# VIDEO: Frank Matthews Final.mov

## REWRITTEN: 2026-05-12 14:30:22

## SCRIPT 456 OF 686

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Yo what's good to the evil streets family y'all know the deal we back with another episode big shout to all my members and subscribers for coming through on the daily real talk y'all the reason this channel growing and popping anybody trying to promote their music brand or business hit me at evil streets media at gmail.com we can work something out appreciate all the cash app donations too and anybody looking to support can send it to evil streets TV on cash app everything goes right back into the channel aight let's dive into this gangster shit Frank Larry Matthews came into existence February 13th 1944 right there in Durham North Carolina a rough segregated city sitting dead in the middle of tobacco country life came at him hard early on when his moms died in 48 leaving four year old Frank under the care of his aunt Marcella Steel she brought him in like her own blood raising him right alongside her family they called his section of Durham Morehead City and little Frank grew up near Morehead Baptist Church going to East End Elementary his whole bloodline was rooted in Durham and when he was coming up they called him Pee Wee cause he was little and skinny but that wasn't gonna last forever physically he'd fill out solid and mentally he was already a giant being built his aunt was wifed up to a cop on the Durham City police force but even being raised in the same crib as law enforcement Frank had his own vision school wasn't for him and by junior high he already knew the classroom wasn't where his future sat he dipped out after just one year locked in on a different type of hustle one of his biggest influences came from Clyde McFadden a rock and roll singer from the same hood Clyde bounced from Durham to New York and came back stunting fresh fits a brand new Cadillac and a bankroll thick enough to make heads turn that left an impression on Frank if Clyde could blow up why couldn't he by seventh grade before he even officially dropped out Frank had his mind on bigger plays he wrote an essay breaking down his whole game plan he was gonna get rich and retire in South America he wasn't just talking either before he could make it worldwide he had to make his name in the streets first even as a shorty Pee Wee had that leadership energy he could organize he could command and he had a magnetism that made people follow him he put together a crew pulling in his cousins and all the neighborhood youngins getting into whatever trouble they could his first real play the farmers market across from the ballpark him and his team had their sights on it already scheming but before that at just 14 he started out by sending his little homies kids as young as eight and nine on missions to raid chicken coops it was all games until one of the local white farmers figured out who was orchestrating it thinking he could scare young Frank straight the farmer approached him but Frank wasn't the type to back down not even then he grabbed a brick and cracked that old man's skull wide open that move got him jammed up in October 1960 charged with stealing chickens and assaulting the owner even as a kid Frank Matthews wasn't one to be tested the system tried to slow him down sending him off to the Raleigh State Reformatory for boys but when he got released he wasn't staying around at 17 he left the country life behind and headed to the city but he never forgot where he came from all those homeboys he came up with they'd be the first ones he put on when he built his empire Frank touched down in Philly first got himself a position as a numbers writer peeped the game and realized that if he got a piece of a policy bank he could be clearing six figures a year easy bread his right hand man Thomas Cadillac Tommy Farrington wasn't far behind the two childhood homies held each other down as they moved through the underworld navigating the grimy streets of the city of brotherly love but Frank wasn't just moving he was networking he locked in with some major Philly players real deal gangsters affiliated with the Philly Black Mafia John Pops Darby Tyrone Fat Ty Palmer and Major Coxson he was laying the foundation for something bigger but in 63 the law came knocking Frank caught some charges and though they didn't stick thanks to his new connects he knew it was time to slide next stop the big apple he landed in Bedstuy Brooklyn and set up shop as a barber just like he did in Philly it wasn't just a hustle it was the perfect front cutting heads kept his ears to the streets let him make moves and put him in position to expand his operation before long the barber shop on Tompkins Ave became more than just a place for fades it was his headquarters Frank leveled up stepping into a new role as a collector and enforcer and trust Pee Wee wasn't little no more he had hands like hammers and a reputation that traveled fast the Brooklyn underworld took notice anytime somebody needed a debt collected Frank got the call and he always got his cut that country boy from North Carolina was evolving into a stone cold gangster with no hesitation about putting in work when necessary for Frank it was all about the bag and the power that came with it Frank came up from North Carolina he was in the numbers game set up by an old school hustler they called Fats by 65 he was an enforcer type cat running up on Tompkins he could be a mean motherfucker when he wanted cats didn't know how to take him but they respected him he muscled his way in and started backing the ticket at five foot nine and 180 pounds Frank was like a young Mike Tyson compact strong and unpredictable he put his gorilla down in Brooklyn and people felt it they called him the book in the streets Fats said but this wasn't just any numbers hustle the Italian mob had a chokehold on the game in Bedstuy and Frank found himself working under them he did numbers for us an old school Italian mobster recalled tough kid charismatic he got his people to do things his way which really was our way he kept the black guys in Brooklyn in check kind of like Bumpy did in Harlem the mob thought they had a soldier