Murphy Homes

By Rain Bow

The  Murphy Homes housing development was located in the heart of West Baltimore until the city demolished the homes in 1999. The four buildings fourteen stories tall were once notorious for crime, drugs, and murder.  Most of the unemployed, crack-addicted residents that lived at Murphy Homes were trapped in a life of crime with nowhere to go, but the graveyard. Their children's lives were destroyed. 
Born to a crack-addicted mother, young Shaun Jones had to learn how to survive alone in Murphy Homes or die. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rain Bow
• Release date: Feb 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201557010

Rain Bow

Hey, y'all. My name is Urania (U-ray-nee-uh), but most of my friends call me Rainy or Rain, depending on which state I'm in at the time. Wink, wink to all my country folks. Spreading love and light is where my pen name Rain Bow came from. My desire as an author is to inspire people with love to never give up on themselves and you can be whatever it is that you want to be.  Loving yourself is the key. Thank you for reading my books. Love, Rain Bow ;-)

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Introduction

Murphy Homes was one of the toughest housing projects located on the west side of Baltimore. Also known as Murder Homes, the high rises were once known as a notorious place for addiction, crime, and murder. So much so, in 1999 the city demolished the projects in an attempt to stop the murder rates from rising into the hundreds. Nothing but dirt, rubble, and the horrific memories of living in the projects remain. While many generations were destroyed growing up at The Homes, a crack-addicted baby boy found a way to survive against all odds. This is a tale of kingpin Shaun Jones.  

80’s Baby

Ten-year-old Shaun and his six-year-old little brother Ron played with the rocks they found outside while laying on the bare living room floor for hours. They pretended the rocks were dinosaurs roaming the earth in a faraway land, far away from the Murphy Homes projects. There wasn’t a single toy to play with within the whole damn house. There barely was any furniture in the entire apartment. A table and two chairs were the only décors. The floor was the best place to be for the boys. Smoke permeated the apartment like a morning fog. It smelled of burning plastic. It was extremely hard for the boys to breathe. Sometimes Shaun would use a t-shirt to cover their faces because the thick smoke would make them drowsy. The brothers were told to stay put and watch after each other while their mother Patricia (a.k.a. Patty) and her boyfriend Pint smoked crack in her bedroom.

There was no place to play outside, or in the hallways at the Murphy Homes high rises either. Crack pipes, drug vials, and needles were everywhere on the ground. Even at the playground. The staircase was filled with dealers and junkies, and it smelled of urine. The four buildings, fourteen-story high rises were located in the heart of west Baltimore and controlled by the local gang called The K.E.E.F. Boys. The acronym stood for - kill everybody else family. The gang was organized by two leaders. A lieutenant was assigned to the high rises and corners surrounding Murphy Homes. All through the day and night, you could hear the gang shouting codes at each other, selling their drug packs. Lookouts surrounded each building  to warn when the police was near. All operations would stop at the drop of a hat if the lookout would shout,

Five-O!

Whatever fix you needed The K.E.E.F Boys would supply. Sometimes, there would be a line of addicts looking the walking dead going up the stairwell. It smelled of urine and feces.

In the mornings, getting ready for school was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Every day the brothers had to shuffle through the piles of dirty wrinkled clothes covering the floor to find something to wear.  The school kids made fun of them because of the way they looked and smelled. Their clothes smelled like mildew because they didn’t own a washer or dryer. Some nights Shaun would wash their clothes in the bathroom