Veteran journalist NAJIB ABDUL RAHMAN, who covered many exciting cases during his days as a New Straits Times crime reporter, caught up recently with Kenny Woodworth, the lawman who played a pivotal part in ending the criminal life of the country's most dangerous and fearsome gangster.
ASSISTANT Superintendent (ASP) Kenny Woodworth in his Ray-Ban shades looked cool, suave — almost film star-like the first time I met him during my crime reporting rounds at the High Street (Jalan Bandar) police station some 48 years ago.
But tough as nails that he was, the crimebuster was a soft-spoken man then. Now, at a grand 87 years old, he spoke softer still as he greeted me at an old folks home in Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya.
As we both, two old crocks, sat social distancing at a marble top dinner table, the first question I shot to Kenny was: "Bro, pardon me for asking but why are you here… at an old folks home?"
It was a difficult question to ask (a typical trademark question). But, to my surprise, the answer came rather easily.
"Well," he began slowly, "after my beloved Joan died (wife Joan Sylvia Maureen), I realised that I couldn't live in my home in Cheras anymore. We were married for 61 years but have no children. There's no one to look after me. I also have a problem in both my kidneys. So, an old folks home is a natural place for me to live out the rest of my life."
Sounds sad, yes, but Kenny had put it quite plainly.
The name Kenny Woodworth did not hog newspaper headlines but unbeknown to the public, the hardy lawman played a pivotal part in ending the criminal life of the country's most dangerous and fearsome gangster who wreaked havoc throughout Kuala Lumpur in the 1960s and 1970s — Wong Swee Chin, who was more popularly known as Botak Chin.
I asked Kenny: "Bro, remember Botak Chin?"
Immediately, he perked up.
My host shook his head and lamented. "You know, Najib, Botak Chin could never be anything else. He was born to become a criminal. Anything and anyone he could rob from, he would rob. Banks, shops, turf clubs, all became his victims. And he was also a killer," said Kenny.
As it was with gangsters, Botak Chin's entry into criminal lore started by being born into a poor family. He dropped out of school after Form 3.
As wild teenagers go, the youngster was impressed by the easy money his hoodlum friends always seemed to have by engaging in petty crimes. So, he joined them. The first gang he joined was the one terrorising the Jalan Ipoh and Sentul area, the 360 Gang.
Botak Chin was suitably impressed by the firearms possessed by his gangster friends. Almost everyone had a pistol. When he turned 18, the age that most youngsters got their driving licence, Botak Chin got his first firearm — a .22 calibre revolver. The crime spree started soon after.
"Actually, he went berserk," said Kenny.
"In 1969, he did eight robberies within a month. After the eighth heist, however, we caught the fellow and he was jailed for seven years."
The Sentulian was released after five years for good behaviour. He swore to renounce his life of crime.
"But he never walked the talk," said Kenny. After a few months of idling, the violent urges that had been welling up in him boiled over and finally broke out.
Kenny said: "Botak Chin loved guns. Also, the schemer and visionary that he is, he seriously believed that power lies at the barrel of a gun. Meaning, by having more guns he would have absolute power."
On June 2, 1975, the robbery rampage began. Flashing and waving their guns, the gang sprung upon an illegal gambling den in Sentul and made off with RM5,800.
Botak Chin put the loot to good use by visiting his gun runners in Thailand. He returned armed with eight pistols and 100 rounds of ammunition.
Then, just a month later, on July 20, the gang robbed the Bank of Tokyo on Jalan Imbi and fled with RM95,000. On the way back, to put icing on the cake, they ambushed a group of mahjong players inside a Chinese temple in Jalan Kolam Ayer and fled with another RM10,000. The gang was having a field day.
Naturally, all that foray alarmed the city police. They launched a counter attack. The man chosen to stop and haul down the gang was Deputy Superintendent (DSP) S. Kulasingam, a hulk of a man who headed the Serious Crime Section. Thus, began a running battle between Kulasingam and Botak Chin. There would be only one outcome.
