Infamous America - FRANK LUCAS Ep. 1 | “Godfather of Harlem”

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

Before Frank Lucas is a household name in Harlem, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson runs the city. During the Prohibition and Depression eras, Bumpy rises through the ranks of Stephanie St. Clair’s gang. Bumpy leads the gang in a war against Dutch Schultz’s gang, but Bumpy needs the help of mob boss Lucky Luciano to win. When Bumpy becomes the Godfather of Harlem, he places his trust in a young man called Flash Walker. The decision costs Bumpy dearly. Check out these great books about Frank Lucas, Bumpy Johnson, and Harlem crime: “Harlem Godfather” by Mayme Johnson and Karen E. Quinones Miller “Original Gangster” by Frank Lucas and Aliya S. King Thanks to our sponsor, Quince! Use this link for Free Shipping and 365-day returns: Quince.com/infamousamerica Thanks to our sponsor, Mood! For 20% off of your first order, use the promo code INFAMOUS at Mood.com Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com or @blackbarrelmedia on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helen Brown moved in New York's elite social circles, and she achieved a position of prominence with impressive speed. She became the managing editor and film critic at Vanity Fair Magazine in 1932 when she was 25 years old. It was now 1935, and she was 28 years old. She had been married and divorced twice. She lived and worked downtown, but she went uptown when she wanted to have a good time. One night in the summer of 1935, she went to the Alhambra Theater and Ballroom on the corner of 126th Street and 7th Avenue in Harlem. The popular venue was on the same block as

and right around the corner from the now legendary Apollo Theater. Helen met her date, a well-dressed black man named Ellsworth Johnson. They had been carrying on a somewhat ill-defined, semi-regular relationship for a little while now, and she found him utterly charming. He had a reputation as a gangster, but they mostly operated in separate worlds, so she rarely saw that side of him. That night at the Alhambra, they were having a peaceful dinner, until Johnson saw something over her shoulder. He stood up and removed his hat. His eyes were

fixed on a man across the restaurant. The man was Ulysses Rollins, a gangster from Chicago. Johnson and Rollins were henchmen on opposite sides of a gang war. Johnson worked for Stephanie St. Clair, and Rollins worked for Dutch Shultz. Before Rollins saw Johnson, Johnson moved across the restaurant and tackled Rollins to the floor. A knife flashed between them. Within moments, Johnson was back on his feet and Rollins was bleeding badly. Rollins had been slashed multiple times, and one of his eyes had been badly damaged. While others in the restaurant called an ambulance, Johnson walked back to his table. Ulysses Rollins was transported to a hospital

while Ellsworth Johnson and Helen Brown seemed to have finished their dinner in a fairly casual manner. After dinner, they split up, and Johnson went to a restaurant down the street from the Alhambra. At the hospital, Ulysses Rollins not only survived his injuries, but he was discharged later that night. When he left the hospital, he went in search of revenge. Johnson had not strayed too far from the Alhambra, and he wasn't that difficult to find.

In the second restaurant, Johnson was in the middle of a crowd when he heard a gunshot. A woman near him fell dead. Johnson turned just in time to see an off-duty police officer tackle Ulysses Rollins to the ground. When Johnson looked at his hat, which he was likely holding at the time, there was a bullet hole in it. He was an inch away from being killed. If Rollins had had the use of both of his eyes and wasn't wracked by immense pain, he might have altered the future of Harlem forever. The man he was going to kill, Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson,

was about to become the original godfather of Harlem Crime. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of Frank Lucas, one of the godfathers of crime in Harlem, New York, the man whose life was the inspiration for the film, American Gangster. This is episode one,

Godfather of Harlem. Frank Lucas was in the second generation of Harlem Kingpins. Frank wasn't the most reliable source of information about his own story, but there's no doubt that the story of Frank Lucas can't be told without first telling the story of Bumpy Johnson.

