Stringer Bell
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| Stringer Bell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First appearance | The Target (episode 1.01) |
| Last appearance | Mission Accomplished (episode 3.12) |
| Cause/Reason | Murdered |
| Statistics | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 30s |
| Year of Death | 2004 |
| Occupation | Drug kingpin |
| Portrayed by | Idris Elba |
| Created by | David Simon |
Russell "Stringer" Bell, played by Idris Elba, is a character on the HBO TV series The Wire who serves as drug kingpin Avon Barksdale's second in command. Bell gets A's in his economics classes at Baltimore City Community College and even has a copy of The Wealth of Nations on his bookshelf. He attempts to legitimize the Barksdale drug gang by investing in housing properties and buying influence from politicians.
An intelligent planner and businessman, Bell is a useful advisor to Barksdale and handles the economic decisions for the Barksdale crew. He often tries to temper Avon's bloodthirsty nature. Though not as vengeful as Avon, Stringer is ruthless, being completely devoted to his work, and eliminating threats to the Barksdale organization as soon as they appear.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Character History
The number two in the now-fallen Barksdale organization, Bell grew up in the projects alongside childhood friends Avon Barksdale and Roland "Wee-Bay" Brice. Came close to turning the corner and establishing himself as a Legitimate Real-Estate Developer, and removing himself from the day-to-day of the narcotics organization, remaining only "The Bank" with the financial investmant behind the wholesale packages. His efforts to reform the violence and gangsterism of the drug trade ultimately leading to his death by the betrayal of his best friend Avon Barksdale.
[edit] Season 1
Stringer was first seen with a trio of enforcers at Avon's nephew and lieutenant D'Angelo Barksdale murder trial for the shooting of "Poo" Blanchard. Avon tasked Stringer with ensuring that a not guilty verdict was returned. To this end he had enforcers Roland "Wee-Bey" Brice, Savino and Anton "Stinkum" Artis attend the trial with him to intimidate witnesses and also bribed a key witness, Nakeesha Lyles, to change her story. When D'Angelo was released Avon had Stringer demote him to running the operation in the low rise projects known as "the pit".
Stringer then had his hands full dealing with Omar Little's crew, after they stole some of Barksdale's stash from the pit. Stringer visited D'Angelo to instruct him about checking his organization for an informant who may have been giving Omar information. Avon ordered contract killings on Omar and all of his crew. Avon also tasked Stringer with assisting Stinkum in taking over new territory for the organization.
Stringer took Stinkum to survey his new territory with some additional muscle in the form of Wee-Bey and Marquis "Bird" Hilton. While there Stringer received word from D'Angelo that two of his crew, Wallace and Poot had spotted Omar's boyfriend Brandon at an arcade. Stringer drove to meet the young drug dealers at the arcade bringing the three enforcers with him. He had them abduct Brandon using handcuffs and posing as police officers. They tortured Brandon to death trying to discover Omar's whereabouts. They then mutilated his corpse and displayed it in the low rises as Avon had instructed. Omar responded to the brutal slaying by striking back at Stinkum and Wee-Bey as they made their move on the new terriotry, killing Stinkum and wounding Wee-Bey.
With this escalation of the conflict, Stringer tried to persuade Avon to offer Omar a truce. Planning to let Omar grow complacent, then kill him when he let his guard down. Avon initially brushed this suggestion aside, but after Omar nearly killed him, he agreed with Stringer's advice. Stringer also persuaded Avon to give up his pager so that he could act as a buffer between Avon and the rest of their operation.
As Avon grew increasingly suspicious that the police were watching him, Stringer took precautions to smoke out informants and to counter wiretaps. He instructed D'Angelo to withhold pay from his subordinates for several weeks; the ones who weren't asking for money at the end of that time were the ones who were being paid as informants. However, no informants were found. To foil wiretaps, Stringer insisted on phone discipline, forcing D'Angelo's crew to stop using the nearby payphones and to walk longer distances to other phones instead.
When it came time for Avon to clean house, Stringer ordered the murder of Wallace, who had been a key witness in the killing of Omar's boyfriend. Stringer tried to find out about Wallace's whereabouts from D'Angelo but D'Angelo realized his friend was in danger and only told Stringer that Wallace had left their business. Stringer turned to Bodie Broadus, D'Angelo's second in the pit operation and learned that Wallace had returned to working for D'Angelo. Stringer asked Bodie to murder Wallace. He also had the witness he had bribed in D'Angelo's trial, Nakeesha Lyles, killed. Stringer assumed command of the Barksdale crew when Avon was arrested at the end of season one. D'Angelo was also arrested and when he learned of the murder of his friend Wallace he blamed Stringer, driving a wedge between the two. Stringer rewarded Bodie's loyalty by promoting him to run their operation at the 221 tower.
[edit] Season 2
During season two Stringer faced a serious problem: the Barksdale crew's usual supplier, a Dominican named Rodrigo, was under investigation by the DEA. The Dominicans refused to deal with Avon, believing that he might have informed on them in exchange for a lighter sentence. Avon was unable to find a decent alternative despite suggesting connections in Philadelphia and Atlanta and Stringer grew desperate.
Stringer had secretly become involved with Donette, D'Angelo's ex-girlfriend. He used the relationship to keep watch on the young Barksdale, growing concerned at D'Angelo's increasingly hostile attitude towards his uncle. When D'Angelo cut himself off from his family, Stringer grew worried that he might turn on them. He organized a contract killing through a connection in Washington, DC. Stringer's connection had his cousin strangle D'Angelo in prison and stage the death as a suicide. Stringer was emphatic that Avon could not learn of his actions.
Stringer's relationship with Avon began to fray further as he secretly agreed to share Barksdale territory with Proposition Joe in exchange for Joe's higher-quality heroin, an idea which Avon vehemently opposed. Finally, when Avon hired legendary New York enforcer Brother Mouzone to chase Proposition Joe's dealers out of the Barksdale towers. Stringer had to maneuver carefully to preserve his alliance with Joe while keeping it secret from Avon; he solved this problem by tricking Omar into shooting Mouzone by blaming him for Brandon's death. After Mouzone returned home, Avon grudgingly agreed to Stringer's proposal, but the two were no longer as close as they had been before.
[edit] Season 3
Stringer is still effectively in charge of the Barksdale empire at the start of season, and has become even more businesslike in his thinking, forming a retail co-op with Proposition Joe and other rival dealers, and running meetings with his underlings according to Robert's Rules of Order. Stringer is also shown to have been involved in political donations since season 1, giving money to consultants and politicians including State Senator Clay Davis in order to facilitate the development of a set of condominiums.
Although he and Avon were the best of friends, the two simultaneously betrayed each other at the end of the season. Stringer gave the police information leading to Avon's arrest, and Avon told Brother Mouzone where to find Stringer, leading to Stringer's murder by Mouzone and Omar.
After Stringer's death, Detective McNulty and the police searched his apartment. Taking note of the books on the shelves, the detectives found a copy of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. McNulty was amazed at how little he truly knew about Stringer, despite having spent three years building a case against him.[1][2]
[edit] Origins and analysis
Stringer was arguably The Wire's most popular character. Thus, his murder stands as the series' most unexpected moment to date.[3] Stringer's name is a composite of two real Baltimore criminals, Stringer Reed and Roland Bell.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Org Chart - The Street. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-27.
- ^ Character profile - Stringer Bell. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
- ^ Lola Oggunaike (2004). Whacked! Another HBO Main Player Meets His End. NY Times. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
- ^ Jesse Walker (2006). Localist Television. Reactionary Radicals. Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
