Between 1930 and 1968 Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson was the most feared criminal in Harlem. So why has he never entered the pantheon of mainstream US villains, This is at least in part because Johnson was known as a man who made people disappear, but didn't do it in broad daylight. Johnson is more like Frank Nitti, Al Capone's diligent sidekick, who led his life in the shadow of his far more celebrated mentor. Some people become titans. Some people become cult figures. One way of looking at Johnson's marginalisation from the pages of history is that, because the most depraved criminals are white, induction into this club is an honour few ethnic groups clamour for. An equally valid explanation is that Johnson's exploits, unlike those of Capone or Luciano, did not resonate beyond his neighbourhood, so there is no reason he should be more famous than he is. He may even be the victim of an exotic strain of racism that refuses to honour minority thugs, reserving its weird affections for hoodlums who at least have the redeeming feature of being Caucasian. Yet perhaps the main reason for Johnson's failure to crack the big time is that he has never been the subject of a first-rate motion picture that branded his name on the public's consciousness.#black #blackgangster #bumpyjohnson #ganster #fastcash #makemoney #gogetter https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_Lg_uAqRv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ei54je3b1d60
