Avon Barksdale Was Based on a Real Baltimore Drug Lord — And the Real Man Has Seen the Show
David Simon and Ed Burns were not writing fiction from scratch. They were translating years of reporting, court documents, interviews, and firsthand observation into drama.
Avon Barksdale's primary inspiration was a West Baltimore drug organization that Burns had investigated as a homicide detective. The name was changed. The details were compressed and rearranged.
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