The Crime Book Big Ideas Simply Explained

CRItheME
book



CRItheME
book
foreword by
peter james

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CONTRIBUTORS

SHANNA HOGAN REBECCA MORRIS

Shanna Hogan is an award-winning journalist and The New York Rebecca Morris is The New York Times best-selling author of
Times best-selling author of three true-crime books including A Killing in Amish Country, and If I Can’t Have You, with Gregg
Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story. An Arizona State University Olsen. An experienced journalist, she is also the author of the
journalism graduate, Shanna has written for numerous publications, best-selling Ted and Ann: The Mystery of a Missing Child and
received more than 20 awards for her feature writing and investigative Her Neighbor Ted Bundy. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
reporting, and has appeared on numerous shows, including The
View, Dateline, 20/20, CNN, Oxygen, and Investigation Discovery. CATHY SCOTT
Shanna lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and two dogs.
Cathy Scott, a Los Angeles Times best-selling author, is an
MICHAEL KERRIGAN established crime writer and investigative journalist for The New
York Times and Reuters. Best known for writing The Killing of
Michael Kerrigan was educated at University College, Oxford. His Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, she has written
many books include A History of Punishment, The War on Drugs, extensively about street gangs and organized crime, including
The American Presidency: A Dark History, The Catholic Church: mob daughter Susan Berman in Murder of a Mafia Daughter, and
A Dark History, and A Handbook of Scotland’s History. He writes drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross. She is the author of several
regular reviews for The Times Literary Supplement and lives with other true crime works, including The Rough Guide to True
his family in Edinburgh.  Crime, The Millionaire’s Wife, and Death in the Desert, which was
adapted into a full-length movie starring Michael Madsen in 2016.
LEE MELLOR

Lee Mellor, Ph.D. (abd) is a criminologist, lecturer, musician, and
the author of six books on crime. He is currently finishing his
doctorate at Montreal’s Concordia University specializing in
abnormal homicide and sex crimes. As the chair of the American
Investigative Society of Cold Cases’ academic committee, he has
consulted with police on cold cases in Pennsylvania, Missouri,
Ohio, and London, Ontario. He resides in Toronto, Canada.

6

CONTENTS

10 INTRODUCTION 45 I stole from the wealthy so I CON ARTISTS
could live their lifestyle
John MacLean 64 Under the influence of bad
counsels… I fell a martyr
BANDITS, ROBBERS, 46 Sing of my deeds, tell The Affair of the
of my combats… forgive Diamond Necklace

AND ARSONISTS my failings 66 People took their hats off
Phoolan Devi to such a sum
18 Father of all treasons The Crawford Inheritance
Thomas Blood
48 The fire becomes a 68 The smoothest con man
mistress, a lover that ever lived
19 A civil, obliging robber John Leonard Orr The Sale of the Eiffel Tower
John Nevison
70 Domela’s story rings with the
20 Damnation seize my soul 54 It was the perfect crime high lunacy of great farce
if I give you quarters The Antwerp Diamond Heist Harry Domela

Edward “Blackbeard” Teach 56 He was an expert in 74 If my work hangs in a
museum long enough, it
22 Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s alarm systems becomes real
the thief, Knox the boy that The Theft of the Cellini Salt Cellar Elmyr de Hory

buys the beef 57 Weird and unbelievable, 78 It’s not stealing because I’m
Burke and Hare but it’s a very real only taking what they give me
Doris Payne
24 They were brave fellows. criminal case
They were true men The Russia–Estonia 80 They inflated the raft and left
The James-Younger Gang Vodka Pipeline the island. After that nobody
seems to know what happened
26 It’s for the love of 58 Old-school London Escape from Alcatraz
a man that I’m gonna criminal gents
have to die The Hatton Garden Heist 86 At the time, virtue was
not one of my virtues
Bonnie and Clyde Frank Abagnale

30 You’ll never believe it – 88 I was on a train of lies.
they’ve stolen the train I couldn’t jump off
The Great Train Robbery Clifford Irving

36 Addicted to the thrill 90 Originally I copied Hitler’s life
Bill Mason out of books, but later I began
to feel I was Hitler
37 To me it is only so much Konrad Kujau
scrap gold
The Theft of the World Cup 94 If this is not a ring-in I’m
not here
38 Miss, you’d better look The Fine Cotton Scandal
at that note
D.B. Cooper

44 Without weapons, nor
hatred, nor violence
The Société Générale
Bank Heist

7

WHITE COLLAR ORGANIZED CRIME 178 Anne, they’ve stolen our baby!
CRIMES The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping
136 The most hazardous of all
100 Money… has often been trades, that of the smuggler 186 Since Monday I have fallen
a cause of the delusion The Hawkhurst Gang into the hands of kidnappers
of multitudes The Kidnapping of John Paul
The Mississippi Scheme 138 In Sicily there is a sect Getty III
of thieves
101 Nothing is lost save honour The Sicilian Mafia 188 I’m a coward. I didn’t
The Black Friday Gold Scandal want to die
146 They dare do anything The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst
102 The old game of robbing The Triads
Peter to pay Paul 190 I still sleep with a night
Charles Ponzi 150 No more villainous, ruffianly light. I can’t ride a subway
band was ever organized The Chowchilla Kidnapping
108 You can’t convict a The Wild Bunch
million dollars 196 I always felt like a poor
The Teapot Dome Scandal 152 Prohibition has made chicken in a hen house
nothing but trouble The Kidnapping of
110 Citizens were dying The Beer Wars Natascha Kampusch
right, left, and centre
The Bhopal Disaster 154 If the boss says a MURDER CASES
passing crow is white,
114 The world’s you must agree 202 An unusually clear case,
biggest mugging The Yakuza like a “smoking gun”
The City of London The Neanderthal Murder
Bonds Theft 160 When we do right, nobody
remembers. When we do 203 Perpetrated with the sword
116 It’s all just one big lie wrong, nobody forgets of justice
Bernie Madoff Hells Angels Jean Calas

122 I know in my mind that 164 They were the best years 204 Not guilty by reason
I did nothing criminal of our lives of insanity
The Enron Scandal The Krays and the Richardsons Daniel M’Naghten

124 He put in peril the 166 All empires are created 206 Gave Katherine warning
existence of the bank of blood and fire to leave
Jérôme Kerviel The Medellín Cartel The Dripping Killer

126 Bribery was tolerated 168 It was always about business, 208 Lizzie Borden took an axe and
and… rewarded never about gangs gave her mother forty whacks
The Siemens Scandal “Freeway” Rick Ross Lizzie Borden

128 Not just nerdy kids up to KIDNAPPING 212 Fingerprinting alone has
mischief in their parents’ AND EXTORTION proved to be both infallible
basement and feasible
The Spyeye Malware 176 He valued her less than The Stratton Brothers
Data Theft old swords
The Abduction of Pocahontas 216 Thank God it’s over. The
130 The irregularities… go suspense has been too great
against everything 177 Marvellous real-life romance Dr Crippen
Volkswagen stands for The Tichborne Claimant
The Volkswagen Emissions 217 I was driven by a will that had
Scandal taken the place of my own
Madame Caillaux

8

218 She was very good looking 246 I’m afraid this man will 293 I was sick or evil, or both
with beautiful dark hair kill me some day Jeffrey Dahmer
The Black Dahlia Murder O.J. Simpson
294 A danger to young women
224 The artist was so well 252 Foul play while in the Spy Colin Pitchfork
informed on chemicals… Craft store
it was frightening Craig Jacobsen 298 Read your ad. Let’s talk
Sadamichi Hirasawa about the possibilities
254 People are afraid and John Edward Robinson
226 I have been a victim of don’t want to talk to us
many unusual and The Murders of Tupac Shakur ASSASSINATIONS
irrational thoughts and Biggie Smalls AND POLITICAL
The Texas Tower Massacre PLOTS
SERIAL KILLERS
230 Now is the time for 304 Insatiable and disgraceful
Helter Skelter 262 Murdering people… for lust for money
The Manson Family sheer sport The Assassination of Pertinax
Liu Pengli
238 A dingo’s got my baby! 305 Murdering someone by craft
The Death of Azaria 263 The said Dame Alice had a The Hashashin
Chamberlain certain demon
Alice Kyteler 306 Sic semper tyrannis!
240 I was Mr Nobody until I The Assassination of
killed the biggest 264 The blood of maidens will Abraham Lincoln
somebody on Earth keep her young
The Murder of John Lennon Elizabeth Báthory 310 Dreyfus is innocent. I swear it! I
stake my life on it – my honour!
241 Who has sent you 266 I will send you another The Dreyfus Affair
against me? Who has told bit of innerds
you to do this thing? Jack the Ripper 312 If they shed my blood, their
The Murder of hands will remain soiled
Roberto Calvi 274 They’d rather be dead The Assassination of Rasputin
than be with me
242 I was on death row, and Harvey Glatman 316 There has to be more to it
I was innocent The Assassination of John F.
Kirk Bloodsworth 276 I just like to kill Kennedy
Ted Bundy
244 An act of unparalleled evil 322 I kiss you for the last time
The Murder of James Bulger 284 Calculated, cruel, cold-blooded The Abduction of Aldo Moro
murders
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley 324 Barbarity was all around us
The Kidnapping of Ingrid
286 More terrible than words Betancourt
can express
Fred and Rosemary West 326 Barbaric and ruthless
The Poisoning of Alexander
288 This is the Zodiac speaking Litvinenko
The Zodiac Killer
332 DIRECTORY
290 In his own eyes, he was 344 INDEX
some sort of medical god 351 QUOTE ATTRIBUTIONS
Harold Shipman 352 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

