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Discover the shocking true stories of America's forgotten kingpins - criminal masterminds who built billion-dollar empires but were erased from history. From Frank Matthews who vanished with $20 million to Stephanie St. Clair who made Dutch Schultz beg for mercy, these are the untold stories that challenge everything you know about organized crime.
⚠️ VIEWER CHALLENGE: Why do you think these criminal geniuses were erased from history while lesser criminals became famous? Comment your theory! Next week: Griselda Blanco - The Cocaine Godmother
🔍 KEYWORDS: Frank Matthews, Black Caesar, disappeared kingpin, FBI most wanted, Stephanie St. Clair, Madame Queen, Harlem numbers queen, female crime boss, Jose Miguel Battle, The Corporation, Cuban mafia, Felix Mitchell, 69 Mob, Oakland drug lord, Nicky Barnes, Mr. Untouchable, The Council, forgotten kingpins, erased crime history, Black organized crime, Hispanic crime bosses, minority kingpins, untold crime stories, hidden criminal history, drug empire, cocaine trafficking, heroin distribution, numbers racket, organized crime, true crime documentary, crime history, American gangsters, disappeared criminals, unsolved mysteries, FBI cold cases
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0:00
How can you be the head of one of the
0:01
biggest drug trafficking networks in
0:03
history, run away with millions, and
0:06
disappear without a trace? What if I
0:09
told you that while America obsesses
0:11
over Al Capone and John Goty, the most
0:14
brilliant criminal minds in history have
0:16
been deliberately erased from our
0:18
collective memory. These are the
0:21
kingpins who controlled billions,
0:23
commanded armies, and revolutionized
0:26
organized crime. Yet most people have
0:29
never heard their names. From a woman
0:32
who made Dutch Schultz beg for mercy to
0:34
a drug lord who's been on the FBI's most
0:38
wanted list for 50 years despite
0:40
possibly being dead. These forgotten
0:43
titans shaped the underworld we know
0:45
today. So get ready to dive into the
0:48
shadow history of American crime. The
0:51
stories they don't want you to know. The
0:53
life of Frank Matthews is, how can I put
0:56
this? One hell of a mystery that makes
0:58
DB Cooper look like an amateur. You hear
1:02
so many stories about Black Caesar, it's
1:05
hard to distinguish what's what. Some
1:08
say he's living like a king in Africa.
1:11
Others claim he died in the first week
1:13
after jumping bail. The FBI has a
1:16
different theory every decade, and
1:19
they're still actively looking for a man
1:21
who'd be 80 years old today.
1:24
Frank Matthews was a ghost even when he
1:26
was standing right in front of you,"
1:28
recalled Donald Godard, who spent years
1:31
investigating Matthews for his book, The
1:34
Frank Matthews Story.
1:37
Witnesses would describe him
1:38
differently. Tall, short, heavy, slim.
1:42
It's like he was whoever he needed to be
1:45
at any moment.
1:47
Frank Matthews was born on February
1:49
13th, 1944 in Durham, North Carolina.
1:53
His mother died when he was four. His
1:56
father vanished soon after, and young
1:58
Frank was raised by an aunt who had too
2:01
many kids and too little money. The
2:04
shotgun shack they called home had gaps
2:07
in the floorboards wide enough to see
2:10
the dirt below. When it rained, they'd
2:13
arrange buckets and pans like a
2:15
percussion section, catching drops that
2:18
fell through the roof. But here's where
2:21
Matthews's story diverges from the
2:24
typical narrative. By age 14, he wasn't
2:27
just another street kid running numbers.
2:31
He was studying the numbers runners,
2:33
calculating their profits, identifying
2:35
inefficiencies in their operations.
2:39
While other kids his age were playing
2:41
basketball, Frank was designing
2:43
distribution networks in his school
2:45
notebooks.
2:47
The catalyst came in 1962 when Frank,
2:50
barely 18, moved to Philadelphia. He got
2:54
a job as a barber, but spent more time
2:57
studying the local drug trade than
2:59
cutting hair. He noticed something
3:02
others missed. The heroine trade was
3:04
controlled by Italians who didn't trust
3:07
black dealers with anything beyond
3:09
street level sales. Frank saw an
3:12
opportunity in their racism.
3:14
Matthews understood vertical integration
3:17
before he knew the term, explained Mike
3:20
Pittzy, a retired US Marshall, who spent
3:24
decades hunting Matthews. He didn't want
3:27
to be a dealer. He wanted to be the
3:30
supplier to the dealers.
