The boy didnt have no head. The 100 Best Albums of 2022, The Drug Enforcement Agency and the New York Police Department ultimately ended Lucas reign in 1975, with Lucas receiving a 70-year prison sentence. Then he says to me, Come on, lets go. Im thinking, who the fuck is this Bumpy? Lucas brought five brothers into the family "business.". By his own account, he ordered and committed murders, bribed personnel in Vietnam to set up a heroin connection and paid corrupt police officers $200,000 a week. The Biden administrations policy of blocking unvaccinated people from the country continues to make little sense. During the final years of his life, Frank lived on a wheelchair, after an accident broke his legs. Gino Gallina, however, was the only lawyer Lucas ever physically assaulted, the incident occurring in the visiting room of the Rikers Island prison. Back into the U.S. Frank Lucas took a very professional route to grow his business and hired five of his brothers to help him with his business, giving them individual territories to operate in. Especially when he called his 90-year-old church-lady Hulk Hogan-fan mother, which he did about five times a day. Thats the kind of guy he was. His area of operation was Harlem, New York City. Do you know this baby? Mr. Lucas claimed that Mr. Johnson, who was known as Bumpy, became his mentor. Nicky fucking Barnes! Go in and ask to see the assistant manager? The surroundings were not plush. Its part of campaign to smoke out and then attack unpopular Republican cuts. You should have seen me I could really salute.. Shit. Ihad so much fucking money you have no idea, Lucas says, riding around Harlem, his heavy-lidded light-brown eyes turned to the sky in mock expectation that his vanished wealth, long since seized by the Feds, will rain back down from the heavens. Most of his fortune had been confiscated. Mostly these were draftees and enlisted men, but there were also generals and colonels, guys with eagles and chickens on the collars, white guys and South Vietnamese too, Lucas swears. No question, a dead man. Because the war was on, and people were talking about GIs getting strung out over there. The film about his life starred actors Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. A comprehensive new government study concludes that the illness probably wasnt caused by foreign adversaries. Of all the dreadful iconography of Vietnam the napalmed girl running down the road, Calley at My Lai, etc., etc. Wonder what hed say if knew he helped smuggle all that dope into the country? Lucas reportedly fled to New York in 1946 after beating up his former boss at a pipe company and robbing him of $400. Thats trouble. One of Lucas nephews also broke down during the ongoing interrogation and disclosed much of the drug ring to the authorities, which eventually led to the downfall of the Frank Lucas drug empire. Wiki User 2014-09-17. My eyes got big. Its not my fault if your television got stolen, he says. Jamie Reeds shocking account of a clinic mistreating children went viral. Its all about not looking soft on crime. But once Frank saw guys writing policy numbers, carrying big wads, his course was set. Aside from the hulking 369th Infantry Armory, where Lucas and his boys unloaded trucks theyd hijack out on Route 1-9, little about Harlem has remained the same. I wanted to see the world., Afew days after our Harlem trip, drinking Kirins in a fake Benihana, Frank told me how he came upon what he refers to as his bold new plan to smuggle heroin from Southeast Asia to Harlem. Everything is gone. But mostly it was the glory. Mr. Lucass survivors include four daughters, Francine Lucas-Sinclair and Ruby, Betty and Candace Lucas; two sons, Frank Jr. and Tony Walters; many grandchildren and great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mattie Lassiter and Emma Moye; and three brothers, Ezell, Lawrence and LeVon Lucas. Theyd never seen a black man before.. Frank was 88 at the time. Of the dozens of smuggling operations he ran from Asia, Frank still rates the Henry Kissinger deal as an all-time favorite. This followed the previous decision by U.S. District Court judge Irving Ben Cooper, who granted the unusual request of Dominic Amorosa, chief of the Southern District Organized Crime Strike Force, to reduce Lucass 40-year New York prison sentence to time already served., I ask two things, Lucas demanded in our first meeting. Extortion, I guess you could call it. A Whistleblowers Claims About a St. Louis Transgender Center Are Under Fire. Within a few months, he was a one-man, hell-bent crime wave. He witnessed riches in the illegal drugs business and began working alongside the named gangster Bumpy Johnson, whom Frank claimed to be his mentor. One clip, however, did engage Franks