Age, Biography and Wiki
Frank Lucas was born on September 9, 1930, in La Grange, North Carolina. He grew up in a rural area and had limited formal education before moving to New York City in 1946, where he became involved in street crime. Lucas's rise to prominence began in the 1960s, as he built an international drug empire that spanned from New York to Southeast Asia. He was known for his innovative methods of smuggling heroin, including using hollowed-out furniture and relying on relatives and close friends from North Carolina to handle his operations.
| Occupation | Criminals |
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| Date of Birth | 9 September 1930 |
| Age | 94 Years |
| Birth Place | La Grange, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Virgo |
| Country | Jersey |
| Date of death | 30 May, 2019 |
| Died Place | Cedar Grove, New Jersey, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is limited public information available about Frank Lucas's height and weight. However, his presence in the crime world was significant, and his figure dominated the narratives of his time.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Lucas was married and had a daughter. He later became involved in helping his daughter with a non-profit organization called "Yellow Brick Road," dedicated to assisting children of incarcerated parents.
He drifted through a life of petty crime until one occasion when he got into a fight with a former employer with whose daughter he had been having an affair. In the fight, Lucas hit the father on the head with a pipe, knocking him unconscious. He then stole $400 from the company safe and set the establishment on fire. Later, Frank fled to New York City at the behest of his mother, who feared that he would either be imprisoned for life or lynched. Once in Harlem, he quickly began indulging in petty crime and pool hustling before he was taken under the wing of gangster Bumpy Johnson. Lucas' connection to Johnson has since come under some doubt; he claimed to have been Johnson's driver for 15 years, although Johnson spent just five years out of prison before his death in 1968. According to Johnson's widow, much of the narrative that Lucas claimed as his actually belonged to another young hustler named Zach Walker, who lived with Johnson and his family and later betrayed him.
Lucas' wife, Julie Farrait, was also convicted for her role in her husband's criminal enterprise and spent five years in prison. After she was released, the couple lived separately for some years, and Farrait moved back to Puerto Rico. After several years, however, they reconciled, and according to a December 2007 Village Voice article, had been married for 40 years at the time.
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| Husband | Julie Farrait (m. 1967) |
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Net Worth and Salary
At the peak of his career in the early 1970s, Frank Lucas's net worth was estimated to be around $52 million, with a large portion of it stored in Cayman Islands banks. In addition, he had stockpiled heroin with a potential profit of several hundred million dollars. However, by the time of his death in 2019, his net worth had significantly decreased to approximately $500,000.
Career, Business and Investments
Lucas's career was marked by his involvement in the heroin trade, where he became infamous for bypassing the traditional Mafia-controlled routes by establishing direct connections with suppliers in Asia. His heroin, known as "Blue Magic," was sold at a high price due to its purity, which he maintained by refusing to dilute it like many of his competitors. Lucas's empire was dismantled in the mid-1970s, and he served time in prison. After his release, he cooperated with law enforcement and later worked to help his daughter's non-profit organization.
Social Network
Frank Lucas did not have a public social media presence, as his life and activities took place before the widespread use of social media platforms. However, his story has been widely covered and discussed across various media platforms.
Lucas trusted only relatives and close friends from North Carolina to handle his various heroin operations, believing that they were less likely to steal from him and be tempted by various vices in the big city. He stated his heroin, which was sold under the street name "Blue Magic", was 98–100% pure when shipped from Thailand; since he did not cut it like many of his competitors, the product was extremely addictive and could be sold at higher prices. Lucas also has been quoted as saying that his worth was "something like $52 million", most of it in Cayman Islands banks. Added to this is "maybe 1,000 keys [kilograms; or, 2,200 pounds] of dope on hand" with a potential profit of no less than $300,000 per kilo (2.2 lbs.).
Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. described the film as "one percent reality and ninety-nine percent Hollywood." In addition, Johnson described the real-life Lucas as "illiterate, vicious, violent, and everything Denzel Washington was not." Former DEA agents Jack Toal, Gregory Korniloff, and Louis Diaz filed a lawsuit against Universal, saying the events in the film were fictionalized and that the film defamed them and hundreds of other agents. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon. McMahon noted the intertitle at the end of the film was "wholly inaccurate", in that Lucas' cooperation did not lead to the convictions, and admonished, "It would behoove a major corporation like Universal (which is owned by a major news organization, NBC) not to put inaccurate statements at the end of popular films." She stated the film failed to meet legal standards of defamation because it failed to "show a single person who is identifiable as a DEA agent."
Education
Frank Lucas had limited formal education, which did not hinder his rise in the criminal underworld. His street smarts and business acumen were key factors in building his drug empire.
In summary, Frank Lucas was a significant figure in American crime history, known for his innovative drug smuggling operations and his eventual downfall. Despite his notorious past, he later sought redemption by supporting his daughter's non-profit work.
After Johnson's death, Lucas turned to drug trafficking, and realized that, to be successful, he would have to break the monopoly that the Mafia held over the trade in New York. Traveling to Bangkok, he eventually made his way to Jack's American Star Bar, an R&R hangout for black soldiers. There he met former U.S. Army master sergeant Leslie "Ike" Atkinson, who was from Goldsboro, North Carolina, and married to one of Lucas' cousins. Lucas is quoted as saying, "Ike knew everyone over there, every black guy in the Army, from the cooks on up." Atkinson, who was already running heroin for his own profit and had links to local opium growers, formed a partnership with Lucas.
