PHILADELPHIA’S ‘BLACK MAFIA’ A Social and Political History STUDIES OF ORGANISED CRIME Volume 2 Series Editors: Alan A. Block, Crime, Law & Justice Program, Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A. Frank Bovenkerk, University of Utrecht, Willem Pompe Institute, The Netherlands Editorial Board: Maria Los, University of Ottawa, Canada Letizia Paoli, Max Planck Institut, Freiberg, Germany Francisco Thoumi, Senior Visiting Scholar at the Latin American and Carribean Center, Florida International University, U.S.A. Xiabo Lu, Colombia University, NY, U.S.A. A list of books in this series appears at the end of this volume. PHILADELPHIA’S ‘BLACK MAFIA’ A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY BY SEAN PATRICK GRIFFIN Clemson University, Department of Sociology, Clemson, South Carolina, USA KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBook ISBN: 0-306-48132-4 Print ISBN: 1-4020-1311-6 ©2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: http://kluweronline.com and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://ebooks.kluweronline.com TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1 Organization of the Book 4 CHAPTER 2: Research Methodology 6 Data 6 Law Enforcement Intelligence Documents 6 Newspaper Sources 9 Interview Data 10 Methodology 11 Terminology 14 PART I: SOCIAL HISTORY, 1968–1974 CHAPTER 3: 1968-1972: The Origins of the Black Mafia 17 Group Origin 17 Nation of Islam Mosque No. 12 21 The Dubrow Furniture Store Robbery 30 The Killing of “Fat” Tyrone Palmer 32 CHAPTER 4: 1973–1974: Murder and Infamy 35 The Hanafi Murders 35 The Kelly Robbery/Kidnapping 40 The Murder of Major Coxson 41 Ronald Harvey: Profile of a Black Mafia Executioner 45 James Fox and Lonnie Dawson 50 James G. Fox 50 Lonnie Dawson 51 The Extortion of Ulysses Rice (owner of Nookie’s Tavern) 54 The Murder of James Price 57 Group Organization, 1968–1974 61 Meetings, Rules and Oath 61 Structure 62 CHAPTER 5: 1968–1974: Social Movements, Social Systems and the Black Mafia 67 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Urban America, 1960–1980 67 Philadelphia, 1960–1975: African-Americans and a Dying American City 68 Social Movements and Police-Community Relations 70 The Black Mafia’s Flexing Web of Politicians, Lawyers and Financiers 75 Significant Social and Political Associates 76 Cecil B. Moore 76 Stanley E. Branche 78 Gus E. Lacy 80 John “Stan the Man” Watson 82 James “Foo-Foo” Ragan 83 Black Mafia Attorneys 83 A. Benjamin Johnson 84 Barry H. Denker 84 Kenneth S. Harris 85 Nino V. Tinari 86 CHAPTER 6: The Politics of Ignorance and the Art of Exploitation 89 Community “Front” Organizations 89 The Politics of “Community Development” 89 Philadelphia’s War on Poverty 92 Council for Youth and Urban Development, Inc., and Community Urban Development, Inc. 94 Black B., Inc. 96 Law Enforcement’s “Response” to the Black Mafia 101 Law Enforcement’s Pre-Occupation with Italian-American Organized Crime 102 Fear and Intimidation 104 Ambivalence and Animosity 106 Political and Racial Sensitivity 108 PART II: SOCIAL HISTORY, 1975–2002 CHAPTER 7: 1975–1984: Philadelphia’s Black Mafia on the Wane 113 The Murder of Herschell “Jolly Green Giant” Williams 116 The Gruby and Kelly Murders 118 The Black Mafia’s Last (Noteworthy) Stand 120 CHAPTER 8: 1985–2002: Old Heads, Old Habits 124 TABLE OF CONTENTS vii PART III: CRIMINOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ORGANIZED CRIME CHAPTER 9: Discussion: Contemporary Academic Perspectives on the Black Mafia and African-American Organized Crime 137 On Current Interpretations of Philadelphia’s Black Mafia and Primary Sources 137 The Pennsylvania Crime Commission Analyses of Philadelphia’s Black Mafia 138 Commission Reports: 1980, 1988, 1990 and 1991 138 General Methodological Concerns 139 General Concerns Relating to the Commission’s Black Mafia Analyses 139 Specific Concerns Relating to the Commission’s Black Mafia Analyses 140 African-American Organized Crime: An “Emerging” Phenomenon? 142 What is “Emerging”? 142 Non-Sicilian/Italian Organized Crime is Emerging 142 Non-Sicilian/Italian Organized Crime Research is Emerging 143 Possible Reasons for the Competing Hypotheses 145 On the Definition of Organized Crime 145 On the Relative Lack of African-American Organized Crime Data 146 African-American Organized Crime-Specific and -Related Literature: A Review 147 Gambling and Political Graft 148 Prostitution and Drug Trafficking 151 Organized Crime and Racketeering 152 CHAPTER 10: Conclusions 157 Patron-Client Networks and the Social System of Organized Crime 159 Unresolved Questions and Suggestions for Research 162 Summing Up 164 EPILOGUE: On the Lack of African-American (and other) Organized Crime Research 167 The Relative Dearth of African-American Organized Crime Research 167 African-Americans do not organize crime 169 Researching African-American organized crime is immoral (or worse) 169 The Lack (and Quality) of