The Disappearance of Frank Matthews. The African American "Pablo Escobar"

60's and 70's NYC had a lot of interesting crime figures. Nicky Barnes had style and personality. Frank Lucas cut out the Mafia and imported straight from the source, Bumpy Johnson was the gentlemen gangster with strong ties to the Italian Mob.

Frank Matthews isn't as well know as his contemporaries. He may have been more wealthy. Matthews inported cocain and heroin and had distribution in 21 states from NY, Boston, to Atlanta, and St Louis.

He was best known for having a large meeting of all the Crime figures in Atlanta, GA. In 1973 he made a trip to Las Vegas and he was arrested with his girlfriend. His bond was $5,000,000 a record at the time. After about a month in jail he was released on bond. The IRS informed him he owed 100 million in taxes just from 1971.

Facing a lengthy prison sentence Matthews disappeared. He would be 71 if still alive today. I found this case by accident the other day when reading about Bumpy Johnson. I find it interesting that he made so much money and may have been able to walk away with some of his cash. He was in a period of large criminal figures in Harlem, yet he was unknown to me. He was unknown to police for a long time too. His neighbor was a detective and got suspicious of all the traffic in and out of his house. He ran a couple plates and found they were drug dealers.

After the neighbor got suspicious they tapped his phones. He was careless and mentioned his supplier by name. Shortly before he was arrested his supplier and some other dealers were busted. The supplier gave information that led to Matthews being arrested.

One thing that jumped out to me while reading about the case. Matthews was arrested in 73. He was released and then disappeared after that. In 75 like 20 guys tied to his crime ring were arrested. My thinking is when he was arrested he gave up information leading to the arrests in 1975. Maybe they let him disappear as part of the deal or he entered into protective custody. The government kept up the charade that he was missing.

Links: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Matthews_(drug_trafficker)

http://themobmuseum.org/blog/did-frank-matthews-get-away-with-it/

On mobile could mods add the flair