Episode 222- Did The Mob Kill Drug Kingpin Frank Matthews?

In all of my years of covering and looking into organized crime, there is no person more interesting than drug kingpin Frank Matthews. Raised in North Carolina, Frank moved to New York City with a dream of making it. He entered the drug trade and transformed into the biggest trafficker born in this country ever. He cut out the Mafia which was integral in his growth. Then he was arrested in the early 1970's and disappeared with tens of millions of dollars and 50 plus years later, the question is, where is he?

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Jeff Nadu is an American Mafia and organized crime researcher, podcaster and content creator. He has worked at Barstool Sports and was hired personally by Dave Portnoy. His podcast "The Sitdown" with Jeff Nadu has put out hundreds of biographies on various mobsters, gangsters and criminals. He's also personally interviewed mobsters like Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, Dom Cicale, Anthony Ruggiano Jr, Gene Borrello and others as well as US Prosecutor John Gleeson and FBI Agents Joaquin "Jack" Garcia and Michael Campi. He has been personally endorsed by former Gambino mob captain Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, esteemed author RJ Roger, and former Colombo Crime Family captain Michael Franzese.

DISCLAIMER: My videos and podcasts are meant for entertainment and educational use. All material found in my videos reflect this use. ANY opinions and or statements of any guest is merely he/her's opinion. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to The sit Down, a mafia history podcast. Here's
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(00:54):
What's Up, Everybody? Welcome in to episode two and twenty
two of the podcast. I am your host, Jeff nay Do.
And when I think back to all the people that
I've looked into over the years, I have looked into dozens,
if not hundreds, in fact hundreds of criminals, whether it

(01:15):
be gangsters, mobsters, drug dealers, extortionists, murderers, I've looked into
them all. I've even talked to some of them. And
the age O question comes up all the time, who
is the most interesting person you've ever looked into? And
without a doubt, there is no person that I would

(01:35):
say over today's subject. And what's interesting is back in
September of twenty twenty one, here on the audio side
of this podcast, we've actually done a show in this guy,
but I thought it was important to revisit today's subject,
to do a real kind of further detailed look into

(01:56):
where exactly he is. The answer to that a Joe
questioned about who the most interesting person I've ever looked
into is simple, It's Frank Matthews, the kingpin who literally
disappeared without a trace. We hear about Jimmy Haffa, We
hear about Whitey Bulger, one of which we know for
a fact Jimmy Haffa is deceased. We know Whitey Bulger's deceased,

(02:22):
but for years he was on the run, he was
a fugitive. There had been sightings. But when we look
back at that, when we look back at the world
of narcotics, right, you hear about Grisel de Blanco and
Big Nietzsch, Frank Lucas, Nicky Barnes, you don't ever really

(02:44):
hear Frank Matthews's name. His story is more interesting than
all of them, and he was truly the king of
the volcano. There was nobody bigger than Frank Matthews, and
I want to delve into him today on the sit Down.
Before we get into today's episode, I want to let
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(04:53):
Let's delve in to the Black Caesar. Frank Matthews on
the sit Down. Frank Larry Matthews was born on February thirteenth,
nineteen forty four, in Durham, North Carolina and now Durham
in those days, really in the forties, fifties, even sixties

(05:16):
was really one of the southern hubs of Black America.
And I want to talk a little bit about Durham
in the second, but I want to talk before we
get into anything. One of the things that I've seen
quoted about Frank Matthews is that his mother died when
he was a young child, I think approximate four years old.

