Damon Dash Brings Infamous Harlem Drug Lord, Nicky Barnes, To The Big Screen

[Elano]

Hip-Hop mogul Damon Dash has partnered with Magnolia Films to bring the true life story of notorious drug kingpin Nicky Barnes to the big screen with his new film Mr.Untouchable .

The documentary, which will be released in theatres on October 19, traces the rise and fall of the infamous Harlem drug lord during the heroin epidemic of the 1970's. The film's name derives from the headline "Mister Untouchable" that accompanied Barnes' photo when he appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in 1977, followed by the sub-text that read "This is Nicky Barnes. New York police say he's the biggest drug dealer in Harlem. But can they prove it?"

The movie, directed by Marc Levin (Whiteboyz, Brooklyn Babylon, Slam), and featuring music by DJ Hi Tek, also offers commentary from Barnes himself as well as his former wife, Thelma Grant, former members of his crime organization "The Council," reporters, attorneys and officers from various law enforcement agencies who worked to convict Barnes.

Mr. Untouchable opens in theatres on October 19.

[Elano]

Leroy (Nicky) Barnes, the former Harlem drug merchant dubbed "Mr. Untouchable" in a New York Times Magazine cover story, was so feared in the late 1970s that the federal judge presiding over his trial decided, on his own, to keep the names of jurors secret for their own protection. His was the first anonymous jury.
Called the John Gotti of his day by one federal prosecutor, Barnes was found guilty of heroin trafficking in 1977. While serving life in federal prison four years later, however, Barnes cooperated with federal prosecutors and helped convict more drug dealers and murderers than superstar turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano. Unlike Gravano, who received a five year prison term, Barnes was still in jail more than 20 years after his conviction.

Despite much praise from many law enforcement officials, including former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Barnes served a total of 21 years in prison, winning his freedom in August 1998, many years and four Presidents after it had been promised. He was given a new identity, and relocated under the federal Witness Protection Program.

(the book)

Late in Mr. Untouchable: The Rise, Fall, And Resurrection Of Heroin's Teflon Don, notorious '70s heroin kingpin Leroy "Nicky" Barnes concedes, without a hint of irony or self-consciousness, "I don't think I should have expected so much positivity out of an operation based on drug dealing and homicides." For most folks, this would qualify as a staggeringly obvious conclusion, but for Barnes, it's clearly hard-won wisdom. Barnes helped transform street crime into organized crime by establishing "The Council," a collection of black heroin dealers bound together by their shared Muslim faith and an often-violated moral code of Barnes' devising. Barnes expected his black-market enterprise to accomplish something beyond flooding the streets with extremely potent heroin and making obscene amounts of money, but he learned the hard way that there is no honor among freebasing heroin dealers, especially once egos, paranoia, and sexual competition enter the picture.

Barnes' ghostwritten memoir jumps back and forth in time, tracing his rocky, bloody ascent from a poor street kid hustling to support his heroin habit to a notorious crime kingpin whose outsized legend reportedly inspired a hit song (Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown") and provided the model for Wesley Snipes' charismatic drug dealer in New Jack City. Barnes' self-aggrandizing memoir—which boasts a seemingly ironic title, considering Barnes' three decades behind bars and eventual evolution into a government informant—is fascinating as a sociological exploration of the high-end '70s low-life, and a deliriously trashy pulp potboiler in the Donald Goines/Iceberg Slim tradition.

But Mr. Untouchable is most useful for its insights into the unrepentant criminal psyche. Barnes spends 99 percent of the book sneering at squares and glorifying his decadent lifestyle in terms that make most multi-platinum rappers look humble by comparison. The final 1 percent offers the most pained and arbitrary of mea culpas. If Barnes regrets anything, it's that he got caught and didn't have various enemies killed when he had the chance. So while Untouchable makes it hard to root for the bad guy, there's a queasy voyeuristic thrill in riding shotgun with Barnes as he conquers the New York underworld, only to be betrayed by power-hungry cohorts he once considered brothers. It's hard to put down, but its unapologetic sleaziness leaves an ugly, sour aftertaste.

[Elano]

Leroy Antonio "Nicky" Barnes (b. 1933) is a former Harlem, New York drug dealer who at one time, along with Frank Lucas and Guy Fisher, was one of the biggest heroin dealers in New York.Barnes was dubbed "Mr. Untouchable" by The New York Times.
Despite this nickname, Barnes was eventually prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After several years in prison Barnes turned State's evidence and testified against Fisher and others in order to reduce his sentence. He was released from prison on April 8, 2003, aged 70.

Drug dealing career
From the ages of 19 to 26, Barnes was addicted to heroin. He and before him Frank Lucas, were the first black men on record to actually pull the French drug out of the hands of the Italian Mafia and place it in a black neighborhood. Barnes was the leader of the "Council of Seven", a consortium of Harlem-based heroin dealers who organized their retail operations and their revenues to create legitimate businesses to protect their illicit assets. They even had a seven word oath: "Treat my brother as I treat myself."

Barnes' original connection to the Mafia was Joey Gallo of Brooklyn, with whom he had served time in prison. After Gallo was gunned down in Little Italy, Barnes' new heroin connection became Lucchese crime family associate Matthew Madonna, whom he had met while doing time for heroin possession in New York's Green Haven facility. Madonna would deliver kilos of heroin to Barnes by placing the drugs in a car trunk, then dropping the car off in a private Manhattan parking lot where Barnes would pick up the drugs. Barnes would then process the heroin in Manhattan apartments where neighborhood women would cut the product.[citation needed]

Time in prison
Barnes was stopped for a traffic violation and was not carrying identification. The two arresting officers did not know who they had caught until they brought him into the police station. He was prosecuted for drug-related crimes and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The chief prosecutor in that case was Robert Fiske, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was assisted by two younger attorneys, Thomas Sear and Robert Mazur.

According to Barnes, while in prison, he discovered that his assets were not being taken care of, the council stopped paying his attorneys' fees, and one of his fellow council members was having an affair with his wife.The council had a rule that no council member would sleep with another council member's wife. In response, Barnes became an informant. He forwarded a list of 109 names, 5 of which were council members, along with his wife's name, implicating them all in illegal activities related to the heroin trade. Barnes helped to indict 44 other traffickers, 16 of whom were ultimately convicted. In this testimony, he implicated himself in eight murders. After Barnes cooperated with the government by working as an informant, Rudolph Giuliani sought a reversal of Barnes' life sentence, which was shortened to a 30 year term.

In 2003, his cooperation with prosecutors was rewarded with an early release from prison. Barnes' former heroin distributor, Matthew Madonna, would serve a long trafficking sentence, but upon his release would get "made" and is currently serving on a ruling panel that runs the Lucchese crime family.