292 A mistake of nature
Andrei Chikatilo

9

FOREWORD

I owe my career as a writer to crime – in more ways still be considered heroes today. But that of course is
than one. In 1982 soon after my first novel, a spy the problem with true crime – someone does get hurt.
thriller, had been published, our Brighton home The glamour and vitality of the Bonnie and Clyde story
was burgled. A young detective, Mike Harris, came to grinds to a brutal and sobering halt in a relentless
take fingerprints, saw the book and told me if I ever torrent of bullets.
needed any research help from Sussex Police to give
him a call. But that doesn’t stop our endless fascination with
monsters, whether real or fictional, from Jack The
Mike was married to a detective, Renate, and over Ripper, through to fiercely intelligent and charming
the next few years my former wife and I became firm Ted Bundy, estimated to have raped and killed over
friends with them. Almost all of their circle of friends 100 young female college students. Nor with crime in
were also in the police force, in all fields, like Response, general. Why are we so fascinated by crime, from both
Homicide, Traffic, Child Protection, Antiques and the pages of fictional detective novels, crime dramas
Fraud. The more I talked to all of them, the more I and movies, to the utterly addictive murders in our
realised that no one sees more of human life in a tabloids, broadsheets and on our television news?
30-year career than a cop. They encounter every single
facet of the human condition. I don’t believe there is a one-size fits all answer, but
many. Top of my list is that we are programmed by our
All investigated crime involves an inseparable genes to try to survive. We can learn a great deal about
trinity of perpetrator, victim and police. Even offences survival through studying the fates of victims and the
that disgust us, such as rape, domestic abuse, theft make-up of their perpetrators.
from charities, preying on the elderly or child abuse,
hold us as much in thrall as other seemingly more And there is one aspect of human nature that will
“glamorous” ones. And there are some crimes which never change. I was chatting with former serial bank
captivate us with their sheer verve, where the robber, Steve Tulley. As a teenager, in prison for his
personality of the villains transcends the ruin, despair first robbery, Tulley met Reggie Kray, and persuaded
or even death inflicted on their victims. I’ve long held a him to let him be his pupil and teach him everything
sneaking admiration for brilliant con-man Victor Lustig he knew. At 58, broke, Tulley is living in a bedsit in
who sold the Eiffel Tower to scrap dealers, and the Brighton. I asked him what was the largest sum he had
brazen, skilfully planned, but almost Ealing Comedy ever got away with. He told me it was £50k in a bank
nature of the Hatton Garden Jewellery Heist. job. So what did he do with the money? He replied,
excitedly that he had rented a suite in Brighton’s
Much in the same way, the 1963 Great Train Metropole Hotel and, in his words, “Larged it for six
Robbery captured the nation’s attention – it was at the months until it was all gone.”
time the most audacious, and largest robbery ever
committed in England. I asked Steve if he had the chance to live his life
over again would he have done it differently? “No,” he
I had lunch with the gang’s getaway driver, Roy replied with a gleam in his eyes. “I’d do it all again. It’s
John James, after his release from prison some years the adrenaline, you see!”
later. He was looking for finance to resume his motor
racing career. A charismatic man, he ruefully told me if Peter James
they had not made the mistake of coshing the train- Best-selling author of the Roy Grace novels
driver, causing him permanent injury, they would all

INTRODU

CTION

12 INTRODUCTION

C rimes – the illegal actions malevolence, these crimes stand kidnapping in 1932 prompted the
that can be prosecuted and out over the centuries. While many US Congress to enact the Federal
are punishable by law – are of the perpetrators are viewed with Kidnapping Act just one month
all around us, from comparatively distaste and disgust, some have later. Also known as the Lindbergh
petty misdemeanours to truly been highly romanticized over the Law, the Act made kidnapping a
heinous acts of unspeakable evil. years for their rebelliousness and federal crime punishable by death.
contempt for obeying the rules.
The perpetrators of these varied This is often in spite of the Other cases have involved
transgressions have long fascinated extremely serious nature of their pioneering legal defence strategies,
academics and the wider public, crimes, such as with Bonnie and such as with the 1843 case of
who have sought answers to Clyde, the Great Train Robbers, Daniel M’Naghten, the first of its
questions about whether some and Phoolan Devi. kind in UK legal history. M’Naghten
people are more likely to commit was acquitted of a high-profile
crimes than others, and whether Some cases have broken new murder based on a criminal-
there are certain characteristics ground, and in some instances insanity defence, and remanded to
unique to criminals. have led to the swift passage of a State Criminal Lunatic Asylum
new laws to protect the public for the remainder of his life.
Indeed, the Ancient Greeks and deter others from committing
were fascinated by the “science” similar crimes. Public outrage Crime through the years
of physiognomy – the study of how during the investigation into the Throughout history, pivotal
certain facial features can reveal highly publicized Lindbergh Baby moments have brought new crimes
something about a person’s to the fore. In the late 19th century,
character or nature. While such Laws are like cobwebs, for example, lawlessness increased
a thought now sounds somewhat which may catch small flies, with the growth of towns and
ridiculous, physiognomy was cities, in part because of a lack
widely accepted by the Ancient but let wasps and hornets of official police forces to rein in
Greeks and underwent periodic break through. outlaws and bring them to justice.
revivals over the centuries, the One of those was the Wild West’s
most notable spearheaded by Swiss Jonathan Swift Jesse James and his infamous
writer Johann Kaspar Lavater in James–Younger Gang, who
the 1770s. became the first gang in the US
to rob trains and banks during
What unites the crimes covered daylight hours.
in this book is their status as
“notorious” in one way or another. During the Prohibition period
Whether it is because of their in the US, from 1920 to 1933,
breathtaking ingenuity, brazen organized crime proliferated
opportunism, machiavellian when outfits such as Chicago’s
scheming, or abominable

INTRODUCTION 13

Sheldon Gang vied to become the found evidence that he or she had heightened the shock factor: he
major illegal alcohol suppliers in the been bludgeoned to death and did not conform to a stereotypical
city’s southwest Irish belt. thrown down a cave shaft. vision of a monstrous serial killer.

The number of offences in the There is an undeniable public Villains and technology
US increased so much during that fascination with serial killers – The 1962 escape from Alcatraz
time span that the International especially those where the culprit Federal Penitentiary caused
Association of Chiefs of Police has never been caught. The cases an international sensation.
began to compile crime statistics. of Jack the Ripper in London and Investigators concluded that the
This culminated in the release of the Zodiac killer in California fugitives died trying to make their
the Uniform Crime Reports – the are both enduring sources of way across San Francisco Bay –
first published in January 1930 contemporary analysis and but evidence unearthed in 2015
– which were pulled together via speculation. Some crimes are so calls this into question. If such
a voluntary cooperative effort horrifying that the name of the an escape were to happen today,
from local, county, and state perpetrator becomes indelibly a massive manhunt would be
law enforcement agencies. This linked with indescribable evil. streamed live across the internet,
became a vital tool to monitor Ted Bundy, who committed the making it more difficult for the
the number and types of offences gruesome murders of dozens of criminals to get away.
committed across the US. It caught young women in the 1970s in the
on and inspired law enforcement Pacific Northwest, is a case in The technological improvements
agencies in other countries around point. The fact that Bundy seemed in the detection and solving of
the world to follow suit. a charming, respectable man crimes, such as DNA fingerprinting,
is accompanied by an increasing
The ultimate transgression He who commits injustice is sophistication in the techniques
When it comes to murder, it is ever made more wretched criminals use to commit them and
invariably savage and disturbing. than he who suffers it. to evade capture. In 2011, Russian
Whether an organized hit-for-hire, Plato hacker Aleksandr Panin accessed
a crime of passion, or a wanton act confidential information from over
of violence against a stranger, the 50 million computers. In February
act is final and tragic. 2016, hackers stole $81 million (£64
million) from the central Bank of
History’s first homicide is Bangladesh without even setting
believed to have taken place some foot in the country. While criminal
430,000 years ago. However, it methods may have evolved over
was only discovered in 2015, time, though, our fascination with
when archaeologists working in crime and its perpetrators remains
Atapuerca, Spain, pieced together as strong as it ever has been. ■
the skull of a Neanderthal and

ARBORABNSBDOEINTRISSS,

,TASND

16 INTRODUCTION

Irishman Thomas Pirate Edward Jesse James leads
Blood attempts to “Blackbeard” Teach the James–Younger Gang
steal the English plunders ships in the
Crown Jewels from Caribbean and along the in train and bank
the Tower of London. East Coast of America. robberies across the
American Midwest.

1671 1716–18 1866–82

1676 1827–28 1930–34

In England, highwayman Scottish graverobbers Bonnie and Clyde go
John Nevison rides 320 km William Burke and William on a crime spree
(200 miles) in a single day in across several US
order to construct an alibi. Hare turn to murder to states, kidnapping
make money selling and murdering
corpses for dissection. when cornered.

T he general public has long helmets, ski masks, and gloves, taking their money. Bizarrely, it
romanticized bandits, they stole 120 mailbags containing almost became an honour to be
admiring their courage, more than £2.6 million (about robbed by Nevison. His legendary
audacity, and unwillingness to live £49 million today) in cash and status was cemented through his
by the rules of others. Many have seriously injured train driver Jack impulsive 320-km (200-mile)
been regarded as daredevils rather Mills. Yet sections of the British journey from the county of Kent
than simply common criminals. public glorified the Great Train to York to establish an alibi for a
Such was the public’s perception Robbers, pleased that some of them robbery that he committed earlier
of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, evaded justice, and ignored their in the day—a feat that earned him
outlaws operating in 1930s violent and illegal exploits. the nickname “Swift Nick”.
America, who travelled in a Buick
sedan and hid out in boarding Like other famous robberies and Ingenious crimes
houses and empty barns between criminal partnerships, the stories Sometimes we cannot help but
robberies and murders. Bonnie of the Great Train Robbery and admire the breathtaking audacity
and Clyde’s crimes were heinous, Bonnie and Clyde have been made of certain crimes. One of the
but they captured the public into movies that appealed to the boldest robberies in modern times
imagination and attracted throngs public’s age-old love of villains. occurred in midair over the
of supporters who relished reading northwestern US in November
reports of their latest exploits. The notion of the lovable rogue 1971. The hijacker of a Boeing 727,
is not entirely fanciful. John who became known as D.B. Cooper,
It was no different for the Great Nevison, a British highwayman of fled from the scene by parachute,
Train Robbers, a 15-member gang the 1670s was renowned for his taking with him a ransom of
who targeted the Glasgow to gentlemanly manner. Holding up $200,000 (£158,000) in $20 bills.
London mail train in 1963. Wearing stagecoaches on horseback, he
apologized to his victims before

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 17

The Great Train In Uttar Pradesh, India, In Belgium, thieves break
Robbers steal more Phoolan Devi, known as the into the vault of the
than £2.6 million (about Bandit Queen, carries out
£49 million today) from dozens of highway robberies. Antwerp Diamond Center,
the Glasgow to London stealing diamonds worth

mail train. £60 million.

1963 1979–83 2003
1971 1984–91 2015

In Washington state, a man Professional fire investigator Veteran thieves loot
going by the name of D.B. and secret arsonist the Hatton Garden
Cooper hijacks a plane, Safe Deposit Company
extracts a £158,000 ransom, John Leonard Orr sets a in central London, in
and escapes by parachute. series of deadly fires in the largest burglary

southern California. in UK history.

