Bumpy Johnson Alcatraz
Oscar Winning actor Forest Whitaker transforms himself into Ellsworth Raymond Johnson, otherwise known as Bumpy Johnson, for his leading role in the new series “Godfather of Harlem.”
The show follows the Harlem gangster as he is released from Alcatraz in 1963 after spending more than a decade behind bars.
Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1905, getting the nickname Bumpy from a bump on the back of his head. When Johnson was 10, his older brother, Willie, reportedly was accused of killing a white man.
Bumpy Sentenced to Alcatraz Prison In the summer of 1952, Jet, a weekly magazine aimed at African American readers, began profiling Bumpy and his lavish lifestyle. Unfortunately, 1952 also saw Johnson indicted for selling heroin. Bumpy argued that he was framed, but he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The main prison building was built in 1910–12. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. Bumpy Johnson returns from Alcatraz to reunite with his family and reclaim his Harlem territory from Italian mob boss Vincent Gigante; he finds an unlikely ally in his old friend Malcolm X.
Afraid of a possible lynch mob and worried about Johnson’s short temper, his parents mortgaged their home to raise money to send Bumpy to Harlem so he could live with relatives.
After moving to New York City, Bumpy eventually came to power working for racket boss Stephanie St. Clair as an enforcer. The pair went to war against several New York crime bosses, including Dutch Schultz.
After Schulz was shot to death, St. Clair laid low and Johnson came into power, ruling Harlem from the 1930s to the 1960s.
He and mob boss Lucky Luciano formed an alliance — Johnson would control Harlem, and Luciano's crew would get a cut of the profits.
Johnson’s reputation was split. He was often referred to as Robin Hood, because he constantly gave to those in need. But while Johnson was notorious for handing out turkeys during the holidays, he was arguably just as renowned for his illegal activities.
'That was interesting to me on a number of levels, because when people are trying to rise up in a community where they feel like they have no options, what are their choices to be able to be successful?” Whitaker told InsideEdition.com.
'I mean he was an entrepreneur, self made boss, a visionary, a leader, and he spoke for many,” rapper Rick Ross told InsideEdition.com at the series' red carpet premiere at New York City’s Apollo Theatre.
Sylvia Rhone, the first black woman to be appointed chairwoman and CEO of a major record label, and current chairwoman and CEO of Epic Records, grew up in Harlem and has fond memories of sneaking out of her home to catch a glimpse of Johnson and his crew.
'I love those guys. I have like a little thing for gangsters,' Rhone laughed. 'I was much younger than they. I used to leave my little high heels in the stairwell in my building put on my flats, go out and I was ready. I'd sit on the barstool like I was cool,' she recalled to InsideEdition.com.
'Bumpy Johnson was a legend. I mean, he cared about...here's the funny thing. Was he a nice guy? Of course. Was he a bad guy? Absolutely. But he had somewhat of a heart for his people,' Chazz Palminteri, who plays Joe Bonanno on the show, told InsideEdition.com.
The series also shines a light on Johnson’s relationships with activists like Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Baptist pastor who became the first black person from New York elected to congress.
'Bumpy had surrounded Malcolm with bodyguards to protect him for a period of time. Then Malcolm said, 'I can't do that. I can't be connected to you.' And took those guys away about two weeks before he was killed. So that was really a striking thing,' Whitaker said.
Markuann Smith is one of the show's executive producers and has a familial connection to Johnson.
'Bumpy's granddaughter is my godmother. So it took me 18 years to develop this and curate it and just do it the right way,” Smith told InsideEdition.com.
Margaret Johnson, Smith's godmother, passed away in 2016. Smith said he promised her he would see the project all the way through. 'I got 1,000 no's before I got one yes. I tell people you could either chase your pension or your passion. So I decided to chase my passion. And this is where we at right now.”
Smith said this is a story about the American dream.
'It's not a glorification of Bumpy Johnson being a gangster. This is the collision of civil rights and the underworld. It's not just a gangster story. You'll see the movements from the LGBTQ movement, to the Black Lives Matter, to the Me Too movements,” Smith told InsideEdition.com.
“All these movements happened in 1963. So, it's not a black gangster story. It's a story about redemption. It's a story about determination,' he added.
