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The Untold Story of America’s First Black Crime Bosses!
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Jul 10, 2025
The SHOCKING untold story of how Black entrepreneurs built MASSIVE criminal empires before the Italian Mafia took over. Meet Stephanie St. Clair, the "Queen of Numbers" who made MILLIONS ($8M in today's money) running Harlem's underground lottery, and her enforcer Bumpy Johnson who OUTSMARTED the most dangerous mobsters in America. When every legitimate door was closed to them in segregated America, these forgotten legends created their own economy from nothing! This hidden history reveals how these empire builders funded the Harlem Renaissance, battled corrupt police, and even STOOD UP to brutal gangster Dutch Schultz when he tried to take over their territory. The truth about America's first organized crime bosses has been deliberately erased from history... until now. The Untold Story of America’s First Black Crime Bosses! #History #OrganizedCrime #HiddenHistory #BlackHistory #Mafia #UntoldStories #TrueCrime -~-~~-~~~-~~-~--~-~~-~~~-~~-~--~-~~-~~~-~~-~- ⚠️ Content Disclaimer: This video is created for educational and informational purposes only. We do NOT glorify, promote, or encourage any form of criminal activity. All visuals, audio, and materials used in this video are either: ✔ Created using AI tools, or ✔ Sourced from royalty-free platforms with valid licenses. Some images and characters have been generated using AI and do not represent real people or events. No copyrighted content belonging to others has been used without permission. ❤️ Support the Channel: If you enjoy learning about real-life crime stories, history, and social issues, don't forget to: ✔ Like the video ✔ Subscribe to the channel
View Video Transcript
0:00
When you think of the American mob,
0:02
names like Corleone, Capone, and Goty
0:05
probably come to mind. But long before
0:08
they became legends, the streets of
0:11
cities like New York and Chicago were
0:13
run by a different set of royalty. In an
0:17
America that was determined to lock them
0:19
out, a generation of black visionaries
0:22
built their own empires from the
0:24
shadows, creating staggering wealth and
0:27
power from a brilliant and illegal
0:30
numbers game. These are the forgotten
0:33
stories of the men and women who ran the
0:36
streets before the narrative, you know.
0:39
So, how did they build these incredible
0:41
enterprises? and why has their history
0:44
been almost completely erased? If you
0:47
enjoy digging into the hidden corners of
0:50
history, do me a favor and hit that
0:52
subscribe button. You won't want to miss
0:55
the stories we pull out of the shadows.
0:57
Section one, the problem, a segregated
1:00
America. To really get why these
1:02
underworld empires came to be, you have
1:06
to understand the world that made them.
1:09
The early 20th century in America was a
1:11
time of deep contradictions. For white
1:14
Americans, the roaring 20s was a decade
1:18
of wild prosperity and cultural energy.
1:22
But for black Americans, it was the era
1:25
of Jim Crow, a time of brutal government
1:29
approved segregation and a system
1:32
designed to keep them down. Millions of
1:35
African-Ameans were fleeing the violence
1:38
of the rural south in what we now call
1:41
the great migration. They flooded into
1:44
northern cities like New York, Chicago,
1:47
and Detroit, looking for safety and a
1:50
chance to make a living. Between 1910
1:53
and 1930, the black population of New
1:56
York City more than doubled, turning
1:59
neighborhoods like Harlem into vibrant,
2:02
crowded cultural hotspots. But the north
2:05
was no promised land. Segregation might
2:09
not have been written into the law like
2:11
it was in the South, but it was a harsh
2:14
reality enforced by social rules,
2:17
violence, and economic walls. Black
2:20
families were squeezed into ghettos,
2:23
living in run-down, overcrowded
2:25
buildings. Basic services were a joke.
2:29
In 1929 Harlem, there was only one
2:32
hospital bed for every 1,041
2:35
black residents, compared to one for
2:38
every 139 white residents. The life
2:41
expectancy for black Americans was a
2:44
full 12 years shorter than for whites.
