Up next in 10
Philadelphia, 1978. The original Black Mafia lay in ruins—its leaders imprisoned or dead. But from the ashes of that fallen empire, something new was rising. Something darker. Something far more dangerous.
This is the untold story of Clarence "Stevie" Jamison, the man who rebuilt the Black Mafia from scratch and transformed it into a narcotics empire worth over fifty million dollars. He did what no one thought possible: he brokered a direct partnership with the Italian mob, eliminated his rivals with surgical precision, and created an organization so sophisticated that federal investigators spent years chasing shadows.
This documentary reveals how Stevie rose from the Richard Allen housing projects to control most of Philadelphia's heroin trade. We trace his alliances with the Bruno crime family, his ruthless consolidation of power, and the elaborate systems he built to protect his empire from prosecution. For nearly a decade, he operated in plain sight while remaining untouchable.
But every empire has cracks. And the betrayal that brought Stevie down came from the last person anyone expected.
This story connects to the broader history of the Black Mafia and shows how organized crime evolved in America's inner cities during the 1970s and 1980s. The drug trade that Stevie helped systematize would reshape urban America for generations.
Want to understand how power really works in the underworld? Subscribe to Global Mafia Universe for more stories from the shadows.
🎵 Music: Epidemic Sound
📚 Research: Federal court records, DEA archives, Philadelphia Inquirer archives
#BlackMafia #OrganizedCrime #PhiladelphiaCrime #TrueCrime #DrugTrade #CrimeDocumentary #Mafia #GlobalMafiaUniverse #Kingpin #1980s #CrimeHistory #Underworld
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⚠️ Content Disclaimer:
This video is created for educational and informational purposes only. We do NOT glorify, promote, or encourage any form of criminal activity.
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0:00
Philadelphia, 1978. A Black Lincoln
0:03
Continental rolls to a stop outside a
0:05
brownstone on Ridge Avenue. Inside,
0:08
three men wait in silence. Within the
0:10
hour, one of them will control a
0:12
narcotics empire worth $40 million, and
0:15
the other two will never leave this
0:17
building alive. This is the story of
0:20
Clarence Stevie Jameson, a man who rose
0:22
from the ashes of the original Black
0:24
Mafia to build something far more
0:26
dangerous, more profitable and more
0:29
ruthless than anything Philadelphia had
0:32
ever seen. He operated in the shadows
0:34
while the feds chased ghosts. He turned
0:36
enemies into allies and allies into
0:39
examples. And for nearly a decade, he
0:42
ran the streets with an iron fist
0:44
wrapped in velvet. But empires built on
0:46
blood have a way of bleeding out. And
0:49
Stevie Jameson was about to learn that
0:50
the throne he'd killed to sit on was
0:52
also the chair he'd die in. The streets
0:55
remember what happened. The courts
0:57
sealed the records. But the truth, the
1:00
truth never stays buried. Not in this
1:04
city. Not in this game. What you're
1:06
about to hear has never been told this
1:08
way. This is the untold reign of Stevie
1:11
Jameson. This is the Kingpin era. To
1:15
understand Stevie Jameson's rise, you
1:17
have to understand what came before him.
1:19
The original black mafia emerged in the
1:21
late 1960s from the corners of North
1:24
Philadelphia and the teachings of the
1:26
Nation of Islam. Men like Sam Christian
1:29
and Ronald Harvey built an organization
1:31
that blended religious discipline with
1:33
criminal enterprise. They ran numbers
1:35
tekkile
1:37
and for a few years they held a grip on
1:40
black Philadelphia that the Italian mob
1:42
could only envy. But by 1974, the feds
1:46
had caught on. Indictments came down
1:48
like hammers. The leadership was
1:50
scattered. Sumeto prison, Somto Grais,
1:54
some to exile in cities where their
1:56
names meant nothing. The empire didn't
1:58
collapse overnight. It bled out slowly,
2:01
block by block, corner by corner. By
2:04
1976, the Black Mafia was a ghost of
2:08
itself. A name whispered in past tense.
2:11
That's when Stevie Jameson saw his
2:13
opening. Clarence Jameson grew up in the
2:16
Richard Allen homes, a sprawling public
2:18
housing project in North Philly, where
2:20
hope went to die. His father was gone
2:23
before he could walk. His mother worked
2:25
doubles at a linen factory until her
2:27
hands bled. Stevie learned early that
2:29
the world wasn't going to give him
2:31
anything, so he decided to take it. By
2:34
14, he was running numbers for a local
2:37
crew. By 17, he'd caught his first
2:39
attempted murder charge dismissed when
2:42
the witness disappeared. By 20, he had a
2:44
reputation on the streets that men twice
2:46
his age envied and feared. They called
2:49
him Stevie because of his smooth
2:51
demeanor, his ability to smile while
2:53
deciding whether to shake your hand or
2:55
put a bullet in your head. But what set
2:57
Stevie apart wasn't his capacity for
2:59
violence.
