This article contains mentions of racism, violence and drugs.
American Gangster dramatizes the true story of drug kingpin Frank Lucas and the rigorous investigation by Detective Richie Roberts that took down his empire. Starring Denzel Washington as Lucas and Russell Crowe as Roberts, the Ridley Scott-directed movie opened to rave reviews and has garnered a cult following among modern crime dramas. The screenplay, which was penned by biopic genre veteran Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) focuses on Lucas’s rise to power in New York as he smuggles heroin into America on military planes returning from the Vietnam War. American Gangster mainly takes inspiration from the New York magazine article “The Return of Superfly” by Mark Jacobson.
While it ranks among the 2007 movies now considered classics, American Gangster has also drawn scrutiny due to the numerous creative liberties it takes with its central subject. Despite Zaillian’s unmatched reputation in writing movies based on true stories, he resorts to a lot of factual inaccuracies and debatable claims that make American Gangster more fiction than fact. Reuters reported that three DEA agents even attempted to sue Universal Pictures claiming their agency’s portrayal was inaccurate and demoralizing. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but the real-life Frank Lucas’s own unproven claims add to the confusion regarding American Gangster's depiction of the true story and everything the movie changes.
10 Frank Lucas Was Not Bumpy Johnson’s Driver For 15 Years
Frank Lucas is introduced in American Gangster as the right-hand man of Harlem mob boss Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson and his driver for 15 years. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time of the movie's release, Johnson’s wife Mayme stated that Lucas may have driven her husband a few times but was considered a "flunky" whom [Johnson] "might have allowed to carry his coat." Mayme Johnson also pointed out that her husband spent most of his later life in prison until being paroled in 1963, and he died in 1968. So, it’s impossible for Lucas to have driven for Johnson for more than a decade during this time.
9 Richie Roberts Wasn’t Involved In A Child Custody Battle
American Gangster is one of Russell Crowe’s best and most-acclaimed movies as the actor plays Richie Roberts with emotional depth. The character’s arc gets more tragic as he’s involved in a custody battle with his ex-wife over their son. However, this legal battle never happened since Roberts never had a child with his first wife, the defense attorney and former detective told the New York Post in 2007. The inaccurate portrayal of his marital and parental situation was accepted sourly by Roberts, who termed it “offensive." In contrast, Lucas is shown to be a responsible family man, which Roberts found inaccurate and even “sickening."
8 Julie Lucas Was Not A Former Miss Puerto Rico
Another inaccuracy regarding American Gangster's true story concerns Frank Lucas's wife Eva — a fictionalized version of Julie Farrait — who is introduced as a former Miss Puerto Rico. While Lucas's ex-wife didn’t win the beauty pageant, Mark Jacobson’s New York article does imply that her future husband met her first on a trip to Puerto Rico. The mobster was there to brainstorm ideas for his business and went on to fall in love with Julie. However, coming to her beauty pageant credentials, Frank Lucas did tell MTV that “She was some kind of homecoming queen.”
7 Bumpy Johnson Died In Different Circumstances
In the opening scene of American Gangster, Bumpy Johnson dies due to a sudden heart attack in a discount appliance store with Frank Lucas being the only person around him. When it comes to how Bumpy Johnson really died, the crime boss actually passed away due to heart failure at Harlem’s Wells Restaurant. While Lucas told New York in a 2019 interview that Johnson died in his arms at this diner, Mayme Johnson told The Philadelphia Inquirer that her husband died in the arms of his childhood friend Junie Byrd instead. She added, “Frank was nowhere around…All of his talk is lies."
6 Frank Lucas’ Drug Transportation Methods Are Debatable
In American Gangster, Frank Lucas sources his heroin from Vietnam and gets it into U.S. territories in the planes carrying American servicemen and the coffins of fallen soldiers. This can align with the true story, but doubts have arisen, as the real Frank Lucas never offered any straight answers on his process. As is depicted in the movie, Lucas admitted to numerous media outlets that he hired a carpenter to craft coffins with false bottoms to hide the cocaine. But his obituary in The New York Times reported that Lucas's Vietnam associate and U.S. Army Master Sergeant Ike Atkinson had another story to tell.