2:47
And that roaring 20's economic boom, it
2:50
pretty much passed them by. Labor unions
2:54
shut out black workers and they were
2:56
consistently pushed into the lowest
2:58
paying jobs as janitors, cooks, or
3:01
porters. In the 1920s alone, a million
3:06
black farm workers lost their jobs. The
3:09
normal paths to building wealth,
3:11
starting a business, or creating a
3:14
better life for your kids were almost
3:17
completely blocked. White-owned banks
3:20
refused them loans. White-owned
3:23
businesses wouldn't give them real work.
3:26
Society had built a wall around them,
3:29
locking them out of the official
3:30
economy. It was in this suffocating
3:33
world born from a desperate need to
3:36
survive and a burning desire for
3:39
something better that another economy
3:42
began to boom. An underground economy.
3:45
Section two. The response. The rise of
3:49
the policy kings. When every legitimate
3:52
door is slammed in your face, you learn
3:55
to build your own. The cornerstone of
3:58
this new underground economy was a
4:00
simple but brilliant illegal lottery
4:04
called policy or more often the numbers.
4:07
It was a game of chance that you could
4:10
play for as little as a penny. You just
4:13
pick a three-digit number and give your
4:16
bet to a runner who collected all the
4:18
slips and cash and took them to a
4:21
central bank. To keep things feeling
4:24
honest and to stop people from crying
4:26
foul, the winning number was often tied
4:30
to a public source nobody could argue
4:32
with, like the last three digits of the
4:35
daily US Treasury balance. But the
4:38
numbers racket was way more than just a
4:41
lottery.
4:43
It was a massive self-contained economic
4:46
engine. It was a community game that
4:49
created a huge underground economy in
4:52
Harlem and other black neighborhoods. It
4:55
created thousands of jobs, not just for
4:58
the bankers financing it all, but for an
5:00
army of runners, clarks, and
5:03
accountants. By 1925,
5:06
there were at least 30 of these policy
5:08
banks running in Harlem alone.
5:12
This whole enterprise was born from
5:14
necessity, but it was run with
5:17
incredible vision. And at the head of
5:19
the pack was a woman who would become a
5:21
legend, Stephanie St. Clare. Born in the
5:25
French West Indies, St. Clare landed in
5:28
Harlem in 1912 as a teenager with a will
5:32
of iron. She was sharp, sophisticated,
5:35
and fiercely independent. Known for her
5:38
incredible fashion sense, often seen in
5:41
exotic dresses and colorful turbons, she
5:44
had an air of mystery and would often
5:46
speak French when asked where she was
5:48
from. In a world completely dominated by
5:52
men, she carved out her own empire.
5:56
After dabbling in a few other rackets,
5:58
she saw the real gold mine in the
6:00
numbers game. She set up one of the
6:03
first and most successful policy banks
6:06
in Harlem. By the late 1920s, Madame
6:10
Sinclair, or Queenie as they called her,
6:13
was one of the wealthiest and most
6:15
powerful people in New York, earning
6:18
what would be millions of dollars today
6:20
and owning a string of properties. But
6:22
St. Clare was more than just a crime
6:25
boss. She was a fierce defender of her
6:28
community. She used her money and power
6:31
to fight the very system that tried to
6:34
hold her down. She took out ads in
6:37
blackowned papers like the Amsterdam
6:40
News, teaching the Harlem community
6:42
about their legal rights, pushing for
6:45
voting rights, and publicly calling out
6:47
police brutality and corruption. To many
6:51
in Harlem, she wasn't a criminal. She
6:54
was a champion, a Robin Hood who built
6:57
an empire from nothing and used it to
7:01
lift her people up. This was the era of
7:05
the policy kings and queens. People like
7:08
St. Clare and her rival Casper Holstein
7:11
weren't just gangsters. They were the
7:14
community's bankers, employers, and
7:16
biggest supporters. They provided the
7:19
startup money that blackowned barber
7:22
shops, restaurants, and funeral homes
7:24
could never get from white banks. They
7:27
funded political campaigns and backed
7:30
civil rights activists. They created an
7:32
entire economic ecosystem where black
7:35
wealth could be made and most
7:37
importantly be put right back into the
7:40
community. It was a golden age, a short
7:44
but brilliant time when these
7:46
visionaries ran the streets on their own
7:48
terms. But it wasn't going to last. The
7:51
kind of money they were making was
7:53
starting to attract the wrong kind of
7:56
attention. Section three, the golden age
7:59
and the enforcer. The success of the
8:02
policy rackets turned the people who
8:04
built them into local celebrities. They
8:07
lived large, becoming a defiant symbol
8:10
of black success in an age of
8:13
oppression. By 1930, Stephanie St.
