WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Frank Melton's Biography

Frank Melton's Biography

By Bert Case - bio | email

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - So how did Mayor Frank Melton get to this point today? He first made himself known in Jackson in the 1980s, when he took over WLBT. That was on February 1st of 1984.  

He started his very popular commentary, "The Bottom Line" in the early 1990's and went on to become a local television superstar for his outspoken commentary. Melton became so frustrated with big time drug dealers operating in Jackson with impunity; in the early 1990's he started putting up bilboards with their pictures on them.  

He was on the streets at night breaking up gangs and organizing gang members for summer camps in Texas, to staighten them out. He taught young kids to swim at the Farish Street YMCA, every summer, to try to keep them out of a life of crime.

In 2002 Governor Ronnie Musgrove appointed Melton as director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and Melton quickly revealed his penchant for acting as a law enforcement officer. He was fired as narcotics director by Governor Haley Barbour when Barbour took over in January of 2004.

Melton, having sold his interests in WLBT for many millions of dollars, immediately started a campaign to become mayor of Jackson. He had served as mayor since July of 2006 when he got into his current legal difficulties with his bizarre crimefighting tactics, which included riding around town at night in a police mobile command vehicle, carrying his young friends, many of whom had been in trouble with the law.