I know vigilante groups (death squads, lynch mobs, off duty police squads, etc) have been successful at getting their targets. Have lone vigilantes (someone like the comic book superheros) ever been successful at fighting crime in the real world?
And by fighting crime I mean more than once (not just some guy who gets held up at gunpoint and beats up his mugger), I mean someone who sought out crime and criminals and beat them up/brought them to justice consistently.
A letter to cops in Mexico claiming to be from “Diana, Huntress of Bus Drivers” claimed to have murdered two bus drivers for molesting their woman passengers shortly after two bus drivers were in fact killed by a disguised woman.
Whether the writer was really the same person who did the killing, whether they were really motivated by vigilantism and whether any other similar bus driver killings were attributable to the same person to be controversial. But seems like a possible case anyways.
Plus, I like the idea of costumed vigilantes with really mission specific superhero-names.
Well, prostitution was illegal and Jack the Ripper never got caught. He may well have considered himself a lone wolf vigilante.
Does Phoenix Jones count?
“Lone vigilante” might include someone following the pattern of Bronson’s character in the “Death Wish” movies rather than a high profile would-be superhero type.
nm. misunderstood
