Nelson Johnson - Boardwalk Empire - The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

Once the delegates were settled in their rooms, the first order of business was a lavish party hosted by Nucky. There was liquor, food, and women in abundance. For those delegates who had brought their wives or girlfriends, Nucky had presents of fur capes. The party lasted a full day before they got down to serious business. After breakfast in their rooms, the delegates wandered out onto the Boardwalk where they were taken for a ride in rollingchairs. At the undeveloped end of the Boardwalk, the mobsters abandoned their rollingchairs and headed for the beach. Once they reached the sand, they took off their shoes and socks, rolled their pant legs to their knees, and strolled along the water’s edge discussing their business in complete privacy.

All of the decisions involved in the birth of a national network of crime organizations, operating jointly with decisions made by equals at the top, were made out in the open on the sand during those daily walks along the beach. The main topics of the convention were the need to halt senseless warring of one family with another, nonviolent alliances against over-zealous police and their informers, and peaceful cooperation among gangs in the same business in order to minimize competition and maximize profits. The significance of this convention was later detailed by Al Capone:I told them there was business enough to make us all rich and it was time to stop all the killings and look on our business as other men look on theirs, as something to work at and forget when we go home at night. It wasn’t an easy matter for men who had been fighting for years to agree on a peaceful business program. But we finally decided to forget the past and begin all over again—and we drew up a written agreement and each man signed on the dotted line.

Atlantic City was the birthplace of the first nationwide crime syndicate, and Nucky Johnson was the proud host.

Not all of Nucky’s encounters with the mob were as cordial as his relationship with Lucky Luciano. One winter evening in 1932 Nucky was “doing the town” in Manhattan. He was giving one of his usual princely parties in a speakeasy with a showgirl for every one of his guests. Flanked by beautiful women, glutted on rich food, and submerged in champagne, Nucky was having one of the many times of his life when a stranger entered the room and asked to speak with him in private. Nucky thought it was just another person seeking a favor and agreed to step into the next room. The stranger was Tony “The Stinger” Cugino, a hit man from South Philadelphia. The next thing Nucky knew there was a gun in his ribs and he was being whisked away to a dingy tenement in Brooklyn. His lieutenants were notified that he was being held for ransom. Nig Rosen initiated negotiations with Cugino and a ransom of $100,000 was raised and paid within several days, with Nucky released unharmed. There were those who believed Cugino was hired by Rosen so he could pay a phony ransom and win Nucky’s gratitude. Regardless of the true reason behind the kidnapping, Nucky rewarded Rosen by giving him a portion of the Atlantic City numbers operation and granted him permission to operate a gambling casino on Iowa Avenue.

Nucky’s career as a racketeer and politician sheds light on the complexity of his personality and the town he ruled. Conceived and created as a resort, with the sole purpose of dispensing pleasure, Atlantic City and its residents had no qualms about “ripping off” an out-of-towner. The trick was to keep the visitor smiling as he parted with his money. Johnson was the master of this scheme and local residents loved and admired him. Nucky and his cronies were the idealization of what the resort was all about. During his reign, local racketeers attained a status and prestige they could never find in another city. The easy money from corruption created a perverse sense of community morality. Speakeasy owners, gambling room operators, numbers writers, pimps, whores, policemen on the take, and corrupt politicians who elsewhere would be viewed as lowlifes and crooks were respected members of the community. The more successful ones were heroes and role models. This was the foundation of Nucky’s empire: Atlantic City was corrupt to its core.

Photographs from the set of the HBO® Original Series, Boardwalk Empire

Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson, based on the real-life Enoch “Nucky” Johnson

Paz de la Huerta as Lucy Danziger, Nucky's sometime girlfriend

Michael Pitt as Nucky's protégé Jimmy Darmody

Stephen Graham as the young Al Capone

Steve Buscemi as Nucky

Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Schroeder, a local woman whom Nucky befriends

Michael K. Williams as Chalky White, the self-styled mayor of Atlantic City's African-American community

Michael Stuhlbarg as Arnold Rothstein

Vincent Piazza as Lucky Luciano

Gretchen Mol as Gillian, a showgirl who is a longtime acquaintance of Nucky's

Anthony Laciura as Nucky's valet Eddie Kessler

Steve Buscemi as Nucky

Shea Whigham as Nucky's brother Sheriff Eli Thompson (L) with Steve Buscemi as Nucky and Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody

Stephen Graham as Al Capone

Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Schroeder

Aleksa Palladino as Angela Darmody