The Number One Man's Search for Identity in the Cape Underworld and Prison Gangs

Author Jonny Steinberg met Wentzel in prison in 2002, and by the time of his release, he and Steinberg had spent more than 50 hours discussing his life experiences. He had lived a bewilderingly schizophrenic life, wandering to and fro between three worlds: the arcane universe of prison gangs, steeped in a mythology of banditry and retribution, where he was known as JR; the margins of South Africa's criminal economy, where he lived by a string of stolen names and learnt the arts of commercial fraud; and his scattered family, which eked out a living in the coloured ghettos of the Cape Flats. A tale of modern South Africa's historic events seen through the eyes of the country's most marginal citizens. 2004.