To start things off, I’ll go nostalgic:
Smartest: Alvin Karpis or Arnold Rothstein.
Most charismatic: John Dillinger or Bugsy Siegel.
Scariest: this is a hard one. Lucky Luciano, Legs Diamond, Dutch Schultz, “Pretty” Amberg and Vito Genovese were all very scary. (I don’t consider serial killers scary, for some reason.) I’ll go with the guy who was behind the New York Lufthansa robbery in the 70’s – can’t remember his name. He killed all his friends and accomplices to keep them from talking.
Ted Bundy?
The Lufthansa guy was James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke.
BTW, some suggested guidelines: no dictators or politicians, please. It should be a criminal who is/was on the lam from his own society.
Well, the Zodiac killer never was caught…
Hitler, Stalin, Nixon, etc.
All politicians, all scary, all criminals.
Ho-Hum. :rolleyes:
Ollie North
It has been remarked that Bin Laden was somewhat charismatic. And he certainly is/was scary.
Charles Manson. Every time I see him on TV I get really freaked out.
Bin Laden and Manson certainly do qualify under my OP and my follow-up post. And jjimm and Guin did specify the category, e.g. “scary” or “most charismatic”, thanks guys.
But, most people don’t seem to be specifying whether their nominee is scary, smart or charismatic. Unless they’re saying that crook was all three??
C’mon people, let’s get creative and have some fun with this!
I noticed someone else started a threat asking only for “coolest” criminal. Should I start one thread for each category? “Scariest” thread, “charismatic” thread and “smartest” thread? Or does “cool” embrace them all?
For all three categories:
Hannibal Lecter
I don’t want to start a debate on the particulars of this case, but if Mumia Abu-Jamal is guilty, then he ranks pretty high on the list of charismatic criminals, since he has a lot of people trying to get him out.
Smartest: Jack the Ripper wasn’t caught…that was the 19th century, is that modern enough?
Charismatic: I know someone said no politicians but I’d really have to go with Hitler.
Scariest: I’m going with Charles Manson, he freaks me out as well.
Jack the Ripper is a good choice…he’s either the smartest, or the luckiest, or, if you believe Alan Moore’s comic, the most well-connected.
I would define “modern” as anything after the medieval period…which gives a lot of choices. No Robin Hoods, no Thieves of Baghdad! And sorry, no Hitlers either – technically, he wasn’t breaking any “laws”…
Looks like a mini-mini-groundswell for Manson for “scariest”.
No cite beyond hearing from a friend who is a guard at Corcoran (where manson is housed) He is extremely intelligent and charismatic along Hannibal Lecter lines as well. Guards in his unit are rotated often due to his propensity for convincing guards to assist with escape attempts.
Rasputin was pretty freaky-and charismatic to boot!
I vote Albert Fish as scariest. Ol’ Albie made regular, run-o-the-mill murderers look like frat boys. There’s a picture of him in the article somewhere, but I linked to the main page in case anyone wanted to read his whole terrifying story. WARNING Might be unsuitable to read while eating!!
And I nominate Randy Kraft as certainly one of the smartest, mainly because he went about twenty years without being caught. He’s also in a tie for scariest with Mr. Fish.
Most charismatic? There’s probably a few that would disagree with me, but I think Lucky Luciano and Ted Bundy would probably fit that description better than most. And all the members of Charlie’s Family would argue that he was definitely the most charismatic. Might be a three-way toss, here.
If we’re going just for looks, though, Ted would beat the others hands-down.
Ohhhh dude, Albert Fish. Thanks for reminding me about that lunatic. The truth is, I used to enjoyed reading true crime type of books UNTIL I read the story of Albert Fish. He sickened me so much that I simply quit reading those books cold turkey.
What a perverted FREAK!
Now I gotta go take a shower.
From the Sydney underworld:
Smartest: Roger Rogerson, Kate Leigh, Tilly Devine
Most charismatic: Abe Safron, George Freeman.
Scariest: Mark “Chopper” Read, Ivan Milat, Neddy Smith
Oh sweet lord Jesus, Albert Fish is one of the scariest creatures I have ever read about. The 1903 mugshot is especially creepy.
(Question-when there was famine in China-they actually ate children?)
Oh my GOD that is so BAD!!!