(05:38):
And you know, I gotta say I don't necessarily believe that.
As far as I do believe Frank Matthews, the fact,
I think it's I have for a fact that she
died when he was a young person, but four years
old is a bit old, a bit young. I actually
have reason to believe that Frank Matthews' mother, Hazel Matthews,

(06:04):
died when he was approximate nine years old. There is
a obituary for a woman, Hazel Matthews, and I looked
into Frank's background. I actually through ancestry records found in
nineteen fifty. There was a census done in nineteen fifty
which would make Frank approxymy six years old. It was

(06:24):
done in Durham, North Carolina, and Frank L. Matthews had
a mother, Hazel Matthews, who was born in approximy nineteen
nineteen and they lived on Union Street in Durham. Now,
I will say Frank Matthews is a pretty common name,

(06:45):
I would imagine, and this quite possibly it's a small
chance may not be him. That said, in nineteen fifty
there was a census done in this particular area that
Frank Matthews was said to be from, where it stated
that his mother was thirty years old at the time.
She actually would die in nineteen fifty three. Nonetheless, Frank

(07:07):
Matthews grew up mostly without a mother and without a father.
He was raised by his extended family in and around Durham. Now,
I do think it's important to kind of discuss Durham.
At the time, Durham was actually, really, like I said,
one of the hubs for Black America, you know, disenfranchising

(07:27):
black people. You know, we're making strides in that black
population in Durham, which again remember that challenged the legitimacy
of white supremacy. And you know, you look at one
guy in particular that was from Black Wall Street, a
guy called Charles Spaulding. Charles Spaulding literally owned NC Mutual,

(07:54):
which is the North Kolina Mutual Life insurance company. He
made it into a vibrant, profitable company. He took it
from kind of the drubs of not having success too
doing really well. It would become by nineteen ten n
See Mutual it was the world's largest Negro business according

(08:17):
to records. When Spalding became the general manager, he would
kind of epitomize becoming a captain of industry, which is
something that Booker T. Washington kind of put into the
black community, and Durham was kind of the hub of
the South really towards that time. Frank Matthews, though would

(08:38):
quickly kind of make his way into a full ray
of crime. He didn't necessarily follow into the footsteps of
some of the black industry chiefs of Durham. It was
said that during his youth Frank was kind of an
undersized kid and they called him pee wee. That was
kind of an early name that he would take on.
By the early nineteen sixties and Frank was approximately sixteen

(09:00):
seventeen years old, he was actually arrested for stealing livestock
and said that he stole chickens from a farmer. And
you know, Durham police would eventually catch up to him
kind of. He treated them pretty well, he didn't back talk,
and he was essentially given a slap of the wrist.
He was a juvenile at the time, and I think
the hope was, you know, Frank was a young kid,

(09:23):
he would get his life right. But he didn't. Frank
really didn't have much, so he decides to move. He
goes up to Philadelphia, which was a major city, and
he settles in North Philadelphia. He becomes a barber, kind
of makes his way around, starts meeting people and look,
as in any ethnic community, there are certain things that

(09:45):
a lot of people do. You know. We see it
in the you know, in the mob world, in the
Italian communities, you know, gambling, loan sharking, that's a big
thing that a lot of people do. You know. In
black communities, the numbers run running was big. You know,
it was a way to supplement your income. You maybe
you're a barber and you have a side business running
numbers for people. That's exactly what Frank Matthews does. Frank Matthews,

(10:07):
it was said, was a very intelligent individual, very smart.
He kind of gets into the numbers business. He doesn't
stay in Philly for a period of time. He does
get arrested. He moves to Brooklyn, settles in Bedford Stuyvesant,
which was a mainly black neighborhood in Brooklyn running numbers.
He eventually meets Spanish Raymond Marquez. Now I did a

(10:30):
video in Spanish Raymond Marquez. Here. When it comes to
Spanish number operators, there's nobody bigger than Spanish Raymond Marquez.
He was the king of numbers in Spanish Harlem. In
New York, he was very close to fat Tony Sillerno,
who literally oversaw every numbers bank runner operator in New York.

