BADMAN FREAK; MAXWELL BOGLE

America’s most wanted: armed, dangerous and living in London
Where did New York’s hardest Yardie gangsters run to when police wrecked their empires? The UK’s criminal underworld knows the answer…

Tony Thompson
The Observer, Saturday 3 June 2000
One belongs to a gang of notorious mass murderers. Another rapes and sodomises the children of people who owe him money. A third has shot, stabbed and tortured his way to the top of the criminal underworld. These, the world’s most violent Yardie gangsters, are believed to be hiding in London.
Charles Brackett, Mervin Benjamin and Maxwell Bogel are all fugitives from the FBI and are said to have made several visits to the UK as part of their bid to evade capture. The trio are native Jamaicans, but until recently were based in New York.

Bogel made his name as an enforcer with a vicious gang known as the Shower Posse – because they showered victims with bullets from Uzi sub-machineguns. Since 1996 his role has been to collect debts from those who owe the gang for drugs.

To do this, he broke into their homes, kidnapped their children and brutalised them repeatedly until the gang was paid. His victims were often tied up for 30 hours at a time. One, a 12-year-old girl, also endured rape and sodomy.

Last year Bogel, who has a string of previous convictions, was tried and convicted in absentia of attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, robbery and possession of firearms. He received a sentence of 68 years.

Now the man described by US marshals as ‘armed, extremely dangerous and one of the most sought after criminals in the United States,’ is believed to be here. Sources in the London’s Yardie underworld say a man fitting Bogel’s description has been seen in London several times in the past year.

Deported from the US, Bogel is believed to have come to Britain in a bid to re-enter America indirectly.

Charles Brackett, Mervin Benjamin and Fabian O’Neal Littlejohn are also believed to be moving in and out of London on false papers. They are all key members of the Poison Clan, responsible for 30 murders and the sale of millions of pounds worth of crack, heroin and guns.

The gang’s name comes from a cult martial arts movie and refers to its members’ willingness to kill their own as well as others. Poison Clan was founded by Devon ‘Chubby’ Beckford after killing two crack-dealing colleagues who had refused to let him branch out on his own.

Under him, the Clan quickly grew, using violence to convince other dealers to buy from the Clan and share their profits. Those who resisted were dealt with ruthlessly.

When a group of cannabis dealers from suburban Richmond refused to capitulate, Chubby told one of his footsoldiers, Jimmy Fingers (he had accidentally shot one of his fingers off) to teach them a lesson. Four clan members set off for Sugar Bottom at 4.15 that afternoon.

When police arrived at the clansmen’s destination they found three bodies sprawled in the small and blood-spattered front room. Another wounded man had managed to crawl down a hallway towards the back door. The killers were nowhere to be found.

Following an extensive police and FBI operation, the gang was broken up in 1997 with 28 defendants – including Beckford, who narrowly avoided the death sentence – being brought before the courts and convicted on drugs and violence charges. Brackett, Benjamin and Littlejohn, however, are still on the run.

They are not the first wanted Yardies to make the trip across the Atlantic. Victor Francis, a leading member of the Brooklyn-based Renkers Posse, fled to Britain in the mid-Nineties after being indicted in New York on 16 charges, including murder, attempted murder, robbery, theft and drug dealing. He was eventually arrested when police found him running a crack den in Acton with his brother.

Earlier this year, 38-year-old Winston Harris, the leader of a Yardie gang called the Lock City Crew, was jailed for life for shooting dead a man at the Bridge Park leisure centre in Wembley. The shooting broke out after the wife of a member of the rival Cartel Crew drove into the centre’s car park to see an event.

One of the security guards who was also a member of the Lock City Crew criticised her poor parking and told her to try again. The woman then flew into a rage, smashed a bottle and had to be escorted away by police, but she returned 20 minutes later with her Cartel Crew husband.

Lock City members saw this move as a direct attack on their territory – Bridge park was a major crew meeting place – and a hideout for their caches of drugs, guns and ammunition.

Winston and three others retrieved guns they always kept hidden in a sports bag nearby, locked the door of the leisure centre to prevent anyone leaving during their planned raid and went to track down their rival. But in the panic that followed, Harris let off a shot which killed a bystander, Dion Holmes, passing through his heart and liver.

Harris, who had served several jail terms in New York and had fled here to avoid further charges, regularly travelled between the two countries on false passports.

He was convicted of murder along with three others. Ironically a Jamaican national, Anthony Wray, another member of the LCC present that day and who Scotland Yard plan to charge with Dion Holmes’s murder, is believed to be hiding abroad, probably New York.

One detective said last night: ‘These fugitives should on no account be approached by members of the public.’

FABIAN O’NEAL LITTLEJOHN Wanted for: multiple murders, assaults, robberies and threats Also known as: Jack, Fatta Date of birth: 1/2/1969 Known for: Violent obedience of gangster bosses’ orders STILL AT LARGE
MAXWELL BOGEL Wanted for: kidnapping, rape, robbery, sodomy of 12-year-old girl Also known as: Max Bogle, Paul Robinson, Ike Box Date of birth: 22/1/1963 Known for: Ruthless, brutal debt collecting for vicious Shower Posse ARMED AND HIGHLY DANGEROUS
MERVIN BENJAMIN Wanted for: Multiple murders, assaults, robberies, drug-trafficking Also known as: Benji Date of birth: 10/8/1965 Known for: Flitting back and forth across the Atlantic on false papers, gun-running activities WANTED FOR MULTIPLE MUDERS
CHARLES O. BRACKETT Wanted for: gang-warfare related murder, robbery and assault Also known as: Charlie Chase Date of birth: 28/8/1964 Known for: Being one of few members of the once powerful Poison Clan who is still at large. WANTED

Maxwell Bogle, 38, was indicted in the 1996 kidnap and rape of a 15 year old girl, in which he and co-defendant, Eric Ellis, held her prisoner for nine hours, sexually assaulted, pistol-whipped and threatened to kill her in front of two other children, ages 14 and 15. Bogle jumped bail before his trial and is suspected of committing a fatal shooting and four gunpoint home invasions while on the lam. He was captured yesterday at his Brooklyn hideout. He surrendered without resistance.

Submitted on: 03/02/01