Harlem’s Most Feared and Revered Criminal
Bumpy Johnson eventually became a numbers runner for Madam Saint Clair, then a bookmaker. When mobster Dutch Schultz tried to take over Saint Clair’s bookie operations in the early 1930s, Bumpy was her point man in a vicious gang war. It lasted until Schultz’s assassination on mob boss Lucky Luciano’s orders in 1935, described in a previous entry above. After Schultz’s demise, Bumpy negotiated a deal with Luciano in the 1930s, by which Harlem bookmakers retained their independence in exchange for a cut to the mafia.
It was the first time that a black man had struck such a deal with the Italian mob, and it made Bumpy Johnson a respected and somewhat heroic figure in the neighborhood. Thereafter, he was the main associate of the Luciano (later Genovese) crime family in Harlem. Bumpy was a criminal both feared and revered for decades. He became friends with famous figures such as Cab Calloway, Billie Holliday, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Lena Horne. His activities were reported in the celebrity sections of magazines such as Jet.