Seaga gone.

[Willi]

died of cancer in miami.

[Lazie]

died of cancer in miami.

RIP Mr. Seaga. The man passed on his 89th birthday.

[Rockman]

Maybe he should have lived until 130, the untimely passing of the other guy ....is more newsworthy.
If the love of Jamaica is undeniable, why telling revelations are not being made (posthumously)by those larger than life personalities?
They want to keep intact their arrogated legacy.
He did change in the end though.

[Reggaedoc]

Maybe he should have lived until 130, the untimely passing of the other guy ....is more newsworthy.
If the love of Jamaica is undeniable, why telling revelations are not being made (posthumously)by those larger than life personalities?
They want to keep intact their arrogated legacy.
He did change in the end though.

He created one of the longest lasting criminal enterprises in the western hemisphere. Our country will never recover in a hundred years. Thats my opinion.

[Sir X]

Trevor Munroe remembers Edward Seaga

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news...d-seaga_166133

Seaga A Nice Guy But Wasn’t Tough Enough On Crime, Says Adams


http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/n...ime-says-adams

Balanced

[Jangle]

Burry Boy and Feathermop: The violent duo that helped and shamed the PNP
BY KARYL WALKER Sunday Observer staff reporter
walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, January 20, 2008



After a decade in the political wilderness, the victory by Michael Manley's People's National Party in 1972 came as a welcome relief to the swell of street level supporters the party had gathered.

The political practices of the two decades following Independence fuelled a bitter hatred between supporters of both parties, and the foundation of tribalism was laid.

During the 1960s, when the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) held power, then minister of housing, DC Tavares, built the first political garrison and called it Tavares Gardens, now known as 'Payne Land'. The high-rise buildings and other low-cost houses which were built on previously unoccupied land, were crammed with JLP-supporters.

JLP firebrand and minister of social development and welfare, Edward Seaga, raised the bar when he developed Tivoli Gardens in an area previously known as 'Dungle' or 'Back O' Wall', and previously occupied by Rastafarians and other persons who, at the time, were regarded as 'fringe elements'.

Tivoli Gardens was also stocked with JLP supporters and was the envy of Seaga's political rivals in his own party and the PNP.

The Rastafarians, who were chased off the land by the government, were considered to be loyal to the PNP after Manley's father, Norman, had promised to repatriate them to Africa.

After the PNP won power, the new minister of construction and housing, Anthony Spaulding, built Arnett Gardens as the PNP's reply to Tivoli Gardens.

While Seaga had consolidated his base in West Kingston, Spaulding had won his seat by about 100 votes and also filled the housing development, dubbed by the residents as 'Concrete Jungle', with supporters of his party.

In the process of building Arnett Gardens, Spaulding's political thugs and henchmen also chased out the original occupiers of the houses in Trench Town and replaced them with PNP diehards. The displaced inhabitants then found refuge in the hills of St Catherine in an area now known as Central Village and nearby Spanish Town.

Numbered among Spaulding's political enforcers were Winston Blake, popularly called 'Burry Boy' and his crony, George 'Feathermop' Spence.
At the time, the neighbouring community of Wilton Gardens, more popularly known as 'Rema', was fiercely loyal to the JLP, and frequent violent clashes highlighted the lives of the poor underclass that lived on opposing sides of the line of political demarcation.

Burry Boy and Feathermop were two of the leading members of a PNP-aligned gang which had its roots in Concrete Jungle. The gang members, reported to number about 30, all rode Honda motorcycles and wreaked havoc on dissenting residents and their rivals in the JLP with shocking brutality.

From 1967 through to 1976 the gang had been instrumental in securing Manley's success at the polls in the newly-formed Central Kingston constituency. Burry Boy and Feathermop were the leaders of the street arm of the PNP in Central Kingston, South St Andrew and South West St Andrew.

By 1974, after Manley had declared that his party would be following a path of democratic socialism, the gang led by Blake and Spence had widened its power base and ran amok in the city.

Supported and protected by their political bosses, the two were immune to police action and literally 'got away with murder'.

Burry Boy and Feathermop are reported to have led a PNP mob which was accused of shooting a JLP activist, attacking mourners at the funeral of another JLP loyalist and mobbing opposition members of parliament when they attempted to enter Gordon House.
The incidents all happened in November.

A few weeks later, the political gang was said to be behind the chopping of party member Trevor Munroe, when they broke up a strike by disgruntled port workers represented by the PNP-affiliated National Workers' Union.

Munroe received several chops all over his body and was seriously injured as the gang assaulted the workers and representatives of his University and Allied Workers Union, which had attempted to canvass the restive workers.

