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Crime has been a defining characteristic of modern America. It has claimed many thousands
of lives and cost billions of dollars. When crime rates began to rise in the 1960s, the “crime issue” occupied
a prominent place in the U.S. National agenda, influencing electoral outcomes and spurring debates about the role of race,
culture, morality, personal accountability, judicial discretion, and economic inequality. When crime rates were on the rise,
discussions about crime often became ideological and polarized.
Everyone agreed there was too much crime, yet there
was little agreement about what should be done about it. Despite a lack of consensus on how to address crime problems, by
the end of the 20th century, crime rates had fallen to their lowest levels in a generation. Violent crime rates, which rose
dramatically in the mid-1980s with the introduction of crack cocaine into U.S. Inner cities, have declined every year since
1993. Property crime rates fell to half the level of a quarter century ago. Violence in families, specifically assaults between
intimate partners, had been declining for several years. The steepest drop in violence occurred among young offenders.
As the 1990s drew to a close, new questions dominated the public debate on crime, questions unimaginable 10 years
earlier: Why had crime rates fallen so precipitously? Why did crime rates drop more sharply in some cities than in others?
Many have taken credit for this decline in crime, among them police officials, advocates of increased incarceration, prevention
specialists, and community activists. Others have pointed to a relatively strong economy during the 1990s and broad demographic
trends. Few of these experts agreed on next steps in the national effort to increase community safety.
More recently,
these debates have intensified as new crime data show that the dramatic decline in violent crime in the nation’s largest
cities is levelling off, and some cities are posting new and disturbing increases in rates of violence. With the country now
in a recession, law enforcement resources redeployed to reflect a national commitment to combat terrorism, and prison populations
stabilizing, many of the large-scale social forces that may have contributed to the crime decline are uncertain allies as
communities struggle to keep crime rates low.
It appears that the nation is at a critical juncture in its efforts
to bring crime rates down. This report is intended to shed light on the next generation of crime policy discussions by exploring
the lessons to be learned from the declining crime rates of our recent past. It is our belief that, even if the decline reverses,
as it indeed may, the breadth and consistency of the changes during the 1990s provide an important opportunity to learn from
this social phenomenon. This report presents a discussion of the long-term trends in crime rates as a reminder that there
is no single narrative that describes the nation’s experience with crime. The report also presents the views of prominent
researchers and practitioners convened by the Urban Institute to reflect on the remarkable fact that crime rates have fallen
to new lows. This report is not intended to provide definitive answers to the questions raised by the recent crime decline—that
would require more research, new data, and a sustained effort to reconcile every competing claim. We have a more modest goal—to
share these insights from research and practice with those who hope to create safer communities in America
 Bonnie and Clyde
Examining changes in the levels of violent crime committed
by juveniles (under age 18) and young adults (age 18 to 24) reveals important trends masked by the overall changes in violent
crime. Because criminal behavior has always been more prevalent among young people, it is important to distinguish juvenile
crime and youth crime from crime by adults. Juveniles and young adults combined made up 38 percent of the increase in violent
crime arrests between 1985 and 1995, but they accounted for 51 percent of the subsequent drop in violent crime between 1995
and 1999. Despite the dramatic declines of the mid- 1990s, violent crime arrests among young people did not decline much beyond
where they were in the mid-1980s.
As Figure 6 shows, from 1976
until 1985, there was a fairly constant pattern in arrest rates. Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 had the highest
arrest rates, at about 580 per 100,000 population, followed by adults 25 to 34 years old (350 per 100,000) and juveniles (300
per 100,000). But, beginning in 1985, those patterns lost their hold. Violent crime arrest rates increased by 50 percent for
offenders age 18 to 24—from 570 per 100,000 in 1985 to the peak of 852 per 100,000 in 1995. Arrest rates of adults age
25 to 34 also increased by half to a high of 576 per 100,000 in 1995. There was a 70 percent increase in arrests of juveniles,
peaking at 512 arrests per 100,000 in 1994. Arrest rates for all three groups have dropped since 1995, with juveniles registering
the steepest decline.
The increase in gun crimes among
juveniles and young adults is the leading factor in the pronounced rise in arrests beginning in 1985. From 1976 to 1985, the
arrest rates of juveniles for homicide with a gun and without a gun were nearly identical. During that 10-year period arrest
rates averaged about five to six per 100,000 juveniles for homicides committed with and without a gun. The 18 to 24 age group
had a slightly higher arrest rate, at an average of 13 arrests per 100,000 for homicides with a gun and 10 arrests per 100,000
for homicides without a gun. Between 1985 and 1993, the rate of arrests for homicides with a gun more than quadrupled for
juveniles, to nearly 24 arrests per 100,000 population. During that same period, arrests for gun-related homicides nearly
tripled among young adults age 18 to 24, to about 32 arrests per 100,000 population. Since 1993, gun-related homicide arrests
have been dropping steadily, with the most dramatic declines seen among juveniles.
 Europe has a record of the highest number of kidnapping cases in the world. Besides, abduction cases in Europe are
often characterized with tales of torture and sometimes macabre murders of victims. On the other hand, kidnappings in America
are mostly driven with a motive of ransom. Elsewhere, socio-political interests, along with money can lead to heinous crimes
such as kidnapping. Let us see some of the famous kidnappings in the history that brought radical changes to the functioning
of law enforcement systems.
Charley Ross (1874)
The abduction case of Charley Ross for ransom was
the first of its kind. On July 1, 1874, Charley (age 4) was playing with his older brother Walter (age 5), in the front yard
of their Philadelphia home when they were lured into a carriage by two men. The men promised candies and fireworks to the
boys, if they rode with them. Later, the men left Walter at a firecracker shop and rode away with Charley. Ransom notes demanding
20,000 dollars arrived shortly by post at Ross' home from various locations. Eventually, Walter was found and returned
to his parents, however, Charley could not be traced thereafter. Two suspects Bill Mosher and Joe Douglas (which were later
identified by Walter as abductors) were killed in a gunfire during another burglary incident, which deterred further attempts
to trace Charley's whereabouts. The Ross family involved various private as well as federal agencies to search the missing
boy and also allowed an extensive media coverage for public interest. However, despite these gallant efforts, what happened
to Charley Ross is still a mystery.
Bobby Dunbar (1912)
The curious case of Bobby Dunbar's disappearance
and alleged reappearance is quite an interesting one. In August 1912, Bobby Dunbar disappeared during a fishing trip with
his family in Swayze Lake. After 8 months, a boy of similar description as Dunbar was found with a man named William Cantwell
Walters. Walters claimed that the boy was a son of one Julia Anderson who worked for Walters family and had willingly granted
custody of her son Bruce to Walters. The influence of wealthy Dunbar family and the lack of evidence in support of Walter's
claims led to his arrest. Besides, the failure of Julia Anderson to recognize her son positively during the first line of
identification made the case stronger for Dunbars. However, the first interaction between the boy supposed as Bobby Dunbar
and his family is also controversial, with reports suggesting that Bobby failed to recognize his mother and younger brother
Alonzo. Nonetheless, the court granted Bobby's custody to Dunbars and convicted Walters. Bobby was reunited with his family
with much fanfare and resumed his life as Bobby Dunbar. However, Anderson and Walters along with witnesses from Poplarville,
Mississippi (where Walters lived with Bruce) continued their struggle to establish the true identity of the boy that was being
raised as Bobby Dunbar. After several years, an investigation by a Dunbar family member revealed that DNAs of Bobby's
son Bob Jr. and Alonzo's son do not match like they should in blood relatives. Amidst these controversies, the fate of
real Bobby Dunbar could never be traced.
