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| Author | Murderers Gangsters and Madness |
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Topic: Fraud
Subject: Charles Ponzi
Setting: Early 1900's New England USA
Carlo Ponzi, famously known as Charles Ponzi, was a criminal with a cunning mind and a slick way with speech. Unfortunately for him, his talents did not keep him out of jail. His name would become permanently associated with a type of investment fraud in which handsome returns are promised from made-up sources and early investors are supposedly compensated with money raised from later ones.
Charles Ponzi was born in Parma, Italy, in 1882. He grew up there and then moved to the United States in November 1903, when he was 21 years old. Ponzi saw many opportunities to pursue, but could not find his "nitch." Over the next 14 years he bounced from city to city, working as a waiter, dishwasher, clerk, and translator of Italian. Then, around 1917 he settled down in Boston where he took a typing job and answered foreign mail.
Ponzi worked legitimately for two years until one day he discovered a way to make himself and investors rich. From that day on, Charles pursued for "the gravy train" — beginning a life of lies and scandals. During that time he married a woman named Rose, who stayed by his side through thick and thin. Oh, how the money started coming in. Unfortunately for him, the scandals caught up with him, then his became a life on the run, of trying to avoid jail.
Ponzi participated in scams from Providence, Rhode Island, to Montreal, Quebec, where he wound up in prison for his efforts. But Ponzi's ambition was as big as his adopted province. He thought he was destined to be rich. | On December 26, 1919, Ponzi established a firm called The Security Exchange Company. He boasted a return of 50-percent interest in 90 days, and the world wanted in on it.
Ponzi’s great idea created an instant "feeding frenzy," and within a few short months, lines formed outside his School Street office door. Thousands of people purchased so-called Ponzi promissory notes at values from $10 to $50,000. The average investment was estimated to be around $325.
Ponzi and his staff brought in a million dollars per week. Desk drawers, file cabinets, closet space, and virtually any extra storage area were filled with investors' hard-earned cash.
Ponzi, who swindled the gullible out of millions by 1920, invented what came to be known as a Ponzi Scheme, a scam in which early investors are paid with money from new investors (similar to today's "pyramid scheme"). The con game had been around for years, perhaps centuries. But Ponzi played it on such a grand scale, with such flair, and in full view of the media and the world, that he earned a prominent place in criminal history. Some historians have described Ponzi as "a celebrity."
The most notorious "Ponzi Scheme" took place when he began to trade postal reply coupons in 1919. Plenty of Americans in other countries could include such a coupon in a letter, to be redeemed at the post office for enough money to send a reply. Ponzi used his Securities Exchange Company as a front to trade the coupons and make a 200-percent profit. That was not how he continued his business, however. He eventually moved to Florida to pursue new schemes. | After authorities caught up with him in Florida, he fled to Texas, where he was apprehended and sent to jail. Upon his release, Ponzi's wife divorced him and he was eventually deported to Italy. At the age of 52, he had to start over again.
Ponzi became an English translator while in Rome. Benito Mussolini offered him a position with Italy’s new airline and he served as the Rio de Janeiro branch manager from 1939-1942.
Ponzi discovered that several airline officials were using the carrier to smuggle currency, and Ponzi wanted his share. When the smugglers laughed at him, he tipped off Brazilian authorities — leading to the arrest of three top airline officials. World War II brought about the airline’s failure, and Ponzi soon found himself without a job again.
Charles stayed in Rio de Janeiro with hopes of "finding his way" financially. After trying to run a Rio lodge (which failed), Ponzi found himself either collecting Brazil unemployment insurance or giving English lessons — a far cry from the millionaire that he had become just a decade earlier.
Carlo "Charles" Ponzi died in the charity ward of a Rio de Janeiro hospital in 1949, at the age of 67.
"The last picture of Ponzi, taken in the hospital, showed him with a big smile on his face." - Boston Globe | Topic: Revenge/Gangster Activity
Subject: Phoolan Devi "The Bandit Queen of India"
Setting: 1970's- 2001 India
Phoolan Devi, who was shot dead in Delhi, was one of India's most famous outlaws, implicated in one of the largest gang massacres in modern Indian history.
