Up next in 10
Harlem, 1971. Steam rises from manholes as the most powerful Black drug dealers in America gather for a meeting that will change everything. At the head of the table sits Frank Matthews—a 27-year-old who controls more heroin than the Italian Mafia itself.
This is the story of the only major American drug kingpin who got away with it. While Frank Lucas went to prison and Pablo Escobar died in a shootout, Frank Matthews simply vanished with $20 million, becoming the perfect ghost. For 50 years, the DEA has searched the world for him. No body. No confirmed sightings. No trace.
From his rise as a barber in Brooklyn to building a $300 million empire that operated in 21 states, Frank Matthews rewrote the rules of organized crime. He lived next door to Mafia bosses, organized summits that should have gotten him killed, and when the feds finally caught him—he disappeared so completely that even today, nobody knows if he's dead or alive.
But how does someone vanish this perfectly? And why has Hollywood ignored the one criminal who actually beat the system?
What's your theory—is Frank Matthews sipping cocktails on a beach at 80 years old, or did his story end decades ago in an unmarked grave? Drop your thoughts below, I read every comment.
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Next week: The female drug lord who made Frank Matthews look like an amateur...
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**00:00.1** - Opening: Harlem 1971, the meeting that changed everything
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0:00
Harlem, 1971. Steam rises from manholes
0:03
as snow begins to fall on 125th Street.
0:07
Inside the Lennox Lounge, the most
0:10
powerful black drug dealers in America
0:12
are gathering for a meeting that will
0:15
change everything. At the head of the
0:17
table sits a 27year-old from North
0:20
Carolina who controls more heroin than
0:23
the Italian mafia, Frank Matthews.
0:26
Within 2 years, he'll vanish with $20
0:29
million, becoming the only major
0:32
American drug kingpin to escape with his
0:35
fortune intact.
0:37
While the mafia built empires that
0:39
lasted generations, Frank Matthews built
0:42
something different. The perfect
0:44
disappearing act. So, get ready to dive
0:47
into the story of the man who beat the
0:50
system by refusing to play by its rules.
0:55
Act one, the making of a ghost. The
0:59
truth is, we don't know much about Frank
1:01
Matthews early life, and that's exactly
1:04
how he wanted it. Born February 13th,
1:08
1944 in Durham, North Carolina, Frank
1:12
Larry Matthews entered a world that
1:14
seemed designed to limit his
1:16
possibilities.
1:18
His mother died when he was four. his
1:22
father, not even a name in the records.
1:25
His aunt Marcela took him in, raising
1:28
him in the Haiti district. Durham's
1:31
poorest black neighborhood. But Durham
1:34
wasn't just any segregated southern
1:36
town. Despite Jim Crow's iron grip, it
1:41
housed one of America's most prosperous
1:43
black communities.
1:45
The city boasted more black millionaires
1:47
per capita than anywhere else in North
1:50
Carolina.
1:51
Young Frank watched successful black
1:53
businessmen navigate a system designed
1:56
to exclude them, learning lessons that
1:59
would later help him circumvent the
2:01
Italian mafia's strangle hold on drugs.
2:05
As childhood friend Reggie Coleman
2:07
recalls, Frank saw black men with money
2:10
and power when the rest of us only saw
2:12
limitations.
2:14
Yet Frank had zero interest in
2:17
legitimate success. Teachers described
2:20
him as intelligent but completely
2:23
disengaged. His mind always somewhere
2:26
else, usually on the streets. He dropped
2:29
out at 14, the same year police arrested
2:32
him for stealing chickens from a local
2:34
farm. But this wasn't some desperate act
2:37
of poverty. Frank was already organizing
2:41
other kids, teaching them to create
2:43
diversions while he grabbed the goods.
2:46
The charges were dropped, but the
2:48
pattern was set. Frank Matthews was a
2:51
natural leader who played by his own
2:53
rules.
2:55
Therefore, when Frank turned 18 in 1962,
2:59
he decided Durham was too small for his
3:02
ambitions. He caught a Greyhound bus to
3:05
Philadelphia with $200 in his pocket and
3:08
a barber's license he'd somehow
3:10
acquired. Within a week, he was working
3:13
at Slim's Barber Shop on South Street,
3:16
cutting hair for $2 a head by day,
3:19
running numbers by night. The numbers
3:22
game brought in maybe $50 here, $100
3:25
there. Meanwhile, Frank watched heroin
3:28
dealers his age driving brand new
3:30
Cadillacs while he rode the bus. Still,
3:34
something set Frank apart from other
3:36
ambitious street kids. He didn't use
3:39
drugs, not even marijuana. He dressed
3:43
conservatively, spoke quietly, never
3:46
flashed whatever money he had. A
3:48
Philadelphia police report from 1963
3:51
described him as unremarkable in every
3:54
way. But beneath that unremarkable
3:57
surface, Frank was studying everything.