8:17
Clair's fortune was estimated at around
8:20
half a million. That's roughly $8
8:23
million today. She was living a life of
8:26
luxury that was unthinkable for most
8:29
Americans, black or white. Especially as
8:33
the Great Depression hit, the policy
8:36
kings and queens were a new kind of
8:39
royalty and their influence was felt on
8:42
every corner of Harlem. But their power
8:45
wasn't just about money. They were woven
8:47
into the very fabric of the community. A
8:51
win on the numbers could change a
8:53
person's life, letting them pay their
8:55
bills, buy a house, or even start a
8:58
small business of their own. For
9:01
example, the father of the future
9:03
Secretary of State, Colin Powell, bought
9:06
his family's home with winnings from the
9:09
numbers. The game was an engine of hope,
9:12
an underground stock market for people
9:14
who were banned from the real one. The
9:17
policy bankers were the community's
9:19
patrons, and in return, the community
9:22
gave them loyalty and protection. Of
9:25
course, this golden age was built on an
9:28
illegal foundation, and protecting an
9:30
operation that profitable required some
9:34
muscle. As St. Clare's empire grew, she
9:37
needed an enforcer, someone who spoke
9:40
the language of the streets and wasn't
9:42
afraid to get his hands dirty. She found
9:46
that person in a young, smart, and
9:48
ambitious man named Ellsworth Bumpy
9:51
Johnson. Born in South Carolina in 1905,
9:55
Bumpy was sent north to Harlem as a boy
9:58
after his older brother was accused of
10:01
killing a white man. And the family
10:04
feared a lynch mob. He was incredibly
10:07
sharp, a bookworm and a great chess
10:10
player, but he also had a hot temper and
10:13
a deep defiance of the white
10:15
establishment.
10:17
After a few stretches in prison, he met
10:19
Madame Sinclair, and she saw his
10:22
potential right away. Bumpy became St.
10:26
Clair's right-hand man, her top
10:28
lieutenant, and bodyguard. He put
10:31
together a crew that protected her
10:33
runners and bookies, making sure her
10:36
massive network ran without a hitch. He
10:39
was known as much for his brains as for
10:42
his fists, a combination that made him a
10:45
brutally effective enforcer. He became a
10:48
legend in his own right. Respected and
10:51
feared all over Harlem. Many saw him not
10:55
just as a gangster, but as a protector
10:58
of the neighborhood, keeping outside
11:00
threats at bay and maintaining a kind of
11:03
order on the streets. The team up
11:06
between the sophisticated, businesssavvy
11:08
Queeny and the tough, streets smart
11:11
Bumpy Johnson was the high watermark of
11:14
blackrun organized crime in Harlem. They
11:18
had built a powerful self-sufficient
11:21
kingdom. But their success was a
11:24
double-edged sword. As the roaring 20s
11:27
ended and the Great Depression took
11:29
hold, another big change was coming. The
11:34
end of prohibition.
11:36
For years, white mobsters like Dutch
11:39
Schultz and Lucky Luciano had gotten
11:41
rich off illegal booze. Now with that
11:45
revenue stream about to dry up, they
11:48
started looking for a new hustle and
11:50
their eyes turned north to the cashrich
11:53
prize of the Harlem numbers racket
11:56
section 4. The external threat, the
11:59
mafia arrives.
12:02
For most of the 1920s,
12:04
the powerful Jewish and Italian mobs of
12:06
New York hadn't paid much attention to
12:09
the policy racket. They saw it as a
12:12
smalltime game for poor black folks
12:15
played for pennies. They just didn't get
12:18
the sheer volume of bets that made it so
12:21
profitable. But when prohibition was
12:24
repealed in 1933,
12:26
that all changed. Gangsters like Dutch
12:30
Schultz, the infamous beer baron of the
12:32
Bronx, saw their bootlegging empires
12:35
start to crumble and were desperate for
12:38
new income. Schultz was a famously
12:41
vicious and brutal man, and he decided
12:44
he was going to take over Harlem's
12:46
numbers game. He wasn't looking for a
12:49
partnership. He wanted it all. What came
12:53
next was a bloody and violent turf war.
