Frank Lucas, the dope-dealer portrayed by Denzel Washington in the upcoming movie, American Gangster, is a low-down good-for-nothing liar. This according to someone whom would know -- Mayme Johnson. Johnson is the 93-year-old widow of the infamous Harlem gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson -- the man whom Lucas says was his mentor and who taught him everything he knows. Lucas goes on to say that he was Bumpy's second-in-command, and that Bumpy died in his arms in 1968.
"Frank wasn't nothing but a flunky, and one that Bumpy never did really trust," says Johnson, author of the upcoming book, Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. "Bumpy would let Frank drive him around, but you'd better believe that he was never in any important meetings or anything. Bumpy figured Frank as a liar, and he would say you can trust a thief quicker than a liar, because a thief steals because he needs money, while a liar lies for the hell of it." - from press release for Mayme Johnson dated Oct. 2, 2007
AP Story updated 1:56 p.m. EST, Tue
January 22, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) -- In "American Gangster," which is "based on a true story,"
Denzel Washington -- as the '70s drug lord Frank Lucas -- confidently marches
deep into the jungles of Southeast Asia as the Vietnam War rages in the
background. He is looking for drugs.
Denzel Washington plays drug lord Frank Lucas in "American Gangster."
Later, we see police break open the caskets of Vietnam casualties flown back to
the States, searching for the heroin Lucas has audaciously hidden beneath the
corpses. Then Lucas is shown as the dope dealer-turned-reformer as he exposes
legions of corrupt police.
Except none of the above ever happened.
The Harlem kingpin's infamous "cadaver connection" -- a pipeline of top-grade
Southeast Asia heroin smuggled in GI caskets -- has always been at the center of
his considerable and enduring mythology.
But it turns out that the casket story is just that -- a myth. And after
revelations that "American Gangster" fabricates Lucas' role in rooting out
police corruption, the film's credibility could be damaged. "Gangster" earned
just two Oscar nominations Tuesday -- one for supporting actress Ruby Dee and
one for art direction; actors Washington and Russell Crowe and director Ridley
Scott were shut out.
"Everybody always thought the caskets (carried heroin) -- even I thought it,"
says federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., who as special narcotics prosecutor was
instrumental in Lucas' arrest and trial.
"The picture is 1 percent reality and 99 percent Hollywood," Johnson says.
"Frank was illiterate, Frank was vicious, violent. Frank was everything Denzel
Washington was not."
On Wednesday, several former Drug Enforcement Agents who investigated Lucas
filed a class-action lawsuit against General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal
claiming the film defames them and grossly misrepresents the truth. Produced by
Brian Grazer and directed by Ridley Scott, the film has grossed more than $129
million at the box office and won largely positive reviews.
Johnson says Lucas wasn't capable of securing a drug connection from the
infamous Golden Triangle. Instead, it was Leslie "Ike" Atkinson, a sometimes
supplier for Lucas, who was recently released from prison after serving more
than 30 years.
Atkinson has said he shipped drugs in furniture, not caskets.
"It is a total lie that's fueled by Frank Lucas for personal gain," Atkinson
said by e-mail. "I never had anything to do with transporting heroin in coffins
or cadavers."
Author and journalist Ron Chepesiuk is currently working on a biography of
Atkinson and co-authored "Superfly: The True, Untold Story of Frank Lucas,
American Gangster." He blames the media for allowing Lucas' story to go
unchecked.
Chepesiuk says his research found no evidence or court records to substantiate
the cadaver connection, "the biggest hoax in the history of the international
drug trade."
The story of Lucas' supposed connection first flourished on the streets, and was
widely spread in a 2000 New York magazine article by Mark Jacobson. His article
was the basis for the movie.
"The magazine piece is a presentation of this guy's story and that's what he had
to say," Jacobson says.
Even Lucas, now 77 and living in New Jersey, now claims he only smuggled heroin
through coffins once. "I had a false-bottom coffin made."
New Jersey police detective Richard "Richie" Roberts (played by Russell Crowe)
is elevated to Lucas' foil in the film. Though Roberts, now a defense attorney,
did play a role in the prosecution of Lucas, on screen he's a composite of many
detectives and prosecutors.
"They wanted a white boy," Lucas says of Roberts character.
Lucas is shown to turn informant, specifically against corrupt police officers.
A legend at the end of the movie claims three-fourths of New York's Drug
Enforcement Agency were convicted thanks to Lucas' cooperation.
On Wednesday, former DEA agents Jack Toal, Gregory Korniloff and Louis Diaz
filed their lawsuit, represented by Dominic Amorosa, a prosecutor in the 1975
federal case against Lucas.
"(Lucas) was my informant for years," Toal says. "He never mentioned any crooked
DEA agent or cop."
A DEA spokesman in Washington, Garrison Courtney, confirmed that no agents were
ever charged with wrongdoing in the case.
A Universal Pictures spokesman, Michael Moses, has said the lawsuit is "entirely
without merit" and that the film "does not defame these or any federal agents."
The day before the lawsuit was filed, a spokesperson for the studio gave a
statement to The Associated Press stating: "Universal Pictures has every
confidence that the material facts are conveyed truthfully in 'American
Gangster,' from abundant research with direct sources and from the public
record."
Grazer, who bought the story and shepherded the project for years, declined to
be interviewed for this article.
Lucas can only recall informing on a police detective he called "Babyface," but
denies informing on other gangsters or drug dealers: "I never testified on
nobody," he said.
Prosecutors involved in the case have contradicted that. Roberts, who prosecuted
the superseding indictment in New Jersey, says of Lucas' insistence that he
didn't inform on fellow dealers: "Absolutely not. He gets mad every time I tell
the truth." (Roberts and Lucas later became friends and Roberts is even the
godfather to Lucas' youngest son.)
Toal says those Lucas informed on were "unanimously" criminals: "He never talked
about a dirty cop or a DEA agent. He never gave up anybody like that. It was 100
percent drug dealers."
Lucas's sentence of 70 years was reduced to five years after his informant work.
Once released, Lucas was quickly arrested again for drug dealing, but on a much
smaller scale. He served seven more years and got out of jail in 1991.
Lucas remains full of vitriol for the Special Investigations Unit, which he
calls "nothing but a shakedown." Many SIU detectives were indicted in the '70s
following an investigation in which NYPD detective Bob Leuci went undercover
among his colleagues, though there's no evidence that Lucas' collaboration had
anything to do with the charges.
Leuci's story has already hit the big screen. Robert Daley's book about Leuci,
"Prince of the City," was turned into the 1981 film of the same title by Sidney
Lumet.
But Lucas' legend has only grown since "American Gangster" was released, leaving
some -- like Roberts -- to wonder if they've helped glorify a villain.
"I'm glad this over," Roberts says. "I'll tell you that."
And also setting the record straight on Lucas' real relationship with legendary Harlem gangster, Bumpy Johnson -- whom Lucas has said was his mentor -- is the new book "Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson," written by Johnson's 93-year-old widow Mayme Johnson in colloaboration with Essence Bestselling author, Karen E. Quinones Miller.