Biography of frank lucas american gangster interview
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Frank Lucas
American crime figure (1930–2019)
For other people with the same name, see Frank Lucas (disambiguation).
Frank Lucas (September 9, 1930 – May 30, 2019) was an American drug lord who operated in Harlem, New York City, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen,[6][7] as depicted in the feature film American Gangster (2007), which fictionalized aspects of his life. This claim was denied by his Southeast Asian associate Leslie "Ike" Atkinson.[8]
In 1976, Lucas was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 70 years in prison, but after becoming an informant, he and his family were placed in the Witness Protection Program. In 1981, his federal and state prison sentences were reduced to time served[2] plu
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American Dreamers: On Frank Lucas, Jay-Z and a New York City Crime Epic
In the 1970s, the streets of Harlem were no joke. Although you could still hear James Brown’s funk at the Apollo, catch a flick at the Victoria, buy 45s at Bobby Robinson’s record shop, party with mack daddy players at the Shalimar and eat chicken & waffles at Wells, the community had also become saturated with grime, crime and heroin. As a child of that era as well as that area, I clearly recall the notorious living dead junkies standing in the shadows of tenement doorways, nodding on street corners and plotting on the next person they were going to rob to pay for their fix.
Some of those lost souls were disillusioned people who rarely left the hood while many others were Vietnam vets who came back to amerika scarred and hooked on “that stuff,” as my grandmother referred to the drug. Most junkies weren’t great at holding down jobs, and their random crimes contribute
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Frank Lucas/YouTube
When I started writing full-time for newspapers back in 2007, I was a crime reporter, a feature writer, and a music critic. The humor column that would become my bread and butter was yet to materialize, and I spent a lot of time transcribing court decisions and land transfers.
Less than two months later, I was interviewing one of the most notorious crime figures in American history.
I’d written album reviews as a freelancer for roughly a year, but my first major news story was about a gruesome crime story I’d rather not recount. I remember the paper’s graphic designer Richard Clark standing behind me as I spoke to the defendant on the phone, who as you might imagine was not happy to be talking to a reporter.
Richard later complimented me on keeping my cool and not letting the accused control the conversation. For someone who’d gone from writing about music to interviewing accused felons, it was a much-needed confidence boost that would pay d