Burry Boy, Feathermop and their gang, were also accused of storming the JLP headquarters at Retirement Road, stabbing a 70-year-old watchman, Vassel Black, and slashing research officer Sexton Hope.
The political mobsters also smashed furniture, telephones, typewriters and tore up documents.

A report which appeared in The Gleaner on January 21, 1975 stated: 'Eyewitnesses said the men came behind a white van that was left parked at the gate of the compound. They roared in on their gleaming Hondas, estimated at 30 with two each, their faces hard and without a trace of emotion, sending panic-stricken people in the office at the time scattering.

During it all, the men uttered not a word and when they had finished, they rode out behind the white van. An eyewitness reported seeing at least one gun in the left hand of one.'

Arising out of the incident, Opposition Leader Seaga and his party boycotted the next day's sitting of Parliament and called a meeting of the JLP's Standing Committee to discuss the attack on the party headquarters.

Manley's public condemnation of the attack did little to reign in the lawless gangsters, and political violence continued in the Corporate Area and Spanish Town.

Earlier that week, the gang also invaded a JLP meeting at Tavares Gardens and warned residents that no memorial should be held for DC Tavares, who had died earlier.

Weeks later, the same gang was again accused of invading a construction site at the Kingston Waterfront and injuring a number of the workers who were said to be supportive of the JLP. The gang also launched a brazen assault on a community centre located in the middle of the well-known JLP stronghold at Salt Lane in West Kingston.

The gang was also responsible for the wholesale 'ethnic cleansing' of Tavares Gardens when JLP supporters, planted by DC Tavares, were chased away from the area and replaced with PNP diehards.

Burry Boy and Feathermop, so called because of his grey locks which resembled a mop, were many times engaged in warfare with gangs led by revenge-seeking JLP enforcers Claudius Massop, Carl 'Byah' Mitchell and Curly Locks - the top political enforcer in Rema.

The result was unbridled bloodshed and carnage as the JLP strongmen, in reprisal, attacked and assaulted PNP supporters living at Lizard Town, a community on the outskirts of Tivoli Gardens.

The political thuggery of Spence and Blake did not go unnoticed by the leadership of the ruling party and their political gang was now accepted as a vital part of the party's political machinery.

Burry Boy and Feathermop became so notorious that they were included in Prime Minister Manley's entourage on his historic trip to Cuba during the period.

It was on that famous trip that Feathermop, a rrastafarian, would show his true colours and disrespect the party leader. Pork, which is despised by rastafarians, is Cuba's national dish and was served to Manley and his party during a reception held by revolutionary Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Feathermop is reported to have flown into a wild rage and kicked over the tables with pork.

The practice of issuing contracts along political lines was very much alive then as it is today, and both political thugs were beneficiaries.

One particular contract which came to public attention was that for the cleaning of the Lilford Gully which was damaged by flood waters. Feathermop had won the contract and information was leaked that he was paid twice the amount of the value of the contract. It was even shocking to the public when it was revealed that the notorious gangster-turned-contractor had not paid the workers who had cleaned the gully.

The incident proved embarrassing to the PNP and Manley was forced to call in the police to investigate the matter. It is not clear if anyone was arrested in connection with the misuse of public funds.

"Feathermop was a man who would come into the KSAC office and bad up the people for money and threaten them life," one former worker at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation recalled. "Him was a known trouble maker who was protected by the big man."

Feathermop's obnoxious manners and rebellion against authority would eventually earn him the ire of many of the power brokers inside the PNP.
He did not live to see the election year of 1976 as he was killed in a bar by a lone gunman who crept up on him and shot him several times.

Feathermop was cut down only six months after Burry Boy, who was rumoured to have murdered a Ministry of Housing official in 1975 after the civil servant began querrying questionable payments made out to him in connection with a government contract.

A few weeks after that murder, Burry Boy was himself shot to death as he drove a car along Darling Street on March 14.

The police reported that Burry Boy was killed by men who were travelling in another car which pulled up beside him. He was shot in the head more than once.

Burry Boy was seen by his rivals as a vicious political enforcer who killed and maimed without question, but to the residents who he protected, he was seen as a hero. His funeral was attended by over 20,000 mourners, including Manley and several of his Cabinet ministers, who led the funeral procession which came under gunfire as it snaked past Tivoli Gardens on its way to the May Pen Cemetery.

Responses
Karyl,
I am a regular reader of your series on the criminals of Jamaica and indeed I read the comments by other readers to recollect if they really understand what's been written by you each Sunday. Some comments let me go back in time when my teacher told me "Empty barrels make the most noise."

