DAVEY FALCUS, the British gangster-turned-preacher, says his early years were filled with crime and tragedy.
But now “Jesus is my best friend”, he declared during a recent interview.
Falcus, now 46 years old, says his father was a notorious gangster and he simply followed in his footsteps.
In his crime-organizing days, Falcus says, he had the power “and licenceto do what I want”. Heavily involved in the drug scene, he had a reputation of extreme violence, looking after troubled pubs and clubs in Newcastle and London.
For him prison and death were daily threats, he said an interview with the WEEKEND NATION.
But that lifestyle which made him “feel like a movie star” is now behind him.
Falcus, now an ordained church minister, was in Barbados on a crusade to get youngsters and other people to give up or avoid a criminal lifestyle, telling the story of how he got “from gangland to God”.
Not long after he was born in Brampton, Cumbria, Falcus’ mother committed suicide, which caused him to be put up for adoption; his father was a married man and had a family.
Falcus was taken in by a Christian family which showed him great love and affection. When he was five years old, death hit the family, with three adopted grandparents, an uncle and his adopted mother passing away in the space of two months.
“I was devastated and hated the world,” he recalled. “By the age of seven I was an alcoholic. I started thieving.”
At 16, Falcus became acquainted with his biological father’s family. He says that link led to his transporting machetes, razors and guns and getting involved in gang warfare.
“I graduated from borstal [a type of youth prison] to prison. At 17, I was locked up after an armed siege with the police and at 18 jailed for dealing heroin,” Falcus reported.
Falcus was released from prison at age 21, after spending three years. He went straight into running pubs, working as a bouncer and became heavily involved in the drug scene, working with the “Geordie Mafia”.
“It was all about organizing crime,” he explained. “I was arrested for armed robbery, bank robberies, interviewed for shootings and murders.”
He was married, with children, but found his life was spiralling out of control because of his cocaine and alcohol addiction and involvement in organized crime.
“It’s a horrible and very dangerous world,” he said.
He declared: “By the age of 29 I’d had enough . . . . A breakdown was coming and I needed to change my life.”
Falcus’ desperate search for peace took him “through Spiritism, Hinduism, Buddhism and other eastern religions”, looking for the answer to his problems and addictions.
“I was tormented by nightmares and voices that raged at me to kill myself.
I was desperate for peace and came to the verge of suicide,” he said.
On August 16, 1995 he picked up a Bible.
“It said He who seeks finds. Totally desperate, on the verge of suicide, I called out to Jesus Christ, asking forgiveness for my sins. . . . To my amazement, a bright, shining light filled the room. Wave after wave of pure bliss rolled over my body,” Falcus reported.
“As I looked up, Jesus was standing over me! He said, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven. Go now and sin no more.’ At that moment, a 15-year drug habit was broken instantly and my desire for alcohol also left me.”
The writer of a best-selling book titled Gangland To God, Falcus has shared his life story with millions of people across the world, going into prisons in England to transform the lives of drug dealers and users, gangsters, hitmen and terrorists.
“If I can prevent one person a day from entering or to come out of that life, I have done a lot,” said Falcus.
“The two men that I answered to in the Mafia both wrote me from prison and wished me well, success and everything else.”