But in a remarkable transformation, the notorious "Bandit Queen", was elected to the Indian parliament after 11 years in prison.
There she tried to establish a reputation as a champion of the oppressed in India.
She said that she represented people who, like herself, were exploited and abused by their social betters.
Phoolan Devi's criminal record and subsequent rehabilitation was made into a successful feature film in India and the west.
She was born in the north of India into a poor low-caste family.
She married at 11 to a man three times her age, but was abandoned by her husband and her family after the marriage broke down. | By the time she was around 20 years old, she was subjected to numerous sexual assaults and turned to a life of crime.
She led a gang of robbers - or dacoits - that carried out a series of violent robberies in north and central India.
Her supporters say that she targeted high-caste families and shared the spoils with the lower castes, but the Indian authorities insisted this was a myth.
At the height of Phoolan Devi's fame, she was glorified by much of the Indian media which wrote tirelessly of her exploits.
A doll was even manufactured in her honour, clad in police uniform with a bandoleer of bullets strapped across her chest. | Perhaps the most notorious incident in Phoolan Devi's life took place in 1981 when her gang stormed an isolated village with the intention of carrying out a robbery.
Details of what exactly happened are unclear, but during the course of the raid, she is said to have recognised two men who earlier had sexually assaulted her and murdered her lover.
In retribution, she ordered around 20 high-caste men to be dragged form their homes and shot dead.
The press described it as the largest massacre by bandits in Indian history.
Afterwards, police launched a huge manhunt using helicopters and thousands of men, but Phoolan Devi's already high reputation among the poor was enhanced as she frequently outwitted them and evaded capture.
She surrendered to the authorities in 1983 in poor health after most of her gang members had died.
A deal with the Indian Government allowed her to escape being hanged.
After serving her sentence she insisted that she was a reformed character and that she had escaped from her past.
However, it looks as if the circumstances of her death meant her past had not escaped her. | Topic: Assasination
Subject: Grigory Rasputin
Setting: Early 1900's Russia
Rasputin is known as the Siberian mystic healer, whose life has been retold countless number of times throughout history. One of the major problems is the mystery and discrepancies associated with the depiction of Rasputin's life. Because he lived in a world beyond the reach of the written word, little is known about the first 40 years of Rasputin's life. What is known, has been retold through family stories and mysterious tales of his healing powers and visions. This means that, depending on the teller of the story, Rasputin might be a holy monk on one occasion, then an actor or phony without any connection to God on another. Some facts have been confirmed by historians though. There is a general consensus that Rasputin was born between 1864 and 1865. His birth place and home (when he was not wandering) was the village of Pokrovskoe, presently Tiumen' Oblast. Located in Siberia, Pokrovskoe can be found on the Toura River and is not far from the Ural Mountains. In the other direction, to the west, almost 1500 miles fall between the Urals and St. Petersburg. In the late 1800's, when Rasputin lived in Pokrovskoe, the village had only a few streets, lined with spacious wooden houses. Depending on a family's wealth, the houses were either one or two stories. The homes were not simple wooden abodes, rather their decoration included ornate carving, as well as painted beams and window frames. At the village's center stood a large white church with a guilded dome, a symbol of Russia's strong religious history. | The Encyclopedia Britannica reports that at the age of 18, Rasputin went through a religious transition, eventually traveling to the monastery at Verkhoture. Here, he was introduced to the Khlysty sect. After traveling to the monastery and spending some time there, he did not become a monk. Even though he did not stay at the monastery to become a monk, this trip already set him on the path to power and fame.
