The University News

Just for the record, 'American Gangster' is not even loosely "based on a true story" and maybe in this case, the truth would have been way better than fiction.

In the movie, Richie Roberts (played by Russel Crowe) is the star detective who works the case from beginning to end to bring down Frank Lucas, but the truth is that two of three former Newark Police detectives, Benny Abruzzo and Eddie Jones had been working the Frank Lucas investigation known as the "Country Boys" for nearly two years out of the Newark Narcotics Bureau until jurisdiction authority compelled the 2 to ask to be temporarily assigned to work the case out of the B.O.N. where Richie Roberts was then the Director/Assistant Prosecutor, and where their partner, Al Spearman was temporarily assigned and working on unrelated cases while also helping the two partners with the investigation.

Roberts never worked the investigation nor assigned any of his detectives to assist the three for the 3 weeks they would continue working the investigation out of his Bureau and had little knowledge of the case or of who Frank Lucas was for that matter, up until the day of the arrests when the three detectives requested the assistance of Roberts' agency with search warrants and in rounding and apprehending 30 plus of Lucas' drug dealing family and cohorts at several locations.

In fact, on June 5, 1975, shortly after the arrests, Roberts wrote a letter to then Director Hubert Williams, highly commending the three, and sheepishly admitted to his non-involvement in the case, "I feel it incumbent upon me to make a record of same, that most of the credit for the arrests and seizures of persons and evidence of said narcotic investigation goes to three narcotic detectives, Alvin Spearman, Edward Jones and Baldesario Abruzzo...Because of the nature of their knowledge of the operation of the "Country Boys", other detectives could not assist them in said investigation,...I simply hope that the work of these men does not go unnoticed..."

The three detectives continued to work the case out of the B.O.N. and...

So impressed was Roberts with their work that on October 28, 1976 he also wrote former New Jersey mayor, the Honorable Kenneth Gibson, saying, "The proofs of the case indicated that the narcotic ring, run by the Frank Lucas Family, and called the "Country Boys', was operating in and about the City of Newark from 1968 until the day of the raid, May 24, 1975. The arrests and convictions were without parallel in the history of narcotic enforcement in this county and are directly attributable to the work of three Newark Detectives, Alvin Spearman, Edward Jones, and Baldesario Abruzzo. During the course of the trial, said Detectives proved invaluable..."

"Frank Lucas, who officials charge is the boss of a vast heroine empire that stretches from the jungles of Thailand to the streets of Harlem, has been indicted by an Essex County grand jury along with 33 other persons, including his parents and four brothers, it was disclosed yesterday...The indictments stemmed from a three-month undercover investigation by Newark Detectives, Alvin Spearman, Badesario Abruzzo and Edward Jones, Roberts said." –Brian Smith, NY Daily News, July 3, 1975.

"3 ex-New Jersey Cops Topple Drug Empire" –by Joy McIntyre, NY Daily News, Nov. 7, 1976

The information gathered from those arrests helped to bring Frank Lucas to justice, putting an end to his drug-reigning empire. Ritchie Roberts, with the continued assistance from the 3 detectives (along with others), was able to successfully prosecute Frank Lucas who was given 70 years for his crimes. That much credit he gets, but
Ritchie Roberts later got Lucas' term drastically reduced in exchange for information Lucas provided against other criminals (not the movie's version either). Roberts and Lucas became such good friends that Ritchie Roberts became God-Father to Lucas' son.

The entire premise of the movie "American Gangster" revolves around the fabricated character of Richie Roberts the detective and the character-contrasts and conflicts between two men, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) and Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), but in truth, Richie Roberts did not play a part in the real-life drama investigation that collapsed the Drug Kingpin's empire. It was the hard work of three former New Jersey detectives, and whatever truths are introduced after that get lost in the fact that the movie's utter foundation has been irreparably broken.

Read:
Based on a true story--Naples Daily News
By Jonathan Foerster
Friday, November 2, 2007
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/nov/02/based_true_story/?print

The cops were way too cliche in this movie...but other than that it was a pretty decent movie

I was surprised how the movie glorifies the accomplishments of Washington's character. He's a drug dealer that destroys his entire neighborhood, but we're somehow supposed to be inspired by his industrious spirit.