Matty Walker, Kathleen Turner’s Body Heat character, would certainly disagree with the usual finger-wagging admonition that “Crime doesn’t pay!”
Who else in fiction can laugh at the old saw?
I’d like to exclude fictional characters whose crimes are Robin Hood-esque in nature, and those that are, while technically committing crimes, portrayed as “good guys” in the story. For example, even though the crew in Ocean’s Eleven are clearly criminals, and clearly plannign the heist mostly for their own financial benefit, they are the good guys and the casino owner is the bad guy.
But I’m interested in Matty Walker-type characters – the ones that, although undeniably bad, got away with it.
The lead character in The Talented Mr. Ripley, IIRC.
The eeeeeeeeeeeevil scheming British Army commanders who hang the gallant Aussies out to dry in Breaker Morant (now disputed by some historians, and even by the original author, Kit Denton).
Keyser Soze (sp?) in The Usual Suspects.
The man who will become Moriarty in Young Sherlock Holmes.
The lead character in Memento. And what’s worse, he doesn’t even know it.
The protagonist in A Simple Plan, although he pays a steep price.
Darth Vader escapes at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope. Does that count?
It wasn’y just in “Young Sherlock Holmes” that Moriarty triumphs – he does in John Gardner’s Moriarty series. And (except at the end of the first series) in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
And there are entire series about successful rogues – Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat. The Raffles books, arguably Fraser’s Flashman books.
Not really. The bills are marked so they’re unusable. He may not be caught, but his crime certainly didn’t pay per the OP (plus, the OP asked for bad protagonists, so that also rules it out).
An excellent example is Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction
Like many of the nefarious characters in the original Alfred Hitchcock Presents television anthology show, Barbara Bel Geddes (in episode 106, “Lamb to the Slaughter”) got away with it at least up to the final fade to black.
That’s the one in which she killed her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then roasted it and served it to the investigating detectives.
The teleplay made it quite obvious that she had been successful, but Hitch was obliged by the network to add a verbal postscript after the fade, as they always did when the Weed of Crime failed to bear bitter fruit.
I doubt anyone believed those little tacked-on morals, though.
Lex Luthor (until recently, but he had a good run, even getting to President of the US, before he finally fell).
Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.
Would the protagonists of Wanted and Bomb Queen be taken out by your second caveat? They’re the protagonists, and, to an extent, you root for them, but, even so, they’re shown to be selfish, psychopathic, sociopathic bastards.
Mr. Potter famously got away with stealing $8000 from the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan, although his attempt to prosecute them for embezzlement apparently failed.
Yes, but… they are arguably “good guys.” Burke doesn’t target “citizens” with his scams, and the main antagonists in each book are always baddies - the mercenary rapist in Flood, the child porn ring in Strega, pick a book and the people Burke and his crew steal from are bad guys.