Nucky Johnson's Organization

Nucky Johnson's Organization was a corrupt political machine based in Atlantic City, New Jersey that held power during the Prohibition era. Its boss, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, coordinated the Organizations's bootlegging, gambling, racketeering, and prostitution activities.[1]

Nucky Johnson's Organization
Enoch "Nucky" Johnson (second from right) and Alphonse "Scarface" Capone (third from right) on the boardwalk during the Atlantic City Conference
Founded1870s
Founded byLouis Kuehnle
Founding locationAtlantic City, Atlantic County, NJ
USA
Years activec. 1870s–1970s
TerritorySouth Jersey
Criminal activitiesRacketeering, illegal gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, number writing, bribery, bookmaking, police corruption, political corruption, extortion, money laundering, smuggling, and drug trafficking
AlliesCharlie Luciano, Johnny Torrio, Benny Siegel, Frank Hague, Walter Evans Edge, and Arnold Rothstein

Origins

Early history

Before the rise of German American political boss Louis "Commodore" Kuehnle and Irish American treasurer Nucky Johnson, Atlantic City's government was run by a three-man group, including: Atlantic County Clerk Lewis P. Scott (1854-1907) and Congressman John J. Gardner (1845-1921), and Mays Landing sheriff and Atlantic City undersheriff Smith E. Johnson.[2][3]

The Kuehnle regime
Main article: Louis Kuehnle

New regime

After the conviction of Kuehnle in 1911, Smith Johnson's son became boss of the organization. Under his son's new regime, the organization became more successful for the next 30 years than it would ever be.

Nucky's paradise and Prohibition
Main article: Nucky Johnson

Smith Johnson's son Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson was born in 1883. Nucky became undersheriff in 1905 while his father was sheriff of Atlantic City. The younger Johnson was eventually elected sheriff in 1908. In 1909, he became secretary of the very powerful Atlantic County Republican Executive Committee.[4] After the conviction of Kuehnle on corruption charges in 1911, the younger Johnson became boss of the organization.

Johnson also held several other jobs, including: Atlantic County Treasurer (1914–1941), County Tax Collector, publisher of a weekly newspaper, bank director, president of a building and loan company, and director of a Philadelphia brewery.[2][3]

Johnson was known to be a very well dressed and nice man who would rarely say no. He wore tailored suits, owned the entire ninth floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and he owned a chauffeur-driven $14,000 1920 powder blue Rolls Royce Silver Ghost; which was his trademark car.[4] It was known that when Nucky prospered, everyone prospered in his organization and the city. Johnson once explained, "when I lived well, everybody lived well."[2] Johnson has been described as running his criminal-political empire with a "velvet hammer".[5]

When Prohibition went in effect in Atlantic City in January 1920, Johnson and his organization went straight into the bootlegging business. He allied himself with several other well-known bootleggers, including: Arnold Rothstein (New York's Jewish mob boss), Charlie Luciano (Masseria family lieutenant), Johnny Torrio (Chicago South Side Gang boss), and Benny Siegel (Bugs and Meyer Mob boss).

Nucky had also helped Republican building constructor Edward Bader get elected as mayor in 1920. And through Bader's construction business, he built the Atlantic City Convention Hall in 1929.[3]

Johnson and Luciano began forming the Big Seven during the mid-to-late 1920s. The group was supposed to help solve bootlegging disputes and serve as a predecessor to the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s. It was around this time that Johnson met a bellhop at the Ritz, named Jimmy Boyd; the two took an instant liking to each other. Johnson began grooming Boyd to become the next boss of his organization, and soon, Boyd was Nucky's top enforcer/right-hand man and controlled all of the brothels, casinos, speakeasies, and numbers rackets in Atlantic City.[6][7]

Atlantic City Conference
Main article: Atlantic City Conference

From May 13 to May 16, 1929, Johnson hosted the Atlantic City Conference at the Ritz-Carlton and Ambassador Hotels on the boardwalk.[8][9] Johnson made arrangements for the attendees accommodations and guaranteed there would be no interference from law enforcement since his brother, Alfred Johnson was the sheriff of Atlantic County.

The leaders that thought of the conference were: La Cosa Nostra Masseria crime family lieutenant Charlie Luciano and the former boss of Chicago's South Side Gang Johnny Torrio. Meyer Lansky and Benny Siegel (bosses of the Bugs and Meyer Mob) served as the muscle/security at the conference. Delegates included several notable Jewish and Italian mobsters, including: Alphonse "Scarface" Capone (boss of the Chicago Outfit)—who was fighting a war with the Genna brothers against Dean O'Banion's North Side Gang—, Frank Costello and Joe Adonis (lieutenants in the Masseria family), Max Hoff (Philadelphia Jewish mob boss), Abe Bernstein (Purple Gang boss), Carlo Gambino (D'Aquila family lieutenant), and Gaetano Lucchese (Reina family lieutenant).

Johnson's enforcer Jimmy Boyd is never mentioned by anyone to being at the convention, but since Boyd was Nucky's right-hand man and an important figure in the organization, it is most likely that he was there to help make decisions for the organization.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, FBI special agent William Frank and his team of agents investigated into the activities of Johnson and his organization but were unable to do so successfully.[10]

Frank Farley

In 1941, Johnson was convicted of tax evasion charges and was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison and fined $20,000.[4] Following his conviction, New Jersey Senator Frank "Hap" Farley took over the organization.[11]

In television

Nucky's organization is in the entire HBO series Boardwalk Empire, but is named Nucky Thompson's Organization; since instead of Nucky Johnson, his name is Nucky Thompson. Many members of the Thompson organization are based on or were in the Johnson organization; for example: Edward Bader, Frank Hague, Louis "Commodore" Kaestner (based on Louis "Commodore" Kuehnle), Jimmy Darmody (based on Jimmy Boyd), and Eddie Kessler (based on Johnson's German valet Louis Kessel).