(10:54):
And really, I mean outside of Spanish Raymond, fat Tony
was the only one really above him. But when it
came to like Spanish Harlem, Spanish Raymen was the man,
and Frank Matthews knew Spanish Raymond. I think if I
could ever ask Spanish Rayman anything, I would love to
know about kind of the origins of how he met
Spanish Raymond, or how Frank and Spanish Raymon met. But

(11:18):
I think you know, when you do crime long enough,
you know we see all these mob guys. You know
they know everybody. Everybody knows everybody. Right, you meet this
guy you meet that guy. Meeting Spanish Raymen was very helpful.
You know, Spanish Raymond knew a lot of people. He
eventually connects Frank Matthews because Frank Matthews I think by
that time new like numbers was a big way to

(11:39):
make money, but to make real money narcotics, right, ushering
that into the black community, getting the control away from
the Italians what Frank would call the guineas, that's what
they would refer to the Italians as in those days.
Frank wanted to sell narcotics and it was said that

(11:59):
Spanish Raiman introduced him to an individual called Rolando Gonzalez Nunez.
Now Rolando Gonzales Nunez was a very dialed in person.
Obviously Spanish Raimond was dialed and knew a lot of people.
So did Gonzales Nunyas. This is a document from the
federal government that state that you know Rwando Gonzales Nunez,

(12:24):
though he was arrested down the road, was involved in
a gambla casino in South America. In Colombia, he also
had connections to Santa Trafficanti, who as we know, was
a major mob boss. They had dealings in curisow in
Venezuela in Colombia and Rolando Gonzales, Unias. There is a

(12:44):
lot of talk that for years was connected to the CIA.
He was allowed to operate. But this is where the
connects that any drug deal in needs come from. And
when you can make these connects, you can cut out
other people doing things. So if you have your own
connect you don't need the Italians, because remember the Italians

(13:08):
were involved with the French connection, which I'll talk about.
French Connection literally monopolized the drug trade for the most part.
If you were getting narcotics in those days, you were
getting them from the Little Casey crime family, the Gambino
crime family, the Banano crime family. You know, people like
Carma Galanti. I've always said, I think Carma Galante is

(13:30):
quite frankly the most underrated mobster in the history of Carlsonostra.
There was nobody that sold more narcotics. Carma Galante was
very influential. You know, when we look into Vido Genevies,
Big John Ormento, Joe Piney, you know a lot of
these Vincent Papa, a lot of these old school Italian

(13:52):
drug dealers. Pleasant Avenue, you know all those areas. That
was the French connection that was originating narcotics in Turkey,
getting them to Corsica, corsekin traffickers get it into Canada
through the Catroni crime family and then into New York City.
French connection, Right, that's how it all worked. And if

(14:14):
you were a black trafficker in those days, that's where
you were getting it. Frank Matthews are smart though. He
cut out that middleman and created his own connect and
that was Gonzales Nunez who would begin and sell him
one kilo. So you know when you watch these shows
like Snowfall, right, Franklin Sink goes to Avi, gets front

(14:35):
of a key of coke. Rest is history. You flip
the key, you only get bigger. So Frank Matthews is
on his way. He goes from stealing chickens, you know
what about five six years before and now his goal
is I want to be a businessman. I want to
make real money and i want to flood the area

(15:00):
with narcotics and I'm not interested in dealing with the Italians.
Cut him out and over the next five years, Frank
Matthews are transformed into the biggest drug trafficker in America.
And when it's all said and done, as far as
American born, there was no bigger drug trafficker than Frank Matthews.
Don't let anybody tell you that there was. Not Frank Lucas,

(15:24):
not Mike Atkinson, not Big Meets, not anybody, Rafel Edmund,
All those guys made they did their things. Frank Matthews
was the big time guy. Now I want to talk
about kind of how Frank Matthews' operation worked, at least initially,

(15:44):
because you know, Frank kind of created this hub, if
you will, right, He's the depot for everybody Philadelphia, Connecticut, Boston, Atlanta, Baltimore, DC.
Everybody that was getting narcotics in the black community, Guys
that are legends in their own cities who I'll talk about,

(16:08):
all of them were getting their drugs from Frank. He
was the guy. And when we look at like the
Philly Black Mafia, some of their people, at least initially
Major Coxon, fat Tyrone, Palmer, Pop Darby, they were all
getting their drugs from Frank. Now I want to read
some of the indictment that Frank was named in. But Frank,

(16:29):
obviously we know down the road jump bail and never
face charges on. But this is how the operation worked.
The drugs that Frank was able to get were diluted
and packaged at one of the operation's drug mills, such
as a location located at nine to twenty five Prospect