At the age of 19 Rasputin returned to Pokrovskoe and married Praskovia Fyodorovna. They had three children: Dimitri in 1897, Maria in 1898, and Varvara in 1900. The picture to the left, shows Rasputin with his three children, circa 1910. Marriage did not settle Rasputin, he continued to wander, traveling to places of religious significance such as Mt. Athos, Greece and Jerusalem. A self proclaimed holy man, Rasputin held the power to heal the sick and predict the future. His fame grew far and wide, and soon people traveled from long distances in search of his insight and healing powers. In return for his services, people brought presents of food and money.
He had no long period of religious or spiritual training and he had only a limited academic education (he was not literate), thus his theatrical abilites became useful. While explaining his training, Alex de Jonge, the author of The Life and Times of Grigorii Rasputin , says "mystics, holy men, gurus, indeed certain kinds of creative artists, devote years to the disciplined development of their gifts; a sense of the spiritual alone is not enough". One element of Rasputin's talents that everyone who sought his healing powers remarked upon was his great ability to calm people in distress. | While plowing one day, he was suddenly dazzled by an apparition. The story is that he was touched by the Heavenly Mother. She told him of the young Aleksei, the tsarevich and instructed him to appear at the boy's side to stop his bleeding- a result of hemophilia.
Rasputin's first move towards St. Petersburg was in 1902, when he visited the city of Kazan near the Volga river. He learned his first lessons about European culture and tradition when he spent his first time in a European house. Once he made this initial trip, he rapidly began to build a ever expanding group of disciples and acquaintances among the upper classes. Among this group, the "polite society," he was viewed "as a man of God and a starets [religious elder]."
Rasputin arrived in St. Petersburg at a very lucky time. At this point, church leaders were in search of people of his type. They wanted people with religious influence, who had power over the people. Rasputin was both an ordinary peasant - simple, forceful and direct - while at the same time, he held the power to captivate people with his healing powers and insight into the future. There are several different perspectives of Rasputin's behavior and actions. Not everyone had a positive view of Rasputin, his "enemies charged that he was nothing but cynical, and that he used religion to mask his drive for sex, money, and power" | Rasputin arrived in St. Petersburg in 1905, and the Great Soviet Encyclopedia reports that he was not invited to the czar's palace until 1907. When Rasputin finally met the Tsar and Tsarina, he was needed as a healer for the young Aleksei who was having a bleeding episode. Nicholas and Alexandra were very secretive about their son's condition for fear that, if made public, he would never become tsar. Reluctant to invite Rasputin, they finally realized the extent of their son's infliction and the powerlessness of his doctors. The Tsarevich's disease, hemophilia, was common throughout European royalty and was passed on to him by his mother. Upon leaving from this bleeding episode, having temporarily cured Aleksei, Rasputin warned that the destiny of both the Tsarevich and the Romanov dynasty were "irrevocably linked to him."
Rasputin's life in St. Petersburg, though based on the Tsarevich's need, was not totally centered around the Romanov family. He remained an accessible holy monk and healer. His days consisted of a leisurely breakfast with family and close friends. Between 10 am to 1 pm, he had calling hours, open to any St. Petersburg citizen. Later in the afternoon, he called at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, the family's favorite residence, for the family's news. He only went to the palace when he was needed for healing or spiritual support. While in St. Petersburg, Rasputin did stay in touch with his family in Pokrovskoe, and in 1910 his daughter Maria moved to the city to attend the Seminary Academy. Soon after Maria's move, Rasputin's other daughter Varvara arrived and the girls attended the prominent Steblin-Damensky Gymnasium. Praskovia, Rasputin's wife, now made yearly voyages to the city to visit her daughters and husband. | Beginning soon after his daughters moved to St. Petersburg, Rasputin went through different stages of acceptance with the Romanovs, other high standing officials and socialites. Nicholas and Alexandra, worried about rumors of Rasputin's mistresses and his life in the city, began some research on his past. For more information about him, they asked close friends whose judgments they respected. There was also general consensus among officials that Rasputin was negatively influencing Alexandra, and in turn affecting the entire country.