3:01
Plenty of men in North Philly could pull
3:03
a trigger. What set him apart was his
3:05
mind. He watched. He listened. He
3:08
studied. While others fought for
3:10
corners, Stevie was mapping the entire
3:12
game. He saw how the original Black
3:14
Mafia rose. And more importantly, he saw
3:18
how it fell. He learned from their
3:20
mistakes. And when the time came, he was
3:22
ready to build something they never
3:24
could, an empire designed to last. The
3:27
year was 1977, and Philadelphia's heroin
3:30
trade was in chaos. The Italian families
3:32
controlled the import, but their
3:34
distribution networks were fragmented.
3:36
The Black Mafia's collapse had left a
3:39
vacuum on the street level and a dozen
3:41
small crews were fighting for scraps.
3:44
Bodies dropped weekly. Product got
3:47
stolen. Money went missing. It was a
3:50
mess. Stevie Jameson saw this chaos not
3:53
as a problem, but as an opportunity. He
3:55
understood something that the other
3:56
young dealers didn't. You don't win by
3:59
fighting everyone. You win by making
4:01
yourself indispensable. He started
4:04
small. He approached the Italians,
4:06
specifically a coupleo in the Bruno
4:08
family named Anthony Rickabine, with a
4:11
proposition. Stevie would consolidate
4:14
the street level distribution in North
4:16
Philly. He'd guarantee order, reduce
4:18
violence that attracted police
4:20
attention, and most importantly, ensure
4:23
the money flowed smoothly. In exchange,
4:26
he wanted exclusive supply rights for a
4:28
12b block territory. No competition, no
4:32
interference. Rickabine was skeptical.
4:35
He'd never done business with a black
4:36
dealer at this level. But Stevie came
4:39
prepared. He brought ledgers showing his
4:41
current operations efficiency. He
4:43
brought testimonials from corner boys
4:45
he'd already organized, and he brought
4:47
something else. 2 kilos of product that
4:50
had been stolen from a rival crew
4:52
returned as a gesture of good faith. The
4:55
meeting lasted 3 hours. By the end,
4:58
Stevie Jameson had his deal. He walked
5:01
out of that South Philly social club as
5:03
the first black distributor to hold a
5:05
direct partnership with the Bruno
5:07
family. It was 23 years old, but Stevie
5:11
knew that supply meant nothing without
5:13
control. And control in North
5:15
Philadelphia meant dealing with the
5:16
remnants of the old black mafia. Some of
5:20
the original soldiers were still on the
5:22
streets bitter. Broken men who
5:24
remembered when they ran the city. They
5:26
weren't going to bow to some young
5:27
upstart without a fight. The first
5:29
challenge came from a man named Marcus
5:32
Heavy Wilson. Heavy had been muscle for
5:34
the original organization, a feared
5:36
enforcer who'd done 7 years in Grderford
5:38
for a body that everyone knew about, but
5:41
nobody could prove. He'd come home in 76
5:44
expecting to step back into power.
5:46
Instead, he found Stevie Jameson's name
5:48
on everyone's lips. Heavy put together a
5:51
crew of old heads veterans of the first
5:53
black mafia who resented the new order.
5:55
They started hitting Sty's corners,
5:57
robbing his dealers, making noise. It
5:59
was a direct challenge. Steviey's
6:02
response was clinical. He didn't go to
6:05
war in the streets. Instead, he went to
6:07
work on Heavy's crew from the inside. He
6:10
identified the weakest link man named
6:12
Deshaawn Porter who had a gambling
6:13
problem and an expensive girlfriend.
6:15
Stevie paid off Deshawn's debts and put
6:17
him on the payroll. Within a week, he
6:20
knew every move Heavy was planning. The
6:22
night heavy planned to ambush Stevie at
6:24
a card game in Germantown. It was
6:26
Steviey's men who were waiting. Heavy
6:28
walked into that basement expecting to
6:30
kill a king. Instead, he found his own
6:33
death sentence. They said it took Heavy
6:36
3 hours to die. Stevie wanted it slow.
6:39
He wanted the streets to hear about it,
6:42
and they did. By the time the sun rose,
6:44
every corner boy in North Philly knew
6:46
the rules had changed. The old black
6:49
mafia was dead. Stevie Jameson's
6:51
organization had no name.