attention. The gangsters stopped fucking with me. Added to this is maybe 1,000 keys of dope on hand with a potential profit of no less than $300,000 per kilo. Born in North Carolina in 1930, he moved to New York where he became a prolific heroin trafficker throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Everyone came by Smalls jazz guys, politicians. Trying to steal our shit. 2024 Polls Show DeSantis Cant Easily Knock Out Trump. People like the fuck out of me. This was his primary survival skill, said the former dope king: his downright friendliness, his upbeat demeanor. Lucas' nephew Aldwan Lassiter confirmed his death to. Back in the day, there were plenty of places Mr. Bs, Willie Abrahams Gold Lounge, the Shalimar. Lucas was a renowned drug trafficker and smuggler who operated an enormous drug empire between New York and South East Asia. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. This got Lucass attention. Hey, man, when you gonna pay me?. Once, we went over to the editing room. Nice stuff. The worst of the SIU crew, Lucas says, was Bob Leuci, the main player in Robert Daleys best-sellingPrince of the City. Bumpy Johnson himself couldnt have collected protection from a damn Home Depot, he said with disgust. At $4,200 per unit, compared with the $50,000 that Mafia dealers charged Stateside competitors, it would turn out to be an unbelievable bonanza. Better believe it, Frank!, Stop that! But Smalls was the coolest. Mr. Lucas said he bought 132 kilos, or 290 pounds, for $4,300 a kilo. Leslie was married to one of Lucas cousins and was a former U.S. Army sergeant. We was in trucks, in boats. His sentence was reduced to five years, and he was released in 1981. Thank you for visiting, enjoy the reading and feel free to contact them! A bespectacled man now in his early fifties, Shorty followed Frank to Harlem in 1965. It is an old problem., Acouple of days later, eating at a T.G.I. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time Theres caves in the mountains so big you could set this building in them, which is where they do the processing Id sit there, watch these Chinese paramilitary guys come out of the mist on the green hills. As the Vietnam War raged in the late 1960s and early 70s, a potent heroin called "Blue Magic" flooded into Harlem and Newark from a mysterious Southeast Asian connection. All rights reserved. Offering ham hocks and collard greens on the first floor and a wide array of hookers and dope connections on the second, the Soul Bar, as Frank calls it, was run by the former U.S. Army sergeant Leslie Ike Atkinson, a country boy from Goldsboro, North Carolina, who happened to be married to one of Franks cousins, which made him as good as family. Who gave you this number?. It couldnt have been any other way, Lucas insists, after the Ku Klux Klan came to the shack where he grew up and killed his cousin. In Defense of the Talkative Trump Grand Juror. Privacy Policy and Id bring in three, four keys, let Red go do her thing. Tru Blu, Mean Machine, Could Be Fatal, Dick Down, Boody, Cooley High, Capone, Ding Dong, Fuck Me, Fuck You, Nice, Nice to Be Nice, Oh Cant Get Enough of That Funky Stuff, Tragic Magic, Gerber, The Judge, 32, 32-20, O.D., Correct, Official Correct, Past Due, Payback, Revenge, Green Tape, Red Tape, Rush, Swear to God, PraisePraisePraise, KillKillKill, Killer 1, Killer 2, KKK, Good Pussy, Tasters Choice, Harlem Hijack, Joint, Insured for Life, and Insured for Death were only a few of the brand names rubber-stamped onto cellophane bags. Frank claimed that he flew drugs into America in the fake caskets made for the American servicemen and had brought a North Carolina carpenter to Thailand to make the caskets. Doubts have since been cast on many details portrayed within the film, such as the smuggling of drugs inside returning Vietnam war coffins. He travelled to Bangkok, Thailand, where he met Leslie Atkinson in a bar. . He hobnobbed with Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, James Brown and Diana Ross, and spent lavishly on cars, clothing, jewelry and entertainment. Whos this?, Johnson mentioned a name, someone apparently dead, likely snuffed by a Country Boy or two. Id sit there in Nellybelle and watch the money roll in, says Frank Lucas of those near-forgotten days when Abe Beame lay his pint-size head upon the pillow at Gracie Mansion. Sterling Johnson, a former New York City special narcotics prosecutor, called Lucas operation one of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever . Some say hes dead, but I know hes living in Africa, like a king, with all the fucking money in the world, Lucas sighs. Born in a financially backward family in North Carolina, Frank witnessed a difficult time while he was growing up. Franks money-laundering routine consisted of throwing duffel bags filled with cash into the back seat of his car and driving to a Chemical Bank on East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. Not once.. It wasnt too bad, getting up there, says Lucas. