7. Feared and Revered
Bumpy Johnson was feared and revered in Harlem 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. He was also Harlem’s criminal kingpin, whose approval every hood needed in order to operate in that part of town. He did 9 years in Alcatraz from 1954 to 1963, and was greeted with a parade upon his return.
Yet, despite his flashy fashion, his poetic pretensions, and ostentatious distribution of turkeys to the poor on Thanksgiving, he never joined the pantheon of famous American villains. This, notwithstanding that the stock gangster boss character in every blaxploitation film, starting with “Bumpy Jonas” in Shaft, is modeled on him, or that the entire gangsta rap genre is essentially a homage to Bumpy Johnson.
Read More: Most Notorious Alcatraz Inmates.