God chose the destroyer of many
to save many... The conversion story of Mathew Albin - notorious criminal
and gang-leader of goondas.
Olive Shoots in the
Hand and Wielded a Dagger
( Prepared by: Jomon
M Mankuzhikary)
Thirty seven years ago a
corpse was washed ashore on the sunny Thanki sands of Cherthala in the
state of Kerala. An eleven-year- old lad was falling on this dead body
covered with khajans and crying his heart out. He came to know from the
gamblers on the beach that his father had been mudered. While he watched
his father being buried like a dog in the "grave of the rascals," the boy
became the embodiment of uncontrollable grief and utter helplessness. The
young boy's mind was being moulded in the terrible crucible of suffering
and the all-consuming desire for revenge. Before Mathew Albin, later known
as "Butcher Albin" and the dreaded terror of Kerala, the excruciating experiences
of his childhood were unfolding like the pages of a book... Albin choked...
overcome by emotion ... words failed him.... his tears fell in profusion
accentuating the dark spots on his saffron shirt.
"When I went to the neighbour
for a meal they drove me away". A childhood replete with nothing but sad
memories! A little rice water for the infant sister and the few grains
of rice for his younger brother-as for himself a cold-water splash on his
face to refresh his hungry, tired body. His mother working as a domestic
in another's house would say, "Son, how loving you are!" The childhood
of Mathew Albin, the Founder and Managing Trustee of Sarvodaya Shanti
Bhavan Charitable Trust at Punnapra near Alleppey, was drenched in
pain and affliction. "I would enter a marriage pandal stealthily unable
to suffer hunger anymore and be thrown out invariably...My companions would
laugh at me, call me a vagabond. When I went to the seashore looking out
for some job, the people there twisted my arm, took my basket away. A leaking
hut...nowhere to lay my head."
The humiliating experiences
of life led Albin, the son of Pediekal Mathew and Rosamma of Thanki parish
in Kochi diocese to Thekkinkadu maidan in Thrissur. "Without a morsel
of food,or a drink of water, the companion I managed to get was a leper.
He would inflict wounds on my body in order to get more alms. I ran away
from him. Next my competition was with dogs - for left-overs in the garbage
bin."
The kindness of a large-hearted
man landed him in a rich man's house on the outskirts of Thrissur. "I thought
fortune smiled on me at long last." Albin says. Saving whatever he could,
he went home with a heart full of love. It was a journey that changed his
life forever-the drawn dagger would never again be sheathed-atleast for
a long time to come. Albin was slowly recalling his past memories.
Albin got employed in I
M S. Seminary, married at the age of 22 and settled down in Paravoor near
Alappuzha. Rev Fr Silanath sent him to learn driving and arranged for a
job in a firm in Punnapra.
Albin managed to secure
a job in the same company for his younger brother who very soon got married
of his own accord.
"Shortly I heard the news
of my brother's death in suspicious circumstances. Those who murdered my
father, murdered him too. Feelings of revenge flared up; I began to drink
alchohol, there was no peace in the family; I attacked the workers who
went on strike against the manager by running them over with a jeep, lost
my job and began a new career as a butcher. Life became a mess. Violence,
vandalism, family quarrels, imprisonment, and crime became part of my life
style. In the path of utter destruction, hatred and the desire for revenge
fused and reached a boiling point."
Once Albin attacked a man
who showed his prowess by emptying the glass of liquor he had ordered .
Licking the blood on the dagger he brandished it, to be known forever more
as an embodiment of cruelty and earned the title "Butcher Albin". When
he hacked down an assailant who harassed women , people hailed him as a
doer of good acts; they cheered him, entertained him. Politicians, high
officials and business men became his customers. From a minor goonda
he rose to be in charge of forty goondas. "I became the master who
had only to give orders. Police cases came and faded away. Thieving, drug-trafficking,
every foul means of making money became part of my life."
The head constable who cruelly
rejected his complaint on the murder of his brother next became Albin's
target. His hatred mounted. It was at this time that this head constable
pointed out Albin to the Inspector when the police team came and surrounded
his butchery to arrest him. Released on bail, Albin returned with his back
bone in plaster. And went straight to the head constable's house.
The day when the whole of
Alleppey shuddered in terror and was stunned! The head constable Karunakaran
had just been promoted as Sub Inspector. In a few minutes his body lay
in the plantain tree cluster outside his house with deep gashes all over.
The murderer entered a liquor
shop, ordered for a half a bottle, washed his dagger in it and drank it
to the dregs. He then surrendered himself to the Superintendent of Police.
Albin became a nightmare to the people.
"I took a bail from the
magistrate's court. Nothing happened even after doing away with a policeman.
This intensified my arrogance. Hooliganism increased. At this time I also
stabbed an infamous rowdy who had spurned me. I was determined that I should
have no rival in this field. After wounding him I sat beside him licking
his blood to make sure no one would save him. In his death agony he asked
for some water. What I poured into his month was liquor.
"My brother Joseph made
an attempt to save me from this condition and get me released on bail.
My old companions, hearing of this, forced liquor into my mouth. With my
reasoning power completely destroyed, I obeyed their order and stabbed
my brother with the dagger they made me hold.
"People avoided me. The
sense of guilt began eating me up. I plunged the same dagger I had used
to stab my brother, into my abdomen and made straight for the parish priest's
residence at Thanki. Someone seeing me with a blood- smeared dagger at
the door of the presbytery, thought I had attacked the priest and rang
the church bell. People rushed in, smothered me with blows. With all my
limbs and ribs broken, the police took me to the Alleppey Medical College
Hospital. My weeping wife and three children stood at my bedside. Unable
to go home I lay there and subsequently found refuge in my wife's house."
