Bad Boys (& Girls), Brigands, Outlaws & Scamps

PAGE CONTENTS:

Al Qaeda

The Taliban
The Original Assassins

Elmer McCurdy
Talat Pasha
Sawney Beane
Gilles de Rais
Godfrey of Bouillon
Basil the Bulgar Slayer
Henry Starr

Jack the Ripper

Pretty Boy Floyd

Bonnie & Clyde

Anne Bonny, Pirate
Gregori Rasputin, The Mad Monk
Attila the Hun

Al Qaeda

The whole world now knows all about al Qaeda. But it's still revealing to study the details of the 9/11 Commission's official report. When did al Qaeda first declare war on the United States? What was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's original, 10-plane 9/11 plan? How has al Qaeda changed since then? Here are key findings from the official 9/11 report.

A Foundation
"In the 1980s, a large number of Muslims from the Middle East traveled to Afghanistan to join the Afghan people's war against the Soviet Union, which had invaded in 1979. Usama Bin Ladin was a significant player in this group."

"Following the defeat of the Soviets in the late 1980s, Bin Ladin formed an organization called 'The Foundation,' or al Qaeda. Al Qaeda was intended to serve as a foundation upon which to build a global Islamic army."

Secret Growth
In 1989, the regime in Sudan, run by a military faction and an Islamic extremist organization called the National Islamic Front, invited Bin Ladin to move there. He sent an advance team to Sudan in 1990 and moved there in mid-1991."

"By 1992, Bin Ladin was focused on attacking the United States. He argued that other extremists, aimed at local rulers or Israel, had not gone far enough; they had not attacked what he called 'the head of the snake.'"

"With al Qaeda as its foundation, Bin Ladin sought to build a broader Islamic army that also included terrorist groups from Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Oman, Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Somalia, and Eritrea. . . . This Islamic force represented a new level of collaboration among diverse terrorist groups."

"Contrary to popular understanding, Bin Ladin did not fund al Qaeda through a personal fortune and a network of businesses. Instead, al Qaeda relied primarily on a fundraising network developed over time. Bin Ladin never received a $300 million inheritance. From about 1970 until approximately 1994, he received about $1 million per year."

Background Attacks
"In October 1993, two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in Mogadishu, Somalia. U.S. intelligence learned in the ensuing years that Bin Ladin's organization had been heavily engaged in assisting warlords who attacked U.S. forces in Somalia. . . . Operatives dispatched to Somalia were told their mission was to 'kill U.S. troops, incite violence against U.S. personnel, and undermine the success of the U.S. mission.'"

"Bin Ladin also explored possible cooperation with Iraq. . . . But Iraq apparently never responded. . . . We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

"Whether Bin Ladin and his organization had roles in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and the thwarted Manila plot to blow up a dozen U.S. commercial aircraft in 1995 remains a matter of substantial uncertainty."

Open War
"In May 1996, Bin Ladin left Sudan and moved back to Afghanistan. His departure resulted from pressures by the United States, other western governments, and Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, all three of which faced indigenous terrorist groups supported by Bin Ladin."

"In August 1996, Bin Ladin made public his war against the United States. In his 'Declaration of Holy War on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places' (Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia), Bin Ladin called on Muslims worldwide to put aside their differences and join in deadly attacks against U.S. forces to compel their withdrawal from the Arabian Peninsula."

"A month after this declaration, the Taliban, an Afghan faction supported by Pakistan, seized control of Kabul, the nation's capital. . . . Bin Ladin provided significant financial support to the Taliban, and supplied hundreds, if not thousands, of fighters to support the Taliban in its ongoing war against other factions in northern Afghanistan."

"On February 23, 1998, Bin Ladin and the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Ayman Zawahiri, published a fatwa that announced a 'ruling to kill the Americans and their allies'. . . . Unlike earlier statements, this fatwa explicitly instructed followers to kill 'civilians and military.' The decree said this ruling was 'an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.'"

Successful Strikes
"On August 7, 1998, nearly simultaneous truck bombs ravaged the U.S. embassies in the East African capitals of Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Nairobi embassy was destroyed, and 213 people were killed, including 12 Americans. About 5,000 people were injured. In Dar es Salaam, 11 more were killed, none of them Americans, and 85 were injured. . . . The attacks on the U.S. embassies in East Africa in the summer of 1998 demonstrated a new operational form--they were planned, directed, and executed by al Qaeda, under the direct supervision of Bin Ladin and his chief aides."

"On October 12, 2000, an explosives-laden boat tore through the side of the U.S.S. Cole anchored in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen members of the Cole crew were killed, and another 39 were wounded. . . . This attack followed the operational pattern demonstrated in the East African embassy bombings--it was directed by key al Qaeda operatives, using equipment and explosives purchased with al Qaeda funds, and executed by members of al Qaeda willing to be martyrs for the cause."

Entrepreneurial Hate
"The quality of the training provided at al Qaeda and other jihadist camps was apparently quite good. There was coordination with regard to curriculum, and great emphasis on ideological and religious indoctrination. Instruction underscored that the U.S. and Israel were evil, and that the rulers of Arab countries were illegitimate. The camps created an environment in which trainees and other personnel were free to think creatively about ways to commit mass murder."