(16:50):
Street in Brooklyn, which Frank and his people would nickname
the Ponderosa. They were then therefore distributed by organization lieutenants
through other connections in states like Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Massachusetts, everywhere,
as well as other US locations. Now, one of Frank's

(17:13):
lieutenants was a man called Scarvey M. Cargo. He was
from New Haven, Connecticut. He worked principally running the Ponderosa,
cutting and bagging up narcotics. So what they would have
is they would have dozens of people that were not
clothed that were bagging bags, one after one, tens of

(17:36):
thousands of a day. Boom boom. Get him out, cutting, diluting,
creating and taking a kilo and just making it so
much more right. That's how you make money in the
drugs trade. Frank wasn't stupid. Now, one of Frank's principal
receivers of narcotics was a man right here, Big Head

(17:59):
Brother car James Carter from Baltimore. When you look into Baltimore,
lored big Head Brother one of the biggest of them all.
Big Head Brother was even mortalized. They was mentioned in
the wire. He was that big. He was a real
person now according to the indictment, and someone named of
this indictment, James big Head Brother Carter was a quote

(18:20):
upper level receiver of narcotics from the organization and acted
as Frank Matthews' major distributor in Maryland, utilizing a sub
cadre of couriers and connections in that state. For instance,
in late nineteen seventy, there was a shortage of heroin
in Maryland and several of Carter's people met to discuss

(18:41):
the problem in and around Baltimore. One of the people
was also a moving narcotics in that area was Liddy Jones.
Liddy Jones was a big time drug trafficker, Little Melvin,
all sorts of big timers you're looking in Philadelphia, fat
Tyrone Palm made a ton of money selling narcotics. Cadillac,

(19:04):
Tommy Farrington, Major Coxon, Pop Darby. All these guys were
getting their drugs from Frank. Now, Pop Darby is also
named in Frank's indictment. I'll talk about him in a second. Now,
one of Big Head Brother carter couriers, a guy called

(19:26):
Purcell Wiley, told one of Carter's customers, a guy Norman Coleman,
that Frank Matthews was Carter's connection and not to obtain
a supply of narcotics. He was to call a phone
number in New York to contact Frank Matthews's wife, Barbara Hinton,
and she would connect Purcell Wiley with one of the
organization's lieutenant who would supply the h So you know

(19:51):
Frank would marry Barbara Hinton early on. That is a
little bit of a sloppy photos not able to be
seen real well, But Barbara Hinton, you know Rod or
die right, Bonnie and Clyde. You know she knew what
buttered the bread, and she was helpful just like any
woman would. Right, you have business, your wife is the secretary.

(20:14):
You know, this is a multimillion dollar business, right, everybody's
making money off of it. These old school women, they're
gonna do what they have to do to be involved.
Now again I mentioned Pop Derby. He was a key
lieutenant in the operation. He supervised distribution of narcotics in Pennsylvania.
So when a fat Tyrone Palmer or a Cadillac Tommy

(20:37):
or something like that, when they needed narcotics, Frank Matthews
would use Pop Derby. Now. Pop Darby was arrested in
September of nineteen seventy two and was later sentenced to
a state gun charge in New York. Now His wife,
Thelma Derby, who was also a co conspirait in this case,
assumed the functions in the organization in nineteen seventy four.

(20:58):
In particular, she had frequent contact with a man called
Water Rosenbaum, who supplied the organization with manta and kennanine
used in cutting drugs. Now. Other coke expirators included David
Bates and Charles Cameron, who were major receivers of narcotics
for the Matthews organization in both Pennsylvania and North Carolina, respectively.

