which had a reputation as a violent, murderous organization, was run by four of the Brown brothers. In the end, three of the four were murdered. One is still alive and on parole out of state.
At one point, Craft says, he tried unsuccessfully, to kill drug dealer Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr. in the 1980s before Wershe went to prison. In 2018, he said he was advocating for Wershe to be freed from prison. Wershe was eventually freed in 2020.
His family saw a different side of the hitman.
"My father was truly the pillar of everyone who crossed his path, and his passing has left a deep pain in our family and in the lives of so many who knew and loved him," wrote his son Nate Craft on a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses. "He meant so much to us, and trying to navigate this loss while making final arrangements has been incredibly difficult. In the middle of grieving, we are also facing the heavy burden of funeral and arrangement expenses."
Scott Burnstein, founder of the Gangster Report, often communicated with Craft, who lived in Metro Detroit.
"He was definitely a menace to society, when he was out on the street as a gangster," Burnstein said. "He was such a gigantic physical presence. He killed without blinking."
"He was shot and stabbed multiple times," but survived, Burnstein said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9YMqKG_A7k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrPf0blzsfA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa8ZpWu9Ow
August 28, 2026, 10:10 AM by Allan Lengel
Nate Boone Craft
Nate Boone Craft, a Detroit hitman and imposing figure who was associated with the notorious drug gang "Best Friends" and admitted to at least 30 murders, has died, according to relatives on social media. He was 69.
"R.I.P to my father Nathaniel Craft ÀKA BOONE LOVE U POPS," his son Nate Craft posted on Facebook on Thursday. His son told Deadline Detroit that he died in his sleep on Wednesday.
"He passed in Waterford in his bed while sleeping with a smile on his face," his son said. "It shocked me, but he had one, like he knew something, and smiled one last time, frozen in time."
Craft served about 18 years in federal prison before being released for cooperating with federal law enforcement.
"It was business," Craft told WDIV reporter Kevin Dietz in 2018 about being a contract killer. "You have to understand. These people was into illegal things anyway. I don't feel bad doing something to somebody that is in that lifestyle.
"Most of ya'll may know me as Nate 'Boon' Craft, the Grim Reaper," he told Dietz during an interview at his Detroit home that included surveillance cameras.
"If somebody paid me to hit you, I'm going to hit you...I believe in money. Friendship, no, I don't have friends."
Nate Boon Craft
Craft grew up on Detroit's east side. He told the YouTube station "Mogul State of Mind" in a 2023 interview that he started selling heroin for a dope dealer named Charlie at age 9. At age 10, he said he had a falling out with his boss and ended up fatally shooting him and burying him in the backyard.
He said he joined the U.S. Army and when he got out he was charged with armed robbery and possession of a gun. He said it was a family member who actually did it, but he took the fall and served about three years before being paroled.
Craft was doing hits and started working as a bodyguard for a big-time drug dealer, Rick Carter, aka "Maserati Rick," who he met at a shop in Southfield that sold beepers. Carter was eventually murdered in 1988 in Mt. Carmel-Mercy Hospital while recovering from a gunshot wound.
Craft also worked for the Best Friends drug gang, which he first met while fighting in a Toughman contest at Cobo Hall. Best Friends, which had a reputation as a violent, murderous organization, was run by four of the Brown brothers. In the end, three of the four were murdered. One is still alive and on parole out of state.
At one point, Craft says, he tried unsuccessfully, to kill drug dealer Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr. in the 1980s before Wershe went to prison. In 2018, he said he was advocating for Wershe to be freed from prison. Wershe was eventually freed in 2020.
His family saw a different side of the hitman.
"My father was truly the pillar of everyone who crossed his path, and his passing has left a deep pain in our family and in the lives of so many who knew and loved him," wrote his son Nate Craft on a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses. "He meant so much to us, and trying to navigate this loss while making final arrangements has been incredibly difficult. In the middle of grieving, we are also facing the heavy burden of funeral and arrangement expenses."
Scott Burnstein, founder of the Gangster Report, often communicated with Craft, who lived in Metro Detroit.
"He was definitely a menace to society, when he was out on the street as a gangster," Burnstein said. "He was such a gigantic physical presence. He killed without blinking."
"He was shot and stabbed multiple times," but survived, Burnstein said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9YMqKG_A7k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrPf0blzsfA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa8ZpWu9Ow
