Felix Wayne Mitchell Jr. (August 23, 1954 – August 21, 1986) was a

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and leader of the "69 Mob" criminal organization, which operated throughout California and into the Midwest. He was known as "Felix the Cat" after the cartoon character.

History

Mitchell was born in Oakland and lived in the 69th Avenue San Antonio Village

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

s. After dropping out of high school, Mitchell created a criminal organization called "My Other Brother", or "6-9 Mob" a.k.a. "MOB". Connected with L.A. kingpin Tootie Reese, he made business contacts in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. For more than a decade, Mitchell battled competition from Mickey Moore's crime family and the Funktown USA gang to gain total control of the heroin market. Before 1984–1985 and the widespread practice of free-basing cocaine, heroin use was more common. It is estimated that Mitchell brought in as much as $5 million annually. Mitchell was targeted by local and federal law enforcement. He was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary where he was fatally stabbed on August 21, 1986, two days before his 32nd birthday, a little more than a year later.

Funeral and notoriety

Mitchell's funeral gained national attention as an example of the impact drugs and drug-culture was having on the country's youth. Thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects as the funeral procession went through Mitchell's old Oakland neighborhood. His body was carried through crowded streets by a horse-drawn carriage trailed by 14 Rolls-Royce limousines and was attended by

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

co-founder

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadershi ...

. According to an interview with Bay Area radio personality Jimmy Guy: "I remember his funeral, it was like

Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

had died and that coverage went out all over the country. I didn't want my city to just be known for honoring a drug lord." The service received news coverage internationally. Onlookers lined the streets to watch the procession. The procession began at Mitchell's former residence, the San Antonio Villas and ended at the Star Bethel Baptist Church at San Pablo and Stanford Avenues in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

. Many civic leaders and citizens were appalled that the services were allowed to take place at all. Proper permits for the event had been filed. In 1987, Mitchell's conviction was overturned because he had died before an appeal could be heard. Criminologists named an effect after him known as the "Felix Mitchell Paradox"—whereby after a major successful police operation (like the arrest of Mitchell) crime and violence both went up instead of down as one might expect. It is thought that Felix had such monopoly power in parts of Oakland that he controlled pricing and policed the violence of smaller gangs. When he was arrested it left a power vacuum and the smaller gangs started both price wars and shooting wars to fill the void.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Felix 1954 births 1986 deaths People from Oakland, California African-American gangsters American gangsters American drug traffickers American crime bosses Murdered African-American people Murdered American gangsters American people who died in prison custody Prisoners murdered in custody Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention People murdered in Kansas Deaths by stabbing in Kansas American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government Criminals of the San Francisco Bay Area African-American history in Oakland, California 20th-century African-American people