(21:23):
Frank's main conduit was Mickey Beckwith He assisted in the
acquisition of dilutants through Rosenbom and other contacts, and there
was also evidence that Mickey Beckworth owned one of the
organization's cutting mills. An apartment at one on one East
fifty sixth Street in Brooklyn known as the Ok Corral.
Among other things, he also had a thirty two gallon

(21:45):
drum and or used to cut and mix heroin, sifters, spoons,
and other cutting paraphernalia, various quantities of heroin and cocaine,
and approximately one hundred and forty eight thousand dollars in cash,
which is seized in September of nineteen seventy two, used
and during a search incident to a valid warrant. The

(22:07):
thing about what I just said there, that's pretty unbelievable. Now,
obviously the scale of Karma Galante was huge, But Frank
Matthews was using a fucking canoe ore to stern narcotic.
That's how much they were moving. I mean, they were
diluting an insane amount. You make them tens of millions
of dollars. Remember this is in the sixties into the seventies.

(22:30):
You know, you think about for instance, like in the sixties, right,
let's say even the early seventies, ten million dollars, it's
worth like, I don't know, one hundred and forty million.
Like that's like the inflation difference is insane. We're talking
about insane amounts of money here. This organization is cooking now.

(22:55):
Investigations by federal and state narcotics agents of the Matthew
organization in nineteen seventy one, apparently as a result of
observations of one Detective Kowalski of the NYPD, who lived
at one thirty Clarkson Avenue in Brooklyn, a building in
which Matthews and Barbara Hinton maintained an apartment. Now in

(23:16):
nineteen seventy one and seventy two, Kowalski observed several of
the co defendants, including Barbara Hinton, John and Thelma Darby,
Scarvey mcargo, and Charles Cameron, frequently entering and leaving the apartment,
and on occasion he would observe them carrying paper bag

(23:37):
cases and suitcases. Kowalski's observations triggered surveillance by federal and
state authorities of the comings and goings of not only
Frank Matthews, but other organization members from other locations utilized
by the organization, including three three three three Henry Hudson
Parkway in the Bronx Now. In September of nineteen seventy two,

(23:58):
surveillance was greatly increased, and in June and August of
that year as well, two ordered wiretaps were obtained for
three three three three Henry Hudson Parkway apartment and for
a mansion built by Frank Matthews at seven button Wood
Road in tot Hills, Staten Island. The thing about that

(24:23):
Staten Island, Tote Hill, that's Castellano Gambino Territory. That's how
much money Frank Matthews is making. He is living in
the same neighborhood as Paul Costellano. He built this home
seven button Wood Road in Staten's still there today. Now.
I'm sure it looks a little bit different than it
did back in those days. But this was just a

(24:45):
stones throwaway from where Paul Costellano lived. Remember, I mean,
this is the sixties and seventies. Paul Costellana doesn't want
blacks living in his neighborhood. By this point, thanks a
very rich man, Frank is thumbing his nose up at Italians.
He doesn't need them. He's got his own operation. Life

(25:08):
was very good for Frank Matthews. He was the purveyor
of narcotics in Black America in every city and he
had bigger and bigger ideas. He had money everywhere. Think
about it. He's serving tens of millions of dollars a year.
He's I mean, I just said what ten million dollars
was worth. Frank was making more than ten million a year.

(25:30):
He had money in safe depositive boxes everywhere from Durham
to New York to Vegas to Atlanta. It was just
it's hard to discuss the level of money he had.
And he was just a kid from North Carolina. And

(25:50):
that's kind of amazing because when you look at that
particular area that Frank Matthews was from, Mike Atkinson, who's
the real American gangster, Frank Lucas. Ike Atkinson was from Goldsborough,
not far away. Frank Lucas was from that area too. Well.
I do want to say one thing about American gangster

(26:10):
that film. It's bullshit, Okay, Mike Gatkinson was the real
American gangs. So they told a story. Okay, Ike Gatkinson
was the army guy who was in Thailand, opens a
bar up. He comes up with this idea to start
moving heroin through furniture, not through coffins and gadavers, through furniture,

(26:31):
back to America and Ike Gatkinson becomes really public enemy
number one in North Carolina in that area. Ike Gatkins
got thirty years, did his time and died, you know,
about ten years ago. But you see, like all these
guys grew up in like the same area. And there's
a great video I think Mob Facts put it out.