Police acted swiftly. On Sept 25, 1975, they shot and killed one of his right hand men, Chau Kuan @ Ah Kuan at a sundry shop on Jalan Kovil Hilir, Sentul. Undeterred, Botak Chin hit back.
A month later, on Oct 26, he gunned down a security guard who was delivering money to a turf club. His haul that time was RM280,000 — his biggest ever catch. Three more heists followed.
Kulasingam and his men retaliated by gunning down seven of Botak Chin's men. Bristling with anger, the gangster chief decided that "Kula" had to die.
On the night of Nov 22, Botak Chin and a couple of his honchos riding in their green Datsun 120Y tailed Kulasingam's car. On reaching the traffic lights at Jalan Davis-Jalan Pekeliling, they drew alongside the crimebuster's car and rained 11 shots at their prey.
They were pretty poor marksmen as none of the shots that hit Kulasingam were fatal. Bloodied but still alive, the tough policeman drove his car to the Cheras police station. Kulasingam survived but for Botak Chin, that action sealed his fate. He became a dead man walking.
Kenny narrates: "Police quickly formed a special hit squad after that. I was drafted into the team together with DSP Gilbert Ang, ASP M. Rajalingam, ASP Lim Meng Aw, ASP Chua Leng Kee, Inspector Bawandi Hiralal, Inspector Pong Kim Hock, Detective Sergeant Chong Kam Hwa and Detective Corporal Leong See Fook.
"The media dubbed us 'The Magnificent 12' but I prefer to call ourselves the 'Dirty Dozen' because for two weeks after Tuan Kula was hit, the team worked day and night without bathing, shaving or changing our clothes in order to get information on where Botak Chin was hiding. So we were all quite dirty."
On Feb 16, 1976, they hit paydirt. Botak Chin and several senior gang members were tracked to Eng Leong sawmill on Jalan Ipoh.
Kenny continued: "We cordoned off the sawmill with 120 Federal Reserve troops and 60 Police Field Force personnel. Nobody could get in or out of the place.
"At about 8pm, I drove my car into the sawmill area. With me were Rajalingam and Bawandi. We immediately went to the back of the sawmill to cut off the escape route. Others in the team went into the place in two cars for a frontal assault.
"However, just as Rajalingam, Bawandi and I got out of our car, we were spotted by two men. One of them, who had two guns, fired at me. Luckily for me I had turned quickly and the bullets ricocheted off the back of my bulletproof vest. I had bought the vest with my own money."
As soon as Kenny fell to the ground he heard a soft thud near him.
"I knew that it was a grenade... but there was nothing I could do except just keep still and pray. I counted to eight because it takes eight seconds for a grenade to explode. After eight seconds and nothing happened, I knew the grenade must be a dud.
"I immediately got on to my knees and fired my Sterling sub machine gun at the two men. My Sterling carries 20 bullets in one magazine. I emptied three magazines at them. I then shouted to Rajalingam and Bawandi for more ammo and they threw two more magazines at me. I emptied both. Altogether, I fired 100 bullets at the two men. Both died."
After the skirmish ended, Kenny walked up to the dead men and identified them as Pangkor Chai and Sakai Chai.
"One of my bullets had shot Pangkor Chai in the left eye. Both bullet and eyeball were lodged in his mouth," Kenny recalled grimly.
He continued: "We entered the sawmill to look for Botak Chin. We found him bleeding and hiding in the storeroom. Apparently the bullets I had fired pierced the wooden walls and hit him in the arms and legs and he crawled into the storeroom."
On June 11, 1981, five years after his capture, Botak Chin was hanged at Pudu Prison.
But even now, Kenny bears no ill feelings towards the man he had shot and captured.
"When he was charged in court, I even advised him not to plead guilty. I said to him, let them do their work because you have your rights.
"I said that to Botak Chin because we are both professionals."
Kenny retired from the police force in 1988 as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). He said he has relatives living in Australia, the United Kingdom and America.
"But I don't want to go there. Malaysia is my country, my home," he said with a sense of finality.