3:32
then the supplier to the suppliers. By
3:35
1968, Matthews had moved to Brooklyn and
3:39
established connections that defied
3:41
belief. While other dealers were buying
3:44
from the Italians, Matthews flew to
3:46
Venezuela and Colombia, establishing
3:49
direct relationships with South American
3:52
suppliers.
3:53
He was one of the first American
3:55
criminals to recognize that cocaine
3:57
would eventually rival heroin. This was
4:00
years before the cocaine explosion of
4:03
the late7s.
4:05
But Matthew's true genius lay in his
4:08
organization. He created the council, a
4:11
coalition of major black and Hispanic
4:14
drug dealers across the eastern
4:16
seabboard.
4:17
Unlike the chaotic street gangs, the
4:20
council operated like a Fortune 500
4:23
company. They had territories, quotas,
4:26
and quality control.
4:29
They even had an HR department of sorts,
4:31
vetting new members and handling
4:34
disputes.
4:35
At his peak in 1972,
4:38
Matthews was moving 100 kg of heroin per
4:41
month. His personal worth was estimated
4:44
at 100 million, that's $600 million in
4:47
today's money. He owned homes in Staten
4:50
Island, Brooklyn, and Las Vegas. His car
4:54
collection included a Rolls-Royce,
4:57
multiple Mercedes, and a fleet of
4:59
Cadillacs.
5:01
But unlike flashier kingpins, Matthews
5:03
treated these as business tools, not
5:06
trophies.
5:08
Frank would roll up to a meeting in the
5:09
rolls, wearing a $5,000 suit and a
5:13
$50,000 watch, remembered Fat Thai
5:16
Palmer, a former associate turned
5:19
informant.
5:20
But it wasn't about showing off. He
5:23
said, "When you look successful, people
5:26
believe you're successful.
5:29
When they believe you're successful,
5:31
they want to do business with you." The
5:34
beginning of Matthews's end came in 1973
5:38
when he was arrested in Las Vegas with
5:40
$150,000
5:42
in cash and multiple fake IDs.
5:46
Released on $325,000
5:48
bail, Matthews did something
5:50
unprecedented.
5:52
He vanished. On July, 1973,
5:56
Frank Matthews disappeared with an
5:58
estimated 15 to20 million in cash and
6:01
has never been seen again. The FBI
6:04
launched one of the largest manhunts in
6:06
history. They tracked leads to Canada,
6:09
the Bahamas, Venezuela, and Ghana. Each
6:13
time they got close, Matthews was
6:16
already gone, if he'd ever been there at
6:19
all. Some investigators believe he had
6:22
plastic surgery and lived openly under a
6:25
new identity. Others think he was killed
6:28
by associates who wanted his money. The
6:31
truth remains unknown.
6:34
Matthews's disappearance is the holy
6:36
grail of cold cases, says Pity. Every
6:39
few years, we get a credible sighting. A
6:42
man matching his description buying
6:45
property in Ghana. someone with his
6:48
mannerisms running businesses in
6:50
Venezuela. But when we investigate, the
6:53
trail goes cold. He's either the
6:56
greatest escape artist in criminal
6:58
history or the longest running ghost
7:00
story in law enforcement.
7:02
But Matthews wasn't the only forgotten
7:05
titan of American crime. Before him,
7:08
there was Stephanie St. Clair, known as
7:10
Queenie or Madame Queen, who built an
7:13
empire that made grown mobsters tremble.
7:17
Born in Martineique in 1897,
7:20
Stephanie Sinclair arrived in New York
7:23
via Marseilles in 1912.
7:26
She spoke French, Spanish, and English
7:29
fluently, had educated herself in
7:31
mathematics and business, and possessed
7:34
a strategic mind that would have
7:36
impressed Napoleon.
7:38
By the 1920s, she had taken over the
7:41
Harlem numbers racket, becoming one of
7:43
the only people, male or female, black
7:46
or white, to successfully resist the
7:49
Italian mob. "My grandmother worked for
7:52
Madame Queen," recalled Patricia
7:55
Johnson, a Harlem historian. She said
7:58
Stephanie was like royalty. She'd walked
8:01
down 125th Street in these elaborate
8:04
gowns with bodyguards clearing the way,
8:07
but she also paid for kids school
8:09
supplies, covered people's rent when
8:11
they were short, and funded the legal
8:14
defense for anyone arrested on her turf.