Neeliewun@yahoo.com made the most appropriate remarks toward the series. You have to go back in time to understand what is really happening in Jamaica today and educate your children (from in the homes) to be better men and women to represent Jamaica in a positive manner.

Many individuals believe the rise in crime in Jamaica relates to just today and chastise writers who research the facts to educate them. Those who accept the writings are the ones with an open-mind, experience to the crimes, and victims who want a change to the current situation now in Jamaica.

Then we have the critics (society people who lived in the residential areas sleeping well at nights that said, "Let them kill them one another.") Now that this has changed and everyone is the victim of the outrage of crime in Jamaica, we should educate ourselves now, judge the actions of our new commissioner of police, and applaud the police officers who work 24/7 or 48/4 to curb the devastating genocide that has fallen upon our wonderful country (and I am talking about the good cops).

I am from one of the famous garrisons in Jamaica and have seen many youths (I grew up with) become famous for being notorious and whose lives ended before 25 years. Some you will soon mention in your programme, from Natty Kunda, Natty Chris, General Starsky, Radcliff, and Stella. People reading these articles would not even believe that some of these youths were aspiring stars to lead Jamaica in the right direction, but fell victims to political alliance, poverty, and revenge for gruesome acts by lawmen and neighbouring areas.

I remember at the age of 8 years when there was a fear factor that hoodlums (men from Wilton Gardens or Rema) would invade the Arnett Gardens area and anyone they would catch at the time would be history. I will give the readers only one name of such dreadful act. Linton Duffus, a straight A student from one of the high schools in the area, was coming home from school one afternoon. He was held by the then 'Eradication Squad' (police officers) and taken to Wilton Gardens.

His remains were found days after with his finger nails plucked out, eye bulbs destroyed and an iron found in his rectum (it was thought that a hot rod was forced into his rectum). Now, youths who were with him that day and ran for their lives were angry with the actions and yes their intentions were revenge and to protect the area from any future activities of the 'Eradication Squad' and men from Rema.

Who rose among these groups of teens? Anthony Tingle aka 'General Starsky'. Those who were victims of the gruesome actions of the men from Wilton Gardens or the 'Eradication Squad' had Starsky as their hero, saviour, and Robin Hood.

The rise of Anthony Tingle ensured that men from Wilton Gardens did not invade Arnett Gardens frequently to kill women and children.

There could be two interpretations from what I mentioned (and I am sorry to give a hint to readers who await to read the piece on Starsky):
1. To the people of Arnett Gardens, Starsky was a hero.

2. To the people of Wilton Gardens, he was a murderer.

How can we justify his actions and how should we recognise him in our society? Hero or murderer? I am no judge, and no killing should be applauded by our society. I was one of the few who grew up seeing the rise and fall of these men and wanted to make a difference for my country.

Many of my current colleagues do not believe that I grew up in one of the garrisons and yes, my parents were poor. Poorer than a church mouse. But they were rich with the blessings from God and with strong will and continuous lecturing I steered away from the guys I grew up with in the garrisons and placed education as my number one priority.
So the youths today have a choice and are not aggressive enough to seek the help from those who are willing to help them positively.

They are aggressive, however, to take up arms against a rival gang and that is where we have a problem. That is where we need the MPs and leaders of our beloved Jamaica to make the difference:
STOP SUPPORTING THE GANG MEMBERS and uproot the heads that also support these gangs. With no resource how can they commit these crimes?

- A former student of Calabar High School (continue with your writings)
neeliewun@yahoo.com

Lest we forget

[Jangle]

Bubba, politics and the barrel of the gun
Jamaica's Most Notorious

BY KARYL WALKER Sunday Observer staff reporter
walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, February 24, 2008



This series of articles is not intended to lionise or glorify the acts of criminals but to put a historical perspective on criminality in Jamaica, with the hope of shedding light on why the country is now teetering on the edge of lawlessness. Of significant note, as well, is the fact that the subjects of these stories die violently and very young.

THE old capital of Spanish Town has long been a powder keg of political violence and has also been described by police as the extortion capital of Jamaica.

The corrupt garrison-style politics of the 1970s, which saw political goons chasing away many of the original inhabitants of Tavares Gardens (Payne Land), Wilton Gardens (Rema) and Trench Town, resulted in a mass exodus to Spanish Town, Wynter's Pen, Central Village and other neighbouring communities.

Bitter at the People's National Party (PNP) for chasing them out of their homes, the displaced residents maintained a fervent loyalty to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) which was in opposition at the time.