Lindbergh's Baby (1932)
This is the most famous kidnapping
case due to its wide media coverage and involvement of several federal and private detective agencies. Charles Augustus Lindbergh
Jr., son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh went missing from his second floor nursery at his home in Hopewell, New Jersey
in March 1932. A ransom note of about $50,000 was found near the nursery window, from where abductors had entered the room.
More ransom notes started arriving at Lindbergh's household demanding $75,000, when abductors learned that police and
FBI were involved in the investigation. Attempts were made to communicate with the kidnappers through local newspapers and
a retired school principal named Dr. John F. Condon volunteered to negotiate with the kidnappers. Condon delivered the ransom
money in form of gold certificates to the abductors after ensuring that they indeed had Lindbergh's baby. In turn, kidnappers
directed him to an abandoned boat where they had supposedly kept the baby. However, no such boat could be found and the whereabouts
of baby could not be traced. Two months after the abduction, partially decomposed body of baby was found about five miles
away from Lindbergh's home. The cause of death was ascertained as heavy blow on head and the boy had been dead for about
2 months. Further investigations and description of a certain 'John' by Condon led to the arrest and conviction of
Bruno Richard Hauptmann. He was sentenced a death penalty for extortion and first degree murder. Lindbergh's baby kidnapping
case forced the Federal Government to elevate the nature of crime of kidnapping from local to Federal crime.
Graeme
Thorne (1960)
Graeme Thorne kidnapping and murder case in Sydney, Australia was a classic example of how co-ordinated
police investigation and impeccable forensic research can lead to resolution of the most complicated of murder mysteries.
The fortune worth 100,000 pounds won by Bazil Thorne in Opera House Lottery was responsible for kidnapping of his eight year
old son Graeme. The kidnappers got an access to his house and telephone number through newspapers which published the names
and addresses of the winners. Graeme was kidnapped while he was waiting to be picked up for school by a family friend. Two
hours after Graeme went missing, Mrs. Thorne received a phone call from the kidnappers for ransom money. Thorne family had
already alerted the police force by that time. Subsequent phone calls from kidnappers, without any instructions on where and
how to deposit the ransom money led to an extensive combing operation in and around Sydney. Graeme's body was discovered
five weeks after his missing report in partially decomposed state, covered in a blue tartan rug. The forensic analysis of
flora and traces of mortar found on his body and the pet dander on blue rug led cops to a man named Stephen Bradley. Bradley's
description matched with that of a stranger who had interacted with Mrs. Thorne shortly after she had won the lottery and
also with the man who was sighted in the neighborhood on the morning of Graeme's kidnapping. Bradley confessed to the
heinous crime after heavy grilling and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Graeme Thorne murder case led to the introduction
of privacy option for lottery winners as well as reforms in the then abduction laws in Australia.
Kyoko Chan Cox (1971)Kyoko, the only daughter of Japanese musician, activist
and writer Yoko Ono was kidnapped by her own father Anthony Cox, Ono's second husband. Cox fled with Kyoko and his second
wife, fearing Ono would take away the custody of his child. Cox took refuge in Houston, Texas, became an evangelical Christian
and joined Church of Living World. There, he became a member of an occult sect and hid his daughter from the world. He gave
her a new identity and hoped that members of his sect would help him protect his daughter from Ono and cops. Soon after, Cox
left the sect and feared again for the safety of his daughter who was studying in California at that time. He went on the
run again with his family. Meanwhile, Ono tried to reach her daughter through her songs as well as help from secret services.
It was not until 23 years after her kidnapping that Kyoko was reunited with her mother, when she herself got married and decided
to start a family of her own.
Jaycee Lee Dugard (1991)
Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted from South Lake Tahoe
while she was waiting for a school bus near her home on June 10, 1991. Dugard went missing for 18 years and reappeared in
2009 under mysterious circumstances. Dugard's abduction in a gray sedan was witnessed by her stepfather Carl Probyn and
a couple others. Although, her stepfather vainly chased the sedan on a motorbike, Jaycee's abductor's could not be
traced thereafter. Police services carried a thorough check of the surrounding area with the help of locals as well as several
private agencies. Jaycee's mother conducted a widespread campaign with the help of media and locals to locate her daughter.
While police followed a few clues, none of them actually led to Jaycee or her captors. Jaycee was declared missing and her
case file remained closed for 18 years. On August 25, 2009, a convicted sex offender Phillip Craig Garrido was found strolling
suspiciously along with two young girls on the campus of UC Berkeley. The unusual behavior of the girls and their unknown
relation with Garrido invoke suspicion of investigation officers which led to further probe of the matter. Garrido's wife
Nancy along with a young woman named Allissa (who Garrido claimed to be his niece along with two young girls) were summoned
to verify Garrido's statement. When all the members of Garrido family were investigated separately, Garrido maintained
that the two young girls and Allissa were his nieces while Allissa said that she was hiding in Garrido house from an abusive
husband and the two young girls were her daughters while the girls kept on addressing Garrido as 'daddy'. The confusing
and incongruous statements by Garridos led to further investigations and grilling of Garrido when he confessed to having raped
Allissa and fathered her two daughters. In an astonishing discovery it was revealed that Allissa was the same Jaycee Dugard
who went missing from South lake Tahoe in 1991. However, as Jaycee had developed a Stockholm syndrome (in which hostages feel
empathy and affection for their captors) she refused to cooperate with the officials initially. The 29 year old Allissa was
then positively identified as Jaycee Dugard and reunited with her family after 18 years.
Madeleine McCann (2007)
PS: This story is not in Pastreunited's time line we feel due to the publicity this story made in he media is worthy of
inclusion.
The disappearance of 3 year old Madeleine McCann on May 3, 2007 is remarkable due to the involvement of law
enforcement forces from several countries and world wide press coverage. Madeleine, a British national, went missing from
her hotel room while on a family holiday in the Algarve region in Portugal. Madeleine and her twin siblings were left unsupervised
in their hotel room while their parents were having dinner with their seven friends in a hotel bar which was only 130 yards
away. Madeleine's parents and their friends took turns to check on children in their ground floor room. Madeleine's
last sighting was about 21.15 when her dad Gerry checked on the children. However, when her mother came in the room at 22.00
she found Madeleine's bed empty and an open bedroom window. Immediately, a search of premises was conducted by police
officials and several people including Madeleine's parents, their friends and hotel staff were questioned. One of the
friends of the couple Jane Tanner, had reportedly seen a man carrying a child, going down the road at about 21.20. However,
she failed to make the connection that the child could be Madeleine. Portugal police (Polícia Judiciária) detained
several people including Madeleine's parents and their friends and arrested several others in connection with the kidnapping.
However, Madeleine's parents were eventually given a clean chit and allowed to fly back to UK. Over the course of time,
several secret service agencies from Portugal, UK and France were deployed to follow several investigation leads. However,
none of them could successfully trace Madeleine's whereabouts in spite of several reports of her possible sightings in
the following months. While Madeleine's parents were heavily criticized for their negligence, their remorse couldn't
bring their daughter back. To this date, the fate of Madeleine McCann remains unknown.
Apart from the ones mentioned
above, there are several other kidnapping cases in the history that are remarkable in some way or the other. Some of these
cases were resolved with great skill and valor by the law enforcement agencies, thereby uniting the hostages with their families,
while a few others are still pending, with no lead whatsoever. Families of such victims still wait for their loved ones to
return and hope to reunite with them someday.
Alcatraz is famous
for having housed some famous gangsters and criminals. Most of these prisoners were those considered dangerous, disobedient,
escape risks and known for committing serious crimes such as murder, racketeering, smuggling etc.
Al Capone, one of the most notorious gangsters in America, was born
in New York in 1899. He started his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and had already been on the Bureau of Investigation's
""Most Wanted"" list by the end of the 1920s. Al Capone was indicted and convicted for income tax evasion
in 1931, and found guilty on five counts. In 1932, he was initially sent to an Atlanta prison, and then finally transferred
to Alcatraz in August of 1934.
