In the last few days of the Ford crack smoking scandal, the most explosive new suggestion is that Anthony Smith, the young man pictured here hanging out with Mayor Ford, may have been murdered because of the video tape of Mayor Ford smoking crack. To date, though, the evidence for this has been pretty thin. It all stems from conversations between Mayor Ford’s new ‘logistics’ chief David Price and Ford’s former Chief of Staff Mark Towhey. On top of that, we only have anonymous accounts of what was said in those conversations.
The Globe and Mail now has a short piece on Price’s background which firms up at least what appears to have been said in that conversation.
In case you’re catching up, Price is a longtime family friend who once worked as a hashish dealer with the Mayor’s older brother (and city councilor) Doug. He joined the Mayor’s staff last month just as the drug rumors began to heat up. And, interestingly, just days after signing on his wife sued for divorce because he’d racked up massive gambling debts. According to the article, these gambling debts also included a line of credit he’d taken out on the couple’s home. Then in addition to that, they also spent $75,000 on a losing ‘legal action’. And then finally, Price seems to have been unemployed for several months after leaving his last job before getting picked up for the ‘logistics’ gig with the Mayor for what the Deputy Mayor and City Councilor Doug Holyday heard was “more than [what] some long-serving staffers” were getting paid.
Anyway, that’s Doug Price. Divorce papers suggest he’s racked up big gambling debts and hocked his house and was out of work before getting hired by the Mayor to handle logistics.
So, back to the murder.
Remember that Price allegedly went to Chief of Staff Mark Towhey and asked hypothetically what should be done if they knew where the crack-smoking video was. Towhey (not surprisingly) feared Ford’s people were going to try to find it and went to the police. And at some point during that conversation Price added the detail that he understand that Anthony Smith (the guy in the picture with the Mayor) may have been killed because of the tape.
Here’s the Globe and Mail’s new bit on that conversation …
Police detectives have been asking what Mr. Price knows about the alleged video of Rob Ford. On May 17, according to sources, Mr. Price had a conversation with the mayor’s chief of staff, Mark Towhey, about it.
According to one source, Mr. Price told Mr. Towhey of a theory that the video may have been related to a homicide and he mentioned an address in connection with the video’s whereabouts.
“Is that a theory or do you know that,” Mr. Towhey said, according to the source.
Mr. Price, according to the source, told Mr. Towhey the theory was credible.
If that’s how the conversation went down, it’s really not to surprising that Towhey decided to go to the police since it sounds like Price was not speculating but had some real reason to believe that this was true.
