With so much hype about Denzel Washington's new movie "American Gangster", I thought that I would write a little something about the real Frank Lucas.
They say the “American Gangster” is based upon a true story. But it cannot all be true. This is how myths and legends are made. They would never tell the whole true story. I know, because I knew the man in the movie- not Denzel Washington, but Frank Lucas himself.
When I first saw the trailer, it jumped out at me. This was not a cheap Fifty-Cent gangster rap hip-hop movie. This was one of the real gangsters from the old school. I recognized the hat and the dress style as something from the 1960s, and immediately I said to myself, “I know this guy”- the American Gangster. I did time with him in prison.
At first, I thought it was Nicky Barnes, once featured on the cover of Time magazine as “Mr. Untouchable”, the black gangster out of New York who averaged $5 million a month in the drug trade- the guy I played chess with every day out on the prison yard. But no, instead, it was Frank Lucas, Mr. Untouchable’s predecessor- the guy who worked in the prison dish tank with me- the guy best known for shipping high quality heroin from Indo-China in the body bags of dead American soldiers who died in Vietnam.
I could not help but wonder how Hollywood got Frank’s life story, until I read the interview with Denzel. Damn, Frank is still alive, now in his 70s. But Hollywood kills him off in the movie- so much for “true stories”.
“American Gangster” also confirmed another rumor. Nicky Barnes is still alive. Both Lucas and Barnes survived to get out of prison, and both are alive, today- no doubt living in hiding under the federal witness protection program. Both men turned snitch.
Will Hollywood tell the whole story, that both men turned state’s evidence to get out of prison? Will they tell about the J. Edgar Hoover illegal FBI wiretaps and how they decoded the secret language used in the drug traffic? Will they show the CIA’s part in the drug trafficking and the duffle bags of pure heroin being transported across Indo-China during the height of the Vietnam War? Will they portray Frank Lucas as a lowly army sergeant cook or some super war hero?
I wonder, which provokes my desire to see the movie even more.
Somehow I fear that revisionist’s history is again in the making- a true story that is not altogether true. Damn, why did Frank Lucas come out of hiding to sell his story to Hollywood? How was it arranged? Under the federal witness protection program, a snitch is not supposed to reveal his new identity. Otherwise, the government is exonerated from protecting him, and there are many men in prison looking for the whereabouts of Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes.
Recently, I posted a YouTube video interview of Nicky Barnes, whose image was blacked out. Nevertheless, he looked different. When I knew him, he had hair. Now he is bald. They say Cuba Gooding, Jr will portray the part of Barnes in “American Gangster”.
The cast of characters (Denzel and Gooding, Jr.) will almost guarantee the movie’s success. Some even suggest that Washington gives another Oscar-winning performance. On its merits, the movie has historical value. But I am afraid that black youth will come away with the wrong impression, just as the younger generation idolized Lucas during his day when he reigned as drug kingpin of the world. It was the old school gangsters that gave birth to the gangsta culture of today. Every black boy in Harlem wanted to be like Lucas and Barnes, because they had lots of money, fancy cars, diamonds, women, and a wardrobe to kill for.
One of the funny stories told to me by Lucas was how he stashed all his cash in a closet. As the money piled up, it was harder and harder to close the closet. He had to put all his body weight against door in order to throw more money into the closet.
That was the only story I remember from Lucas. But I learned even more about the secret language they used in their telephone transactions- a variation of Pig Latin with the use of “z” breaking up the symbols. Everybody on the streets of New York and Washington could speak it, and it was even put to music. But the Feds could not figure out a word.
Nicky Barnes was another character in prison, dethroned like the rest of us, and given a number for an identity. Whatever we were in the outside world meant nothing. We were all a number, and nobody was a big shot. So, I thought nothing of their crime life. Everybody in super-maximum security had a high profile crime life. Therefore, nobody was impressed with used-to-bees. As proof, a black inmate of no distinction slapped around the infamous “Teflon Don” Mafia boss, only to have a hit contract put out on his life. But it was the Mafia boss who did not live to come out of prison.
Like Lucas, Nicky Barnes got a reduced prison sentence for ratting on his partners in crime. I never knew it at the same that Barnes was snitching, though I knew many men who, one day, would disappear from the prison compound and next day become a government star witness. When I look back and remember, I can understand what broke Leroy Nicky Barnes. I should have been able to detect it, playing chess with him every day.
You see, Barnes would hold his head in his hands as he studied the chessboard, and whenever he thought he made a great move, he would jump up, clap his hands, and walk around the table- kind of like circling his opponent. Fact is, Nicky Barnes was a man with things on his mind, more important than chess. He was thinking about the rumors the Feds were whispering to him about his lieutenant, his wife, and his daughter. His best friend had moved into the void he left behind in the outside world- the drug empire, the money, his wife, and now rumors that he was having sex with his teenage daughter also. The next day Nicky Barnes disappeared from off the face of the earth, until I saw the YouTube video.
Had he come out of hiding also to sell his story to Hollywood? Did he and Frank collaborate on this project? Hell, I didn’t even know that the two guys knew each other, though I now recall their names cropping up in the same conversations in prison.
Yeah, I think that I will go see the movie, but not on its opening night on November 2, which is Economic Blackout Day in support of the Jena 6. I must see it in order to sort between fact and fiction, and set the record straight, if necessary.
I still cannot believe this is the way Frank Lucas wishes to be remembered, as a gangster who destroyed the black community with his drugs. Maybe there is a message here. I know Barnes tries to convey a message of sorts through his video, about what he used to be and the fact that it was dangerous to even know him during his heydays. But I see nothing that will prevent other youngsters from following down his path.
This is why I hesitate to publish any of my memoirs. This is not how I want to be remembered, as a gangster revolutionary and bank robber. Whenever I mention any aspect of my old life as the Black Robin Hood, it is always in the context of a larger lesson to be learned.
You see, I know how myths and legends get started. It was not I who named myself the Black Robin Hood of Texas. This was a Feds’ thing that had been going on since Hoover began publishing his Most Wanted List. He gave every high profile criminal a nickname. The Black Robin Hood myth began on the streets. They said I robbed from the rich and gave to the poor- not true. This rumor got started after my last bank robbery when it was reported that while trying to escape, we threw money out the window as we drove through the black neighborhoods of Fort Worth- again, not true.
But people would rather believe the myths and legends, and old outlaws are not going to tell otherwise. But for the sake of history, we must put the facts in order.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
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