IIRC from the book, part of the Featherstone mythology stemmed from him murdering people on 2 different occasions and getting off for both because of bullshit reasons. Can't exactly remember how he got off. I think one was for being delusional/crazy and the other may have been for self defense. So in the eyes of people in the neighborhood this guy killed two people in front of others on purpose but got off for both. Couple this with an already tough reputation and I think this is where a large part of the fear came from.