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Those motherfuckers just came in, Lucas says now, sitting in a car across the street from the split-level house where he played pickup games with members of the Knicks. Although Lucas was already a legendary figure before the r Frank Lucas was convicted of many drug related and federal charges and was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Am I going to Heaven or hell?, As far as Frank was concerned, his place in the hereafter was assured after he joined the Catholic Church while imprisoned at Elmira. In front of a blue frame house on West 123rd Street, Lucas stops and gets nostalgic. That wasmymoney . I was a different sonofabitch. Uh-oh, here come the gangstas, he shouts in mock fright, as a trio of youths, blue kerchiefs knotted around their heads, go by blaring rap music. In this meditative isolation, Lucas engages in what he calls backtracking I think about everything I done in the past five years, look in each nook and cranny, down to what I put on my toast in the morning.. Denzel Washington as Mr. Lucas in Ridley Scotts 2007 film, American Gangster., Mr. Lucas in Manhattan with his wife, Julie, and his son Ray. Place is so big, you get lost past the bathroom sinks. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Youll see, he said. Lucas was sentenced to 70 years in jail in 1976. With that careful planning and tactics, Frank soon grew extremely rich, claiming that he was making about a million dollars a day during the heights of his operation. Untouchable. The brazen assertion soon got then-president Jimmy Carter on the telephone demanding that something be done about the Harlem dope trade. Lucas nephew Aldwan Lassiter confirmed his death to Rolling Stone, adding that Lucas died of natural causes. Frederick Lucas (30 March 1812 - 22 October 1855) was a British religious polemicist and founder of The Tablet.His brother Samuel Lucas was a newspaper editor and abolitionist.. In accounts to the authorities, he said that to break the Mafia monopoly on heroin supplies, which were sold in Harlem and Newark by black dealers, he flew to Thailand and met Leslie Atkinson, known as Ike, a North Carolinian married to one of Mr. Lucass cousins. As the leader of the heroin-dealing ring called the Country Boys, Lucas, older brother to Ezell, Vernon Lee, John Paul, Larry, and Leevan Lucas, was known for restricting his operation to blood. Walgreens Wont Sell Abortion Pills in Red States Even Where Its Legal. how many children did jayne mansfield have. Whatever. Then Frank laughs again, putting a little extra menace into it. Who knew about these things? For Lucas, the incident, which occurred in the summer of 1965 or 66, was strategy. We did a scene with me chasing Lloyd, shooting out the window of a Mercedes on the West Side Highway. He was a paid consultant for American Gangster. With Aliya S. King, he wrote an autobiography, Original Gangster, published by St. Martins Press in 2010. But something told me I better keep my damn mouth shut. Frank Lucas was a former American heroin dealer and an organized crime boss who had a net worth of $500,000 at the time of his death in 2019. Notably, he formed a friendship with one of the narcotics agents who had helped arrest him - Richard Roberts. You want to cut, Ill show you how to cut, he said, pulling out his knife. What science tells us about the afterlife. Yet it may not be a loss for the left. I turned around and I saw this guy he was like five feet ten, five feet eleven, dark complexion, neat, looked like he just stepped off the back cover ofVoguemagazine. To hear Frank tell it, he and Ike were desperate to get 125 keys out of town, but there werent any friendly planes scheduled leaving. Red Top! Johnson said, invoking the name of Lucass beloved chief dope cutter. Huey was also a huge part and supporter . For Americas wage laborers, a 32-hour workweek is less of a beautiful dream than an oppressive reality. Arrested at his New Jersey home, where $584,000 in cash was found, he was convicted of federal drug charges in New York and state charges in New Jersey and sentenced to 70 years in prison. An uptown Cosa Nostra. However, he was soon fired from the job after his boss caught him sleeping with his daughter. Putting names to archive photos, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, In photos: India's disappearing single-screen cinemas. In recent years, Lucas was confined to a wheelchair following a car accident. Biden Chooses Crime Messaging Over D.C. Home Rule. Reckless