This biographical crime film is fictionally based on the criminal career of an American former drug trafficker, who operated in what city?
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American Gangster (film) American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is fictionally based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by detective Richie Roberts. The film stars Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in their first lead acting roles together since 1995's "Virtuosity". The film also co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr.
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Frank Lucas (drug dealer) Frank Lucas (born September 9, 1930) is an American former drug trafficker, who operated in Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was particularly known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen, but this claim is denied by his South East Asian associate, Leslie "Ike" Atkinson. Rather than hide the drugs in the coffins, they were hidden in the pallets underneath as depicted in the 2007 feature film "American Gangster" in which he was played by Denzel Washington, although the film fictionalized elements of Lucas' life for dramatic effect.
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Frank Monte Frank Monte (June 21, 1931 in South Philadelphia – May 13, 1982 in South Philadelphia) was a member of the Philadelphia crime family. When Nicodemo Scarfo became boss, he named Monte as his consigliere. When Harry Riccobene refused to accept Scarfo as boss, the "Riccobene War" ensued. In 1979 Testa, Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino and Robert (Bobby) Lumio murdered 31-year-old drug dealer Michael (Coco) Cifelli. He was murdered for selling drugs to the son of Frank Monte, a capo from Cinnaminson Township, New Jersey. Frank served under Phil Testa and later Nicky Scarfo. He oversaw illegal gambling operations in Atlantic City and New Jersey for the crime family. Michael Cifelli was gunned down by Testa and Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino as he was talking on the phone in a telephone booth just inside a bar, Priori's, at 10th and Wolf Streets in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia. Monte was later promoted to be consigliere in 1981 by Nicky Scarfo. Monte was murdered by a sniper rifle in 1982 on the orders of Riccobene. When the killers were arrested, they agreed to cooperate with law enforcement for lighter prison sentences. The men testified for the prosecution that Riccobene ordered them to kill Monte. Riccobene was convicted of the murder on 1984 and sentenced to life in prison.
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John Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger ( ; June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster in the Depression-era United States. He operated with a group of men known as the Dillinger Gang or Terror Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations, among other activities. Dillinger escaped from jail twice. He was also charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer who shot Dillinger in his bullet-proof vest during a shootout, prompting him to return fire; despite his infamy, it was Dillinger's only homicide charge.
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Héctor Luis Palma Salazar Héctor Luis Palma Salazar (a.k.a.: "El Güero Palma") is a former Mexican drug trafficker and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Palma was arrested on June 23, 1995 and deported to the United States, where he served a jail sentence until June 2016. He was then extradited back to Mexico in June 2016, where he was charged with a double murder in 1995, in Nayarit.
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Michael Rizzitello Michael Anthony Rizzitello (March 15, 1929 – October 26, 2005), also known as "Mike Rizzi", was an Italian American mobster in the Los Angeles crime family. Rizzitello's criminal record stretched back to 1947. He was also featured in several biography novels by mobsters-turned-informants Jimmy Fratianno ("The Last Mafioso" and "Vengeance Is Mine"), Anthony Fiato ("The Animal in Hollywood"), and Kenny Gallo ("Breakshot").
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Snowblind (book) Snowblind: A brief career in the cocaine trade written by American author Robert Sabbag in 1976 is a non-fiction account about an extraordinary character named Zachary Swan who turned his hand to smuggling cocaine from Colombia into the US. Set in the 1970s before organised crime took over the cocaine trade, it is based primarily in New York City and Bogotá and features a variety of colourful characters. Unlike other smugglers at the time Swan concocted a vast array of scams designed both to evade customs officials and protect his 'employees' from prosecution, all of which are highly imaginative and entertaining.
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The Zodiac (film) The Zodiac is a 2005 American criminal psychological thriller film based on the true events associated with the Zodiac: a serial killer who was active in and around northern California in the 1960s and 1970s. "The Zodiac" was directed by Alexander Bulkeley and written by him and his brother, Kelly Bulkeley.
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Wallenquist Organization The Wallenquist Organization is a criminal organization in the fictional universe of Frank Miller's "Sin City". It is led by Herr Wallenquist, a German-American (though the name is actually Swedish) mobster shrouded in mystery. The organization has a broad base of criminal enterprise to its name, including drug smuggling, contract killing, racketeering, organ harvesting and human trafficking for the purpose of illegal adoption and slavery, as well as having many city officials on their payroll at one time or the other.
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Juárez Cartel The Juárez Cartel (Spanish: "Cártel de Juárez"), also known as the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, is a Mexican drug cartel based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso, Texas. The cartel is one of several drug trafficking organizations that have been known to decapitate their rivals, mutilate their corpses and dump them in public places to instill fear not only into the general public, but also into local law enforcement and their rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel. The Juárez Cartel has an armed wing known as La Línea, a Juarez street gang that usually performs the executions. It also uses the Barrio Azteca gang to attack its enemies.
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Eliot Ness Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, bringing down Al Capone, and the leader of a famous team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables. His co-authorship of a popular autobiography, "The Untouchables", which was released shortly after his death, launched several television and motion picture portrayals that established Ness's posthumous fame as an incorruptible crime fighter.
