In 1908, he was elected Sheriff of Atlantic County when his father's term expired, a position he held until ousted by a court order in 1911.

[5] Support of the vice industry was to continue and expand under Nucky Johnson's rule, as would other forms of corruption, such as kickbacks on government contracts.

[1][5] He declined requests that he run for the state senate, believing that it was beneath the dignity of a "real boss" to stand for election.

In fact, most of Johnson's income came from the percentage he took on every gallon of illegal liquor sold and on gambling and prostitution operations in Atlantic City.

[1] At the height of his power, Johnson lived in a suite of rooms on the ninth floor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, located on the Boardwalk.

[4] Since its founding, Atlantic City, like other summer resorts, had been burdened with a seasonal economy, and efforts to promote tourism there during the colder months had not been successful.

The free availability of alcohol during Prohibition, however, made Atlantic City the nation's premier location for holding conventions.

[5] In an effort to promote a year-round convention-supported economy, Johnson directed the construction of Atlantic City Convention Hall.

[5][11] Under Nucky Johnson, Atlantic City was one of the leading ports for importing bootleg liquor[5] and, in 1927, he agreed to participate in a loose organization of other bootleggers and racketeers along the east coast, forming the Big Seven or Seven Group.

Nucky Johnson's name was mentioned frequently in a series of articles about vice in Atlantic City published in 1930 by William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal.

[5] Johnson subsequently was the focus of increased scrutiny by the Federal government, allegedly as a result of Hearst's lobbying of Roosevelt administration officials.

[1] That year also saw the repeal of Prohibition, which eliminated a major selling point for Atlantic City among tourists and conventioneers, as well as a source of income for Johnson and his political machine.

[1] According to The Press of Atlantic City, Johnson "was born to rule: He had flair, flamboyance, was politically amoral, and ruthless, and had an eidetic memory for faces and names, and a natural gift of command ... [Johnson] had the reputation of being a trencherman, a hard drinker, a Herculean lover, an epicure, a sybaritic fancier of luxuries, and all good things in life".

The series ran for five seasons, was produced by Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg and starred Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson.

[16][17] Show creator Terence Winter elected to portray a fictionalized version of Johnson, to give the writers creative license with history, and to maintain suspense.

Also, Thompson is portrayed as running his distillery for bootlegging and competing directly with real-life gangsters for distribution on the East Coast, whereas the real Johnson took a cut of all illegal alcohol sold in Atlantic City but was never known to engage in competition or turf wars.

[19] The HBO television series is based on a chapter of the 2002 book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, by Nelson Johnson (no relation).

[20] In Louis Malle's 1980 film Atlantic City, aging gangster Lou (Burt Lancaster) mentions an incident involving Enoch L. Johnson.