In the French town of Nice a few example, the 2003 case of amateur by fire investigator John Leonard
years later, thieves committed what art thief Robert Mang, who climbed Orr in California were especially
was then the biggest heist in up the scaffolding outside a dark and disturbing. This case was
history when they drilled their way museum and squeezed through a fiendishly difficult to crack, because
into the Société Générale bank broken window to steal a multi- much of the evidence was destroyed
from the city’s sewer system. In million dollar work by the Italian by the fire. A partial fingerprint left
2003, a gang of thieves showed artist Benvenuto Cellini. However, on an unburned part of his
similar ambition when they broke there was no market for the incendiary device led to his arrest.
into a seemingly impregnable miniature masterpiece and he was
underground vault two floors forced to bury it in the woods. Unlike Bonnie and Clyde and
beneath the Antwerp Diamond the Great Train Robbers, who
Centre, to commit what they Darker acts became legendary figures courtesy
dubbed the “perfect crime”. The Not all bandits and robbers of the media, Orr created his own
gang made off with a haul worth inspire a grudging respect for the legend, and earned a reputation for
around £60 million. The ringleader remarkable nerve of the offender. being the first investigator at the
made one fatal mistake, however, The case of bodysnatchers William scene of the crimes he secretly
leaving traces of his DNA close to Burke and William Hare – who, in committed. But Orr’s fearlessness
the crime scene. early 19th-century Edinburgh, and skill as a master manipulator
turned to murder to supply are what he shares with the
Art heists also tend to capture cadavers for Dr Robert Knox’s bandits and robbers featured in this
the public’s imagination, because anatomy classes at the city’s chapter. They have all entered
they often demonstrate brazen university – is a grisly tale. The criminal history on account of their
opportunism with little thought spate of arson attacks committed notoriety, which in some cases
for the consequences. Take, for extends to mythic status. ■

18

FTARTEHAESRONOSF ALL

THOMAS BLOOD, 1671

IN CONTEXT I rish-born Thomas Blood the jewels, and immediately let in
(1618–80) fought for the his waiting friends. Overpowering
LOCATION Parliamentarians against and beating Edwards, the gang
Tower of London, UK Charles I’s Royalists in the English flattened the crown and sawed the
Civil War (1642–51), and the sceptre in half to make it easier to
THEME victorious Oliver Cromwell carry. They attempted to escape on
Jewel theft rewarded him with estates in his horseback but were quickly caught.
home country. These lands were
BEFORE confiscated during the Restoration The king confounded his
1303 Richard of Pudlicott, an of the Monarchy under Charles II, subjects by offering Blood a royal
impoverished English wool which Blood deemed a wrong that pardon. Some suggested that the
merchant, steals much of needed to be put right. He hatched king had been amused by Blood’s
Edward I’s priceless treasury a plan to steal the Crown Jewels, boldness; others that the king had
of gems, gold, and coins at not only for financial gain but also recruited him as spy. Either way,
Westminster Abbey. to symbolically decapitate the king, Blood subsequently became a
echoing the fate of King Charles I, favourite around the royal court. ■
AFTER in 1649.
11 September 1792 It was a gallant attempt,
Thieves break into the Royal Early in 1671, disguised as the however unsuccessful! It was
Storehouse, the Hôtel du fictitious clergyman Reverend
Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, “Ayloffe”, and with a female for a crown!
in Paris, and steal most of the accomplice posing as his wife, Thomas Blood
French Crown Jewels; many, Blood paid the Master of the Jewel
but not all, are later recovered. Office, the elderly Talbot Edwards,
for a tour. “Mrs Ayloffe” feigned
11 August 1994 Three illness during the tour, and
men make off with jewellery Edwards and his wife came to her
and precious stones worth aid. A grateful Reverend Ayloffe
£48 million at an exhibition made further visits, gaining the
at the Carlton Hotel in Edwards’s trust. On 5 May, Ayloffe
Cannes, France. persuaded Edwards to bring out

See also: The Société Générale Bank Heist 44 ■ The Antwerp Diamond Heist
54–55 ■ The Affair of the Diamond Necklace 64–65

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 19

RAOCBIVBIELR, OBLIGING

JOHN NEVISON, 1676

IN CONTEXT H ighwayman John Nevison Nevison’s flamboyant style and
(1639–94) was supposedly courtly manners are evident in this
LOCATION nicknamed “Swift Nick” 1680 depiction of his alleged meeting
Gad’s Hill, near Rochester, by King Charles II after the truth with King Charles II.
Kent, UK was finally revealed about his most
famous exploit. After robbing a that details the exploits of fabled
THEME traveller near Rochester, Kent, criminals, said he was “very
Highway robbery Nevison was in desperate need of favourable to the female sex” on
an alibi, so he devised a cunning account of his courtesy and style.
BEFORE plan. He crossed the River Thames This elevated his standing and had
1491–1518 Humphrey and galloped 320 km (200 miles) to the bizarre effect of making it
Kynaston, a high-born English York in a single day, then engaged something of an honour to have
highwayman, robs travellers in the Lord Mayor of York in been robbed by him. ■
Shropshire, allegedly giving conversation and made a bet over a
his takings to the poor. game of bowls. Nevison made sure
that the Lord Mayor knew the time
AFTER (8pm). The ruse paid off, and the
1710s Louis Dominique Lord Mayor later acted as Nevison’s
Garthausen, known as alibi during his trial. The jury could
“Cartouche”, commits highway not conceive that a man was
robberies in and around Paris. physically able to ride the distance
Nevison covered in a single day,
1735–37 Highwayman and so he was found not guilty.
Dick Turpin carries out a series
of robberies in the Greater Nevison was a veteran of the
London area. He is captured in 1658 Battle of Dunkirk and was
York in 1739 and is executed skilful with horses and weapons.
for horse theft. He was also courteous and elegant,
which he believed put him above
the rank of a common thief. The
Newgate Calendar, a publication

See also: The Great Train Robbery 30–35

20

QDSUAOMAURLNTAIEFTRIIOSGNIVSEEIYZOEUMY

EDWARD “BLACKBEARD” TEACH, 1716–18

IN CONTEXT A lthough far from the most Blackbeard’s fearsome appearance
successful pirate, Edward matched his reputation, but evidence
LOCATION “Blackbeard” Teach is suggests he only used force as a last
The Caribbean and East undoubtedly the most notorious. resort. His swashbuckling was greatly
Coast of North America Originally an English privateer romanticized after his death.
during Queen Anne’s War (1702–
THEME 13), he turned to piracy when the Blackbeard in charge of this prized
Piracy hostilities ceased. vessel. Blackbeard renamed it
Queen Anne’s Revenge.
BEFORE In 1716, Blackbeard travelled to
1667–83 Welsh privateer and the “pirate’s republic” of Nassau In December, King George I
later Royal Navy Admiral Sir in the Bahamas. There, he met passed the Indemnity Act, which
Henry Morgan becomes Captain Benjamin Hornigold who pardoned any pirate who officially
famous for attacks on Spanish placed him in charge of a sloop. renounced his lifestyle. Hornigold
settlements in the Caribbean. Together the pair plundered – who had been replaced as
ships in the waters around Cuba captain by his and Blackbeard’s
1689–96 Captain William and Bermuda, and along the East
Kidd, a renowned Scottish Coast of America.
privateer and pirate hunter,
plunders ships and islands Hornigold and Teach soon
in the Caribbean. encountered the Barbadian pirate
“Gentleman” Stede Bonnet, who
AFTER had been seriously wounded
1717–18 Barbadian pirate battling a Spanish man-of-war.
“Gentleman” Stede Bonnet, Half of Bonnet’s crew had perished
nicknamed for his past as a and the remaining 70 were losing
wealthy landowner, pillages faith in his leadership. The three
vessels in the Caribbean. men joined forces, with Bonnet
temporarily ceding command of his
1719–22 Bartholomew “Black sloop, the Revenge, to Blackbeard.
Bart” Roberts, a Welsh pirate,
raids hundreds of ships in the Taking charge
Americas and West Africa. During a raid near Martinique in
November 1717, Hornigold acquired
the 200-ton frigate La Concord de
Nantes. Hornigold placed

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 21

See also: The Hawkhurst Gang 136–37

combined crews after he voted Let’s jump on board, and Maynard’s ship. When the smoke
against a decision to attack any cut them to pieces. cleared, only the lieutenant and a
ship they wanted, including British few crew members remained on
ships – took the King’s pardon and Edward “Blackbeard” deck. Blackbeard ordered his band
parted ways with Blackbeard. Teach of 23 pirates to board the vessel.

Eventually, Bonnet’s men Having violated the conditions As his men clambered onto the
deserted him, choosing to serve of his pardon, Blackbeard now ship, 30 armed sailors emerged
under Blackbeard’s command. had a sizable bounty on his head. from below decks. A bloody battle
Blackbeard put a surrogate in On 22 November, 1718, two Royal ensued. Maynard and Blackbeard
charge of the Revenge and kept Navy sloops commanded by both aimed their flintlock pistols at
Bonnet as a “guest” on his ship. Lieutenant Robert Maynard each other and fired. Blackbeard’s
Soon after, Blackbeard sailed to caught up with the Adventure at shot missed but Maynard’s struck
North Carolina, where he blockaded Ocracoke Harbor. Blackbeard in the abdomen.
the port of Charleston, capturing Blackbeard recovered, however,
nine ships and ransoming a Last stand and broke Maynard’s sword in two
wealthy merchant and politician. Outmanoeuvring the Royal Navy’s with a mighty blow of his cutlass.
ships, Blackbeard lured them onto a Before he could capitalize on his
Upon sailing away from sandbar. Rather than escaping, he brief advantage, though, one of
Charleston, the Queen Anne’s fired two broadside attacks at Maynard’s men drove a pike into
Revenge ran aground. Anchoring Blackbeard’s shoulder. Outgunned
their fleet at Topsail Inlet, Bonnet and outnumbered, Blackbeard’s
and Blackbeard travelled by land to crew surrendered, but he continued
Bath, North Carolina, in June 1718 to fight. He finally fell dead after
where they were granted pardons taking five gunshot wounds and
by Governor Charles Eden. 20 sword wounds.
However, while Bonnet remained
there, Blackbeard crept back to the Maynard ordered his men to
fleet, plundered the Revenge and hang Blackbeard’s head from the
two other ships in the fleet and bowsprit. Later, it was mounted on
transferred the goods to his sloop, a stake near the Hampton River as
the Adventure. a warning to other pirates. ■

