Rhyging

In 1946 he was arrested for robbery, beginning his career of self-dramatisation by defending himself in court, irritating the judge with his "long-winded" and grandiose speeches.

After a year in gaol, he was released, but quickly committed another robbery, for which he was convicted and sentenced to a five-year term.

Vincent "Ivanhoe" Martin (1924–9 September 1948), known as "Rhyging", was a Jamaican criminal who became a legendary outlaw and folk hero, often regarded as the "original rude boy".

He became notorious in 1948 after escaping from prison, going on the run and committing a string of robberies, murders and attempted murders before he was gunned down by police.

On 30 April 1948 he escaped from gaol.

What followed was a period of several months during which he eluded police, ending in an intense six-week crime spree in West Kingston.

Lurid reports about the spree appeared in the Daily Gleaner newspaper, which popularised his nickname "Rhyging".

The crime spree began when police attempted to capture him in August.

After learning from an informer that he was at the Carib Hotel, several officers lay in wait for him there.

Rhyging was in a room with a woman when the police burst in.

He grabbed his gun and managed to shoot his way out, leaving one officer, a Detective Lewis, dead.

Two other men were wounded: policeman H. E. Earle, and ex-sergeant Gallimore, a retired officer who was assisting.

The killing of Lewis led the mayor of Kingston, Alexander Bustamante, to launch a major manhunt.

Bustamante was a pallbearer at Lewis's funeral.

The following day he killed a woman named Lucille Tibby Young, the girlfriend of Eric Goldson, the man he believed had informed on him.

He broke into her room and demanded she take him to Goldson.

When she said she did not know where Goldson was, he shot her in the chest, killing her instantly.

He then also shot the two other women who were in the room at the time, Estella Brown and Iris Bailey, wounding them.

Immediately after this the police offered a £200 reward for the capture of Rhyging, dead or alive.

Rhyging responded by writing an open letter to Detective Sergeant Scott, one of the detectives leading the search for him.

The letter, which was published in the Jamaica Times, stated,

"I have an arsenal of 29 shots and I am satisfied that I have made history for the criminal element in Jamaica. Don't think that I am going to kill myself because this will only serve to spoil my great record. But I hope that Detective Scott will train his men some more. I am going to show the police force what is lacking and what I can do.'"

He killed another man a few days later.

Jonathan Thomas, an associate of Rhyging, was walking along the street with his wife when Rhyging appeared and shot him.

He then attempted to kill another man, Selvyn Maxwell, but Maxwell managed to wrestle the gun from Rhyging's hand.

Rhyging escaped after stealing Maxwell's car.

He was also involved in robberies, possibly to fund a planned escape from Jamaica.

He was suspected of robbing the White Horses Inn at Mary Brown's Corner (during which a security guard was tied up) and a store near Rousseau Road.

The crime spree made Rhyging famous.

During the spree, he sent taunting messages to the press and made a photograph of himself holding guns.

In a letter to the Daily Gleaner he gave his own account of the shoot-out at the hotel,

"I decided to make a dash. I ran to the door with my pistol in my hand. I did not even have time to reach for my close (sic). I looked outside. I heard the sound of another shot. I see the men mean to make the end of me tonight, but I intend to carry someone with me. At that time I only had five shots with me....I put myself outside. I was hit in my right shoulder. That did not make much.... One shot fired from this crowd hit the butt of my gun. I fired back. I think I saw every man except one man who was staggering."

In subsequent decades his life became mythologised in Jamaican popular culture, culminating in the 1972 cult film The Harder They Come, in which he is portrayed by Jimmy Cliff.

His nickname comes from the term rhyging, also spelled rhygin, a variant of "raging".

In Jamaican Patois it is used to mean wild, hot, or bad.

Born Vincent Martin in Linstead, St. Catherine, Jamaica, he turned to a life of violent crime in his teenage years after moving to Kingston.

Short and slim with an "effeminate" voice, he compensated by building a reputation for extreme violence.

He was first arrested at 14 for wounding, for which he was sentenced to a birching.

Further arrests for wounding and larceny followed, leading to a six-month stint in gaol.

After this, he became part of a criminal gang and adopted a variety of pseudonyms, including "Ivanhoe", "Alan Ladd" and "Captain Midnight".