HE has the dubious distinction of being the one romantic partner drug queen Griselda Blanco did not murder or have killed by a hitman.
Now Charles Cosby has opened up about what made him fall for the jailed Colombian billionaire when he started writing to her in prison in 1991.
Charles Cosby has opened up about what made him fall for jailed drug queen Griselda Blanco
GettyCosby says sex-crazed Blanco regularly paid off guards at her US jail so she could romp with him in a prison broom cupboard[/caption]
AlamyHe also reveals Blanco, who had a penchant for designer clothes, was a great kisser with a tender side[/caption]
Cosby, a former drug dealer himself, says sex-crazed Blanco — dubbed the Cocaine Godmother and brought to life by Modern Family star Sofia Vergara in a new Netflix series — regularly paid off guards at her US jail so she could romp with him in a prison broom cupboard.
He also reveals Blanco — who was imprisoned in 1985 aged 42 and released in 2004 on health grounds after suffering a heart attack — was a great kisser with a tender side.
But Cosby admits his 5ft tall lover, who was assassinated in 2012 at the age of 69, did try to have him killed after she found out he was seeing another woman.
They later had a huge row in jail in 1997 that led to them ending the relationship.
In an exclusive interview Cosby, 56, said: “We first met when I was in my early twenties and she was in her late forties.
“She was an older woman but very attractive.
“She had hazel eyes, a beautiful smile and deep dimples in her cheeks.
“When I first set eyes on her, it was surreal.
“I don’t know if you’ve been to a Rolling Stones concert but the electricity was comparable.”
Bribing guards also allowed Blanco to wear perfume, make-up and her own clothes, rather than prison gear, when Cosby visited.
He added of that first meeting: “She was wearing a silk print jacket, wool slacks and high heels.
“She was decked out — lipstick, blush and her favourite Paloma Picasso perfume.
“We talked for a while and had an amazing connection.
“Later, she arranged for a guard to take me to a back room which was more like a storage room.
“There was a collapsible bed in there and, by the time I arrived, Griselda was lying on it naked.
Drug-fuelled orgies
“We had sex for around 15 or 20 minutes.
“It cost us $1,500, which she paid.
“It was far from romantic but she was my idol so I just wanted to be with her.”
Blanco was by then famed as the female Pablo Escobar, having risen from being a child assassin and pick-pocket in the Colombian city of Medellin to become the head of a feared drug cartel.
Colombian drug lord Escobar, who was killed in a police raid in 1993, is alleged to have once said: “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.”
She suffered sexual abuse as a child and is said to have once been a prostitute, although she denied this.
She wed the first of her three husbands, Carlos Trujillo, when a teen and they had three sons.
Blanco told Cosby that Carlos died of cancer but there are claims she had him killed.
Aged 20, she married Alberto Bravo — who introduced her to drug trafficking.
The next year, in 1964, they immigrated illegally to New York, using false papers, and began to build a network that by the Seventies and Eighties imported huge quantities of cocaine.
Cosby admits his 5ft tall lover did try to have him killed after she found out he was seeing another woman
AlamyBlanco was assassinated in 2012 at the age of 69[/caption]
By the time she was arrested in 1985, and sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking, she was living in Miami and holding drug-fuelled orgies at her South Beach mansion — as featured in the Netflix mini-series.
She ordered countless murders as she battled for control of the drug trade and is credited with having popularised drive-by shootings using a motorbike — hits replayed in the Cocaine Cowboy Wars docu-films.
Her cartel was said to be making £63MILLION A MONTH at its peak.
Years later, languishing in prison, Blanco opened up to Cosby about her early years.
Cosby — who now has a book out, called Hustling With The Godmother: My Life and Times with Griselda Blanco — said: “She told me her childhood was rough and she had to kill to eat.
“It was a violent era and there were no social welfare programs.
“So if the parents or the child didn’t work, they didn’t eat.
“A lot of her playmates were tough kids who carried guns.
“By the time she turned 12 she had killed four or five people.
“Her first murder was of another child, when she was 11.
“They kidnapped this child of well-to-do parents.
“They wanted to trade him for a ransom but the parents didn’t pay so Griselda stuck a gun to his head and blew his brains out.
“He was her age, ten or 11 years old.
“Griselda was heartless but it didn’t put me off because that was then my world too, and she was the biggest fish in the ocean.
“I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight with her but there was attraction and mutual respect.
“Griselda’s personality was as big as the state of California.
“At times she was softly spoken, other times she was very stern, but she was always polite.
“I remember one time, when my mother was really sick and I thought she was going to pass, I told Griselda and she started crying, saying, ‘I love your mum so much, I am going to pray that she recovers’.