According to Frank, Bumpy Johnson was a father figure and a mentor. According to others in Harlem at the time, Frank and Bumpy weren't quite as close as Frank claimed later in life. Whatever the reality, it doesn't change the fact that there could not have been one without the other. Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson was a force in Harlem from the 1930s through the 1960s, and he set the stage for Frank Lucas in the 1970s and 80s. Like all gangster stories, the story of Bumpy Johnson and the Harlem crime bosses started in earnest in the 1920s

during Prohibition. At the time, Harlem was the largest community of black Americans in the continental U.S. The roaring 20s in Harlem saw an explosion of literature and art, which became known as the Harlem Renaissance. During that time, when gangsters and mobsters made fortunes off of the importation and sale of illegal alcohol, another popular illegal activity cruised along in the background. Everyone knew about it, it made solid money, and it didn't attract high-profile raids by federal agents. Even when the Great Depression hit in 1929, the business kept going. It was the local lottery known in police parlance as the Numbers Racket. By the mid-1930s, Stephanie St. Clair, the woman known as the Queen of the Policy Rackets, and Bumpy Johnson, her top

lieutenant, were in a war with notorious gangster Dutch Schultz for control of the Numbers Racket in Harlem. Stephanie St. Clair's background is mysterious. She moved to New York from the Caribbean Islands in the early 1900s. She seemed to be well-educated, spoke French and English, and she quickly fell in with a gang in Harlem. She was instrumental in building the gang's numbers racket, which earned her wealth and power. In 1924, she met a young man named Ellsworth Johnson,

who had moved to New York from Charleston, South Carolina, five years earlier. Johnson had a fiery temper and a stubborn streak, but he also apparently loved literature and poetry. St. Clair liked him and made him her personal bodyguard, and then her top lieutenant. Johnson had a slight deformation of the skull. Essentially, he had a bump on the back of his head, and he carried the nickname Bumpy from a young age.

He was in and out of prison throughout the 1920s, and by the summer of 1934, he was hardened and ready for war. Bumpy and a crew of only nine men waged a guerrilla war against the Schultz gang. They became a thorn in their enemy's side, but at the same time, Bumpy realized he and his crew couldn't win the war on their own. His men couldn't get close to Schultz no matter how hard they tried. They needed outside help, and Bumpy decided to go way out on a limb. He contacted the most powerful mobster in the city, Charles Lucky Luciano. For 15, he was a guy. For 15, he decided, In 15 years, Luciano had been instrumental in organizing a patchwork of separate gangs into the

five-family Italian mafia structure that still survives to this day. In late 1934, Luciano was arguably the most powerful crime boss in New York. It was nearly unthinkable for black gangs to work with Italian gangs, but Luciano was intrigued by the young man who had the guts to ask for a meeting. Luciano offered Bumpy a job running numbers for him once he, Luciano. took over the neighborhood. Bumpy told Luciano he appreciated the offer, but he wasn't interested. He wanted to run Harlem himself, not work for Luciano. Bumpy Johnson definitely had guts, but he also still had a Dutch Schultz problem. In the summer of 1935, one of Schultz's gunmen,

Ulysses Rollins, nearly killed Bumpy in a restaurant. After the failed murder attempt, and after Rollins healed from the vicious wounds inflicted by Bumpy's night, knife, Rollins went to prison, and Bumpy still had a Dutch Schultz problem. What Bumpy probably didn't know at the time was that Lucky Luciano also had a Dutch Schultz problem. A couple months after Bumpy survived the murder attempt, Luciano solved the Dutch Schultz problem for both of them. My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another, and then, of course, I have a brainstorm about something new.

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The gummies are legal and delivered right to your door. At Mood.com, get 20% off your first order with our promo code, infamous. Go to Mood.com and use the code infamous to get 20% off your first order. And they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. In 1935, Dutch Schultz became the primary target of the new special prosecutor in New York, Thomas Dewey. Schultz put out a contract to kill Dewey, but Luciano and most of the other mob bosses knew it was a terrible idea to kill the lawyer who had been handpicked by the governor to fight organized crime. Up to that time, the criminal underworld had tolerated the reckless, hot-headed Dutch Schultz.

But Schultz had now crossed the line. In October 1935, on orders from Luciano and the other Italian bosses, gunmen shot Dutch Schultz in a restaurant in New Jersey. Schultz died the next day. Stephanie St. Clair and other Harlem crime figures were keen to move in on Dutch's former territory and to regain some of their lost income from the costly gang war. And one of those crime figures was Bumpy Johnson. He had worked for St. Clair for about 10 years,

and he was eager to strike out on his own. Lucky Luciano reached out to Bumpy a week after Dutch Schultz died. Bumpy's crew had shown heart in its fight against Schultz, but it had not been able to win. It hadn't lost, but it hadn't won either. Now Luciano asked Bumpy if he thought he could win a war against the entire Italian mafia, which was poised to take over the neighborhood.

The obvious answer was no, but Bumpy couldn't let them waltz into Harlem and take the numbers racket. Bumpy couldn't win a war against the mafia, but he could interfere with their business to the point where he would be a constant thorn in their side, like he had been for Dutch Schultz. And what was the point of that, if there was a better way?

