The former militant H. Rap Brown hid crimes against West End behind cloak of religion

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/17/08

An admitted hitman awaiting trial in Fulton County for murder has revealed details about the life and alleged crimes of notorious cop-killer Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
It's a slice of Atlanta's history that has long remained a mystery. But as the case against the hitman, Leonard Devin Holland, 40, winds its way through the court system, a voluminous paper trail has been made public, finally revealing details about the moblike crime ring that for years dominated the streets of southwest Atlanta.
Atlanta police detectives and FBI and ATF agents tried to break up the group for years, according to police records. But the killings continued until Atlanta police narcotics detectives targeting a drug house in 2004 stumbled onto something much bigger.
Police found Holland with marijuana, handguns, assault rifles, a DeKalb County sheriff's badge, an Atlanta Police Department gun, SWAT uniforms, bullet-resistant vests, gas masks and a Russian-made chemical agent detector.
After Holland's arrest, Atlanta police Detective Bobby Render, who specialized in organized crime, said Holland, 40, admitted in a tape-recorded confession to killing several people. Police believe the death toll may be as high as 50.
On Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall issued an order allowing prosecutors to tell jurors about 11 prior homicides they believe are linked to Holland.
"This is the most dangerous guy I've ever met and I've been in law enforcement 30 years," Render said.
When Holland sat down with Render, the hitman spent eight hours detailing his life of crime and his connections to Al-Amin.
According to a transcript of the confession, Holland told the detective: "I got to hope and pray that you're able to handle what I'm going to tell you and not look at me like I'm some parasite and not look at me like: 'You deserve the death penalty,' I have been a monster, sir."
Holland told police that as a Muslim he needed to "clear his soul." During his confession, he expressed remorse for some of the killings and at times burst into tears, saying: "God forgive me."
Holland told police he worked as a "top lieutenant" for Al-Amin.
The 1960s militant, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is now serving a life sentence at the nation's most secure prison, Supermax, a federal facility in Colorado that also houses an al-Qaida terrorist and Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. Al-Amin was convicted for killing a Fulton County sheriff's deputy in March 2000 and wounding his partner.
Al-Amin has insisted he turned away from violence toward a peaceful life of faith and was wrongly targeted by police because of his past.
But Holland, and some others who claimed to have followed the orders of Al-Amin and attended his West End mosque, have told police a different story: how Al-Amin ruled the area through intimidation and violence. They say he hid behind religion, convincing many well-intended members of his mosque that he was trying to rid the area of drugs.
Instead, police said, Al-Amin controlled an organized network that terrorized the streets of southwest Atlanta for years, killing dozens.
Drug dealers robbed
Holland told police he grew up in New York and started his life of crime early, shooting a couple of people before moving to Atlanta in the mid-1980s at age 18.
He settled into the West End community, where he met Al-Amin. Holland joined Al-Amin's West End mosque and began using the Muslim name Shaheed Abdur Rahman. He eventually was named one of Al-Amin's top lieutenants and helped extort money from drug dealers. After his 2004 arrest, Holland helped police draw an organizational chart, with Al-Amin at the top, according to court documents.
Holland claimed Al-Amin had a top assistant, followed by an inner circle of seven that he was a part of. Holland said he headed the Sutra, or security team. They were the enforcers who would rob and kill.
They said Al-Amin promised the community he would clean up the drug dealing prominent on the streets and even near children playing in area parks. Al-Amin would set a curfew, often 9 p.m. on weeknights.
Then he'd send out the security team to open fire on anyone left on the streets. Those who paid a "protection fee" got an advance warning.
Drug dealers' guns were stolen and sold by Al-Amin, police said.
According to Atlanta police documents, local police and the FBI were investigating Al-Amin's crime ring as early as 1992, but police say it's been difficult to get enough evidence to prosecute.
During his confession, Holland explains why. They were careful to wipe away evidence and hurry the murder weapons out of town, often selling them on the streets of New York City.
And they were experts at intimidation, scaring away witnesses. One woman, Shannon Frazier, was about to tell police what she knew, when she was shot in the head on Dec. 26, 2003, said Atlanta police homicide detective D.B. Mathis. Prosecutors believe Holland ordered the woman's death.
8 linked homicides
Holland was a follower of Al-Amin, but also had his own ambitions.
He recruited young black males and started a robbery crew of about 10 core members who called themselves "The Clan" but were known throughout the area as the "West End Assassins."
"We robbed from South Carolina to Florida," Holland said.
Holland and his crew, all of whom were Muslims, were upset about developments in Iraq and thought about some type of attack to show their disdain for what they called unfair treatment of Muslims by the United States, he said.
When Holland was arrested, police found fake Super Bowl credentials with behind-the-scenes access to the upcoming 2005 face-off between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville.
Holland told police they trained in a park off Cascade Road but didn't have firm plans in place. But investigators believe he is telling them only a portion of what he and his crew have carried out.
Holland, who briefly worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution delivering papers in 2004, is charged with only one murder, the March 2002 killing of James Gary Jones, 36.
Jones was a fellow Muslim known in the neighborhood as "Rafi" and was close friends with Holland until the two had a disagreement.
Fulton prosecutor Brett Pinion also persuaded the judge to allow evidence at trial about eight other homicides linked to Holland to show a pattern of violence, according to court records.
Pinion also plans to tell jurors about Holland's 1991 confession in which he admitted helping his friends with three other West End killings in 1990 and 1991.
Prosecutors are pushing for a murder conviction and sentence of life without parole.
Holland's trial is on hold while his attorney, Ash Joshi, appeals the trial judge's order allowing evidence of the other 11 homicides to go to the Georgia Supreme Court. He is also asking the high court to toss out Holland's confession.