Organized Crime Research 173 The Quantification of Sociological Research 173 Graduate Training in Criminology 176 The Trend Away from Interdisciplinary Research 178 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS The Political Nature of Organized Crime Research 179 The Perils of Field Research 180 APPENDIX A: General Orders for Mosque No. 12 183 APPENDIX B: Instructions for Guarding Doors of Mosque No. 12 184 APPENDIX C: Surveillance Photo of Mosque No. 12, 3700 Germantown Avenue (1/28/74) 186 APPENDIX D: Surveillance Photo of Mosque No. 12, 41st Street and Haverford Avenue (1/28/74) 187 APPENDIX E: Written Rules for Black B. Incorporated Members, December 1973 188 APPENDIX F: Oath of Membership 190 APPENDIX G: Black Mafia Guidelines for Obtaining Government Funding 192 APPENDIX H: Junior Black Mafia Ring 194 APPENDIX I: Black Mafia Murders 195 APPENDIX J: “African-American Organized Crime: An ‘Emerging’ Phenomenon?” Textbooks Reviewed 197 AUTHOR INDEX 201 SUBJECT INDEX 203 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 3.1 Original Black Mafia Members, 1968 18 FIGURE 3.2 Nation of Islam Mosque No. 12 (Black Mafia headquarters), Park Avenue and Susquehanna Street, January 1974 27 FIGURE 3.3 “Merger” Benefits 28 FIGURE 4.1 “Wanted” Poster for Ronald Harvey, December 1973 44 FIGURE 4.2 The Black Mafia Ball, December 31, 1973 53 FIGURE 4.3 Black Mafia Command Structure for Selected Dates 64 FIGURE 4.4 Structural Comparisons of Black Mafia Organization(s) 65 FIGURE 4.5 Organizational Chart of the Black Mafia Circa 1973 66 FIGURE 5.1 Philadelphia Police Department-Related Political Events (1967-1972) 74 FIGURE 6.1 Incorporation Papers for Council for Youth and Urban Development Inc. 94 FIGURE 6.2 Incorporation Papers for Community Urban 95 Development Inc. 95 FIGURE 6.3 Incorporation Papers for Black B. Inc. 96 FIGURE 6.4 Structural Comparison of Black Mafia and Black B. Inc. 97 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is an extension of my doctoral dissertation, and I thus would like to start by thanking the generous faculty in the Department of Sociology’s Crime, Law and Justice program at Penn State University, especially Alan Block, Tom Bernard, John Kramer and Ed Walsh. John and Ed gave me great ideas, and provided constructive criticisms in the earlier stages of research for the book. I first “discovered” Alan in 1988 as an undergraduate in the former Administration of Justice Department when I took his course on the international traffic in narcotics. I found the material fascinating and left his lectures dizzy from the information imparted. The following semester, I took his organized crime course and was again overwhelmed with the material. More specifically, I was impressed with his command of the information, and especially of his presentations. This, I thought, is what I would love to do given the opportunity. He remains the standard by which I judge myself in the classroom. When I returned to Penn State for my graduate work in the 1990s, Alan became a mentor in the truest sense of the word. I have also been greatly assisted, in various ways, by Tom, whose counsel on a host of academic matters has spared me a great deal of anguish over the years. Alan and Tom each played large roles in the dissertation. My “Penn State Experience” dates back to the 1980s, when the Administration of Justice Department was populated by energetic, inspiring instructors and professors. I need to thank several other people from that era who were also influential in my decision to pursue a Ph.D. in the first place. They each remain good friends and colleagues, and assist me whenever the need arises. The assistance, in differing capacities, of Ed Donovan, Philip Jenkins, Jennifer and Steve Mastrofski, John Sullivan and Bill Walsh aided my research agenda. The collegial support of my grad cohorts during those tumultuous times, Jeff McIllwain and Kim Menard, was also greatly appreciated. I must extend thanks to the staffers at Penn State, and to all of the assistants, secretaries and others at many locations (e.g. police departments, federal agencies, archives, libraries, newsrooms, etc.). More than any other one assistant throughout the ten years of research, I was fortunate to work with a bright, hard-working undergraduate assistant, Rebecca Heuser. Rebecca spent countless hours pouring over microfiche in the basement of Penn State’s Pattee Library searching for dated news articles, evaluating their significance with me, answering historical questions and drafting new ones. Her great work became the centerpiece for several lines of inquiry presented in the book. The latter stages of the research were conducted at Clemson University (South Carolina), with the support of former Department of Sociology chair John Ryan (who unfortunately for us left to take a similar position at Virginia Polytechnic ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi [Virginia Tech] University).