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Best known as part of the legendary criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker was infamous for her bank robberies with her partner Clyde Chestnut Barrow. They apparently murdered several policemen, too. Their crimes were romanticized in many movies including a 1967 film starring Faye Dunaway as Bonnie.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for killing Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit. Further investigation suggested that he had murdered US President John F. Kennedy about 45 minutes before murdering Tippit. Though he denied the accusations, he was charged with the murder of Kennedy. While in police custody, Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner.
Irma Grese, or the Hyena of Auschwitz, served as an SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She was also the warden of the ladies’ section of the Bergen-Belsen camp and ended up being convicted of torture and murder of prisoners. She was executed at 22.
Susan Smith is an American murderer who was convicted for murdering her children, Michael and Alexander, who were three-year-old and 14-month-old respectively. She falsely claimed that her kids were kidnapped by a black man before being adjudged guilty of the crime. Sentenced to life in prison, Smith is currently incarcerated at the Leath Correctional Institution in South Carolina.
Popcorn Sutton was an American bootlegger and moonshiner whose autobiographical guide to moonshining production made him a popular figure. He also released a home video showcasing his moonshining activities before he was sentenced to prison for offenses related to illegal firearm possession and moonshining. After his death by suicide, a new company and its whiskey brand were named after him.
Fred West was a serial killer who derived pleasure from acts, such as voyeurism, sexual assaults, murder, and various sexual fetishes that pushed his victims beyond their sexual limits. He committed murders and sexual assaults along with his wife Rose, who worked as a prostitute at their residence. Fred committed suicide at HM Prison Birmingham in 1995.
Beverley Allitt is an English serial child killer, convicted ,of murdering four children and grievously injuring several others. Previously employed as a State Enrolled Nurse, she attacked 13 children over a 59-day period, out of which four died. She received 13 life sentences for the crimes and is detained at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
Ruth Ellis began her career as a nightclub hostess as a teen and was also a nude model for a while. She later also worked as an escort. She became the last woman in the UK tot be hanged after she shot and killed her lover, race-car driver and affluent socialite David Blakely.
French pirate Jean Lafitte, or The Terror of the Gulf, along with his brother Pierre, owned a blacksmith shop in New Orleans that served as a hub for smuggled goods. He helped the US army in defending New Orleans against the British forces during the War of 1812.
Joe Profaci was an Italian-born New York City mafia boss. He founded what later became the Colombo crime family in 1928 and was the family's boss for over three decades. It was the last of the Five Families to be organized. Besides his illegal activities, he also maintained several legitimate businesses. He died of liver cancer in 1962.
Known as the man who stole the Mona Lisa, La Giaconda was an amateur artist and a worker at the Louvre. Though he hid the painting in his apartment in Paris and then took it to Florence, he failed to sell it, and was eventually caught by the police after 2 years.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a Soviet-born terrorist best remembered for planting two homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people. Many people were injured and 17 of those lost limbs. He planted the bombs with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the two killed a policeman after the FBI declared them suspects. Tsarnaev was killed in the ensuing shootout.
Bobby Joe Long was an American rapist and serial killer who kidnapped, raped, and killed at least 10 women in Florida in 1984. The information provided by one of his last victims named Lisa McVey, whom he had released after raping over a period of 26 hours, helped the police to track him down. He was sentenced to death.
Better known as the A6 Murderer, James Hanratty was one of the last people to be executed before capital punishment was abolished. He was convicted of murdering scientist Michael Gregsten and raping and shooting Gregsten’s mistress, Valerie Storie. The controversial case led to a motion to prove his innocence.
William Brodie was a Scottish cabinet-maker, Edinburgh city councilor, and deacon of a trades guild. Brodie was also a housebreaker, a secret which he maintained almost all his life. He used the stolen money to fund his gambling habit and to maintain the household of his two mistresses. He was captured in 1788 and was sentenced to death by hanging.