Privateer Sir Henry Morgan “Legal” piracy centuries, with some working
attacks and captures the town of without royal consent, including
Puerto del Principe in Cuba in this Sociologists have long recognized Francis Drake, who carried out
engraving from 1754. that crime and deviance are raids on Spanish shipping.
situational – that they change over During Queen Anne’s War,
time and from one location to the British privateers regularly
next. Piracy is a good example of plundered French and Spanish
this phenomenon. ships. However, when hostilities
between the nations ended,
In the mid-13th century, these same professional
Henry III of England started to plunderers suddenly found
issue licences, called “privateering themselves on the other side
commissions”, which allowed of the law. Clearly, what is
sailors to attack and plunder considered criminal depends on
foreign vessels. After 1295, these shifting social structures, which
licences were known as letters of are in turn dictated by larger
marque. Privateers became much political and economic realities.
more numerous in the 16th to 18th

22

BBTTUUHHRITAETCKFHE,B’EKUSRNYT,OSHHXTEATHRHEEE’BSBETOEHFYE

BURKE AND HARE, 1827–28

IN CONTEXT A pair of Irish immigrants Dr Robert Knox, a popular anatomy
became unlikely grave lecturer who urgently needed
LOCATION robbers – and ultimately corpses for dissection lessons,
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK killers – in 19th-century Scotland paid them £7 and 10 shillings
when greed got the better of them. (about £585 today) for the body.
THEME
Bodysnatching and William Burke and William Hare A unique business idea
multiple murder worked as labourers in Edinburgh, Inspired by their success, and
where they met in 1827 after delighted by such an easy stream
BEFORE Burke and his companion, Helen of income, the pair repeated it
November 1825 Thomas McDougal, moved into a lodging again and again, robbing newly
Tuite, a bodysnatcher, is house in Edinburgh run by Hare buried coffins and selling the
captured by a sentry in Dublin, and his wife Margaret. cadavers to Knox. However, they
Ireland, in possession of five soon tired of digging up graves in
bodies and with his pockets When an elderly lodger died of the middle of the night. So, in
full of sets of teeth. natural causes and still owed rent, November 1827 when a lodger
Burke and Hare sneaked into the became ill, Burke expedited the
AFTER cemetery, dug up his coffin, man’s demise by covering his
7 November 1876 A gang snatched his body, and carried mouth and nose while restraining
of counterfeiters breaks into it in a tea chest to Edinburgh him – a smothering technique that
Oak Ridge Cemetery in University’s medical school. became known as “burking”.
Springfield, Illinois, to steal
Abraham Lincoln’s body and That first murder was the start
hold it for ransom. The plot is of the duo’s killing spree, targeting
foiled by a Secret Service strays and prostitutes on the streets
agent posing as a member of Edinburgh. Their modus
of the gang. operandi involved plying a victim
with drink until they fell asleep.
Then, Burke smothered them using

Hare (left) and Burke (right)
financially exploited a shortage in the
legal supply of cadavers at a time when
Edinburgh was the leading European
centre of anatomical research.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 23

See also: Jack the Ripper 266–73

Robert Knox was a pre-eminent was discovered by two guests at I am sure … that in the whole
Scottish anatomist whose career was Hare’s boarding house, Ann and history of the country –
overshadowed by his involvement in James Gray. The Grays notified the nothing has ever been
the Burke and Hare case. police, and an inquiry led them to exhibited that is in any
Dr Knox. Docherty’s body had since
his unique technique. They loaded been moved to the university respect parallel to this case.
the body into a tea chest and lecture hall, which had become Lord Meadowbank
transported it at night to Dr Knox’s Knox’s dissecting theatre.
surgery. They received £7–10 murders and, on 28 January, 1829,
(£550–800 today) for each body. After a newspaper report hanged in front of a cheering
pointed the finger at Burke and crowd numbering up to 25,000.
Burke and Hare got away with Hare, there was a public outcry for People were said to have paid up
murder for 11 months until the body their prosecution. William Burke, to £1 (about £80 today) for a good
of Irishwoman Margaret Docherty William Hare, Helen McDougal, and view overlooking the scaffold.
Margaret Hare were all arrested by
police shortly afterwards and Burke’s body was publicly
charged with murder. Dr Knox was dissected by Dr Knox’s rival,
questioned by police, but was not Dr Monro, at the anatomy theatre of
arrested as he had not technically Edinburgh University’s Old College,
broken the law. attracting so many spectators that
a minor riot occurred. His skeleton
Every man for himself was later donated to Edinburgh
Requiring more evidence for a Medical School. Hare, although he
conviction, the court’s Lord confessed to being an accomplice,
Advocate attempted to extract was freed, and fled to England.
a confession from one of the four, With his reputation in tatters, Knox
and he chose Hare. He was moved to London to try to revive
offered immunity from prosecution his medical career.
and testified that Burke had
committed the murders. Burke was In all, Burke and Hare killed 16
subsequently convicted of three victims in what became known
as the West Port Murders. The
Diagnosing psychopathy murders led to the passing of the
Anatomy Act 1832, which
The Hare Psychopathy Checklist inability to accept responsibility increased the supply of legal
(named after Canadian for actions; impulsivity; and cadavers by authorizing the
psychologist Robert Hare) is a pathological lying. dissection of unclaimed bodies
diagnostic tool used to identify from workhouses after 48 hours.
a person’s psychopathic When psychopaths commit This proved effective in reducing
tendencies. Originally designed crimes, it is likely that their acts cases of body snatching. ■
to assess people accused of are purposeful. The motives
crimes, it is a 20-item inventory of psychopathic killers often
of personality traits assessed involve power or sadistic
primarily via an interview. gratification. Not all violent
The subject receives a score for offenders are psychopaths,
each trait depending on how but FBI investigations found
well each one applies to them. that psychopathic offenders
The traits include lack of have more serious criminal
remorse; lack of empathy; histories and tend to be more
chronically violent.

24

FTTEHRLUELYEOWMWEESNR.ETHBERYAVWEERE

THE JAMES-YOUNGER GANG, 1866–82

IN CONTEXT F rom February 1866 to Jesse James (left) posing with two
September 1876, the James- of the Younger brothers. Despite Jesse’s
LOCATION Younger Gang robbed 12 romanticized image and comparisons
Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, banks, five trains, five to Robin Hood, there is no evidence
Arkansas, Iowa, Texas, stagecoaches, and an exposition that he gave their loot to the poor.
and West Virginia, US ticket booth. Their crime spree
began in the wake of the American The gang grew, and they drifted
THEME Civil War (1861–65) when the James between Midwest states, pulling
Armed robbery brothers – Jesse and Frank – joined off robberies of banks, trains, and
forces with the Younger brothers stagecoaches, in Missouri, Kansas,
BEFORE – Cole, Jim, John, and Bob. They Kentucky, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas,
1790–1802 Samuel “Wolfman” all fought as Confederate and West Virginia. On 3 June 1871,
Mason and his band of bushwhackers attacking civilian they robbed a bank in Corydon,
followers prey on riverboat Unionists during the Civil War. Iowa, but were identified as
travellers on the Ohio and After the hostilities ended, Jesse suspects. From then on, they
Mississippi rivers, US. James turned the group into a became known as the James-
bank-robbing posse. Younger Gang.
1863–64 William “Bloody Bill”
Anderson, a pro-Confederate Some historians credit the gang
guerrilla leader during the with the first daylight armed
American Civil War, leads robbery in the US when they
a band of outlaws against targeted the Clay County Savings
Federal soldiers in Missouri Association in Liberty, Missouri, in
and Kansas, US. 1866. In all their train robberies, the
gang only robbed passengers
AFTER twice, when their takings were
1897 Al Jennings, a especially low. They committed
prosecuting attorney-turned- robberies every couple of months,
outlaw, forms the Jennings hiding out in between jobs to avoid
Gang, and robs trains in the law. They were aided by
Oklahoma, US. sympathizers who offered their
homes as hideouts. The gang used
maps and compasses, and avoided
well-travelled roads, making it
difficult to pursue them.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 25

See also: Bonnie and Clyde 26–29 ■ The Wild Bunch 150–51

The posse rides into town and divides
into three groups

Two wait outside the bank Three go into the Two remain on the road
as guards bank as lookouts

The three grab the loot

The group reunite, shoot their
way out, and gallop out of town

Tracking them down ambush while attempting to rob James Gang’s reign ended in 1882
In 1874, following a train robbery the Northfield First National Bank when fellow gang member Robert
in Missouri, the Adams Express in Minnesota. The James brothers Ford betrayed and shot Jesse in the
Company, which suffered the were both wounded in the legs, but back inside James’s home in St
biggest loss during the robbery, escaped on horseback and kept low Joseph, Missouri, in order to collect
enlisted the services of the profiles until three years later, when the $10,000 bounty (about £189,000
Pinkerton National Detective Jesse formed another gang. The today) on his head. ■
Agency to catch the gang.
The romanticization of outlaws
In March 1874, Allan Pinkerton,
the agency’s founder, sent detective The exploits of Old West outlaws figures, including Robin Hood,
Joseph Whicher to pursue James, have been exaggerated and were popularized for their
but Whicher was found dead the romanticized, despite the fact supposed altruistic motives and
day after he arrived. An outraged that many were killers. The for “serving” the people.
Pinkerton sent a group of detectives captivating allure of criminals
to track the gang down in January seems to be based on conflicted The public reaction to
1875, but they succeeded only in feelings of both attraction and Robert Ford’s murder of Jesse
killing Jesse’s eight-year-old half repulsion, of love and hatred. James in 1882 is a case in point,
brother and wounding Jesse’s as it caused a national
mother with an incendiary device Outlaws embody freedom in sensation. Newspaper articles
during a botched raid. Condemned their refusal to obey laws, were published across the US,
for this act, Pinkerton withdrew representing the boundary- including in The New York
and the gang continued unabated. crossing children that we used Times. Such was James’s allure
to be. They are also eulogized that people travelled from far
The James-Younger Gang for unexpected benevolence: the and wide to see the body of the
dissolved in 1876 when the Younger courteous highwayman and legendary robber.
brothers were arrested during an

26 IN CONTEXT

ILHTTOHA’SVVAEETFTOOI’OMRF DATGIHOMEENANNA LOCATION
Central US
BONNIE AND CLYDE, 1930–34
THEME
Gangsters

BEFORE
14 July 1881 The outlaw
known as “Billy the Kid” is shot
dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett in
Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

3 February 1889 Myra
Maybelle Starr, better known
as Belle Starr, is gunned down
near King Creek, Oklahoma.

AFTER
22 July 1934 Depression-era
gangster and notorious bank
robber John Dillinger is killed
by federal agents while fleeing
from arrest.

