Detroit hit man Vincent (Vito) Smothers ended his murder spree ten years ago, bringing the curtain down on a short, yet incredibly bloody and prolific career in the murder-for-hire game. The slender and unassuming-looking Smothers, a former high school honor student, admitted to killing a dozen people in less than two years in the mid-2000s, most of the murders believed by police to have been contract slayings on behalf of the Adarus Black drug organization. Black, 46, was found guilty in a drug conspiracy case in 2009 and is doing life in federal prison. Smothers is doing 50 years-to-life in state prison after copping to all 12 slayings. The Vito Smothers Hit List July 1, 2006 – Detroit drug world figure Willis (Black Willie) Watson is gunned down on his porch in Northwest section of the Motor City August 16, 2006 – Detroit drug world figure Adrian (All Day) Thornton is slain walking out of one of his dope houses on Motown’s eastside by a double-pistol carrying Smothers. Thornton’s right hand man, Kenny (Motorhead) McKennedy, survived the shooting attack January 17, 2007 – Detroit drug world figure Carl (Half Day) Thornton, “AD” Thornton’s baby brother and successor as head of his narcotics operation, is shot to death exiting his car in front of an eastside dope spot in close proximity to where his older sibling was slain May 24, 2007 – Chicago bus drivers and suspected drug couriers employed by the Black organization Johnny Marshall and Marshall White are shot to death when they show up for a meeting on Detroit’s eastside in an automobile that stalls. June 21, 2007 – Detroit drug world figure Clarence Cherry and his teenage girlfriend Gaudrielle Webster are gunned down inside Cherry’s home in front of his two young children. A friend of Webster’ named Karsia Rice is shot and left blind in one eye from the assault. September 17, 2007: The Monday Night Football Massacre – Detroit drug world figure Michael (Porch Smoke Mike) Robinson and three friends of his, D’Angelo McNoriell, Brian Dixon and Nicole Chapman are slain in Robinson’s living room as they watched the Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins. Besides Smothers, a juvenile named Davontae Sanford confessed to the quadruple murder. December 26 – 2007 – Rose Cobb, the wife of Detroit Police officer David Cobb, is killed inside her house, executed by Smothers on a contract placed on her head by her husband.
