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Whether it's the extent of their actions, how they got caught, or the continued search for their identities, some offenders are pretty well known. Alongside the mobsters, thieves, and other offenders we may recognize from the media, movies about their lives, and documentaries, there are criminals who committed comparable - if not bigger - offenses, but we don't know much about them.
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Let's face it, people love hearing about crime
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Crime documentaries, true crime podcasts, and biopics about criminals are more popular than ever
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assigning a weird sort of celebrity to some real-life monsters. But what about those unsung miscreants
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who committed equally bold and shocking crimes but never achieved the same notoriety
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Well, today, we're reading the rap sheet of little-known criminals who pulled off historic crimes
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Let's look at some probable cause. Karl Gugasian had grandiose dreams as a young boy
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but not of being a firefighter or an astronaut. As far back as he could remember, Gugasian wanted to be a criminal
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and not just any criminal, but a great one. To that end, he robbed dozens of banks along the eastern seaboard from the 1970s up to 2001
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They called him the Friday Night Bank Robber. due to the fact that he scheduled Friday night as his designated thieving night
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Taking advantage of the early darkness it afforded, Gugasian would run his operations between October and April
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used maps to plot easy escapes on foot, and wore a Halloween mask, which rendered him unidentifiable
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Freddy Krueger was on the most wanted list for years before they made that connection
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Eventually, some local kids discovered a cache of Gugasian's tools hidden in the woods
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which prompted an FBI investigation. Once the Friday night bank robber was apprehended
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Authorities estimated Gugasian stole somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million from 50 to 70 different banks
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His trial called him the most prolific bank robber the nation had ever known
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a fact which Gugasian says he regrets due to the harm it caused. Possibly a way of making amends for his long life of crime, Gugasian began making training videos for the FBI
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using his unique experience to help authorities track down other bank robbers
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Robert Hansen was a baker who moved to Anchorage, Alaska during the 1960s, where he would eventually
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be dubbed the Butcher Baker, not because he owned a combination steakhouse bakery
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Hansen was a serial criminal, kidnapper, and murderer whose work eventually became sloppy
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A woman he had kidnapped escaped his clutches and told authorities everything
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A search of Hansen's property revealed several pieces of jewelry belonging mostly to sex
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workers who had been reported missing. That's pretty difficult to explain away. Once authorities
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discovered maps of grave sites, Hansen was interviewed and confessed to assaulting over
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30 women and killing 17. The butcher was given 461 years in prison, serving only a handful before
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his death in 2014 There have been a total of four presidential assassinations in the U But most regular folks can only name the big two John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald And while history buffs probably know Charles J Goteau if for no other reason than
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he was an outright nut, we're willing to bet almost no one recognizes the name Leon Frank
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Chorgosch. By the way, if you've ever wondered why so many presidential assassins and serial
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killers are identified with three names, it's so that a Chipotle manager who just happens to be
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named Lee Oswald can scoop guacamole in peace. Back in September of 1901, President William
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McKinley stopped by Buffalo, New York for a meet and greet with some of his fans and constituents
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Unfortunately for McKinley, Cholgosh also attended the event with the sole intention of punching the
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president's ticket. Cholgosh was an anarchist who hated anyone he deemed an enemy of the working
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people of America, and the president found himself at the top of Leon's list. When President
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McKinley reached out to shake Cholgosh's hand, it was met with two gunshots, one right to the
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presidential gut. McKinley passed away from infection nine days later. Cholgosh was apprehended
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and refused to hire a lawyer for the trial, insisting he had nothing to defend and was
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in fact, proud of what he did. He was executed by electric chair within a month of the president's
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death, and the rest is history, or mildly forgotten history. You've all heard the story of Sir Isaac Newton, noted apple observer and one of the head honchos
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of modern physics. But aside from his illustrious career in fundamental science
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Newton was also a counterfeit coin hunter with an arch nemesis named William Schalliner
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In the 17th century, William Schalliner arrived in England with an idea to use his
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metalworking skills to make everything from coins to sexual devices. A real jack of all trades
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He was so proficient at his coin-making that he attracted the attention of the warden and
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master of the London Royal Mint, one Sir Isaac Newton. It was Newton's job to standardize coins
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and Schelliner's shenanigans devalued London's money and made Newton's job a nightmare
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By Schelliner's account, he formed the finest forge plates in England, which allowed him to counterfeit over 30,000 guineas. While Newton may have been dubbed a sir
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Schelliner's contemporaries dubbed him the most accomplished counterfeiter in the kingdom, which sounds like a TV show from the 1970s
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Since making fake money was considered treason, Newton fully intended to punish offenders
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to the fullest extent of the law. And after Schalloner was apprehended and thoroughly
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investigated, he found himself heading to the gallows. Jacques Marine spent his life committing dastardly deeds
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during the middle of the 20th century. Once a decorated war veteran in the French military