Atkinson, who is represented by Roger Guenveur Smith’s character Nate in American Gangster, said he masterminded the operation, and he smuggled the heroine in teak furniture instead of soldier coffins. The true amount of cocaine smuggled is also uncertain. In Mark Jacobson’s New York article, Lucas claimed that he had 28 copies of actual coffins made, each of which could hold “six, maybe eight kilos." But then, in an interview with Miss Jones on HOT 97 FM, he confidently asserted, “I'd get 10 to 12 to 15 keys in each coffin,” increasing the coffin count to 500 this time. Atkinson continued dismissing the coffin theory until his death.
5 Frank Lucas’ Collaboration Didn’t Lead To Many DEA Arrests
American Gangster ranks among the best movies starring Denzel Washington, with the Oscar-winner having played many real-life figures in his career. However, compared to his other biographical roles, Washington’s portrayal of Frank Lucas is easily one of his most inaccurate because of exaggerated claims. A major example is the text at the end of the movie that reveals “Frank and Richie’s collaborations led to the convictions of three-quarters of New York City’s Drug Enforcement Agency." While dismissing three DEA agents’ lawsuit against Universal, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon did note that the claim was “wholly inaccurate” and mentioned that studios shouldn’t spread such inaccurate statements as facts (via ABC News).
4 Blue Magic Heroin Wasn’t 100% Pure
Frank Lucas’s brand of heroin, Blue Magic, is depicted as a 100 percent pure product in American Gangster. While the product was indeed 98 percent pure when transported from Southeast Asia, the New York magazine article shed light on how it was adulterated further. Upon procuring the heroin in America, Lucas “cut it with 60 percent mannite and 40 percent quinine.” The end product would be Lucas’s signature Blue Magic, heroin that is 10 percent pure. Lucas told Jacobson that this level of purity was still a lot given how his rival brands in New York could only sell 5 percent pure product.
3 Frank Lucas Never Hid Money Under His Pet’s Doghouse
When the authorities and corrupt officials, like Josh Brolin's Detective Nick Trupo, catch up on Frank Lucas in American Gangster, some of his hidden money is shown to be buried under his dog’s kennel. However, the true story implies that nothing of this sort ever happened. In his HOT 97 FM interview, Lucas said, “I never buried no money at my house." While cinephiles celebrate American Gangster as one of the best movies directed by Ridley Scott, Lucas wasn’t that content given that such changes deviated from his real life. As reported in the New York Post, Lucas told multiple sources that “only 20 percent of the film is true.”
2 Frank Lucas’ Cousin Was Not Killed By The Police
In a particularly moving scene from American Gangster, Lucas talks about how his 12-year-old cousin was tied to a pole and shot by white policemen, an incident that he witnessed at the age of six. However, as he revealed to New York, Lucas witnessed his cousin Obadiah Jones die in front of him at that age, but it was five Ku Klux Klan members behind the murder instead of the police. Ron Chepesiuk, who wrote the book Superfly: The True, Untold Story of Frank Lucas, American Gangster told The Chicago Syndicate that he actually found no evidence of Lucas having a cousin murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.
1 Richie Roberts’ Role In Taking Down Frank Lucas Wasn’t That Major
American Gangster serves as one of many movie collaborations between Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott with the actor getting the spotlight as Richie Roberts. But despite the cat-and-mouse game that he plays with Lucas in the movie, the real Roberts admits it wasn’t just his sole efforts that led to the mobster’s arrest. The former law enforcer, while addressing the American Gangster true story, told the New York Post, “It took more than just me to bring down Frank Lucas.” Rob Chepesiuk, who interviewed various DEA agents for his book, told The Chicago Syndicate that “the idea that Roberts was the key official in bringing Lucas down is Hollywood's imagination.”
