In the turbulent underworld of 1970s Philadelphia, the life of Richard "Red Paul" Harris, a Black/African American man, was violently cut short. On the night of February 1, 1972, Harris was inside a bar at the corner of 17th and Dauphin Streets in North Philadelphia when he was shot and killed. His death was not a random act of violence but rather a calculated execution rooted in the city's burgeoning and brutal narcotics trade.
Sources from that time indicate that Harris was a member of
the criminal organization known as the Black Mafia and his murder was the result of a dispute over a drug deal. It was said that Harris had cheated James "P.I." Smith, another figure in the city's drug scene, in a narcotics transaction. In the world they inhabited, such betrayals were often met with deadly consequences, and for Richard Harris, the price was his life. His death marked the beginning of a bloody and retaliatory chain of events that would see more bodies fall in the subsequent months.
The story did not end with the death of Richard Harris. The man he allegedly cheated, James "P.I." Smith, would himself become a victim of the same violent code of street justice. In March of 1972, Smith was found shot to death in a parking lot at 3700 Brown Street. His murder was reportedly connected to the same drug deal that had cost Harris his life. Smith was accused of cheating another individual, Tyrone "Fat Ty" Palmer, in a deal related to the one involving Harris.
The cycle of violence continued to escalate. On Easter Sunday of 1972, Tyrone "Fat Ty" Palmer was publicly executed at the popular Club Harlem in Atlantic City. The man who pulled the trigger was identified as a founder of the Black Mafia. This brazen assassination, carried out in front of numerous witnesses, was seen as the final act in the deadly saga that began with the murder of Richard Harris. While the street may have delivered its own form of justice, there is no available information to indicate that any arrests were ever made or that anyone was officially charged in a court of law for the murder of Richard "Red Paul" Harris. His death, and the subsequent killings it sparked, became another chapter in the violent history of organized crime in Philadelphia. The age of Richard Harris at the time of his death is not available in the sources.
