Nathan Barksdale, 54, the Baltimore drug kingpin who inspired some key characters on HBO’s The Wire, died while in a federal medical prison in North Carolina on Saturday .
A spokesperson for the Baltimore health department confirmed on Tuesday that Barksdale died of an undisclosed illness.
Barksdale ran a violent heroin dealing operation in Baltimore in the 1980s, and served 15 years in state prison after being convicted in 1985 for torturing three people in an 11th floor apartment in the Murphy Homes public housing complex. Authorities said the heroin ring controlled much of the drug traffic in now-demolished public housing complexes in Baltimore.
Barksdale, who went by the nickname Bodie, is said to be the inspiration for a few characters in The Wire, the gritty crime drama set in Baltimore. Key characters on the series included drugs boss Avon Barksdale and a dealer named Bodie Broadus.
Following his release from prison, Barksdale worked with Safe Streets, an anti-violence program run by the health department. However, in 2014, he pleaded guilty to participating in a drug conspiracy and was sentenced to four years in prison.
David Simon, the creator of The Wire, told the Baltimore Sun in 2014 that while Barksdale inspired aspects of some characters, he was not the specific basis for the character Avon Barksdale.
“There are some anecdotal connections between his story and a multitude of characters,” Simon said. “We mangled street and given names throughout The Wire so that it was a general shout-out to the Westside players. But there is nothing that corresponds to a specific character.”
Barksdale enjoyed the connection to The Wire, and in 2010, released a DVD that chronicled his life called The Avon Barksdale Story: Legends of the Unwired. In it, he is interviewed by Wood Harris, who played Avon Barksdale in the show.
“In real life he was one of the most notorious gangster drug kingpins Baltimore has ever seen,” the film’s narrator says. “He was a magnet for violence.”
