A giant of a man, Joseph Jennings is not the kind of person you would want to have bumped into in a dark ally during his previous life as a gang leader.

Standing a shade over six feet and weighing 260 pounds, the one-time gangster is this week making his first visit to Bermuda.

His message today is aimed at dissuading young people from becoming involved in the kind of lifestyle that has left him with three bullets embedded in his body.

Hailing from South Bend in Indiana, he now lives in Atlanta and has transformed his life to become a Christian anti-gang motivational speaker.

He is also on a national council that advises US President George Bush on youth issues. This evening he will be telling his story at the Radnor Road Christian Fellowship in Hamilton Parish.

Mr. Jennings has already given two talks to young people at the second annual Multi-Addiction Conference being held at the new Berkeley Institute this week with the aim of turning them away from making the bad choices he made that led to him becoming a gang leader and being shot 13 times, burnt and stabbed.

Speaking to , he said: ?I was a gang leader for most of my life. I was raised to be a thug. My father was a killer, he was notorious and he raised me to be a thug, he raised my eight brothers to be gang members.

?There are some people who are born into a family who are already ?banging? and it becomes nothing more than something that you inherit. But at some point in your life, you have an opportunity of whether you want it or you don?t want it.?

Three bullets are still lodged in Mr. Jennings? body. There are two .38 slugs in front of his heart and a bullet in his spine, which sometimes makes it hard for him to walk.

The story of his gang days are documented in his book ?Prisoner of the American Dream?, and he says his story is relevant to Bermuda?s young people.

?Even people on this Island are trying to emulate the American Dream ? the house on the hill, the white picket fence, two cars in the garage, the money in the bank,? he said.

?We automatically assume that if we get the material success, then we are free and happy. But quite the contrary, it?s not about material gain, it?s about the peace that every man and every woman, black, white or brown ? it doesn?t make any difference what country you are from ? it?s the peace that we search for.

?So I?ve spent a lifetime making bad choices, paying the price for it and yet even after achieving the American Dream, I never found peace.?

It was when he turned to God ? as he fought for life following a shooting in a gambling club ? that he began to mend his ways and finally find peace, he explained.

?Once I changed my heart, I became a changed man. Changing the city where you live does not change a man.

?A change in material wealth does not change a man. But once the heart changes people are able to change their life,? he said.

?In my book I talk about the process I took. It was not hard, that?s the process I try to get across to the kids. That it is not hard. It is simply a choice that they have to make in order to be set free.?

But do people want to listen? ?I believe in the spoken word, that whenever information is disseminated people make choices on the spot. I?ve had gang members that have come out of gangs based on nothing more than information,? he answered.

?I?ve had kids come to a conference, who have written me letters and said ?Right, I?m going home and telling my mum or my dad that I love them because of what was said?. So people do change and we have some that change right away and some that we plant a seed in.?

Mr. Jennings has not had time to see for himself the state of Bermuda as far as a gang culture goes, however, he has seen documentation amassed by New Jersey Police Sgt. Delacey Davis who has been brought to the Island to help with a $350,000 anti-gang initiative.

He said: ?I would think this community is similar to America where, in places, people are in denial. There is some apathy where people say ?We don?t have it? because as long as they say that they don?t have to deal with it.

?Bermuda must be pro-active rather than re-active and if you don?t have a problem you should still at least prevent what might happen in years to come. So being pro-active is putting up the barriers that will keep from flooding over that type of (gang) information that destroys kids.?

The former gang leader does not know if he will become involved in the newly announced anti-gang initiative on the Island, although he has spoken to Sgt. Davis and said: ?We are going to see.?

He added: ?I?m a foot soldier. I speak with the kids, I don?t hang out at meetings or with adults because they have a tendency to become very complicated. But children they have a tendency to want to change.

?A whole lot of kids have been bombarded with information and think there is a glamour to gangs. But they do not see the down side such as prison.?

He said a former gangster had appeared on TV in the US and said: ?You can be the best thug in the country but there is no prize at the end of the rainbow.?

Mr. Jennings said: ?Young people think there is a prize, that they will lay their life down for something that they will get paid for it, but there is no prize in the art of being a gangster.?

Mr. Jennings will be speaking at Radnor Road Christian Fellowship, on North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish, at 7.30 p.m. this evening.