Frank Lucas

Frank Lucas: The American Gangster

INTRO

There is no question that when you hear about the true “American Gangster” someone is talking about Frank Lucas. Before being arrested and sentenced to jail, Frank claimed to be making $1 million a day selling drugs on 116th Street in Harlem, NY. He was known for buying his supply directly from Southeast Asia, also called the “Golden Triangle”. It was said that he would smuggle the drugs using the coffins of American service men. Frank Lucas was a heroin dealer and organized crime boss. These theories and research will prove so.

BACKGROUND

Frank Lucas was born on September, 1930 in La Grange (Lenoir County), North Carolina, but raised in Greensboro, North Carolina (A&E). He was encouraged to a life of crime after witnessing his 12-year-old cousin murdered at the hands of five members of the Klu Klux Klan, for “reckless eyeballing”. That is, looking at a Caucasian woman.

Lucas then involved himself in small offenses. Being the oldest boy in the family, he had to find a way to put food on the table, so he began to steal food, and later robbing drunks. He continued with his petty crimes until one day he got into an altercation with a former employer, setting his place on fire. To avoid the trouble, his mother advised him to flee to New York. In Harlem, he picked up on the same lifestyles and began pool hustling until getting the attention of Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson.

Bumpy was the drug boss at the time, working under the Italian mafia, and took Lucas under his wing. Frank served as Bumpy’s driver for some time, but how long is not certain. Lucas claims to have been his driver for 15 years, but it is said that Johnson only spent 5 years out of prison before his death in 1968. After Johnson’s death, Lucas took his place. He wanted to end the monopoly that the Italian mafia held in New York, so that he could be successful. Lucas traveled around and finally to Stilwell, Oklahoma where he went to Jack’s American Star Bar, a rest and relaxation place for black soldiers (Jacobson). Here he met former U.S. Army Sergeant Leslie “Ike” Atkinson. With Ike’s help, Lucas was able to smuggle drugs into the U.S. with a direct link from Asia.

It is said that Lucas used the corpses of dead American soldiers to smuggle the drugs, although both Lucas and Atkinson deny it. Lucas claimed that Ike made copies of the government coffins and fixed them up with false bottoms that were big enough to load from six to eight kilograms. Ike claims that they used furniture and not caskets. Either way, Lucas said he racked in around $1 million a day. Sterling Johnson, federal judge and special narcotics prosecutor in New York at the time, said the operation was, “one of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever, an innovator who got his own connections outside the U.S. and then sold the narcotics himself in the street” (Jacobson).

Lucas held monopoly on heroin market in Manhattan by having connections with the Sicilian and Mexican mobs. Lucas just wanted to be rich, and in doing so he only trusted close friends and relatives from North Carolina to handle his dope management. He thought that they would be less likely to steal and be tempted by the different immoralities in the city.

“Blue Magic” was the name of his heroin. It was supposedly 100% pure when shipped from Thailand and sold at 98% to 100% purity on the street (Jacobson). Around this time Lucas claimed to be worth around $52 million, much of the money kept in Cayman Island banks, which is located in the western Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica.

Lucas’ drug racketeering came to an end in January of 1975. His house in New Jersey was raided by a task force consisting of 10 agents of U.S. DEA and 10 NYPD detectives attached to the Organized Crime Control Bureau (Chepseiuk and Gonzalez). He was convicted of both federal and New Jersey State drug violations and in 1976 was sentenced to 70 years of prison. After being convicted, he provided evidence that lead to more than 100 further drug-related convictions. Frank and his family were place in witness protection program, in 1977 for safety. In 1981, Lucas was released from prison after serving 5 years, and placed on lifetime parole. He got caught trying to exchange heroin again in 1984 and sentenced to seven years, released in 1991.
THEORIES AND RESEARCH

Frank Lucas’ actions from childhood, all the way up until he was caught in 1975, can be related to various crime theories.

First is the Strain Theory. The Strain Theory as defined by Robert Merton in 1938 is when there are discrepancies exist between aspirations and achievements (Hagan). Crime, then, arises when one is pressured into achieving goals, but not being able to access all socially acceptable means such as education, hard work, and financial savings. As defined by Cohen in 1955, the youth are held to the standards of upper classes regardless of social economic status (SES). Low SES youth could achieve their status through delinquency (crime).

After Lucas’ cousin’s death and being head male in charge in the household he had to find means to provide for his immediate family. Not having much money, nor educational background, Lucas saw no other way to obtain his needs other than to steal. He began stealing food to put on the table at home, then he moved on to rob drunks to obtain monetary assets.

