The Criminal Kingpin Who Kept Order in the Streets of Harlem
One reason why Bumpy Johnson was not as well-known as other iconic American criminal figures is that he was black, and so were most of his victims. His exploits did not resonate far beyond Harlem. Another factor is that there was something cold and reptilian about him. Most famous criminals were hot and passionate. Bumpy Johnson, by contrast, quietly made his victims disappear. In that, he was like Al Capone’s successor Frank Nitti – another crime boss who ran his criminal kingdom for decades attracted little public attention throughout and died of natural causes while free.
Bumpy Johnson died of a heart attack in a Harlem restaurant around 2 AM on the morning of July 7th, 1968, when he clutched his chest and keeled over. His death was dramatized in the movie American Gangster, in which he expired in the arms of his surrogate son and successor, Frank Lucas, who went on to revolutionize New York’s drug trade. Bumpy Johnson had dominated Harlem’s criminal scene for decades and maintained some measure of order on the streets. After his death, various contenders scrambled to fill his shoes. Their competition, and a desire to control it and keep things from getting out of hand, led to the rise of what came to be known as the black mafia, until that eventually fractured and chaos reigned.