4:00
Supply routes, police patrol patterns,
4:04
who was connected to whom. He was
4:06
building a mental map of the entire East
4:09
Coast drug trade. However, Philadelphia
4:13
was just a stepping stone. In late 1963,
4:17
Frank packed his single suitcase again.
4:20
This time heading for New York City. He
4:23
settled in Bedford Styver and Brooklyn.
4:26
Still cutting hair, still running
4:28
numbers, still watching.
4:31
Brooklyn in 1964 was different from
4:34
anything Frank had seen. The heroin
4:37
epidemic was exploding. The Italian
4:40
mafia controlled every major supply line
4:43
and young black dealers were getting
4:45
rich as middlemen.
4:48
Frank saw an opportunity everyone else
4:50
missed. What if you didn't need the
4:52
Italians at all? Act two, building the
4:57
impossible.
4:58
Frank's entry into the drug trade
5:01
started with a rejection that would have
5:03
crushed most people. In early 1965, he
5:07
approached the Gambino family for a
5:09
heroin connection. They laughed him out
5:12
of the room, a 21-year-old black kid
5:14
from North Carolina, thinking he could
5:17
play with real gangsters.
5:19
But Frank didn't get angry. He got
5:22
strategic. If the front door was locked,
5:24
he'd find a window. Therefore, he
5:27
reached out to Spanish Raymond Marquez,
5:30
the numbers king of Harlem, who
5:31
mentioned knowing some Cubans in Miami.
5:35
These weren't just any Cubans. They were
5:37
associates of Rolando Gonzalez Nunes,
5:40
who controlled massive cocaine shipments
5:43
from Venezuela.
5:45
The Italians had largely ignored
5:46
cocaine, focusing their energy on
5:49
heroin. But Frank saw the future.
5:52
Cocaine was cleaner, easier to
5:55
transport, and attracted wealthy white
5:57
customers who paid premium prices
6:00
without asking questions.
6:03
His first meeting with Gonzalez's people
6:05
in Miami nearly got him killed. Frank
6:08
showed up at a warehouse near the port
6:10
with $20,000 in a paper bag, looking
6:13
like exactly what he was, a young kid in
6:17
way over his head. The Cubans pulled
6:20
guns, certain it was a police setup. But
6:23
Frank did something that shocked
6:25
everyone in the room. He turned his back
6:28
on the weapons and started walking
6:30
toward the door. "If you're going to
6:33
shoot me, shoot me," he said without
6:36
looking back. "Otherwise, let's do
6:39
business."
6:40
That kind of calculated courage earned
6:43
their respect. He left Miami with his
6:46
first kilo of pure cocaine. Yet 1 kilo
6:50
wasn't going to build an empire. Frank
6:52
needed infrastructure, and he built it
6:55
methodically.
6:56
By 1967,
6:58
he had 15 employees in Brooklyn alone,
7:01
each running their own crew. Unlike
7:04
other dealers who ruled through fear and
7:07
violence, Frank paid better than anyone,
7:10
$5,000 a week for mid-level dealers when
7:13
competitors paid $1,000.
7:17
But he demanded absolute loyalty and
7:19
mathematical precision. Mickey Beckwith,
7:22
one of his early associates, recalled,
7:25
"Frank would test you. He'd leave
7:28
$10,000 on a table and walk out of the
7:31
room. If even $100 was missing when he
7:35
came back, you were done. No second
7:38
chances. However, Frank's real genius
7:41
wasn't in street level dealing. It was
7:43
in logistics.
7:45
While other dealers waited weeks for
7:47
shipments and paid whatever prices
7:49
suppliers demanded, Frank started flying
7:52
to Venezuela himself, meeting directly
7:55
with the source. He opened bank accounts
7:58
in the Bahamas, Switzerland, and Panama,
8:01
moving money through a network of
8:03
legitimate businesses.
