# Felons you have known **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362 "2013-12-15T07:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/81 "2013-12-16T17:07:41Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I didn’t have to pay- I’m surprised anyone else had to. > > See if you can read this instead: > > [Pizza maker acquitted in mob shooting – New York Daily News](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/pizza-maker-acquitted-mob-shooting-article-1.271956) I was able to read that one. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/82 "2013-12-17T00:09:44Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I can’t think of anyone in my circle of friends or acquaintances who is, although I know people secondhand through them who are. I used to work with a woman who mostly associated with ex-convicts even though she was highly educated and raised in a middle-class household, and her husband was definitely on that list. > > Many years ago, I had a job that was so bad, after I left, I briefly considered surrendering my license. One day, I had this weird feeling that I was working with a serial killer, and when I got Internet access, one of the first things I looked up was whether there was any large number of unexplained disappearances or unsolved murders in the areas where he had lived. :eek: (I really didn’t find anything.) Even though he had lived here for over 20 years and had his own business for most of that time, with one exception, NOBODY I knew in our field had ever heard of him 😕, which was odd because he claimed to have a lot of dirt on me (although he wouldn’t tell me what he’d heard). > > He told me that the store he owned before he moved here had closed because he was undercut by the competition, and a person I later worked with who DID know him said she had done some relief work at the local business. In addition to all 3 paychecks she got from him bouncing, she told me that the REAL reason his store closed was because everyone in town knew that he beat his wife up all the time, and wouldn’t patronize it. That did not surprise me at all; when he told me that his wife did not work outside the home, that wasn’t suspicious to me, but that she didn’t drive AND WAS NOT DISABLED? Hoo, boy, big flapping red flags there. In addition, their two sons, who were in their 20s, lived with them. I know that it is not uncommon for grown children to do this, to protect their mother. > > Several weeks ago, I was at the nearby mall and an elderly man walked by and got this look on his face like “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Yep, guess who it was. I simply walked on. P.S. Several years later, I was interviewing for another job, and the interviewer asked me why I left that place after 4 months. I kind of hemmed and hawed, and he just looked at me and said, “You can tell me the truth. I’ve been told many times that Hospital X is a very difficult place to work at.” ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/83 "2013-12-17T01:07:40Z")
I know someone that’s a felon for smuggling coyotes. Not _being_ a coyote and smuggling people, but smuggling actual coyotes. Transporting them, really. Now it’s legal, but he’s still a felon for it. And he had to spend 9 months in jail, in his 70’s, for it. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/84 "2013-12-17T02:21:27Z")
[This guy](http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/11/man-accused-of-killing-partner-denied-bond.html) used to be a coworker of mine. Was even on a project with him briefly. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/85 "2013-12-17T03:52:40Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I know someone that’s a felon for smuggling coyotes. I have to ask: Why would anyone smuggle a coyote? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/86 "2013-12-17T04:20:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I have to ask: Why would anyone smuggle a coyote? Trying to get rid of unwanted animals without killing them? Trapping & transporting squirrels is illegal around here, I’ve been told. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/87 "2013-12-17T05:06:54Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I have to ask: Why would anyone smuggle a coyote? The story is that at one point, fox hunting because a very popular sport in North Carolina. So popular that the fox population became pretty decimated. People started importing coyotes from other states into NC and they started hunting them for sport. Then Hurricane Hugo hit, destroying many of the coyote pens, and they got loose and returned to the wild. Then there were too many coyotes around. So they made it illegal to bring coyotes into NC. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/88 "2013-12-17T05:14:47Z")
Man, people are sick ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/89 "2013-12-17T06:01:51Z")
None that I know of. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/90 "2013-12-17T12:55:34Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I have to ask: Why would anyone smuggle a coyote? Smuggled raccoons from Florida (done by a coon hunting club to help with dog training) led to Rabies virus introduction to areas not yet endemic. ETA a cite. From here: [http://www.peqtwp.org/cit-e-access/webpage.cfm?TID=60&TPID=7575&Print=1](http://www.peqtwp.org/cit-e-access/webpage.cfm?TID=60&TPID=7575&Print=1) > [@](#): > > In 1977, rabid raccoons were first detected in West Virginia. It is believed that rabies was present in raccoons imported from Florida into West Virginia by hunters in the 1970’s. The disease then spread to other raccoons after they were released. Once raccoon rabies was established in West Virginia and Virginia, it spread at a rate of approximately 25 to 50 miles per year into Maryland, Washington, D.C., Delaware, and Pennsylvania. This rabies epizootic spread into New Jersey through Warren and Hunterdon counties in October 1989. The raccoon rabies epizootic now extends throughout New England and as far west as Ohio, and south into North Carolina. (Note: an epizootic is a term used to denote an epidemic of disease in an animal population). ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/91 "2013-12-17T14:11:22Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > The gym teacher I had in Junior HS was fired from his job-he was a serial pedophile predator. He finally was arrested in Florida, and is now in jail. God only knows how many kids this guy destroyed. We had one high school science teacher who would take prize students on trips. On those trips he apparently picked up little boys and paid for sex with drugs. He was never charged with anything with the students he took with him as far as I remember. One of the shop teachers I had was convicted of statutory rape. I think it was his niece. I don’t think there were public allegations of anything with students. Since I’ve been doing this job I’ve locked up a few teachers for in school shenanigans. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/92 "2013-12-17T15:06:22Z")
Two. One’s the whitest of white collar workers that got busted for income tax evasion back in the early '80s. Fantastic guy, served his time and made his amends and has been a model citizen ever since. The other’s currently serving time in federal prison for a string of 8 bank robberies across four states. He’ll get out in 2022, I think, and we’ll see where he goes from there. Nice guy, just really, really bad at money management. (So’s his wife, incidentally.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/93 "2013-12-17T15:25:34Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I have to ask: Why would anyone smuggle a coyote? Is that a coyote in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/94 "2013-12-17T15:51:53Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > P.S. Several years later, I was interviewing for another job, and the interviewer asked me why I left that place after 4 months. I kind of hemmed and hawed, and he just looked at me and said, “You can tell me the truth. I’ve been told many times that Hospital X is a very difficult place to work at.” Ok, I’d thought I had read this story earlier! ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/95 "2013-12-17T16:22:18Z")
Two off the top of my head, both from the little town I left to go to college 25 years ago. (I’m sure I’ve been acquainted with more in my urban life - my city’s most notorious criminal of the last ten years lived right down the block - but I didn’t know them well enough to know their criminal records.) There is quite the dichotomy between the two. One was the president of our local bank. In the mid-90s, he did a few things he shouldn’t have (made some unsecured loans with falsified paperwork, wrote off some personal overdraft fees) and got caught. He spent about a year in the slammer for that, I think, but his real punishment was not ever being able to do the kind of work he was trained to do again. Today, after a long run as either a janitor or a minister in a bunch of churches, Bruce is involved in a community ministry specializing in poverty and prison after-care. I haven’t talked to him for a good long time; maybe I’ll run into him one of these days. The other one I only knew as a gradeschooler. I’ve written about him here before - you just couldn’t turn your back on the kid. I was teaching third-grade Sunday School and one day the topic of evil came up. Every single kid there agreed that this kid was pure evil - there was no convincing them otherwise. He would do pretty much any maladaptive thing he could get away with - stealing, animal cruelty, vandalism, you name it. By fourth grade, he was in the juvenile justice system. Today he’s serving a life sentence for murder. No one is surprised. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/96 "2013-12-17T18:13:52Z")
> [@runningdude](#): > > Ok, I’d thought I had read this story earlier! I tell the story a lot, and have probably done so here already. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/97 "2013-12-17T18:48:40Z")
I worked as a part time contractor doing database work for a guy’s company. I found out that he’d spent about 7 years in prison for drug running a while ago. He was a very nice guy, but had a strange quirk that he thought he was brighter than anyone else around him. He made very dumb decisions, but thought he knew better. I tried to talk him out of a lot of things. He would do things like violating probation by travel out of state. One day I was listening to a radio station in St. Louis and they reported that both the BBB and Illinois State Attorney had complaints against the business. That’s when I started separating myself from working for him. The business collapsed after burning though over $1 million in capital. I don’t know where he is now. Google searches come up pretty empty. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/98 "2013-12-17T19:05:20Z")
I have more than a dozen (formerly close) friends and/or long-term co-workers currently incarcerated for felonies. I know at least 3 of them are there for murder, one is there for multiple murders, and at least two are convicted pedophiles. I guess I run with a fairly colorful crowd, although it’s getting to be a smaller crowd every year. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/99 "2013-12-17T20:18:02Z")
Only one that I know of. The former president of our model car club is currently in prison for life after murdering his parents with a baseball bat in a drug-fueled rage. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362/100 "2013-12-17T21:38:22Z")
If we are including school teachers then I can add another four from my (catholic) high school. All done for molesting students. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/felons-you-have-known/676362.md?page=6)