George
"Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes, infamous for crimes, which included bootlegging, armed robbery and kidnapping had already
been in the gangster business by 1927. In 1933, Kelly received life sentence for the kidnapping of Charles F. Urschel, a wealthy
businessman and his friend Walter R. Jarrett. He was first incarcerated in Leavenworth, Kansas and was later transferred to
Alcatraz in 1934 due to his constant escape threats.
Henry "Henri" Young started his career as
a bank robber and committed murder in 1933, was found guilty and served time in different state prisons.
In 1935 he was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary on McNeil Island in Washington State and was transferred
to Alcatraz in the same year. In 1942, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after he stabbed
a fellow inmate to death. His life-story was made famous by the Warner Brothers movie, "Murder in the First".
Robert Stroud, the "birdman of Alcatraz,
was first convicted of manslaughter in 1909, after he brutally shot and murdered a bartender. Stroud
was transferred from McNeil Island, Washington to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas where
he began to develop a keen interest in birds. He was allowed to breed them and maintain a lab. He was transferred to
Alcatraz in 1942 to spend the rest of his days. The story of his life was made famous by the movie, "the
birdman of Alcatraz", starring Burt Lancaster.
 A war between two rival factions of organized crime
in America developed between the Masseria clan led by Joe "The Boss" Masseria and the Castellammarese clan led by
Sal Maranzano. This was known as the "Castellammarese War". Maranzano would triumph with the help of mobsters Carlo
Gambino , Charles "Lucky" Luciano , Albert Anastasia, Joe Adonis, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Vito Genovese.
In 1920 with the murder of Joseph Masseria the war ended uniting the two separate organized crime factions back into one organization
now dubbed "Cosa Nostra (thing of ours)" by Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano named his position "Capo di tutti
capi" or "boss of bosses". Maranzano established the code of conduct for the organization along with the formation
of the "families" divisions and structure.
Maranzano then appointed the heads of the official "5
Families" of New York. Most were already in command of there respective gangs but this made it official under "Cosa
Nostra".
1) Masseria's gang would be given to Luciano, with Vito Genovese as his underboss (and would
later become the Genovese Family)
2) The Mineo gang would now be headed by Frank Scalise (and would later be known as
the Gambino Family)
3) Maranzano would continue to head his gang (which would become the Bonanno Family)
4) Gaetano
Gagliano would take over Tom Reina's gang, and Tommy Lucchese would be his underboss (this would become the Lucchese Family)
5) Joe Profaci would keep his gang, since he stayed neutral during the war (this would later become the Colombo Family)
Maranzano also appointed Al Capone as boss of the Chicago faction, later to be known as "the Outfit". He
also appointed Francisco Milano boss of the Cleveland Family and Stefano Magaddino boss of the Buffalo Family.
Maranzano's
rein would be short as he was killed within six months of becoming "boss of bosses" by Charles "Lucky"
Luciano. Luciano was gaining in power and Maranzano plotted to kill the young upstart but Luciano was tipped off and struck
first ordering the murder of Maranzano.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano would go on to form the Mafia "Commission".
The Commission would become the controlling government of the mafia , each family boss would have a seat on the commission
and a vote in setting mafia policy and settling disputes between families. The original Commission included bosses from six
of the seven original families formed by Maranzano including all 5 New York Families.
Ed Gein is also known as The Butcher
of Plainfield, The Plainfield Butcher, The Mad Butcher, The Plainfield Ghoul. A serial killer who served as the inspiration
to numerous films, among them Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Maniac, Three on a Meathook, Deranged, Ed Gein, The Movie,
and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was born on August 27, 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin and lived with his domineering and
fanatically religious mother, Augusta, and his older brother, Henry, on a 195-acres family homestead outside Plainfield,
Wisconsin. His father, George, a no-good alcoholic, and much despised by Augusta, died in 1940, aged 67. His brother abruptly
followed suit in 1944, aged 43 (he died in a mysterious and suspicious brush fire). Ed's mother passed away a year later,
on December 29, 1945, aged 67. Ed remained all alone and subsisted on Federal farm subsidies and his occasional bouts as
the community's itinerant handyman and babysitter.
After his mother died, Ed sealed the upper floor as a shrine,
and lived in a single room by the kitchen. He accumulated a library of anatomy books, porn magazines, horror and adventure
novels, historical accounts of the Nazi medical experiments in Auschwitz and elsewhere, and medical encyclopedias. At night,
he performed rudimentary surgeries on exhumed and decomposing female bodies about whose death he learned from the obituaries
in the local paper. His semi-retarded friend Gus helped him dig up the graves, including, reportedly, the body of Ed's
own mother.
Even at this early necrophiliac phase, Gein kept the victims' internal organs and draped himself with
the flayed skins or fitted them onto a tailor's mummy. Around the house, he wore women's panties stuffed with excised
vaginas. Contrary to rumour, he did not have sex with the bodies. They smelled too bad, he explained.
JACK THE RIPPER AND THE EAST END
Museum in Docklands
is returning to the scene of London's most infamous crimes in Jack the Ripper and the East End, the first exhibition to
explore the Jack the Ripper murders and their enduring legacy.
Criminology is
the social-scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminological research areas include the incidence
and forms of crime as well as its causes and consequences. They also include social and governmental regulations and reactions
to crime. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in the behavioral sciences, drawing especially on the research of sociologists
and psychologists, as well as on writings in law. An important way to analyze data is to look at quantitative methods in criminology.
In 1885, Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo coined the term "criminology" (in Italian, criminologia). The French
anthropologist Paul Topinard used it for the first time in French (criminologie) around the same time.
Who are Crimestoppers?
We are
an independent charity helping to find criminals and solve crimes. We have an anonymous phone number, 0800 555 111, that people can call to pass on information about crime;
alternatively people can send us information anonymously via this website, using our Giving Information Form. Callers don't
have to give their name or any personal information and calls cannot be traced. Tell us what you know, not who you are.
The Night Stalker
Between June 1984 and August 1985, a Southern California serial
killer dubbed the Night Stalker broke into victims' houses as they slept and attacked, murdering 13 and assaulting numerous
others. With citizens on high alert, an observant teenager noticed a suspicious vehicle driving through his neighborhood on
the night of August 24, 1985. He wrote down the license plate and notified police. It just so happened that the Night Stalker's
latest attack took place that night in that area, so police tracked down the car. It had been abandoned, but police found
a key piece of evidence inside: a fingerprint. Using new computer system, investigators quickly matched the print to 25-year-old
Richard Ramirez and plastered his image in the media. Within a week, Ramirez was recognized and captured by local citizens.
He was sentenced to death and currently sits in prison on death row. Charles Manson and the Manson Family
On the night
of August 8, 1969, Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian were sent by Charlie
to the old home of Terry Melcher at 10050 Cielo Drive. Their instructions were to kill everyone at the house and make it appear
like Hinman's murder, with words and symbols written in blood on the walls. The four did as they were told and brutally
killed Steven Parent, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, Sharon Tate and Sharon Tate's unborn child.The
next day Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Steve Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian went to
the home of Leno and Rosemary Labianca. Manson and Watson tied up the couple and Manson left. He told Van Houten and Krenwinkel
to go in and kill the LaBiancas. The three separated the couple and murdered them, then had dinner and a shower and hitchhiked
back to Spahn Ranch. Manson, Atkins, Grogan and Kasabian drove around looking for others to kill, but failed.
