In the era that Gibbs made his bones, the crack-driven wave of violence terrified tenants into submission. The city-run Cypress Hills Houses sprawls across 29 acres with 15 seven-story buildings, 1,444 apartments and 3,397 residents. By that time, he had four felony convictions for robberies. He was convicted and went to prison on Jan. 13, 1982, at the age of just 19, he found himself imprisoned at the Fishkill State Correctional Facility. In 1981, cops busted Gibbs a fourth time for robbery. Johnson, Gibbs and several accomplices also robbed 12 people at gunpoint on a bus that was headed from Queens to Brooklyn. About a week later, cops arrested him against for another robbery on a train. ![]() Gibbs, then 16, robbed someone while holding a starter pistol near Pratt Institute in 1979, and cops caught him. And Queens rapper 50 Cent mentions Johnson in his song "Many Men (Wish Death)." Johnson was once suspected, but never charged in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Gibbs fell in with a buddy, Walter "King Tut" Johnson, who in 1982 infamously robbed 300 Jehovah's Witnesses in his mother's church. "If you want something, you do what it takes to get it." "I started doing crimes to make fast money to be able to keep up with my peers," he said. and stealing cash and anything they could resell. He and two or three friends began climbing across balconies and breaking into apartments in places like the nearby Linden Plaza Apartments on Lincoln Ave. I wasn't angry at society."īut as a teenager, Gibbs grew jealous of other kids with flashy clothes and nice sneakers, and wanted to have those things, too. "Anything that we wanted, she got it for us. "My mother was my big sister and my best friend," Gibbs says. "We were raised as kids to be respectful. "His childhood was not difficult at all," said his younger sister, who requested her name not be used for safety reasons. "He was absolutely plugged in to that culture, and he was as notorious as they come at the height of the crack epidemic. "He's the real deal," said Joseph Ponzi, the former chief investigator for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office who helped turn Gibbs into a cooperator. He told The News about his own crimes in a a dark world of heartless men who kill rivals over their lust for money. In order for you to be it, you have to go all the way." "You out there and you get caught up in that life, you gotta go all the way. Now almost two decades after his first murder, Gibbs, 53, lives in the South under an assumed name and has embarked on a self-described campaign of redemption. He was in the program for 18 months, given housing, a new name, a new identity and six months of living expenses. He spent nearly a decade in prison for his crimes and went into the witness protection program in 1997. The crack dealer was busted on federal drug charges and flipped, helping the feds dismantle the Nichols/Mason organization. Gibbs, during his days as a murderous crack dealer.
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