The Crime Book

571 Pages·2017·166.24 MB·English

by  Dorling Kindersley

CONTENTS
1. HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK
2. INTRODUCTION
3. BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS
1. Father of all treasons • Thomas Blood
2. A civil, obliging robber • John Nevison
3. Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarters • Edward “Blackbeard” Teach
4. Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief, Knox the boy that buys the beef • Burke and Hare
5. They were brave fellows. They were true men • The James-Younger Gang
6. It’s for the love of a man that I’m gonna have to die • Bonnie and Clyde
7. You’ll never believe it—they’ve stolen the train • The Great Train Robbery
8. Addicted to the thrill • Bill Mason
9. To me it is only so much scrap gold • The Theft of the World Cup
10. Miss, you’d better look at that note • D.B. Cooper
11. Without weapons, nor hatred, nor violence • The Société Générale Bank Heist
12. I stole from the wealthy so I could live their lifestyle • John MacLean
13. Sing of my deeds, tell of my combats… forgive my failings • Phoolan Devi
14. The fire becomes a mistress, a lover • John Leonard Orr
15. It was the perfect crime • The Antwerp Diamond Heist
16. He was an expert in alarm systems • The Theft of the Cellini Salt Cellar
17. Weird and unbelievable, but it’s a very real criminal case • The Russia–Estonia Vodka Pipeline
18. Old-school London criminal gents • The Hatton Garden Heist
4. CON ARTISTS
1. Under the influence of bad counsels… I fell a martyr • The Affair of the Diamond Necklace
2. People took their hats off to such a sum • The Crawford Inheritance
3. The smoothest con man that ever lived • The Sale of the Eiffel Tower
4. Domela’s story rings with the high lunacy of great farce • Harry Domela
5. If my work hangs in a museum long enough, it becomes real • Elmyr de Hory
6. It’s not stealing because I’m only taking what they give me • Doris Payne
7. They inflated the raft and left the island. After that nobody seems to know what happened •
Escape from Alcatraz
8. At the time, virtue was not one of my virtues • Frank Abagnale
9. I was on a train of lies. I couldn’t jump off • Clifford Irving
10. Originally I copied Hitler’s life out of books, but later I began to feel I was Hitler • Konrad Kujau
11. If this is not a ring-in I’m not here • The Fine Cotton Scandal
5. WHITE COLLAR CRIMES
1. Money… has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes • The Mississippi Scheme
2. Nothing is lost save honor • The Black Friday Gold Scandal
3. The old game of robbing Peter to pay Paul • Charles Ponzi
4. You can’t convict a million dollars • The Teapot Dome Scandal
5. Citizens were dying right, left, and center • The Bhopal Disaster
6. The world’s biggest mugging • The City of London Bonds Theft
7. It’s all just one big lie • Bernie Madoff
8. I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal • The Enron Scandal
9. He put in peril the existence of the bank • Jérôme Kerviel
10. Bribery was tolerated and… rewarded • The Siemens Scandal
11. Not just nerdy kids up to mischief in their parents’ basement • The Spyeye Malware Data Theft
12. The irregularities… go against everything Volkswagen stands for • The Volkswagen Emissions
Scandal
6. ORGANIZED CRIME
1. The most hazardous of all trades, that of the smuggler • The Hawkhurst Gang
2. In Sicily there is a sect of thieves • The Sicilian Mafia
3. They dare do anything • The Triads
4. No more villainous, ruffianly band was ever organized • The Wild Bunch
5. Prohibition has made nothing but trouble • The Beer Wars
6. If the boss says a passing crow is white, you must agree • The Yakuza
7. When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets • Hells Angels
8. They were the best years of our lives • The Krays and the Richardsons
9. All empires are created of blood and fire • The Medellín Cartel
10. It was always about business, never about gangs • “Freeway” Rick Ross
7. KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION
1. He valued her less than old swords • The Abduction of Pocahontas
2. Marvelous real-life romance • The Tichborne Claimant
3. Anne, they’ve stolen our baby! • The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping
4. Since Monday I have fallen into the hands of kidnappers • The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III
5. I’m a coward. I didn’t want to die • The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst
6. I still sleep with a night light. I can’t ride a subway • The Chowchilla Kidnapping
7. I always felt like a poor chicken in a henhouse • The Kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch
8. MURDER CASES
1. An unusually clear case, like a “smoking gun” • The Neanderthal Murder
2. Perpetrated with the sword of justice • Jean Calas
3. Not guilty by reason of insanity • Daniel M’Naghten
4. Gave Katherine warning to leave • The Dripping Killer
5. Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks • Lizzie Borden
6. Fingerprinting alone has proved to be both infallible and feasible • The Stratton Brothers
7. Thank God it’s over. The suspense has been too great • Dr. Crippen
8. I was driven by a will that had taken the place of my own • Madame Caillaux
9. She was very good looking with beautiful dark hair • The Black Dahlia Murder
10. The artist was so well informed on chemicals… it was frightening • Sadamichi Hirasawa
11. I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts • The Texas Tower Massacre
12. Now is the time for Helter Skelter • The Manson Family
13. A dingo’s got my baby! • The Death of Azaria Chamberlain
14. I was Mr. Nobody until I killed the biggest somebody on Earth • The Murder of John Lennon
15. Who has sent you against me? Who has told you to do this thing? • The Murder of Roberto Calvi
16. I was on death row, and I was innocent • Kirk Bloodsworth
17. An act of unparalleled evil • The Murder of James Bulger
18. I’m afraid this man will kill me some day • O.J. Simpson
19. Foul play while in the Spy Craft store • Craig Jacobsen
