The most famous female criminals of the twentieth century. Famous women: scammers and thieves (8 photos) The most famous female bandits
The phenomenon of female gangs has deep roots and most likely originates in the Amazon communities of ancient times. Today, such associations are rarely created to protect women's rights and honor; more often they pursue selfish and criminal goals and serve as an outlet for aggression.
Blonde bandits
In large cities in Brazil, for many years now there has been a real war between criminals and police officers, in which people are dying en masse, and there is no end in sight.
For the last few years, a gang consisting mainly of attractive blondes has been operating in Sao Paulo. These girls know how to be charming, they speak several foreign languages, some even studied abroad. They track down well-dressed women in supermarkets who look like someone from their gang, so that later, when they take away their bank card, it will be easier to make purchases with it.
A gang of blondes practices “express kidnappings”: the victim is abducted for several hours and taken to a prepared room while all funds are withdrawn from his card. Often the criminal spends money in designer clothing boutiques, jewelry stores or electronics stores. In three years, the gang has already robbed more than 50 women. The thieves stole almost $9,000 from one of the victims.
The head of the São Paulo kidnapping department, Joaquim Diaz Alves, told the press that the group consists of two departments: kidnapping and cash sales. The difficulty in finding the criminals is that all the victims are tourists who live in other countries, which complicates the identification process.
Florida babes
In the States, 2% of all gang organizations are purely female. One of them operates in the state of Florida. Attractive young women from 22 to 27 years old prey mainly on rich older men: they meet them in bars, then drug them and steal money, jewelry, watches, weapons and other valuables from them.
The police received several reports of such robberies, totaling several hundred thousand dollars. However, according to the sheriff, most victims do not contact law enforcement agencies, since such stories can harm their reputation.
Scott Rosen, 54, told CNN that he met two girls at a YOLO bar, invited them to his home and “passed off.” He believes that one of them slipped sleeping pills into his glass. When Scott woke up, he discovered that his new acquaintances had left his apartment, taking with them weapons, diamonds and Rolex watches totaling $250,000. He nevertheless showed optimism in this situation and expressed joy that he remained safe and sound: “They could have shot me with my own pistol.”
Another method of “working” of a female gang was also recorded in Florida: when 18-year-old Olmer Morales was riding his bicycle to work, he was surrounded by a group of five girls literally wearing only their underpants. The young man became confused and was robbed.
Mafia boss lady
The Neapolitan version of the mafia is called the Camorra. There are currently 10 times more women members than at the end of the 20th century. The reason is that the Camorra has lost many male leaders: some were arrested, others died in firefights.
One of the most powerful mafia women was Nunzia D'Amico, the mother of five children, the eldest of whom literally flooded Naples with cocaine. Nunzia became the boss of the clan after her three brothers, Salvatore, Giuseppe and Antonio, were arrested.
Mrs. D'Amico, as the leader of the mafia, proved herself no less tough than her brothers. Other Camorra leaders heard literally the following from her: “Outwardly I am a woman, but inside I am more of a man than you. Especially here in Naples.”
On October 10, 2015, Nunzia D'Amico was in her apartment on Via Flauto Magico putting her youngest child to bed when she was shot by an unknown assailant who was a few meters from the windows. Two bullets hit the stomach and two in the neck, blood sprayed into the crib. The 37-year-old Godmother died like the Godfather.
Pink Gang from India
Five hundred kilometers south of Delhi, in the poorest village of Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh, lives Sampat Devi Pal, the founder of the Gulabi Gang - the Pink Gang. Members of this organization wear pink saris and bamboo fighting sticks - lathi.
Sampat Devi Pal grew up in a poor family and worked since childhood. She was married off at the age of 12 to an ice cream salesman and gave birth to her first child at 15. Her neighbor regularly and brutally beat his wife. Sampat was 16 years old when she stood up for her neighbor and was beaten herself. Then the girl gathered a group of five women, armed them with lathi, and together they beat the monster, forcing him to publicly apologize for his actions. The result inspired Sampat and her like-minded people. The “pink gang”, with lathi at the ready, carried out several raids in neighboring settlements, from where information was received about repeated cases of unfair treatment of women. Several men were thoroughly beaten, including a number of government employees. The re-education was a 100% success, after which the “Pink Gang” became famous in the state, and new champions of women’s rights began to join it. Sampat repeatedly appeared on television, was invited to participate in reality shows, and became an authority on issues of protecting women at the legislative level. Today, the organization has existed for 30 years and includes about 270,000 members.
Sukeban - girl bandit
In the 60s of the 20th century, the stereotype of the Japanese housewife began to break down. Girls began to rebel, form groups and engage in petty hooliganism, sniff glue, and lead a free sex life. At school they indulged in daring antics.
The term "sukeban" means bandit girl. Literally translated as “girl boss”. In the 1980s, Japanese police received a list of signs that could help identify these potentially violent teenagers. Their school uniform had distinctive details: bright socks instead of white, rolled up sleeves, tattoos, a maxi skirt with a short blouse, an embroidered gang logo. Bright hair color or permanent wave. Over time, their fashion changed, in the 1990s, maxi skirts turned into miniskirts, and they began to wear a thick layer of makeup on their faces.