27 November 1934 FBI
agents kill George “Baby Face”
Nelson, a bank robber and
gangster then labelled “Public
Enemy Number One”.

I n the late night hours of
13 April 1933, two police cars
pulled up to an apartment on
Oak Ridge Drive in the windswept
city of Joplin, Missouri. Living
inside the rented apartment were
five infamous outlaws known as
the Barrow Gang, including
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
The gang had spent the past 12
days in hiding, after carrying out
a series of armed robberies and
kidnappings in Missouri and
neighbouring states.

As police yelled for the
occupants to get out, Barrow
grabbed his favourite weapon – a
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle –
and opened fire through a broken

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 27

See also: The James-Younger Gang 24–25 ■ The Wild Bunch 150–51

No man but the undertaker
will ever get me … I’ll take

my own life.
Clyde Barrow

cigar between her teeth and holds
a pistol in her hand. Soon the story
of the outlaw lovers dominated the
front pages of newspapers across
the country.

window. His paramour Parker laid Wearing her iconic high heels, Criminal superstars
down cover fire with her own gun, Bonnie playfully points a shotgun at Their four-year crime spree, during
the bullets splintering the Clyde in 1932. Parker later sustained which they robbed banks and killed
surrounding trees. Amid the hail serious burns to her leg in a car crash, police, titillated the American
of gunfire, the gang killed two leaving her barely able to walk. public. Far from their glamorized
Missouri police officers, Detective image, however, the Barrow Gang’s
Harry McGinnis and Constable would turn the young lovers into crimes were punctuated by narrow
J.W. Harryman. folk legends and eventually lead escapes, bungled robberies, and
to their downfall. fatal injuries.
Bonnie and Clyde escaped,
leaving behind possessions In the photos, the pair playfully With the FBI still a fledgling
including an arsenal of weapons, posed with automatic weapons, agency without the power to
Parker’s handwritten poems, and standing in front of a stolen vehicle. combat interstate bank robberies
rolls of undeveloped film, which In one picture, Parker is clenching a and kidnappings, the period
between 1931 and 1935 become
known as the “Public Enemy Era”
– a period when a number
of high-profile criminals wrought
significant damage across the
US against the background of the
Great Depression.

From their first meeting in
1930, Parker and Barrow shared an
instant connection and she became
his loyal companion. Shortly after
their romance sparked, Barrow was
arrested for burglary and sent to
the Eastham prison facility in ❯❯

28 BONNIE AND CLYDE

Texas. There he committed his first
murder, using a lead pipe to beat
an inmate who had assaulted him.
After Parker smuggled a gun inside
the prison, Barrow escaped, but
was later recaptured.

The spree begins The Dallas Morning News issue injuries were so severe that she
In February 1932, Barrow was announcing the death of Bonnie and could hardly walk and was often
paroled, emerging from jail a Clyde sold 500,000 copies. A group of carried by Barrow.
hardened and bitter criminal Dallas newsboys later sent the largest
seeking revenge against the prison floral tribute to Parker’s funeral. A month later, during a 19 July
system for the abuses he suffered shootout with police in Missouri,
behind bars. Reuniting with Parker, borders of states to exploit the pre- a bullet struck Buck in the head.
Barrow assembled a rotating core of FBI “state line rule” that prevented Blanche was also wounded and
associates, robbing rural petrol officers from crossing state lines blinded in one eye. Despite his
stations and kidnapping and killing while in pursuit of a fugitive. terrible injuries, Buck remained
when cornered. conscious and he and the rest of
Public opinion changes the gang escaped.
Between 1932 and 1934, the Eventually the killings became so
gang is believed to have killed cold-blooded that the public’s The trail ends
several civilians and at least nine fascination with the duo soured. Days later, on 24 July, Buck was
police officers. Barrow was officially The Texas Department of shot in the back during another
accused of murder for the first time Corrections commissioned former shootout, and he and Blanche were
in April 1932, when he shot and Texas Ranger Captain Frank A. captured. Buck was taken to a
killed a storeowner after a robbery. Hamer with the specific task of
A few months later, Barrow and taking down the Barrow Gang. It is much better that they
another gang member killed a Hamer formed a posse, comprising were both killed, rather than
deputy and wounded a sheriff who a unique collaboration of Texas and
approached them at a country Louisiana police officers. It was one to have been taken alive.
dance in Oklahoma. It was the first of the most highly publicized and Blanche Barrow
time a Barrow Gang member had intense manhunts in US history.
killed an officer of the law.
By the summer of 1933, the
In April 1933, Clyde’s brother gang began to fall apart. Then
Buck was released from prison. on 10 June, while driving near
He and his new bride, Blanche, Wellington, Texas, Barrow
joined the gang at the apartment accidentally flipped their car into a
in Joplin, Missouri, eventually ravine, and Parker sustained third-
attracting the attention of the degree burns to her right leg. Her
police after 12 days of loud, alcohol-
fuelled parties. The gang’s
newfound notoriety after the
shootout made it increasingly
difficult to evade capture, hunted
by the police, pursued by the press,
and followed by an eager public.

For the next three months, the
gang moved from Texas to
Minnesota and Indiana, sleeping at
campgrounds. They robbed banks,
kidnapped people, and stole cars,
committing the crimes near the

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 29

hospital where he died on 29 July, When the bullet-ridden Ford was Prentiss Oakley, the Louisiana
from pneumonia after surgery, but towed to town, with the bodies still officer who fired the first shot, later
not before doctors injected him inside, a crowd of curious onlookers expressed regret that the outlaws
with stimulants so that he could surrounded the car. Spectators had not been offered a chance to
answer police questions. collected souvenirs, including surrender to them.
pieces of Parker’s bloody clothes
Barrow and Parker’s trail ended and hair. One man even tried to cut The bloody end of Bonnie and
on a road that cut through off Barrow’s trigger finger. Items Clyde was the end of the “Public
Louisiana’s Piney Forest on State belonging to the pair, including Enemy Era” of the 1930s. By the
Highway 154, south of Sailes. stolen guns and a saxophone, were summer of 1934, the federal
Led by Hamer, the posse of police also kept by members of the posse government enacted statutes
officers had tracked and studied the and sold as souvenirs. that made kidnapping and bank
pair’s movements and discovered robbery federal offences – a legal
that the gang camped on the edges The ambush remains highly breakthrough that finally allowed
of state borders. controversial, given that there were FBI agents to apprehend bandits
no attempts to take the pair alive. across state lines. ■
Using a tip that the couple
would be in the area, Hamer
predicted their pattern and set up
an ambush point along the rural
Louisiana highway. At around
9:15am on 23 May 1934, six officers
concealed in the bushes saw
Barrow’s stolen Ford V8
approaching at high speed and
sprayed the car with a total of 130
rounds. Barrow and Parker were
shot dozens of times, each
sustaining multiple fatal wounds.

The death car became the subject of
so much interest that fakes began to
appear. The local sheriff tried to keep
the car but was sued by the owner. It is
now on display at a casino in Nevada.

The 1967 adaptation of the pair’s Celebrity criminals magazines, newspapers, and
crime spree starred Warren Beatty radio programmes covering their
and Faye Dunaway and presented Bonnie and Clyde emerged as the daily exploits.
them as attractive and even chic. first celebrity criminals of the
Depression era, partly due to the Bonnie and Clyde’s legend
intense newspaper and radio intensified with the 1967,
coverage of their crimes. Academy Award-winning film
Bonnie and Clyde, which
Outlaws like George “Baby exposed the couple’s exploits to
Face” Nelson and “Pretty Boy” a new generation. It was
Floyd also became legends, with considered groundbreaking for
their deadly stories appearing its relaxed presentation of sex
on front pages of newspapers and violence. However, such a
across the country. During this glamorized portrayal elicited
time, a disillusioned, angry troubling questions, as several
public, faced with unemployment couples have attempted similar
and extreme poverty, held the sprees, claiming to have been
gangsters in high esteem, with inspired by the famous outlaws.

BYOEUL’LIEL VNEEVIETR

TTHHEYE’VETSRTAOLIENN

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY,
8 AUGUST 1963



32 THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY

IN CONTEXT A t the beginning of the Am I one of a minority in
1960s, life for many feeling admiration for the skill
LOCATION Londoners was poverty- and courage behind the Great
Ledburn, stricken and drab. The austerity
Buckinghamshire, UK of postwar rationing was a Train Robbery?
recent memory, ending only Graham Greene
THEME six years before.
Train robbery criminal called Bruce Richard
Having acquired the taste for Reynolds. In the months that
BEFORE easy money by taking advantage followed, Reynolds started to put
15 May 1855 Approximately of his work in a sausage factory to together an adhoc gang.
91 kg (200 lb) of gold is stolen sell black-market meat, Ronald
from safes on board a South Christopher “Buster” Edwards, Best-laid plans
Eastern Railway train running was graduating to robberies with The plan was elegantly simple. The
between London Bridge and his friend Gordon Goody. Their gang would stop the train in open
Folkestone, UK. brushes with the law brought them countryside in Buckinghamshire at
into contact with Brian Field, a Sears Crossing, close to the village
12 June 1924 The Newton lawyer’s clerk. His services did not of Ledburn, where a signal could be
Gang carry out a postal train stop at preparing their defences. interfered with. While this was the
robbery near Rondout, Illinois, For a cut of the proceeds Field perfect place to stop the train, high
and steal around $3 milllion would pass the duo details of his embankments made it unsuitable
(£33 million today), making it firm’s clients as potential targets. for unloading the loot. For that, the
the biggest train robbery in train would be moved to nearby
history at that time. Early in 1963, Field introduced
them to a stranger known only as
AFTER “the Ulsterman”. Believed to be
31 March 1976 A train Belfast-born Patrick McKenna, this
travelling from Cork to Dublin, corrupt Manchester postal worker
Ireland, is robbed near the brought intriguing news: large cash
village of Sallins by members sums were being carried on the
of the Irish Republican overnight mail trains from Glasgow
Socialist Party. to London. A tempting target – if
above Goody’s and Edwards’ pay-
grade. They took the information to
an experienced South London

Ronnie Biggs He objected to being dismissed as Biggs’s fingerprints were found
the gang’s “teaboy”, but Ronnie on a ketchup bottle at the gang’s
Biggs’s role could hardly be hideout and he was arrested
considered crucial in the Great three weeks later. He escaped
Train Robbery. Born in Stockwell, Wandsworth Prison using a rope
south London, in 1929, he was a ladder on 8 July 1965. He
somewhat hapless burglar and travelled to Brussels, then on
armed robber when he met Bruce to Australia before settling in
Reynolds in Wandsworth Prison. Brazil in 1970, which did not
The Great Train Robbery was to then have an extradition treaty
be his first and only major heist. with the UK. Eventually, Biggs
His main responsibility was the returned to the UK on a jet paid
recruitment of “Stan Agate”, the for by The Sun newspaper in
gang’s replacement driver, who exchange for exclusive rights to
was not actually able to move the his story. Biggs was arrested
train because he was not familiar minutes after landing at RAF
with the type of locomotive used. Northolt on 7 May 2001.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 33

See also: The James–Younger Gang 24–25 ■ The Wild Bunch 150–51

The train was halted just before
Bridego Bridge where the gang formed
a human chain down the embankment.
They loaded the loot onto a lorry where
the black car is in the image.

