He was once the latest in a long line of conflicted Harlem kingpins, uplifting the community on one side of the street and running a lucrative drug enterprise on the other.
He even one-upped the legendary Bumpy Johnson, the iconic “Godfather of Harlem.” While Johnson earned his community stripes giving away free turkeys in the neighborhood, gangster Guy Fisher did him one better — he bought and renovated the famed Apollo Theater in 1977 and rescued it from the junk heap.
Fisher, 74, did something else most crime lords don’t do. He served his time, got out of jail and is enjoying life as a productive senior citizen.
“I told myself from the beginning that I was never going to spend the rest of my life in a prison cell,” Fisher said after more than six months of freedom that followed 38 years in jail on racketeering and drug conspiracy charges. “And now I’m no longer in a prison cell.”
Thanks to a compassionate release that factored in his health, his risk of contracting coronavirus and his dedication to rehabilitation, Fisher was released from federal prison in October.
He has spent the months since trying to put his story on film, not the story of the flashy kingpin who once cruised along 7th Ave. in a Rolls Royce convertible, but the story of the convicted criminal who, despite a life sentence, earned a doctorate in sociology while counseling inmates on how to improve their post prison lives.
“From drug lord to doctor, that is an incredible story for our young people to understand. The redemption story is what excites me. We can use his story to teach millions of young people who are so disenfranchised and need inspiration.”
Fisher said he managed to get through the decades in prison without hate in his heart despite being sold out and betrayed by his mentor, Leroy “Nicky” Barnes, a reputed Harlem drug lord who once posed on a 1977 cover of the New York Times magazine under a headline that said, “Mr. Untouchable.”
That proved not to be true, and when federal authorities finally took him down, he sang like he was on stage at the Apollo, ratting out former “Council” crime syndicate members, including Fisher, whom he accused of having an affair with his mistress.
“I never allowed my surroundings to get the best of me,” said Fisher, who was convicted in 1984. “I didn’t give up. Nick gave up because that’s who he was. He became who he really and truly was, a government informant.”
Barnes died in 2012 after a reduction in his sentence in exchange for cooperation and time in the government’s witness protection program.
“I still never gave up,” Fisher said. “I never even gave that guy Nick a second thought. I didn’t have to sneak out a back door. I paid the price, and I had to pay.”
