# Who were the coolest all time crooks...? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703 "2002-10-24T15:42:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/21 "2002-10-26T12:43:28Z")
James Trafficant! ---
**Author:** ![Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/2bfe46/32.png) [@Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xavier)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/22 "2002-10-26T19:39:34Z")
> [@](#): > > **KidCharlemagne:** The surfer/jewel thief dude that “Point Break” was loosely based on. I can’t recall the exact details but he went though the roof of the museum of natural history (?) and stole the star of india with virtually no prior experience. I had _noooooooo_ idea that this was based on a true story. Keanu Reeves excellent performance left a cruel notion that nothing _that_ plastic could ever be real. I tell you what though, that surfer was one cool dude if he was real. BTW, which character are you talking about, the guy played by Patrick Swayze or someone else in it? > [@](#): > > **Lorenzo:** Anyone who got away with it without injuring or killing anyone. The gang I’m talking about didn’t kill anyone. They had a shootout with a rival gang somewhere in Spain over drug distribution in which the number 2 Michel Crutel was killed. But they never harmed any civilians - unfortunately for them - they never got away with it. ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/23 "2002-10-26T22:50:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo \* > \*\* > > Lokij? Was that famous robbery in Nice in 1976? If so, I was in France at the time as a youngster. I can remember how the robbery captivated the country - very Robin Hoodish was the vibe I recall. > > I was 14 years old I think. I couldn’t speak French very well, bu well enough. The french have a law where they can pick anyone up off the street and lock you up for 48 hours and just question you until you crack. And I’m pretty sure the guy in this story escaped during that 48 hour period. > > Lokij? Am I close? \*\* Yes, I believe that was the one. As I said, a very interesting bank heist. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/24 "2002-10-27T01:02:20Z")
**Edward Pierce** (his most common alias, apparently nobody knew his real name), the perpetrator of the original (1855?) Great Train Robbery. Prosecutor: Mr Pierce, why did you plan and execute this (insert long string of indignant Victorian pejoratives) crime? Pierce: I wanted the money. Escaped while being transported from court to prison, and was never seen–or at least recognized–again. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/25 "2002-10-27T01:48:19Z")
I’m going to have to agree with **MamaHen** and say Bonnie and Clyde. ---
**Author:** ![dave316](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dave316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dave316)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/26 "2002-10-27T16:09:21Z")
stopwatch gang ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/27 "2002-10-27T19:48:03Z")
I’d have to say those who participated in the Underground Railroad. They helped liberate quite a large amount of chattel. One good slave back then cost around $800. They risked their own lives and property and helped many people. I think they are cool beyond words. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/28 "2002-10-30T13:39:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > \*\*First thing I thought of was \*\* Frank Abganale \*\* who lived and wrote \*\* Catch Me If You Can \*\* which is coming out at Xmas as a movie. > > Teenage con man travels the world posing as a pilot, conning people for their money. True exploits of the author. > > How about a vote for \*\*Charles Ponzi \*\* the man who invented the pyramid scheme. \*\* Abganale will definitely be in the news, and did a good job capitalizing on his alleged exploits. Having read the book, I say “alleged” because it rang false in many places. He’s extreeemely vague about dates/names/details, especially for his more colorful exploits (namely, impersonating pilots, being thrown into a French prison that he made sound like the Chateau d’If). The '70s lingo (I seem to recall him forever making it with various foxy stewardesses) didn’t help. That he was a petty criminal (his stock in trade, admittedly, was nothing more daring or exotic than kiting/forging checks for a couple of hundred dollars here and there) seems beyond doubt; as for the rest . . . well, it wouldn’t be surprising if a con man conned us about his cons. One of the unintended consequences of glamorizing crime is that we get criminals embellishing their criminal resumes. ---
**Author:** ![Breezy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b3f665/32.png) [@Breezy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breezy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/29 "2002-10-30T18:03:11Z")
Newton brothers hands down. Didn’t anyone else see that movie?? LOVED IT! ---
**Author:** ![gus28](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6de8d8/32.png) [@gus28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gus28)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/30 "2002-10-30T18:46:11Z")
You just beat me to it Breezy, excellent call, that one brother was so funny on Johnny Carson at the end. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/31 "2002-10-30T18:55:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mudshark \* > \*\*I’m going to have to agree with **MamaHen** and say Bonnie and Clyde. \*\* Bonnie and Clyde were a couple of mad dog killers and NOT the folk heroes portrayed by movies. They killed people for no reason whatever except that they enjoyed it. If they hadn’t gotten national recognition due to newspaper accounts, they would have simply been a couple of small time chicken thieves who took up bank robbing. When their bullet-riddled bodies were brought back to Dallas, people lined up to see them, not so much out of morbid curiousity as to satisfy themselves that they were really dead. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/32 "2002-10-30T19:04:08Z")
What LouisB said. Same applies to Dillinger, and not surprisingly to almost any armed robber/killer. Not just amoral, but usually dumb, boring Okies or the equivalent, and no one you’d want to spend any time around. I can sort of, sort of understand the expressed admiration for con men because (a) they’re superficially more cultured; and (b) they’re not visibly hurting anyone – though they’re stealing too, and that hurts. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/33 "2002-10-30T19:06:26Z")
I don’t know about “all time coolest” but I have to admit I get a really big kick out of Nick Leeson, the guy who singlehandedly brought down Barings Bank. [sub]And yes, I know he doesn’t _actually_ look like Ewan McGregor IRL.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/34 "2002-10-31T07:59:29Z")
[Victor Lustig](http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/lustig/), who sold the Eiffel Tower twice. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_alien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703/35 "2002-10-31T12:12:21Z")
Prometheus!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-coolest-all-time-crooks/133703.md?page=1)