Bridego Bridge. The mail train was rather than the £300,000 or so the battery. A surprised Mills brought
typically long, its cars manned by gang had been expecting because the train to a halt and Whitby
up to 80 postal workers who spent of the public holiday on the went to investigate. When he tried
the journey sorting letters and previous Monday, during which to report in from the trackside
packages. The gang discovered the banks had been closed. telephone, he found that the wires
that High-Value Packages (HVPs) had been cut.
were stored in the second coach By the time the train reached
from the front, so the gang planned Sears Crossing, gang members As Whitby made his way back
to uncouple just the first two had tampered with the signal towards the train, he was hurled
coaches. Once they reached lights; they slipped a glove over the down the steep embankment by
Bridego Bridge, they could unload green light to blot it out and wired men in motorcycle helmets and ski
sacks of registered mail using a the red “stop” sign to a separate masks. Meanwhile, gang members
human chain from the high wearing masks and gloves climbed
embankment to a drop-side lorry It is the British press that into Mills’s cab and knocked him
waiting on the road below. made the “legend” that you unconscious with an iron bar;
see before you, so perhaps I others uncoupled the coaches from
Reynolds refused to leave should ask you who I am. the rear of the HVP coach, and
anything to chance, so in case the overpowered and handcuffed the
hijacked driver refused to carry out Ronnie Biggs postal workers.
their demands, one of the gang
would spend months studying It soon became clear that the
locomotive manuals. Posing as a replacement driver – a retiree
schoolteacher, he persuaded a known as “Stan Agate” to the gang
driver on a suburban line to take – was unable to operate the state-
him along for a ride: watching of-the-art Class 40 diesel-electric
closely, he picked up certain basics. locomotive. So, having knocked out
Reynolds also recruited a fully Mills, the robbers had to revive him
experienced driver to make sure. so he could take them up the line to
Field, meanwhile, negotiated the Bridego Bridge. Passing the ❯❯
purchase of the abandoned
Leatherslade Farm, roughly
50 km (30 miles) from Sears
Crossing, which would be their
hideout after the robbery.

Signal victory
Just before 7pm on Wednesday,
7 August, the train left Glasgow,
with veteran driver Jack Mills at
the controls and his co-driver David
Whitby beside him. The HVP coach
was carrying over £2.6 million
(about £49 million today) in cash

34 THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY

Train halted First two B448 to Tring
by modified carriages moved To London
signal light
to Bridego Bridego Bridge
Grand Union Bridge
Canal

TBouLzzeaigrdhton Farm Sears
track Crossing
The plan started with a
tampered signal at Sears Cargo taken Mailbags To Mentmore
Crossing. The train stopped and back to loaded into truck
two carriages were driven on to by human chain
Bridego Bridge. Leatherslade
Farm

mailbags along a human chain evenly, so as not to cause division, In the end, an acquaintance of the
down the embankment, the gang which would have added a ringleaders – in prison himself and
quickly loaded the lorry. Warning potential source of danger. hopeful of a deal – passed on some
the handcuffed postal workers gossip that he had heard through
in the HVP coach not to call the However, the high number of the grapevine, providing a vital
police for 30 minutes, the gang people involved in the operation lead for the investigators to pursue.
made their triumphant way back to carried risks, such as a gang
the hideout at Leatherslade Farm. member being indiscreet with his The plan unravels
loot or talking about the robbery. Meanwhile, in the robbers’
farmhouse, confidence had given
An inevitable slip-up Obviously you are a thief way to tension. The plan had been
It was indeed a “great train because you like money, but to lie low for a week, but it was
robbery”, and if it all sounds like soon apparent that the police –
something from a film, that is the second thing is the systematically sweeping the
because in recent decades, such excitement of it. surrounding countryside – were
elaborately organized heists have closing in. Detectives had noted
been much more popular with “Buster” Edwards the robbers’ 30-minute warning
movie makers than with criminals. to the staff of the HVP coach,
which suggested a hideout within
Not only are crimes like this half-an-hour’s drive. Police
risky, but they are enormously searched Leatherslade Farm after
labour-intensive. Up to 17 men a neighbour reported unusual
appear to have been involved in the activity at the farm. The robbers
robbery, although to this day, a few had gone, but fingerprints were
participants remain unidentified.
The gang members split the loot

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 35

Leatherslade Farm, later dubbed
“Robber’s Roost” by the press, was
searched by police after farmworker
John Maris tipped them off, convinced
that the robbers were hiding there.

found on a Monopoly game they post-traumatic headaches for the vogue – and at a time in which
had played – using real cash – as rest of his life and never fully artist Andy Warhol claimed that
well as on a ketchup bottle. The recovered from his injuries. Whitby everyone would be famous for
conspiracy’s collapse was as abrupt died a few years later, at the age of 15 minutes. Biggs recorded music
and chaotic as its planning had 34, from a heart attack. However, with the Sex Pistols and Edwards
been patient. Eleven of the robbers these tragedies were overshadowed became the subject of the film
were quickly caught together in by an increasing romanticization of Buster (1988) – his part played
south London. the crime, intensified by the fact by rock star Phil Collins. Just
that only a fraction of the £2.6 three years after the crime, The
The majority of the 11 were million haul was recovered. The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery
jailed for 30 years, a severe robbery occurred at a time when was released, playing on the
sentence for a crime in which brazen irreverence towards idea that serious crime could be
nobody had been killed. However, old-fashioned authority was in comic entertainment. ■
it helped generate sympathy for the
robbers. Two of them escaped
prison – in August 1964, friends of
gang member Charlie Wilson broke
into Birmingham’s Winson Green
Prison to snatch him; the next July,
Ronnie Biggs climbed over the wall
at Wandsworth Prison, London.

Mythical status
The robbery’s audacity could not be
denied, but the long-term trauma
inflicted upon the train crew was
easier to ignore. Mills suffered from

Compassionate release

On 6 August 2009, after falling was released, Abdelbaset Three men arrested in connection
gravely ill with pneumonia, al-Megrahi, convicted of the with the robbery are led away by
80-year-old Ronnie Biggs was 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight police, holding blankets over their
released on “compassionate” 103, was freed on compassionate heads. The intense media interest is
grounds – a rarity in the UK. grounds by the Scottish Justice evident at the top left of the image.
Under the Prison Service Order Secretary, a decision condemned
6000, a prisoner can only apply by the British and US press.
in the event of “tragic family
circumstances” or if he or she is Megrahi had been diagnosed
suffering from a terminal illness with terminal prostate cancer,
with death likely to result within but his release from hospital
a few months. Biggs survived caused an outcry, as did the
until December 2013, but this arrival of Colonel Gaddafi’s
caused little controversy. By personal aircraft to repatriate
contrast, two weeks after Biggs him, and the hero’s welcome he
received back home in Libya.

36

TAHDEDITCHTREIDLLTO

BILL MASON, 1960s–1980s

IN CONTEXT B ill Mason was an To the astonished
unexceptional property occupants, it would seem
LOCATION manager by day, but by
Dr Armand Hammer’s night he was a notorious cat as if the jewels had
apartment, southern burglar. While unsuspecting simply evaporated.
Florida, US owners slept he scaled walls,
tiptoed across parapets, clambered Bill Mason
THEME onto balconies, and shimmied
Jewel theft through barely open windows. Over a 20-year period of targeting
the rich and famous – including
BEFORE On a wet and windy night, swimmer and actor Johnny
1950–1998 Peter Scott, a Mason executed a plan weeks in “Tarzan” Weissmuller, who lost an
Northern Irish cat burglar, the making. Straining every sinew, Olympic gold medal – Mason stole
commits some 150 burglaries he climbed a full 15 floors up the approximately £120 million in
before he is caught in 1952; outside of the apartment building jewellery. The adrenaline surge he
in 1960, he steals a $260,000 of oil tycoon Dr Armand Hammer, felt during the robbery and the
(£206,000) necklace belonging where he found the balcony door glamour of these furtive brushes
to actress Sophia Loren. unlocked. He tossed the contents with the stars were addictive.
of Mrs Hammer’s jewellery box,
AFTER worth several million dollars, into Mason was eventually caught
2004–06 Accomplished one of her pillowcases. in a sting operation, and later wrote
Spanish thief Ignacio del Rio the memoir Confessions of a Master
confesses to more than 1,000 Ironically, on his way out, Jewel Thief, published in 2003. ■
burglaries committed in Los Mason found the front door secured
Angeles over just a two-year by an easily pickable single lock.
period, taking $2 million (£1.5 He made his escape through an
million today) in jewellery and open window on the third floor and
a painting by Degas worth $10 used a grappling hook to help lower
million (£7.4 million). himself to the ground. Mason
diligently concealed his tracks at
every turn; the police did not
identify a single suspect.