"After establishing itself in Afghanistan, al Qaeda relied on well-placed financial facilitators and diversions of funds from Islamic charities. The financial facilitators raised money from witting and unwitting donors, primarily in Gulf countries, and particularly in Saudi Arabia. . . . . There is no convincing evidence that any government financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11."

"The CIA estimates that al Qaeda spent $30 million annually, including paying for terrorist operations, maintaining terrorist training camps, paying salaries to jihadists, contributing to the Taliban, funding fighters in Afghanistan, and sporadically contributing to related terrorist organizations. The largest expense was payments to the Taliban, which totaled an estimated $10-20 million per year. Actual terrorist operations were relatively cheap."

September 11
"We estimate that the 9/11 attacks cost somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to execute."

"As originally envisioned, the 9/11 plot involved even more extensive attacks than those carried out on September 11. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed maintains that his initial proposal involved hijacking ten planes to attack targets on both the East and West Coasts of the United States. He claims that, in addition to the targets actually hit on 9/11, these hijacked planes were to be crashed into CIA and FBI headquarters, unidentified nuclear power plants, and the tallest buildings in California and Washington State."

"The centerpiece of his original proposal was the tenth plane, which he would have piloted himself. Rather than crashing the plane into a target, he would have killed every adult male passenger, contacted the media from the air, and landed the aircraft at a U.S. airport. He says that he would have then made a speech denouncing U.S. policies in the Middle East before releasing all of the women and children passengers."

Al Qaeda Now
"Prior to 9/11, al Qaeda was a centralized organization which used Afghanistan as a war room to strategize, plan attacks, and dispatch operatives worldwide. Bin Ladin approved all al Qaeda operations, often selecting the targets and operatives. After al Qaeda lost Afghanistan after 9/11, it fundamentally changed. The organization is far more decentralized. Bin Ladin's seclusion forced operational commanders and cell leaders to assume greater authority; they are now making the command decisions previously made by him."

"Al Qaeda today is more a loose collection of regional networks with a greatly weakened central organization. It pushes these networks to carry out attacks, and assists them by providing guidance, funding, and training in skills such as bomb-making or urban combat. Al Qaeda remains extremely interested in conducting chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attacks. . . . Documents found in al Qaeda facilities contain accurate information on the usage and impact of such weapons."

Michael Himick
KnowledgeNews is brought to you by Every Learner, Inc., an independent small business dedicated to supporting lifelong learners. Copyright © 2007, Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Taliban
Let's take a look at the Taliban. Though it no longer rules Afghanistan, the Taliban still causes plenty of trouble in that land. Its forces regrouped along the border with Pakistan--their original base--and fight on.

They're used to the fight. The Taliban emerged from one of the bloodiest periods in Afghan history: the 1980s, when Afghanistan was ruled by communists propped up by Soviet troops. The government's Marxism was anathema to Muslims in the countryside, and thousands of mujahedeen ("holy warriors")--including Saudi Arabia's Osama bin Laden--waged guerrilla war to force the Soviets out.

The mujahedeen were badly outgunned, but several countries came to their aid. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sympathized with their religious cause. Others, like China and the United States, were happy to see the Soviets bogged down in a long, expensive war. In 1986, America started funneling shoulder-to-air missiles to the mujahedeen to help them deal with Soviet air power.

The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and the communist government fell three years later. Yet the victorious mujahedeen were divided and soon fought among themselves. Outside its cities, Afghanistan was ruled by warlords, who extorted money and assessed arbitrary taxes.

In the midst of the mess, a group of students promised to bring law and order. The fight against the Soviets had drawn a huge number of student volunteers from ultra-conservative Islamic schools in Pakistan called madrasahs. Disgusted with warlords, many rose up under a fighter named Mohammed Omar. Known as the Taliban (meaning "students"), they vowed to bring Islamic law to chaotic Afghanistan.

In 1996, the Taliban took Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Under Omar's leadership, they revived traditional punishments like stoning and amputation. They put limits on girls' education, refused to let women work, and more or less banned anything that might promote vice, including movies, cameras, television, and music.

In one highly publicized incident in 2001, Omar ordered the destruction of two massive sculptures of the Buddha, because they violated an Islamic injunction against religious images. These images, carved into a sandstone cliff more than 1,500 years ago, were priceless historical relics, and Omar's decision drew protests even from Muslim nations. Yet the statues were blasted to pieces nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan earned a reputation as a refuge for terrorists. Omar and bin Laden had forged a friendship during the fight with the Soviets, and under Taliban rule Afghanistan remained bin Laden's home. In 1999 and 2001, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan, to force his extradition. After the attacks on September 11, the U.S. government again demanded bin Laden. Omar refused.

U.S. troops followed. America's primary ally in the fight was the Northern Alliance, a loose coalition of Mujahedeen militias that had been fighting the Taliban for years. In October 2001, U.S. forces began bombing Afghan targets. By early December, the Taliban had been removed from power, but Omar and other Taliban leaders remain at large.

