Frank Lucas biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Born September 9, 1930, in La Grange, North Carolina, Frank Lucas was a country boy who grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. As with many larger-than-life personalities, the biography of Frank Lucas is shrouded in fact, mystery and myth, much of which has been perpetuated by Lucas himself.

Lucas grew up in rural North Carolina during the depths of the Great Depression. Many Americans in the rural South were poor at this time, but most African-Americans suffered the deepest poverty. Lucas spent much of his early youth looking after his younger siblings and getting into trouble. He has claimed that the one incident that sparked his life of crime was witnessing the murder of his cousin. He was only six years old when five members of the Ku Klux Klan, shrouded in sheets and hoods, showed up one night at the shack where he was living. The men killed Lucas's 13-year-old cousin on the spot, claiming he had looked at a white woman in a flirtatious way. But, like much of the folklore surrounding Frank Lucas, investigators have never uncovered evidence to support his claim.

As the oldest boy in the family, Lucas had to find ways for the family to survive. With the Depression raging on, it was difficult to obtain and hold a job, so he resorted to stealing food. Later, as he got older and stronger, he found some success mugging intoxicated customers outside the local tavern. In his later teen years, he got a job working as a truck driver for a pipe company until he was caught in the act of sleeping with the boss' daughter. In the ensuing fight, Lucas hit the father on the head with a pipe, knocking him out cold. He then stole $400 from the company till and set the establishment on fire. Fearing he would be arrested and jailed for much of his life, his mother pleaded with him to flee to New York.

Move to New York

Frank Lucas arrived in Harlem in the summer of 1946. People told him to be smart and get a decent job as an elevator operator or door man at a hotel. But Lucas saw how real money was made on the streets, through illegal gambling and drugs. With each ensuing crime, he became more bold and ruthless. He first robbed a local bar at gunpoint. Then he stole a tray of diamonds from a jewelry store, breaking a guard's jaw with a slug from his brass knuckles. Feeling confident, he brazenly broke into a high-stakes crap game at local club and robbed all the players. Then, in the summer of 1966, on a crowded sidewalk, Lucas shot a local thug who reneged on a dope deal. His efforts caught the eye of Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, a long-time Harlem gangster who controlled gambling and extortion operations.

There is some disagreement over how close Lucas was to Johnson. Lucas claims Johnson took him under his wing, and eventually became Bumpy's "right-hand-man." Others close to Johnson, including his widow, Mayme, testify that Johnson distrusted Lucas and never made him more than a flunky. What is true is that Frank Lucas learned well from Johnson