6:55
It didn't need one. Everyone knew who
6:57
ran the streets now. By 1979, Stevie had
7:00
expanded beyond North Philadelphia. His
7:03
territory now stretched from German Town
7:05
to parts of West Philly. With satellite
7:07
operations reaching into Camden across
7:09
the river, he'd built something
7:11
unprecedented. A black controlled drug
7:14
network that operated with the blessing
7:16
and supply of the Italian mob while
7:18
maintaining complete autonomy over its
7:20
own operations. But Stevie understood
7:22
that territorial expansion was only half
7:24
the equation. The other half was
7:26
infrastructure, and that meant building
7:29
systems that could survive scrutiny. He
7:31
invested in legitimate businesses,
7:33
laundromats, car washes, a small chain
7:36
of check cashing stores. These weren't
7:38
just fronts from moneyaundering, though
7:40
they served that purpose well. They were
7:43
employment centers for members of his
7:44
organization, places where young men
7:46
could have W2 income to show the IRS
7:49
while their real money came from the
7:51
streets. He also established what he
7:53
called the scholarship fund, a system of
7:56
payments to families of soldiers who got
7:58
locked up. If you went down for
7:59
Steviey's organization, your family got
8:02
$2,000 a month every month until you
8:05
came home. If you died in service, they
8:07
got a lump sum and continued support. It
8:10
was loyalty insurance and it worked. The
8:13
feds later estimated that at its peak,
8:15
Steviey's organization employed over 300
8:17
people directly and touched the lives of
8:20
thousands more. He was running a
8:22
corporation. It just happened to sell
8:24
heroin. But perhaps Steviey's most
8:27
sophisticated move was his relationship
8:29
with local politics. He understood that
8:31
in Philadelphia, power flowed through
8:34
ward leaders, city councilmen, and the
8:36
police districts that served them. He
8:39
couldn't buy the mayor, but he could buy
8:41
the people the mayor needed. Through a
8:43
network of intermediaries, Stevie
8:45
funneled money to three city councilmen
8:48
and at least five ward leaders. He
8:50
funded community centers that bore their
8:52
names. He organized voter registration
8:54
drives that delivered precincts on
8:56
election day. And in exchange, he got
8:59
something invaluable. Warning. When
9:02
federal investigations started sniffing
9:04
around his operation, Stevie often knew
9:07
before his own lawyers did. When city
9:09
police planned raids, the timing
9:11
mysteriously shifted to ensure minimal
9:13
damage. He wasn't untouchable, but he
9:16
was protected in ways that made him feel
9:18
like he was. No one rzes in the drug
9:20
trade without making enemies. And by
9:22
1981, Stevie Jameson had plenty. Some
9:25
were external rival organizations from
9:27
New York who saw Philadelphia as virgin
9:30
territory. Some were internal ambitious
9:32
lieutenants who thought they could do
9:34
better on their own. The most dangerous
9:36
threat came from an unexpected source,
9:38
his own supplier. The Bruno family was
9:41
in turmoil. Angelo Bruno, the boss who
9:45
had approved Steviey's original deal,
9:47
was assassinated in March 1980. What
9:50
followed was a bloody war for succession
9:52
that would claim over two dozen lives.
9:54
The new leadership looked at Bruno's
9:56
arrangements and saw a dead weight. Why
9:58
share profits with Stevie Jmerson when
10:00
they could install their own
10:02
distributors? The message came through
10:04
Anthony Rickabin, the same Kappo who'
10:06
brokered the original deal. The terms
10:08
were simple. Stevie would now kick up an
10:11
additional 30% of his profits. his
10:14
territory would be reduced by half and
10:16
he would answer directly to Italian
10:18
supervision on all major decisions. It
10:20
was a death sentence dressed up as a
10:22
business proposal. Stevie knew that
10:24
accepting meant the slow dismantling of
10:26
everything he'd built. Refusing meant
10:29
war with the Italian mob. Neither option
10:31
was survivable. So Stevie chose a third
10:35
path. He reached out to a faction within
10:38
the Bruno family that opposed the new
10:40
leadership. men who had their own
10:42
reasons to want the current boss
10:44
undermined. Through back channels,
10:46
Stevie brokered an alliance. He would
10:48
continue his operations as before, but
10:51
he would feed information about the
10:53
current leadership's movements and
10:54
vulnerabilities. When the time came for
10:57
a move, Steviey's organization would
10:59
provide the soldiers. It was a dangerous
11:02
game. If either side discovered his
11:04
double dealing, he'd be dead within
11:06
hours. But Stevie played it perfectly.