The mass movement of labourites brought to St Catherine an untapped resource from which political representatives could draw from to use as cannon fodder.

Since the 1980 general election when the JLP's Granville Williams wrested control of the South Central St Catherine constituency from the PNP's Derrick Heaven - beating him by almost three votes to one - a JLP member of parliament has always been victorious in the political constituency which envelopes Spanish Town.

But Spanish Town was the domain of the PNP in the 1970s, and has always had its fair share of loyal pockets of supporters.

Like other politically charged communities, the young men from rival communities formed gangs and defended their political turf. But as time passed and the role of the politician became less important, these heavily armed gangs would soon consolidate their bases and expand their criminal enterprises.

The gangs aligned to the PNP came under one umbrella after ambitious political enforcer Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett used brutality to appoint himself boss of the Clansman gang.

While the Clansman gang had been in existence for a number of years, it would not be until Oliver "Bubba' Smith was deported from New York that a move would be made to bring all JLP-aligned gangs under 'one order'.
Bubba grew up in Tawes Pen and rose to prominence after the demise of a Tawes Pen strongman known as 'Milo', who police say was killed by his cronies.

After a series of shootings and participation in other violent acts, Bubba grew from strength to strength in the world of crime. He became head of a Tawes Pen-based gang despite the presence of senior bad men known as, 'Pum-Pum Mouth' and 'Jackie', who police say ran an extortion racket from Linstead to Spanish Town.

Jackie was killed by police during a shoot-out at St John's Road in 1998.
But as Bubba's reputation in the criminal underworld grew so did the police file on him. In January 1994 Bubba fled the island and absconded bail while facing a charge of shooting with intent.

Bubba entered the US at San Antonio in Texas and made his way east to New York where he had connections. He was soon convicted for a drug-related crime and served several months before being deported on his release. He was one of more than 1,500 persons who were forcibly ejected from the United States in 2002.

Despite being a wanted man, Bubba arrived in the island, evaded the police radar and set about building a criminal empire which would be known as the One Order gang.

Upon Bubba's arrival he noticed that the gangs based in communities loyal to the JLP were at each other's throats and 'were not acting as family'.
Bubba then set about bringing all the JLP-aligned gangs in Spanish Town and its environs under One Order. Any resistance to his attempts to build the criminal network was harshly dealt with as the community of Job's Lane would soon discover.

Police say they suspect Bubba's involvement in the killing of five persons and injury of several others in a drive-by in the area. Police linked the shooting to Job's Lane's attempt to thwart the designs of the One Order.
After Bubba's ambition was realised and almost all the gangs submitted to his edict, he turned his attention to the multimillion dollar extortion racket which was being run by the Bulbie-led Clansman gang.

The move did not go down well with the Clansman gang, and a bloody battle erupted in the old capital which saw hundreds of persons from both sides of the conflict losing their lives.

The war took on a more feverish tone after the local government elections of 2003 when the JLP won. Police at the time reported that the One Order Gang wanted to take over the extortion rights for the Spanish Municipal bus terminus as the JLP was now responsible for the running of the transport facility.

The result was bloodshed and mayhem as armed gunmen invaded the bus park and fired recklessly. In one attack several persons were wounded and at least one man killed. The police blamed the Bubba-led One Order gang for that attack on the bus park.

As the war between the One Order and Clansman gangs raged, the law-abiding citizens in Spanish Town cowered in fear and businesses regularly drew down their shutters.

The constant bloodletting forced then police commissioner, Francis Forbes to establish an impromptu police post at the bus park and a strong detachment of police and soldiers were deployed to the area. The move, however, did little to bring the marauding gunmen under control and the killings continued unabated.

Police blotters indicate that more than 300 murders were committed during the One Order-Clansman gang war.

But on the night of Monday July 12, 2004, Oliver 'Bubba' Smith would reach the end of the road.

Smith was trailed to Festival Road in St Andrew and shot twice in the abdomen, the neck and forehead. Police say they found four .762 spent shells, the type used in a AK47 assault rifle, in the area. Police say two car loads of men trailed him to the area and carried out the murder.
Several theories were put forward as to the motive behind Smith's death. Police say he was killed by his cronies who thought he had lied about the amount of money acquired from a robbery in St Catherine days before.

Smith reportedly told his cronies the take was $500,000 but police had released information that $3 million was robbed. Others say Smith was killed by members of the Clansman gang, while others say Smith was killed by a vigilante cop.

As news of his murder spread his cronies staged a series of fiery demonstrations in Spanish Town and shut down normal activities in the town for days. A number of persons were fatally shot by the police in the rioting.

