Enoch L. Johnson

Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson (January 20, 1883 - December 9, 1968) was an American politician from the Republican Party who served as an Atlantic City political boss, sheriff of Atlantic County, businessman, and crime boss who was the leader of the political machine that controlled Atlantic City and the Atlantic County government from the 1910s until his conviction and imprisonment in 1941. His rule encompassed the Roaring Twenties when Atlantic City was at the height of its popularity as a refuge from Prohibition. In addition to bootlegging, the criminal aspect of his organization was also involved in gambling and prostitution. The HBO series Boardwalk Empire was loosely based on Johnson, portrayed by Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson.

Early life Enoch Lewis Johnson was born on January 20, 1883, in Galloway Township, New Jersey, to Smith E. and Virginia (Higbee) Johnson, who were Protestants and members of two of Atlantic County's oldest families. His nickname "Nucky" was derived from his given name Enoch. Along with Atlantic County Clerk Lewis P. Scott (1854-1907) and Congressman John J. Gardner, the elder Johnson was a member of the three-man group dominating the governments of Atlantic City and Atlantic County prior to the rise to power of Louis Kuehnle. In 1905, Nucky Johnson became his father's undersheriff in Mays Landing. In 1908, he was elected Sheriff of Atlantic County when his father's term expired, a position he held until ousted by a court order in 1911.

Rise to power In 1909, Johnson was appointed to the politically important position of Atlantic County Republican Executive committee secretary.

Atlantic City was a tourist destination, and city leaders knew that its success as a resort depended on providing visitors with what they wanted. What many tourists wanted was the opportunity to drink, gamble, and visit prostitutes. City leaders realized that permitting a vice industry would give the city an edge over its competitors. Therefore, the organization inherited by Johnson permitted the service of alcohol on Sundays (which at the time was prohibited by New Jersey law), gambling, and prostitution, in exchange for the payment of protection money by vice industry operators to the organization. He was known as both "the Czar of the Ritz" and "the Prisoner of the Ritz". A structure, it was a state-of-the-art convention building and contained what was then the largest room in history with an unobstructed view.

Johnson had a Russian personal assistant and valet, Louis Kessel.

Johnson's top enforcer and powerful Fourth Ward boss was former Ritz-Carlton Hotel bellhop Jimmy Boyd. Johnson met Boyd around the time that he and Charlie Luciano were forming the Big Seven. When they met, Boyd and Johnson took an instant liking to each other, and Johnson began grooming him to become the boss of his organization.

Tax evasion charges Nucky Johnson's name was mentioned frequently in a series of articles about vice in Atlantic City published in 1930 by William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal. Ten days later, on August 11, 1941, Johnson entered Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.

Parole and prison release Johnson was paroled on August 15, 1945, after four years in prison, and took a pauper's oath to avoid paying the $20,000 fine . Show creator Terence Winter elected to portray a fictionalized version of Johnson, to give the writers creative license with history, and to maintain suspense. One great difference between the real Johnson and the fictional Thompson is that the real Johnson is not known to have killed anyone personally, as the fictional Thompson does; there is also no evidence that Johnson ever ordered someone to be killed. Also, Thompson is portrayed as running his distillery for bootlegging and competing directly with real-life gangsters for distribution on the East Coast, whereas the real Johnson took a cut of all illegal alcohol sold in Atlantic City but was never known to engage in competition or turf wars. He has been described as running his empire "with a velvet hammer". Johnson did not remarry until 1941, long after his wife's death in 1912; in the show, Thompson remarries in 1921. Thompson is Irish Catholic, while Johnson was a Methodist whose parents were from two of Atlantic County's oldest families.

The HBO television series is based on a chapter of the 2002 book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, by Nelson Johnson (no relation).

In Louis Malle's 1980 film Atlantic City, aging gangster Lou (Burt Lancaster) mentions an incident involving Enoch L. Johnson.