(26:53):
It was about the North Carolina mob right where they
were essentially mob families, right, they had a boss just
like Frank or like or whatever, and they were running
narcotics in these black communities. There's one thing we could
say about Frank Matthews. He was incredibly destructive to the
black community. Incredibly all these guys were. They all introduced

(27:18):
narcotics to Black America, whether it was Harlem or Durham,
North Carolina, or Philadelphia or Baltimore, whatever, and they cut
out the middleman. It's that simple. They cut out the Italians. Now,
Frank had ideas too on how to create his own commission.

(27:39):
At one point he would set up a meeting in Atlanta. Now,
according to a documentary by Al Prophet, who's done some
great work on Frank Matthews, he would state that Frank
created a kind of a hub conference if you will
similar with like an apple acin or whatever, where all
the big traffickers met at a spot and they talked

(28:00):
about how they could create a trumvrit just like the
mafia essentially, and you think of it like in the
Wire where Stringer Bell and Proposition Joe had the New
Day co Op where everybody brought their issues to the table.
Violence was kept at a minimum because it was a
way to distance themselves from the police and they could

(28:22):
cut out everybody else and if somebody bucked, they were
dealt with. They brought it to the table. That is
how you do business really. You know, violence gets more
violence and it brings the police. So again, Frank, very
very very smart. Now I mentioned how he was kind

(28:45):
of pissing off the Gambino family. He was pissing off
I think the mob in general, because the mob said,
who the hell is this black guy? And I'm sure
they didn't use the word black guy, right, I'm sure
they were using other words which we won't get into,
but they're saying, who the fuck is this guy? You know,
the blacks don't need us anymore. They go through him.

(29:06):
Throw in the fact that he's living on Totehill in
a nice, big house. He's throwing parties. You know, he's
driving around and rolls royces. Frank's becoming a little ostentatious. Right,
He's got the nice suits, a good looking guy. He's
always got the nice women, the gumadas around them. You know,
he's thrown parties. It was said according to some people.

(29:27):
I'm not gonna say this is truth, but according to
some people, Frank started to develop a personal cocaine problem.
Never forget how on your own supply. So he's getting ostentatious.
He's pissing people off, and you know, people start to
waiver a little bit, maybe even his own group. Throw
in the fact that by the early seventies the FEDS

(29:51):
are starting to take note. I mentioned Kowalski NYPD, he
alerts the Feds. They start looking into him, wiretaps are coming.
Throw in the fact that in the early seventies other
opposition in the black community start taking out Frank's dealers,
including fat Tyrone Palmer. Now I've talked about the hit

(30:13):
on fat Tyrone at the club Harlem. You know they
called Tyrone Palmer missed a millionaire. He was a big
time drug dealer and he was getting it all from
the black Mafia, well not from the Black Man, from
Frank Matthews. He's killed in nineteen seventy two at the
Club Harlem. Black Mafi just run in and starts shooting.

(30:36):
They kill a bunch of people Injure, a bunch of people.
Nobody says anything because they're scared. Major Coxon, who was
a drug dealer, he was killed. So there's a lot
happening at one time to Frank Matthews. And again it
doesn't last forever. Feds are gonna come calling at some point.
Now by nineteen seventy three, this is a big year

(30:58):
for Frank Matthews because in late nineteen seventy two, Frank
Matthews is arrested. Okay, he's indicted by the FEDS for
attempting to sell cocaine. Now we hear about his bail.
It's five million, then instroduced to two and a half million,
then it's reduced to three hundred and twenty five k,

(31:19):
which is a couple of dollars to Frank Matthews. That's nothing.
They still doing deals, okay, And I want to talk
about a deal that was done with this guy, Coco Corluzzo.
No Coco Corluzzo for years was a associate of the
Geneviez crime family. That this is another problem Frank deals with. Now.

