HOODLUM DVD MOVIE MIX: 1920-1939 COMING SOON ON HD DVD@nuedutainment.comyr.com Very little is known about organized black gangs that operated in Harlem, New York, during the Prohibition and Depression years. Almost all organized crime in Harlem during that time was run by Italian, Jewish, and Irish gangsters. A few loosely run black crime factions did exist and primarily concentrated on policy and lottery gambling, prostitution and drugs.william_bojangles_robinson_150 Stephanie St. Clair was a black French woman from Martinique, who immigrated to America in 1912 via Marseilles, France. In 1922, St. Clair took $10000 of her own money and opened up a numbers bank in Harlem. She became known as Queenie, throughout Manhattan, but the people of Harlem referred to her respectfully as Madame St. Clair. Queenie was a tall, abrasive and tough woman, with a seldom-seen gentle side, who ran the famous New York extortion gang known as The Forty Thieves. The Forty Thieves had a reputation of being so tough that even the white gangsters would not interfere with their illegal operations, or attempt to take over their turf. The gang had been around since the 19th Century and was predominantly white. Queenies infiltrating such an established, well-known gang gives credit to her persuasive powers and leadership abilities. It did not take long for her to spin off from the gang and strike out on her own. She utilized her experience and talents to set up operations as a policy banker and ...