12:56
Schultz and his crew began a campaign of
12:58
terror, strongarming the independent
13:01
black policy bankers. Anyone who refused
13:05
to pay him protection money or hand over
13:07
their operation faced deadly
13:10
consequences.
13:11
The war for Harlem's underworld led to
13:14
over 40 murders and countless
13:17
kidnappings.
13:19
Many of the black policy kings who were
13:21
businessmen more than hardened killers
13:24
just weren't ready for that level of
13:26
violence.
13:28
Casper Holstein,
13:30
one of the biggest bankers, was
13:32
kidnapped by the mob and eventually
13:34
forced out of the business entirely. One
13:37
by one, the other operators either
13:40
folded or were forced to work for
13:42
Schulz. But Stephanie St. Clare refused
13:46
to back down. She was not intimidated.
13:50
With Bumpy Johnson and his crew as her
13:52
army, she fought a guerilla war against
13:56
Schultz's invasion. Bumpy's small crew,
13:59
just nine men, started picking off
14:01
Schultz's enforcers using their expert
14:04
knowledge of Harlem's streets. It wasn't
14:07
hard to spot Schultz's men. There
14:10
weren't many other white guys just
14:12
walking around Harlem in those days. St.
14:15
Clare also fought Schultz in public. She
14:19
kept up her campaign in the newspapers,
14:21
but she also went straight to the
14:23
authorities. She knew Schultz could only
14:26
succeed with help from corrupt cops and
14:29
politicians. She complained over and
14:32
over to local officials about police
14:35
harassment, arguing it was all designed
14:38
to help Schultz take over. When they
14:41
ignored her, she went and testified
14:44
before the powerful Sabbury Commission,
14:47
which was investigating city corruption.
14:50
She exposed the whole system of payoffs,
14:53
telling the commission she had paid
14:56
thousands to cops for protection. Her
14:58
testimony was a bombshell and got more
15:02
than a dozen corrupt officers suspended.
15:04
But even with their fierce resistance,
15:07
the tide was turning. Schultz had
15:09
powerful politicians from Tam Hall in
15:12
his pocket and deep connections in the
15:15
police department. Things St. Clare as a
15:18
black woman could never get. Her power
15:22
started to slip. Schultz's goons even
15:25
managed to track her down once, forcing
15:27
her to hide in a basement coal pile to
15:30
escape being killed. Eventually, the
15:33
pressure was too much. Seeing how things
15:36
were going, St. Clare started to fade
15:39
from the front lines, handing more and
15:41
more of the day-to-day operation over to
15:44
Bumpy Johnson. Bumpy, ever the
15:46
pragmatist, knew they couldn't win a war
15:49
of attrition against the mob and the
15:51
state combined. He looked for another
15:54
way out. He went straight to the top,
15:57
arranging a meeting with the head of the
15:59
Italian mafia, Charles Lucky Luchiano.
16:03
Bumpy cut a deal. He agreed to give the
16:07
mafia a piece of the Harlem profits. In
16:10
return, they would keep Dutch Schultz
16:12
out of his business and let him continue
16:15
to run things in Harlem. It was a
16:17
compromise born out of a need to
16:20
survive. But it was also a historic
16:23
moment. It was the first time a black
16:26
gangster had successfully negotiated a
16:30
working deal with the powerful Italian
16:32
mob to secure his own autonomy. The war
16:37
had one last dramatic twist. Dutch
16:41
Schultz was becoming a problem for the
16:44
wider mob syndicate. He was getting more
16:46
and more violent and wanted to
16:48
assassinate special prosecutor Thomas
16:50
Dwey who wasounding him on tax evasion
16:54
charges. The mobs commission said no,
16:58
fearing it would bring way too much
17:00
heat. When Schultz decided to do it
17:03
anyway, Luchiano and the commission put
17:06
a hit out on him. On October 23rd, 1935,
17:12
Dutch Schultz was gunned down in a New
17:15
Jersey chop house. With Schultz gone,
17:19
the deal between Bumpy Johnson and Lucky
17:21
Luciano was set in stone. St. Clare,
17:26
having fought her war, mostly retired
17:29
from the life. And Bumpy Johnson, the
17:32
enforcer, the strategist, the survivor,
17:36
was now the undisputed king. He had
17:39
become the godfather of Harlem section
17:42
5, the aftermath and legacy. With
17:45
Stephanie St. Clare on the sidelines and
17:48
Dutch Schultz in the ground. Bumpy
17:50
Johnson tightened his grip on power,
17:53
reigning as the primary figure in
17:56
Harlem's underworld for over two decades
17:59
until his death in 1968.
