Name Major Coxson | ||
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Died June 8, 1973, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, United States | ||
Major Benjamin Coxson was a New Jersey (c. 1929 – June 8, 1973) politician, entrepreneur, and murder victim.
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Coxon operated as a drug kingpin while running a nightclub in Philadelphia. He helped Muslims establish dummy corporations for money laundering, money coming in from credit card fraud, and extortion. Companies such as, Crescent Furniture Company, Pyramid Enterprises, Barry Goldstein Agency, Fairmount Foods drew checks that were made payable to Elijah Muhammad's Mosque No. 12 in Philadelphia.
He was simultaneously "a mayoral candidate (in Camden, New Jersey), flamboyant entrepreneur, media darling, civil rights activist, inner city power broker, fraudster, drug financier, and intermediary between Italian-American and African-American gangsters" according to Penn State Professor Sean Patrick Griffin who uses primary law enforcement records and crime reporting to make the case.
Murder
Coxson was murdered on June 8, 1973, in his home on Barbara Drive in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. His companion Lois Luby, her 17-year-old daughter Lita, and her 14-year-old son, were bound and shot, Lois and Toro survived. Toro, the eldest son, was left blind in one eye. Lex, the youngest son at 13, escaped the brutality by breaking through a sliding door and went to a neighbor's for help. Later he was put in witness protection as well as Toro.
According to Philadelpha's CityPaper "... the Muslim mob made headlines was when they murdered Major Coxson and his stepdaughter in Cherry Hill, N.J. An African-American, Coxson was a flamboyant underworld figure -- a car thief, a gangland fixer and a candidate for the mayor of Camden. But Underworld sources claim the Muslims ordered Coxson killed for failing to broker a major heroin deal between the New York Mafia and the local Muslim mob."
The Black Mafia of Philadelphia is said to have ordered the murder of Coxson, and Samuel Christian was put on the FBI 10 Most wanted list as a suspect.
Ronald Harvey, a Philadelphia crime figure that was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list and was eventually convicted of the Nation of Islam-ordered murder of two women and five children in Washington DC in January 1973, was suspected of carrying out the murder of Coxon and the Lubys. Harvey was never charged with the crime, and died in prison.
Information regarding where the crime took place
One former Coxson associate stated, "[Muhammad] Ali did not own the house that Coxson was murdered in. Ali lived on Winding Drive and I was friends with the Coxsons. I lived in Charleston Ridings and my house backed up to the Coxsons. Major was killed. Mrs Coxson was left blind. My parents told me the house was built and owned by a movie producer who rented the house out after a failed marriage."