Is the new movie "American Gangster" taking even more than the normal Hollywood liberties? Reader Cassandra sent over an article of interest involving Frank Lucas and Bumpy Johnson's widow. For those who don't know, Bumpy was Frank Lucas' mentor and was the subject of the Bill Duke directed "Hoodlum", played by Laurence Fishburne. She contends that Frank is a big fat phony, for lack of a better phrase: Frank Lucas, the dope-dealer portrayed by Denzel Washington in the upcoming movie, American Gangster, is a low-down good-for-nothing liar. This according to someone whom would know -- Mayme Johnson.
Johnson is the 93-year-old widow of the infamous Harlem gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson -- the man whom Lucas says was his mentor and who taught him everything he knows. Lucas goes on to say that he was Bumpy's second-in-command, and that Bumpy died in his arms in 1968.
"Frank wasn't nothing but a flunky, and one that Bumpy never did really trust," says Johnson, author of the upcoming book, Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. "Bumpy would let Frank drive him around, but you'd better believe that he was never in any important meetings or anything. Bumpy figured Frank as a liar, and he would say you can trust a thief quicker than a liar, because a thief steals because he needs money, while a liar lies for the hell of it."
Johnson says she was furious when she first found out that Lucas told a magazine writer that Bumpy died in his arms. Lucas, she says, was nowhere around the night that Bumpy died from a heart attack while dining at the famous Wells Restaurant on Seventh Avenue in Harlem. She says Lucas probably thought he could get away with the lie because he figured everyone who was around Bumpy at the time is now dead.
"Junie Byrd's gone, Nat Pettigrew's gone, Sonny Chance is gone, and Finley Hoskin's gone. Frank would never have said any garbage like that if one of them were alive because he'd know they'd come after him," Johnson says. "I bet he thought I was gone, too, but I'm not. I'm 93, and I don't have Alzheimer's or dementia, and I'm not senile. Frank Lucas is a damn liar and I want the world to know it."
Johnson says she thinks it's a shame that Lucas was able to fool Hollywood into believing that he's a bigger shot than he really is, and points out that if he lied about his relationship with Bumpy there's no telling what else he may have lied about in the movie. As far as she's concerned, Johnson states, everything in the movie is now suspect.
"That's why I'm writing this book after all this time," Johnson explains. "There have been legends, myths, and rumors flying around about Bumpy for decades, and I've never spoken to confirm or deny anything -- even when the movie Hoodlum was released in 1997 and contained all kinds of factual errors about the man I loved. You see I never thought the errors were malicious, they just didn't know better. But this . . . well, Frank does know better.
"So now I've finally decided to speak out. To set the record straight. To tell the truth and damn the devil. To let the world know about the real Bumpy Johnson."
Johnson is the 93-year-old widow of the infamous Harlem gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson -- the man whom Lucas says was his mentor and who taught him everything he knows. Lucas goes on to say that he was Bumpy's second-in-command, and that Bumpy died in his arms in 1968.
"Frank wasn't nothing but a flunky, and one that Bumpy never did really trust," says Johnson, author of the upcoming book, Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. "Bumpy would let Frank drive him around, but you'd better believe that he was never in any important meetings or anything. Bumpy figured Frank as a liar, and he would say you can trust a thief quicker than a liar, because a thief steals because he needs money, while a liar lies for the hell of it."
Johnson says she was furious when she first found out that Lucas told a magazine writer that Bumpy died in his arms. Lucas, she says, was nowhere around the night that Bumpy died from a heart attack while dining at the famous Wells Restaurant on Seventh Avenue in Harlem. She says Lucas probably thought he could get away with the lie because he figured everyone who was around Bumpy at the time is now dead.
"Junie Byrd's gone, Nat Pettigrew's gone, Sonny Chance is gone, and Finley Hoskin's gone. Frank would never have said any garbage like that if one of them were alive because he'd know they'd come after him," Johnson says. "I bet he thought I was gone, too, but I'm not. I'm 93, and I don't have Alzheimer's or dementia, and I'm not senile. Frank Lucas is a damn liar and I want the world to know it."
Johnson says she thinks it's a shame that Lucas was able to fool Hollywood into believing that he's a bigger shot than he really is, and points out that if he lied about his relationship with Bumpy there's no telling what else he may have lied about in the movie. As far as she's concerned, Johnson states, everything in the movie is now suspect.
"That's why I'm writing this book after all this time," Johnson explains. "There have been legends, myths, and rumors flying around about Bumpy for decades, and I've never spoken to confirm or deny anything -- even when the movie Hoodlum was released in 1997 and contained all kinds of factual errors about the man I loved. You see I never thought the errors were malicious, they just didn't know better. But this . . . well, Frank does know better.
"So now I've finally decided to speak out. To set the record straight. To tell the truth and damn the devil. To let the world know about the real Bumpy Johnson."
From IW: In Frank's defense, even by her own admission Mayme was not the angel she was portrayed as in "Hoodlum" by Vanessa Williams. And whose to say she doesn't have an agenda of her own since, as she says, she and Frank are the only ones who are still around to know? Interesting just the same. If you would like to see the rest of her story, click here.
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