The crime of the milleneum

Been many bests of the millenium..what, in your opinion,was the crime of the millenium?
Not talking Hitler..The rape of Nanking or things of that ilk..But individual crimes.


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If you can't convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman

I think it was the cover up the JFK assasination.

Puts on his flame proof suit..

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If you can't convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman

[Soup]

The assasination of Archduke Ferdinand (sp?) which led to WWI.

[RTA]

Jack the Ripper's murder spree ... not only for the luridity and mystery of the crimes, but the way it completely transfixed society at the time and continues to resurface in popular culture worldwide.

[theuglytruth]

OJ and JFK are up there . . . but I have to agree. Jack the Ripper is the most talked about murder mystery of the millennium.

[theuglytruth]

Let us not forget to give our props to:

Lizzy Borden
The Lincoln Assassination
My Lai Massacre
Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping
Death of Pope Paul in 1978 (some speculate foul play)
Possible poisoning death of President Harding
Son of Sam
Boston Strangler
Assassination of Marat

[KCB615]

I was going to say Lizzie Borden, but you beat me to it. I'd also have to add in the Brinks Armored Car heist in Boston in the 50's. Some neat work, if I do say so myself.


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Jeremy....

Nobody ever calls me after they've done something smart.

[NanoByte]

I understand many descendants of New World aboriginal peoples, which descendants average around 50% European, think the worst crime of the millennium was Columbus' discovery of the New World. As a result, Columbus Day is Indigenous Peoples' Day in Berkeley, CA.US. The wrost crime is probably that they never gave me the day off, whatever they called it.

Ray (El razón para la Raza)

[GuanoLad]

Democracy.

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-PIGEONMAN-
Hero For A New Millennium!

The Legend Of PigeonMan (http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - Back in the new year! Honest. I promise. No, really.

[Jorge]

Nobody offered up the Crucifixion ? Oh well... My vote: the murder of Thomas Becket, sealing the fate of weaselly, manipulative Western governments... but if that's not individual enough... the Scopes trial. No blood, but the first modern era use of the courts ,and the court of public opinion, to tamper with science (or other activities) in the name of "belief".

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O le mea a tamaali'i fa'asala, a o le mea a tufanua fa'alumaina.

[BobT]

Most scholars have serious doubts that anyone poisoned Warren Harding. The man had incredibly high blood pressure (I believe his BP was something like 180/140) and was a walking time bomb. The doubts about his death occurred because his wife wouldn't allow an autopsy.
Anyway, Harding was an inept president and the country probably didn't lose out on much from his early demise.

[GuanoLad]

Nah, I was kidding about the Democracy thing. :)

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-PIGEONMAN-
Hero For A New Millennium!

The Legend Of PigeonMan (http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - Back in the new year! Honest. I promise. No, really.

[Ursa Major]

The kidnapping and ransom of an Incan king by the Spanish explorer Pizarro in 1533. The Incans paid something like 3 rooms filled to the ceilings with gold for their king's return. Pizarro had the king burned at the stake and made off with the gold.

[Ursa Major]

The Incans? What the hell was I thinking when I wrote that? Incas, Incas, Incas!

[ENC Heel]

To me, the assassination of Sergei Kirov in December 1934 is the crime of the millenium.

His assassination - almost certainly the result of a direct order by Stalin and carried out by NKVD head Yagoda - paved the way for the Great Terror of the 1930s in the Soviet Union.

Although responsible for the murder, Stalin blamed it on "Trotskyites" or "Zinovievites" and used the crime as a pretense for arresting and eventually liquidating his political enemies as well as millions of ordinary Soviet citizens.



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"I never lie, but I don't always say what I'm thinking."

ENC Heel

[Bricker]

I'll nominate the continuing criminal enterprises of Vlad the Impaler and of Elizabeth Bathory. See, viz., http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_131.html.

- Rick

[Bricker]

Hmmm.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_131.html - this one works.

A period at the end doesn't help when posting links.

[Imthecowgodmoo]

I think it was when people started spelling millennium wrong. You wouldn't believe how many people get it wrong.

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"People must think it must be fun to be a super genuis,
But they don't realize how hard it is
to put up with all the idiots in the world."
-- Calvin and Hobbes
(__)
_\/_

[Keeves]

Jorge wroteNobody offered up the Crucifixion?That was in the previous millennium.

[Ursa Major]

Jorge didn't specify which Crucifixion. (Although the big "C" makes it a little tough to backpedal.)

[Crystalguy]

What my ex-wife did to me.

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Crystalguy

[Diceman]

I'd say that Lizzie Borden isn't that significant. Murders of family members happen all of the time. Same with the OJ trial. It wins the award for Most Racist Defense Tactics in Recent Memory, though.

I'd have to give the award for Crime With Biggest Unintended Consequences to the assasination of Archduke Ferdinad.

As for our treatment of Native Americans, tragic though it may be, I'd have to say that the original post disqualifies that sort of activity. Remember, we're talking crime. Not war. Not invasions.

As for THE CRIME OF THE MILLENIUM, I'd say the Jack the Ripper killings, for inspiring every serial killer ever since, and for being the first killer to actually dare the police to catch him.

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"I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms." -The Secret of Monkey Island

[Eve]

How about that Whitman kid in Texas, who inspired all the gun-crazed spree killers since?

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Wayne Williams, John Wayne Gayce, Peter Kurten.

Amazing how "evil" can have such a friendly face.

[Jake]

I'd say that the persecution of the innocents in the Salem witch trials ranks right up there.

[fuzzy-wuzzy]

My neighbor ran over my dog....and didn't tell me....I found out about it after I moved out of the neighborhood...another neighbor told me....I looked for that dog for months.....

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"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda

Some of these crimes are memorable, but you certainly would have to stand in awe of the holocaust. When 6 million jews were systematically eniliated, before any top german war criminals were brought to justice, that has truly got to be the crime of the millenium.

[Shayna]

It wasn't just 6 million Jews, goofball. There were also several milliion gypsies, gays and non-Jews who were caught harboring Jews that were murdered as well. That has to get my vote for the most heinous crime of the millennium, too.

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank

[Lawrence]

Remember, the OP says war crimes and atrocities like the Holocaust and Communist crimes are out. I think the top crime of the century has to be the heisting of the Reichsbank gold. The Guinness Book says that it was the biggest robbery haul in history and whoever did it didn't get caught.

[Little Nemo]

Leaving aside (as the OP said) political evils I go with the actions of Gilles de Rais as the worst individual crime of the millennnium.

Crime of the Century: European invasion of the Americas, with the accompanying genocide of the indigenous peoples.

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The Canadians. They walk among us. William Shatner. Michael J. Fox. Monty Hall. Mike Meyers. Alex Trebek. All of them Canadians. All of them here.

Oops, make that Crime of the Milliennium.

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The Canadians. They walk among us. William Shatner. Michael J. Fox. Monty Hall. Mike Meyers. Alex Trebek. All of them Canadians. All of them here.

[BuddyG]

Artificial Turf.