While his staff says he has no formal exploratory committee, Williams has set up an advisory board to research the matter. Williams won his seat in the 8th District in 1998 when his father, Hardy Williams, decided to retire and not seek re-election. A lifetime West Philly resident, he was encouraged to test the waters by his constituents.

His district is extremely large and diverse and covers parts of South, West and Southwest Philly, Darby, Yeadon, Sharon Hill and nine Delaware County neighborhoods. Williams is known for his independence and does not necessarily align himself with any particular camp—and there are many camps these days.

Williams was once part of the Dwight Evans camp and years ago, an ally of the late state Rep. Dave Richardson. His office says he is considering running for mayor because he is not particularly impressed with the current crop of wannabes. The Democrats include U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, Local 98 business manager John Dougherty, Evans, Tom Knox, city Councilman Michael Nutter and former City Controller Jonathan Saidel.

U.S. Rep. and Democratic City Committee Chairman Bob Brady may also be pushed to run.

No Republican names have surfaced except for Carl Singley, who is being drafted by Philadelphia magazine editor Larry Platt.

And in the spirit of next year's mayoral race, Philly Mag and the National Constitution Center (NCC) are hosting a mayoral forum called Philadelphia Talks on the 2007 Mayoral Campaign on Thursday, June 15, beginning at 6 p.m. at the NCC. The program will focus on hot-button issues the city is facing. Noted political consultants Neil Oxman and Chris Mottola will spin the facts and fiction on the subject while Platt moderates.

Local author Sean Patrick Griffin has secured himself a six-figure movie deal for the rights of his exposé, Black Brothers, Inc.: The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia's Black Mafia. Patrick Rizzotti, CEO of Fortress Entertainment, an L.A. production company, signed the deal with Griffin last week.

Griffin, a former cop and currently an associate professor of criminology at Penn State University's Abington Campus, penned the book in 2004 and a small U.K. company, Milo Books, published it last year.

Griffin said he has no idea how Hollywood got hold of the book since there was virtually no marketing effort driving sales, which were good thanks to positive word of mouth.

He said he had trouble getting his book into major commercial bookstores because managers were under the false perception that there is no such thing as a black mafia.

Black Brothers has become a big hit in the black community. Black readers drove sales in independent bookstores to the point where mainstream retailers were forced to carry it. It chronicles the history of the black mafia from the 1960s through 2004. Griffin is currently working on an updated version since many of the mob figures have gone to jail since the last printing.

The book's forward begins in October 2003, when the FBI-planted bug was found in the ceiling of Mayor John Street's City Hall office. It addresses how the corruption probe began with an unrelated narcotics investigation into the world of the politically connected Muslim cleric Shamsud-din Ali, a contributor and close friend of Street. Ali, who along with his mentor Jeremiah X. Shabazz led the city's black Muslims in the mid-'60s, insisted there was no such thing as the black mafia.

Numerous politicos and notables are featured in the book such as Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan, Bruce Crawley, Carl Singley, Paul Dandridge, Jannie and Lucian Blackwell, Ron White, Ed Rendell and Mayor Street.

Griffin signed the deal a few weeks ago and will also serve as a writing consultant for the film. No word yet who will star as the mob bosses although Philadelphia is a proposed location for the shoot. He says, "I could see this becoming a sort of black Sopranos."

Rizzotti says that it was famous casting director Norbert Prickett who originally brought the book to Milo, and that they were looking for an A-list director, but declined further details. Since there are so many characters in Black Brothers, it would have to be a very long movie.

"I see this as a trilogy," says Rizzotti, "like The Godfather."