Cape Town is as violent as New York was in the late 1950s."I see a lot of resemblance between the Cape Town gangs today and the ones we had in New York back then. The scale of violence, slick crime syndicates and everything else seems to have been adopted by troublesome youngsters here," he said while on a visit to the Cape Flats this week.Cruz, 71, who led the notorious New York Mau Mau gang in the 1950s, but later became an evangelist and wrote 15 books, was in Manenberg on Friday as part of his global crusade to change the lives of gangsters. Accompanied by bodyguards, relatives, former gangsters who had turned their lives around and curious locals, Cruz took a stroll through the gang-infested area and spoke to residents. Manenberg is home to gangs such as the Fancy Boys, Young Mafia and the Americans.Noting the many police, youngsters hanging out at corners and the security fences of schools, Cruz remarked that the neighbourhood resembled the Brooklyn area in New York when he lived there as a teen.Going door-to-door, the former gangster urged parents to show their children "more compassion", as lack of it led children to look for it in the wrong places.Cruz, born in Puerto Rica, knows more than most what it's like being a hardened criminal.As a child he was abused by his parents, who are said to have practised voodoo. At 15 he was sent to the United States to live with his brother."But I didn't stay with my brother. Full of anger and rage, I chose to make it on my own."After he joined the feared Mau Maus - named after Kenyan rebels - he quickly became a warlord and sowed terror wherever he went.The gang became known all over the world for their killing sprees and organised crime.But after the brutal death of a gangster friend, Cruz decided he had had enough. A priest, David Wilkerson, co-author of the seminal The Cross and the Switchblade, offered him a better life and he grasped the chance to become an evangelist.
Cruz said the syndicated crime, the brutality and the whole nature of gangs "starkly resembles the types of violent crimes committed by gangs in my time".Although he was no longer a criminal, some Mafia families still looked up to him - a fact that he did not approve of."I'm confident, though, that if we - parents, children and the government included - work together we could wipe crime off the face of the Earth," said Cruz.
'Hatchet' Gerard Kavanagh shot dead in Costa del Sol pub
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Gerard Kavanagh was shot dead in a bar on the Costa del Sol Notorious
gangster Gerard “Hatchet” Kavanagh was gunned down by two masked assassins
yesterda...
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