See also: John MacLean 45 ■ The Antwerp Diamond Heist 54–55
■ Doris Payne 78–79

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 37

SOTOCNRLMYAEPSIOGTOMILSUDCH

THE THEFT OF THE WORLD CUP, MARCH 1966

IN CONTEXT F or England’s football fans, The story is still striking in terms of
1966 lives in the memory as calculating “value” when it comes
LOCATION the only year in which their to crime – and whether some items
Central Hall, Westminster, team ever won the World Cup. The are too well-known to be worth
London, UK theft of the famous Jules Rimet stealing. The original trophy,
Trophy four months before the melted down – the only way a gang
THEME tournament started, however, could have disposed of it – would
Priceless trophy theft meant that England captain Bobby have been worth little in monetary
Moore nearly had to hold an terms. Its symbolic significance,
BEFORE imitation trophy in celebration. however, was priceless. A replica
9 October 1964 Jack Roland was produced in the original’s
Murphy, a surfing champion, On display in Westminster’s place and fetched £254,000 at
breaks into the Gems and Central Hall, London, the cup was auction in 1997. ■
Minerals Hall at the American guarded, but thieves sneaked in
Museum of Natural History between patrols and forced open its Pickles the dog netted his owner a
and steals the J.P. Morgan glass case. Despite a full-scale £5,000 reward, which he used to buy a
jewel collection. investigation, the Metropolitan house in Surrey. Pickles was later
Police were no nearer a solution awarded a silver medal by the National
AFTER when a note arrived demanding Canine Defence League.
19 December 1983 The Jules £15,000 (£196,000 today) for the
Rimet Trophy is stolen again, trophy’s safe return.
this time from the Brazilian
Football Confederation in Rio An attempt to entrap the sender
de Janeiro. It has never been did catch a petty criminal named
recovered. Edward Betchley but failed to
produce the trophy. Not until
4 December 2014 Pickles, a collie dog being taken for
Sixty Formula 1 trophies are a walk by his owner David Corbett,
stolen by a group of seven men unearthed a parcel beneath the
who drive a van through the hedge outside his owner’s home in
doors of the Red Bull Racing Upper Norwood, south London, did
headquarters in England. the missing cup come to light.

See also: Thomas Blood 18 ■ The Theft of the Cellini Salt Cellar 56

MISS, YOU’D

BTEHTTAETR LNOOOKTAET

D.B. COOPER, 24 NOVEMBER 1971



40 D.B. COOPER

IN CONTEXT The Northwest Orient Boeing 727 rear stairs and jumped out of the
that D.B. Cooper hijacked is shown Boeing 727 and into the dark, rainy
LOCATION here at Portland airport, Oregon, in night. He left behind two of the
Between Portland, Oregon, 1968. Its rear stairway is situated parachutes and his tie.
and Seattle, Washington, directly underneath the tail.
US The FBI launched a massive
four parachutes, a fuel truck manhunt and the military was
THEME waiting for the plane when it called in. Helicopters and a
Aircraft hijacking landed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, thousand troops on foot searched
and $200,000 (£158,000) in $20 the area where they guessed
BEFORE banknotes, or he would blow up the Cooper might have landed,
31 October 1969 Raffaele plane. What happened later that conducting door-to-door searches.
Minichiello, a decorated US evening, though, is one of the most A military spy plane even
marine, hijacks a TWA flight perplexing mysteries in US
in Los Angeles and is criminal history. Back in the early ’70s, late
apprehended in Rome, Italy. ’60s, hijackings weren’t
Parachute escape
AFTER When the plane landed in Seattle, uncommon. The philosophy of
10 November 1972 Southern Cooper allowed the passengers and the day was ‘Cooperate,
Airways Flight 49 is hijacked two of the three flight attendants to
by three men who demand leave. Officials handed over the comply with his demands, and
$10 million (£8 million). They money and the parachutes. Cooper we’ll deal with it when the
are eventually apprehended in ordered the pilots to fly towards plane lands.’
Havana, Cuba. Mexico City at a maximum altitude Larry Carr
of 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) and at
3 June 1972 Willie Roger the minimum airspeed possible
Holder hijacks Western without stalling. About 45 minutes
Airlines Flight 701 from Los into the flight south, he sent the
Angeles to Seattle, demanding flight attendant to the cockpit and
a $500,000 (£396,000) ransom put on his parachute. Somewhere
and the freedom of imprisoned north of Portland he lowered the
black activist Angela Davis.

O n the afternoon of
24 November 24 1971,
an unidentified man in
his mid 40s, wearing a dark suit
and black clip-on tie and carrying
a black a briefcase, jumped into
criminal folklore. The man, who
later would be dubbed D.B. Cooper
by the press, boarded Northwest
Orient’s Flight 305 from Portland,
Oregon, to Seattle, Washington.
During the flight, he passed flight
attendant Florence Schaffner a note
telling her he had a bomb in his
case. After showing her the device,
he stated his demands: he wanted

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 41

photographed the Boeing 727’s the flight crew wanted any food I’m not so convinced that the
entire flight path. None of them during the stop at Seattle. He had investigation is dead or this
found anything. said that McChord Air Force Base story is over by any stretch.
was a 20-minute drive away from
All the authorities had to go on Seattle-Tacoma Airport – a detail Geoff Gray
was that the unidentified man had that most civilians would not have
apparently bought a ticket in the known. His choice of plane – a bills – of which he was allowed to
name of either Dan or Dale Cooper. 727-100 – was also ideal for a bail- keep $2,850 (£2,460) – matched
When police interviewed the man out escape. These factors indicated the serial numbers of the ransom
who sold the plane tickets that day, that he may well have been an Air money handed over to Cooper on
they asked if any of the passengers Force veteran. the tarmac in Seattle.
looked suspicious. Without
hesitating, he replied, “Yes, Dale However, his lack of safety The FBI searched the beach and
Cooper.” The police subsequently equipment, thermal clothing, or dredged the river but found nothing
told a reporter the suspect’s name helmet, which would have afforded else. Nevertheless, the search
was “D. Cooper”. However, the him little protection from the -57°C reignited the public’s interest in the
reporter, who didn’t quite catch the (-70°F) wind chill, seems to throw legend of D.B. Cooper, and in the
name, asked “D or a B?” The police doubt on the claim he was a missing $144,200 (£114,000).
officer responded, “Yes.” And thus military man. FBI investigators at
the legend of D.B. Cooper was born. the time of the incident argued The D.B. Cooper hijacking had
from the outset that he simply all the ingredients of a legend – he
Profiling Cooper would not have survived the jump. got away with it, no one was hurt,
Schaffner gave police a physical and his fate remains a mystery.
description of the hijacker – in his Money discovered Public interest was periodically
mid 40s, between 1.7 metres (5 ft 10 More than eight years later, in reinvigorated by news that the FBI
inches) and and 2 metres (6 ft) tall, February 1980, eight-year-old was still looking for D.B. Cooper. ❯❯
77–81 kg (12–13 stone), and with Brian Ingram and his family were
close-set brown eyes. She told picnicking by the Columbia River
police that the hijacker was well- close to the city of Vancouver,
spoken, polite, and calm. He was Washington. As the family cleared
a bourbon drinker, and paid his a spot for a campfire, Brian
drinks tab, even attempting to give unearthed a packet of money in the
her the change. Schaffner also sand near the river. His remarkable
disclosed that the hijacker asked if find, totalling $5,800 (£4,590) in $20

The FBI produced a composite Criminal profiling worked as an ancillary aviation
drawing of D.B. Cooper in 1972 worker, such as a cargo loader.
based on recollections of the crew Criminal profiling is the process of It is possible that he lost his job
and his fellow passengers. identifying the most likely type of during the economic downturn
person to have committed a in the aviation industry in
particular crime. Investigators 1970–71 and this provided the
look at behaviour, personality financial motivation to commit
traits, and demographic variables, the crime.
including age, race, and location
to build up a psychological picture The fact that the FBI could
of a suspect. not find anyone local who
disappeared from the area
In the case of D.B. Cooper, his shortly after the crime opens up
knowledge of the aviation industry the tantalizing possibility that
and of the Boeing 727 suggest D.B. Cooper may have been a
that he may have spent time in local man who simply returned
the Air Force, but his lack of home and did his normal job as
skydiving skills suggest that he usual on the Monday morning.

42 D.B. COOPER

14:50 15:05 17:24
Shortly after takeoff, Cooper orders the Cooper is informed
Cooper orders a pilots to tell air that his demands
bourbon and soda. traffic control that have been met and
he wants $200,000 the plane lands at
in $20 notes and Seattle-Tacoma
four parachutes. airport.

14:15 15:00 19:00
D.B. Cooper boards a Cooper passes a note Cooper is given four
Boeing 727 in Portland, to flight attendant parachutes and a
bound for Seattle. Florence Schaffner, bag containing
which states, “I have a $200,000.
bomb in my briefcase.”

At one point they decided to treat Force test pilot Dan Cooper takes family secret – that her uncle Lynn
the case as if it were a bank part in adventures in outer space Doyle Cooper was D.B. Cooper. She
robbery and appealed to the public and historical events of that era. said she was eight years old when
in a bid to extract any relevant One episode, published around her uncle came home badly injured,
information. They released the date of the hijacking, features a day or two after Thanksgiving in
previously unknown facts about the an illustration of Dan Cooper 1971. He claimed that he had been
case, including that he was parachuting on the cover. This led hurt in a car crash. She said she
wearing a clip-on tie, and the D.B. Carr to suspect that the hijacker heard him tell the family “our
Cooper frenzy started up again. had been a member of the Air money troubles are over.” Cooper,
Force, but also that he had spent who had died by the time his niece
Comic theory time overseas where he could have went to the FBI, worked as an
When Seattle Special Agent read the comic book. engineering surveyor, which may
Larry Carr took over the FBI’s have given him some of the
investigation in 2008, he disclosed With the development of DNA training he needed to make the
that most of the messages he profiling, FBI agents took another successful jump and knowledge
received were from people asking look at the clip-on tie Cooper left of the safest places to land
him not to solve the case. It seemed behind on the plane. They found a in the area.
that D.B. Cooper had become a folk partial DNA sample on the tie but it
hero to some. did not match up with any suspects Marla Cooper loaned the FBI a
they had looked at over the years. guitar strap she thought would
Nevertheless, Carr went contain his DNA but no DNA was
diligently about his business. He Promising leads found on it. She put investigators in
thought it was possible the hijacker One intriguing suspect was touch with her uncle’s daughter,
took his name from a French- Vietnam veteran L.D. (Lynn) but the woman’s DNA did not
Canadian comic book. In the Cooper. His niece, Marla Cooper, match the sample on the clip-on
fictional series, never translated contacted the FBI in 2011, claiming tie – which may or may not have
into English, Royal Canadian Air she had been keeping a 40-year-old D.B. Cooper’s DNA. Still, the FBI

20:00 BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 43
A warning light alerts
the pilots that the plane’s 22:15
rear stairway has been The plane lands safely
opened. at Reno Airport and is searched
by police and military officials.

