Original Gangster: The Real Life Story of One of America's Most Notorious Drug Lords

By David Poyer

Book Overview

A suspenseful memoir from the real life American gangster, Frank Lucas In his own words, Frank Lucas recounts his life as the former heroin dealer and organized crime boss who ran Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. From being taken under the wing of old time gangster Bumpy Johnson, through one of the most successful drug smuggling operations, to being sentenced to seventy years in prison, Original Gangster is a chilling look at the rise and fall of a modern legacy. Frank Lucas realized that in order to gain the kind of success he craved he would have to break the monopoly that the Italian mafia held in New York. So Frank cut out middlemen and began smuggling heroin into the United States directly from his source in the Golden Triangle by using coffins. Making a million dollars per day selling "Blue Magic"--what was known as the purest heroin on the street--Frank Lucas became one of the most powerful crime lords of his time, whilerubbing shoulders with the elite in entertainment, politics, and crime. After his arrest, Federal Judge Sterling Johnson, the special narcotics prosecutor in New York at the time of Lucas' crimes, called Lucas and his operation "one of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever, an innovator who got his own connections outside the U.S. and then sold the narcotics himself in the street." T his powerful memoir reveals what really happened to the man whose career was dramatized in the 2007 feature film American Gangster, exposing a startling look at the world of organized crime.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312544898
• ISBN13: 9780312544898
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A nuanced techno thriller

Poyer's latest effort shows a level of research and sophistication usually absent in the techno-thriller genre. His books have shown increasing sophistication, and this one brings his sharp eye to the problem of American intervention in a decidedly third world country. It is, first of all, an engrossing read, and one that I only reluctantly put down. As I was reading the book, the "crisis" was unfolding in Haiti, and many of the issues raised in Poyer's book were played out in that setting. Our intervention in third world countries is more complicated than some would admit. For example, unlike some other writers in this area, Poyer does not see Islam as a monolithic, terrorist organization, but as a faith that, just as any religion, may be twisted to justify horrific acts, and used to further political agendas. The warning implicit in this book is that of unintended consequences of well-meaning policy. Even if we were to really understand the culture, language and history of one of these very foreign places, how all these interact with our overwhelming capacity to exert power is not well understood. It is a cautionary tale, and one that may not comfort those who see the US, and US military power as the solution to the world's problems.

One of the best!

Always enjoy Poyer. He's one of the best contemporary and action authors. He always produces a good reading book. I've read and have all of his books in hardback. Have read several of them more than once.

this deserves to be on the best seller list

While lesser works jump to the top of the best seller lists, others labor to find a wider audience. The author has produced a wonderful story with a cast of characters the reader cares about. He shows us the good and the bad, and makes them real. The action and technology are informed and hard hitting. A great timely effort.

super thought provoking thriller

The western governments are very concerned with the civil war in Ashaara on the strategically important Horn of Africa. The constant fighting has sent the country into deepening destitution with shortages in sustenance life necessities in a place that was already overrun with abject poverty. If the spiral turns any worse, Ashaara could become a nation void of central authority and home to outlaws and Jihadists. To prevent this horror from turning even more calamitous, the US Navy sends Commander Dan Lenson and his Tactical Analysis Group into the area to provide humanitarian aid to the besieged masses and to train a patrol squad in the Red Sea. With chaos the norm, Lenson and his unit realizes they cannot distribute the assistance without an infrastructure followed if successful by a force to weed out terrorists. However, what seems obvious to aid the forlorn proves complex and ugly as internal and external forces see the region as a ripe place for their specific agenda with people being damned. The Crisis is a super thought provoking thriller that will have readers pondering ethical and logistical questions involving aid to nations desperately in need but lack the infrastructure to make proper distribution. The story line is fast-paced from the moment TAG and its leader receive the assignment, but really takes off in Africa when the team learns the boots on the ground dynamics of the situation is appallingly chaos. Alliance switch within a murmur and helping the indigent is impossible due to avarice of leaders who seek wealth or ideological and religious advantage over truly caring for the downtrodden. Harriet Klausner