Now that Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist has officially kicked off its run, the limited series is managing to build quite the fanbase. The WTW team has even deemed the overall show a hit, which you can read why in our official Fight Night review.
Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist dramatizes the real-life story of one of the most bizarre robberies in Atlanta history. The year was 1970, and Muhammad Ali (Dexter Darden) was preparing for his comeback fight against Jerry Quarry. As Ali was getting ready for the fight that could see him reclaim his title, a man by the name of Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (Kevin Hart) was planning an afterparty on behalf of Black mafia kingpin, Frank Moten (Samuel L. Jackson).
Chicken Man thought if he could prove himself to Frank, he’d rise in the ranks in the criminal world. Unfortunately for Chicken Man, things went awry on the night of the party when a group of armed gunmen interrupted and robbed the party guests, including Moten and the top men within the “Black Mafia” network.
Given the dangerous men who were victimized, Atlanta became a hotbed of violence as Moten and his associates worked to find out who robbed them and look for Chicken Man, who they suspected was the ringleader behind such a brazen move. But he wasn’t, which means he spent a lot of time hiding and trying to prove his innocence. Thankfully for him, he found an unlikely ally in Detective J.D. Hudson (Don Cheadle).
With all that being said, and knowing the series is based on true events, we opted to take a closer look at the real Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams in an attempt to see what the man behind the character was really like. So is Hart’s portrayal of him spot on, or is there more fiction than fact onscreen? Here’s what we found out.
Who was Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams?
According to a 2004 Creative Loafing story, back in 1949, J.D. Hudson was a new cop, arresting a known street hustler at the time. The arrest went anything but smoothly and eventually led to a minor scandal for Hudson. Williams saw the scuffle that occurred between Hudson and the suspect, and Williams wound up serving as a witness when an internal probe was launched. Hudson would go on to be temporarily suspended from the force, but he didn’t hold anything against Williams as he was just a teen at the time.
In the years that followed, Williams became known as a bit of a street hustler himself in Atlanta, both ambitious and friendly. He was a “bet pick-up man” for an illegal lottery and a bookie for a guy named Short Papa.
As far as the nickname Chicken Man, Williams acquired that after buying chicken sandwiches. One day he bought several chicken sandwiches for $0.52 a piece for a group of beautiful ladies he saw standing nearby. He then made a routine of buying these ladies chicken, and when one started calling him “the Chicken Man,” the nickname was born.
Fast forward to the night of the 1970 Ali comeback fight, Hudson spotted Williams in the arena, thinking the hustler could be up to no good, but figured he had other things to be concerned with. If the cop only knew Williams was preparing to host a house party at one of his homes after the fight.
Williams’ girlfriend, Barbara Smith, didn’t attend the fight because she stayed behind at the house to set up. While she was in the kitchen she heard the front door open, and that’s when three men in ski masks walked in armed. From there, they did some setting up of their own, ready to rob party guests as they arrived, which turned out to be somewhere between 80 and 200 people, including men from organized crime.
Since it was his house where the crime took place, Williams became the number one suspect. But in a twist, a famous publication reported he was murdered by contract hitmen days after the robbery, so police didn’t get to really speak with him. As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported though, he wasn’t killed at all but wound up living out his years in Atlanta as a pastor.
In terms of Williams’ guilt or innocence of the robbery, again looking at Creative Loafing, Hudson shared, “I knew [Williams] wasn’t dumb enough to pull a stunt like that. This was a man who ran a million-dollar operation from a pay phone on a street corner. He was smart. He could’ve run IBM or Coke. There’s no way he would’ve risked all that to pay somebody off. This was pulled off by a bunch of young thugs who were trying to knock over a party, and when they got there and saw how big it was, they improvised.”
Additionally, Williams noted the day after the robbery, he voluntarily went with his attorney to the police station and answered all of law enforcement’s questions. He also made a point to stay highly visible in Atlanta so people knew he had nothing to do with the crime. Williams passed away on December 1, 2014.
Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist is now streaming on Peacock.
