Frank Lucas was "Super Fly", the baddest dude on the mean streets of Harlem. His drug gang smuggled heroin from Vietnam to the US in American warplanes and were rumoured to hide drugs in the bodybags of dead GIs. His exploits are to be immortalised in a Hollywood blockbuster Lucas is just one of a cast of extraordinary larger-than-life characters in American Gangster, the first ever chronicle of the little knownhistory of organized crime in New York's most infamousneighbourhood. Harlem's gangsters are every bit as colourful,intriguing, and powerful as Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, and have a fascinating history in gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. In the late 1800's, Harlem was a highly fashionable area, but a real estate collapse shortly after the turn of the century emptied its streets of white residents, and by the 1930s, two-thirds of New York City's African-Americans were living there. Gambling and drugs became key factors in the growth of gangsterism. Heroin dealing increasedsignificantly after the French Connection's fall of the early 1970's, paving the way for street mobs like the No Fear Gang, the Family, and the Nine Trey Gang, and the crack wars of the 1980's. In this vivid account, Ron Chepesiuk tells the story of the organized crime in Harlem through in-depth profiles of the major gangs and motley gangsters whose exploits made them legends.