11:09
For 18 months, he walked a tight rope
11:11
between two waring factions, feeding
11:14
each just enough information to stay
11:16
valuable. When the dust settled in late
11:18
1982, Steviey's allies had won. The new
11:22
leadership that emerged owed him favors.
11:24
His supply lines were not only restored,
11:26
but expanded, and his reputation as a
11:28
man who could navigate the most
11:30
treacherous waters without drowning
11:31
became legendary. At its peak in 1983,
11:34
Stevie Jameson's empire was generating
11:36
an estimated $50 million annually in
11:39
street level heroin sales. He controlled
11:41
distribution across most of black
11:43
Philadelphia with connections to markets
11:45
in Baltimore, Newark, and DC. He had
11:49
over a 100 soldiers on active payroll
11:51
and another 200 in supporting roles. But
11:54
Stevie understood something that many
11:56
drug lords forget. The higher you rise,
11:59
the bigger the target on your back. He
12:01
started making preparations for the
12:03
inevitable. He established foreign
12:05
accounts through a lawyer in the Cayman
12:07
Islands. Money that couldn't be touched
12:10
by American courts. He purchased
12:12
properties through shell corporations in
12:14
places where extradition was
12:15
complicated. And he began grooming a
12:17
successor as younger cousin Terrence
12:19
Hamson who had proven himself both
12:21
capable and loyal. Stevie also started
12:24
distancing himself from direct
12:26
operations. By 1984, he rarely touched
12:29
product personally. He communicated
12:31
through a series of intermediaries.
12:34
Never using phones, never leaving paper
12:37
trails. He became a ghost at the center
12:39
of his own empire. The feds knew he
12:42
existed. They'd been building a case
12:44
since 1981.
12:46
But every time they got close, witnesses
12:49
disappeared or recanted. Evidence went
12:52
missing. Informants turned up dead in
12:54
the Schoolill River. The case agent, a
12:57
relentless DEA investigator named
12:59
Patricia Morales, called Stevie the
13:02
Shadow, a man who left traces
13:04
everywhere, but could never quite be
13:06
seen. But shadows can only hide for so
13:08
long, and the light was coming. The
13:11
downfall began, as it often does, with
13:14
someone on the inside. His name was
13:16
Ronald Clip Patterson, and he'd been one
13:19
of Steviey's most trusted lieutenants
13:20
for 6 years. He ran the West
13:22
Philadelphia territory, oversaw a crew
13:26
of 40 men, and had personally handled at
13:28
least a dozen bodies for the
13:30
organization. In the fall of 1985, Clip
13:33
got arrested on a gun charge. It was
13:35
minor a concealed weapon in his car
13:37
during a routine traffic stop. Should
13:39
have been a year, maybe less, with a
13:41
good lawyer, but the feds saw an
13:43
opportunity. They didn't approach Clip
13:46
directly at first. They approached his
13:49
mother. They explained that her son was
13:50
looking at federal charges that could
13:52
put him away for life. They showed her
13:54
photographs of crime scenes batties that
13:57
they could tie to her son with the right
13:59
testimony. They told her about the RICO
14:01
statute about how everyone connected to
14:03
Steviey's organization could go down
14:05
together. Clip's mother was 62 years
14:08
old. She'd raised five children alone,
14:10
worked her entire life, and dreamed of
14:12
nothing more than seeing her
14:14
grandchildren grow up. She begged her
14:16
son to cooperate.
14:18
It took 3 months but clip broke. He
14:21
agreed to wear a wire and for 6 months
14:23
in 1986 he recorded conversations that
14:27
would bring down an empire. The
14:29
indictments came down in January 1987.
14:32
47 names on the federal complaint. RICO
14:35
charges that carried life sentences. The
14:38
organization that Stevie Jameson had
14:40
spent a decade building was decapitated
14:42
in a single day. But when the marshals
14:44
arrived at Steviey's house on that cold
14:46
January morning, they found it empty.
14:49
The closets were cleaned out. The safe
14:51
was open and bare. Stevie Jameson had
14:54
vanished. The manhunt lasted 8 months.
14:58
They tracked him to Atlanta, then Miami,
15:01
then lost the trail in Mexico. There
15:03
were sightings in Brazil, rumors of a
15:05
new identity in Jamaica. The D put him
15:08
on their most wanted list. The US
15:10
Marshals assigned a full-time task
15:12
force. They found him in September 1987
15:15
living in a modest apartment in Sto.