8:05
By 1968, he was moving 100 kilos a month
8:10
through a distribution network that
8:12
stretched from Baltimore to Boston. The
8:15
DEA would later estimate he was
8:17
supplying 40% of the East Coast's heroin
8:21
and cocaine, but success brought
8:24
unwanted attention from the wrong
8:26
people. In 1969,
8:29
three men from the Luke crime family
8:31
showed up at Frank's Brooklyn apartment
8:33
with a simple message. Pay us 25% of
8:37
everything or die. Frank invited them
8:40
in, served them coffee, and calmly
8:43
explained his counter proposal. They
8:46
could have 10% of his Brooklyn
8:47
operation, or he would flood their
8:49
territories with products so pure and
8:52
cheap it would destroy their market
8:54
share overnight. The Luces left with
8:57
their 10%. But Frank knew he'd made
9:00
dangerous enemies. Therefore, Frank did
9:04
something that was either brilliant or
9:06
suicidal. He moved to Staten Island,
9:09
specifically to the Tot Hill
9:11
neighborhood where Paul Castellano and
9:14
other mafia bosses lived. A young black
9:17
drug dealer moving next door to the
9:19
future head of the Gambino family.
9:23
Frank's mansion at 7 Buttonwood Road
9:25
cost $500,000
9:28
in cash. He literally showed up with
9:31
duffel bags full of money. His neighbors
9:34
were furious, but they couldn't do
9:36
anything without admitting their own
9:38
criminal activities.
9:40
The lifestyle was intoxicating. Frank
9:43
owned 30 cars, including a 1971 Mercedes
9:47
300 seal 6.3 that cost more than most
9:51
people's houses. He'd fly to Las Vegas
9:54
for the weekend, dropping $100,000 at
9:56
the craps tables like it was pocket
9:59
change. Witnesses described seeing him
10:01
at the Alifasia fight in March 1971
10:05
wearing a $50,000 chinchilla coat
10:08
surrounded by beautiful women, betting
10:11
more on a single round than most people
10:14
made in a year. Yet for all the flash
10:17
and glamour, Frank remained obsessively
10:20
disciplined about his business. He was
10:23
up at 6:00 a.m. every day personally
10:25
checking shipments, managing accounts,
10:28
never trusting anyone completely.
10:31
Still, Frank's biggest coup came in
10:34
October 1971.
10:36
He organized a summit in Atlanta,
10:38
inviting every major black and Hispanic
10:41
drug dealer in America to the Regency
10:43
Hyatt House. The agenda was simple but
10:47
revolutionary. Cut out the Italian mafia
10:50
entirely. Frank had cultivated direct
10:53
relationships with the French Corsacans
10:56
who actually supplied the Italians and
10:58
he was offering to share these
11:00
connections with everyone in the room.
11:03
It was a declaration of independence
11:05
that should have gotten him killed. But
11:08
Frank had become too big, too connected,
11:11
and too valuable to eliminate without
11:13
starting a war that nobody wanted. By
11:17
early 1972,
11:19
Frank Matthews controlled a criminal
11:21
empire worth an estimated $300 million,
11:25
roughly $2 billion in today's money. He
11:28
was moving 500 kilos of heroin and
11:31
cocaine monthly, employed over 100
11:34
people across 21 states, and operated
11:37
completely independent of mafia control.
11:40
According to DEA agent Gerard Miller,
11:44
who would later investigate him,
11:46
Matthews was doing things we didn't
11:48
think were possible for someone his age
11:50
and background.
11:51
He was supposed to be a middleman, but
11:54
he'd become bigger than his suppliers.
11:57
However, Frank had developed a dangerous
12:00
habit that threatened everything he'd
12:02
built. The man, who had never touched
12:05
drugs in his life, had started using
12:07
cocaine heavily. associates began
12:11
noticing erratic behavior. Paranoid and
12:14
suspicious one moment, recklessly
12:16
generous the next. He'd give away
12:19
$50,000 to complete strangers, but
12:22
execute trusted dealers for being $100
12:24
short on their payments. The iron
12:27
control that had built his empire was
12:30
beginning to slip.
12:33
Three, the perfect vanishing act. The
12:37
beginning of the end started with a
12:39
phone tap the DEA didn't even know was
12:41
important.
12:43
In January 1972,
12:45
Group 12, a joint federal task force
12:48
targeting major drug traffickers, picked
12:51
up Frank's name during surveillance of a
12:54
completely different case. Agent Gerard
12:57
Miller couldn't believe what he was
12:59
hearing on the wire taps. A 28-year-old
13:03
black dealer from Brooklyn was moving
13:05
more product than crime families that
13:08
had been in the game for generations.
