Sept 2014 – Nairobi – Could the greatest crime fighter that ever lived be a 380 lb White man who lived in Kenya? According to Jonathan Spangler, Director of the upcoming film Pat Shaw was Romeo 9, the larger-than-life Patrick Shaw was “without any doubt the greatest crime fighter that ever lived”.
Few who lived in Kenya in the 1970s and 1980s can not recollect Patrick Shaw – the larger-than-life crime-buster who worked as the Assistant Director at Starehe Boys Centre while in his off hours exterminated criminals in environs of Nairobi and beyond. But outside of Kenya, Mr. Shaw is virtually unknown.
Shaw was an intimidating man standing six feet tall and weighing in at over three hundred pounds. He rarely slept, suffering from a glandular disorder, choosing instead to spend his free time patrolling the streets of Nairobi in a white Volvo hunting down criminals. He killed Nairobi’s most notorious gangsters and hundreds of others. He was probably the most prolific, if not the most unorthodox, lawman that ever lived.
According to Spangler, Shaw was not only a supreme investigator but also totally ruthless in his dealings with known suspects. Spangler documented over sixty kills by Shaw but estimates the number to be much higher. “Possibly in the hundreds and many were off the radar as he operated alone as a veritable “Dirty Harry”. What is even more interesting is that Shaw was never paid for his “work” he was a volunteer officer who even rose to the rank of Senior Superintendent.
Shaw’s life and identity is laced with legends and tales of heroism and brutality. Unlike the tales of outlaws and lawmen of lore, the witnesses who saw Shaw in action are still living today and the tales recounted are stranger than fiction. His lasting memory and questions surrounding his life still makes him enigma till this day– a man whose life, death and modus operendi remain shrouded in mystery.
However, Shaw also had a soft side. He worked full-time as an administrator at Starehe Boys’ Centre a school originally founded to rehabilitate orphans left from Kenya’s bloody Mau Mau rebellion in the 50s. Shaw served the school for almost three decades while maintaining other official duties.
Spangler spent the last three years researching the life and times of Shaw to better understand the man behind the myth. The documentary on Patrick David Shaw entitled “Pat Shaw was Romeo 9″ examines the life and legacy of this extraordinary man and traces his life while growing up in pre-WWII London through his life working under the colonial service in Kenya and his post Kenyan Independence work with Starehe Boys’ Centre and Kenya Police Service.
Spangler first heard about Shaw in 2011 from a friend while living in Nairobi. The discussion sparked a three-year long journey which has culminated in his filming of a documentary on Shaw, which Spangler plans on producing using funds from kickstarter.com a crowd funding platform.
