Filed Under: After the High. After the Headlines. After Blow
George Jung, the man who moved mountains of powder for the Medellín cartel and became a cult icon after Johnny Depp portrayed him in Blow, lived long enough to try for something else: peace, redemption, maybe even love.
He didn’t get all of it. But he got farther than anyone expected.
“That’s how my ride on the Starship started.”
“I told him he had to be naked when he opened the door,” Ronda said. “So there I was, knocking on the hotel room door with a camcorder rolling. George answered the door in all his glory, wearing only his Ray-Bans. And he said, ‘Hello, Mistress.’ That’s how my ride on the Starship started.”
Ronda Jung never set out to fall in love with Boston George. In 2001, she watched Blow with her 11-year-old daughter. When the film ended, a prison address flashed on the screen. Her daughter wrote a letter. George replied.
“It was a wonderful letter,” Ronda told us. “He dropped so much knowledge on her.”
Ronda started writing too. They exchanged letters for fourteen years. She never visited him. They never spoke on the phone. But when he got out in 2014, she packed up her dog and her life and drove to California.
“He just wanted a little house, a boat, and plenty of Scotch.”
Jung’s release from FCI Fort Dix on June 2, 2014, marked the start of an unexpected final act. At 71, after nearly two decades behind bars, George walked out and reconnected with his daughter Kristina Sunshine Jung, gave interviews about prison life, and promoted a semi-autobiographical book called Heavy.
“The women are still beautiful,” he told reporters. “The golf balls are still round.”
For a while, he stayed quiet, living in the Bay Area, adapting to normal life, hustling to make ends meet. By 2016, he was broke and agreed to shoot a reality TV pilot called Poverty Sucks where he re-learned how to do laundry and tried to reconnect with Kristina. It didn’t sell.
Then came a violation of his parole. A four-hour San Diego trip for a paid appearance that he couldn’t get cleared for. He got thrown back into custody in late 2016 and spent eight more months locked up. When he got out again in 2017, he didn’t look back.
Instead, he started filming Boston George: Famous Without the Fortune, a five-part docuseries that followed him through his final years. It included a filmed reunion with Johnny Depp. The actor, who once played him, had become a real-life friend.
“George was always looking for a son.”
Back on the outside, George had a new goal. Not fortune. Not revenge. Family.
“George had a huge soft spot for young men,” Ronda said. “He loved passing on his wisdoms. He really wanted a son to raise and teach. All these young guys were drawn to him, and they all said how his story changed them or saved them.”
He tried to do meet-and-greets. He dreamed of holding court on Cape Cod, talking to fans, offering life lessons in flip-flops and Ray-Bans. But then COVID hit, and it all shut down.
So he stayed close to home.
By 2020, George had moved back to Weymouth, Massachusetts—his hometown. He lived quietly, still smoking cigars, still offering reflections on crime and consequence, still being “Boston George” for the people who needed that.
He remained on probation until late 2020. And then, finally, he was free.
“We just share when the urge hits.”
An autographed image of a race car owned by GeorgeJung
Ronda now runs BostonGeorgeGear.com, where fans can find mementos. But it’s not a merch machine. It’s more like a shrine.
“We have a site where there are some items,” she told us, “but as far as things I put up, it just happens at the moment when the urge hits me to offer something of George’s.” ❤️
There are shirts. A belt. A few signed things. One guy wears George’s old belt every day. Ronda keeps the more personal stuff—like the photo album he carried through prison. Maybe someday she’ll share more.
But for now, it’s about the feeling. The vibe. The memory.
“He saved my life.”
George didn’t go out in a blaze. He went out slowly, with Ronda and a friend named Roger at his side.
By early 2021, his liver and kidneys were failing. He entered hospice care at home in Weymouth. On May 5, 2021, George Jung died at 78.
He was cremated per his wishes. His Instagram and Twitter accounts posted the quote from Blow:
“May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face, and the winds of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars.”
He was survived by Kristina. They had reconciled, in a quiet, imperfect way. Just months earlier, Kristina’s daughter—George’s granddaughter—had died in a car crash. It rocked the family.
But George had Ronda. And in the end, Ronda had him.
“Georgie saved my life,” she told us. “Everything about him was filled with such intense emotions and feelings. He was a super Star.” ✴️
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