Those who have watched The Godfather of Harlem already know who Bumpy Johnson is. But for many people this remarkable person is from the 20s e an unknown figure. Bumpy Johnson grew up in Harlem, New York and managed to become a mafia boss there. different casinos a round of drugs. For years, Bumpy ran the illegal casinos in harlem with an iron fist. Read The Story of Godfather Bumpy Johnson here.
Who was Bumpy Johnson and where did he grow up?
Bumpy Johnson was born Ellsworth Raymond Johnson in 1905 in South Carolina. He grew up at a time when there was a lot of racism. This made his parents increasingly worried about the way Bumpy grew up. When Johnson was young, he was already nicknamed bumpy, this was due to an unusual bump on his head. Which translated into English to Bumpy. In the end, they chose to send Bumpy to New York where his sister Mabel lived. Once living in Harlem, Bumpy soon left high school, leaving him to do shady jobs on the streets.
When he was about 15 years old, he began to move more and more to the streets where he discovered ways to earn money. Like many young people at that time, he already gambled on the streets with dice and doing (criminal) chores. It was also during that period that bumpy came into contact with the wrong people who dragged him into the criminal life. This is how Johnson started at age 16 e already with armed robberies and offered security, to nearby shops, along with his corridor.
On the streets, he runs into William Hewlett, better known as Bub. Bub was a well-known gangster who worked for Mafia boss Dutch Schultz. This Bub saw the potential in Bumbpy Johnson and invited him to work for him in security in Harlem.
Bumpy in the world of casinos
Meanwhile, there was a war going on in the underground casino scene in New York. There were numerous illegal places where poker and blackjack were offered. Lotteries were also very popular among the poor population of New York City. Italian lotteries were especially popular. These slot games were popular among the working class as these games were already offered for a few cents to a dollar.
At the time, it was Dutch Schultz who served in the betting offices in the Bronx. Every betting house here caught the mob boss with German parents, a percentage of the many illegal betting houses that make up the Bronx. All betting houses and bookmakers agreed, except 1: Stephanie St. Clair, a female gambling executive who refused to cede a portion to Dutch Schultz.
In this battle with Dutch Schultz, The " Queen of the Policy Rackets” needed help in the fight. She saw in Bumpy a hard and brutal bodyguard who could do the job for her. Together they took on the fight against the most notorious Mafia boss of the moment, Dutch Schultz.
Johnson started a separate kind of guerrilla technique against Schultz. He took Schultz's Men 1 for 1, the stories say Bumpy killed and kidnapped more than 40 people during that period. In 1935, Dutch Schultz's life came to an abrupt end when the well-known Italian mafia figure Lucky Luciano had Schultz assassinated. This brought an end to Schultz's rule in the New York casino world.
Cooperation with the mafia
Around the same time, Stephanie St. Clair (perhaps through the attack on Schultz), turning her gambling business over to Bumpy Johnson.
With Schultz out of the way, Lucky Luciano and Bumpy saw opportunities to work together. Johnson could take over all casino operations in Harlem if luciano would get a portion of the profits. Despite the fact that Johnson prefers not to give a percentage, he had managed to pacify the war between the mafia and Johnson's Black clan. Bumpy thus forced respect from the African-American population of Harlem by being the first black man not to bow to the white mafia. From then on, Johnson was a leading figure in the underworld and upper world of Harlem.
After smelling the big money in the casino business, the drug world beckoned to Bumpy, where the real big money was earned. Johnson therefore began to interfere in the heroin trade. So he grew into the Kingpin of Harlem who had control over everything, so no 1 business could be started without the approval of Bumpy.
Now that the real money was being made, Johnson also wanted to do some good for his neighborhood of Harlem. He decided to help the most vulnerable and the underclass of Harlem with distributing meals and also supported families by, for example, paying tuition from the poor people. As a result, Johnson found himself on two sides of society. He was a murderous mafia boss who became a kind of Robin Hood for the poorer of society.
15 years in prison for Bumpy Johnson in Alcatraz
Like all criminals, Bumpy ends up in jail. In 1952, Johnson was accused of trafficking heroin. This puts him on a 15-year sentence in the infamous Alcatraz prison. Through the many connections that the mafia boss had, he helped some fellow prisoners escape. Something was of course also easy for him, but he did not want to be on the run and therefore decided to serve his sentence neatly. So that he could resume his life without any problems when he was released.
In the end, he was released into a world that had changed a lot compared to before his imprisonment. Without his presence, the Italians had managed to take over the drug trade in Harlem. As a result, Bumpy had to return to work to restore order in his neighborhood. This was also the period when Bumpy was then eligible with well-known and up-and-coming activist Malcom X.
Malcolm X and Bumpy Johnson
To regain control of Harlem and clear the neighborhood of all junkies and drugs, Johnson eventually teamed up with Malcolm X. Malcolm X was an up-and-coming activist and leader of the Nation of Islam at the time. Which was an Islamic Organization for African Americans. The two had known each other since the time when Malcom was still engaged in criminal activities on the streets.
Eventually, Malcom saw that he could no longer be associated with a well-known criminal like Bumpy Johnson. He therefore broke off the friendship and also did not want to take advantage of Johnson's men who secured and protected him. Less than a week after breaking off friendship and security, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York on February 21, 1965.
The death of Bumpy
In the end, a heart attack ended the life of Ellsworth Raymond Bumpy Johnson. He died in 1986 at the Wells restauZodiac in Harlem, where he suffered a heart attack at the age of 62. Despite the fact that several major mafia bosses had already made an attempt to get rid of him earlier in his life, the mafia boss still managed to die of natural death.
