At 21, Haynes and his gang
shot dead a security guard with a sub-machine-gun. He and
the others were convicted of amongst other things murder
and robbery and sentenced to death. Some of the convictions
were overturned on appeal and his sentenced lessened.
At the end of the eighties, Haynes was out
of prison and again a member of a West Rand gang that included
the notorious gangsters Corrie Goosen and Ferdi Barnard.
Barnard was then a member of the SADF’s death squad
called the CCB and was already convicted of double murder.
Goosen had convictions for robbery and illegal diamond dealing.
Haynes is one of the only surviving members
of this gang. Former policeman Eugene Riley was killed with
a shotgun in 1992. A second died in 1995 and two years later
Goosen was killed when he smashed his Honda Blackbird at
a speed of 300kph.
In 1998, Barnard was convicted of double murder —
which included the killing of anti-apartheid activist David
Webster in May 1989 — and a host of other crimes.
But Haynes continued unabashed, and by the
early 2000s he was the undisputed godfather of the West
Rand.
He had policemen and lawyers who identified
targets — usually people who owed or had large sums
of money owed to them.
He would then contact the creditor and offer to collect
the debt, then he would contact the debtor and offer to
protect the debtor from the creditor. Both parties paid
him a deposit and that was that. End of story.
Anyone who dared to ask any questions afterwards was threatened
with death.
Haynes also owned a fake diamond nicknamed
‘Poetsie’ – Afrikaans for ‘prank’,
complete with a fake evaluation certificate that the 2,795
carat blue stone was worth R20-million.
He would meet a potential buyer and pretend that he had
to urgently get rid of the stone. The buyer had to pay a
deposit and would then take the stone to verify its authenticity
and value. When he discovers it’s false, Ralph would
pretend that he’s utterly shocked and surprised and
take it back, but then refuse to give back the money.
If the guy wants to go to the police, Ralph threatens him.
It’s as easy as that and apparently works time and
again.
Haynes also had a pension and contingency
plan in place.
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Using
his sexy blonde wife Jackie as bait, he would lure
high-profile people to his mansion for sex and drug
orgies.
In this pic Jackie poses with Eugene Viljoen, former
right-hand man to the godfather and now star state-witness.
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There were 24 surveillance cameras in his
mansion and he would record these orgies. He has all these
tape hidden in ‘a safe place.’
Steve Hofmeyer and Joost van der Westhuizen are said to
star in some of the tapes.
Two weeks ago though, Ralph mysteriously
disappeared amid fresh charges of corruption, intimidation,
fraud and blackmail.
Police suspect that he fled to Botswana,
but Ralph’s older brother Barney is convinced that
he is dead.
According to Barney, it was the godfather’s birthday
on Tuesday last week and he always phoned the family on
his birthday, no matter what.