The F B I
The relationship
between fear of crime and Media is unclear. To put the dilemma in simple terms: do people fear crime because a lot of crime
is being shown on television or does television just provide footage about crimes because people fear crime and want to see
what's going on? The complex nature of crime could allow the media to exploit social naivety, covering crime not only
selective, but also distorting the everyday world of crime. Some say the media contribute to the climate of fear that is created,
because the actual frequency of victimisation is a tiny fraction of potential crime.
With crime accounting for
up to 25 per cent of news coverage, the quality and angle of the coverage becomes an issue. The media displays violent crime
disproportionately, whilst neglecting minor crimes. The profile of offenders in the media is distorted, causing misunderstanding
of criminal offending. 
Richard (Dick)
Turpin (born September 21, 1705 in Hempstead, Essex died April 7, 1739 in York) was a legendary English rogue and the most
famous historical highwayman. In life Richard Turpin was a violent man who committed offences such as deer stealing, burglary,
highway robbery and probably murder before being executed in York. After his death, as "Dick" Turpin, he became
the subject of legend, and was romanticised as the dashing and heroic highwayman in English ballads and popular theatre of
the 18th and 19th century and later in film and television of the 20th century. There is considerable divergence between the
history and legend of Turpin.
The Crime Museum
The Prisoners
Property Act of 1869 gave authority for police to retain certain items of prisoners' property for instructional purposes,
but it was the opening of the Central Prisoners Property Store on 25th April 1874 that provided the opportunity to start a
collection. The store was housed in No. 1 Great Scotland Yard, which was at the rear of the Commissioner's Office at No.
4, Whitehall Place.
The idea of a crime museum was conceived by an Inspector Neame who had already collected
together a number of items, with the intention of giving police officers practical instruction on how to detect and prevent
burglary, and it is certain that by the latter part of 1874, although it was not described as such, a museum of sorts was
in existence. It was later that year that the official authority was given for a proper crime museum to be opened.
A serial killer
is a person who murders three or more people with a 'cooling off' period between each murder and whose motivation
for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. One hypothesis is that all serial killers suffer from some form
of Antisocial Personality Disorder. They are usually not psychotic, and thus may appear to be quite normal and often even
charming, a state of adaptation which Hervey Cleckley calls the "mask of sanity." There is sometimes a sexual element
to the murders. The murders may have been completed/attempted in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something
in common, for example occupation, race, or sex.
The term serial killer is said to have been coined by Michigan State
University alumnus and FBI agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. Serial killer entered the popular vernacular in large part due
to the widely publicized crimes of Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz in the middle years of that decade.
Bonnie Parker
(October 1, 1910 May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 May 23, 1934) were notorious outlaws, robbers, and criminals
who traveled the Central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits were known nationwide. They captured the
attention of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as the "public enemy era"
between 1931 and 1935. Although this couple and their gang were notorious for their bank robberies, Clyde Barrow preferred
to rob small stores or gas stations.
During the 1960s,
Ian and his girlfriend, Myra Hindley, sexually abused and murdered young children and teens then buried their bodies along
the Saddleworth Moor, in what became known as the Moor Murders. Ian Brady's Youth: At an early age Ian Brady was enthralled
by the human atrocities that took place in Nazi Germany. His interest in sadism intensified by reading books on torture and
sadomasochism, particularly the writings of Friedrich Nietzche and Marquis de Sade. A Troubled Teen: Brady demonstrated an
above average intelligence but his laziness shadowed his academic success. He was placed on probation for a series of small
crimes and sent to a borstall, a school for troubled teens. Brady, no longer interested in making a legitimate living, used
the time of his incarceration to educate himself about crime.
Ian Bradley and Myra Hindley Meet: After leaving the borstall
he had various jobs, one being at Millwards Merchandising. It was there that he met Myra Hindley and together they began the
horrific torture, rape, and murder of young girls and boys.
Jack Slipper
(April 20, 1924 August 24, 2005) was a Detective Chief Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police in London. He was known as
"Slipper of the Yard" (referring to Scotland Yard). He was mainly known for his role in investigating the
Great train robbery in 1963. He became so involved with its aftermath that he continued to hunt down many of the escaped robbers
in retirement. He believed that Ronnie Biggs should not be released after returning to the UK in 2001 and he regularly appeared
in the media to comment on any news item connected to the robbery. He was also involved in several other cases, including
the Massacre of Braybrook Street. Jack Slipper set up the Robbery Squad, which later merged into the Flying Squad. He
was also responsible for Britain's first "Supergrass" trial in 1973, in which bank robber Bertie Smalls testified
against his former associates in exchange for his own freedom. In the 1980s - 90s Slipper worked in security for IBM
UK, working out of their Greenford, Middlesex offices. He frequented the Black Horse public house, Harrow Road, Wembley.
Slipper was born in London and joined the Metropolitan Police in 1950. Prior to this he worked as an electrician's apprentice
until 1941, when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force. He died aged 81 after a long illness.
The Internet
Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar
Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). IC3's mission is to serve
as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The
IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected
criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level,
IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center
The Great Train
Robbery is the name given to a £2.6 million train robbery committed on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn
near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. The bulk of the stolen money was not recovered. This was probably the largest robbery
by value, in British history, until the Securitas depot robbery of 2006 in Kent.The Glasgow to London travelling post office
(TPO) train was stopped by a red light at Sears Crossing. The signals had been tampered with, unknown to the driver, with
a glove placed over the green light and a six-volt battery temporarily powering the red one. The co-driver David Whitby went
to call the signalman only to find the telephone cables had been cut. Upon returning to the train, he was thrown down the
embankment of the railway track.
One problem the robbers encountered was that the diesel train was different
from the local trains, making it difficult to operate. One of the robbers had spent months befriending railway staff and familiarising
himself with the layout and operation but it was decided instead to use an experienced train driver, Stan Agate, to drive
the train from the stopping point at the signals to the bridge after uncoupling the unnecessary carriages. Unfortunately,
Stan Agate (who was never traced or linked with the robbery) was unable to operate the train and it was quickly decided that
the original driver, Jack Mills, would move the train down the track. The high-value carriage was decoupled from the others
and driven a further half a mile to Bridego Bridge where the robbers' Land Rovers lay in wait. Stan Agate's participation
in the robbery was Ronnie Biggs' only task and when it became obvious that they were useless they were banished to the
awaiting ex-army truck to help load the mail bags.
A 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Biggs, Charlie
Wilson, Jimmy Hussey, Roy James, Jimmy White, Tommy Wisbey, Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards, one of whom was an ex-British
Army paratrooper, boarded the train and began to unload the money sacks into waiting vehicles on the road below the bridge.
Although no guns were used, the train driver was hit on the head with an iron bar, causing a black eye and facial bruising.
The assailant was one of two members of the gang who was never identified. Frank Williams (at the time a Detective Inspector)
claims to have traced the man, but he could not be charged because of lack of evidence. Mills recovered but had constant trauma
headaches the rest of his life. He died in 1970 from leukemia.
Ronald Arthur
Biggs better known as Ronnie Biggs (born August 8, 1929) is an English prisoner who is known for escaping from prison after
his minor role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963 and for being on the run for many years. He eventually settled in Brazil
but voluntarily returned to England in 2001.Biggs was born in Lambeth, England. In 1947 Biggs at age 18 joined the British
RAF but was dishonorably discharged in 1949 for desertion and served two years. In 1960 he married Charmian Brent, with whom
he had three sons (one deceased). Biggs is most famous for the Great Train Robbery of 1963. Together with other gang members,
he stole £2.6 million from a mail train. After being convicted and jailed, he escaped from HM Prison Wandsworth in 1965
by scaling the wall with a rope ladder. He fled to Paris, where he acquired new identity papers and underwent plastic surgery.
In 1970, he quietly moved to Adelaide, South Australia. He worked in Set Construction at Channel 10 when a reporter recognised
him. He then fled to Blackburn North, in Melbourne, Australia, staying for some time before fleeing to Brazil in the same
year. His wife and sons stayed behind in Australia.
