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Lesser Known But Intriguing Historic Criminals

Khalid Elhassan October 17, 2019 32 min

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History - Crime

21. Harlem’s Most Notorious Gangster

Harlem’s most famous criminal is probably Frank Lucas (1930 – 2019) who was depicted by Denzel Washington in the 2007 blockbuster, American Gangster. The movie took artistic license with the facts, but it got the broad strokes right: Lucas was a big player in the heroin trade, and was one of America’s biggest drug dealers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Lucas was born and raised in North Carolina, and after a few years of petty crimes such as mugging drunks outside bars, he got a job at a pipe company at age 16. His employment ended when his boss walked in on Lucas having sex with his daughter. In the ensuing fight, Lucas knocked out the outraged father with a pipe blow to the head. Then figuring in for a penny, in for a pound, he stole $400 from the company till, and fled to New York City.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.