Sukeban girls gathered in public places, such as train stations, and were armed with chains and razors in case of a fight. Even the yakuza mafiosi perceived them very positively, never missing an opportunity to express their approval.
They are most often detained for shoplifting and fights with rival gangs. The largest girl gang is known as the Kanto Bandit Union. It included about 20,000 girls from all prefectures in Eastern Japan. Each such organization had its own rather strict charter; violation of it was punishable by beatings or, for example, burning with a cigarette. It was forbidden to treat elders in a group with disrespect, to flirt with someone else's boyfriend, or to be friends with a girl from another group.
The American gangster is as iconic an image as the cowboy. And although it is not a woman’s business to organize crimes, there are many representatives of the fair sex in history who have proven the opposite with their lives. John Dillinger, Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel are household names. But have you ever heard of Stephanie St. Clair or Marie Baker from the Pants Gang? No?! So it's time to meet them?
1. Bonnie Parker
Without a doubt, the most famous female gangster in the United States of America, Parker became part of the iconic crime duo Bonnie and Clyde. Both were notorious bank robbers; their criminal activities occurred in the early 1930s - the “era of enemies of the state.”
Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, where she was known as an intelligent and open girl. She met Clyde Barrow in 1930. They quickly got along with each other, despite the fact that Parker was already married. The legend of Bonnie and Clyde arose not only from the robberies and murders they committed, but also in part from a photo shoot they took near Joplin, Missouri, where the couple was on the run from the law. These photographs still inspire writers and filmmakers to create interpretations of their lives and deaths. Bonnie and Clyde died in a horrific shootout with police in 1934. She was 23, he was 25.
2. Stephanie St. Clair
In Manhattan she was called "Queenie" and in Harlem she was known as Madame St. Clair. St. Clair, an African-American, emigrated from France to the United States in 1912. Ten years later, she opened her own business, the Numbers Game (a type of underground lottery), and became a fierce advocate for her district. She testified against corrupt cops who collected payments from the protection of businesses, for which they were fired from the police force. In addition, she prevented the mafiosi from the business part of the city from seizing power in her area, who, after the end of Prohibition, decided to take over the residential areas as a new source of income.
Thanks to his main enforcer (note: gang member whose function is to enforce demands or carry out sentences) Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson and Madame St. Clair's marriage to Lucky Luciano managed to oust Dutch Schultz from Harlem. She was triumphant when she learned that Schultz was dying in the hospital from a gunshot wound, and decided to send him a note that included the famous saying: “What goes around comes around.” When St. Clair retired, her place was taken by “Bumpy,” who later became known as the “Godfather of Harlem.”
3. Opal "Mc-Truck" Long
Opal Long, believed to have been born in Texas, was nicknamed "McTruck" (note: heavy duty truck manufactured by the American company Mack Trucks) because of her large size (although, of course, no one called her that to her face). She was a member of John Dillinger's gang, joined by her husband Russell Clark. Naturally caring, Long, who preferred to be called Bernice Clark, happily cooked and cleaned the house where her husband's associates, whom she considered family, were hiding.
Everything went wrong when her husband was arrested in Tucson, Arizona on January 25, 1934. She first attacked the police officers who took part in the arrest, and later begged Dillinger to lend her money in order to hire Russell a good lawyer. For this reason, Opal was asked to leave the gang. In the summer of that year she went to prison. Long never held a grudge against those who once replaced her family. In November 1934, she received parole. Opal lived out her days in Chicago.
4. Helen Gillies
At sixteen, Helen Wawrzyniak made the fateful decision to marry Lester Gillis, the man who became known as Baby Nelson. By the age of twenty, she gave birth to two children and, thanks to her husband, was included in the list of enemies of the state who were ordered “not to be taken alive.” Helen herself considered herself an accomplice, and not a member of an organized crime group, however, as it turned out, she was directly involved (along with her husband and his friend John Paul Chase) in a brutal shootout with the cops that took place in the small town of Barrington (Illinois). November 27, 1934 and resulted in the deaths of two police officers and Baby Nelson.
Gillis earned an "honorable" place on the list of enemies of the state by saving her dying husband from police pursuit. She gave up on Thanksgiving. Angry at Chase over Nelson's death, Helen testified against him, thereby securing his life sentence. She died in the late 1980s and was buried next to her beloved husband, Baby Nelson, in Chicago's St. Joseph's Cemetery.
5. Mother Barker
Arizona Donnie Barker (aka Kate Barker) was known as a merciless woman. At nineteen, Arizona Clark married George Barker; they had four sons: Herman, Lloyd, Arthur and Fred. But the Barkers were no ordinary family; in 1910 they began to engage in highway robbery.
Their criminal activities could not fail to attract the attention of the press and the general public in the Midwest. Fate stopped being kind to the Barkers in 1927, when Herman committed suicide to avoid arrest. Soon after, Lloyd, Arthur and Fred were imprisoned. The last of them was released in 1931, and he and his mother continued to commit crimes, which led to tragic consequences.