Police then seized 800 rounds of ammunition at a residence in the upscale community of Smokeyvale in St Andrew where Smith had rented a house.
A Honda motor car which was inked to member of parliament, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange raised further eyebrows and led to Grange being questioned at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel by top sleuths from the constabulary about her involvement with a known criminal.

In her defence, Grange denied knowing Smith and said she stood as guarantor for constituency worker, Andrew 'Bun Man' Hope, who would eventually inherit the leadership of the gang before being killed months later.

Bubba's funeral cost more than $500,000. He was interred at the Dovecot Memorial Park and was 36 at the time of his death.

......

[Jangle]

'General Starkey' lived only one score and six years
BY KARYL WALKER Sunday Observer staff reporter
walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, February 03, 2008



NO chronicle on Jamaica's most notorious badmen could be complete without mention of People's National Party (PNP) political thug, Anthony Tingle, better known as 'General Starkey'.

Like all political enforcers who took the plunge into the dark world of crime in the 1970s, General Starkey was a product of the divisive political system which started after the 1944 general elections - the first general elections after Universal Adult Suffrage was achieved.

General Starkey his crony, 'Hutch' and their gang ran amok in the Arnett Gardens and Jones Town communities after the fall of Burry Boy and Feathermop in 1975. After Burry Boy and Feathermop died, the breach was easy to fill.

Political enforcers came crawling out of the woodwork. Many of the young men in the poor ghetto areas were attracted to the lifestyles of the leading political thugs and provided a pool of criminal talent from which political bosses could draw.

Starkey and Hutch took their name from a popular American television crime series featuring two cops called Starksy and Hutch.

Following in the footsteps of those that tread the treacherous path of political thuggery before them, Starkey and Hutch filled the void left by their immediate predecessors, with an even more vicious approach.

The 1978 peace treaty, which was conceptualised by rival gang leaders Claudius Massop (of JLP aligned Tivoli Gardens) and Aston 'Bucky Marshall' Thompson (of PNP stronghold of Matthews Lane), and resulted in a peace concert at the National Stadium in April of that year when Bob Marley invited then Prime Minister Michael Manley and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga on stage for a symbolic peace gesture, was standing on shaky ground.

The breakdown in relations between the rival political tribes was the result of a series of events.

Months after the peace treaty was hatched, fans from both communities who attended a football match between Arnett Gardens and Tivoli Gardens, which was organised to reinforce trust between both factions, broke out fighting after a series of taunts and counter-taunts inside the stands at the National Stadium.

After the match, a bloody brawl broke out in the stadium parking lot and several fans from both sides sustained serious knife injuries. It is said that General Starkey was one of the main antagonists and that he personally injured some of the opposing supporters during the skirmish.

Starkey was said not be in favour of the peace treaty and used the incident as a catalyst to remove the protectors of the peace in communities he roamed through.

Soon after the incident at the stadium, it was revealed that members of the Central Peace Council had swindled more than $30,000 - a significant sum at the time - from the council's coffers.

With the disintegration of the truce, political gunmen who had been itching to do what they did best, had no restraints giving rise to a bloody tribal war which led to more than 800 persons being killed in 1980.

Those were the times when General Starkey and his gang would wage battle against a gang known as the 'Rema 13' - which included JLP thugs such as 'Curly Locks', 'Bam Bam', '****** Paul' and 'Fisherman' - causing countless fatalities and leaving hundreds of families homeless.

But General Starkey's life of crime began long before those turbulent tempestuous times.

In 1977, he topped the police most wanted list and a reward of $3,000 was posted for his capture. The posting of General Starkey as a most wanted criminal by police was frowned upon by the PNP's youth organisation, who issued a statement saying the PNPYO was 'extremely disturbed'.

More than six months later, that party's disciplinary committee suspended the PNPYO president, Paul Burke, for issuing the statement. Burke's suspension was a signal that the inventors of the political monsters, were now fed up with their creations and were sanctioning their demise. In 1978, police killed more than 30 persons who were listed on their top 40 most wanted list.

While General Starkey was on the most wanted list, he would came face to face in battle with a streetwise, 'tough nut' policeman who at the time took it upon himself to hound and flush out wanted fugitives.
The cop, Keith Gardner, known in the streets as 'Trinity' and who is now an assistant commissioner of police, reportedly drove into General Starkey's lair in Jones Town and confronted the gangster. The result was a running gunbattle between the cop and fugitive in the streets of the impoverished community.

General Starkey managed to elude 'Trinity' on that occasion and because of his community defender status at the time, residents of Jones Town, set the vehicle in which 'Trinity' was travelling alight, burning it to a crisp.
In January of the following year, General Starkey, gave himself up and was charged with two counts of rape and shooting with intent.

