I am Reny George. Along with my wife, Teena, I run a home in Bangalore called Precious Children Home (http://www.renys-children.org), where we take care of the children of prisoners and children at risk. The work we do today has won us many accolades. But, would you believe me if I told you that I first received massive media attention for being the prime accused in the most sensational murder case in Kerala, the “Karikkan Villa Murder Case” in the 1980?
From being awarded a life sentence in 1981 to being awarded the CNN-IBN “Real Hero of India Award” in 2008, has been a long journey. In reality my life’s journey to that fateful day in 1980 started at a much earlier age.
Starting young: Smoking at age six
It was at the tender age of six that I started ‘almost smoking’. I say almost smoking since what fascinated me more was letting the smoke out rather than inhaling. During my early childhood we lived in a village in Kerala where both my parents were employed as teachers. I was the third of six children. Large families were quite normal in those days.
Perhaps watching a six year old puffing away seemed like an amusing boyish prank because nobody who saw me reprimanded me. It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For me a journey of a thousand crimes had begun with a childish prank. In a short while, under the mentorship of an older cousin I looked up to, I graduated to smoking full cigarettes that he provided. My hero’s generosity was funded by money that he stole from his home and he urged me to add to the kitty.
Willing pupil that I was, I started with stealing amounts as small as 25 paise from my dad’s purse and progressed to larger amounts gradually. I do not recall at what point it happened but the initial anxiety I experienced while stealing and smoking clandestinely had morphed into a thrilling adventure. One day I was caught stealing and my smoking habit was also exposed. My father gave me a severe thrashing.
What I remember most about the punishment was the physical pain it caused me; and the total absence of any remorse. The glamour of smoking was not something I was going to give up due to some temporary physical distress. I cannot say if my life would have taken a different turn had my father focused on the longer course of weaning me away from my habits rather than the easier shorter path of physical punishment?
At school I attracted friends who had the same taste for adventure. Together we skipped classes, smoked and gambled at card games. To pay for my indulgences I had to divert the money I was given for my school fees and text books. I soon acquired a reputation, even beyond the boundaries of the school, as a bad character. It was no surprise to anyone when I failed miserably at my studies.
Gathering speed downhill: Drugs, alcohol & sex
It was during this time that my father gave up his job and my parents became Christian missionaries. Though we still were adequately provided for, I had silent misgivings about the decision my parents had taken. Having a father who was a missionary was no match to the prestige of having a teacher or engineer or business man for a father.
When my grandfather, a rich estate owner, offered to take on the responsibility of looking after me, my father readily agreed. He put me in the nearby village school. Though I studied well enough to pass out of school, my old desires where not very deeply buried. It did not help matters when the workers in my grandfather’s estate cultivated my company and introduced me to illicitly brewed alcohol. I was an easy and willing prey for their trap.
I was admitted to a nearby town college where I was introduced to student politics, marijuana and casual sexual encounters; and I took to all of them with passion. I stole money from my grandfather and even sold the produce of the estate on the sly to finance myself. I suspect my grandfather turned a blind eye to it because I was a good companion and a great help around the estate. Being naturally aggressive and thirsting for recognition, I became the leader of student agitations.
After one particularly violent agitation, I was dismissed from college. Though I was becoming a nuisance to people in the community, I was shielded from public censure because of my grandfather. As for me, I could not see anything wrong in all that I was so obviously enjoying.
A stranger in my own home
Meanwhile, my parents had relocated to Madras (as Chennai was then known) and added two more children to the already large family. My parents, who were distressed by my unruly life, used the pretext of my grandfather’s sudden death to take me back to their home. Being a confirmed college drop out did not keep me away from the nearby college campuses.
My force of character and daring attracted the rich and famous kids of nearby colleges. I even managed to hide the fact that I was a college drop out – each one assumed that I was a student of one of the other colleges. I became their strong man and organizer and in exchange they kept me in money, drugs and drinks. Getting home late every night, I became a stranger within my own home. My poor broken parents were reduced to helpless distressed spectators on the side-lines.
They pleaded with me to stay at home and urged me to go to Church with them. With no respect for their spirituality or definition of morality, I evolved my own philosophy of life – ‘Life was to be lived king size with easy access to money, drinks, freedom to host loud and noisy booze parties in ones own home. Moreover, I did not need money from home and so what was the problem?’ Indulgence in my perverse pleasures had totally desensitized my heart and mind to the morality of my parents. I just could not see their point of view.
Over the precipice: A cold blooded murder
My loving ever hopeful father, thinking that a change of scene might bring about some change, took a transfer to Delhi. In the high power environs of Delhi I graduated to a new level of crime. Along with three friends from well to do families, I stole a car and we took a long joy ride from Delhi to Madras. We stole and scavenged our way through. We even cannibalized the car and sold its engine under the pretense of upgrading the car to a diesel engine.