13:11
But when Miller tried to pull Frank's
13:13
criminal file, there was almost nothing.
13:16
One juvenile arrest for stealing
13:19
chickens and a few minor infractions.
13:22
Therefore, Group 12 made Frank Matthews
13:26
their primary target. They began tapping
13:29
his phones, following his cars, and
13:32
photographing everyone who entered his
13:34
Staten Island mansion. But Frank seemed
13:38
to know exactly when he was being
13:40
watched. He'd lead surveillance teams on
13:42
wild chases through Brooklyn's narrow
13:45
streets, breaking every traffic law in
13:48
the book before disappearing into
13:50
underground parking garages with
13:53
multiple exits.
13:55
Once he stopped his Mercedes in the
13:57
middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, got out
14:00
and waved cheerfully at the federal
14:02
agents following him. The breakthrough
14:04
came from Frank's own growing arrogance
14:07
and cocaine fueled recklessness.
14:10
On a tapped phone call to Venezuela in
14:13
late 1972,
14:15
he mentioned specific details about a
14:18
massive cocaine shipment coming through
14:20
Miami, dates, flight numbers, even the
14:23
names of the pilots. The DEA intercepted
14:27
18 kilos of pure cocaine worth $4.5
14:31
million on the street. But instead of
14:34
laying low after this major loss, Frank
14:37
tried to set up an even bigger deal,
14:39
talking openly on phones he had to know
14:42
were compromised.
14:44
It was as if he wanted to get caught, or
14:47
wanted them to think he did. Yet, when
14:49
the arrest finally came, it was almost
14:52
anticlimactic.
14:54
January 5th, 1973,
14:57
Las Vegas International Airport. Frank
15:00
was boarding a first class flight to Los
15:02
Angeles with his girlfriend Cheryl
15:04
Denise Brown when federal agents
15:07
surrounded them at the gate. No
15:10
gunfight, no dramatic chase, Frank
15:13
simply smiled and held out his hands for
15:16
the handcuffs. At his bail hearing the
15:19
next day, he looked directly at federal
15:22
prosecutor William Callahan and said,
15:26
"You've got nothing that'll stick, and
15:28
we both know it." The bail was set at 5
15:32
million, the highest in United States
15:34
history at that time. But Frank's
15:36
high-powered legal team got it reduced
15:39
to $325,000,
15:42
arguing that their client had community
15:45
ties and legitimate business interests.
15:48
The prosecutor protested vehemently that
15:50
Frank was an extreme flight risk with
15:53
millions in offshore accounts, but the
15:56
judge sided with the defense. On
15:59
February 15th, 1973,
16:02
Frank Matthews walked out of federal
16:04
custody after posting bail. He would
16:06
never be seen again. However, Frank
16:10
didn't run immediately, and that's what
16:12
made his eventual disappearance so
16:14
perfect. For 4 months, he appeared at
16:18
every court hearing, seemed to be
16:20
cooperating with his lawyers, and even
16:22
talked publicly about making a deal with
16:25
prosecutors.
16:26
But associates later revealed that Frank
16:29
spent this time systematically
16:31
liquidating everything, converting real
16:34
estate to cash, closing bank accounts,
16:37
and saying subtle goodbyes to people who
16:39
mattered. On June 26th, 1973,
16:44
he met with his three children from a
16:46
previous marriage, giving them each
16:48
$5,000 and telling them to be good and
16:52
study hard. They never saw their father
16:56
again. The trial was scheduled to begin
16:59
on July 2nd, 1973.
17:02
Frank's lawyer arrived at the federal
17:04
courthouse at 9:00 a.m. to find an empty
17:07
defendant's chair. By noon, US marshals
17:11
were at Frank's Staten Island mansion,
17:14
finding it stripped completely bare. No
17:17
clothes, no personal items, nothing but
17:20
furniture that was too heavy to move
17:22
quickly. The garage where Frank had kept
17:25
his collection of 30 luxury cars was
17:28
empty except for oil stains on the
17:30
concrete. But the strangest discovery
17:34
was in Frank's home office, exactly
17:37
$500,000 in cash, neatly stacked on his
17:40
desk in $10,000 bundles, as if he'd left
17:44
it as a final message. I don't need this
17:48
anymore.
17:49
Therefore, the biggest manhunt in DEA
17:52
history began immediately.
17:55
Federal agents flooded airports, border
17:57
crossings, and ports from Miami to
18:00
Montreal.