In 1974, he was found by the British police in Rio de Janeiro,
but could not be extradited because the United Kingdom did not benefit from reciprocity of extradition to Brazil, a condition
for the Brazilian process of extradition. Additionally, Biggs' then girlfriend (Raimunda de Castro, a nightclub dancer
and prostitute) was pregnant; Brazilian law would not allow the parent of a Brazilian child to be extradited. As a result,
Biggs was able to live openly in Brazil, completely untouchable by the British authorities. While his status as a felon prevented
Biggs from working, there was nothing to stop him profiting from Scotland Yard's misfortune. As a result, "Ronnie
Biggs" mugs, coffee cups and t-shirts suddenly started to appear in tourist traps throughout Rio.
He spent the
next three decades of his life as a fugitive and became something of a celebrity, despite having been a rather minor figure
in the actual robbery.
Supposedly, Biggs returned to England several times during the making of a documentary about
the Great Train Robbery, always in disguise. He also recorded vocals on two songs for The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle,
Julien Temple's film about the Sex Pistols. The basic tracks for "No One is Innocent" (aka "The Biggest
Blow (A Punk Prayer)") and "Belsen Was a Gas" were recorded with guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook
at a studio in Brazil shortly after the Sex Pistols' final performance, with overdubs being added in an English studio
at a later date. "No One is Innocent" was released as a single in the UK and reached #6 on the British singles charts,
with the sleeve showing Martin Bormann playing bass with the group (in actuality this was American actor James Jeter).
In 1981, Biggs was kidnapped by a gang of adventurers who smuggled him to Barbados, hoping to collect some reward from the
British police. The coup was discovered, though, and Biggs made use of legal loopholes to have himself sent back to Brazil.
In February 2006, Channel 4 aired a documentary featuring dramatisations of the attempted kidnap and interviews with John
Miller, an ex-British Army personnel who carried it out. The team was headed by security consultant Patrick King. In the documentary,
King claims that the kidnapping may have in fact been a deniable operation.
Biggs' son by de Castro, Michael Biggs,
eventually became a member of the successful band Turma do Balão Mágico, bringing a new source of income to
his father. In a short time, however, the band faded into obscurity and dissolved, leaving father and son in relatively dire
straits again.
In 1991, Biggs sang vocals for the song "Carnival In Rio (Punk Was)" by German punk band Die
Toten Hosen.
In 2001 Biggs announced to The Sun that he would be willing to return to the UK.
Biggs was
fully aware that he would be detained upon arrival in England. Even so, he returned voluntarily on May 7, 2001, and was immediately
arrested and re-imprisoned. His trip back to England on a private jet was paid by The Sun, which reportedly paid Michael Biggs
£20,000 plus other expenses in return for exclusive rights on the news story. Ronald Biggs had 28 years of his sentence
left to serve. Since his return he has undergone a number of health scares, including two heart attacks, and has failed to
get his sentence overturned or reduced.
His son said in a press release that contrary to some press reports, Biggs has
not returned to the UK simply to receive health care. Health care was available in Brazil and he had many friends and supporters
who would certainly have contributed to any such expenses. Biggs' stated desire was to "walk into a Margate pub as
an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter".
On November 14, 2001, Biggs petitioned Governor Hynd of HMP Belmarsh for
early release on compassionate grounds based on his poor health. He had been treated four times at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital
in Woolwich in less than six months. His health was deteriorating rapidly and he asked to be released into the care of his
son for his remaining days. The application was denied.
On August 10, 2005, it was reported that Biggs had contracted
MRSA. His lawyers, seeking for his release on grounds of compassion, said that their client's death was likely to be imminent.
On October 26, 2005, the Home Secretary Charles Clarke declined his appeal stating that his illness is not deemed terminal.
Home Office compassion policy is to release prisoners with three months left to live. Biggs continues to need a tube for feeding
and has difficulty speaking.
On July 4, 2007, Biggs was moved from Belmarsh prison to Norwich prison on "compassionate
grounds".
In December 2007, Biggs issued a further appeal, from Norwich prison, asking to be released from jail
to die with his family: "I am an old man and often wonder if I truly deserve the extent of my punishment. I have accepted
it and only want freedom to die with my family and not in jail. I hope Mr Straw decides to allow me to do that. I have been
in jail for a long time and I want to die a free man. I am sorry for what happened. It has not been an easy ride over the
years. Even in Brazil I was a prisoner of my own making.
Ronnie Biggs will be freed from prison
in time for his 80th birthday, it emerged last night. The case for the Great Train Robber's early release from Norwich
jail is to be assessed at a parole board hearing in July. But prison and probation sources have told the Mail that the hearing
will be a formality - and he will be freed before his birthday in August.
Fred West
Between 1967
and 1987, he and his wife Rosemary tortured, raped and murdered at least 12 young women, many at the couple's homes. The
majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at the couple's home in Gloucester. Rose also murdered
Fred's daughter Charmaine while he was serving a prison sentence for theft. Most of the victims were lodgers who lived
relatively transient lives and whose disappearance would not attract great police attention, apart from the murder of Lucy
Partington, which did.Fred West was born in Bickerton Cottage, Much Marcle, Herefordshire, to Walter Stephen West and Daisy
Hannah Hill, a poor family of farm workers. He was the first of their seven children (Walter had been married before, in 1937
at the age of 23 to Gertrude Maddocks, who died after apparently being stung by a bee in 1939).
It is believed
that incest was an accepted part of the West household, and that Walter taught him bestiality from an early age. Fred recalled,
in police interviews, that his father had said on many occasions "Do what you want, just don't get caught doing it".
It has been rumoured that Fred's mother slept with her son on his 13th birthday, and as a result, he lost his virginity
to her.
The FBI Ten Most
Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949, during a game of Hearts between J. Edgar Hoover, Director
of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service (the predecessor
of the United Press International) Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest
guys." This discussion turned into a published article, which received so much positive publicity that on March 14, 1950,
the FBI officially announced the list to increase law enforcement's ability to capture dangerous fugitives.
The
list itself has no particular ranking. This may be because the FBI does not want to promote competition between criminals
to gain the Number 1 spot. However, the FBI has in the past identified individuals by the sequence number in which each individual
has appeared on the list.
The Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway refers to the
1995 incident when members of AUM Shinrikyo released sarin gas on several lines of the Tokyo Subway in an act of domestic
terrorism. 12 people died and some 6000 were injured as a result of the attack.
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese millenarian
cult (they have since renamed their organization as Aleph) centered on the charismatic leader Asahara Shoko, whose teachings
combined elements of Buddhism and Hinduism as well as millenarian Christianity, including yoga, meditation, and breathing
exercises. Central to the group's teachings is that the apocalypse is near. The name "AUM Shinrikyo" derives
from the Buddhist mantra "om," followed by the Japanese word meaning "supreme truth". The Japanese police
have said that the nerve gas attack was the cult's way of hastening the apocalypse.
AUM attracted people from all
walks of life. The group employed mind control techniques on its followers, including the use of drugs and of sleep- and food-deprivation.
Members lived in communes, cut off relations with outsiders, including their families, and gave all their savings to the cult.
Alphonse Gabriel "Scarface Al" Capone was
born on January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn NY, the son of Italian immigrants. He was a gang member in his youth and moved to Chicago
in 1920 to avoid prosecution for two murders of which he was suspected. He went to work for Chicago crime boss Johnny Torrio,
whose bootlegging business was rising due to the beginning of Prohibition. When Chicago elected a reform mayor in 1923 that
put pressure on gangs operating in Chicago, Capone moved his organization to nearby Cicero. Within a year Capone completely
dominated Cicero after waging a turf war with the rival O'Donnell gang in which over 200 people were murdered and many
others sent to the top 10 hospitals in Illinois.