but Frank was playing chess not checkers he wasn't built to be nobody's pawn he was a hustler destined to be king by 66 Frank was well established so much so that the boys in blue started paying attention he got knocked but once again money made the problems disappear at 22 Frank had already learned the game when you got enough bread the rules don't apply the same he started making power moves carving out his own slice of Brooklyn while plotting something way bigger Frank wasn't thinking small time he had a vision in full color while everybody else was still stuck in black and white he wasn't just trying to run a block he was mapping out a nationwide pipeline to flood the ghettos with dope you could always tell Frank was scheming Fats said he wasn't no surface type nigga he was deep and he had the right people in place with his connection in Philly solidified Cadillac Tommy became his top man out there linking heavy with the Black Mafia that only meant one thing it was time to step into the heroin game but in 67 if you wanted to move weight you had to go through the mob that's just how it worked so Frank played the game approached some connected Italians in New York for product and backing Frank was well respected in Brooklyn an OG from Bedstuy recalled he treated people fair he was tough but he ain't do no wild shit he was smart but the mob they weren't sure what to make of him they were used to keeping black hustlers under their thumb using them when it suited them but Frank was different he wasn't built to take orders he had his own plan and when it was all said and done he wasn't just gonna change the game he was gonna own it long before LeBron Frank was the chosen one the Michael Jordan of the dope game a mastermind with the muscle to back it up he wasn't afraid to shake the table and make the call when it was time and when he did the streets listened young Frank managed to get a sit down with the mob Luis Cirillo a known mob heroin plug peeped Frank's potential and decided to put him on game he linked Frank up with some heavy hitters from the Bonanno and Gambino families Frank knew a bunch of them mobsters Fats says at first he was under them but that ain't last long Frank pitched his way into the dope game but the mob wasn't trying to hear it they shut him down but Frank he wasn't the type to take no for an answer by 67 he said fuck the mob and started making his own way since Cirillo and his people weren't trying to plug him in Frank went hunting for his own connects the mob was losing its grip on black neighborhoods in NYC and Brooklyn's underworld was shifting the same way the Italians had locked things down back in the prohibition era black dealers were now carving out their own lanes staking territory and cutting out the middlemen Frank was cut from a different cloth he wasn't just another hustler he was a strategist he had connects in Southeast Asia through his military connections and he knew how to move product through the port of New York by 1968 Frank Matthews wasn't asking for permission no more he was making demands he started flooding the East Coast with heroin pure uncut product that had fiends lined up around the block his operation stretched from Boston to Miami from Newark to Philadelphia the man was moving thousands of kilos a month generating millions in profit every single week Frank wasn't flashy about it neither he kept it low key no Cadillacs or diamond rings for him he invested in real estate he bought apartment buildings legitimate businesses he was building wealth that couldn't be touched by the feds by 1970 Frank Matthews had become the biggest heroin distributor in America the government called him the godfather of Harlem but Frank never stayed in one place long enough to get caught he had safe houses in every major city connections in every police department and money that talked louder than any street reputation ever could his organization was military precision everybody knew their role everybody moved like clockwork and anybody who stepped out of line felt Frank's wrath swift and final but by 1972 the walls were closing in the DEA was watching the FBI was watching local law enforcement was watching everybody was looking for Frank Matthews and they were determined to bring him down they charged him with trafficking over 150 million dollars worth of heroin and on March 25th 1973 Frank Matthews did the unthinkable he disappeared vanished without a trace left his whole empire behind his money his connects his reputation gone just like that some say he went to Canada others swear he went down to South America like he said in that essay as a kid on September 15th 1988 a man matching Frank's description was found in a harbor in Jamaica shot execution style bullet hole in the back of his head but his body was never officially identified and to this day Frank Matthews legacy remains unsolved a ghost story a phantom a nigga who built an empire and walked away from it all when the time came that's real power baby that's real control when you can walk away from millions and disappear into legend the Frank Matthews saga represents the rise and fall of an era the era before the cartels took over before Miami became Murder City before the game changed forever Frank showed that a black man from the segregated South could build something bigger than the Italian mob something bigger than the entire east coast drug trade he proved that with intelligence strategy and balls you could move mountains and change the course of history forever his disappearance was either genius or cowardice depending on who you ask but one thing is certain Frank Larry Matthews changed the game changed the culture changed what it meant to be a boss in America love him or hate him respect him or fear him Frank Matthews will forever be remembered as the king that got away the empire builder who knew when to fold his hand and walk away into the mists of legend a true testament to the power of vision organization and the will to be great no matter the cost that's what's up evil streets family thanks for watching if you got more Frank Matthews stories or any real street history hit me in the comments we'll see y'all on the next one peace