eyeballing, they call it down there. Bumpy had been the link back to the wild days of people like Madame St. Clair, the French-speaking Queen of Policy, and rackets wizard Casper Holstein, who reportedly aided the careers of Harlem Renaissance writers. It was this army inside the Army that would serve as the Country Boys international distribution system, moving heroin shipments almost exclusively on military planes routed to Eastern Seaboard bases. The state has a near-total abortion ban, and now activists and GOP officials are fighting an exemption for physician-defined medical emergencies. matching $10,000 hat. Heres something you ought to see, the gangster says, pointing toward the curb between the Canaan Baptist Church and the New Africa House of Fish. Even so, the story of Frank Lucas, who died on Thursday night in Cedar Grove, N.J., at 88, is a larger-than-life tale of ambition, organization and ruthless brutality. Emily Kohrs didnt do anything wrong, and the medias harsh treatment of the Fulton County foreperson was a gift to Trumps lawyers. It sparked a war of words that quickly got personal. Richard M. Roberts, who led the prosecution of Mr. Lucas in New Jersey, had befriended him in recent years but was under no illusions about what he did long ago. Says Frank: We called him Babyface, and he had the balls of a gorilla. It was true: I liked him. Frank bought heroin at $4,200 per kg and trafficked the drugs into Harlem, where it was sold for $50,000 per kg at-least. During a press conference, the mayor said his words about not believing in the separation of church and state were just his own beliefs. I know Im forgiven, that Im going to the good place, not the bad.. Ha ha ha , During the dope-plague days of the late sixties and early seventies, when the Feds (over)estimated that half the countrys heroin addicts were in New York and 75 percent of those in Harlem, the Amsterdam Newsreported what 116th Street was like during the reign of Frank Lucas. Vish Burra, the congressmans director of operations, met me on Staten Island to explain the plan to make Santos president? City boys aint like that. The idea was to get real, practicing gangsters to play themselves, Price remembers. Ike was very smart, because he made sure we used heavy guys coffins. For years, he has contended that the cops took a lot more than $585,000 from him. Spray Foam Equipment and Chemicals. Frank Lucas, whose life was portrayed in the film "American Gangster," climbed the ranks of crime in Harlem in the 1960s and '70s, becoming a major drug dealer known for supplying huge amounts of . He passed away in New Jersey on May 29. In fact, to someone who got his 1-A in the mail the same day the NVA raised the Red Star over Hue City, the story has always seemed a tad apocryphal. Despite returning again to prison for another drug conviction in the 1980s, he had been free for almost 30 years before his death. He offered gold-wrapped candy bars in a stunt that showed he isnt a worthy successor to his dad. His life of crime rising from poverty to riches in an enterprise that succeeded beyond his wildest dreams was portrayed in 2007 in Ridley Scotts film American Gangster, with Denzel Washington as Mr. Lucas and Russell Crowe as the prosecutor who brought him down. The glory., Then Shorty reached across the table and touched Franks hand. He "owned" certain neighborhoods As backup, Frank was also a Baptist. he demands. Sitting in a blue Toyota at the corner of 116th Street and what is now called Frederick Douglass Boulevard (What was wrong with just plain Eighth Avenue? Lucas grouses), Frank, once by his own description tall, pretty, slick, and something to see but now stiff and teetering around like a fucking one-legged tripod, is no more noticeable than when he peered from Nellybelles window. Talk about bringing the heat, the Country Boy moans. Nicky wanted to make this black-Mafia thing called the Council. Ike knew everyone over there, every black guy in the Army, from the cooks on up, Frank says. Also in his portfolio were office buildings in Detroit, apartments in Los Angeles and Miami, and a mess of Puerto Rico. There was also Frank Lucass Paradise Valley, a several-thousand-acre spread back in North Carolina on which ranged 300 head of Black Angus cows, including a big-balled breeding bull worth $125,000. I just ran out of the place, didnt lock up or even take the money out of the cash register., Show business was more to Franks taste, especially after he and fellow Harlem gangster Zack Robinson began hanging out at Lloyd Prices Turntable, a nightclub at 52nd Street and Broadway. However, Frank had his eyes set on bigger things. He was still yelling. Donald Trump Jr. The Knicks game was over, so we sat around for a few hours watchingThe Black Rose,an old sword-fight movie with Tyrone Power and Orson Welles. Nowhere is the lab-leak debate more personal than among the experts investigating the origins of COVID. From robbing local bars at gunpoint to swiping diamonds from jewelry stores, he slowly became bolder and bolder with his crimes. Hell be loyal to you. