East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the east and north. Despite its name, it is generally not considered to be a part of Harlem proper, but it is one of the neighborhoods included in Greater Harlem.
Ellsworth Raymond "Bumpy" Johnson was an American crime boss in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.
Sherwin David "Wood" Harris is an American actor. He first garnered attention for his role as Motaw in the Jeff Pollack film Above the Rim (1994), prior to portraying high school football player Julius Campbell in the Walt Disney Pictures film Remember the Titans (2000) and Jimi Hendrix in the Showtime television film Hendrix (2000). He attained further recognition for his portrayal of drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on the HBO crime drama The Wire (2002–2008). Harris also played the role of cocaine dealer Ace, based on the life of Azie Faison, in the crime film Paid in Full in 2002.
The Irish Mob is a usually crime family–based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial Midwest, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Sex, Money, Murder is a Blood street gang operating on the East Coast of the United States. It was formed in the Soundview section of The Bronx in the Soundview Houses, a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development. It is one of the original sets (subgroups) of the United Blood Nation.
Paid in Full is a 2002 American crime drama film directed by Charles Stone III. The characters Ace, Mitch, and Rico (Cam'ron), are fictionally based on the 1980s Harlem drug dealers Azie "AZ" Faison, Rich Porter, and Alpo Martinez. The title of the film is borrowed from the 1987 album and song by Eric B. & Rakim.
The Black Mafia Family (BMF) is a drug trafficking and money laundering organization in the United States. It was founded in 1985, in Southwest Detroit by brothers Demetrius Edward "Big Meech" Flenory and Terry Lee "Southwest Tee" Flenory. By 2000 it had established cocaine distribution sales throughout the United States through its Los Angeles-based drug source and direct links to Mexican drug cartels. The Black Mafia Family operated from two main hubs: one in Atlanta for distribution run by Demetrius Flenory and one in Los Angeles to handle incoming shipments from Mexico run by Terry Flenory.
Stephanie St. Clair was a racketeer who ran numerous enterprises in Harlem, New York in the early 20th century. St. Clair resisted the Mafia's interests for several years after Prohibition ended; she became a local legend for her public denunciations of corrupt police and for resisting Mafia control. She ran a successful numbers game in Harlem and was an activist for the black community. Her nicknames included: Queenie, Madame Queen, Madame St. Clair and Queen of the Policy Rackets.
Larry Davis, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African American organized crime emerged following the first and second large-scale migration of African Americans from the Southern United States to major cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and later the West Coast. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling, and speakeasies were seen in the post-World War I and Prohibition eras. Although the majority of these businesses in African American neighborhoods were operated by African Americans, it is often unclear the extent to which these operations were run independently of the larger criminal organizations of the time.
Yankees–East 153rd Street station is a commuter rail stop on the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, serving Yankee Stadium and the Highbridge neighborhood in the Bronx, New York City. It opened on May 23, 2009, and provides daily local service on the Hudson Line.
American Gangster is a documentary television series, which airs on BET. The show features some of black America's most infamous and powerful gangsters and is narrated by Ving Rhames. The series premiere, on November 28, 2006, amassed around one million viewers. The first season ended on January 9, 2007, and comprised 6 episodes; a season 1 DVD was released on October 23, 2007. The second season aired October 3, 2007; a season 2 DVD was released on June 10, 2008. In April 2009, A&E Networks purchased the rights to air seasons 1–3 on their networks. They can be seen primarily on the Bio Channel and the flagship A&E Channel. They can also be seen on A&E's Crime and Investigation Network.
Matthew Madonna is a member of the Lucchese crime family who served as acting boss before being imprisoned in 2017.
The East Harlem Purple Gang was a gang or organized crime group consisting of Italian-American hit-men and heroin dealers who were semi-independent from the Italian-American Mafia and, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and the Bronx during the 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. Though mostly independent of the Italian-American Mafia and not an official Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family. It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family, and its remnants or former members are now part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Charly Wingate, better known by his stage name Max B, is an American rapper and singer. He is best known for his solo Public Domain and Million Dollar Baby series of mixtapes, and introducing the term "wavy" as a slang in popular lexicon.
Frank Larry Matthews, also known as Black Caesar, Mark IV and Pee Wee, was an American drug trafficker and crime boss who sold heroin and cocaine throughout the eastern United States from 1965 to 1972. He operated in 21 states and supplied drug dealers throughout every region of the country. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ranks Matthews as one of the top ten drug traffickers in U.S. history and he is estimated to have had US$20 million in savings.
Richard Thomas Porter, better known as Rich Porter, was an American drug kingpin and gangster who rose to prominence in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City during the crack era in the mid–1980s. The 2002 film Paid in Full was based on Rich and his partners Azie Faison and Alpo Martinez.
Albert Geddis Martinez, better known as Alpo Martinez, Abraham G. Rodriquez, or more simply as Alpo or Po was an American drug dealer from Harlem, New York City of Puerto Rican descent. He rose to prominence in the mid–1980s. In addition to New York, Martinez expanded his drug trade to other cities, notably Washington, D.C.
Mob Style was an American hip hop group from Harlem, New York, consisting of rappers A.Z., Pretty Tone Capone, Gangster Lou and Whip Wop.
