Nathan Barksdale

Nathan "Bodie" Barksdale (1961 – February 13, 2016) was a Baltimore, Maryland, drug dealer dramatized in the HBO series The Wire, but the extent to which any of the show's characters or plot lines are based on his life is disputed. His life is the subject of the unreleased docudrama Baltimore Chronicles: Legends of the Unwired, which purports to be the true story behind The Wire. He was in the early stages of writing his autobiography at the time of his death.

In 2014, Barksdale was "ensnared in a Drug Enforcement Administration wiretap investigation", and after pleading guilty was convicted and sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison. He served time at a Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina. In February 2016, he died from an undisclosed illness at a medical prison in Butner, North Carolina, aged 54.

Barksdale's name appeared in the Baltimore Sun' s 1987 series Easy Money: Anatomy of a Drug Empire, written by David Simon, who went on to be the creator, executive producer, and head writer of The Wire. In the newspaper series, which focuses on the criminal career of Melvin Williams, Simon depicts Barksdale as a ruthless killer and a drug addict. Simon also writes that Barksdale once tortured three people in the Baltimore projects and that his battery conviction was related to the torture incident.

Barksdale was a drug dealer in West Baltimore who purportedly survived 21 gunshots, some of which were fired while Barksdale was in hospital after a prior, failed murder attempt. In 1986, Barksdale was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for battery. In 2003, he was acquitted of a federal charge of being a felon with a gun.