IN AN apparent effort to explain the crime phenomenon of 'Rhyging' to its readers The Gleaner of October 10, 1948 ran two stories: One titled 'History of a Killer', was by "The Crime Reporter". The other not ascribed was titled 'Who Was This Man With A Price On His Head'.

The first story opened: "The life of Ivanhoe Martin was short and turbulent, but it was not until he escaped from the General Penitentiary that he became known to the police as a potentially dangerous man".

"Born Vincent Martin in Linstead, St. Catherine, the 24-year-old gunman was known to friends and the police as Ivan Martin, Ivanhoe Martin, Ivan Brown and most widely known of all 'Rhyging'.

"He was five feet three inches high, black in complexion with black hair. He walked quickly and he spoke fluently and since he began his criminal career he was never known to be at any time without a revolver. That was Ivanhoe Martin, the man with the itch on his trigger finger, a penchant for fast shooting and an inordinate love for sensational display. A neat dresser, he sometimes wore heels to make him appear taller".

Quoting his mother "who lives in lower St. Andrew", the story went on to say that "he was just an ordinary baby boy and he grew up like that too". His turbulent career began to manifest at the age of 14 when on January 14, 1938 he was convicted in the Kingston RM Court of a vicious attack and was sentenced to receive twelve strokes of the tamarind switch.

A second conviction followed on February 27, 1940 again for wounding. This time he was fined twenty shillings which he paid instead of taking the 30-day jail sentence. On December 12, 1943 he was again before the court, this time on a shop-breaking charge. For this he received a jail sentence of six months hard labour.

After his release from the St. Catherine District Prison, there was no further brush with the authorities for three years, but instead of mending his ways he was apparently honing his skills for his notorious escapades that were to come. The Gleaner Crime Reporter had him in Western Kingston "where he soon attracted to himself an admiring group of underworld characters, who called him Alan Ladd and Captain Midnight". According to the story he was an avid reader of detective stories from which he drew inspiration. He formed a gang in the area and became its "mastermind".

On February 6, 1946 he earned another jail sentence for burglary and larceny and still another for the same sort of crime; together they attracted a total of two years. Still another conviction was handed down by the same court and this one was the most ominous for it was for illegal possession of a firearm and it earned him an additional six months jail time. But more was to come when on July 30, 1946 he got yet another five years on a burglary charge. He was now serving a total of seven years. On April 30, 1948 Rhyging decided to cut his sentence short and escaped from prison.

A rash of other burglaries followed his escape and among those credited to him were a break-in at the White Horses Inn at Mary Brown's Corner in which a watchman had been tied up, and a store break-in the Rousseau Road area.

The second Gleaner story posed the questions: "Who was Rhyging? This man with a price on his head whose twisted mind made him an enemy of society. Who was this five feet-three of ruthless killer who at the turn of last September blasted a *lo**-spattered path to newspaper headlines, with seven falling before his guns and three of the seven dead? Vincent Martin was his true name. In the puckish manner of his underworld comrades they named him Rhyging. Rhyging in their jargon means a man who is always on top. To them this snarling, boastful little gunman was top-notcher of the crime-filled west end."

According to the story, details of his early history were sketchy because in the area in which his kind operate early histories are always sketchy. What they endeavour to advertise is the number of times they have outwitted the cops or the number of jails they have cracked out.