Sometimes. People want the strong ones and as long as a devil fruit user lives, no one else can have that power. So some people want to kill them to take that place. Sometimes it's just lonely. My Pops was kind of like that, eh? He didn't fit in with most people, other pirates, his size was really out there and his devil fruit made him feared by anyone who wasn't brave enough to get close to know the real Edward Newgate.

That's why he adopted so many sons, eh? So we wouldn't be lonely either.