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Merina learned that he was much more proficient at violent crime after his discharge in 1959 Hopping from France to Canada to South America Merina spent his days robbing jewelry stores escaping from prison and evading recapture by wearing various disguises earning him the nickname
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The French Man with a Thousand Faces. By the 1970s, Merino was an outright celebrity
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being seen less as a vicious thief and murderer and more of a roguish figure
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In fact, one of his nicknames was The Robin Hood of the Paris Streets
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a talented escape artist who calls presiding judges cretin and incompetent, was considered by the public
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to be an intellectual gangster. His career came to a sudden halt in November of 1979
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when French authorities shot him 16 times while driving in the outskirts of Paris
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A recording released by his girlfriend in the event of his death proclaimed, perhaps we'll meet again, maybe in hell
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I regret nothing. You can watch the big screen version of these events
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in the 2008 movie Marine Killer Instinct. During the 19th century, Jefferson Randolph Soapy Smith II left his home in Georgia heading
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for Texas with the intention of suckering just about everyone he could get his sticky fingers on
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His game was soap, evidenced by his nickname, where bars of soap were stacked with one wrapped
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in a crisp $20, $50, or even $100 bill. In a classic cup game type style grift
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victims would try their luck for $5 a pop before an audience plant would be the one
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eventually winning the money. Smith's charisma and likability during his cons protected him from scrutiny and got the
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attention of politicians who wanted to use the con man's skills to cheat in elections
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One such victory was Wolf Londoner's highly scandalized mayoral campaign in Denver, Colorado
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in 1889. Smith was run out of town for his efforts. Smith moved to Alaska in the 1890s, where he ran a crooked saloon complete with rigged
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casino games, watered-down liquor, and a slew of other swindles like the innkeeper from
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Les Miserables. He even ran a fake telegraph line where folks could pay to send messages to their loved ones
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But the wire went only as far as the saloon's wall. Eventually, people got tired of Smith's shenanigans
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and he was fatally shot by an angry mob in June of 1898. Thomas Patera was a regular kid growing up in New York who, like many people at the time
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was really into Bruce Lee, so much so that he eventually traveled to Japan in the early 70s
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to study the martial arts he loved from the films. Although, it is important to note that Bruce Lee was not from Japan
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When Tommy got back to the US, he had new skills, a new job using his martial arts expertise
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with the Bonanno crime family, and a flashy new name, Tommy Karate
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The new and improved Tommy became a hitman and drug dealer for hire with a penchant for brutality
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His method of destroying bodies was dissection using a kit of specialized tools he carried for the sole purpose of leaving no trace Though he would often keep a body part or some other token as a souvenir The rest was tossed into the Staten Island swampland
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Why did he not just use the five-finger death punch? The Karate Kid was eventually tried and convicted for multiple murders in 1992
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His trial depicted him as a ruthless killer and brought up his many victims
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including a friend he believed caused the overdose of Tommy's wife. His heinous acts earned him a lifelong getaway in the United States Penitentiary, McCreary, where he still resides to this day
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Dwight Malachi York founded several black Muslim groups in New York City and, by the 1970s, had created an entire community of followers
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While his upcoming cult was still growing, York also found the time to open Passion Productions
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a record label that was to cater to fans of artists like Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass
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While running the label, he worked with several groups such as Blue Magic and the Force MDs
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and even provided vocals for disco bands such as Passion. The record bigwig and leader of the
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United Nuwabian Nation of Moors began attracting more attention to himself and his teachings
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once he relocated his followers to a compound in Georgia called Tamaray in the 1990s. The gaudy
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eyesore of a theme park featured Egyptian-style pyramids, obelisks, gods and goddesses, and even
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a sphinx. It was more Vegas than antiquity. York's religious movement came crashing down after it was
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discovered that he had impregnated several underage girls. York was found guilty on charges of abuse
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and racketeering in 2002 and sentenced to 135 years in prison. Back at February of 2022, WNBA
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player Brittany Griner was arrested on smuggling charges in Russia and sentenced to nine years at
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a hard labor camp. The United States was eventually able to obtain the release of Griner by exchanging
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a one-to-one prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Victor Boot, who had been imprisoned in
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the US for over a decade. Even though Griner's plight got extensive press coverage, people had
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no idea who the heck Victor Boot was. The short answer is he's an arms dealer. Think Nicholas Cage
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and lord of war. The Tajikistan native and former military operative started his own cargo company
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which smuggled weapons all over the world to places such as Afghanistan or Rwanda
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extreme hotbeds of political violence. Undercover agents were able to capture Boot in Thailand in
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2008 and extradited him to the US to face terrorism charges. US Attorney General Eric
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Holder referred to Boot as one of the world's most prolific arms traffickers. He was sentenced
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to 25 years in prison in 2011 after being convicted of conspiring to kill US citizens
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acquiring anti-aircraft weapons, and supporting Colombian terrorists. We can sort of see why Putin wanted him back so badly