Rasputin is as famous for his death as he is for his life. One evening at a meeting of Russian officials, it was decided that Rasputin was putting the entire nation in danger. Three men, Prince Feliks Yusupov (husband of the Tsar's niece), Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich (a member of the duma) and the Grand Duke Dimitry Pavlovich (the Tsar's cousin) took control of the situation. With an intricate plan, the three invited Rasputin over to the Yusupov Palace on December 30, 1916 to meet the Tsar's beautiful niece. Whi le waiting for her to appear, the men fed Rasputin poisoned wine and tea cakes. They did not affect him. Dismay came over Yusupov and he shot Rasputin. Miraculously, Rasputin staggered out into the courtyard where Purishkevich and Pavlovich were preparing to leave the palace. Purishkevich shot the staggering Rasputin again, but it was only when they bound his body and threw it into the Neva River that he died.
There is much controversy over Rasputin's life, from his mistresses to his mystical healing powers. But what is certain is that he had an irrefutable affect on the Romanov family and the Russian Empire.
I would urge readers of my thread to read about this man in full as space does not permit anything more than a short report. His story is one of those classic legends where the truth and fiction meet to create a wonderful read. Luckily he was alive during the age of photographs and there are many surviving pictures of him. Take a look and see how creepy he appears. This man's life is so interesting it is worth doing some research to see all the recorded accounts, be they true or myth, concerning him. | | Topic moved from "Off-game forum" to "Creative works". | Topic: Serial Killers
Subject: Graham Young
Setting: 1961-1972 London England
The man, who was known as the 'greatest British poisoner' of the twentieth century, died August 1st 1990 in his cell in the Parkhurst prison of a heart attack. Young was born September 7th 1947 in London. His mother died the same year and an uncle and aunt took care of the baby until his father remarried in 1950. According to his sister, who was 8 years older, Graham seemed like a normal child, although it occurred to her that her little brother liked to be alone.
When he got older, it appeared that his intelligence was over the average. This showed his high marks for English and chemistry. What nobody seemed to notice however, was that Young already got interested in the effects of several kinds of poison, and this interest would become an obsession later on.
In his teenage years, Young got to know the nazi-movement and he grew out to be a fervent worshipper of Hitler. He envied Hitler because of the power he had taken and he was determined to reach the same status. His growing knowledge of poisoning would help him to obtain that power over others.
That year, 1961, he started to poison his family members systematically. He didn't give them lethal doses, but enough to make them feel very nauseous. Instead of spending his money on the usual things, teenage boys buy; he purchased small doses of antimonium and digitalis. He claimed he needed them for experiments at school. That way, he got a gigantic amount of poison; experts estimate he had enough of it to kill 300 people | Young didn't only use his family members as laboratory rabbits. Sometimes he just forgot in which food he had put the doses, so it happened several times he suffered from vomiting and cramps himself. He also took small doses to clear himself from any suspicion. He even tested his poisonous fluids and powders on his best friend.
After a while, the diseases that haunted the Youngs started to cause some suspicion. Grahams aunt Winnie was aware of his interests and didn't trust him. When a psychiatrist was asked to see him, Graham admitted in an indirect way he had control over the health condition of his relatives. They warned the police. May 23rd, a couple of police officers caught Young at home. He realized lying was senseless, so he confessed. He didn't mention he had given his stepmother a lethal dose.
In his cell, Young tried to commit suicide by hanging himself, but he could be stopped in time. He told a psychiatrist he felt helpless because he didn't possess any poison. Not even during his trial did he talk about his stepmother whose remains couldn't be used as evidence, because there weren't any: she was cremated. Medical experts claimed it would be best to put Young in a psychiatric institution. The judge convicted him to 15 years in Broadmoor, an institution for mental disordered criminals. Nine years later however, Young got out and he even found a job. His supervisor didn't know anything about his past. The day before he went to work, Young bought some antimonium and thallium. Only a short period after Young began to work, his foreman, Bob Egle, got sick and eventually died. His death came as a shock to his colleagues, especially Young seemed to be very upset. A few weeks later, Egle's successor, Ron Hewitt, got sick as well. He decided to quit his job and saved his own life that way. | The amount of employees that were showing all the same symptoms grew spectacularly: up to 70 of them suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. Several people had to stay in hospital for a while, but it didn't come to more deaths. The cause of this odd disease stayed a mystery. A lot of the victims became ill after drinking a cup of tea or coffee that Young made for them, but they didn't seem to link the one with the other. They just assumed there was some kind of virus going around.
