The Gray Ghost

Graffiti-Hating Vandals Star in New Documentary

: Jim Sharp

: Jim Sharp

: The Grey Ghost

: The Grey Ghost

A forthcoming documentary focuses on anti-graffiti zealots who commit the same crimes they crusade against. In “Vigilante Vigilante,” San Francisco filmmakers Max Good and Nathan Wollman successfully stalk and unmask a local man, known as the “Silver Buff,” who “surreptitiously spray paints metallic silver blobs over existing graffiti, almost always doing more damage than was there to begin with.” Along the way, the filmmakers also profile other prolific graffiti-hating vandals including New Orleans’ “Gray Ghost,” Fred Radtke, who was recently busted for vandalizing a legal mural and ordered to get permission to paint on other people’s property. Watch a preview from “the battle for expression” after the jump. Read more »

By Will Sherman on September 18, 2009 at 2:45 pm

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Gray Ghost Gets Tagged Out

New Orleans’ anti-graffiti zealot, the Gray Ghost, has been ordered to stop illegally painting over the graffiti he so ardently hates. In October, the Gray Ghost, also known as Fred Radtke, was caught vandalizing a legal mural with his followers. In court this week, he pleaded no contest to a criminal trespassing charge and received a 60-day suspended sentence. Now he has to follow the law for a change and get permission before putting his decidingly less creative marks on other people’s property. |NOLA via TWBE|

Photo by extraface

By Will Sherman on March 26, 2009 at 5:27 pm

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Banksy Targets the Gray Ghost In New Orleans

Photos: Banksy (Click to enlarge)
Street stenciling provocateur Banksy updated his website with some photos of the work he recently did in the Big Easy and even offered up the specifics of his combat mission: striking back at Fred “the Gray Ghost” Radtke, an anti-graffiti zealot who has even earned the praise of the cops and Mayor Ray Nagin. Says Mr. Gunningham:

“I came to New Orleans to do battle with the Gray Ghost, a notorious vigilante who’s been systematically painting over any graffiti he can find with the same shade of grey paint since 1997. Consequently he’s done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurricane could ever hope to achieve.”

Radtke has made it his mission to buff all forms of graffiti—in some cases even on private property—making him just as guilty of vandalism as the vandals he claims to be fighting. Click below for another example of Banksy’s homage to the color hating, idea killing vandal and other spots that not even Gray Ghost is going to bother buffing.