--Mark Diller

The Original Assassins

Politically motivated murder--assassination--is probably as old as politics itself. But the word "assassin" dates back only to the Middle Ages, when Marco Polo (and others) used it to tell stories about a mysterious Muslim sect living in the mountains of Iran.

The Muslim sect in question was the Nizari Ismaili, a highly motivated and militant group that split off from Islam's Shiite minority during the 11th century. The Nizari Ismailis' early leader was an ascetic missionary named Hasan-i Sabbah, and their center of operations was a mountain fortress called Alamut, near the Caspian Sea in northern Iran.

Hasan and his followers conquered Alamut in 1090--probably with help from converts inside the fortress. At the time, most of Iran was at least nominally under the control of the Seljuq Turks, who practiced Sunni Islam. But the Seljuqs couldn't stop the Assassins--as the Nizari Ismailis came to be called--from building a network of strongholds (many of them hilltop fortresses) from Iran to Syria.

They also couldn't stop the Assassins from killing a variety of high-ranking officials. Hasan's followers were notorious for employing terrorist tactics, including suicide attacks, to murder important Seljuq Turks, other Sunnis, and even rival Shiites--though some historians now suspect they were blamed for more murders than they actually committed.

Eventually, Assassins under a Syrian commander called the "mountain chief" turned their daggers on western crusaders as well. Most famously, two men disguised as Christian monks killed Conrad of Montferrat, the crusader king of Jerusalem, in 1192. Before long, "the Old Man of the Mountain" was swept into legend--along with the rest of the Assassins.

Legends circulated in part because marauding Mongols under Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulagu, destroyed Alamut's records in 1256. As a result, much of what scholars now know of the Assassins is drawn from sources written by their enemies--or from people who knew them only by repute.

The most influential western account comes from the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, despite the fact that Polo was only 2 years old when the Mongols conquered Alamut. Polo claimed that Hasan used a secret garden and intoxicating drugs to motivate his followers to murder:

"He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country, from twelve to twenty years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering. . . . Then he would introduce them into his Garden, some four, or six, or ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain potion which cast them into a deep sleep. . . .

When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a place so charming, they deemed that it was Paradise in very truth. And the ladies and damsels dallied with them to their hearts' content. . . .

So when the Old Man would have any prince slain, he would say to such a youth: "Go thou and slay So and So; and when thou returnest my Angels shall bear thee into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, natheless even so will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise."

Polo tells a compelling tale, but most scholars think it's little more than that. Most agree, however, that the word "assassin" entered western lexicons through Polo's account and others of the time. The term probably derives from the Arabic hashshashin, which literally meant "hashish smokers." No one knows who first applied it to the Nizari Ismailis, or if they really smoked hashish.

Steve Sampson

Elmer McCurdy
Elmer McCurdy (January 1880 – October 7th 1911) was an outlaw killed in a gunfight in the Osage Hills in Oklahoma. A newspaper account gave Elmer’s last words as “You’ll never take me alive!” His body was taken to a funeral home in Oklahoma. When no one claimed the corpse, the undertaker embalmed it with an arsenic-based preservative and allowed people to see “The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up” for a nickel, placed in Elmer’s mouth, which the undertaker would collect later. Five years later, a man showed up from a nearby traveling carnival claiming to be Elmer’s long-lost brother wanting to give the corpse a proper burial. Within two weeks, however, Elmer was a featured exhibit with the carnival. For the next 60 years, Elmer’s body was sold to wax museums, carnivals, and haunted houses.

The owner of a haunted house near Mount Rushmore refused to purchase him because he thought that Elmer’s body was actually a mannequin and not lifelike enough. Eventually, the corpse wound up in “The Laff in the Dark” funhouse at the Long Beach Pike amusement park in California. During filming of the The Six Million Dollar Man shot in December 1976, a crew member was moving what was thought to be a wax mannequin that was hanging from a gallows. When the mannequin’s arm broke off, it was discovered that it was in fact the mummified remains of Elmer McCurdy, who was finally buried in the Boot Hill section of the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma on April 22nd 1977, with 2 cubic yards of concrete over his casket so his remains would never be disturbed again.

Talat Pasha
Pasha was the key architect of the Armenian genocide, one of the largest genocides in modern history. Over 1 million people were massacred in the span of 2 years. A member of the Young Turks, Talat rose up and became one of the three Pashas who ruled the Ottoman government in 1913 until the end of the disastrous First World War. Many Muslim Turks came to see the rise in nationalism of the Christian Armenians as a threat to the existence of the Ottoman state. Programs had already been installed against Armenians in previous years with possibly hundreds of thousands dying. 30,000 died in the Adana massacre of 1909. Once entering World War One, the Ottoman’s endeavor ended in total failure. Russian and Armenian forces set up an Armenian mini-state in 1915 and thus Talat Pasha sought to punish them. Security forces rounded up 250 Armenian intellectuals and leaders in Istanbul in 1915, and eventually executed them. After passing a Deportation Law, Pasha ordered deportations and executions to be carried out against the whole Armenian population. During the deportations, conditions were deplorable and men were routinely separated from the rest and executed. Many prisoners were tortured and were victims of gruesome medical experiments. More died of hunger and thirst. In some instances victims would be crucified in imitation of Jesus as the perpetrators would say: “Now let your Christ come help you!” Others would have red-hot irons and pincers applied to their flesh. Out of a population of 2.5 million Armenians, between 1 and 1.5 million perished in this period. After the Ottoman collapse, Talat Pasha fled to Berlin and was subsequently murdered there in 1921. His assassin was an Armenian genocide survivor.
Copyright ©2010, Listverse. All rights reserved.