The culture in which witnesses are afraid to come forward with evidence was very much alive in the 1970s as it is today and General Starkey was soon back on the streets as no evidence was offered against him.

A year later, General Starkey's name was again on police files and he was again wanted by law enforcement for his alleged involvement in another set of shooting charges.

With the walls of the law closing in around him, the fugitive fled the island and turned up in Canada, where two days after his arrival, The Canadian Royal Mounted Police arrested and charged him with three counts of attempted murder and other charges. He was sentenced by a Toronto court to four years imprisonment at hard labour.

By July 1980, General Starkey was deported to Jamaica, where he was again shackled and charged by local cops for shooting with intent and illegal possession of a firearm.

However, on September 19 of that same year, General Starkey was back on the streets after no one turned up at the Gun Court to give evidence against him.

But like all those criminals before him, General Starkey's rein at the top of the criminal mole hill was brief.

After being one of the main political enforcers in Arnett Gardens for the better part of three years, General Starkey and his gang fell out of favour with elements inside the community and were forced to relocate to nearby Jones Town.

The dispute that led to General Starkey's expulsion is said to have had its genesis in the murder of a betting shop clerk on Lincoln Crescent in Arnett Gardens in May 1981. The killing of the woman did not go do well with some of the 'Junglists' who blamed Starkey's gang.

Minutes after the shooting a man was held and taken to the scene of the crime and shot dead. His killers tagged his body 'This killer of the betting shop woman'. Shortly after, another man was taken to the scene and also murdered.

One month after the betting shop incident, on June 1, 1981, Anthony 'General Starkey' Tingle would meet his waterloo.

The gangster and his cronies had just attended a dance in Jones Town and had retired in the wee hours of the morning. However, a contingent of about 20 policemen swooped down on the area and surrounded a house occupied in which a number of the men were sleeping at 32 Love Street.
The police reported that the men opened fire at them and after a lengthy gunbattle, General Starkey and seven of his cronies, including his brother Michael McLeod, lay dead.

The other dead men were identified as Barrington Fitzroy, Paul Johnson - both of Septimus Street, Jones Town - Errol Shorter, Conrad Bryan and Leroy Reid of Orange Street, and Michael Jackson.
Police say they recovered a M16 assault rifle, 80 rounds of ammunition, gas masks and soldier uniforms at the death scene. Two officers were reportedly injured during the firefight.

General Starkey was 26 years old when he was cut down in a hail of bullets.

This series of articles is not intended to lionise or glorify the acts of criminals but to put a historical perspective on criminality in Jamaica, with the hope of shedding light on why the country is now teetering on the edge of lawlessness. Of significant note, as well, is the fact that the subjects of these stories die violently and very young.

Responses:
I am very impressed with your articles, it gives me the opportunity to understand why these garrison communities are in state they are in. The criminality that occurred before my birth in 1974 has opened my eyes to the hypocrisy that exists in our society. Young people and the Ghetto have become the biggest scapegoats. The challenge being faced by the land of Guns, more Guns and little Water. Is there a central space where I can go and retrieve the articles I missed?
Keep up the good work.
Herman Harris
hrmn_harris@yahoo.com

Well written. I like the piece you did, keep it up, well researched too.
Brian Carless
erif_209@yahoo.com

Karyl,
I am a regular reader of your series on the criminals of Jamaica and indeed I read the comments by other readers to recollect if they really understand what's being written by you each Sunday. Some comments let me go back in time when my teacher told me "empty barrels make the most noise."

Neeliewun@yahoo.com made the most appropriate remarks towards the series, you have to go back in time to understand what is really happening in Jamaica today and educate your children (from in the homes) to be better men and women to represent Jamaica in a positive manner.

Many individuals believe the rise in crime in Jamaica relates to just today, and chastise writers who research the facts to educate them. Those who accept the writings are the ones with an open-mind, experience to the crimes, and victims who want a change to the current situation now in Jamaica.

Then we have the critics (society people who lived in the residential areas sleeping well at nights that said "let them kill them one another.") Now that this has changed and everyone is the victim of the outrage of crime in Jamaica, we should educate ourselves now, judge the actions of our new commissioner of police, and applaud the police officers who work 24/7 or 48/4 to curb the devastating genocide that has fallen upon our wonderful country (and I am talking about the good cops).