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The French Connection (book) The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy is a non-fiction book by Robin Moore first published in 1969 about the notorious "French Connection" drug trafficking scheme. It is followed by the book "The Setup". The book was adapted to film in 1971 as "The French Connection", written by Ernest Tidyman and Directed by William Friedkin.
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Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano (b. ca. 1977), commonly referred to by the alias El Ingeniero ("The Engineer"), is a Mexican suspected drug lord and former leader of the Tijuana Cartel, a drug trafficking organization based in Tijuana, Baja California. He competed with three other major cartels, the Juárez Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, and the Sinaloa Cartel, for the illegal drug corridors into the United States.
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Robert &quot;Bobby&quot; Germaine Robert "Bobby" Germaine, Sr. (October 1, 1925 – April 1986), the son of French-Canadian immigrants, was a drug trafficker, burglar, and freelance writer in New York, NY. He was friends with Henry Hill and involved in his criminal activities following the Lufthansa heist up to Hill's incarceration. Germaine was also a friend of Jimmy 'the Gent' Burke. On January 3, 1972, Germaine was one of the gunmen of the Pierre Hotel armed robbery, where he and his seven cohorts, after binding and gagging the hotel employees, taking the Pierre under siege, ransacked the safe deposit boxes, and plundered an estimated $28,000,000 in jewels and cash. (Refer to 'Contract Killer' by William Hoffman & Lake Headley).
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King Tone Antonio Fernandez, also known as King Tone, is the former head of the Latin Kings (the largest Hispanic street gang in the US). In 1999, Fernandez was sentenced to 12 to 15 years for conspiring to sell narcotics. He is the main figure in the HBO documentary, "Latin Kings: A Street Gang story", which was released in 2007. He is also featured in the book, "The Misfit Economy," by Alexa Clay, which was published in 2015. Upon his release, Fernandez has shared his insights as a former gang leader and political activist, and how that relates to the "legitimate world".
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Karen Friedman Hill Karen Friedman Hill (born January 16, 1946) is an American socialite, known for her involvement in the mafia through her husband Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family. The events of their life were chronicled in the 1990 film "Goodfellas" and several books.
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American Me American Me is a 1992 biographical crime drama film produced and directed by Edward James Olmos, his first film as a director, and written by Floyd Mutrux and Desmond Nakano. Olmos also stars as the film's protagonist, Montoya Santana. Executive producers included record producer Lou Adler, screenwriter Mutrux, and Irwin Young. It depicts a fictionalized account of the founding and rise to power of the Mexican Mafia in the California prison system from the 1950s into the 1980s.
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Emanuel Weiss Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss (June 11, 1906 – March 4, 1944) was a New York organized crime figure who was an associate of the notorious Louis Buchalter and part of Buchalter's criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930s and up to the time of his arrest in 1941. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics claimed that Weiss and his partner in crime Philip "Little Farvel" Cohen were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Although he was indicted on multiple drug charges, Weiss was never sentenced for any of these crimes.
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Ken Burnstine Kenneth G. "Ken" Burnstine (died 16 June 1976) was an American drug smuggler and pilot who was described by the Associated Press in 1981 as "one of America's most daring drug smugglers". At the time of his death in an aircraft accident, Burnstine was cooperating with federal prosecutors having been sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to create a $50m drug trafficking ring based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The North American P-51 Mustang in which Burnstine crashed in the Mojave Desert was the aircraft with which he had won the 1974 Reno Air Races.
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Lou Blonger Lou Blonger (May 13, 1849 – April 20, 1924), born Louis Herbert Belonger, was a Wild West saloonkeeper, gambling-house owner, and mine speculator, but is best known as the kingpin of an extensive ring of confidence tricksters that operated for more than 25 years in Denver, Colorado. His "Million-Dollar Bunco Ring" was brought to justice in a famous trial in 1923.
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Otto Roberto Herrera García Otto Roberto Herrera García is a Guatemalan national and career criminal, best known for turning Guatemala into a corridor for U.S.-bound cocaine.
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Timothy Hallinan Timothy Hallinan (born 1949) is an American thriller writer, based in Southern California and Southeast Asia. In the 1990s, Hallinan created the erudite private eye Simeon Grist, who appeared in a total of six novels, all set in Los Angeles. The series was widely and well reviewed, with some titles appearing on critics "Ten Best" lists for the year in which they appeared, such as that of the Drood Review of Mystery, but did not achieve widespread popularity. Hallinan returned to publication in 2007 with a second series, set in Bangkok, where he has lived off and on since the early 1980s. The new series features a rough-travel writer named Philip ("Poke") Rafferty, who has settled in the Thai capital and is in the process of trying to cobble together a family comprising Rose, the former go-go dancer he loves, and a precocious street urchin named Miaow. The first book in the series is "A Nail Through the Heart" (William Morrow). In 2011 he launched a third series starring Junior Bender, private detective to Los Angeles' underworld elite.