Sawney Beane
Beane was the head of an incestuous clan who lived off robbery, murder and cannibalism. Some historians suggest that he never existed and say that his story was propaganda created by the English demonizing the Scottish. The story goes that Alexander Beane left home, never showing an interest in work, with an equally unpleasant local woman. Once they arrived at Bennane Head, they set up home in a coastal cave hidden away from the view of passers-by. Over the next 25 years, Beane and the woman raised a family of about 8 sons and 6 daughters who bred together to produce 18 grandsons and 14 granddaughters. The family was raised without any notions of humanity. They preyed on travelers who traversed near their stretch of coast and would rob and kill their victims. The clan would then drag the victims body back to their cave where they dismembered the body and devour it. Leftovers were pickled and unwanted parts were disposed into the sea. Often times the remains would wash up onto the chore. Gradually suspicion arose among the locals. One night, the Beane clan attacked a married couple on horseback. The man managed to fight off the clan with a sword and pistol, but unfortunately his wife was knocked off the horse. She was immediately disemboweled and the Beane clan drank her blood. The man escaped and alarmed the locals of what had happened. King James VI of Scotland (James I of England) was notified not long afterwards. Hundreds of men and bloodhounds were sent after the clan. The bloodhounds tracked the scent of human flesh back to the cave. Upon entering, the men were hit with a putrid smell as they gazed upon the grisly image of dried flesh hanging from the walls and pickled body parts in barrels. The Beanes made no attempt to escape. They were executed without a trial. It was said that the clan had over a thousand victims.
Copyright ©2010, Listverse. All rights reserved.

Gilles de Rais
Rais was a Breton who fought against the English, often serving alongside Joan of Arc. A year after Joan was burned at the stake, Rais retired from military service and returned to his family’s castle at Machecoul. From there, Rais began a campaign of sadistic sex murders, killing between 60 and 200 children. He preferred boys between the ages of 6 and 18. His victims were generally blue-eyed and blond-haired and were usually kidnapped from the village of Machecoul and the surrounding areas or lured to his castle. His first victim was a 12-year-old messenger who was hanged by his neck on a metal hook and raped before being put out of his misery. More and more children started to disappear and suspicion arose. Unfortunately, the locals were too terrified to go up against one of the most powerful men in France. Rais had a specially built chamber where he would restrain his victims while he proceeded with his grotesque sexual acts. He would kill them with a variety of methods which included dismemberment, decapitation and disembowelment. He enjoyed watching them die sometimes even laughing. After some difficulty, a case was finally brought up against him. Rais stated at his trial that he admired the heads and body parts of his more beautiful victims. Gilles was arrested in September of 1440 and indicted on 34 counts of murder. He would eventually confess to the murders under the threat of torture. Rais was found guilty of murder, sodomy and heresy. Gilles was hanged and then burned on October 16, 1440, along with two of his servants. Rais was granted the right of confession after expressing remorse. He refused to admit he was a devil worshipper and professed the strength of his faith. Gilles de Rais would become one of the first known serial killers in history. The guilt and conscience that he would show when not taken over by the urge to murder only confirmed how depraved and mentally disturbed this man was.
Copyright ©2010, Listverse. All rights reserved.

Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey, the duke of Lower Lorraine, led the first crusade and was a brutal religious fundamentalist. In 1095 pope Urban II called for crusaders to assist Byzantine emperor Alexius I against Turkish forces attacking Christian Byzantium and to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims. In 1096, Godfrey gathered an army of about 40,000 and declared that he was determined to avenge the blood of Jesus on the Jewish people. Godfrey’s reputation grew as the years went on. In 1098, Godfrey reportedly killed 150 Turks with only 12 knights. Later that year, he cut a Turk in half with a single, downward swipe of his sword. Finally in 1099, Godfrey took aim at Jerusalem. On Friday July 15th, Godfrey was one of the first crusaders to breach the city’s defenses via siege tower. After opening the gates, the crusaders charged into the city. With Muslim citizens fleeing to the al-Aqsa Mosque, Iftikhar ad-Dawla, the Fatimid governor of Jerusalem, made his last stand. On condition of surrender, Iftikhar and some of his solders were allowed to escape. For the next two days, the crusaders pillaged Muslim holy sites and slaughtered everyone left in the city regardless of whether they were combatants or civilians, Muslim or Jew. Victims were either burned to death or had their stomachs cut open with the belief that Muslims swallowed their gold. The Jews fled to a synagogue which the crusaders would burn down. Reportedly piles of heads, hands and feet were scattered throughout the city. Godfrey walked barefoot through the blood, his feet colored to his ankles in the blood of men, women and children. His fellow crusaders chose him to become the first Christian ruler of Jerusalem. He would die of plague a year later, his mission complete.Copyright ©2010, Listverse. All rights reserved.

