Assistant Commissioner of Police Denver Frater. - Norman Grindley/ Deputy Chief Photographer
BEFORE THE advent of Crime Stop and senior cops giving out personal phone numbers, the Most Wanted list was the police's best strategy to get the public involved in their fight against crime.
Probably the most infamous of these rogues galleries was released in early 1980. It included the mug shots of 10 criminals, including East Kingston top rankings, Anthony Brown and George Flash.
FLED JAMAICA
Both men were wanted for murder and robbery, but fled Jamaica (some say for Cuba) before returning in the early 1990s. All charges against them were eventually dropped.
Others on that list were not as fortunate. Donovan Chin Quee, who was charged with murdering Lloyd Sierakowski an Australian lecturer at the University of the West Indies in 1971, was killed by gunmen in 1981.
He had escaped from prison the previous year. Christopher 'Natty Chris' Henry from Tel Aviv in central Kingston was another on that list. He was reportedly a triggerman in the 1980 Gold Street Massacre; Henry was killed in a shoot-out with police in Arnett Gardens in 1984.
PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE
Dennis 'Copper' Barth was not on the 1980 flyer, but he was the most infamous Public Enemy Number One in the 1970s. A member of the Hot Steppers gang of east Kingston, he was given two life sentences for murder and shooting two policemen
before he was 18 years old. Copper escaped from the General Penitentiary twice and besides his reputation as a cold-blooded murderer, was a prolific bank robber. He was the police's Most Wanted man at the time of his death on April 30, 1978; he was killed by police attempting his biggest caper, robbing the Caymanas Park racetrack.
Keith 'Trinity' Gardener was the Reneto Adams of the 1970s, figuring in legendary shootouts with criminals. In one incident, he was shot in the mouth, an injury that required extensive reconstructive surgery.
In a 2005 interview with The Gleaner, he said thugs back then did not pack the firepower of today's gunmen but they were just as ruthless. "The difference really is, then the people with the guns were older and 'responsible' in that they would not shoot indiscriminately and the shootings would only be confined to political activity," said Gardener, who is now an assistant commissioner in charge of Area One.
HC