I am from one of the famous garrisons in Jamaica and have seen many youths (I grew up with) became famous for being notorious and their life ended before 25 years. Some you will soon mention in your programme, from Natty Kunda, Natty Chris, General Starsky, Radcliff, and Stella. People reading these articles would not even believe that some of these youths were aspiring stars who wanted to lead Jamaica in the right direction, but fell victims to political alliance, poverty, and revenge for gruesome acts by lawmen and men from neighbouring communities.

As Bob Marley said in one of his songs, "Every man have a right to decide his own destiny." So the youths today have a choice and are not aggressive enough to seek the help from those who are willing to help them positively. They are aggressive, however, to take up arms against a rival gang and that is where we have a problem. That is where we need the MPs and leaders of our beloved Jamaica to make the difference.
Stop supporting the gang members and unroot the heads that also supports these gangs. With no resources how can they commit these crimes?

I am a former student of Calabar High School, continue with your writings.
H A Daley
tiganaone@yahoo.com

----------

I saw this!
I think I knew Stackey - if he was the one who used to visit "Bom's" shop/bar on Red Hills Road?

......1

[Jangle]

see it yah

Bulbie's ruthless reign shielded by politicians
BY KARYL WALKER Observer staff reporter walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, February 10, 2008


- This series of articles is not intended to lionise or glorify the acts of criminals but to put a historical perspective on criminality in Jamaica, with the hope of shedding light on why the country is now teetering on the edge of lawlessness. Of significant note, as well, is the fact that the subjects of these stories die violently and very young.
IN the 1990s the modern political thug had evolved into a lord of the underworld and, for the most part, had stolen the love shown to political representatives by residents of garrison communities.

