Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
'Chubby Dread' during a recent interview with The Gleaner. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
AS TRAGIC as it was, Franklin 'Chubby Dread' Allen spent the final hours of his last day on earth doing what he loved best - listening to music, with a lady on his arm.
Last November, days after he was shot by a gunman at Water Lane in the community of Southside, the ebullient Allen told The Sunday Gleaner that his reputation as a political enforcer was overplayed.
"Mi nuh inna war thing, yuh nuh roots, me's a music man. Mi jus' love my dance an' love my girls," he said.
The Constabulary Communication Network reported that Allen, 55, was murdered early Friday morning by two men who approached him and a female companion shortly after they left the Asylum nightclub in New Kingston.
REPORTEDLY SHOT
According to the police, he was reportedly shot by the men before attempting to escape. One of his attackers pursued him, pumping several shots into Allen's body on the pavement facing the popular nightspot.
No one has been arrested for the murder. His female companion came away unharmed.
The incident not only ended the life of a central Kingston legend, but it also marked the end of an era. Chubby Dread was the last in a long line of 'area leaders' that ruled violence-plagued communities such as Southside with an iron hand.
"He was very co-operative, jovial, a man of his word," said Frances Madden of GraceKennedy, who knew Chubby Dread for 31 years and worked with him on the Central Kingston Task Force Team. "He was the first man to hold down things."
Central Kingston Member of Parliament, Victor Cummings, described him as "a steady voice, anytime there was a problem he would speak up." Mr. Cummings told The Sunday Gleaner that he last saw Chubby Dread on Monday at Harbour Street.
"We got along well, he was a decent person," said Mr. Cummings.
DISAGREEMENT
Not everyone in central Kingston agreed with that, especially some of the youth in Southside, a tough area with strong ties to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party. In an interview with The Gleaner last year, several of them denied having anything to do with the attempt on Allen's life, but said he was partly responsible for the friction throughout Southside that resulted in the deaths of five persons.
Chubby Dread was actually born in St. James, but said he moved to Southside when he was 11 years-old. He saw a lot of action there over the years: constant fighting between Southside and neighbouring Tel Aviv during the 1970s; the infamous Gold Street Massacre in 1980 and an attempt on his life that year while he was boarding a bus.
He was also detained for eight months in 1980 on a murder charge. He was eventually cleared.
An unapologetic 'Labourite,' Chubby Dread believed the youth in Southside and Tel Aviv were far more violent than the badmen of the politically-divisive 1970s. He credited streetsmarts for him surviving many of his contemporaries who died by the gun.
In the end, not even Chubby Dread's know-how could save him.