8:18
When Dutch Schultz tried to muscle in on
8:20
her territory in 1932,
8:22
St. Clare didn't back down. She took out
8:26
full page ads in black newspapers,
8:29
exposing police corruption and naming
8:31
the officers Schultz had bought. She
8:34
testified against him in court,
8:36
surviving multiple assassination
8:39
attempts. When Schultz was finally
8:42
killed in 1935,
8:45
St. Clare sent a telegram to his
8:47
hospital bed. As ye sow, so shall ye
8:51
reap. The nurse reported that Schultz
8:54
turned pale when he read it. St. Clare's
8:57
methods were decades ahead of her time.
9:00
She used mathematical models to set
9:02
odds, employed women in key positions
9:05
when others saw them only as ornaments,
9:08
and invested her profits in legitimate
9:10
businesses and real estate. By the time
9:13
she retired in the late 1940s, she owned
9:16
multiple properties in Harlem and had
9:19
mentored the next generation of black
9:21
numbers operators, including her former
9:24
enforcer, Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson. Then
9:28
there's Jose Miguel Battle Senior, whose
9:31
corporation makes the Sopranos look like
9:34
a corner bodega, a former Havana cop who
9:37
fought in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
9:39
Battle built a gambling empire that
9:42
stretched from Miami to New York,
9:45
generating over $45 million annually by
9:48
the 1980s.
9:50
Battle was like a Cuban Tony Soprano,
9:53
except smarter and more violent,
9:56
explained TJ English, author of The
9:58
Corporation. He had this code where he'd
10:02
take care of any Cuban who'd fought
10:03
against Castro, but he'd also kill you
10:06
for looking at him wrong. He once had a
10:09
man murdered for winning too much at one
10:11
of his gambling houses. Battle's
10:13
organization was unique in its
10:16
sophistication.
10:17
They had their own banks in Panama, a
10:20
fleet of boats for smuggling, and even
10:23
their own intelligence network that
10:25
rivaled the CIA's in certain areas. When
10:29
the FBI finally took down the
10:31
corporation in 1987, they discovered
10:34
ledgers showing a billion dollars in
10:36
revenue over two decades.
10:40
Perhaps the most tragic of the forgotten
10:42
kingpins was Felix Mitchell, who ruled
10:45
Oakland's drug trade with a combination
10:47
of business acumen and community
10:49
investment that confused both law
10:52
enforcement and residents.
10:54
Born in 1954 in East Oakland's 69th
10:58
Avenue village housing projects,
11:00
Mitchell transformed the scattered drug
11:02
dealing in the area into a sophisticated
11:04
operation called 69 Mob. By age 25, he
11:09
controlled an organization moving $50
11:12
million worth of heroin and cocaine
11:15
annually. But unlike other kingpins,
11:18
Mitchell poured money back into his
11:20
community.
11:22
Felix would throw these massive parties
11:24
for the whole neighborhood, remembered
11:26
Oakland detective Bruce Brock. Free
11:29
food, carnival rides for kids, cash
11:32
giveaways, he'd pay for funerals, buy
11:35
school supplies, even funded a youth
11:37
football league. People loved him and
11:41
feared him equally. Mitchell's downfall
11:44
came from his own success. As 69 mob
11:47
grew, it attracted competition, leading
11:50
to bloody turf wars. When Mitchell was
11:53
finally convicted in 1985, he was
11:56
sentenced to life in prison. Less than a
11:59
year later, he was stabbed to death in
12:02
Levvenworth Federal Penitentiary.
12:05
His funeral in Oakland drew 10,000
12:08
mourners with a horsedrawn hearse and a
12:11
bronze coffin that cost more than most
12:13
people's houses. But perhaps no
12:16
forgotten Kingpin's story is more
12:18
complex than Leroy Nikki Barnes, whose
12:22
rise and fall redefined the American
12:24
drug trade. Born in Harlem in 1933,
12:28
Barnes built an organization called the
12:31
Council, different from Matthews's
12:33
group, that controlled heroin
12:36
distribution across New York State. By
12:39
1976, he was clearing $72 million
12:43
annually. Barnes was so brazen that he
12:47
posed for the cover of New York Times
12:49
magazine under the headline, "Mr.
12:52
Untouchable, wearing a $300,000
12:56
chinchilla coat and Supermanstyle
12:58
outfit. Nikki had this thing about
13:01
respect," recalled former associate
13:04
Joseph Jazz Hayden. "He wanted to be
13:07
seen as a businessman, not a thug. He'd
13:10
hold board meetings, take votes on major
13:13
decisions, even had Robert's rules of
13:16
order at the table, but cross him and
13:19
you disappear like you never existed.
