The Tivoli Commission of Enquiry yesterday heard compelling testimony of how a notorious gangster who, amid his confessed acts of criminality, appeared remorseful about his criminal lifestyle and who was missing the affection of his family.
The testimony by Superintendent Beau Rigabie was based on the contents of a diary he said was penned by slain Stone Crusher gang leader ‘Doggie’ – given name Cedric Murray – who was killed in a shoot-out with the police in Clarendon on August 12, 2010.
Reverence For Coke
Several entries in the diary show the reverence Murray had for drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke and the Coke clan and how he boasted about being among heavily armed thugs who waged fierce gun battles with members of the security forces during the May 2010 police-military operation in Tivoli Gardens.
In one entry dated May 24, 2010 – the day the operation was launched – Murray described how “gunshot rang out from every corner of west Kingston” and suggested that Coke and his cronies might have underestimated the firepower of the security forces.
All hell broke loose, more than we expected. I fired my AK [47 rifle] until my finger numb. I eat gun powder until my throat sore,” Rigabie said as he read one of the gangster’s boasts.
“It was a raging gun battle, a day I won’t forget and such tragedy for Jamaica. They came in and slaughter all those people to catch one man and still didn’t,” he continued.
“I escaped … one of the last from where I was … under crazy gunfire, but God, grace [and] mercy brought me out untouched and my don is free. I will always say ‘Jim Brown’ [Coke’s late father Lester Lloyd Coke] … I am loyal to the Coke family and my guns will always be ready,” Murray also wrote.
Despite this, the reputed gang leader showed his softer side in an entry he made in June 2010. Murray wrote that his heart was in pain because he was about to “lose his baby”, a reference to his female companion.
“This is just too much, she lives in constant fear. Every sound frightens her so the time has come for me to, once again, to feel the pain of being heartbroken,” he wrote.
Murray also wrote of his daughter’s fourth birthday when she reported waking up to a curfew. “I called her and she said ‘daddy soldiers’ and she was afraid. My life is filled with ups and downs,” he noted.
He also indicated that the dismantling of Coke’s west Kingston stronghold forced him “back in the streets” and that he was “very unhappy and lonely”.
Murray recounted one instance when a false alarm caused him to flee his place of hiding.
“So many of those, this is a wasted life. I don’t even have a roof over my head, I’m all over [the place]. I miss my kids,” he wrote.
Source | Jamaica Gleaner
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