A few months later, the 'virus' caught Fred Biggs. He was brought to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London, but it was too late. He died too. At that point, some began to realize there had to be an investigation for the cause of this mysterious disease. Young asked one of the investigators if he had considered the possibility of a large-scaled thallium poisoning.
Some of Young's colleagues started to get suspicious and wondered if he really was that innocent as he seemed to be. One of them went to see the chief. Young had told him his main hobby was studying the effects of toxic products. They warned the police immediately. When Young's past was checked for a possible criminal past, the investigators couldn't believe what they saw; Young got arrested right away. When his apartment was searched, antimonium, thallium and aconitine were found, but they also discovered a diary, which showed an image of the cold, calculated murderer Young was. He described in a scientific way which doses he had given to his victims, the effects of it and whether he would allow them to live or he would let them die a horrible death. During the first questioning, Young claimed that his notes didn't have any to do with reality, but that he was planning to write a novel. Later on, he did confess. He didn't have any other motive for the murders than that they gave him power over other's lives. He didn't see his victims as human beings anymore, but he thought of them as test objects. When he officially was accused of several murders and even more attempts, he pretentiously reacted that he could have killed them all, but that he chose to let them stay alive. | Young's trial started June 19, 1972 and lasted for ten days. He pleaded not guilty, still claiming his notes were meant to be used for a novel. Young was found guilty and was convicted to life in a regular prison. His life sentence ended August 1st, 1990.
See a picture of him from the link below. Looks like a pleasant guy, eh?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/24/article-1088801-01349DC30000044D-878_468x312.jpg | Topic: Serial Killers
Subject: Juana Barraza
Setting: 1998-2006 Mexico
Barraza was arrested on January 25, 2006 while running away from a murder scene, on suspicion of being the serial killer known as Mataviejitas ("The Old Lady Killer"). Police said that fingerprint evidence linked her to at least 11 of the as many as 48 murders attributed to the killer. She confessed to murdering Ana María de los Reyes Alfaro and three others to the officials that arrested her, but denied involvement in other murders.
Her modus operandi consisted in approaching old ladies with the excuse of doing some social work for them; once inside the house she strangled them (usually with the first thing at hand such as a sock or telephone wire) and then stole some objects from the victims' house.
Police believe she had a partner in the murders (probably a cab driver) who is currently at large.
In March 2008, she was eventually sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing 16 elderly women
Before her arrest, Barraza was a professional wrestler called "The Silent Lady". A couple of weeks prior to her arrest she was interviewed by a Mexican network (TV Azteca) during a wrestling match she was attending as a fan. Her crimes inspired episodes in the Mexican TV show Casos de la Vida Real. | Topic: Gangsters
Subject: Vito Genovese
Setting: 1912-1969 New York USA
Vito Genovese was born in Naples, Italy in 1897. In 1912, at the age of 15, Vito arrived along with his family in the United States. His father settled in Queens and operated a small contracting firm. But, like most mobsters when they were young, Vito was more interested in the hustle and excitement of lower Manhattan and pretty soon was sent to live with relatives in Little Italy. His first arrest came in 1917 for carrying a gun. He was sentenced to sixty days in jail. During prohibition he had met up with Charles "Lucky" Luciano and would become one of his closest allies, but never a friend. Luciano valued Vito's skills as a killer but he never trusted him with his life.
During the early 1930s Vito became very rich when he gained control of the Italian lottery. He used these riches to buy many nightclubs in the Greenwich Village area. Vito was known as a cunning, sly and devious man according to the many people who knew and worked with him. Joseph Valachi (who would flip to become the first Mafia turncoat) would say: "If you went to him and told him about some guy doing wrong he would have the guy whacked. And then he would have you whacked for telling on the guy." When his first wife died he fell in love with another woman, only one problem: she was married. To Vito this was no problem, he just killed her husband.
