American Gangster

"At its zenith, the Nicky Barnes crime collective, known as the Council, had an annual income of $72 million, according to the film. Barnes, in the film, fingers the bullet on the desk in front of him as he opines on how survival in his former world depended on a willingness to take lives. 'Anyone who is in power who is not willing to terminate, will be terminated,' he said."

Robert W. Welkos in the Los Angeles Times delivers a report on Mr. Untouchable, the new documentary about 1970s New York drug lord Nicky Barnes.

Mark Jacobson in New York moderates a discussion between Barnes and Frank Lucas, whose drug-dealing career is depicted in the new movie American Gangster, and a 2000 New York article by Jacobson.