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Niall Fraser

EXECUTED crime boss Cheung Tze-keung will go down in criminal folklore as Hong Kong's answer to America's Bonnie and Clyde and Britain's Kray twins, a criminologist said yesterday.

 And the personality cult that has grown up around him will be enhanced by the fact he died by the executioner's bullet, he predicted.

 'Nobody loves a gangster who gets old, bald and paunchy behind bars but everyone loves one who dies at the height of his notoriety,' said Harold Traver, of the University of Hong Kong.

 As well as being media-driven, the criminologist believes the phenomenon has been spurred on by Cheung's photogenic qualities and apparent down-to-earth manner - plus the sheer audacity of his crimes.

 Hong Kong people's sometimes naked pursuit of money should also help to boost Cheung's hero status, he said.

 'Anywhere which admires self-made men and the myth lives that there are no barriers to moving up in the world produces a reaction like this,' Mr Traver said.

 'Bill Gates got where he is by being very aggressive and ambitious.

 'So did this guy. People don't make a great distinction between the two.

 'There is also the suspicion that people at the top of business have probably done a few things on the wrong side of the law to get there.'   The ability of crime bosses to fire the public imagination was illustrated last week when Time magazine named US mafia don Charles 'Lucky' Luciano as one of the 20th century's 'most influential builders and titans' along with Mr Gates and Walt Disney.

 'The US has had Bonnie and Clyde and mobsters and Britain has had the Krays - although Britain and Europe in general are less inclined to do this,' Mr Traver said.

 Targeting two of the richest families in the territory as kidnap victims was a bold move and the fact that Cheung didn't actually kill anyone had added to the 'loveable rogue' tag, he said.

 'He did it and got away with it for long enough to spend a lot of the money,' Mr Traver said.

 He said had Cheung been tried and convicted in Hong Kong, he probably would have ended up 'sitting in jail as a kind of celebrity'.

 'I suspect that the authorities in Hong Kong are glad to see him go,' Mr Traver said.



Our very own Bonnie and Clyde