Former Black Mafia leader Lonnie Dawson (Abdul Salim) was released from prison (SCI Smithfield in Huntingdon County, PA) on December 22, 2025 after serving 43 years for his respective roles in the 1975 murder of colleague Herschell Williams and a massive drug trafficking network in the early 1980s. Dawson’s release was captured on video, which went viral on social media. In fact, this is how I leared of the situation – a former student saw the video and alerted me!
Rather than writing something documenting Dawson’s decades of criminal activities, I will simply post relevent coverage here. Of course, Dawson’s background is exhaustively detailed in Black Brothers, Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Black Mafia (2005/07).
I have posted a brief thread on X about these circumstances here.
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 7, 2026
MPMPC Press Release, January 5, 2026
