3/25/2015
Review by David Anthony

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Some American few tropes that are universal.  Among these are the cowboy and the gangster. With the former goes the lawman, referencing the great combat between lawmakers and lawbreakers. The popularity of The Godfather, the remake Scarface, Goodfellas and  Boardwalk Empire are latter day reincarnations of classic genres of gangster fare like Public Enemy or The Roaring Twenties.  These sagas both are inspired by and inspire emulation in which life endlessly imitates art.

 

One legendary example is the colorful criminal Frank Matthews, who made his mark on a burgeoning bonanza during the drug explosion of 1970’s when millions of kilos of heroin and tens of millions of dollars flooded urban centers all along the eastern seaboard, fueling unprecedented levels of addiction mainly in black ghettoes and brown barrios.    Matthews rose to prominence in the same era as the flashy Nicky Barnes, Frank Lucas and others to whom the title “Drug Kingpin” came to be applied.  But unlike contemporaries and constant competitors, Matthews never operated in only one jurisdiction. He was an empire builder, with global reach.

 

The Frank Matthews Story filmed in 2012 by Ron Chepesiuk and Al Profit is now available  to view online in a variety of formats from Snagfilms where I watched it, to youtube.  The Frank Matthews Story takes a different tack from similar treatments like American Gangster, in which Denzel Washington plays Frank Lucas.  Early on, the viewer learns that Lucas and Barnes who made headlines in Harlem and then elsewhere in New York City were in fact small timers in comparison to Matthews. By contrast Matthews followed his own grand scheme of circumventing La Cosa Nostra  highlighting the mutual antipathy held between the ruling races of organized crime. The documentary suggests that Matthews went from asking for Mafia assistance to being rebuffed and then embarking upon a vengeful end run around them.

 

Until the 1970s La Cosa Nostra  controlled almost all heroin entering the U.S. It came via the French connection, poppies from Turkey, with labs in Marseilles and  distribution networks through Montreal and New York City.  By 1971 IRS and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) estimated Frank Matthews generating at least $10 million a year profit, $60 million today. Between 1970 and 2010 the number of federal inmates incarcerated increased by five times.  Then, facing life imprisonment Matthews disappeared, jumping bail in 1973 without a trace. Since then, there have been intermittent sightings across the country and the world. There is no consensus as to whether he remains alive, but many suspect the possibility. The tale itself could not have been concocted by any author. If real life crime puzzles pique your curiosity, The Frank Matthews Story is worth a look.

 

This is David H. Anthony.