13:22
Barnes's ego proved his undoing. The
13:25
magazine cover infuriated President
13:28
Jimmy Carter, who ordered the Justice
13:30
Department to take him down. When Barnes
13:33
was convicted in 1978, he did something
13:36
unprecedented. He became a government
13:39
informant, not out of fear, but out of
13:42
spite. His testimony convicted 50 major
13:45
dealers, including his entire council.
13:49
"People call me a rat," Barnes said in a
13:52
rare interview. "But those same people
13:55
were sleeping with my woman while I was
13:57
locked up, stealing from the
13:59
organization we built together. I didn't
14:02
betray them. They betrayed me first.
14:06
These forgotten kingpins share common
14:08
threads that explain both their rise and
14:12
their erasia from popular history. They
14:15
were innovators who saw opportunities
14:18
where others saw obstacles. They built
14:21
sophisticated organizations while their
14:23
more famous counterparts relied on
14:26
violence and intimidation.
14:29
Most importantly, they challenged the
14:32
established order, racial, social, and
14:35
criminal. The reason you know about Goty
14:38
and Capone, but not Matthews and
14:40
Sinclair, isn't accidental, explains Dr.
14:44
Khalil Muhammad, a historian
14:46
specializing in race and crime. American
14:50
culture is comfortable with Italian
14:52
gangsters as anti-heroes,
14:54
but black and Hispanic kingpins who
14:57
showed equal or greater sophistication
15:00
that challenges too many assumptions
15:03
about race and capability. The legacy of
15:06
these forgotten kingpins extends far
15:08
beyond their individual stories. Frank
15:11
Matthews's distribution model became the
15:14
template for modern drug trafficking.
15:17
Stephanie St. declares combination of
15:20
crime and community investment
15:22
influenced generations of street
15:24
organizations.
15:26
Battle's international moneyaundering
15:28
schemes predated the cartel's financial
15:31
networks. Mitchell's community focused
15:33
approach is still debated in discussions
15:36
about crime and poverty. But their
15:39
erasia from popular history also tells
15:42
us something disturbing about American
15:45
memory. We remember the criminals who
15:48
fit our narratives. The violent Italian
15:50
mobster, the flashy prohibition
15:52
bootleger. We forget those who
15:55
complicate the story. The brilliant
15:58
black woman who outmaneuvered Dutch
16:00
Schultz. The Hispanic mastermind who
16:02
built a shadow banking system. The drug
16:05
lord who vanished with millions and left
16:08
the FBI chasing ghosts.
16:12
These forgotten kingpins proved that
16:14
organized crime in America was never
16:16
just an Italian or Irish phenomenon. It
16:20
was an American phenomenon shaped by
16:22
whoever was excluded from legitimate
16:24
power at any given moment. They showed
16:27
that brilliance, ambition, and
16:29
ruthlessness know no racial boundaries,
16:32
a truth that apparently makes some
16:34
people uncomfortable enough to bury
16:36
these stories.
16:38
Today, Frank Matthews remains on the US
16:41
Marshalss 15 most wanted list, the only
16:44
person on the list who might be dead.
16:47
Stephanie St. Clair's real estate empire
16:50
helped create modern Harlem. Joseé
16:53
Battle's money laundering methods are
16:55
studied in federal law enforcement.
16:58
Felix Mitchell's funeral footage is used
17:01
to teach about the complex relationship
17:03
between crime and community. Nikki
17:06
Barnes lives somewhere in witness
17:08
protection. His new identity so complete
17:12
that his own children don't know where
17:14
he is. These weren't just criminals.
17:17
They were criminal geniuses who happened
17:19
to be the wrong color for Hollywood
17:22
glorification.
17:23
They built empires that rivaled any
17:26
mafia family, showed innovation that
17:28
surpassed their more famous
17:30
counterparts, and left legacies that law
17:33
enforcement still studies today.
17:36
Yet their names remain unknown to most
17:38
Americans. Their stories untold, their
17:42
lessons unlearned.
17:44
The forgotten kingpins of American crime
17:47
didn't just break laws. They broke
17:49
stereotypes, shattered expectations, and
17:53
showed that in America's underworld, as
17:55
in its legitimate world, brilliance
17:58
comes in all colors. Their erasia from
18:01
popular history isn't just an oversight.