In 1925 Torrio, after an assassination attempt, gave his gang
to Capone and returned to his native Italy, and Capone's Chicago Outfit became the main criminal organization in Chicago.
Capone's gang earned over ten million dollars per year selling bootlegged liquor which was obtained from Canada, from
East Coast rum runners, and also from local moonshine stills. With the money earned from bootlegging Capone was able to buy
control of the Chicago political and police establishments - including bribing Chicago's mayor William Hale Thompson -
which allowed him to operate his speakeasies and casinos free of legal harassment. Capone's major enemies were rival gang
leaders such as Bugs Moran, Dion O'Banion, and Earl "Hymie" Weiss.
These opponents attempted to assassinate
Capone many times - he was shot in a restaurant, his car was machine gunned various times, and a gang attack was made on his
headquarters. Over time - and with such dramatic acts of vengeance as the infamous St. Valentine's Day massacre of the
Moran gang - Capone eliminated most of his opposition and acquired most of the power in Chicago.
His great wealth
enabled Capone to live a luxurious existence of expensive clothing, gourmet food, jewelry, and women. He also branched out
into other criminal enterprises including gambling and prostitution. Capone himself liked to screen new prostitutes, which
resulted in his contracting syphilis (which hospitals in Chicago area couldn't cure, and from which he eventually died).
Capone became a celebrity and freely granted press interviews, and cultivated the image of a community benefactor. He began
a free school milk program to help fight rickets in Chicago's school children, and during the Great Depression he opened
up soup kitchens for the homeless and poor. He enjoyed rodeos and circuses, and he bought up large blocks of tickets to these
events and gave them away free in poor neighborhoods. Capone also loved opera as well as New Orleans jazz, and his speakeasies
showcased rising talents such as Louis Armstrong. His Cotton Club nightclub featured new stars such as Bing Crosby and Charley
Parker. Capone's image in Chicago was that of a loveable outlaw who defied the despised Prohibition, and who was a benefactor
to the poor and a patron of charities such as Chicago occupational health services.
His notoriety and flagrant
violation of federal law eventually brought the U.S. treasury department down on him, and in 1931 Capone was tried in a federal
court and sentenced to eleven years in prison, most of which he spent at Alcatraz. He tried to be a model prisoner, and as
a result was unpopular with the other inmates. In prison he had lost weight, and his mental and physical health had deteriorated,
so he was no longer able to run his criminal organization. He was released in 1939 sick and showing the signs of syphilitic
dementia, but he eschewed the top 10 hospitals in Illinois and other hospitals in Chicago area to enter a hospital in Palm
Island, Florida for treatment. He suffered an apoplectic stroke on January 21, 1947, and without the help of Chicago occupational
health services he died of cardiac arrest four days later.
Dutch Schultz
The origins of the mafia phenomenon dating back to the
Middle Ages, when Sicily was under foreign domination and obedience wealthy families obtained through formal social control
of land. The Mafia, organizationally, did not have a hierarchy, but was composed of autonomous groups who called themselves
"men of honor." In those years, the landed aristocracy allied with social leaders and created a conservative power
structure and stable, a strategy that allowed it to retain its dominance in Sicily thereafter.
Guided by a code of conduct called Omerta, the Mafia
has quickly become an organization completely outside the law. The mob forced the code to be against justice, and also avoid
any contact with her.In the early twentieth century, some members of this organization migrated to North America, specifically
to the United States, thus spreading internationally clandestine criminal organizations.
Over time, the U.S. became the center of all crimes of the Mafia, since this country
was restricting gambling and alcohol, which led to a large smuggling.The history of the Mafia has served to understand the
source, structure, functioning and control mechanisms of criminal organizations, which has been a useful tool to study how
they operate smugglers, murderers and drug cartels in the world more dangerous.
From 1920 began the golden age for international gangsters. Sicilian criminals
soon found followers worldwide, prompting the organization of organized crime groups in China, Russia, Cuba and the United
States. The latter country was the favorite of these criminals, because it could easily be corrupted, to perform any illegal
act at the time.
Here are the most renowned gangsters:
Al Capone (1899-1947).
He is also known as Scarface. It was the most
important representation as to the history of the Mafia is concerned. It was noted for having the dirtiest business
in the city of Chicago and for hosting the worst wars between the gangs of mobsters. By 1925, Al Capone
became the owner of the Chicago underworld and his fortune amounted to one hundred million dollars.
He was persecuted by the law for years, but his ability to corrupt evaded any justice.
Without clutch, after many years of persecution,
Al Capone was caught for tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years in prison. He was transferred to
Alcatraz federal prison and was granted after eight years parole.
Johnny Torrio (1882-1957).
Famous
for his illegal business conduct in a violent manner, this criminal was a mentor to Al Capone and a leader
within the hierarchy of the gangster. In 1924 he had been shot while fighting another band.
Dutch Schultz (1902-1935).
It was called the Beer Capo, for conducting all negotiations of
this drink smuggled into New York City. He was killed by the justice of this city for being a threat
to the district attorneys.
John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark
Chapman who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before he laid in wait and killed him. Chapman pleaded
guilty to gunning down Mr Lennon and is currently serving life in Attica prison near New York. In October 2004 he failed for
the third time to secure his release. He said he had heard voices in his head telling him to kill the world-famous musician.
Twenty years after his death millions of fans paid tribute to Mr Lennon in his home town of Liverpool and in New York.
The Atlanta Child Murders
In a two year period between 1979 and 1981, 29 people --
almost all children -- were strangled by a serial killer. Police staked out a local river where other bodies had been dumped
and arrested Wayne Williams as he was driving away from the sound of a splash in an area where a body was recovered a couple
of days later. Police didn't witness him drop the body, so their case was based largely on forensic evidence gathered
from fibers found on the victims. In all, there were nearly 30 types of fiber linked to items from Williams' house, his
vehicles and even his dog. In 1982, he was convicted of killing two adult victims and sentenced to life in prison, although
the Atlanta police announced that Williams was responsible for at least 22 of the child murders.
For centuries Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has lived in
France. Napoleon had her in his bedroom, Louis XIV brought her to Versailles, and eventually she graced the walls of the Louvre.
An Italian Louvre employee was resentful of the fact that this painting wasn’t in its homeland. To restore the Mona
Lisa to Italy, Vincenzo Peruggia hid her under his coat when the museum closed for the day and took her to Florence. Two years
later, Peruggia was caught and the Mona Lisa was returned to Paris. Peruggia, unlike most robbers, was hailed as a patriotic
hero and given a mere 7 months in jail.
All Serial Killers Dot Com
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does not intend in any way to glorify crime or criminals. Rather, the site seeks to inform and educate the public.
The Crime Library
Robert ‘Ted’ Bundy (November
24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) is one of the most infamous serial killers in U.S. history. Bundy raped and murdered scores
of young women across the United States between 1974 and 1978. After more than a decade of vigorous denials, Bundy eventually
confessed to 30 murders, although the actual total of victims remains unknown. Typically, Bundy would rape then murder his
victims by bludgeoning, and sometimes by strangulation. He also engaged in necrophilia.
He would approach a potential victim in a
public place, even in daylight or in a crowd, as when he abducted Ott and Naslund at Lake Sammamish or when he kidnapped
Leach from her school. Bundy had various ways of gaining a victim’s trust. Sometimes, he would feign injury, wearing
his arm in a sling or wearing a fake cast, as in the murders of Hawkins, Rancourt, Ott, Naslund, and Cunningham. At other
times Bundy would impersonate an authority figure; he pretended to be a policeman when approaching Carol DaRonch. The day
before he killed Kimberly Leach, Bundy approached another young Florida girl pretending to be “Richard Burton, Fire
Department,” but left hurriedly after her older brother arrived.