18:01
Frank's photograph appeared on wanted
18:04
posters in six languages. The DEA
18:07
offered a $20,000 reward, the highest
18:10
since John Dillinger in the 1930s.
18:14
Tips poured in from around the world.
18:17
Frank was supposedly living openly in
18:19
Algeria, running a casino in the
18:21
Bahamas, hiding in the mountains of
18:24
Venezuela, even spotted buying groceries
18:27
in Philadelphia.
18:29
But every single lead went cold. It was
18:32
as if Frank Matthews had simply
18:35
evaporated.
18:36
Investigators eventually discovered that
18:39
Frank had been extraordinarily busy
18:42
during those four months of freedom. He
18:45
had systematically withdrawn exactly $20
18:48
million from various accounts, not his
18:52
entire fortune, but enough to live
18:54
lavishly for several lifetimes.
18:57
Intelligence reports suggested he had
19:00
obtained multiple false passports,
19:02
established new identities in at least
19:05
three countries, and reportedly
19:07
underwent facial reconstruction surgery
19:09
in Mexico City. Yet, the most intriguing
19:13
detail came from a wire tap recorded
19:16
just 2 days before his disappearance.
19:19
Frank telling an unidentified associate,
19:22
"After Monday, there won't be any Frank
19:25
Matthews.
19:27
That person will cease to exist." To
19:30
this day, Frank Matthews remains on the
19:32
US Marshall's 15 most wanted list. He
19:36
would be 80 years old now. No body has
19:39
ever been found. No confirmed sighting
19:42
has ever been verified by authorities.
19:45
His girlfriend, Cheryl Brown, also
19:48
vanished completely. No social security
19:51
activity, no death certificate, no trace
19:54
of any kind. In 50 years of searching,
19:58
not one person has credibly claimed the
20:00
reward money for information leading to
20:03
his capture. the unanswered questions.
20:06
Frank Matthews achieved something that
20:08
no other major American drug kingpin has
20:11
ever managed. He got away with it
20:13
completely. While Frank Lucas went to
20:16
prison, Nikki Barnes became a government
20:19
informant and Pablo Escobar died in a
20:22
hail of bullets. Matthews simply walked
20:25
away from the game with his fortune
20:27
intact and his freedom preserved.
20:30
Former DEA agent Gerard Miller, now in
20:34
his 80s, still keeps Frank's case file
20:36
on his desk at home. Every few years,
20:40
someone calls claiming they've seen him,
20:43
Miller says. Brazil, Ghana, Switzerland,
20:47
even living openly in Cuba.
20:50
Could be true, could be wishful
20:52
thinking. The frustrating thing is Frank
20:55
was smart enough to disappear completely
20:58
and disciplined enough to stay
21:01
disappeared forever. The Matthews case
21:04
fundamentally changed how American law
21:07
enforcement handles major drug
21:09
investigations.
21:11
Bail for trafficking cases became
21:13
virtually impossible to obtain.
21:16
Financial tracking systems were
21:18
revolutionized.
21:20
international cooperation protocols were
21:22
strengthened. Yet, none of these
21:25
improvements would have caught Frank
21:26
Matthews because he understood something
21:29
that law enforcement was slow to grasp.
21:32
The system only works if you agree to
21:35
play by its rules. But perhaps the
21:38
biggest mystery isn't where Frank
21:40
Matthews went. It's why his story has
21:43
been largely forgotten while lesser
21:45
criminals became household names. Is it
21:49
because Hollywood doesn't want to
21:50
glorify the one major drug dealer who
21:53
actually beat the system? Or is it
21:56
because Frank Matthews represents
21:58
something more unsettling? Proof that
22:01
with enough money, planning, and sheer
22:03
audacity, someone can simply opt out of
22:06
consequences entirely.
22:09
The question remains, in a world where
22:12
everyone eventually gets caught, where
22:14
every criminal's story ends in death or
22:17
imprisonment, Frank Matthews suggests
22:20
there was always a third option. You
22:24
just needed $20 million and the courage
22:26
to take it. So, what do you think? Is
22:29
Frank Matthews still out there
22:31
somewhere? An 80-year-old ghost who beat
22:34
the system and lived to enjoy it? Or did
22:37
his story end in some unmarked grave
22:40
decades ago, his fortunes scattered to
22:43
the winds? Drop your theory in the
22:46
comments. I read every single one. And
22:50
if this story opened your eyes to a side
22:52
of criminal history you never knew
22:55
existed, subscribe for the next
22:57
investigation into the cases that law
23:00
enforcement wishes they could for