Melvin Williams (actor)
| Melvin Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 14, 1941 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | December 3, 2015 (aged 73) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Occupation | Criminal, actor |
| Years active | 1960s–1980s (drug trafficking) 2004–2015 (acting) |
Melvin Douglas "Little Melvin" Williams (December 14, 1941 – December 3, 2015) was an American actor and criminal. He was known for trafficking heroin in his native Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1970s and 1980s. He appeared as an actor in the HBO series The Wire, which explores many Baltimore-related subjects, including narcotics trafficking, and served as an inspiration for the character of Avon Barksdale.
Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His father worked as a cab driver, while his mother worked as a nurse's assistant. In the 1960s, Williams was a well known gambler and pool player in Baltimore. He gained fame in Baltimore for his role in quelling rioting in the city in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in early April 1968. By that time, Williams already had an extensive criminal record and was involved in heroin and cocaine trafficking.
Williams was heavily involved with drug trafficking throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. In the FX documentary Tapping the Wire about the HBO show The Wire, Williams volunteers the information that he made at least "a couple hundred million [dollars]" through heroin trafficking. During that time, Williams was periodically arrested on minor charges culminating in federal agents, along with the Baltimore Police Department, launching an investigation into his activities in the early 1980s. One of the Baltimore Police Department investigators working on the case was Ed Burns.
On December 6, 1984, Williams was arrested on cocaine trafficking charges. On February 7, 1985, he was convicted and sentenced to 34 years in prison. He served part of his sentence in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. In May 1987, the Internal Revenue Service assessed taxes in the amount of $425,055 and seized the Williams home. While still in prison, his life story was featured in a series of articles written by future The Wire creator David Simon. "Easy Money: Anatomy of a Drug Empire", a series of five articles, was published in the Baltimore Sun in 1987. Williams was released on parole in 1996.
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