Bumpy proposed a partnership. The mafia would not intrude in Harlem, and Bumpy would not start any trouble with the Italians. Luciano was bemused by the young upstart, and after a significant amount of haggling, they struck a deal. Bumpy had his independence, as long as he didn't move against the mafia. In addition, Bumpy would handle any issues in Harlem between independent operators and the mob.

It was a sweetheart deal, and Bumpy knew it wasn't only because of his unexpected rapport with Lucky Luchiano. Ultimately, if the mafia wanted something, they would take it, and there was very little Bumpy Johnson or anyone else in Harlem could do about it. But Luciano was willing to give Bumpy a sweetheart deal, because Luchiano was willing to give Bumpy a sweetheart deal, because Luciano had a target on his back. Special prosecutor Thomas Dewey didn't know yet that Luciano had saved his life by taking out Dutch Schultz. Dewey would learn about it in the future, but for now he was blissfully ignorant,

and he moved his target from Dutch Schultz to Lucky Luciano. With new scrutiny from the prosecutor, Lucky didn't want to draw attention to himself by making a big move into Harlem. So, Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson, was the new king of Harlem, a crown which came with another price. Bumpy left Stephanie St. Clair's operation, and she initially felt st.clair's decision. But then she viewed it as a sign of the changing times.

She had been prominent in Harlem's criminal underworld for 15 to 20 years, and she had made a pile of money. She took the opportunity to retire, a luxury afforded to very few crime bosses. So Stephanie St. Clair was out, Bumpy Johnson was in, and then Lucky Luciano was out. In March of 1936, Luciano fled New York to hide in the gangster resort town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In April, he was arrested by federal agents and transported back to New York. In May, Thomas Dewey put him on trial. And in June, Luciano was convicted of running a prostitution ring and was sent to Clinton Correctional Facility, better known as the notorious Dana-Mora Prison in upstate New York. And very soon, he would be joined by his colleague from Harlem, Bumpy Johnson.

There's some disagreement about how much agency Bumpy had during his first short stint as the godfather of Harlem. Some historians characterized him as working for the mob, rather than with the mob. The true nature of the deal is probably impossible to know, and it's also hard to know how many criminal enterprises Bumpy was involved in. The numbers racket was the main business, and his future wife said he didn't get into prostitution or the growing drug trade at that time. But it was his effort to help a local prostitute

that landed him in Danamora. In 1937, he was apparently offering protection to a woman who was being harassed by a pimp called New York Charlie. Bumpy tracked Charlie down, pulled a knife, and attacked Charlie without warning. Bumpy left New York Charlie bleeding on the ground and went about the rest of his night. He went to dinner with his friends and almost forgot about the interaction until a police officer approached him and said he was under arrest. The cop said there was a man in the emergency room

accusing Bumpy of assault with a deadly weapon. Bumpy said there'd been a mistake. He would go to the hospital with the policeman and clear things up. Bumpy was confident that the man would change his story when he came face to face with his attacker. And Bumpy was wrong. When Bumpy and a couple cops walked into the emergency room, New York Charlie was getting prepped for surgery. As Bumpy approached, Charlie pointed furiously at him. He repeated his accusation, and Bumpy lost his cool. He jumped on the hospital gurney and wrapped his hands around Charlie's throat. Bumpy squeezed, and the cops tried to pull him off New York Charlie. Finally, the cops had to hit Bumpy with their nightsticks, to get him to release his grip on Charlie's throat.

Bumpy was charged with assault and eventually sentenced to a decade at Danymorea Prison. While Bumpy was in prison, his lieutenants continued to run his operations in Harlem and funnel cash to him behind bars. But after a while, the money started to dry up. Bumpy started to grow concerned. His famous temper flared up,

and he was convinced he was being betrayed by the men on the outside. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about, it until he was released. On the inside, he had no choice but to make the best of his situation, and helping Lucky Luciano became his golden ticket. Lucky and Bumpy had maintained a cautious distance while in New York, but behind bars, they became close allies. It started in the prison yard when Bumpy saw a guy who was going to attack Luciano with a shank. Bumpy pushed Luciano out of the way and punched the attacker. From then on, Luciano had Bumpy's back.

Bumpy was invited to meals with the mafia guys. The rest of the population ate prison food, but Bumpy dined on pasta and calamari. And while he did, a 15-year-old kid named Frank Lucas arrived in New York. He was a petty thief from North Carolina who would scratch out a living for the next few years until Bumpy got released. Lucky Luciano's sentence was commuted in 1946. He was released from prison and deported to Italy. Bumpy got out of prison a year later and returned to Harlem. He knew he still had friends waiting for him, and he had to make sure they knew who was boss.