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. A pisser and a killer. Later, he ripped off a high-roller crap game at the Big Track Club on 110th. what happened to frank lucas brothers. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. I mean, who the fuck is gonna search fucking Henry Kissingers plane? Icepick Red never got a goddamn shot. Three years later, Lucas was again busted for a drug deal that violated his parole and spent seven years behind bars. Go!. Plays Incompetent Willy Wonka at CPAC. The guy was a pisser. Except right then, everything seemed to stop. By the 1960s, he had constructed an international drug empire. Biden Dares Republicans to Go After Obamacare and Medicaid. It was a world of black people. Post author: Post published: 22/06/2022 Post category: brenda payne hendersonville, tn Post comments: criminal fraternities 18th century criminal fraternities 18th century Frank Lucas, American Gangster Drug Kingpin, Dead at 88, Glastonbury Co-Organizer Promises Female Headliners in 2024 After All-Male Top Billing This Year, NBA Investigating, Team Suspends Ja Morant After Allegedly Flashing Gun on Social Media, See the Beths Deliver Refreshing Expert in a Dying Field Mini-Set on CBS Mornings, NBA 'Investigating,' Team Suspends Ja Morant After Allegedly Flashing Gun on Social Media, Alex Murdaugh Juror Says Cellphone Video, 'Big Liar' Testimony Led to Guilty Verdict, She Used the Bathroom And Became a Target of the Culture War, Here's How LaRussell and Intuit are Helping Independent Artists Understand How to Achieve Their Financial Ambitions, Alex Murdaugh Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Wife and Son, SNL Weekend Update Roasts Dilbert Creator Scott Adams for Racist Rant, SNL Goes After Fox News, CPAC, and the MyPillow Guy in Cold Open, Watch Phoebe Bridgers, Cardi B Join SZA for Madison Square Garden Performance, SST Records Producer Glen Spot Lockett Dead at 72. This is the way to go in life., Frank Lucas Dies at 88; Drug Kingpin Depicted in American Gangster, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/obituaries/frank-lucas-dead.html. They didnt owe me but $100, but I took $400 and set the whole damned place on fire. Told by his mother to run and keep running, he bummed his way northward. This was because, Lucas says, in his down-home creak of a voice, a country boy, he aint hip hes not used to big cars, fancy ladies, and diamond rings. In the 1970s, he and Nicky Barnes made their wealth from drug sales. This deed attracted the attention of a local gangster named Ellsworth Johnson, who asked Frank to join his gang. However, he died on 30th May 2019. In order to do that, he needed to locate the sources of the drugs and deal directly from there. He also quoted investigators as saying that many of Mr. Lucass claims were bogus. . But thats the way it is now. Everyone, Goldfinger Terrell, Willie Abraham, Hollywood Harold, was talking about this big guy, this Tango. On Wall Street, from the giddy-up. In 2007, Hollywood film American Gangster was released, which was loosely based on his life. Read about our approach to external linking. Because I killed the baddest motherfucker. Any other, if you got 5 percent, you were doing good. But the movie reflected Mr. Lucass account of coffins arriving at military bases in the United States, where confederates retrieved the heroin and moved it to Harlem. Frank doesnt expect to see his money again: Its just too fucking old old and gone., Afew days later, I brought Lucas a copy of his newspaper-clip file, detailing the Country Boys long and tortuous interface with the criminal-justice system, a period in which he would do time in nearly a dozen state and federal joints. The Vietnam War was at its full scale in the late 1960s and Leslie knew almost every other black man in the American army. Celebrity news website TMZ reports that he is survived by seven children. His death was confirmed by his nephew Aldwan Lassiter in a telephone interview. You been looking at somebodys daughter. Then, like I knew he would, he started getting hot, going into one of his gorilla acts. Yes, Frank Lucas was a drug trafficker who operated in Harlem, New York City. Frank Lucas, who became one of Americas most notorious gangsters in the 1960s and 70s when he began selling a potent heroin on the streets of Harlem and Newark, in 2007. The film also inspired a Jay-Z album of the same name. Lucas, who imported heroin directly from South-East Asia, was known