“She was always kind like that and never allowed her vast wealth to let her act like she was better than the next person.
“We had a lot of fun together and were one and the same because we both came from poverty and both wanted a better life for our families.
“We both sold drugs.”
‘$20,000 Rolex’
“She was too old to have kids but we did speak about marriage.
“I thought it was a good idea at the time.
“We talked a lot about the future and moving to Colombia together after she was released.
“She never really talked about money, as she said it was tacky to talk about that, even though she was a billionaire.”
“But she was obviously rich.
“In the 300 times I saw her she was never in prison attire, always in designer clothing.”
Cosby, who has now quit crime and lives in Oakland, California, added: “She did tell me about the orgies she held in her mansion.
“You have to understand that with money comes parties, and then the orgies, because everyone is rich.
“Griselda was bisexual.
“She was passionate and a great kisser.
“I called her Babyface and she called me Charlie.
“She bought me gifts and my family gifts as well.
“She was a giving person — jewellery, you name it.
“She would surprise me with expensive gifts like a $20,000 Rolex.
“She also bought me a $55,000 Mercedes — little unexpected things like that.”
Blanco shot dead second husband Alberto in 1975 during a row sparked by her belief that he was stealing money from her.
Eight years later, she got third husband Dario Sepulveda assassinated after he kidnapped their son Michael Corleone — named after Al Pacino’s Mafia kingpin character in The Godfather — during a custody dispute.
This led to her being nicknamed the Black Widow.
Cosby might also have been knocked off, he reveals, had he not developed the habit of wearing a bulletproof vest.
He said of Blanco: “About a year into the relationship, she tried to have me killed.
“I had been seeing this blonde lady called Amber and when Griselda found out, she hired a hitman and they almost succeeded.
Youtube The VillainsRival Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is alleged to have once said: ‘The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco’[/caption]
The Cocaine Godmother poses for her mugshot afer being arrested in 1985
“Some guy pulled up next to me at a stop-light and unloaded their pistol, but I was wearing a bullet-proof vest and it absorbed four bullets.”
Soon afterward, he visited Blanco in jail, and he said: “We had a big blow-up.
“She choked me and said, ‘You’ve been cheating and you can’t deny it, I’ve seen the pictures’.
“I have to say, that was one of the few times in my life when I’ve been afraid.”
The couple broke up a short time after that, and five years later, in 2002, heavy smoker Blanco had a heart attack in prison.
Upon her release from jail in 2004, she was deported to Medellín where she quit crime and found God.
But she was killed in 2012 — ironically by a drive-by shooter.
A reason for her murder has never been established.
Cosby last spoke to her three months before her death, and in 2018 visited her grave in Colombia.
Speaking about the Netflix series, he reckons Colombian-born Vergara has done an “excellent job” of portraying Blanco.
He said: “I predict the series will be very successful.
“Sofia morphed into Griselda — the way she talked, walked, and her mannerisms.
“I give her two thumbs up.”
Charles Cosby’s book Hustling With The Godmother: My Life and Times with Griselda Blanco, is out now.
‘The best thing on TV’
NETFLIX show Griselda has proved a huge hit since debuting last week and topping the streaming giant’s ratings.
Fans on social media have reported being hooked after one episode, and hailed it “the best thing on TV right now”.
NetflixSofia Vergara as sex-crazed drug queen Griselda Blanco in the new Netflix series[/caption]
COURTESY OF NETFLIXWith husband number three in the Neflix show[/caption]
Created by the team behind Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, the six-part mini series set in 1970s Miami offers a “fictionalised” version of the cartel boss’s life.
Lead star Sofia Vergara, 51, who was also an executive producer on the show, spent two hours a day in make-up to be transformed into her character, with fake yellow teeth, a wig and a prosthetic nose.
But the Modern Family actress and America’s Got Talent judge admitted she had previously never heard of the drug queenpin, despite growing up in Colombia during her reign.
She added that Netflix was careful not to “glorify” her in the series, and said: “Griselda caught my attention because she was a woman with many layers.
“She wasn’t just a drug dealer. She was also a mother, a wife and a monster, all at the same time.”
Prior to the show’s release, Blanco’s family tried to legally stop its release, claiming unauthorised use of her image and likeness without consent.
ELIZABETH MORRIS/NETFLIXSofia as Griselda with Alejandro Barrios as Horatio and Mario Perez as Diego[/caption]
ELIZABETH MORRIS/NETFLIXSofia as assassin Griselda – dubbed the Cocaine Godmother, on the new Netflix show[/caption]
GettyBeautiful Vergara in Modern Family[/caption]
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