The Rise of Jamaica's Warring Gangs & Bob Marley's Attempted Assassination

The Underworld Podcast

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1960's, Jamaica's leading politicians saw an opportunity in the street gangs that were forming up in Kingston's slums. Pretty soon, each gang leader, known as a don, had a political party backing him that came calling whenever they needed some dirty work done, some votes turned out or an opposition neighborhood attacked. In exchange, the dons received favors, money and guns, turned their neighborhoods into garrisons and went to war with each other. With the cold war looming in the background, the violence reached a level that shocked everyone...but no one could have expected it would lead to the world's most iconic Jamaican being shot down in his own home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	April 22nd 1978 in Kingston, Jamaica.
0:05.0	Bob Marley is on stage with his band The Whalers, performing his hit song jamming in front of tens of thousands at the One Love Peace Conference.
0:14.0	There's two men on the stage with him,
0:17.0	and they're the two most powerful men in Jamaica.
0:19.0	Edward Siaga, the head of the Jamaica Labour Party,
0:22.0	and Michael Manley, the head of the people's national party.
0:26.0	They've got an election coming up for Prime Minister of the country, one of the many in which they would run against each other.
0:32.0	But they're more than just simple politicians.
0:34.7	Some would even call them warlords.
0:37.2	And Jamaica is in the midst of a low-level political civil war
0:40.7	fought by the powerful neighborhood kingpins, the Jamaicans called
0:43.7	Dons. Those Dons are all in attendance too, and they've been fighting each other
0:48.8	with maximum bloodshed on the orders of the two powerful politicians on stage with Bob
0:53.5	as things in Jamaica streets
0:55.2	threatening to spiral out of control.
0:57.5	It's actually pretty surprising that Bob is here at all in Jamaica
1:01.4	performing.
1:02.4	Less than two years earlier, men had run up in
1:05.4	his house and shot him and a bunch of others. Rumors swirled about the reasons
1:09.5	why, with lots of fingers pointing to Siaga's JOP shooters, potentially at the encouragement of the CIA.
1:16.0	There's also talk of horse racing bets gone bad and other shady intrigue.
1:21.0	Either way, Bob wasn't having it, and Jamaica's most famous man left the island for
	...

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