Basil the Bulgar Slayer
Basil II was a powerful and effective Byzantine ruler. Best described as a “hero-monster”, he was successful on all fronts and was perennially engaged in warfare. Basil ruled for 50 years and brought the Byzantine Empire to new heights, expanding it’s borders to it’s greatest extent. He Swiftly destroyed all who challenged his rule. This included rebelling landowners, his uncle and Arab invaders. Eventually he would cross paths with his enemy Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria whose own empire was swallowing up Byzantine territory. Struggling with his campaign in the beginning, Basil began to have steady success against the Bulgars. Basil would finally win a massive victory at the Battle of Kleidon on July 29, 1014 as his forces took the capital. As punishment, Basil lined up the captive Bulgar soldiers and had them blinded. He left one eye untouched for every hundred men so that the troops could find their way home. Reportedly 15,000 Bulgars, terrorized, wounded and blinded pathetically shuffled away. Tsar Samuel fainted after seeing his soldiers return and died of a stroke. Thus Basil II earned his epithet ‘Bulgar Slayer’ through this monstrous act.
Copyright ©2010, Listverse. All rights reserved.

Henry Starr

Henry Starr was an Indian outlaw who was imprisoned in the Fort Smith, Arkansas, jail for something he didn't do. As a result, he became a very bitter person. In the thirty years following his release from the Fort Smith jail, Starr had more bank hold-ups to his credit than the James-Younger and Dalton-Doolin gangs combined. In 1914, Henry decided to buy an automobile because he determined that it could certainly outdistance any posse on horseback. In his next bank robbery, after purchasing the auto, he became the first American criminal to use a car in a robbery. In 1921, after robbing a bank in Harrison, Arkansas, his car broke down on a dusty back road. A sherriff's posse, chasing him in a string of cars, caught up to him and he was badly wounded in a fierce gun battle. Starr was proud of his record. The day before he died, he boasted to his doctors at Harrison, "I've robbed more banks than any man in America".

Source: Black, Red, and Deadly by Art Burton

Jack the Ripper

There have long been arguments over how many women Jack the Ripper murdered in 1888, but most agree on at least five victims. The women had much in common--they were poor, fond of drink, and occasionally worked as prostitutes. All five frequented Whitechapel, a notorious slum in East London, and their need for money called them to the streets in the small hours of the morning. One by one, Jack killed them.

August 31: Shortly after 3:30 am, Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was discovered lying on a dark street. Her skirt had been pulled up to her waist, her throat cut with two slashes from a long-bladed knife, and she had been stabbed several times in the abdomen.
September 8: Around 6 am, Annie Chapman was discovered in the backyard of a lodging house. Her throat had been severely gashed, her abdomen slashed open, and her intestines pulled out and thrown over her shoulder. Her uterus was missing.
September 30: At approximately 1 am, Elizabeth Stride was found in a courtyard. She had a deep throat wound, but no other injuries, suggesting the killer had been interrupted.
September 30: Less than an hour later, Catherine Eddowes was found on a street corner. Her throat was cut to the bone, her face, stomach, and pelvic area slashed, and her intestines pulled out. Her uterus and a kidney were missing.
November 9: Working indoors, the killer created the most gruesome scene so far. Mary Jane Kelly was found lying on the bed in the room she rented. The murderer had cut her throat to the bone, hacked her face beyond recognition, sliced pieces from her body, and stolen her heart - literally.

Lots of Theories

The killings were almost unimaginably horrible, and the press made the most of them in story after sensational story. Then came the letters. Shortly after the murder of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, a letter and a postcard came to a news service, signed by one "Jack the Ripper" (the source of the killer's nickname). The police suspected a newspaperman had written them to boost circulation, but they allowed them to be published, hoping someone would recognize the writing.

Hundreds of Ripper letters followed. Some claimed to be from the killer. Others offered clues to his identity. Most, or all, were fakes. More difficult to dismiss was a letter mailed "from hell" in a box with part of a human kidney. The author claimed to have eaten the rest. Was this Catherine Eddowes's missing kidney, or a bad practical joke?

After a while, the Ripper killings simply stopped-maybe after Mary Jane Kelly, maybe later. No one knows why. The murderer might have died, or been imprisoned on some unrelated charge, or escaped to another country. The police never had a strong case against any of their suspects.

In the absence of solid evidence, amateur sleuths have been free to speculate endlessly. Conspiracy theories swirl around Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne (supposedly driven mad by syphilis); Queen Victoria's personal physician, Sir William Gull; and London artist Walter Sickert. But in the end, no one has ever really managed to say who the Ripper was.

