Red Dillard Morrison

By 1979, Morrison was back in jail for the last time, after a girlfriend testified against him and he was convicted of drug charges.

Released in 1974, Morrison moved to Los Angeles and continued his life as a drug dealer even as he approached his 60th birthday. Still, he maintained his support for musicians. Ernie Andrews remembers Morrison sending money to help pay for the funeral of Sonny Payne, a drummer who played with Harry James and Count Basie. "Red sent me $1000," says Andrews. "He was that kind of a guy."

Morrison returned in 1955 with promises of going straight. Paralyzed in both legs due to prison fight in 1953, it was obvious right away that he didn't lose a step. When two mafiosos showed up at his house with a brand-new red Cadillac El Dorado for him–a token of gratitude for not "snitching" on them in prison, he respectfully declined. He eyed the real estate business and considered opening a dry cleaning shop. But months after his return, another event shook him from his path: the sudden death of his wife at age 33 of an allergic reaction to a penicillin injection.

On May 4, 1950, Morrison was arrested by federal officers along with Robert "Gator" Lee and a white woman on charges of possession and sale of narcotics. Morrison was sentenced to five years in prison. The arrests came after Morrison allegedly delivered a half ounce package of heroin to Lee. Morrison and Lee both pleaded not guilty in Federal Court to three counts of "unlawful sale of heroin" and was said to be the Harlem contact source for heroin which was being smuggled into the United States from Turkey. At the time Garland H. Williams, district supervisor of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics, said "they are probably the most notorious narcotics dealers in this part of the United States. They have supplied a large percentage of dope distributed from Boston to Chicago." The amount of narcotics found in possession was relatively small. "However," he charged that "the men have been selling huge amounts for a long time". Bail was made at $10,000.

On April 10, 1949 Morrison was arrested after he allegedly fired four shots through the door and window of Sheps Bar and Grill, 303 W. 146th St. It has never been established at whom he was shooting.

"Big Joe" ruled varied crime "Kingdoms" with an iron hand, yet succeeded by remaining an anonymity to all but his "lieutenants" and a few select friends. He ran an efficient enterprise, with every man and woman trained and chosen to do a particular job. Eventually when Morrison was asked to become the right-hand man for Big Joe, he agreed. Due to his violent ways, Morrison was arrested for the first time and on April 29, 1940; he appeared in Special Sessions on the charge of 3rd degree assault, but the maimed, bandaged man who had filed the charges refused to testify. The court had no choice but to discharge Morrison on his own recognizance. The beaten man's reluctance to testify was the first indication of the "reign of terror' which was to follow.

On May 4, 1940, in Babylon, Long Island, Morrison received a suspended sentence on a 3rd degree assault charge. On June 4, 1940, in a Manhattan court, Morrison again drew a suspended sentence on a 3rd degree assault charge.

In the mid-1940s, Morrison split with Big Joe and began buying heroin wholesale from Italian mobster Lucky Luciano, who imported it from Turkey via Sicily. Morrison then handed off the product to drug runners who resold it in points further south and west of New York. Morrison also worked as a pimp and earned a reputation as both a dashing ladies' man and a philanderer. Then for three years he had no problems with the law. He learned to intimidate victims so well that many of the assaults credited to him never reached the police. He learned a lot of other things too, as the record will show.

"Red Gets Bail" was an expected headline in the 1940s & 1950s, the release of the dangerous redhead would regularly electrify Harlem. This pattern of arrests and subsequent dismissals is typical of the early days of any prominent mobster. Few Negroes, however, ever achieved the "distinction" of being identified in that class. At all times Morrison's hands were clean, and had it not been for his code of violence, he would have remained as unobtrusive as the many who have grown fat and respectable from the profits of the lucrative dope trade. His exploits put him in the spotlight, in the eyes of the people, and because of this his most secret operations became public property also.

After deciding menial labor was not for him, Morrison quickly earned underworld credibility by robbing craps players and numbers runners in Harlem, growing into a bona fide gangster in the late 1930s. Before long, Morrison became a major force within the Harlem criminal world. His early criminal enterprises showed no shortage of ambition: disappointed with the take of one heist at Woolworth's, he immediately robbed a check-cashing shop. Even more than his appetite for illegal activity, it was Morrison's toughness that would become the stuff of legend. In one case, he was ambushed by a pair of assailants who shot him in the leg, but he turned around and chased the gunmen all the way back to their getaway car. Although he was always conservatively dressed, unobtrusive, and soft-spoken, Red had gained a fabled reputation of a man "not to be messed with."

Dillard Morrison Sr. (1919–1989) — known as "Red" Dillard — was an American mob boss and enforcer in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Once called the "most dangerous man in the country" by federal law enforcement agents, Morrison's underworld résumé includes running a multimillion-dollar heroin ring, enforcing, pimping, extortion, and engaging in shootouts with rivals like Bumpy Johnson. A Robin Hood like figure in the Harlem community, Morrison's exploits with crime, women, and music are legendary. Though he would spend decades behind bars over the course of his life, Morrison was never convicted of murder.

Morrison was born in Alabama in 1919. He gained notoriety early for the use of violence while beating up bigger bullies of friends as a school child. He picked up his nickname when he accidentally turned his hair red while trying to straighten it. Migrated to New York by way of South Carolina as a teen in 1937, to live with mother who had come years before.