It was there that two nuns
arrived to kindle the light of new life in Albin's shattered soul and body.
Sr Annie Scaria and Sr Carmel Paul. Their prayer touched Albin. He began
to find peace. He expressed his desire to make his confession .
Albin continued, "Three
months later I returned to my house in Paravoor near Punna-pra. One day
Fr Dheeraj Sabu brought the Blessed Eucharist. The people on the roadside
remarked: "Father is going to administer the Last Sacraments to our Butcher
Albin." Yes! Butcher Albin was dying ... The atom bomb of my sins that
I had carried in my heart for 20 long years without any repentance, I was
dropping into the ears of the priest. The crimes to which I would never
plead guilty, despite the torture of the roller in the dark room, immersion
in ice, the moustache being plucked off, I now recounted one by one. As
I did so unimaginable joy began filling my heart - as if a big burden were
lifted off. Father said, "As it is written: 'There is no one who is righteous,
not even one'"(Rom 3:10). "Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they
are red like crimson, they shall become like wool" (Is 1:18). Father removed
from my house all the weapons I had used for crime. The revolver I had
planned to sell to defray the expenses of medication, he threw into the
river." Thus, Mathew Albin, who had murdered five people and almost
reduced to corpses several others, the terror of the town, was being fashioned
to become a witness to Jesus. God chose the one who had destroyed many
to save many.
The first retreat Albin
attended was at IMS in Punnapra. He was carried to the retreat centre.
He returned walking.
On his return from IMS,
Albin was welcomed by his old political friends with vendetta. They stabbed
him in the chest and cut the chief vein in his leg. "It was like sand being
thrown at me. I saw only the Holy Eucharist before me," says Albin. "For
hours I lay on the road bleeding. The Police, thinking I was dead, got
busy preparing for preliminary investigation. Then they took me to the
Medical College. At this time the trial was going on for about eight cases
of crime and murder in the Alleppey sessions court. In one case which deserved
execution, the punishment was reduced to rigorous imprisonment for life
considering I had a wife and three children.
"In all I was sentenced
to 52 years of rigorous imprisonment and sent to Poojappura Central Jail
Trivandrum. It was paradise for me. The same food, the same clothes, the
same mat. Not even 25 paise for an inland letter. The vein was festering
oozing pus. I who burnt my wife's sari to prevent her from going to Church
was now washing the clothes of my officer, squatting on my putrifying legs."
Albin was reminiscing about his life in jail.
"Four years later when I
came out of jail on parole in 1990, The National Charismatic Convention
was going at Kalamassery.Frs Thampuraj and Dheeraj were leading the Convention.
I begged God not to let me return with empty hands. "God is touching Mathew
Albin who was convicted in several cases, is currently serving a sentence
in jail, and has been saved from many disasters. God is preparing him to
be his witness before the whole world," said the fathers.
After the period of parole,
Albin was sent to an open jail. An open prison with no possibility of confession
or communion . Albin sent a petition signed by 94 prisoners to the Chief
Minister and the concerned authorities for the construction of a church.
Subsequently he approached Bishop Joseph Powathil along with Fr George
Kuttickal. The way opened for Albin's dream to be translated into reality.
The construction of Shantibhavan Church commenced under the auspices of
The Jesus Fraternity. It was also Albin's idea that inspired Bishop Kundukulam
to establish Snehashram, a hospice for released prisoners to live in peace
with their families, in Vettukadu, Trissur. The prayer group that Mathew
Albin started in the jail brought several people to God.
"My brother Joseph whom
I stabbed in the intoxication of liquor, later recovered. My wife Mary
stood staunchly by my side, never loosing hope though she lay plunged in
a sea of crises and disaster. She kept praying and weeping for my conversion.
God collected the tears of my wife and children in his bottle. He had mercy
on me," says Albin.
"I was one of those given
general amnesty and released on January 26th 1997. Jesus brought me out
from the prison. I waited during the 11 years of imprisonment to know the
will of God," says Albin. The Sarvodaya Santhi Bhavan situated at the Punnapra
junction was God's answer to his prayer of waiting. Shanti Bhavan is the
refuge for the mentally ill and the mentally retarded wandering on the
streets. On February 5 th 1997 it saw the light of day. Besides Keralites,
there are Tamilians, Telugus, Kannadigas, Assamese, Gujaritis and Hindi-speaking
people here. Albin, his wife and children and the volunteers deal with
all of them in the language of love. The resources of this institution
are their dedication and dependence on God. There are several people like
Thondiparambil Joseph of Puthukary with hearts of gold whose life is given
in service to this great cause. The spiritual director of Shanti Bhavan
is Fr John Dayanand IMS.
Albin says this home
derives its strength from the twenty four hours of prayer that they have
day in and day out.
There are about 20 people
who labour lovingly and manage all the work of Santhi Bhavan.Every day
the expenses amount to about Rs 3000/- Prayer groups and large-hearted
people from different parts of Kerala come to Shanti Bhavan, bring the
food necessary for the inmates, cook it, eat with them, pray with them
and return with hearts full of joy and the love of God. In this house which
is not even fenced around, the inmates live as in their own homes. They
are given care and love in abundance.
Punnapra is the village
where there was an uprising of workers against their oppressors in 1946.
It is no mere coincidence that Punnapra, made famous by this historical
event, has now become the venue of a new revolution-a revolution of love
initiated by Albin who has thrown away the dagger of murder for the true
and steadfast love of the Lord. Here is a culture of love and life taking
root and flourishing - Yes Mathew Albin is planting olive shoots.