Johnson would only be out of prison for five years before dying in 1968 after suffering a heart attack at a Harlem restaurant. Johnson was 62 years old. At the time, he was under federal indictment on drug conspiracy charges.
His death happened just months after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in April, which touched off race riots around the country. But as much as race relations have changed since the 1960s, one could argue that they have also stayed the same.
“Not much has changed. Less of the big drug dealer, but a lot of the racism that happened during that time is happening now,” Rhone said.
“That's the bad part about this show is that nothing really has changed since the '60s. The only thing that I wanna get back to is the unity. We had more leaders,” the show’s executive music producer Swizz Beatz told InsideEdition.com. 'Everybody has the potential to be the next great leader. It just comes with taking the risk, being respected, being honorable.”
'Look. Have we come a long way? Yes. Do we still got a long way to go? Yes. I think it's a process. It's a never ending process,” Palminteri said.
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Breaking Rock
Live blogging the book “Breaking the Rock: the Great Escape From Alcatraz” by Jolene Babyak
P. 97. Everyone knew “Bumpy.” He was the last of the big-time gangsters from Harlem but he was top drawer.
West, Morris, and the Anglin Brothers knew they had a problem on their hands after several black inmates spotted them digging holes in their cells. They probably figured it was only a matter of time before they were ratted out as payback for some of West’s violent outburst against black prisoners. Jolene Babyak theorizes that they probably wanted to threaten these inmates with a shank to intimate them into silence. Frank Morris, who happened to work with some of these guys in the brush shop put a stop to that line of thinking. His idea was to talk to Bumpy Johnson.
Bumpy Johnson was the “Al Capone of Harlem”. He got his nickname from the fact that he had a bumpy ride through the prison system, doing over twenty-five years in prisons such as: Sing-Sing, Attica, Rikers Island, Atlanta and of course Alcatraz. He was convicted for running a prostitution ring and selling drugs. Fun fact: he was played by Lawrence Fishburn is the film Hoodlum. Awesome flick. I’ll have to do some research but his run ins with the crazy Dutch Schultz made for a fun film.
P. 97. “Popularity is power in prison,” he once said. “People didn’t touch you if you had friends.”
Bumpy was welled liked by the inmates. Hell, even the guards liked him! In his file he was considered “dignified,” “intelligent,” and “cooperative.” Here was a man who others looked up too and this was who Frank Morris turned to to help keep their plans quite.
P. 102. …the risky part was that more and more prisoners were being told about the escape attempt in an ironic effort to keep everyone quite.
I wonder if at some point in their plan if anyone ever felt like things were spiraling out of control? That at any moment a guard could walk in on them and inspect their cell. Maybe a fellow prisoner, who couldn’t help his mouth shut, would accidentally spill the beans. Or quite simply, getting careless and busted for smuggling stolen items. I suspect that once word spread it became like some element of destiny to it. Either they were going to escape successfully or get busted before they had a chance to put their plan into action.
P. 106. Marion was rumored to be replacing Alcatraz as the new super max pen.
Marion, Illinois, a new maximum security prison that was under construction in early ’62. Jolene describes how the guards moral was slowly being chipped away with these rumors. No-one was for sure that Alcatraz was going to close but it was all they were talking about. Losing your job is almost as bad as the threat of losing your job. The uncertainty is a bitch! At least if you know your job is gone you can move on to the next thing, well that’s the hope.
P. 113. He [John] shaved the edges down until it fit neatly into the recess of his wall. Then he draped his towels over the sink pipes, completely covering his fake vent, and drifted off to sleep.
Using canvas art boards and tobacco boxes to carve fake vents was another genius move by these guys. Necessity IS the mother of invention. These fake vents were so good that even after a cursory glance they still fooled the guards. Impressive.
Bumpy Johnson Alcatraz Escape
P. 120. He had made a stunning turnaround in his work and behavior record.
Bumpy Johnson Alcatraz
In another ironic twist. Allen West and Frank Morris were having their sentences reduced because of their good behavior and great attitudes toward their jobs. I guess there is nothing like sticking it to the man that brings out exceptional behavior.