15:17
Domingo, Dominican Republic. He'd grown
15:20
a beard, lost 30 lb, and was going by
15:23
the name Carlos Menddees. He'd been
15:25
there for 4 months, living quietly,
15:27
planning his next move. The extraction
15:30
was complicated. The Dominican
15:31
authorities weren't initially
15:32
cooperative, but by October, Stevie
15:35
Jameson was back on American soil in
15:37
federal custody, facing charges that
15:40
would keep him locked up for the rest of
15:41
his life. The trial lasted 4 months. 53
15:46
witnesses testified against him. Clip
15:48
Patterson took the stand for 6 days,
15:51
laying out every detail of the
15:52
organization's structure, operations,
15:55
and murders. The evidence was
15:58
overwhelming. On March 15th, 1988,
16:01
Clarence Stevie Jameson was convicted on
16:03
all counts. The sentence came down 30
16:05
days later, life without the possibility
16:08
of parole, plus an additional 50 years.
16:12
The judge called him a merchant of death
16:14
who poisoned an entire community for
16:16
profit. Stevie stood in the courtroom
16:18
expressionless. As the sentence was
16:21
read, he showed no emotion. He said
16:25
nothing. That was the last time he was
16:27
seen in public. But the story doesn't
16:30
end there. The organization that Stevie
16:32
built, didn't simply disappear with his
16:35
conviction. His cousin, Terrence, the
16:37
successor he'd groomed, had avoided
16:39
indictment. The infrastructure of the
16:41
connections, the systems, the
16:43
relationships remain intact. Through the
16:45
late 1980s and 1990s, elements of
16:48
Steviey's organization evolved, merged
16:51
with new crews, and adapted to the
16:54
changing drug trade. The crack era
16:56
brought new products and new profits.
16:58
Some of Steviey's old lieutenants became
17:00
major players in their own right. Others
17:02
became informants or corpses. Stevie
17:05
himself remained in federal custody,
17:07
moving through a series of maximum
17:09
security facilities. He granted no
17:12
interviews. He wrote no memoirs.
17:14
Occasionally, law enforcement sources
17:17
would claim he was still directing
17:18
operations from behind bars,
17:20
communicating through coded letters and
17:22
trusted visitors. Nothing was ever
17:25
proven. In 2019, at the age of Clarence
17:29
Stevie Jameson died in USP Terra Oat
17:32
from complications related to lung
17:34
cancer. He'd spent 32 years in federal
17:38
prison. He never once cooperated with
17:40
authorities. He never once named names.
17:43
He died the way he lived. In silence,
17:47
his legacy remains contested. to law
17:49
enforcement. He was a drug kingpin who
17:52
destroyed countless lives and corrupted
17:54
institutions that were meant to protect
17:56
the public. To some in the community he
17:59
came from, he was something more
18:00
complicated, a man who played the only
18:03
game available to him and played it
18:05
better than anyone else. The streets of
18:07
North Philadelphia have changed since
18:09
Steviey's time. The Richard Allen homes
18:11
where he grew up were demolished in
18:13
2003.
18:15
New housing stands where the old towers
18:18
once loomed. Different crews control the
18:20
corners now with different products and
18:22
different rules. But in certain barber
18:24
shops and corner stores, if you ask the
18:27
right questions, old men will still talk
18:29
about the kingpin era. They'll tell you
18:32
about a time when one man held it all
18:34
together. When the streets had order,
18:36
even if that order came at the barrel of
18:37
a gun, they'll shake their heads at how
18:40
it ended. And they'll wonder, sometimes
18:42
aloud, what might have been different if
18:44
Stevie had never been caught. Those
18:46
questions have no answers. What happened
18:50
happened? An empire rose. An empire
18:53
fell. And the city moved on the way
18:56
cities always do. The files are sealed
18:59
now. The witnesses are dead or
19:01
disappeared. The truth lies buried in
19:03
court records and classified D reports
19:05
that may never see daylight. But the
19:08
streets, remember the streets. Always
19:12
remember. And in the end, that's the
19:14
only legacy that matters in this game.
19:16
This was just one chapter in a much
19:19
larger story. The black mafia didn't
19:21
begin with Stevie Jameson, and it didn't
19:24
end with him. The connections he built
19:27
to the Italian mob, to political power,
19:29
to the broader drug trade. Those threads
19:32
stretch across decades and across
19:33
continents. The next chapter goes
19:36
deeper.
19:37
It goes darker and it reveals
19:39
connections that nobody saw coming.
19:42
Subscribe now because what comes next
19:44
will change everything you think you
19:46
know about power in America's streets.
19:49
The underworld never sleeps, and neither
19:52
do