Mark Diller
February 3, 2006

Pretty Boy Floyd

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Pretty Boy Floyd

On the morning of June 17, 1933, a mass murder committed in front of Union Railway Station, Kansas City, Missouri, shocked the American public into a new consciousness of the serious crime problems in the Nation. The killings which took the lives of four peace officers and their prisoner, are now known as The Kansas City Massacre.

The Kansas City Massacre involved the attempt by Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Vernon Miller and Adam Richetti to free their friend, Frank Nash, a Federal prisoner. At the time, Nash was in the custody of several law enforcement officers who were returning him to the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, from which he had escaped on October 19, 1930.

Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, about 29 years old at the time of the Kansas City Massacre, had been arrested on numerous occasions, the first by the St. Louis, Missouri, Police Department on September 16, 1925, for highway robbery. He pleaded guilty to that charge on December 8, 1925, was sentenced to the State Penitentiary at Jefferson City, Missouri, and released on March 7, 1929. Two days later, on March 9, 1929, he was arrested by the Kansas City Police Department for investigation, and on May 6, 1929, for vagrancy and suspicion of highway robbery. In both instances, he was released. On May 20, 1930, Floyd was arrested by the Toledo, Ohio, Police Department on a bank robbery charge and on November 24, 1930, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Floyd escaped enroute to the penitentiary and was a fugitive when he became involved in the Kansas City Massacre.

Adam C. Richetti, about 23 years old at the time of the Kansas City Massacre, began his criminal career with an arrest in Hammond, Indiana, on August 7, 1928, for a hold-up. Richetti was sentenced from one to ten years in the State Reformatory, Pendleton, Indiana, for that crime. He was paroled on October 2, 1930, and discharged from the parole on September 23, 1931. His next arrest occurred on March 9, 1932, at Sulphur, Oklahoma, for bank robbery; he subsequently served a sentence at the State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma, from April 5, 1932, to August 25, 1932, when he was released and placed on bond which he forfeited. Richetti subsequently was sought for jumping the $15,000 bond, and was wanted at Tishomingo, Oklahoma, for robbery.

After fleeing from the Kansas City Massacre, Floyd and Richetti made their way to Toledo, Ohio, where they met Beulah, also known as Juanita, and Rose Baird in early September, 1933. From there the four traveled to Buffalo, New York. On September 21, 1933, Floyd and Beulah Baird, using the names of Mr. and Mrs. George Sanders, and Richetti and Rose Baird, using the names Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brennan, rented an apartment in that city.

The other occupants of the apartment building considered the two couples very mysterious inasmuch as they seldom left the apartment, then usually for brief visits to the grocery store. During their occupancy, Floyd reportedly walked from the front to the rear of the apartment almost constantly, an activity that caused much curiosity on the part of the other building occupants. The two couples never visited with any of their neighbors, though they were friendly toward the neighborhood children who sometimes were permitted to enter the apartment. The women occasionally threw money from the windows of the apartment to the children playing in the street, or offered them candy.

In October, 1934, the couples agreed to return to Oklahoma. Rose Baird was given money to purchase a car, and she bought a Ford sedan which was to carry them west.

The four began the trip early on October 20, with Floyd driving. A few hours later, near Wellsville, Ohio, he skidded the automobile into a telephone pole. Floyd and Richetti removed their firearms from the vehicle and remained on the outskirts of the town, while Rose and Beulah Baird took the damaged car into a Wellsville garage for repairs.

The Wellsville, Ohio, Police Chief, J. H. Fultz, following up on reports that two suspicious-looking men were seen on the outskirts of town, found the two resting in a wood tract of land nearby. A gun battle ensued. Chief Fultz apprehended Richetti after Richetti had emptied his gun at the officer. Floyd escaped, but the Police Chief thought Floyd might have been wounded.

The FBI and local authorities conducted an intensive search for Floyd in eastern Ohio following the above incident. This included interviews of numerous persons in the predominantly rural countryside, including doctors and hospital personnel whom Floyd might approach if, in fact, he was wounded.

Eight of the participants in this search--a squad of four FBI Agents led by Melvin Purvis, along with a squad of four East Liverpool, Ohio, police officers headed by Chief of Police Hugh McDermott--were jointly patrolling a group of roads south of Clarkson, Ohio, in two cars on October 22, when they noticed an automobile move from behind a corn crib on a farm. The officers had been questioning all persons whom they saw; and in an effort to question the occupants of this automobile, they stopped their cars. At this point, the vehicle that had attracted their attention drove back to its original position behind the corn crib, and a man whom the officers immediately recognized as Floyd jumped from the car with a .45 caliber automatic pistol in his right hand.

As the officers reached Floyd, he said, "I'm done for; you've hit me twice." They took the pistol from his hand and also seized a second gun that he carried in his belt. Then two FBI Agents left to summon an ambulance to take Floyd to a hospital. They were accompanied by a local citizen who had witnessed the encounter. Two other local citizens, including the owner of the farm where the shooting took place, also were witnesses to the action that had occurred. Floyd died about 15 minutes after he was shot.

