The life of the ‘Phantom Killer’
ALTHOUGH a murderer himself, Conrad Levy, as known as “Connie” or later as “the Phantom Killer”, acted alone and killed murderers, bullies and ‘bad men’ who terrorised his community.
His life, however, ended on Christmas morning when he was cut down in a deadly gun battle with members of the security forces.
Levy is said to have killed close to one dozen people in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before being caught by the police. After his capture in 1991, the Phantom was incarcerated in the Spanish Town District Prison after he was placed on death row. His sentence was reduced to life after he became a ‘born-again’ Christian. Just 11 years into his sentence, Levy broke loose, and for the past six weeks walked the streets of Kingston, until the deadly gunfight with the police.
Even though Levy became notorious for his murderous deeds, those who claim to have known him throughout his childhood, remember him as a peace-loving youngster.
“Him was never a bad boy growing up. Him more seem to be interested in disco dancing,” a source from Franklyn Town reported.
Levy was the youngest of four brothers born to humble parents. His mother operated a shop and his father rode his bicycle and sold fish in and around the community. He attended the Franklyn Town Primary School before moving on to the Clan Carthy Secondary School.
It was said that Levy was not the bad man in his family but an elder brother, known as Sammy, who was feared by many persons in Eastern Kingston. The stories about Sammy’s cruelty and the way he dealt with his enemies is still fresh in the memory of some persons from his community.
“One time a man and Sammy inna friction and him a look fi Sammy with a gun. The man a ride a bike come up the road and Sammy jump the wall and face him. Sammy chop him inna him head and him eye dem drop outa him head,” a man who claimed to have witnessed the killing told the Observer. Sammy, who was said to have been a leading political henchman and extortionist in the 1970s, was eventually shot dead in McKintyre Villa (Dunkirk), after he had murdered two men who had committed a robbery in the area. Sammy had disarmed the offenders and was surprised by a security team that cut him down and took the weapons off his dead body.
Levy’s other two siblings were also killed by the gun. One, who the source identified as “Denton”, was shot dead on the compound of the Vauxhall Secondary School by a member of the security force. His other brother, Mark, was killed in Canada as a reprisal for a killing that was alleged to have been done by Levy.
Levy’s killing spree is said to have had its roots in peer pressure. The source told of the young man’s entry into a life of crime.
“Dem send him go rob. Him go pan di works and realise seh him know the people dem. Him never rob dem. When him go back pan the base the man dem shot him. After that them start take him fi soft soap and then dem shot him inna him hand. After that him get wicked cause him decide say him nah take it no more,” the source said.
It was at that point that the young man started his life of killing. His style was to dress in women’s dresses and wigs and stalk his victims, delivering death with swift finality. Among the first persons he killed were the men who had shot him and their cronies. The source also told the Observer that the police in the area were not overly concerned with finding the Phantom Killer because he was helping them to rid the community of criminal elements.
Levy’s love for dancing stayed with him throughout his life of murder and in one incident he is reported to have shot a man and disarmed him of an M-16 rifle after he had made disparaging comments about his dancing.
“Connie hear say the man a pass bad remarks ’bout him and him just disco him way to di bredda and put one shot pan him and take whe him 16,” a man who claimed to be in the session at the time of the killing, said.
Levy was captured after he had attempted to rob a bar in Kingston and was shot and injured by a policeman who was a patron in the bar at the time. He was reportedly shot in the mouth and captured after he was identified in the hospital as the Phantom Killer. While in prison he converted to Christianity.
Levy was allowed to leave the penal institution on weekends and persons say he broke out of prison because the weekend pass system was cut out by the prison authorities, after a prisoner had escaped.