In his own words, real life American Gangster Frank Lucas recounts his life as the former heroin dealer and organized crime boss who ran Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Determined to break the Italian mafia’s monopoly over drug smuggling in New York, Frank cut out middlemen and began smuggling heroin into the United States directly from his source in Vietnam using the coffins of dead American soldiers. Making $1 million per day from his "Blue Magic", the purest heroin on the street, Frank Lucas became one of the most powerful crime lords of his time, while rubbing shoulders with the elite in entertainment, politics, and crime. This powerful memoir reveals what really happened to the man whose rise and fall was dramatized in the 2007 feature film American Gangster, exposing a startling look at the world of organized crime.

Frank Lucas is a former heroin dealer and organized crime boss who operated in Harlem during the 1960s and 1970s whose career was the focus of the 2007 film American Gangster.

Aliya S. King was co-author of the New York Times best-seller Keep the Faith. She has held editorial positions with Billboard and The Source. Her articles have appeared in such magazines as Essence, Ms., Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Uptown, CMJ: New Music Monthly, Teen People, Black Enterprise, and many others. She is currently a senior writer for Giant magazine and a contributing editor for Upscale magazine.