At the time Floyd was killed, a watch and fob, consisting of a "lucky piece," were found on his person. Groups of ten notches were found on each of these items - reportedly carved by Floyd as an indication of the number of people he had killed.

Rose and Beulah Baird, who were in the Wellsville garage attending to the repair of the wrecked automobile when they overheard the discussion of Richetti's being taken into custody, had left immediately for Kansas City, Missouri. Later they traveled to the home of Floyd's family in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, where they attended the funeral of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd.

Adam Richetti, following his apprehension, was returned to Kansas City, Missouri, and on March 1, 1935, was indicted by the Jackson County Grand Jury on four counts of murder in the first degree. His trial, predicated on the indictment charging him with the murder of Frank E. Hermanson, one of the police officers killed in the Kansas City, Missouri, Massacre, began in Kansas City on June 10, 1935. On June 17, the jury returned a verdict of guilty with the recommendation that Richetti be given the death penalty. He was sentenced to be hanged. Richetti appealed his conviction, but it was affirmed by the State of Missouri Supreme Court on May 3, 1938. Subsequently, Richetti's lawyers alleged Richetti to be insane, and a hearing was held at which time his sanity was clearly established. On August 31, 1938, Richetti was again sentenced to death, this time in the gas chamber of the Missouri State Penitentiary of Jefferson City, Missouri. He was executed on October 7, 1938.

The four individuals - Richard Galatas, Herbert Farmer, "Doc" Louis Stacci, and Frank Mulloy - who, investigation disclosed, had engineered the conspiracy to free Nash, were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury at Kansas City, Missouri, on October 24, 1934. On January 4, 1935, the four were found guilty of conspiracy to cause the escape of a Federal Prisoner from the custody of the United States. On the following day, each was sentenced to serve two years in a Federal Penitentiary and pay a fine of $10,000, the maximum penalty allowed by law.

Source:The FBI

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Bonnie & Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde met in Texas in January, 1930. At the time, Bonnie was 19 and married to an imprisoned murderer; Clyde was 21 and unmarried. Soon after, he was arrested for a burglary and sent to jail. He escaped, using a gun Bonnie had smuggled to him, was recaptured, and was sent back to prison. Clyde was paroled in February, 1932, rejoined Bonnie, and resumed a life of crime.

Later in 1932, Bonnie and Clyde began traveling with Raymond Hamilton, a young gunman. Hamilton left them several months later and was replaced by William Daniel Jones in November, 1932.

Ivan M. "Buck" Barrow, brother of Clyde, was released from the Texas State Prison on March 23, 1933, having been granted a full pardon by the Governor. He quickly joined Clyde, bringing his wife, Blanche, so the group now numbered five persons. This gang embarked upon a series of bold robberies which made headlines across the country. They escaped capture in various encounters with the law. However, their activities made law enforcement efforts to apprehend them even more intense. During a shootout with police in Iowa on July 29, 1933, Buck Barrow was fatally wounded and Blanche was captured. Jones, who was frequently mistaken for "Pretty Boy" Floyd, was captured in November, 1933, at Houston, Texas, by the sheriff's office. Bonnie and Clyde went on together.

On November 22, 1933, a trap was set by the Dallas, Texas sheriff and his deputies in an attempt to capture Bonnie and Clyde near Grand Prairie, Texas, but the couple escaped the officer's gunfire. They held up an attorney on the highway and took his car, which they abandoned at Miami, Oklahoma. On December 21, 1933, Bonnie and Clyde held up and robbed a citizen at Shreveport, Louisiana.

On January 16, 1934, five prisoners, including the notorious Raymond Hamilton (who was serving sentences totaling more than 200 years), were liberated from the Eastham State Prison Farm at Waldo, Texas, by Clyde Barrow, accompanied by Bonnie Parker. Two guards were shot by the escaping prisoners with automatic pistols, which had been previously concealed in a ditch by Barrow. As the prisoners ran, Barrow covered their retreat with bursts of machine-gun fire. Among the escapees was Henry Methvin of Louisiana.

The Last Months of Bonnie and Clyde
On April 1, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde encountered two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas. Before the officers could draw their guns, they were shot. On April 6, 1934, a constable at Miami, Oklahoma, fell mortally wounded by Bonnie and Clyde, who also abducted a police chief, whom they wounded.

The FBI had jurisdiction solely on the charge of transporting a stolen automobile, although the activities of the Bureau Agents were vigorous and ceaseless. Every clue was followed.

"Wanted notices" furnishing fingerprints, photograph, description, criminal record, and other data were distributed to all officers. The Agents followed the trail through many states and into various haunts of the Barrow gang, particularly Louisiana.

The association with Henry Methvin and the Methvin family of Louisiana was discovered by FBI Agents and they found that Bonnie and Clyde had been driving a car stolen in New Orleans.

On April 13, 1934, an FBI Agent, through investigation in the vicinity of Ruston, Louisiana, obtained information which definitely placed Bonnie and Clyde in a remote section southwest of that community. The home of the Methvins was not far away and the Agent learned of visits there by Bonnie and Clyde. Special Agents in Texas had learned that Clyde and his companion had been traveling from Texas to Louisiana, sometimes accompanied by Henry Methvin.