Next, is the Modeling Theory, which is basically imitation. According to Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), one patterns their behavior after behaviors of others. Under this theory people in close contact tend to imitate each other, moving from the top down. New acts or behaviors will either re-enforce old ones or replace them (Law of Insertion). Along with the Modeling Theory is the Social Learning Theory in which people learn through observing others’ behavior. This occurs through four main phases of imitation:
0. Close contact,
0. Imitation of superiors,
0. Understanding of concepts
0. Role model behavior.
Southerland’s (1939) Differential Association says that anyone can become criminal.
There are 9 key points that describe this theory:
0. Criminal behavior is learned.
0. Crime is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication. 0. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups. 0. When criminal behavior is learned the learning includes techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes. 0. The specific direction of motives and attitudes is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. 0. They become predisposed to criminality because they have an excess of definitions that favors violating the law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law. 0. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. 0. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning. 0. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values (Southerland).

Bumpy Johnson is the person that Frank Lucas took after. Being Bumpy’s driver for some time made Lucas accustomed to Bumpy‘s lifestyle and it eventually became his. Lucas was able to learn Bumpy’s tactics and after his death Lucas took his position, but just enhanced it. Instead of working for the Italian mob like Bumpy did, Lucas wanted to work for himself and cut out “middlemen” by buying directly from the source in the Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), through his connections with an accomplice by the name of Leslie Atkinson.

The last theory is Control Theory. This theory has four elements of social bonds:

0. Attachments(most important)- bonds to others and institutions. 0. Commitment- degrees to which individuals maintain a vested interest in traditional social and economic system. 0. Involvement- engagement in legitimate activities. 0. Beliefs- how much you buy into a controversial system.

If these four elements are weak or broken, then delinquency is more likely to happen. This theory also suggests that a person’s behavior is caused by what a person wants at any given time. It’s intended to satisfy one or more of the following needs: survival, belonging and loving by others, power, freedom, and fun (Glasser). As it relates to crime, it is assumed that humans are not predisposed to crime nor to conformity. Instead, we happen to be rational and will only turn to crime when the advantages outweigh conforming to the norms and values of others.

Although Lucas remained connected to his family after moving on to New York, the other social bond elements were interrupted. The incident of his cousin being murdered by the KKK, turned his concept of life around. It inspired his life of corruption. He started little with stealing and robbing. This was the only way that he has ever seen as a source of income. His life in New York after taking up his mentor Bumpy’s traits transformed his petty crimes into larger money making crimes (dope dealing). Once Lucas began making money from drug dealing, he never looked back. This was his mode for survival. It was his way of keeping his immediate and extended family close, by letting them handle his operations. It gave him power because he held a monopoly in the dope industry in New York. With the amounts of money that he was making, he was free to purchase just about anything he pleased.

CONCLUSION

Although there are questions about certain activities of Frank Lucas, there is still enough evidence here to prove that he was a heroin dealer and an organized crime boss. His tactics of getting his drugs directly from the source save him money, which in turn helped him gain more of a profit. He held true to the term discretion, keeping his operations, for the most part a secret, by having family members managing the deals. He also kept his drugs out of his own house, which made it harder for the police to trace the dealing back to him. He did own a lot of expensive clothing (I.e. chinchillas); however, on any ordinary day he would dress casual, to keep from looking too “flashy” because he knew it would draw attention. His ideas and actions made him large sums of money and earned him the title of the “American Gangster”. The film American Gangster (2007) starring Denzel Washington was made to highlight Frank Lucas’ life.

WORKS CITED

Chepesiuk, Ron, and Anthony Gonzalez. "The Raid in Teaneck." Crime Magazine: An Encyclopedia of Crime. 14 Oct. 2007. Crime Magazine. .
Glasser, William. "Choice Theory aka Control Theory." Control Theory. Mountain Union College. .
Jacobson, Mark. "Lords of Downtown." New York Guides 25 Oct. 2007.
Jacobson, Mark. "The Retun of Superfly." New York Magazine Services 7 Aug. 2000.
"Learning Theories of Crime." Learning Theories in Criminology. Austin Peay State University. .
Lucas, Frank. "Breakfast With the Real 'American Gangster '" Interview with Bradley Davis. Breakfast with the real 'American Gangster '-Inside Dateline. 26 Oct. 2007. MSNBC. .

Cited: Chepesiuk, Ron, and Anthony Gonzalez. "The Raid in Teaneck." Crime Magazine: An Encyclopedia of Crime. 14 Oct. 2007. Crime Magazine. . Glasser, William. "Choice Theory aka Control Theory." Control Theory. Mountain Union College. . Jacobson, Mark. "Lords of Downtown." New York Guides 25 Oct. 2007. Jacobson, Mark. "The Retun of Superfly." New York Magazine Services 7 Aug. 2000. "Learning Theories of Crime." Learning Theories in Criminology. Austin Peay State University. . Lucas, Frank. "Breakfast With the Real 'American Gangster '" Interview with Bradley Davis. Breakfast with the real 'American Gangster '-Inside Dateline. 26 Oct. 2007. MSNBC. .