(31:43):
In nineteen seventy three, Frank Matthews meets with Ernie Corluzo
in Manhattan at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. They negotiate the
sale of forty keys for three hundred and seventy five g's.
Frank delivers the money through an intermediary, Coco was supposed

(32:03):
to deliver the forty keys. Money never came. The money
never came, or the money came, but the drugs never came.
My apologies. Corluzzo stiffs him and goes to Caribbean. Frank

(32:23):
Matthews then kidnaps a man called James Cappa Torto, who
was cor Loser's driver, an associate of his. Corlusa goes
back to New York, gives Frank Matthews his money back
and gives him twenty five kilos on consignment in order
to make good on the deal. Now, according to indictments,

(32:46):
there was an informant that claims it was a ruse
and Frank's behavior in snatching cap Torto led the Genevieve
crime family to murder Frank Matthews. And that's one of
the theories as to why Frank Matthews never shows up
the court in July of nineteen seventy three. And that's

(33:07):
what we want to get to now. There was also
at one point there was a threat Frank Matthews put out,
supposedly saying quote, I'll go to Maulberry Street and kill
every wop I see. So again, stuff is brewing very
high with Frank Matthews and the American mafia. We obviously

(33:29):
are well aware. This was before Carlo Gambino dies. The
Gambinos are as powerful as ever. The Genovese family very powerful.
I mean, the commission is strong. They could have killed
Frank Matthews. But then again, not one person has ever

(33:50):
come forward from the mafia. As many informants as there were,
that one person has ever come forward and said, yeah,
I killed Frank Matthews. How many people have said they
killed Jimmy Afa. Not one person has said we took
out Frank Matthews. Now down the road, Ernie Corluzo would
become just another nobody. You know, at one point he

(34:10):
was doing a hit with Dominic Skali. I mean, look
that up. George Keho. Now Matthews was scheduled to go
to court for that case. Now there is talk that
Frank was made aware by some FED or somebody in

(34:33):
the FEDS that another indictment was coming down, which in
those days was your kingpin statute, where they would move
to put Frank Matthews away forever. Remember, in nineteen seventy three,
Frank is not even thirty years olds, only twenty nine.

(34:54):
He's got a wife, he's got some kids, He's got
all the money in the world. He's got a girlfriend,
very attractive girlfriend. Frank's young. A life sentence is a
long time, so he decides effort, I'm out. One of
the last places Frank has seen is a bank where

(35:15):
he takes twenty mil out a twenty mil. In those days,
there's a lot of money, hundreds of millions of dollars.
So he'd be good forever, he would never have to
worry again. He never shows and to this day, August
of twenty twenty fifth or twenty twenty five, Frank Matthews

(35:38):
has never been seen again. Nobody knows where he is.
Think about what I just said. Fifty plus years disappears
without a trace. If he was alive today, Frank Matthews
would be eighty one years old. What happened to him?

(36:01):
Where did he go? Well? He was seen boarding a plane,
a private plane in and around Houston, Texas. He was
said to have left with a young girlfriend, a person
called Sheryl Brown. Now, for approximately five years after the
disappearance of Frank Matthews and Cheryl Brown, the Feds put

(36:24):
a tap on Shoe Brown's Parents' phone. Not one call
has ever made Frank Matthews over the years. His famili
has had problems. He's never surfaced. There's been sightings, but dude,
put any stock into that. Some people say he's in Africa.
Some people say he's in South America. Some people say

(36:47):
he's in America, somewhere he blends in and Durham, Somewhere
he's being protected. There is something, though, that I've heard
about Frank Matthews. In approximately nineteen seventy four, Ryl Brown's
parents made a visit to Curasol, one of the most
beautiful islands in and near South America. Currousal is also

(37:11):
very close to Venezuela. The truth to me, I believe
Rolando Gonzales Nunez was a CIA connect. I think Frank
Matthews is in Currousel. I think he's always been in
caurrosl in that general vicinity. It's very close to Venezuela,

(37:33):
and he had people fighting and no one really cared.
You know. It's to think that he's dead. It doesn't
make a lot of sense because it would be unheard
of fifty years. You don't you never find bones, you
never find anything. You know, I don't know. It just
doesn't seem very plausible to me. Frank Matthews wasn't just

(37:56):
some corner dimebag salesman. He was the biggest drug dealer
in the black community in America. I mean, look, it's
surely possible he could have been killed, and that would
explain where he's been the last fifty years. You know,
there have been tips on six continents other than Antarcha.
There have been a tip everywhere. He's in Asia, he's

