Melvin Douglas Williams, the legendary drug kingpin and hustler who inspired the HBO crime series “The Wire,” died at Baltimore’s University of Maryland Medical Center Dec. 3 of cancer. He was 73, and is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Born in 1941, the skilled gambler and pool shark known as “Little Melvin” parlayed his street cunning into a lucrative narcotics empire, and had become such a ghetto legend around his native West Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Avenue neighborhood that the authorities sought his help after the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Released on bail from an early drug arrest in 1967, Williams became a folk hero by using his “street credibility” to calm rioters in the wake of the King assassination in April 1968. A newspaper photo from that era also shows the leather-jacket wearing Williams with the general who deployed National Guard troops helping keep peace.
These random acts of civil benevolence not-with-standing, Williams continued to build a sophisticated dope domain distributing cocaine and heroin throughout the city, by way of a highly-developed network of loyal subordinates who referred to him as “Dad.” Williams returned his affection for their dedication by bestowing the nickname of “Young-uns” upon them. Foremost among this trustworthy cadre, many of whom adopted “Dad’s” customary all black attire, was Lamont “Chin” Farmer.
An innovative lieutenant who parlayed his college business studies into a cohesive criminal conglomerate, Farmer also developed a clever method of communications involving payphones, and the then-novel technology of portable “beepers” or pagers. These initially had been utilized by on-call physicians. In this way, dealers could avoid police wiretaps as they distributed their illicit wares among the addicted clientele at street level.
Accepting the logic learned during his fledgling beginnings as a gambler and street hustler, Williams realized a mathematical certainty that if you lay bets long enough, you’re bound to lose. He was convicted for his nefarious activities. During incarceration, he exhibited the same discipline that enabled him to build his lucrative commercial success prior to going behind bars.
This included a steady routine of a vegetarian diet and exercise which allowed him to remain healthy while in prison. It also gave him the mental fortitude to turn down all law enforcement overtures to reduce his prison sentence. His minions took up this routine as an example of “how to do your time, don’t testify or cooperate with the authorities.”
Upon his return to the streets in 1980, “Little Melvin” kept a low profile although police were not convinced he’d abandoned the mantle of dope czar in the Baltimore drug trade. But the 1983 murder of Dessera C. Press, the paramour of Williams’ lieutenant, Louis “Cookie” Savage, sparked a protracted investigation that eventually unraveled his narcotics empire.
After being dumped for another woman, Press threatened to go to the State’s Attorney (later Mayor) Kurt Schmoke with knowledge of Savage’s unlawful pursuits. This resulted in her being shot to death in her Baltimore apartment.
Det. Edward Burns, who along with Baltimore Sun writer David Simon, fictionalized the subsequent events that would comprise the core of the cable hit, “The Wire.”
After two years of combing through tax records, listening to informant-turned-state-witness testimony, and audio/video surveillance, law enforcment were able to uncover enough evidence to find Williams guilty. By Dec. 5, 1984, a consortium of city, state, and federal lawmen had sifted through pager records, underling confessions, and the legitimate business fronts that enabled the kingpin to distance himself from the merchandise upon which he’d built his fortune. Consequently, warrant in hand, the law arrived at the door of Baltimore’s most infamous dealer.
The remainder of the century saw Williams embark on a cycle of conviction, parole, and re-trial. By his final release in 2003, he’d become an urban legend. His exploits were chronicled in the BET documentary series “American Gangster,” and, of course, the fictionalized TV saga “The Wire,” in which he played the part of a neighborhood activist and drug counselor, a function he assumed in the twilight of his life.
