James Trafficant!
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?
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.
Yes, I believe that was the one. As I said, a very interesting bank heist.
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.
I’m going to have to agree with MamaHen and say Bonnie and Clyde.
stopwatch gang
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.
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.
Newton brothers
hands down.
Didn’t anyone else see that movie?? LOVED IT!
You just beat me to it Breezy, excellent call, that one brother was so funny on Johnny Carson at the end.
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.
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.
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]
Victor Lustig, who sold the Eiffel Tower twice.
Prometheus!!