(38:17):
in Europe, he's in South America, he's in Africa, could
be anywhere. What's amazing is even his son has passed away.
His son, Frank Matthews Junior, died in twenty twenty three.
Spinning image of his father right, looks just like him,
even the same smile. Pretty amazing. I guess I'll ask you,

(38:39):
where do you think Frank Matthews is? Do you think
he's still alive? We think about it. Let's say that
at eighty one years old, he's still in decent shape. Remember,
he could have just died naturally. Nobody would have known.
He probably had a fake passport, a new name will

(39:00):
likely never know. The thought is, though, Let's say he
walked into the Justice Department in DC and say, hey,
I'm here to turn myself in. Well, who are you?
My name is Frank Matthews and it's him Black Caesar.
What could they even do to him? Statue of limitations

(39:23):
of long past. There's no murders, like literally, there's nothing
that could be done about it. You look at all
the people involved. I mean Big Head Brother did many
years in federal prison, Lenny Jones many years in federal prison,
I Atkinson, you know all these different people, Pop Darby,

(39:48):
you know, or think about people like Major Coxon, you know,
fat Tyrone Palmer. They were killed. Frank never did any
time in prison. You think about that. With all the
stuff he did, the money he made, all the destructiveness
he did to the black community, never did a day
in prison. Now we think about the bad things he did,
obviously terrible. When we think about street legend, it's nobody more.

(40:13):
There's no bigger legend than Frank Matthews. He literally fucked
off the government and now was that. It is also
entirely possible that he was whacked in the seventies and
we've just been on a wild goose chase for the
last fifty years. But that's the fascination of the story.
He could still be out there. He may watch this,

(40:37):
he may watch all these different things and just laugh.
He could be in Durham right now, you think, and
this is why, like I've always been fascinated with criminals, right,
it's particularly these high level criminals, like the dope dealers,
the old gangsters. You know, you think about your old neighbor, right,

(40:57):
the guy behind you that's from New York. You know,
some old black guy, right, you don't really even know
who it is. How do you know it's not a
guy that killed six people and he did forty years
in prison and they let him out, and he had
some money buried somewhere. It's fascinating to think about, isn't
it someone to know? In the comment section, where do

(41:18):
you think Frank Matthews is? Do you think he beat
the government? Did he really disappear without a trace? Is
he still out there? Where is he? Let me know,
and don't just say the mob killed him. Tell me
why you think that, because you know, though you know,
they were very powerful. They were the foremost most powerful
group in the country really at that point, but Frank

(41:40):
Matthews was pretty powerful as well, especially in the black community.
So that's that. You know, so many people have done
great work on Frank Matthews, most notably outprofit, really interesting stuff.
And you know, like I said, we did something on
Frank me and Blackjack did something on Frank back in
twenty twenty one, and he's still out there. Probably. I'm

(42:05):
always asked too, like if you could interview anybody, who
would it be. I mean, these are the kind of people.
It's like, like Frank Matthew's you literally just sit here
and tell us, yeah, I was moving fifty kilows every day,
like nothing could happen, Like that's just insane to think about.
But I think I think as a like a like

(42:26):
a crime, like like interesting person, interesting crime. I think
you hope that he is out there somewhere, you know.
So that's the show for this week. I hope you
enjoyed it. Like I said, let me know what you
think would happened to Frank Matthews in the comments section below.
You all that money, a nice young girlfriend, he probably

(42:47):
said to her, listen, if you leave with me, no
contact in anybody. It's like the wittest protection program. So
all right, guys and girls, thank you for watching. Thank
you for listening to the show. Make sure you check
out our friends at profit X. The link to jump
on board is in the comment section below. I don't

(43:07):
really ever ask anybody for anything here. If you would
like to support the channel, though, hit that super thanks
icon below the video. I'm getting back to doing videos.
That was all for about a month and it was
a nice time to get away. So I'll see you
all next time here on the show. Have a great week.