Gang boss back from the dead to save lives

A former gang boss who literally “came back from the dead” now wants to keep youngsters away from a life of crime.

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Cape Town - An ex-gang boss has come back from the dead to let youngsters know that there is no future in gangsterism.

Francois Nico Lallo is living proof that there is no loyalty among gangsters when a hit by his own crew left him clinically dead for seven minutes.

For nearly 10 years, 42-year-old Lallo, of Hanover Park, was the feared leader of the Laughing Boys gang.

He became a gangster at the age of 14. At 17 he was locked up for the first time for murder. At 19 he was a senior 26s prison gangster.

But betrayal by his own friends and the death of a loved one made him change his life.

Today Lallo is on a crusade to save the youth from prison life and gangs.

Lallo was part of an open air church service in Westridge, Mitchells Plain, earlier this month.

For effect he entered the service wearing orange prison gear to show how gang life can isolate you.

He has joined Sebastian Carson of Westridge Assembly of God to bring a positive message to young people on the Cape Flats.

“Our aim is to make an impact on the youth,” said Carson.

And what better way to do it with a man who “died” because of his gangster lifestyle.

“People think you can just be a prisoner inside Pollsmoor, but you can be a prisoner inside your own home and forced into a gang,” he said.

“At the age of 14, I joined a gang, the Laughing Boys, in Hanover Park,” Lallo recalled.

“I was 17 years old when I went to prison for the first time, Pollsmoor for murder.

“We were a group that killed someone in Hanover Park and I got a five-year sentence.

“Most of my friends were 26s and they recruited me at age 19.

“I saw it as my chance to rob innie tronk , to get a rank in the number.”

In 2000, at age 27, Lallo was released and went into Hanover Park where he became leader of the Laughing Boys.

That was until his own gang turned on him in 2005.

“As I came down from the stairs (of my home), I heard the gunshots and they shot me in the neck and I told myself, I cannot fall to the ground,” he explained.

He was rushed to hospital where he amazed doctors by surviving.

“I died for seven minutes. I was discharged two weeks after that.

“The doctor said in all of his 15 years, he never saw a case where my slagaar (jugular) was six inches open and I survived.

“You don’t realise then it is God.”

Then he was struck by another tragedy when his girlfriend died of cancer in 2009.

“I went home after the funeral and for the first time I realised I was alone,” he said.

“My family didn’t worry with me and I was hurt, I couldn’t point a finger at anyone. It wasn’t the way to live and I realised there is a God.”

Since then Lallo has turned his back on the gangs and is taking his message to churches across the Cape Flats.

“I want to say to the youth there is a better way than drugs and gangs,” he said.

Daily Voice