In 1937 Vito fled the United States because he was under pressure from the DA regarding an unsolved murder that had taken place three years earlier. He took with him a suitcase containing $750,000. He bought his wife a house in New Jersey and left money on deposit in various banks for her to acces, he also hired a bodyguard to protect her. Vito settled in Naples and got involved in the narcotics trade. When the allies invaded Sicily in 1944 Vito was there to help as a translator. He helped the Americans get rid of the crime in the area only to take it over himself. On August 22 1944 Vito was arrested and held in M.P. jail in Naples on charges connected to his criminal business there, but they also discovered his American crimes and he was going to be deported to go on trial for the murders he had fled for in the first place. But his palls in the U.S. were there for him and the key witness against Genovese was killed. | On June 11 1946, Vito Genovese came back to America. After some more time in prison Vito was released and could finally get back to business. When Genovese was away things had changed, Luciano was deported to Italy and no longer true Boss of the Family and Frank Costello was the new Boss. Genovese felt he deserved more and so went around town to see what people thought of Costello, turned out people loved Costello and that he had strong backing of other New York Families, Vito was pissed. He wanted what Costello had, he wanted Costello out of the way and he wanted to become Boss.
By 1951, Vito Genovese was ready to take out Costello and become the top boss in the underworld. Willie Moretti was the first to go. During the Kefauver Hearings he gave up too much information and Genovese began spreading the word that this guy was no good and had to be taken out. Costello's demise had begun. Genovese felt the time had come, he sent out his soldier Vincent Gigante to whack Costello in his home. Gigante fired a shotgun blast from shortrange into Costello's head, Costello survived however. Word of the botched hit attempt quickly spread through the underworld and Genovese moved fast to cover his tracks. He made it known that he had carried out the attempted hit because he had discovered that Costello was planning to kill him. He also made it known that he considered Frank an ineffectual boss. Vito made it very clear that anyone caught contacting Costello would be considered a traitor and that action would be taken against them accordingly. He also confirmed himself officially boss of the family and appointed Gerardo Catena as his underboss and Michael Miranda as his consigliere. Costello who got the message and didn't need these kind of head aches retired after being demoted to soldier status by Genovese. | Genovese then felt that he could become boss of bosses and started the plan to whack Albert Anastacia (boss of the Gambino Crime Family). Genovese contacted a capo in Anastacia's Family named Carlo Gambino and convinced him that they would both benefit by the removal of Anastacia. On October 25, 1957, while Anastasia was sitting in a chair in the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan he was whacked by two gunmen. The assassins escaped and were never apprehended. The underworld didn't know what to expect next, they decided to sit back and wait for what would happen next. Twenty days after the hit something would happen, the Appalachin meeting. At this meeting Genovese planned to officially make himself known as boss of the family but the meeting erupted in chaos when the cops raided the house. Several bosses were arrested and Edgar Hoover couldn't deny the power of La Cosa Nostra and began his war on the Mafia. Genovese's dream of becoming boss of bosses was over.
Genovese didn't know it then but he would soon be removed the same way as he had removed Costello and Anastacia, forever. On April 17, 1959, Genovese was convicted of narcotics charges, fined $20,000 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Vito Genovese called a meeting of his most trusted associates before surrendering himself to serve his sentence. He told them he would fight the "bum rap," which it surely was. He would rule his empire from prison, using his brother Mike as a conduit to the family via Tommy Eboli. To execute his orders and instructions, he appointed a temporary administration or caretakers to handle the daily business. The acting boss would be Eboli, Catena would be acting underboss and Mike Miranda would perform as consigliere, or advisor. This is how Genovese would rule his Family untill his death of heart failure in the federal prison medical centre in Springfield, Missouri on February 14, 1969. |
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