The Infamous...Nicky Barnes

by Ran 

Leroy Nicolas Barnes was born on October 15, 1933 in the Harlem section of New York City, New York. He and his sister grew up in a one bedroom apartment around Eighth Avenue and West 113th Street with their mother and father, Leroy, who worked as their building's superintendent. Leroy Sr. supplemented his income by selling marijuana and beer and hosting a regular poker game in the apartment. He also suffered from a gambling addiction, which ate into his profits. 

At six-years-old, Leroy Jr., nicknamed "Nicky", began spending time in the streets in an effort to avoid his parents' fights. During this time, he befriended fellow local youth Jackie Gomez with whom he executed purse snatchings and car break-ins. At 13, Barnes and Gomez joined the Tiny Turks street gang. As a teen, Barnes discovered a package of heroin that his father had stashed in one of his building's utility closets for a local drug dealer. The younger Barnes consumed the heroin, eventually developing a drug habit that he shared with Gomez. 

Barnes left home following an incident in which he attempted to break up one of his parents' fights by firing a zip gun at his father. Though the weapon exploded in the teen's hand and the bullet harmlessly bounced off of his father's jacket, his relationship with his father was further strained by the episode. As a consequence, Barnes crashed with fellow members of the Tiny Turks and sold heroin in order to support his addiction to the drug. He also dropped out of high school. After Barnes' dealing caught the attention of two neighborhood heroin dealers, they recruited the former to work as a courier, transporting packages of the product from East Harlem. Barnes' best friend Gomez was subsequently shot to death by police during a subway change booth robbery, prompting Barnes to swear off committing robberies and to go into business for himself as a heroin dealer. 

By 1959, Barnes was earning $1600 per day ($11,000 in today's money) selling heroin. However, his residence was subsequently raided by police, working on an informant tip, who seized  heroin, syringes, other drug paraphernalia and cash. He was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to three and a half years in prison in Dutchess County, New York's Green Haven Correctional Facility. During his stay at Green Haven, Barnes reportedly converted to Islam and became re-acquainted with Lucchese crime family associate and East Harlem heroin dealer Matthew "Matty" Madonna -- in spite of the prison's custom of racial segregation. Madonna, who was serving time for murder, taught Barnes mafia customs and policies, among other things, until the latter was released in 1962. 

Soon after his release, Barnes obtained a half-kilogram of heroin on consignment, a silencer-equipped Baretta handgun and a $5,000 cash loan from Madonna's brother, Frank, at the latter's East Harlem restaurant. 

Though he cut his heroin with baby laxative, Barnes made sure that the finished product was relatively pure and extremely potent compared to other dealers, ensuring a loyal customer base. 

That same year, Barnes was introduced to a woman known by the nickname "Sister" by one of his customers. "Sister", whom Barnes began dating, revealed that she'd cut heroin for a former boyfriend and suggested that Barnes hire a group of women to do the same for him -- except naked, in order to make stealing any of the product more difficult. Barnes and "Sister" were married during a civil ceremony in the Bronx by the end of the year. 

In 1965, one of Barnes' "processing labs", where the heroin was cut, was raided by police who seized an amount of heroin worth an estimated $500,000. After being convicted of drug possession, Barnes was sentenced to 25 years in prison. During his incarceration, he converted to Islam and befriended Colombo crime family member Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo. Gallo proposed that he and Barnes organize heroin distribution in Harlem as a first step toward usurping control of the New York City drug trade from the mafia. 

In 1969, following filings by an attorney provided by Gallo, an appellate court ruled that the information which led to the raid that ultimately landed Barnes in prison, had been obtained by police through an illegal wiretap of a conversation between Barnes and a business partner. The ruling led to the admission into evidence of audio recordings on which an NYPD officer discussed plans to frame Barnes. As a result, Barnes' conviction was reversed and he was released. 

Barnes' wife, however, had made a religious conversion and the two divorced. 

Madonna, who'd also been released, began supplying Barnes with large quantities of heroin.

In 1971, Barnes met dancer Thelma Grant, who quickly became pregnant with Barnes' child. She would have a girl that they named Nicole.

Intent on establishing a drug-trafficking organization designed to insulate himself from criminal convictions, Barnes recruited Harlem dealer Frank Alphonse James, Wallace "Wally" Rice, Joseph "Jazz" Hayden, Ishmael Muhammed, Brooklyn dealer Thomas "Gaps" Foreman, and Bronx dealer Guy Thomas Fisher. Barnes name the seven-man group The Council. Each member took an oath to "treat my brother as I treat myself". They also agreed to a hands-off policy regarding other members' girlfriends and wives. 

Each member of the Council ran his own territory. As a whole, the group's terrain spread throughout Harlem and Brooklyn. The Council's heroin was cheaper and of higher quality than that of their competitors. 

Barnes personally made $25 million annually from drug sales and he began to live accordingly. He purchased a home in the Bronx and two more in New Jersey. Barnes also owned a fleet of luxury cars and a wardrobe consisting of 200 suits, 100 pairs of shoes and 50 full-length leather coats. He also derived income from his purchases of travel agencies, gas stations and a chain of automated carwashes. 