The FBI and local law enforcement authorities in Louisiana and Texas concentrated on apprehending Bonnie and Clyde, whom they strongly believed to be in the area. It was learned that Bonnie and Clyde, with some of the Methvins, had staged a party at Black Lake, Louisiana, on the night of May 21, 1934, and were due to return to the area two days later.

Before dawn on May 23, 1934, a posse composed of police officers from Louisiana and Texas, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, concealed themselves in bushes along the highway near Sailes, Louisiana. In the early daylight, Bonnie and Clyde appeared in an automobile and when they attempted to drive away, the officers opened fire. Bonnie and Clyde were killed instantly.

Source: The FBI

Anne Bonny, Pirate

by Jone Johnson Lewis

Born about 1700 - Died after November, 1720

by one account, she died April 25, 1782
trial for piracy: November 28, 1720

She was born in Ireland, to unmarried parents. Her father was William Cormac, a lawyer, and her mother was Peg Brennan, a housemaid She was known as a cross-dressing female pirate; lover of Mary Read, another cross-dressing pirate; mistress of Captain Jack Rackham.

After having a child with his housemaid, and an ensuing scandal, William Cormac separated from his wife and took his daughter, Anne, and her mother to South Carolina. He worked as a trader, eventually buying a plantation. Anne's mother died, and Cormac had his hands full with a daughter who was, by most accounts, uncontrollable. Stories have her stabbing a servant and defending herself against an attempted rape. When Anne married James Bonny, a sailor, her father disowned her. The couple went to the Bahamas, where he worked as an informant turning in pirates for a bounty.

When the governor of the Bahamas offered amnesty to any pirate who abandoned piracy, John Rackam, "Calico Jack," took advantage of the offer. Sources differ as to whether Anne was already a pirate before this time, and whether she'd met Rackam and become his mistress already. She may have given birth to a child who died soon after its birth. Anne and Rackam could not talk her husband into a divorce, so Anne Bonny and Rackam ran away in 1719, and turned (in his case, returned) to piracy.

Anne Bonny wore mostly men's clothing while on board ship. She befriended another pirate in the crew: Mary Read, who wore men's clothing. By some accounts, Mary revealed her gender when Anne tried to seduce her; they became lovers anyway.

Because he'd returned to piracy after the amnesty, Rackam won the special attention of the Bahamian governor, who issued a proclamation naming Rackam, Bonny, and Read as "Pirates and Enemies to the Crown of Great Britain." Eventually, the ship and its crew were captured. Rackam, Mary, and Anne were supposedly the only three in the crew who resisted the capture. They were tried for piracy in Jamaica.

Two weeks after Rackam and the other men in the crew were hanged for piracy, Bonny and Read stood trial, and were sentenced to be hanged. But both claimed pregnancy, which stalled their execution. Read died in prison the next month.

There are two quite different stories of Anne's fate. In one, she simply disappears, and her fate is not known. In the other, Bonny's father bribed officials to help her escape; she is said to have returned to South Carolina, where she married Joseph Burleigh the next year, and had five children with him. In this version of her story, she died at 81 and was buried in York County, Virginia.

Her story was told in a book by Charles Johnson (most likely a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe), first published in 1724.

Gregori Rasputin, The Mad Monk
No other figure in recent Russian history has received the amount of vilification and contempt heaped upon Gregori Rasputin. The self-styled monk, who received practically little education in the intricacies of the Russian Orthodox faith, came from the rural areas of Russia and achieved great recognition as a “staretz,” or holy man in the highest circles of St. Petersburg society. From rags to social prominence the life of Gregori Rasputin holds many of the events leading to the eventual overthrow of the Russian imperial system, the dethronement of the House of Romanov and the murder of the Imperial Family.

Followers of the Skopsty firmly believed that the only way to reach God was through sinful actions. Once the sin was committed and confessed, the penitent could achieve forgiveness. In reality, what the Skopsty upheld was to “sin to drive out sin.” Rasputin, one of the biggest sinners of the province, was suddenly struck by the potential held by this theory. It was soon thereafter that the debauched, lecherous peasant adopted the robes of a monk, developed his own self-gratifying doctrines, traveled the country as a staretz and sinned to his heart’s content.
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Attila the Hun
In much of western Europe, Atilla is remembered as the epitome of cruelty and rapacity. From his base in what is now Hungary, Attila, king of the Huns, waged war against the Roman Empire in the middle of the 5th century with such ferocity his reputation as the “Scourge of God” continues to this day. He shared power with his brother, Bleda, for a dozen years, but after 445 Attila was the sole commander of a force that extended from the Rhine to the Caspian and the western edges of China. He defeated Emperor Theodosius, almost overran Constantinople and invaded Gaul, where he was turned back by Roman commander Flavius Aetius and Visigoth king Theodoric in 451. Attila then invaded Italy in 452 and headed toward Rome. But Pope Leo I and Attila reached some agreement that kept the Huns from sacking Rome. Attila died the next year and the empire he built crumbled within a generation.
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