Gary
Ridgway
Serial killers always make interesting research. Their crimes, methods, and bizarre thought behaviours
never cease to amaze us. Sadly, the most interesting ones often involve the cases that continue to baffle authorities.
The name of this case is derived from the Green River, a river
that begins in Washington State and empties into the Puget Sound in Seattle. Nearby the river is the Seattle-Tacoma International
Airport, built in 1942. As with any international airport, the area around it quickly grew as businesses sprouted to cater
to the many travelers who crossed through its gates. One major throughway near the airport is Aurora Avenue. Just off the
Pacific Coast Highway, Aurora Avenue is known casually as the Sea-Tac Strip. This hustle and bustle Strip is a haven of
dingy clubs, seedy motels, and of course, many prostitutes. On any given night, hundreds of prostitutes could be seen hanging
around the street corners propositioning passengers as they drove by. When a customer was found and a transaction initiated,
they could simply take their tricks to one of the nearby motels or one of the many vacant buildings or empty side streets.
These empty buildings and dingy streets are not the result
of an area gone into decay but rather the result of the airport’s desire for expansion. The airport purchased much
of the land around the airport and then terminated utilities leading to the buildings. The result? Lots of vacant abandoned
buildings and empty streets that make ideal locations for the prostitutes to conduct their business. During the early 80’s
this ghost town of deserted houses, businesses, and shops became the scene of one of the most baffling serial killing cases
this country has ever witnessed.
Reginald "Reggie"
Kray (24 October 1933 1 October 2000) and Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (October 24, 1933 17 March 1995) were identical
twin brothers, and the foremost organised crime leaders dominating London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s. Ronald,
commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, was bisexual in a period when it was illegal in the UK, and suffered from paranoid
schizophrenia. The Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, violent assaults including torture and
the murders of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and George Cornell. As West End nightclub owners they mixed with well-known
names such as Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland as well as politicians. This gave them a perceived respectability and
in the 1960s became celebrities in their own right being photographed by the likes of David Bailey and appearing in interviews
on television. They were eventually arrested on May 9, 1968 and convicted in 1969 by the efforts of a dedicated squad of detectives
led by Detective Superintendent Leonard ("Nipper") Read, and were both sentenced to life imprisonment.
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The elderly have
a dominant role in fear of crime research and societal understanding of the fear of crime. Once the dispassionate domain of
academics and government researchers, the fear of crime has become a currency of political competition and a cultural preoccupation.Before
the 60s in a time before adequate crime victim surveys, it was assumed that the elderly were the category of people at the
highest risk of victimization. The myth of great elderly victimization included elderly suffering greater financial and physical
harm as a result of victimization, a greater amount psychological trauma as a result of crime and the highest fear of crime
in comparison to other members of the community. However with the publication of survey data results in the 1980s, higher
crime rates and more severe consequences for elders were no longer valid assumptions. Although the evidence details the myths
surrounding elderly victimization, the elderly still have a fear of crime problem. Studies have continually found that persons
over the age of 65 have the lowest victimization rates of any age group, yet they have the greatest fear of crime, in addition
the elderly are likely to encounter crime that is motivated by economic gain such as burglary and theft, and least likely
to suffer violent crimes. Serial Killers & Mass Murderers
A
serial killers suffer from Antisocial Personality Disorder and appear normal or charming, sometimes referred to as the "mask
of sanity." Sometimes there is a sexual element to the murders and they may have a commonality such as gender, occupation,
appearances, race, etc. The
term serial killer was coined in the 1970s due to cases such as Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz. According to an FBI Behavioural Unit study 85% of the world's serial killers
are in America. At any given time 20 - 50 unidentified active serial killers are at work continually changing their targets
and methods. Prostitutes, runaways, and others who lead transient and anonymous lives are usually not reported missing promptly
and receive little police or media attention. Experts speculate on what happens to unsolved cases of murderers. Some may commit
suicide, die, be incarcerated, in mental institutions, relocate, or stopped killing; a few turn themselves in.
FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS
Female serial
killers have always been something of an anomaly in criminology and a puzzle for law enforcement. As Eric Hickey (1991) describes
them, "These are the quiet killers, every bit as lethal as male serial murderers, but we are seldom aware of one in our
midst because of the low visibility of their killing". One of the first writers on female criminality, Otto Pollak, also
said that most female crime is hidden. Kelleher & Kelleher (1998) argue that female serial killers are more successful,
careful, precise, methodical, and quiet in committing their crimes. They examined 100 cases since 1900 and found an average
duration of 8 years before being caught double that of the male serial killer. Alarid, Marquart, Burton, Cullen et.
al. (1996) conducted interviews with convicted female offenders and found 86% of them assumed a secondary follower role during
criminal events by either working with a male or female accomplice. On the other hand, feminists and people of conscience
maintain that the academic literature on female crime is fraught with misconception and that popular mythology detracts from
the real reality of women as victims of crime.
Top 10 Evil Serial Killers
WARNING:
This article contains descriptions of murders and
links to photographs of the victims bodies. These are not just the standard notorious murderers; these are some of the most
horrific killers to have been found guilty of their crimes. They are on this list either because of the nature of their crime,
or the sheer number of their killings. Graphic images are marked with [!]. In no particular order:
The Bow Street
Runners have been called London's first professional police force. They were founded in 1749 by the author Henry Fielding
and originally numbered just eight.
Similar to the unofficial 'thief-takers' (men who would solve petty crime
for a fee), they represented a formalisation and regularisation of existing policing methods. What made them different from
the thieftakers was their formal attachment to the Bow Street magistrates' office, and that they were paid by the magistrate
with funds from central government. They worked out of Fielding's office and court at No.4 Bow Street, and did not patrol
but served writs and arrested offenders on the authority of the magistrates, travelling nationwide to apprehend criminals.
When Henry Fielding retired as 'court' or Chief Magistrate in 1754 he was succeeded by his brother John Fielding,
who had previously been his assistant for four years. Known as the "Blind Beak of Bow Street", John Fielding refined
the patrol into the first truly effective police force for the capital, later adding officers mounted on horseback. Although
the force was only funded intermittently in the years that followed, it did serve as the guiding principle for the way policing
was to develop over the next eighty years: Bow Street was a manifestation of the move towards increasing professionalism and
state control of street life, beginning in London.
Jack the Ripper
is an alias given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers) active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent
districts of London, England in the late 19th century. The name is taken from a letter sent to the Central News Agency by
someone claiming to be the murderer.
The victims were women allegedly earning income as prostitutes. The murders
were perpetrated in public or semi-public places at night or towards the early morning. The victim's throat was cut, after
which the body was mutilated. Theories suggest the victims were first strangled in order to silence them and to explain the
lack of reported blood at the crime scenes. The removal of internal organs from three of the victims led some officials at
the time of the murders to propose that the killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.
Newspapers, whose circulation
had been growing during this era, bestowed widespread and enduring notoriety on the killer owing to the savagery of the attacks
and the failure of the police in their attempts to capture the murderer, sometimes missing him at the crime scenes by mere
minutes.
The Victorians
had faith in progress. One element of this faith was the conviction that crime could be beaten. From the middle of the nineteenth
century the annual publication of Judicial Statistics for England and Wales seemed to underpin their faith; almost all forms
of crime appeared to be falling. it was practice in the Metropolitan Police until the 1930s to list many reported thefts as
lost property.'