for his lavish lifestyle. Chris Rock jokes about Oscars slap in Netflix show, Harry: I always felt different to rest of family, Everything Everywhere wins big ahead of Oscars, PM to end asylum claims from small boat arrivals. A moment later, Lucas looks up. Acknowledging that he told Gallina if I didnt get my money in 24 hours he was a dead man and asserting that the lawyer did not deserve to live, Frank still steadfastly maintains he has no idea at all about who murdered Gallina. Then people were talking about tigers. I wanted all the money for myself Harlem was boring to me then. He was born in Westminster, the second son of Samuel Hayhurst Lucas, a London corn-merchant, who was a member of the Society of Friends.He was educated at a Quaker school in Darlington, and then at . But that wasnt the point. Banditos! Im gonna be ripped up by a tiger in this damn jungle. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? In 1984, he was caught again by the authorities for trying to sell heroin and cocaine. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. As previously mentioned, Huey Lucas is the brother of an American drug trafficker, Frank Lucas. Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug kingpin immortalized in 'American Gangster,' has died at the age of 88. After years of arrests and convictions, he is said to have settled for an ordinary life in Harlem. scripps institution of oceanography graduate programs; rosemont seneca advisors website Likely dealing with remnants of Chiang Kai-sheks defeated Kuomintang army, Lucas purchased 132 kilos that first trip. A DEA agent on the scene that night, noting that $10 million in crumpled $20 bills isnt something you just stick in your pocket, vigorously denies Lucass charge. Sold and I got myself a million dollars. Ive always counted on that.. I figured, that does it. We want to hear it. There, Mr. Lucas said, the drug was cut from 98 percent purity to 10 or 12 percent, double the strength of other brands on the streets. Is that mother still living? Youre back, thats good, the Country Boy croaked into the phone. Roberts told local news website NJ.com he had expected Lucas to "live forever". Henry Kissinger! This story was originally published in August 2000. What Lucas will absolutely not talk about is how he got out of jail, the stuff described in clips like a NewarkStar-Ledgerpiece from 1983 entitled HELPFUL DRUG KINGPIN GRANTED REDUCED TERM, in which Judge Leonard Ronco of Newark is reported as cutting in half Lucass 30-year New Jersey stretch. Then the smooth, tawny skin over his cheekbones creases, his ashy lips spread, and his tongue snakes out of his gate-wide mouth. I called him 007 because he was a fucking Chinese James Bond. Double-oh Seven took Lucas upcountry, to the Golden Triangle, the heavily jungled, poppy-growing area where Thailand, Burma, and Laos come together. Watch out. However, Leslie denied the claims and said that the drugs were smuggled only in furniture. Bam! Youre making me nervous, Judge Johnson! Lucas exclaimed before gingerly inquiring, Hey, Judge, they ever get anyone in that Gallina thing?, Johnson laughed and said, Oh, Frank. Known for its near-unlimited authority, the SIU wrote its own mighty chapter in the crazy-street-money days of the early-seventies heroin epidemic; by 1977, 52 out of 70 officers whod worked in the unit were either in jail or under indictment. The Five Families of Dope. Im about the only fly in the buttermilk down here., After he hung up, Johnson chortled, That Frank. It was late, rainy, and a long drive. We had him make up 28 copies of the government coffins except we fixed them up with false bottoms, big enough to load up with six, maybe eight kilos It had to be snug. Frank, man, I told him, this isnt the way they do it in the movie business. . The 4-Day Week Is for White-collar Workers. So in comes Icepick Red. These old ladies kept coming in, shoving these shirts in my face, screaming, Look at this spot I couldnt take it. On September 9, 1930, Frank Lucas was born in La Grange, North Carolina, U.S. and passed away on May 30, 2019, at 88 years old. As Bumpy had once run the Palmetto Chemical Company, a roach-exterminating concern, Frank opened a string of gas stations and dry cleaners: I had a dry-cleaning place on Broadway, next to Zabars. Who the hell is gonna look in a dead soldiers coffin, Lucas said told New York in the 2000 article The Return of Superfly. We had him make up 28 copies of the government coffins . The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time In the 2000 interview with New York which first attracted Hollywood to Lucas story Lucas succinctly explained his cultural appeal and how he managed to survive in the crime game against all odds (including turning states witness).