Editing Bumpy Johnson (section)

==Career==
Johnson became an associate and enforcer for [[Numbers game|numbers]] queen [[Stephanie St. Clair|Madame Stephanie St. Clair]].<ref name="crimelibrary">{{cite web|year=2007 |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/5.html |title=Queenie and Bumpy |publisher=crimelibrary |access-date=April 9, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417012731/http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/5.html |archive-date=April 17, 2008 }}</ref> In the 1930s, he quickly climbed the ranks to become her most trusted soldier. St. Clair incited a war with her rival, Jewish mob boss [[Dutch Schultz]], for control of Harlem's rackets. The war resulted in more than 40 murders and several kidnappings and ended with St. Clair's arrest and imprisonment. Johnson, however, struck a deal with the Mafia after Schultz's 1935 murder through which he quickly built up his own organization in Harlem in exchange for favorable business deals.<ref>{{cite web |last=Watson |first=Elwood |date=February 13, 2008 |title=Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson (1906-1968) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/johnson-ellsworth-bumpy-1906-1968/ |access-date=April 8, 2020 |website=[[Blackpast.org]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1952, Johnson's activities were reported in the celebrity people section of ''[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |year=1952 |title=People |magazine=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]]}}</ref> That same year, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a drug conspiracy conviction related to [[heroin]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Fascinating Story Of Mob Boss Bumpy Johnson |url=https://www.casino.org/blog/bumpy-johnson/ |website=Casino.org |date=May 8, 2022 |access-date=September 26, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/5679371/godfather-of-harlem-true-story/ |title=The True Story Behind Godfather of Harlem |magazine=Time |date=September 26, 2019}}</ref> Two years later, ''Jet'' reported in its crime section that Johnson began his sentence after losing an [[appeal]].<ref>{{cite magazine |date=January 7, 1954|title=Crime |magazine=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]] |volume=5 |issn=0021-5996|issue=9 |page=49|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=378DAAAAMBAJ&q=Ellsworth+Johnson+%22bumpy%22&pg=PA49 |access-date= March 27, 2011 }}</ref> He served the majority of that sentence at [[Alcatraz Prison]] in [[San Francisco Bay, California]] as inmate No. 1117, and was released in 1963 on parole.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/pacific/archives/san-francisco/finding-aids/alcatraz-numeric.html#d] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213131055/http://www.archives.gov/pacific/archives/san-francisco/finding-aids/alcatraz-numeric.html#d|date=December 13, 2010}}</ref>

Johnson was arrested more than 40 times and served two prison terms for narcotics-related charges. In December 1965, Johnson staged a [[sit-down strike]] in a police station by refusing to leave as a protest against continued police surveillance of black neighborhoods. He was charged with "refusal to leave a police station" but was [[acquittal|acquitted]] by a judge.<ref name="book_1980">{{Cite book | last = John Howard Johnson| title = Fact Not fiction in Harlem|year= 1980 | publisher = Northern Type Printing, Inc | asin= B00072X07G |page= 119}}'''p.103+'''</ref>