19:40 20:13 The sequence of events on
The plane is refuelled and The plane experiences 24 November 1971 is clear enough
takes off again. Cooper a sudden upward through the testimony of witnesses,
explains his flight plan to movement; the pilots but the fate of D.B. Cooper after he
the pilots and orders them bring the plane back exited the plane remains a mystery.
to remain in the cockpit to level flight.
until they land.

called it “a promising lead,” but which security was improved The enigmatic D.B. Cooper case
investigators were never able to markedly and both passengers and is the world’s only unsolved
definitely connect L.D. Cooper to their luggage began to be screened. skyjacking. After investigating
the hijacking. At the end of the thousands of leads over 45 years,
investigation, the FBI was still Whether D.B. Cooper survived the FBI announced in July 2016
attempting to match a fingerprint the jump or not, his legacy lives on that it was ending active
to prints the hijacker left on the through an aircraft component that investigation of the case, but
Boeing 727. was named after him. In 1972, the insisted that the file remains
Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) open. Meanwhile, the legend of
Lasting legacy ordered all Boeing 727s to add what D.B. Cooper lives on in music, films,
The D.B Cooper case prompted was later named a “Cooper vane”, a documentaries, scores of books,
a spate of copycat crimes, mechanical aerodynamic wedge and in the lives of thousands of
particularly in the two years that prevents the rear stairway armchair sleuths. ■
immediately after the hijacking. In from being lowered in flight.
1972 alone, 15 similar skyjackings
were attempted, but all of the
perpetrators were captured. In
total, approximately 160 planes
were hijacked in American airspace
between 1961 and 1973, after

Dan Cooper was the name that the
unidentifed man gave to the airport
cashier. Along with the clip-on tie and
the money recovered in 1980, this
ticket is the only proof of his existence.

44

NWVIOOIRTLHEHONAUCTTEREWDE,ANPOORNS,

THE SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE BANK HEIST,
16–20 JULY 1976

IN CONTEXT D uring the 1976 Bastille Day and using antique silver tureens as
weekend in Nice, France, toilets. The “sewer gang” escaped
LOCATION a team of 20 men, led by with $8–10 million (about £15–18.5
Nice, France French photographer and former million today) in gold, cash, jewellery,
paratrooper Albert Spaggiari, broke and gems. Before fleeing, Spaggiari
THEME into the Société Générale bank. scrawled on the vault’s wall in
Bank vault heist They had spent two months drilling French, “sans armes, ni haine, ni
a 7.5-metre (25-ft) tunnel from the violence” (“without weapons, nor
BEFORE city’s sewers into the vault. hatred, nor violence”), identifying
January 1976 The British himself as a higher class of criminal.
Bank of the Middle East in Once they made it to the vault,
Beirut, Lebanon, is robbed the gang spent four days prying Dubbed the “heist of the
by guerrillas, who make off open over 400 safe deposit boxes, century” by the press, it was then
with safe deposit boxes while cooking meals, drinking wine, the largest bank theft in history.
containing £22 million (about However, by the end of October
£140 million today). All the pleasures that come 1976, Spaggiari had been arrested
with the life of a crook do not and confessed to the crime. During
AFTER a trial hearing, he made a daring
19–20 December 2004 make up for the heavy escape by distracting the judge,
An armed gang steals sacrifices. jumping through a window and
£26.5 million in cash from the onto a parked car, before driving
vaults of the Donegall Square “Amigo”, a member of off on a waiting motorcycle.
branch of the Northern Bank Spaggiari’s team
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was later convicted in
absentia and sentenced to life in
6 August 2005 Thieves prison but remained hidden until
tunnel into the vault of a his death in 1989. Six other men
branch of Brazil’s central bank were arrested; three were acquitted
in the city of Fortaleza and and the others sentenced to
steal more than $65 million between five and seven years in
(£52 million) in cash. prison. The loot from the heist has
never been recovered. ■

See also: The Antwerp Diamond Heist 54–55 ■ The Hatton Garden Heist 58–59

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 45

ILWISVETEAOLTLTHEHEFYIRRSOLOMIFIETCSHOTEUYLLDE

JOHN MACLEAN, 1970s

IN CONTEXT D ubbed the “Superthief”, The mugshot of John MacLean in
John (Jack) MacLean 1979 after he was arrested for the Fort
LOCATION was estimated to have Lauderdale robbery. He later boasted
Florida, US committed some 2,000 burglaries about this crime in his memoir.
during the 1970s. He targeted
THEME wealthy victims and made off with alarms, had completely stopped.
Cat burglary more than $100 million (£80 million) In 1981, MacLean was charged
in loot. His most renowned raid with two offences, but the cases
BEFORE was a $1 million (£80,000) jewellery were subsequently dismissed.
1850s–1878 English burglar theft at the mansion of a Johnson & However, after scientific
Charles Peace carries out Johnson company heiress in 1979. advancements in DNA testing,
multiple burglaries in Although he stole only from the MacLean was arrested in October
Manchester, Hull, Doncaster, rich, he was far from a Robin Hood 2012 for two of hundreds of rapes
and around Blackheath, figure. He used his millions to fund he is believed to have committed
southeast London. a lifestyle like that of his victims, decades ago. ■
buying a helicopter, a speed boat, a
AFTER sea plane, and a summer home.
2006–09 A gang of thieves
dubbed the Hillside Burglary MacLean was finally caught in
Gang burgle 150 houses of 1979 after a crystal-studded walkie-
wealthy residents in the area talkie linked him to the Fort
overlooking Sunset Boulevard Lauderdale robbery. He used the
in Los Angeles. time in prison to write a memoir
entitled Secrets of a Superthief,
1983–2011 Accomplished which was published in 1983.
Indian thief Madhukar
Mohandas Prabhakar commits While MacLean was
at least 50 burglaries in incarcerated, investigators noticed
wealthy areas of Mumbai, that a series of rapes and sexual
India, amassing a fortune. battery cases, which detectives
had attributed to a man with a
talent for slipping past locks and

See also: Bill Mason 36 ■ Doris Payne 78–79

46

CMSTEOIYNLMGFLBAOOAILFFTISNMM…GYYSDFEOERDGSI,V  E

PHOOLAN DEVI, 1979–FEBRUARY 1983

IN CONTEXT A s the villagers of Behmai Phoolan Devi’s weapon of choice
in Uttar Pradesh, India, was a rifle, which gang leader and
LOCATION prepared for a wedding on partner Vikram Mallah taught her to
Uttar Pradesh, India Valentine’s Day 1981, 18-year-old use. She eventually laid down the rifle
Phoolan Devi plotted her revenge. in front of cheering supporters.
THEME
Banditry Seven months earlier, the low- Her gang rounded up 22 of
caste teenage gang member had Behmai’s male villagers, including
BEFORE been kidnapped by a rival, largely two of her rapists, and on Devi’s
1890s The Big Swords Society, high-caste gang in Behmai. For orders, shot dead each one. Known
a peasant self-defence group, three weeks, Devi was locked up as the Behmai massacre, it was
is formed in northern China to and repeatedly raped. She escaped then India’s largest mass execution
protect against bandits. with the help of two members of and prompted a huge manhunt.
her gang and a low-caste villager, The legend of the “Bandit Queen”
1868 Vigilantes break into a before rallying the rest of her gang was born.
jail in New Albany, Indiana, and returning to the village.
killing three members of the
train-robbing Reno Gang.

AFTER
1980s The Sombra Negra
(Black Shadow) group forms
in El Salvador, murdering
criminals and gang members.

2013 Self-styled “Diana,
Huntress of Bus Drivers” kills
two in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico,
as vengeance for alleged
murders and rapes perpetrated
by the city’s bus drivers.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS 47

See also: The James–Younger Gang 24–25 ■ The Wild Bunch 150–51

I alone knew what I had At 16, with limited options for Bandit Queen, a film about Devi’s life,
suffered. I alone knew what it survival, she became the sole was released in 1994. It was initially
felt like to be alive but dead. female dacoit (armed bandit) in banned by the Indian censor for being
a local gang. Devi soon rose subversive and for its frank depiction
Phoolan Devi to lead the gang, carrying out of the brutality of rape.
dozens of raids and highway
Robin Hood figure robberies, attacking and looting the poor and downtrodden. Devi
Devi became a heroine to India’s upper-caste villages, and was released on parole in 1994, and
lower caste, her crimes glorified as kidnapping rich people for ransom. all charges were dropped.
retribution for the oppression of In one of her most famous crimes,
women in rural India. her gang captured and looted a She took up politics and was
town, then distributed the goods to elected as a Member of Parliament
Born on 10 August 1963, to a the poor, further cementing her (MP). However, on the afternoon of
low-caste family in rural Uttar status as a Robin Hood figure. 25 July 2001, three masked men
Pradesh, Devi grew up very poor. ambushed and fatally shot her.
At 11, her parents forced her to Catch and release One of her killers claimed that
marry a man three times her age Devi spent two years evading Phoolan Devi’s assassination was
in exchange for a cow. In 1979, after capture, concealed by the villagers carried out as revenge for the
fleeing her abusive husband, she she spent her life protecting. But upper-caste men murdered during
was shunned by her parents, who in February 1983, she negotiated the Behmai massacre. ■
considered her a disgrace. both her own surrender and the
surrender of her gang members for
considerably reduced sentences.

Devi was arrested in front of
thousands of cheering onlookers
and later charged with 48 crimes,
including 30 charges of robbery and
kidnapping. She spent the next
11 years in prison awaiting trial,
but remained a beacon of hope for

Crime and candidacy In some countries, criminals guilty crimes including kidnapping and
of committing certain crimes are banditry, from running for office.
not permitted to run for public A champion of the lower castes
office. The rationale is that serious and a heroine to oppressed
criminal conduct is inconsistent women, she had a sizable
with the obligations of citizenship, following. However, she was
and if someone is incapable of far from universally adored,
being a citizen, they should not be particularly among higher
entitled to hold office. However, castes, many of whom were
there is also evidence to suggest outraged that she was allowed
that voters perceive citizens who to stand as a candidate. She
break the law for their own ends was elected as an MP in the
much less favourably than people 1996 Indian General Election,
who break the law for what they winning with a majority of
believe to be the public good. 37,000 votes. Devi lost her
Nothing prevented Phoolan Devi, seat the following year but
charged with multiple serious regained it in 2001.

THE FIRE

A LOVERBECOMES A MISTRESS,

JOHN LEONARD ORR, 1984–91