But the FBI didn’t see it that way.
J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, saw Bumpy Johnson as a criminal who needed to be eliminated. Not arrested, not prosecuted, eliminated. By 1963, Hoover had become obsessed with controlling what he called “Black agitators.” Martin Luther King Jr. was under constant surveillance. Malcolm X had a file that was thousands of pages thick. And Bumpy Johnson, who had more practical power in Harlem than either of them, was at the top of Hoover’s list.
The FBI had tried before. They had raided Bumpy’s operations in 1957. Bumpy had been tipped off hours beforehand and had cleared every location. They had attempted wiretaps in 1959. Bumpy had discovered them within a week and fed the FBI false information for months. They had arrested him in 1961 on federal racketeering charges. Bumpy’s lawyer had managed to get the case dismissed on a technicality before it even went to trial.
Each failure enraged Hoover more. Each failure made the FBI more determined.
By the end of 1963, Hoover had assigned a special task force just for Bumpy Johnson. 30 full-time agents, unlimited budget, one goal: put Bumpy Johnson in federal prison.