18:04
It's a deliberate forgetting of stories
18:07
that challenge our comfortable
18:08
narratives about crime, race, and power.
18:13
They gave us new models of organized
18:15
crime, new methods of money laundering,
18:18
new ways of combining community support
18:21
with criminal enterprise.
18:23
They showed that the American dream's
18:25
dark side was equally accessible to
18:28
anyone willing to pay its price. And
18:31
perhaps that's why they've been
18:32
forgotten. Because remembering them
18:35
would mean acknowledging truths about
18:37
America that we'd rather forget. Now, I
18:41
need to hear from you. Which of these
18:43
forgotten kingpins shocked you the most?
18:46
Was it Frank Matthews who vanished with
18:48
$20 million and has outsmarted the FBI
18:51
for 50 years? Stephanie Sinclair who
18:55
made Dutch Schultz look like an amateur?
18:58
or one of the others whose brilliance
19:01
has been erased from history. Here's
19:04
what really bothers me, and I want your
19:06
take on this. Why do we know every
19:09
detail about Al Capone's life, but
19:12
nothing about criminals who were
19:14
arguably more successful and definitely
19:17
more innovative? Is it racism, pure and
19:20
simple, or is there something about
19:22
these particular stories that threatens
19:24
our understanding of American crime
19:27
history? And let's get real about this.
19:30
Frank Matthews might be reading these
19:32
comments right now from a beach
19:34
somewhere, laughing at the FBI, still
19:37
looking for him. If you were him, would
19:40
you have stayed hidden all these years?
19:43
Or would the temptation to reveal
19:45
yourself be too strong? Could anyone
19:49
really disappear that completely in
19:50
today's world? Drop your theories below.
19:54
I read every comment and the best
19:57
insights get pinned. Don't hold back.
20:00
These stories have been hidden for too
20:02
long. If these forgotten kingpins blew
20:05
your mind, next week's video will leave
20:08
you speechless.
20:10
I'm diving deep into the story of
20:12
Grisela Blanco, the cocaine godmother
20:15
who made Pablo Escobar look soft. She
20:19
invented motorcycle assassinations,
20:21
murdered her way to a $2 billion empire,
20:24
and ordered hits from her prison cell.
20:27
The real story is even crazier than the
20:29
movies suggest. Hit that subscribe
20:32
button and notification bell right now.
20:36
YouTube's algorithm doesn't like
20:38
promoting videos about minority crime
20:40
figures. I've seen the analytics.
20:43
The only way to make sure you don't miss
20:45
these hidden histories is to ring that
20:48
bell. Check out my playlist, Erased from
20:51
History, where I expose more criminal
20:54
masterminds whose stories have been
20:57
deliberately buried. Every video is a
21:00
revelation that challenges what you
21:02
think you know about American crime.
21:05
Share this video with someone who thinks
21:07
they know crime history. Show them that
21:10
the most fascinating stories are the
21:13
ones that never made it to Hollywood.
21:15
Because here's the truth. For every
21:18
Scarface or Good Fellas, there are 10
21:20
real stories that are more incredible
21:23
but will never be told because they
21:25
feature the wrong color criminal. What
21:28
forgotten crime figure should I
21:30
investigate next? The Supreme Team? the
21:33
Chambers brothers or should I go
21:35
international and cover the kingpins
21:38
erased from other count's histories? Let
21:41
me know in the comments. Before you go,
21:44
think about this. Everyone of these
21:46
forgotten kingpins started as a kid with
21:50
limited options who decided crime was
21:52
their best path to power. They were
21:56
brilliant minds who could have been
21:58
CEOs, innovators, or leaders in
22:01
legitimate fields.
22:03
What does it say about our society that
22:05
crime seemed like their best option? And
22:08
more importantly, are we creating the
22:11
next generation of forgotten kingpins
22:13
right now in neighborhoods where
22:15
legitimate opportunity still doesn't
22:18
exist?
22:19
Remember, history isn't just written by
22:22
the winners. It's written by those who
22:25
control the narrative. These forgotten
22:27
kingpins lost control of their stories,
22:30
but their impact remains. Every drug
22:34
distribution network, every money
22:36
laundering scheme, every community-based
22:39
criminal organization
22:41
owes something to these erased
22:43
innovators.
22:44
Stay curious, question the official
22:47
story, and never forget. The most
22:50
dangerous criminals are often the ones
22:51
they don't want you to remember. Until
22:54
next time, peace.
22:58
[Music]