By David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc.
Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson was a poet with a pistol. A crime boss who quoted Shakespeare and forced the Italian Mafia to the negotiation table. He didn’t just run Harlem’s underworld, he helped shape it. In doing so, he turned himself into a gangland legend.
Ellsworth Raymond Johnson was born on October 31, 1905, in Charleston, South Carolina. His nickname “Bumpy” came a short while later because of a pronounced knot on the back of his head. As a child, Johnson was confronted right away with the fact that he was born into a world dominated by the Ku Klux Klan and racial violence.
After his older brother Willie was accused of killing a white man, he was sent to Harlem in New York City for safety. His 10-year-old brother “Bumpy” joined him. The move would define him. Harlem was exploding at that time: culturally, politically, and criminally. Johnson came of age at the precise moment when black racketeers began carving out space in a city dominated by white gangs.
Johnson earned his reputation through violence, intelligence, and nerve. He was involved in all sorts of crimes. Everything from prostitution to burglary. When caught, he kept his mouth shut and did his time. While behind bars, Johnson spent his time eagerly reading books and writing poetry. He was training his mind and keeping it sharp, despite his grim surroundings.
Going to war for Harlem’s “Numbers Queen”
In the underworld, he was seen as a reliable and capable individual. It was time to put his talents to use for an organization.
By the early 1930s, Harlem’s streets were ruled by a volatile mix of Irish, Jewish, and Italian mobs, but the most formidable local power was Stephanie St. Clair, the so-called “Numbers Queen.” St. Clair ran Harlem’s lucrative policy racket and saw in Johnson a rare combination of muscle and brains. She took him under her wing, schooling him in the economics of crime and the necessity of political influence.
St. Clair’s greatest enemy was Arthur Simon Flegenheimer, known best by his nickname: “Dutch Schultz,” the vicious Bronx beer baron who muscled into Harlem during Prohibition. Schultz used murder and intimidation to seize control of the numbers game, St. Clair refused to bow down.
In the war against Dutch, Johnson became St. Clair’s chief enforcer. “Bumpy and his crew of nine waged a guerrilla war of sorts, and picking off Dutch Schultz’s men was easy since there were few other white men walking around Harlem during the day,” wrote Johnson’s wife, Mayme Hatcher, in her 2008 biography, Harlem Godfather: The Rap on My Husband, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson.
They might’ve stood out like sore thumbs, they still were white thumbs in a world dominated by laws that favored their kind and color. Add to that the corruption of those days and you had a perfect wave that Dutch Schultz and his men would ride out until they were victorious. Still, it wasn’t without bloodshed. Over 40 murders and several kidnappings took place during those years.
In the end, though, “Bumpy” emerged as the victor after all. All thanks to Dutch Schultz himself no less.
Bumpy becomes King of Harlem
Schultz was not just waging war on the streets. He also had a serious battle going against United States Attorney Thomas Dewey. Unsure he would beat the prosecutor in court, Schultz proposed to the Mafia Commission that they whack Dewey.
This did not sit well with the members of the Commission. Chief among them Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Subsequently, the Commission voted unanimously against the proposal. This angered Schultz who told everyone he planned to go ahead with his murderous plans anyway.
After that it was clear to all that Dutch had to go. On October 23, 1935, hitmen of Murder Inc. were sent to the Palace Chop House restaurant at 12 East Park Street in Newark where they found the crime boss in the men’s room and shot him. He died the next day.
With Schultz gone, Harlem was suddenly up for negotiation. By this time, St. Clair had taken a step back and handed over control of her empire to “Bumpy”. This meant he now was in the driver’s seat.
Johnson understood what was needed: diplomacy. He forged an alliance with Luciano’s organization, effectively becoming the Mafia’s Harlem representative. It was an unprecedented arrangement. Johnson remained independent, but he answered to the Commission, splitting profits while maintaining control over black rackets.
“It wasn’t a perfect solution, and not everyone was happy, but at the same time the people of Harlem realized Bumpy had ended the war with no further losses, and had negotiated a peace with honor….,” Hatcher wrote in Harlem Godfather. “And they realized that for the first time a black man had stood up to the white mob instead of just bowing down and going along to get along.”
Heavy weighs the crown
By the late 1930s and all the way into the 1950s, Bumpy Johnson was Harlem’s undisputed crime boss. He controlled the numbers, collected protection payments from local businesses, and enforced order with selective brutality. He also got involved in drug trafficking, heroin.
He was arrested repeatedly, but convictions were hard to stick. Johnson cultivated politicians, police, and judges, and he was known to bankroll community causes, blurring the line between benefactor and predator. He became famous for handing out free turkeys during Thanksgiving.
Despite his street intellect, Johnson could never fully outrun federal scrutiny. In the early 1950s, he was arrested for heroin conspiracy and sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. He served much of that time at Alcatraz, where his intelligence again set him apart. Guards and inmates alike noted his discipline and his habit of reading philosophy and history. He was released in 1963, returning to a Harlem that was changing fast.
The neighborhood Johnson reclaimed was no longer the same. Heroin had completely replaced numbers as the dominant racket, and younger, more reckless players were circling. Still, Johnson resumed his role as an elder statesman of crime, respected even by those who intended to replace him.
Before they could, however, Johnson passed away.
“Bumpy” Johnson died on July 7, 1968, at the age of 62, after suffering a heart attack while dining at Wells Restaurant on 125th Street. He died as he lived: calm, controlled, and in public view. His funeral drew crowds that included criminals, politicians, and ordinary residents, all paying respects to a man who had ruled Harlem from the shadows for nearly four decades.
In the decades following his death, Johnson would become a Hollywood darling. Screenwriters loved basing their film scripts on his persona. He was portrayed in The Cotton Club (1994), The Hoodlum (1997) and American Gangster (2007). More recently, he was portrayed by Forest Whitaker in the 2019 television series The Godfather of Harlem.
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