Politicians and the thugs they supported and used to secure power had had three decades to fine-tune their relationship. By this time, extortion and drug trafficking had become the main money earners for criminal gangs which had less need to feed directly from the political trough.
But there were still areas where gangsters aligned themselves to the dominant party in their garrison communities and, in the process, kept political order.
One gangster who amassed a massive fortune and whose criminal activities created a long list of murder victims was Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett, former leader of the Spanish Town-based Clansman gang.
Bennett was shielded by politicians, despite the protests of a member of parliament.
Just after the December 1944 general elections, former Prime Minister and National Hero, Alexander Bustamante, set the stage for the 'dog eat dog' style of Jamaican politics when he rewarded his party's supporters with jobs, political favours and other scarce benefits.
Since then, the dogfight for political spoils has never ended.
Bulbie, who was born at King Street in the old capital of Spanish Town in 1964, emerged in the 1990s just as former member of parliament for South Central St Catherine, Heather Robinson, was asked to serve in that constituency by the PJ Patterson-led People's National Party.
During that period, Bulbie was a party strongman, who carried out the bidding of PNP candidate for Central St Catherine, Clinton 'Jingles' Davy, who eventually lost in his bid to unseat incumbent member of parliament, Bruce Golding.
Bulbie was Davy's head honcho who kept order in PNP-aligned communities in the constituency before and after the March 1993 general elections.
Before those elections, a returning officer for South St Catherine was attacked and shot dead. Police say Bulbie and his cronies were suspected to be behind that murder.
When the votes were counted, Robinson had won her seat, but Davy lost by a landslide to Golding. However, victory would prove bittersweet for Robinson when Bulbie and his cronies attached themselves to her political team and began to make several demands.
After summoning the member of parliament to a meeting, Bulbie reportedly told Robinson that his ambition was to be the only don in Spanish Town and its environs. Bulbie reportedly threatened several senior members of the party who were also at the meeting, which was held at Robinson's constituency office, when he said, "All old don ago dead".
Out of concern for her party workers, Robinson called up Davy and asked him to intervene and rein in Bennett. But to Robinson's surprise, her request would be met with a cold response from her former colleague who reportedly told her, "If you won't feed them, I will".
Just days after the meeting, Bulbie and his Clansmen made good on his promise and murdered a popular party worker who worked closely with Robinson.
But it was the murder of Derrick Eccleston, also called 'Puppy String', that brought Bulbie under the police microscope.
Police say Bulbie gained leadership of the Clansman gang after he and three of his cronies launched a gun attack in the PNP enclave of De La Vega City on Eccleston and a group of persons with whom he was conversing. The attack was the third attempt on Eccleston's life, and this time Bulbie and his gang were successful. After shooting and wounding Eccleston, Bulbie reportedly went over the wounded man and pumped several shots into him.
After that killing, Bulbie was listed as wanted for murder. His three cronies who had gone with him into De La Vega City that night were held by police and were later convicted and given lengthy prison terms after being found guilty in the High Court.
The men were convicted after an eyewitness gave evidence which implicated Bulbie and his cronies. But Bulbie was never held by the police and continued to trod on his path of destruction and death.
At the time of his death in October 2005, police say they linked Bulbie to at least 80 murders.
Among those killed by Bulbie and his cronies were a number of PNP workers who worked for the bewildered Robinson. At the time the former politician threatened to resign after accusing a PNP councillor of colluding with Bulbie and facilitating garrison politics.
While her workers were being killed like flies, Robinson appealed to her colleagues in Parliament to dismantle tribalism and dismantle the power base of the dons. In an impassioned plea, Robinson told Parliament that she would not hug up criminals and was not able to give birth to a 'don'.
"In that regard I am truly barren," Robinson said in the famous speech in Gordon House. "Are there any of us in this House who would dare to go to the constituency that they represent and declare to these number one dons or now super predators, that we are finished with them and no longer need their services?"
She also hit out at the old style of politics.
"Some of the old dogs in our Parliament need to be taught new approaches," she also said.
But Robinson would come in for a rude awakening as her plea was met with a stony silence and fell on deaf ears. Instead of supporting their colleague in the drive to clean up the political landscape, the politicians ostracised Robinson and treated her like a traitor. In short she got no help and was left out on a limb.
Weeks after that speech, when it was clear that no action would be taken, Robinson resigned from her position in Parliament in May 1996 after three years in the position.
Bulbie, in the meantime, stuck to his goal and continued building his evil empire by snuffing out his rivals and expanding the turf of his Clansman gang.
Soon the Clansman gang would set up bases in Old Harbour, Dam Head, Linstead and other areas of St Catherine and Clarendon.
By the turn of the millennium, Bennett's criminal empire was worth millions, as he and his gang built a massive extortion racket which targeted fearful business owners and taxi drivers. The main centre of the extortion, according to police, was and still is the Spanish Town municipal bus park.
At the time Bulbie was now a permanent fixture on the police most wanted list, a spot he occupied for the last decade of his life.
But Bulbie's rise to the top of the dung heap of criminality was not unhindered, as a bitter fight for extortion rights erupted between his PNP-aligned Clansmen and the One Order gang, which supports the Jamaica Labour Party.
The war which ensued resulted in hundreds of lives being snuffed out on both sides of the conflict. While the Clansman has bases in the Rivoli, Lime Tree Grove, Lakes Pen, Jones Avenue, Manchester Avenue, Dam Head, Waterford and Fish Ground communities, the One Order gang's bases included Tawes Pen, Ellerslie Pen, Dempshire Pen, Shelter Rock and Oxford Road.
By this time, Bulbie was the beneficiary of a multitude of government contracts, even though he was a wanted man. Like most infamous criminals before him, Bulbie had eyes and ears in the security forces and managed to elude many police dragnets.
In 2001, police suspect that he briefly fled from authorities in Kingston to Great Britain under a false identity.
But like most before him, Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett would not live to a ripe old age and enjoy the benefits of his ill-gotten gains.
On October 30, 2005, the security forces swooped down on a palatial residence the nation's most wanted man had built in the rustic district of Tanaky nestled in the hills of Clarendon.
The police say as they approached the house they were fired on, and during a shoot-out, Bennett and his driver, identified only as 'Nathan', were killed.
Police say they found Bulbie clutching a .50 Desert Eagle pistol, which is valued at US$2,000 and a Ruger pistol from his driver. A quantity of cash and a large cache of jewellery were also found in the house.
At the time of his death, Bulbie's wealth was estimated at over $100 million.
Days after Bulbie's death, the head of the St Catherine Central police division, Superintendent Kenneth Wade, blasted PNP politicians for assisting Bennett who, he said, was given political support and supplied with information while he operated in areas dominated by the party.
During the days following his death, members of Bulbie's gang and persons who were loyal to him rioted by blocking roads, firing on the Spanish Town Police Station and burning T-shirts with the image of former National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips.

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[Sir X]

What a legacy huh , after stating the 1st political enclaves were built by Tavares and Seaga, we are led to believe the PNP were the main culprits in that the JLP were revenge seeking......Kisss mi teeetttt, What a legacy,ole Vampire !

Burry Boy and Feathermop, so called because of his grey locks which resembled a mop, were many times engaged in warfare with gangs led by revenge-seeking JLP enforcers Claudius Massop, Carl 'Byah' Mitchell and Curly Locks - the top political enforcer in Rema.

The result was unbridled bloodshed and carnage as the JLP strongmen, in reprisal, attacked and assaulted PNP supporters living at Lizard Town, a community on the outskirts of Tivoli Gardens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfE0rFuvHBU