Excerpts from Mayme's book

Mayme Hatcher was 34 when she married Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson in 1948. Four years later she was awakened from her sleep and told that her husband had been shot by a street tough named Fred "Hawk" Hawkins.

Here, in an excerpt from her upcoming book (written with Karen E. Quinones Miller), "Harlem Godfather: The Rap on My Husband, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson," Mayme Johnson describes what happened that fateful night at New York's Sydenham Hospital. Bumpy, who mentored Frank Lucas, portrayed by Denzel Washington in "American Gangster," survived the shooting. In 1954, Johnson was sentenced to 15 years on a drug conspiracy charge. Paroled in 1963, he died of a heart attack while dining at Wells Restaurant in Harlem, surrounded by his childhood friends, Junie Byrd, Nat Pettigrew and Finley Hoskins.

According to Mayme Johnson, who now lives in a Philadephia senior facility, Lucas was not at Wells that night, did not attend Bumpy's funeral and was not invited to his wake.

We pulled up in front of the hospital and I believe I actually jumped out the car before Vince even had a chance to put it in park. As I ran up the steps I heard someone call out, "Mayme! Let him know I'm here but I can't come in." I looked around and saw George Iser peeking out from the bushes. "There's cops in there and I still got warrants on me," he explained, "But I just wanna make sure Bumpy's okay. Let him know I'm out here."

The operation took six hours, and when it was over the doctor told me that had the bullet been one one-tenth of an inch to the left it would have pierced his heart, adding, "to be honest, we've done all we can, but it'll still be touch and go for the next few days. I suggest that you pray for your husband's survival."

I immediately sunk to my knees there in the hospital waiting room. "Dear Lord," I said. "I know that my husband hasn't always been the most upright citizen, but he's always been an upright man. And I love him very much, Dear Lord. Please don't take Bumpy away from me."

I stayed on my knees for another 15 minutes sending up prayer after prayer. When I got up and turned to face Hoss Steele, Nat Pettigrew, Junie Byrd, Vince Nelson, John Levy, Ricky Williams and George Rose, I was surprised and touched to see tears in their eyes - these men were considered to be some of the toughest men in Harlem, and they were on the verge of breaking down with emotion. Suddenly Ricky cleared his throat and spoke. "Look, the doctors done all they could, and Mayme got the God thing in hand, let's go get out in the street and kill that punk Hawk."

Without another word they all walked out the hospital and got in their cars and sped off.

Bumpy's operation was on Monday, but by the time the Amsterdam News hit the stands on Thursday, he was still in a coma. Their headlines screamed "Bumpy Johnson Near Death After Being Shot During After Hours Spot Brawl."

The nuns at the Sisters of Handmaid of Mary lit candles and prayed for his recovery. Harlem celebrities called the hospital every hour to check on his prognosis. Harlem sporting men and women gathered together in their familiar haunts while they awaited word on the condition of their unofficial leader.

Al Capone may have ruled Chicago. Lucky Luciano may have run most of New York. But, when it came to Harlem, the man in charge was my man, Bumpy Johnson.

He was called an old-fashioned gentleman. He was called a pimp. A philanthropist and a thief. A scholar and a thug. A man who admonished children to stay in school, and a man who District Attorney William O'Brien once said was the most dangerous man in New York.

Bumpy was a man whose contradictions are still the root of many an argument in Harlem. But there is one thing on which everybody could agree - in his lifetime, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson ran Harlem.

The police knew it - they came to him to negotiate peace between young street gangs. The politicians knew it - they counted on him to deliver votes on Election Day. Even the white mobsters knew it, although they had to find out the hard way. When Dutch Schultz decided to move on the Harlem numbers racket, Bumpy, only 25 at the time, sprang into action. With only a handful of loyal men behind him, Bumpy waged a successful guerrilla war, forcing the white mobsters to finally come to terms with "that crazy Negro." Black Harlem only recognized one crime boss, and that was Bumpy Johnson.

Yes, Bumpy may have been a criminal, but he was a criminal with a social conscience. In this community that felt exploited and abused by both the government and the white criminal element, Bumpy was an underworld leader who took from the people, but at least gave something back.

Me? I don't know. I knew who and what Bumpy was when I met him, and I never did intend to fall in love with him, but I did. And I fell hard. *

From "Harlem Godfather: The Rap on My Husband, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson," set for release by Oshun Publishing in February. To read the first chapter, log onto www.harlemgodfather.com.