Frank Matthews

In 1973, one of America's most powerful drug traffickers disappeared. More than fifty years later, the mystery remains.

Frank Matthews built an extensive heroin and cocaine trafficking network that stretched far beyond New York. His connections reached from Brooklyn to Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, and overseas suppliers. He accumulated a reputation for extraordinary wealth, influence, and an ability to operate beyond the reach of his rivals.

Then came the arrest.

In January 1973, federal authorities arrested Matthews in Las Vegas. His bail was initially set at $5 million before being reduced to $325,000. After securing his release, Matthews failed to return to court. His disappearance became one of the most enduring mysteries in American organized crime.

Did Frank Matthews escape with a hidden fortune? Was he murdered by rivals? Or did he disappear into a life that investigators never uncovered?

In Frank Matthews: The Kingpin Who Got Away?, Kermit Cantrell investigates the rise of a notorious American kingpin and the extraordinary questions surrounding his disappearance.

Drawing on federal appellate decisions, historical government reports, court filings, contemporary journalism, and documented testimony, this investigative true-crime account examines:

• The rise of Frank Matthews: From his early life in Durham, North Carolina, to the narcotics networks operating through New York and beyond.
• The business behind the legend: The suppliers, distributors, financial arrangements, surveillance operations, and investigations that exposed his organization.
• The criminal underworld of the 1970s: The documented transactions and overlapping circles involving figures such as Frank Lucas, alongside the wider era of Nicky Barnes.
• The arrest and disappearance: The Las Vegas arrest, extraordinary bail negotiations, missed court appearance, and decades of unanswered questions.
• The evidence behind the theories: What court records and government documents actually reveal-and what remains speculation.
• The people left behind: The associates, witnesses, defendants, and communities whose histories continued after Matthews vanished.