20. People are afraid and don’t want to talk to us • The Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls
9. SERIAL KILLERS
1. Murdering people… for sheer sport • Liu Pengli
2. The said Dame Alice had a certain demon • Alice Kyteler
3. The blood of maidens will keep her young • Elizabeth Báthory
4. I will send you another bit of innerds • Jack the Ripper
5. They’d rather be dead than be with me • Harvey Glatman
6. I just like to kill • Ted Bundy
7. Calculated, cruel, cold-blooded murders • Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
8. More terrible than words can express • Fred and Rosemary West
9. This is the Zodiac speaking • The Zodiac Killer
10. In his own eyes, he was some sort of medical god • Harold Shipman
11. A mistake of nature • Andrei Chikatilo
12. I was sick or evil, or both • Jeffrey Dahmer
13. A danger to young women • Colin Pitchfork
14. Read your ad. Let’s talk about the possibilities • John Edward Robinson
10. ASSASSINATIONS AND POLITICAL PLOTS
1. Insatiable and disgraceful lust for money • The Assassination of Pertinax
2. Murdering someone by craft • The Hashashin
3. Sic semper tyrannis! • The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
4. Dreyfus is innocent. I swear it! I stake my life on it—my honor! • The Dreyfus Affair
5. If they shed my blood, their hands will remain soiled • The Assassination of Rasputin
6. There has to be more to it • The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
7. I kiss you for the last time • The Abduction of Aldo Moro
8. Barbarity was all around us • The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt
9. Barbaric and ruthless • The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
11. DIRECTORY
12. QUOTE ATTRIBUTIONS
13. CONTRIBUTORS
14. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
15. COPYRIGHT
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FOREWORD
From the Mafia-ridden streets of Sicily, Italy, to backcountry roadways of
southern California traveled by Hells Angels’ bikers, The Crime Book features
every facet of lawlessness. These high crimes and misdemeanors range from
petty to deadly—all of which are spellbinding accounts within this compelling
genre.
While crime is one of the greatest problems across the ages and spanning the
globe, people are increasingly fascinated with the criminal mind, as evidenced
by popular true-crime TV shows featuring desperados and the misdeeds they
commit. Time magazine called the phenomenon a euphoric effect on human
emotions that is comparable to a roller-coaster ride. With the advent of modern
technology, the details of these crimes are now brought to people’s living rooms
across the globe, with gavel-to-gavel televised criminal trials and news reports
aired internationally in real-time.
The telling of these tragedies is so popular that the Investigation Discovery
network devotes hours of air time to addictive true-crime programming,
including grisly murders, such as that of the Black Dahlia—a story also told in
this book. It is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles,
California, and has been depicted in several feature films and true-crime books.
The appeal is comparable to people not being able to look away from traffic
accidents.
The hundred or so crimes and perpetrators featured in these pages are told by
four seasoned, best-selling true-crime authors—Lee Mellor, Shanna Hogan,
Rebecca Morris, and Michael Kerrigan—along with my own telling of tales.
These stories not only give readers a look into the lives and psyche of the
criminals but also examines the in-depth and often lengthy police work needed
to bring the perpetrators to justice. With a rare perspective by writers with expert
vantage points, these chapters thoroughly examine across continents and
decades, all genres of crime, including the first known homicide committed
against a Neanderthal man 430,000 years ago.
In telling some of these tales, these accomplished writers followed the footsteps
of street-weary detectives and sometimes cagey, tough-to-catch crooks. They
include the modern-day impersonator Frank Abagnale, Jr., of Catch Me if You
Can movie fame, and the glamorous life of elusive international jewel thief
Doris Payne, who escaped authorities not once, but three times.
As a fact-based crime journalist and author for more than two decades, I am
fascinated by these stories. I followed newspapers articles as a teenager and
fascinated by these stories. I followed newspapers articles as a teenager and
dreamt of one day being able to follow a case from beginning to end by writing
about it. That goal was realized when I became a newspaper reporter in 1987 and
an author a decade later.
During my journalism career, I have been particularly attracted to domestic
violence cases, having been a victim myself for six years. I understand first-hand
what women—and sometimes men—go through, and why they find it difficult to
leave.
My first brush with crime, however, occurred during my second year of college,
and it stayed with me. I grew up in a crime-free, middle-class suburb of San
Diego, California, with near-perfect weather and safe neighborhoods. So, it was
shocking when, on a spring night, I became a target, along with my twin sister
and two neighborhood girlfriends. We took a weeknight jog just as we had
dozens of times before. We never felt at risk—that is, until a man stepped out of
the darkness, naked from the waist down. We screamed and ran to a neighboring
house, from where we called police. Because of our descriptions of his nearby
car, police quickly located him. Officers did not witness the indecent exposure,
so I was designated as the one to make a citizen’s arrest, right there on the street.
Weeks later, as we gathered at the courthouse to testify against him, the suspect
pleaded guilty minutes before the trial was to begin.
Criminal law has fascinated me ever since. My hope is that you too will be just
as fascinated by the variety of offences included in the following true accounts
in this book.
Cathy Scott
Author, Murder of a Mafia Daughter and The Killing of Tupac Shakur