Nicky Barnes, the drug kingpin known in his heyday as Mr. Untouchable because cops could never get charges to stick (until they did, and he went to jail, turned state’s evidence and found himself in the Witness Protection Program), fancies himself way, way smarter than Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug dealer at the center of the movie, American Gangster.
Barnes says, “I like Cuba Gooding Jr.,” who has a minor role playing Barnes as a loud-mouthed buffoon. “He probably did the best he could. But they depict me as a footnote in Frank’s life when it was the other way around.
“This whole thing about him being an entrepreneurial genius is nonsense,” says Barnes. “I didn’t see it. I did business in all five boroughs, Atlanta, D.C., Philly and Baltimore. Frank had 116th St. and maybe a few places in New Jersey…”
“I wore flashy clothes, but not outrageous,” says Barnes. “Check out the photos of me at the time. And have you listened to Frank talk? Frank is functionally illiterate. I’ve read all of Shakespeare. I can quote his sonnets. I read Dickens, Melville, Emily Dickinson. I won a poetry contest against inmates from the entire prison system.
If Barnes was really as smart as he thinks he is, he would know that there is little glory in winning a poetry contest when you’re in jail for being the most intellectual drug dealer in 1970s Harlem. Particularly when you’re giving an interview from an undisclosed location because your life is still in danger after you ratted out all of your business associates. []
HAHA, I guess his intelligence is all for nothing. A drug dealer could never be considered anything but stupid, plain and simple…
A drug dealer snitch who reads Melville. How nice.
Well, the walls in Frank’s home were filled with cash and he had stash houses all over. He obviously was doing well in the drug dealing business.
As an innocent person, I really have no problem with snitches but if you’re going to be a criminal, it seems a bit…. b—- like to snitch on your colleagues.
Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes are giving interviews about every two minutes these days and I’m sick of reading them. The more they talk, the more ridiculous they seem. They both are always sure to say that they don’t want kids to follow in their footsteps and all that, but then they go into all this nit-picking crap about who was doing what 40 years ago. Truth be told, they are both mass murderers (selling poison to the masses with no remorse) and they should both just go sit down and be quiet and be glad they’re not still in jail.
I thought Frank Lucas was in jail. I skimmed his daughter’s interview in Glamour. In spite of what they supposedly want, everyone wants a big legacy, even if it’s a negative one though I think movies generally trivialize the negative impact that these people had and even turns them into heroes. I saw “Catch Me If You Can” and caught myself rooting for the criminal along with the rest of the theater.
Nicky may be a bit of a hater, but he is spot on about Frank Lucas. The man requires subtitles just to understand what he’s saying. The man I saw being interviwed on the History channel was about as sophisticated as a can of spam, and dumber than dirt. He was nothing more than a thug/killer, and menace to his own community. Whoever Denzel was playing in the film bears has nothing to do with Frank Lucas.
Frank Lucas is not in jail. Like Nicky Barnes, he did spend some time in prison, but got out early once he gave up some information on his former “colleagues.”