In the show, the organization is an official rival of Dr. Valentin Narcisse (based on Casper Holstein), Charlie Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Benjamin Siegel, George Remus, the D'Alessio Brothers, and an unofficial rival of Arnold Rothstein and Joe Masseria. The organization is allied with Al Capone, Johnny Torrio, Ralph Capone, Frank Capone, Arnold Rothstein, and Salvatore Maranzano.

List of known members

This is a list of the known members in the history of the organization:

Bosses

Lieutenants
  • Smith E. Johnson: 1890s-1910s—sheriff-undersheriff of Atlantic City; Johnson's father; born in ?, died in ?.
  • Enoch "Nucky" Johnson: 1900s-1911—sheriff-undersheriff of Atlantic City; became boss in 1909; born in 1883, died in 1968 (85 years old).
  • James "Jimmy" Boyd: 1920s-1970s—Fourth Ward boss; Nucky and Farley's top enforcer; born in 1906, died in 1974 (67 years old).
  • Herman "Stumpy" Orman: 1920s-1970s—Boyd's partner; racketeer and protection money collector; born in ?, died in ?[12]
  • Alfred Higabee "Alf" Johnson: mid 1910s-1940s—Atlantic County Sheriff; Nucky Johnson's brother; born in 1878, died in 1958 (80 years old).[13]

Lower ranks
  • Paul "Skinny" D'Amato: 1920s–1970s—illegal casino owner; Chicago Outfit and New Orleans crime family associate; born in 1908, died in 1984 (75 years old).
  • John Martino: 1920s–1940s—illegal casino owner-loan shark-bookmaker; Chicago Outfit and Trafficante crime family associate; born in 1910, died in 1975 (65 years old).
  • Fred Masucci: 1930s–1950s—Numbers operator; born in ?, died in ?[14]
  • Ben Rubenstein: 1930s-1950s—Numbers operator and Masucci's partner; possibly Jewish mob associate; born in ?, died in ?
  • Harold Scheper: 1920s-1950s—Numbers operator; operated in the black community; born in ?, died in ?
  • Harry "Cherry" Haggerty: 1930s–1960s—Numbers operator and Scheper's partner; probation with Scheper since 1947 during the Kefauver Committee; born in ?, died in ?
  • Francis B. Gribbin: Heroic police officer who fought against illegal gambling in Atlantic City. He and the other members of the "Four Horseman" were framed for shaking down the illegal gambling clubs and jailed. It was untrue - they were the ones who acted against illegal gaming when the Atlantic City Police Department didn't.
  • Jack Portock: 19??–1940s—Former corrupt policeman; part of the "Four Horsemen"; born in ?, died in ?
  • Frederick J. Warlich: 1919–1996;Former policeman, part of the "Four Horsemen", who fought against corruption, by shutting down nuckys illigal gambling rings.
  • Francis L. Smith: 19??–1951—Former racketeer; witness at the Kefauver Committee; born in ?, died in ?
  • Joseph McBeth: 19??–1950s—Treasurer of the Republican County Committee; born in ?, died in ?
  • Lester Burdick: 19??–1950s—Race-wire service operator; born in ?, died in ?
  • Louis Kessel: ??1941—Nucky's German assistant and valet; born in ?, died in ?.

Associates

References
  1. "Boss Nucky Johnson". Atlantic City Experience. The Atlantic City Free Public Library. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  2. "Enoch L. Johnson, Ex-Boss in Jersey. Prohibition-Era Ruler of Atlantic City, 85, Dies". New York Times. December 10, 1968. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
  3. Johnson, Nelson. Boardwalk Empire, Medford, N.J., Plexus Publishing, 2002 ISBN 0-937548-49-9
  4. Learn, Paul. "Boss 'Nucky' Johnson is dead at 85 – Unconscious 25 Hours Before 'Time Took Him'", Atlantic City Press, December 10, 1968, p. 1
  5. Velvet hammer
  6. "Boardwalk Empire Book". April 2015.
  7. "Is Jimmy Darmody based on a real person?". September 2010.
  8. "Interviews with Heather Perez, Archivist, Atlantic City Free Public Library, and historians Nelson Johnson and Allen "Boo" Pergament in "Boss of the Boardwalk", a 2010 Press of Atlantic City documentary produced by Michael Clark". pressofatlanticcity.com. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2010. Based on his research, Nelson Johnson is of the opinion that the photograph is not genuine.
  9. "80 years ago, the Mob came to Atlantic City for a little strategic planning". Press of Atlantic City. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  10. Johnson, Nelson (2010). Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City. Plexus Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-9666748-6-6.
  11. "Two Held Seeking Johnson's Mantle. Senator Farley Claims It. Mayor Taggart Not Talking". New York Times. July 28, 1941. Retrieved 2012-08-09. When the jury in Federal District Court pronounced Enoch L. (Nucky) Johnson guilty of evading the income tax laws the cloak of Republican leadership slipped off his shoulders, bringing to an end a reign of thirty years. ...
  12. http://www.plexuspublishing.com/Books/boardwalk/Boardwalk-Empire-Prologue.pdf
  13. https://historymaniacmegan.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/the-real-people-of-boardwalk-empire-part-1-enoch-nucky-thompson-to-louis-commodore-kuehnle/
  14. "Kefauver Committee Final Report" (PDF). August 1951.
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