Friday, October 4, 2013

Follow Up: Son of Johnston Gang leader jailed for selling methamphetamine to cop

10/04/13

This is a follow up from an article echoed here early last year about the latest arrest of this wonderful piece of work and his notorious family. For background information please read here (Hearing for Bruce Johnston Jr. stirs memories of notorious gang


By BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Gap
Updated Oct 04, 2013 10:50 


Bruce Johnston Jr.
The son of one of Lancaster County's most notorious crime bosses admitted Thursday to selling meth to an undercover officer.

Bruce Alfred Johnston Jr., 55, will spend 7 to 14 years in state prison for the sales last year in southern Lancaster County, according to a local judge's order.

Years ago, Johnston Jr. operated, under his father's watch, the Kiddie Gang, a group of teen thieves.

His father, Bruce Johnston Sr. was eventually convicted of numerous murders and thefts in Chester and Lancaster counties and beyond.

"Little Bruce" provided damaging testimony in 1978 that put his father and two uncles — heads of the Johnston Gang — behind bars for life.

A year earlier, he survived a hit, allegedly ordered by his father, despite being shot eight times. His girlfriend was killed in the attack.

Following sensational trials of the brothers that included tales of paid hits and stolen John Deere tractors and Chevrolet Corvettes, Bruce Jr. was placed in the witness-protection program. He had lived in Wisconsin and North Carolina.

He resurfaced last December when he was caught selling methamphetamine to an undercover cop at a McDonald's in Gap.

He was caught selling drugs several more times through January.

On Thursday, Lancaster County Judge Dennis Reinaker ordered the state-prison term after Johnston pleaded guilty to numerous felonies.

Johnston Jr. and his father were portrayed — by Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, respectively — in the hit 1986 movie, "At Close Range."

Decades removed from the criminal acts that gave the Johnstons notoriety, Johnston Jr. appeared recently in court with gray hair and beard, walking with a limp.

source

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