Nathan Barksdale, the former Baltimore gangster who inspired characters in "The Wire," died in a federal medical prison in North Carolina on Saturday. He was 54. 
 
 Barksdale, who went by the nickname "Bodie," was a notorious Baltimore criminal in the 1980s, running a violent heroin-dealing operation in the Murphy Homes public housing complex. He was shot more than 20 times and had to have his right leg amputated below the knee. 
 
 He later worked with the anti-violence Safe Streets program. But he was arrested in 2014 and pleaded guilty to taking part in a heroin conspiracy with members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang. 
 
 Key characters on "The Wire," the gritty HBO drama set in Baltimore, included the drug kingpin Avon Barksdale and a dealer named "Bodie" Broadus. 
 
 Nathan Barksdale embraced the connection. He released a DVD that chronicled his life, in which he was interviewed by the actor Wood Harris, who played the Avon Barksdale character. 
 
 "In real life he was one of the most notorious and resilient gangster drug kingpins Baltimore has ever seen," the narrator says. "He was a magnet for violence." 
 
 Have you ever found yourself wondering, "Where's Wallace?" Turns out, he was starring in a little movie called "Black Panther." In honor of the 10th anniversary of the finale of "The Wire," see what the series' stars have been up to for the past decade. 
 
 A spokesman for the city Health Department, for which Barksdale worked in the Safe Streets program, and an official at the Butner, N.C., medical prison where he died confirmed his death from an undisclosed illness. Attempts to reach his family were unsuccessful. 
 
 Barksdale said he left a life of crime. But he was ensnared in a Drug Enforcement Administration wiretap investigation in 2014, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison. 
 
 "I got busted," Barksdale said at his plea hearing. 
 
 Still, he said, he thought he had more work to do in the community. 
 
 Akio Evans, a local video director, this week recalled watching Barksdale counsel young people on how to avoid his mistakes. 
 
 "I did some good," Barksdale said at sentencing. "I'd like to think I saved some lives." 
 
 U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III responded: "You paid back, but you took a lot. So you still owe." 
 
 Barksdale said he had lapsed back into heroin addiction and had been running a scam to feed his habit. He said he would try to get samples of heroin, promising to pass them on to big-time dealers, but would use the drugs himself. 
 
 Barksdale presided over a lucrative heroin ring in the mid-1980s that authorities said controlled much of the drug traffic in now-demolished public housing such as the Lexington Terrace apartments and the George B. Murphy Homes. 
 
 Barksdale was acquitted in August 1982 in the killing of Frank Harper, a drug trafficker who had been Barksdale's mentor in the trade. 
 
 He was convicted in early 1985 of torturing three people in an 11th-floor apartment in Murphy Homes. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. 
 
 David Simon, who created "The Wire," said in 2014 that Barksdale did inspire aspects of certain characters, but was not specifically the basis for the Avon Barksdale character. 
 
 "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." 
 
 justin.fenton@baltsun.com ||||| (CNN) Nathan "Bodie" Barksdale, the inspiration behind the show "The Wire," has died in a federal prison. He was 54. 
 
 Barksdale passed away from natural causes after being sick for a period of time, a spokesperson for the Baltimore City Health Department, Sean Naron, told CNN. 
 
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 Barksdale was a notorious criminal in Baltimore in the 1980s. According to the Baltimore Sun , he ran a violent heroin-dealing operation in the Murphy Homes public housing complex. 
 
 Barksdale is also said to be the inspiration for a number of key characters in "The Wire," the critically acclaimed HBO series that chronicled life in the Baltimore projects. He's specifically thought to be the true story behind the ruthless drug king pin character "Avon Barksdale." 
 
 'This is real' 
 
 In 2010, Barksdale released a DVD that dramatized his own life, entitled " The Avon Barksdale Story: Legends of the Unwired ." 
 
 Actor Wood Harris, who portrayed "Avon Barksdale" in "The Wire". 
 
 In the low budget documentary he is interviewed by Wood Harris, who played Avon in the hit series. 
 
 "In real life," the narrator claims, "he was one of the most notorious gangster drug kingpins Baltimore has ever seen. He was a magnet for violence." 
 
 In a series of on-camera interviews, Barksdale talks about his early days as a pickpocket in the projects and his progression into more violent crime. He was reportedly shot over 20 times and had to have his right leg amputated below the knee. 
 
 "I've been paralyzed, I was temporarily blind," he tells Harris. "It's horrible being shot." 
 
 But series creator David Simon told The Baltimore Sun that the two men were not one and the same. 
 
 Characters from the HBO series, "The Wire". 
 
 "There are some anecdotal connections between his story and a multitude of characters," Simon said to the paper in 2013 
 
 "We mangled street and given names throughout 'The Wire' so that it was a general shout-out to the west-side players. But there is nothing that corresponds to a specific character." The series did also feature a low-level dealer in the fictional Barksdale organization called "Bodie." 
 
 While never matching the audiences of other big HBO series, the authenticity of "The Wire" inspired a passionate following. It's portrayal of a morally gray universe, set against an equally gray Baltimore backdrop, regularly has it being cited by critics as one of the most accomplished television series ever made. 
 
 "I said to the man, just don't make me a snitch," Barksdale said of being fictionalized by Simon in the show. "Ain't nothing I can do to stop it, just don't do that, and I won't kill your ass."
– Nathan "Bodie" Barksdale, the former Baltimore gangster who inspired characters in the HBO series The Wire, has died in a federal medical prison in North Carolina. He was 54. He was shot more than 20 times in his life and had to have his right leg amputated below the knee while running a heroin-dealing operation in Baltimore in the 1980s, but he died of natural causes on Saturday after a period of illness, a rep for the Baltimore City Health Department tells CNN. In a 2010 documentary on Barksdale's life, a narrator calls the ex-gangster "a magnet for violence" and "one of the most notorious and resilient gangster drug kingpins Baltimore has ever seen," per the Baltimore Sun. In 1985, he was convicted of torturing three people and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He later assisted an anti-violence program in Baltimore but was arrested again in 2014. He told a judge he was addicted to heroin and running a scam to get access to the drug. He was sentenced to four more years behind bars. "There are some anecdotal connections between his story and a multitude of characters," The Wire creator David Simon said in 2014. "We mangled street and given names throughout The Wire so that it was a general shoutout to the Westside players. But there is nothing that corresponds to a specific character." Characters on the show included drug kingpin Avon Barksdale and dealer "Bodie" Broadus.