JAMAICAN GANGSTER: Feathermop — The Motorcycle Assassin and the Bloodiest Election in History

About this episode

This episode explores the life of George 'Feathermop' Spence and his role in Jamaican political violence during the 1970s.

Before the Shower Posse. Before the cocaine wars. Before Jamaica's garrisons became transnational crime empires — there was a white van, thirty Honda motorcycles, and a Rastafarian enforcer named George "Feathermop" Spence who made Kingston's most powerful politicians untouchable and their enemies afraid to sleep. This is the story the history books skipped. Feathermop was not a random criminal. He was a weapon — built, financed, and protected by the PNP's political machinery during Michael Manley's democratic socialist era. Alongside his partner Winston "Burry Boy" Blake, he controlled Concrete Jungle, terrorized JLP garrisons, won government contracts he never honored, flew to Cuba on the prime minister's plane, and walked into government offices to threaten civil servants for cash — with full political cover. Nobody stopped him. Until somebody did. In this episode of Jamaican Gangster, we trace the full story of Feathermop — from the birth of the garrison model in West Kingston to the 1976 State of Emergency, the landslide election that the street machinery delivered, and the unsolved killing that closed a chapter and opened something far more dangerous. We also ask the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe, Kevin

Topics covered

• Jamaican political history
• gang violence
• garrison model
• Feathermop
• elections
• crime empires

Keywords

• Feathermop
• Jamaica
• politics
• gangster
• election
• violence
• PNP
• JLP
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PNP, JLP

Places: Kingston

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