My friends returned to Delhi while I remained at Madras. I found accommodation in a lodge that housed many foreign students. I shared my room with three students from Malaysia, Mauritius and Kenya who were soon to be my partners in my most heinous crime as yet. Since we were on drugs and booze all day, we were perpetually short of money. I hatched a plan to drive down to Kerala – perhaps we could loot my grandfather’s home which was now locked up!
Driving through Kerala in a drug induced haze, I remembered an old uncle and aunt I had visited with my grandfather. They were rich and stayed at the isolated and ill fated “Karikkan Villa” near Thiruvalla in Kerala. I reasoned that they had a lot of black money and so would not complain if they were robbed. So along with my friends we turned up at this home under the guise of taking a break in our journey to Trivandrum.
The old couple graciously agreed to allow us to stay over. The plan I cooked up on the spur of the moment was that two of us would detain my old aunt in the kitchen while the other two would threaten and hold up my uncle. After robbing them, we would make a clean get away! However, our plans went haywire. To this day I cannot fathom how it happened but in our drugged out condition, we ended killing my uncle.
When my aunt started screaming, my friends went crazy and killed her too. Though we panicked at the sight of all the blood the real gravity of the crime we had committed did not hit me. We cleaned ourselves up and drove back to Madras, under the impression no one could connect us to the crime. Unknown to us, the part-time maid servant had seen us arrive the previous evening. My aunt had even told her that the visitors were her “Madrasile Mon” (Malayalam for child from Madras) and friends. When she discovered the murdered couple the next day, she raised the alarm and informed the police about us.
Sentenced for life but unrepentant
Within 10 days we were arrested in Madras and taken to Kerala to stand trial. As an under-trial, I was lodged in the judicial sub- jail. My shattered father visited me and even prayed with me in the guard room. It was the first time the father of a criminal had prayed for his son in the jail. Even the barbaric jail cops were touched and moved but I remember just laughing at them and my father.
After a long trial, we were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at the central jail. We were given a hero’s welcome by the other inmates as we had committed the most sensational crime of that time. I was enjoying my notoriety. I had totally shut out my conscience and had no sense of guilt. In retrospect, I had become a psychopath and a borderline schizophrenic. Our story was even made into a blockbuster movie. We got a large sum of money from the producer of the movie and this money helped make life relatively comfortable even in jail. The money I had received for the movie was soon over.
Encounter with God: Impossible made possible
After six years, in August of 1987, I was released to my parents on a brief parole. My father who has been offered a posting to the US could have run away from all the infamy I had given them. But shattered, broken and with little hope my parents had decided to stay back in India. All the while they continued praying for me. While in jail, I had fine tuned a plan to rob a bank to fund my remaining days in jail.
One day a stranger came to my home and invited me to attend a prayer meeting with them. Like me he had been the rogue of his family before he changed and so it provoked my curiosity. Reluctantly and with the intent to take them for a ride, I decided to go along with him. We ended up at a prayer hall very close to the place where the murders had taken place. The hall was full of simple villagers who had gathered to pray together.
The news that the infamous Reny George was joining them spread quickly. After I arrived everyone prayed for me together. I had little respect for prayer or for people who prayed. Yet what I experienced next can only be the power of prayer! A verse from the Bible, ‘what profits a man if he gains the whole world but looses his own soul?’ came rushing into my mind. I must have read this verse somewhere in the past and the seed that I pushed into dormancy was bursting into life.
My eyes opened and I saw myself for what I had become. I broke down and wept for the hardness of my heart and the hard walls came crumbling down. For the first time in my life I stood up and confessed about the wretch I had become. And I asked God for forgiveness. And I experienced what can only be given by the grace of God – a sense of complete forgiveness that I cannot explain. In the Bible God says, ‘you do not choose me, I chose you.’ God had chosen me, literally touched me and healed my wicked heart.
A new creation: From killer to pillar of hope
From that day everything was different. Even when my body craved tobacco, drink and drugs, I found the strength to resist the temptation. All the old urges and needs had simply lost their power over me. Back in jail, while serving out the remaining eight years of my sentence, it took a few months before my fellow inmates accepted that my transformation was real.
Knowing the old me, they realized that it was not possible for me to continue even for a few days without drugs, drink and tobacco unless something had fundamentally changed within me. I went from being the night mare of the jailors to being their trusted inmate. I even was the go to person to resolve problems they had with difficult inmates. I had gone from trouble maker to peace maker.
How truly the Bible speaks when it says, ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.’ While I was still serving my jail term, my father proposed me in marriage to Teena. At first, it was a big struggle for her to accept me. She accepted the proposal after much prayer. We got married in 1992 when I was on parole. We have been blessed with a lovely daughter. Like all married couples, we also have our share of difficulties.
My transformation has been source of great spiritual re-awakening for my immediate family. My relationship with my extended family still suffers from the shame of my past and that hurts. I also know that several people still doubt the honesty of my transformation. But I am strengthened by the Biblical truth that, ‘if God is for you, who can stand against you.’ More than anybody else I can testify that with the grace of God you can face all challenges life throws at you.
(As narrated to Abraham Thomas)