The man who came to pick Bumpy up recalled that he was absolutely furious with his crew. As soon as Bumpy got in the car, he wanted a gun so he could kill someone. He didn't know who yet, but he was sure that someone was taking his money. The math just didn't add up. His guys should have been making $4,000 a week while he was last. locked up, but he was only receiving $200 a month. Either the business had cratered or someone was stealing from him. That night, 200 people threw him a surprise party to welcome him back to the neighborhood. His temper finally simmered down as his friends greeted him, offered him envelopes of

cash, and remarked on how much weight he had gained while he was in prison thanks to all the Italian food. During the night, Bumpy learned that things had changed in the last 10 years. With Bumpy gone, the Italians started to move into Harlem. Bumpy's guys weren't stealing from him. They were losing money to the mob. Anyone who wanted to run numbers on the east side needed to give the mob a cut, or the mob would hurt them. Bumpy was outraged.

That was not the deal he made with Luciano. Less than a week after Bumpy walked out of Danamora, he met with the mafia. Bumpy Johnson met Joe Adonis. Joe's real name was Joseph Anthony Dutcheon. Dotto, but he started calling himself Joe Adonis after the Greek god of beauty in the 1920s. Adonis was a close ally of the Luciano crime family. Technically, Luciano still ran the family from Naples, Italy, but Frank Costello was the family's

boss in New York. Bumpy didn't like Joe Adonis very much, but Adonis reportedly gave Bumpy a box full of $6,000 in cash and a brand new 1947 Lincoln Continental car at their first meeting. Despite the gifts, Bumpy needed to play hardball about his territory. He told Adonis that he was going to restart his operations in Harlem. Adonis asked if Bumpy had permission to set up a numbers game, and Bumpy said he didn't need permission. He was still the boss in Harlem. Joe Adonis agreed to set up a meeting for later that night to sort out the situation. Bumpy called his crew together and told them to get their guns. He didn't know if the Italians were going to try any.

but there was no way he was going to walk into a nighttime meeting with the mafia unarmed. That night, Bumpy and four of his guys rolled over to the Palma Boys Social Club on 115th Street. They met Joe Adonis, Tony Salerno, an up-and-coming member of the Genovese crime family, and four-foot soldiers. The scene was six Italian mobsters versus five Harlem gangsters. The meeting started with false praise and soured from there. The mobsters laid it on thick in the early going. They told Bumpy how much they respected him, and they offered to help him open his numbers spot.

But Bumpy knew what they were doing. They were trying to get him to work for them, rather than letting him have his way. In a friendly tone, he told them that he respected them as well, but he was perfectly capable of restarting a numbers joint on his own. With the fake congeniality out of the way, the mood in the room turned serious. Salerno repeated the mob stance that Bumpy would need approval to start a numbers business,

and he would have to give a cut of his profits to the crime family. Bumpy stayed firm. He would hold to the agreement he made with Luciano before they both went to prison, and nothing more. He told Salerno and Adonis to talk to Luciano before they did something rash. After the meeting, Bumpy's guys were concerned. Were they on the verge of going to war with the Italians? If so, they would all stand by Bumpy, but they needed a plan. Bumpy quickly decided that they were going to target mafia associates.

They would grab the guys off the street and hold them for ransom. It was a wild plan, but it was better than an all-out street fight in which they would be badly outgunned. Fortunately, the plan wasn't needed. Adonis sent word to Naples, and Luciano was clear. They were to give Bumpy whatever he asked for. Joe Adonis did as ordered. The next time Bumpy and Adonis met, the mobster's tune had changed,

though he did not order a wholesale stop to their operations in Harlem. Bumpy Johnson was going to have to work for it, but he was back in business. To move the mob out of his neighborhood, he bought back his customers. He offered higher payouts than the mafia's numbers operation, and he siphoned away their customers until they closed completely. Throughout the rest of 1947 and 1948, he kept rebuilding, both professionally and personally. In 1948, he met and married Mamie Hatcher. They moved into a spacious apartment, and Bumpy achieved a rare balance of being a known gangster

and also a respected member of the community. He still had his fiery temper, but he wasn't as quick to explode as he had been before he went to Danamora. and now he was married and settling into the lifestyle of a more traditional businessman. As a businessman, when he was approached about a new employee in December of 1948, he was hesitant. But he gave the kid a chance, and it was great for a while, until it went disastrously wrong. One of Bumpy's younger acquaintances, a boy named Pop Gates, approached Bumpy and Mamie Johnson at a restaurant, and asked if they were any openings in Bumpy's numbers spot.