There are, of course, serious problems with official statistics of crime. How far might they
be massaged by the police forces that collect and collate them? We know, for example, that it was practice in the Metropolitan
Police until the 1930s to list many reported thefts as lost property. How can we account for the 'dark figure' of
crime that is never reported? Many in the poorer sections of the Victorian community, who had little faith in, or respect
for, the police, probably did not bother to report offences. Nevertheless, unreliable as they may be, the statistics provide
historians with a starting point for the pattern of crime in the same way that they provided a starting point for the Victorian's
own assessments of crime.
John Herbert
Dillinger (June 22, 1903 July 22, 1934) was an American bank robber, considered by some to be a dangerous criminal, while
others idolized him as a latter-day Robin Hood. He gained this reputation (and the nickname "Jackrabbit") for his
graceful movements during bank heists, such as leaping over the counter (a movement he supposedly copied from the movies)
and narrow getaways from police. His exploits, along with those of other criminals of the 1930s Depression era, such as Bonnie
and Clyde and Ma Barker, dominated the attentions of the American press and its readers during what is sometimes referred
to as the public enemy era, between 1931 and 1935, a period which led to the further development of the modern and more sophisticated
FBI.Dillinger embraced the criminal lifestyle behind bars, learning the ropes from seasoned bank robbers like Harry Pierpont
of Muncie, Indiana and Russell "Boobie" Clark of Terre Haute. The men planned heists that they would commit soon
after they were released. Once Dillinger was released from Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, he helped conceive a plan
for the escape of Pierpont, Clark and several others, most of whom worked in the prison laundry. The group known as the "first
Dillinger gang" included Pierpont, Clark, Charles Makley, Edward W. Shouse, Jr., of Terre Haute, Harry Copeland, "Oklahoma
Jack" Clark, Walter Dietrich and John "Red" Hamilton. Homer Van Meter and Lester Gillis (a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson)
were among those who joined the "second Dillinger gang" after he escaped from the county jail at Crown Point, Indiana.
Among Dillinger's more celebrated exploits was his pretending to be a sales rep for a company that sold bank alarm
systems. He reportedly sauntered into a number of Indiana and Ohio banks and used this ruse to assess security systems and
bank vaults of prospective targets. Another time, the gang pretended to be part of a film company that was scouting locations
for a "bank robbery" scene. Bystanders stood and smiled as a real robbery ensued and Dillinger and friends rode
off with the loot. Stories such as this (doubtlessly embellished with each telling) only served to increase Dillinger's
burgeoning legend which the depression era tabloid press fanned with abandon.
Dillinger was believed to have been associated
with gangs who robbed dozen banks of a total of more than $300,000, an enormous sum in the Depression era, totaling nearly
five million dollars inflation adjusted.
Born: Salvatore
Lucania, In 1897, in Sicily, Italy
Moved to the United States in 1906. At the age of 10, he was charged with his first
crime, shoplifting. His Early Years 1907, he began his first racket. He charged Jewish kids a penny or two for his protection
to and from school. If they refused to pay, he would beat them up. One of the Jewish kids, Meyer Lansky, refused to pay. After
Lucky failed to beat him up, they became friends and joined forces in his protection scheme. They remained friends throughout
their lives. In 1916, Luciano became a leader of the Five Points Gang, after getting out of reform school for peddling narcotics.
The police named him as a suspect in several local murders although he was never indicted. By 1920, Lucianos criminal endeavors
strengthened and he got involved in bootlegging. His circle of friends included such crime figures as, Bugsy Siegel, Joe Adonis,
Vito Genovese, and Frank Costello. By the late 1920s, he had become a chief aide in the largest crime Family in the country,
led by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. As time went on, Luciano became to despise the old Mafia traditions and
thinking of Giuseppe, who believed non-Sicilians could not be trusted.
Geographer
Borden Dent, in his article Brief History of Crime Mapping, traces the origin of the mapping of crime to France, where in
1829 Adriano Balbi and André Michel Guerry created maps that showed the relationship between violent and property crimes
and educational levels. Within a few decades this approach visually displaying differences in crime across geographic units
had spread to England and Ireland. In 1849, Joseph Fletcher created maps that showed the rate of male incarceration for serious
property and violent crimes across counties in England and Wales, and in 1861, Henry Mayhew presented a number of maps displaying
the English and Welsh county rates for a variety of crimes: rape, assault, bigamy, and abduction, among others.
These early maps are examples of choropleth maps that is, maps that display quantities of things
in areas. More specifically, in choropleth maps geographical areas are divided into multisided figures called polygons, which
are then shaded depending on the value of the variable being displayed. Balbi and Guerrys maps, for example, were shaded with
crayon to show different levels in education. More modern choropleth maps are familiar to anyone who followed the most recent
election returns: a map of the United States with each state shaded red or blue depending on the party of the senatorial victor
is a very basic choropleth map.
Sociologists, particularly those associated with
the University of Chicago, began using mapping in the first few decades of the 1900s. Among the earliest were Progressive
Movement social work educators Sophonsiba Breckenridge and Edith Abbott, who, in 1912, mapped where delinquent children had
lived in Chicago over the period 1899 to 1903. This map, with each dot standing for one home, is an example of a point map
that is, a map in which points representing particular geographical locations, be they addresses or XY coordinates, are the
main data element.
Perhaps the best known maps in criminology were created by the
Chicago School sociologists Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, who constructed a choropleth map using aggregations of addresses
of close to 3,000 male delinquents in Chicago for the period 1927 to 1933. The map featured polygon shading to indicate rates
of delinquency. Like Breckenridge and Abbott, Shaw and McKay also constructed point maps of the locations of the homes of
about 10,000 male delinquents who had come before the juvenile court of Cook County in the years 1934 to 1940. Shaw and McKay
noted that the spatial distribution of juvenile delinquents homes remained fairly constant over these differing time spans,
despite the fact that there was a high degree of residential mobility in various areas of Chicago. Their work, with that of
others, gave rise to the social ecology approach to studying crime. This approach assumes that crime is to a large extent
caused by community- and neighbourhood-level variables, such as land use, infant mortality rates, mental disorders, tuberculosis,
and the percentages of minorities and families on social assistance.
It is worth
noting that all the maps described above were made without the benefit of computers. The underlying base maps that is, the
maps showing streets, roads, and other major features such as water and railroads had been drawn by hand. Each point was located
manually, and polygons were shaded using ink, pencil, or crayon. Creation of a single map could take many, many hours of tedious
labour. In one sense, crime mapping was an idea that arose before its time, before the requisite technology was available.
It illustrates what Sean Gilfillan in The Sociology of Invention defined as the uselessness of premature invention an invention
which for any reason did come before its time remains useless and undeveloped until its proper day dawns. The proper day for
crime mapping did not come until developments in computer technology made it feasible to run mapping programs on relatively
inexpensive desktop computers.
Even with the advent of computers, generating a crime map was no small feat,
as geographer and criminologist Keith Harries has noted in Mapping Crime: Principle and Practice. Mapping with gigantic mainframe
computers was still extremely labor-intensive. First, there was the work involved in describing the boundaries of the map
with numbered coordinates on punched cards. Then came the labor of keypunching the cards, followed by a similar process of
coding and keypunching to put the data on the map.
Such labour intensiveness meant
that few police departments could afford to produce computerized crime maps. It wasn't possible for most agencies to afford
crime mapping until desktop computers became widely available in the mid-1980s to early 1990s and microprocessor speed increased.
The alleged terrorists on this list
have been indicted by sitting Federal Grand Juries in various jurisdictions in the United States for
the crimes reflected on their wanted posters. Evidence was gathered and presented to the Grand Juries, which led
to their being charged. The indictments currently listed on the posters allow them to be arrested and
brought to justice. Future indictments may be handed down as various investigations proceed in connection to
other terrorist incidents, for example, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
The Rewards For Justice Program,
United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly
to the apprehension or conviction of Usama Bin Laden. An additional $2 million is being offered through a program
developed and funded by the Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association.
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