Folk rock singer's chart-topping 1973 song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is rumored to have been inspired by Barnes. The following year, someone attempted to post bail for Barnes' 1974 arrest with $100,000 in checks from a Harlem church. After the court rejected the money, he offered his equity in a $4.6 million Detroit housing project as collateral.

In 1975, Barnes met 19-year-old Shameka (last name unknown), whom he began dating, unbeknownst to Grant. 

That same year, the Council purchased an amount of heroin worth an estimated $250,000 from Bonanno crime family soldier Mikey Puglisi. When the product was deemed to weak to sell to users, the group intended to obtain a refund. However, Puglisi couldn't be located. When the mobster resurfaced in 1976, he offered to repay the money as well as to front them more product in an effort to repair his strained relationship with them. 

In July of 1976, Barnes ordered the murder of Puglisi, whom he suspected of cooperating with federal authorities. On July 29, two of Barnes' enforcers tracked Puglisi to Manhattan and shot him to death, hitting him 10 times in the chest. The trigger-men were so close to Puglisi during the shooting that the latter's shirt caught on fire. Though Barnes anticipated the Bonannos to retaliate for the killing of one of their own, no reprisals ever came.

On October 15, Barnes threw a party atop Midtown Manhattan's Time-Life Building to celebrate his birthday. The then three-year-old Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who was investigating Barnes, infiltrated the party by sending agents undercover as waiters and valets. 

By November, the Council had generated $100 million in heroin sales, a fact which inspired the DEA to ramp up its investigation of the group.  That same month, undercover agent Louis "Lou" Diaz was introduced to Guy Fisher's younger brother, Wally, by informant Robert "G" Geronimo under the pretense that Diaz was seeking to re-enter the heroin trade after spending time in California and out of the business. 

Undercover DEA agent Mary Buckley infiltrated the organization beginning with an escort to a favorite hangout of Barnes' associates, Julia's Bar, a Harlem nightclub. Buckley was accompanied by a Harlem underworld figure known as "Promise Bruce". 

In December, Diaz got Wally Fisher to agree to sell him a half-kilogram of heroin, worth an estimated $200,000. Fisher was instructed by Barnes to get the heroin from Steven "Fat Stevie" Monsanto. On December 29, Geronimo and Diaz drove together to the Harlem River Motors Garage in order to obtain the drugs from Monsanto. The pair were accompanied by a DEA team who surveilled the proceedings from across the street. They even witnessed Barnes interacting with Monsanto, which led to his being charged.

In March of 1977, Buckley made a deal with a Barnes associate in which she paid him $12,000 for heroin at Julia's Bar.

By this time, Barnes had escaped conviction for 13 arrests in his adult life. On March 15, 1977, Barnes, Fisher and Hayden were among the organization members named on arrest warrants issued by the prosecutor's office. Barnes was apprehended after a brief car chase with police in Manhattan. Police arrested 19 other suspects and seized $300,000 in cash and an amount of heroin estimated to be worth $1 million. 

After making bail, Barnes agreed to participate in a cover story about his legal issues for the June 5, 1977 issue of The New York Times Magazine entitled "Mr. Untouchable". He wore Gucci shades and a red-white-and-blue necktie for the cover photo. After reading the story, President Jimmy Carter pressured the prosecutors assigned to the case to achieve a guilty verdict.

On September 29, 1977, the nine-week trial of Barnes and 14 others began. The trial made legal history as the first in the U.S. to utilize an anonymous jury. During the proceedings, the prosecution played audio recordings made secretly by Diaz that captured Hayden discussing drug deals. On December 2, Barnes, who'd testified that he'd ordered killings as opposed to committing them himself, Hayden and nine others were found guilty. Barnes was given a life sentence on January 19, 1978 by Judge Henry F. Werker. He was subsequently sent to a federal prison in Marion, Illinois to serve his sentence, during which time he earned a college degree. 

Fisher, who'd been acquitted, was left to run the Council, which now only consisted of himself, Muhammed, Foreman, James and Rice. After learning that Fisher had begun an affair with Barnes' mistress, Shameka, he ordered the new organization head murdered. However, the order was ignored. Barnes retaliated by agreeing to become a federal informant. 

On December 13, 1982, Shameka was shot to death in a Washington Heights bar. She'd been shot in the head by a masked triggerman.

On March 10, 1983, arrest warrants were issued for the remaining Council members.

Hayden discovered that Barnes had cooperated with federal investigators while on the yard at USP Lewisburg, the maximum-security federal prison in which he'd been incarcerated. 

Barnes broke down in tears during his testimony against his former associates. Fisher, Muhammed, Rice, Foreman and James were each found guilty of running a continuing criminal enterprise and subsequently given sentences of life without parole. Barnes' testimony against Thelma Grant and her subsequent guilty plea to federal narcotics charges resulted in her serving 10 years in prison.

Barnes' cooperation and testimony resulted in the convictions of close to 50 members of his drug organization.

In 1998, Barnes was released from prison and entered the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program, where he reportedly operated an automated carwash. Barnes' daughters, who'd been placed in the foster system after their mother's imprisonment, were placed in the program as well. 

Barnes died of cancer in 2012 in an undisclosed location but due to the secrecy of the witness protection program, his death wasn't reported until 2019.