Bumpy tried to wave him off, but Pop insisted and said he wasn't asking for himself. He was asking for a kid he met while teaching boxing at a local gym. Bumpy and Mamie were both hesitant, but ultimately caved and said they'd meet the young man. The following afternoon, Bumpy walked into their apartment with a teenager trailing after him. He was 19 or 20 years old, handsome and extremely charming. He introduced himself as Flashwalker. The Johnsons liked him, and he became an assistant to the family, doing errands and chores for them whenever they needed something. After a couple weeks, Bumpy trusted the kid enough to let him work one of his numbers spots.

Flash excelled at the job. He started dressing like Bumpy and walking like him. He brought potential girlfriends to Bumpy's place to get his employer's approval. For all the world, Flash Walker seemed like an adopted son. Bumpy and Mamie each had a daughter from previous relationships, and the girls lived at home in the apartment. Mamie always suspected that Bumpy wanted a son who would inherit his kingdom, and for about two years, it seemed like that might be possible. Then Bumpy received a phone call that started the dominoes falling. The call was from a bank manager of all people, and the man accused Bumpy of stealing.

Bumpy went to the manager's office, where he received his second surprise. He was confronted by a prominent local politician. The politician said that checks from his daughter's bank account were being cashed by Bumpy's employees, in spite of her never playing the numbers. The politician, whom Bumpy's biography does not identify, threatened to bring down the full weight of the law on Bumpy's operation. Bumpy wasn't in the business of writing phony checks from rich heiresses. That was a petty crime which opened him up to too much risk for too little reward,

but he thought he knew who might pull such a scheme. Bumpy Johnson's signature temper flared up. He went home and told Mamie what had happened. While he was talking, their daughters entered the room. They'd overheard his tirade, and now they admitted that Flash had made unwanted advances. He had been aggressively flirting and making suggestive comments. Bumpy's fury rose, but Mamie wasn't completely sold on the allegations.

She suspected the girls had grown jealous of Bumpy's close friendship with Flash Walker, and maybe they were exaggerating Flash's actions. But by that point, it didn't matter. Bumpy was primed to go nuclear on the kid he'd treated like a son. Bumpy drove to the Teresa Hotel where Flash was staying. The young man barely had time to greet him as he was getting out of his car before Bumpy was on him. Bumpy punched Flash in the face, and while Flash was still in shock from the first blow, Bumpy threw punches until Flash was bleeding on the pavement.

Bumpy cursed Flash. The young man was no longer welcome in his house or in his place of business. They were done. When Bumpy finally climbed back into his Cadillac, Flash's face was so bloody and swollen, he was unrecognizable. Mamie Johnson waited for her husband to come home all night, but he didn't appear. He returned to the apartment the next day, sullen and quiet. Right away, the phone rang. It was Flash, begging for forgiveness. Bumpy hung up on him without saying a word, and Bumpy didn't stop there.

He told everyone else to do the same. Flashwalkers seemed genuinely repentant, but Bumpy Johnson was having none of it. As Bumpy continued to stonewall the young man he had once viewed as his protege and possible successor, the Rift created tension throughout Bumpy's organization. Colleagues encouraged Bumpy to let the youngster off the hook. Walker's sins were pretty mild in the grand scheme of things. By the time Bumpy realized he should have listened to his friends, it was too late. Another prison sentence loomed on the horizon like a darkening thundercloud,

except this time, it would be federal. And if there was one place in the federal prison system to which a criminal did not want to go, it was the tiny island nicknamed the Rock in San Francisco Bay. Next time on Infamous America, Bumpy Johnson's feud with Flashwalker ends badly for the godfather of Harlem. Then as Bumpy's career winds down, a new member of his crew makes a play for leadership.

Frank Lucas believes it's time to leave the old school rackets behind. In the 1960s and 70s, there are vast fortunes to be made in the drug business. That's next week on Infamous America. To binge all the episodes of a new season and to listen to every episode of the podcast with no commercials, subscribe in Apple Podcasts, or sign up through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. This episode would not have been possible without the book, Harlem Godfather, by Mamie Johnson and Karen E. Quinonis Miller.

It's available wherever books are sold. This series was researched and written by Robert Teamstra. Additional writing by me, Chris Wimmer. Original music by Rob Valier. Thanks for listening.