18:02
His arrangement with the Italian mafia
18:05
was a strategic masterpiece of survival.
18:09
He maintained control over Harlem's
18:11
rackets and the mob got their cut. Bumpy
18:15
became this revered complex figure. A
18:18
ruthless criminal, sure, but also a
18:21
beloved neighborhood patron known for
18:23
helping residents, supporting local
18:25
businesses, and handing out turkeys on
18:28
Thanksgiving. He was an associate of
18:31
figures like Malcolm X and a brilliant
18:33
chess player who negotiated with the top
18:36
bosses of the mafia. But the world he
18:38
ruled was changing. The underground
18:42
economy was shifting away from the
18:44
community-based numbers game and toward
18:47
the far more destructive drug trade.
18:49
After Bumpy died of heart failure in
18:52
1968, the power vacuum he left was
18:55
filled by a new generation. His most
18:58
famous protetéé, Frank Lucas, took the
19:01
lessons he learned from Bumpy and
19:04
applied them to the heroine trade. He
19:07
created a global smuggling empire that
19:10
largely challenged the mafia's control
19:12
by sourcing drugs directly from
19:14
overseas, flooding Harlem streets with
19:17
devastating results. The era of the
19:20
Robin Hood gangster who put money back
19:22
into the community was pretty much over.
19:25
The legacy of the original policy kings
19:28
and queens is complicated. Figures like
19:31
Stephanie St. Clare have been almost
19:34
completely erased from the popular story
19:37
of American organized crime.
19:39
Overshadowed by the mafia godfathers who
19:42
took over their businesses. Their
19:44
stories are a powerful reminder of the
19:46
hidden histories that exist in the
19:49
margins. These were entrepreneurs who
19:51
built empires out of pure necessity in a
19:55
country that gave them no other options.
19:58
They were community leaders who provided
20:00
economic life support when no one else
20:03
would. And they were fighters who
20:05
fiercely resisted the violent takeover
20:08
of their neighborhoods. The numbers game
20:11
itself, the engine of their empires, was
20:15
eventually taken over by the state. In
20:18
the 1980s, New York launched its own
20:22
state-run daily lottery, basically
20:24
absorbing the illegal racket that had
20:27
been the lifeblood of Harlem's
20:29
underground economy for over 60 years
20:33
and cutting off the thousands of jobs it
20:36
provided. The men and women who ran the
20:39
streets before the mafia were operating
20:42
in a world shaped by some brutal truths.
20:45
They were complicated, contradictory
20:48
people, visionaries and criminals,
20:50
builders and destroyers. Their story
20:53
isn't a simple one of good versus evil.
20:57
It's a raw look at power, survival, and
21:00
the fight to create an alternative
21:02
American dream in the shadows of a
21:05
segregated nation. It really makes you
21:08
wonder what a brilliant mind like
21:11
Stephanie St. Claire's could have built
21:13
if she'd been given the same chances as
21:16
the men who tried to tear her down. The
21:19
real history of organized crime in
21:21
America is so much more complex and
21:24
diverse than what we see in the movies.
21:28
The stories of people like Madame
21:29
Sinclair and Bumpy Johnson are a
21:32
critical and too often ignored part of
21:35
that history. So, what do you think is
21:37
their legacy? Were they heroes,
21:40
villains, or something much more
21:42
complicated? Let me know what you think
21:45
down in the comments. Thanks for
21:47
watching. If you found this story as
21:50
fascinating as I did, please give the
21:52
video a thumbs up. And if you haven't
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22:02
into the forgotten corners of history.
22:05
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