Felix Wayne Mitchell Jr. (August 23, 1954 – August 21, 1986) was a
drug lord 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
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, i ...
.
History
Mitchell was born in Oakland and lived in the 69th Avenue San Antonio Village
housing projects. 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,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
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 t ...
.
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
The United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth (USP Leavenworth) is a medium security U.S. penitentiary with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in northeast Kansas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the Unite ...
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 co-founder
Huey P. Newton. 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. 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