Arizona and Fred were killed on January 8, 1935, when the FBI stormed their hideout near Lake Weir, Florida. After Barker's death, real debate arose regarding her place in the criminal gang. People who maintained close relationships with the family claimed that she played no active role in the criminal affairs of her sons, but John Edgar Hoover, who served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 to 1972, spoke of her as the most vicious, dangerous and a resourceful representative of the criminal world of the last decade.
6. Pearl Elliott
Pearl had close ties to John Dillinger and Harry Pierponton, however, she was not a dependent or accomplice of anyone. Elliott ran a brothel in the small town of Kokomo (Indiana); the establishment was under the protection of the local police, who, upon a signal from the owner, immediately came to her aid if any client began to behave inappropriately.
The Pearl brothel was also where the Pierponton gang hid out after a bank robbery in 1925. In 1933, for her connections with Dillinger, Elliott was placed on the list of enemies of the state who were ordered to be “shoot to kill.” She died at the age of 47 from a serious illness - presumably cancer.
7. Leader of the “Pants” gang – Marie Baker
The name of lawbreaker Marie Baker, an attractive brunette with brown eyes and a habit of carrying two pistols at all times, appeared in newspaper headlines in 1933 after a series of store robberies committed by the "Panties" gang, so named because of the strange demand they made. its leader to the victims-sellers. When there were no customers left in the store, Baker took the weapon out of her pocket and commanded: “Take off your pants!”, after which she burst into loud laughter.
As the Miami News wrote, Marie was killed by vanity. When Baker was busy robbing a butcher's shop, her owner took advantage of the opportunity to escape the criminal's grasp. She was soon arrested. It was later revealed that her name was actually Rose Durante. She served three years in prison; After her release, no one heard from her again.
8. Virginia Hill
Known as the "Flamingo" and "Queen of the Gangster World," Virginia Hill was the mistress of famed Brooklyn gangster Bugsy Siegel. She came from a poor family, telling everyone that she didn't get her first pair of shoes until she was seventeen. At a young age, Virginia left the small town in Georgia where she grew up and went to conquer Chicago. Nothing worked out for her here. After briefly working as a courier for the transportation of “black cash” in Al Capone’s gang, Hill went to Los Angeles to reveal her acting talent. Here she met Bugsy Siegel, who became her lover. He later opened a hotel in Las Vegas, which he named after Virginia, the Flamingo. On June 20, 1947, Bugsy was killed in his home in Hollywood, where he lived with Hill.
Virginia, by a lucky coincidence, was away at the time. She later claimed: “He loved his hotel in Las Vegas more than me. I didn’t even suspect that he was involved in all these dirty deeds. I don’t know why he was killed.” In 1961, Hill was found dead at a ski resort in Austria. She is believed to have died from an overdose of sleeping pills, although many believe it was a premeditated murder.
9. Arlene Brickman
Arlene Brickman was born in 1933 into a Jewish family living in East Harlem. Since childhood, the girl idealized Virginia Hill’s lifestyle and decided to follow in her footsteps. She sold drugs, worked as a pawnbroker and a bet collector in an illegal lottery. Arlene's Jewish origin did not allow her to advance in her criminal career, and she did not particularly strive for this, since she already had enough money and power.
Years later, after her daughter was threatened by money lenders, Brickman became an informant. With her denunciations and espionage, she helped put extortionist Anthony Scarpati and several of his accomplices behind bars.
10. Evelyn "Billy" Frechette
Evelyn Frechette was the devoted lover of the famous criminal John Dillinger. She came from a mixed family (her descendants were considered French and American Indian from the Menominee tribe), attended Catholic school and received a fairly good education. For a long time, the girl could not find a job in her hometown, so she decided to leave for Chicago. Immediately after her first husband was sent to prison for robbing a post office, Frechette met Dillinger and joined his gang. The couple survived several horrific shootings.
In 1934, Evelyn was arrested and tried for harboring a fugitive. She was given two years. When she left prison, Dillinger was no longer alive. In 1936, Frechette decided to give up her criminal past and went on a lecture tour across the United States, which was called “Crime Is Never Justified.” She died of cancer at the age of 33.
Rosemarina - based on material from
Gangster romance... The most terrible killers and their beloved women
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A sinister bandit and a stunning beauty are classics of the crime genre. But it is based on reality, which is sometimes more difficult to believe than in the movies. True stories and “gangster romance” without embellishment.
Lesha Soldat – Marina Sherstobitova (Sosnenko)
Alexey Sherstobitov, nicknamed Lesha Soldat, is one of the most famous characters of the “dashing 90s”. The regular killer of the Orekhovo-Medvedkovskaya organized crime group was a master of conspiracy and worked so “cleanly” (without fingerprints and without witnesses) that the authorities considered him a gangster myth for a long time. It was only in the mid-2000s, when he had long since given up crime, that they found him, one might say, by accident. He is currently serving a 23-year sentence for a dozen murders and attempts.
“There are too few real men out there,” said the former liquidator in response to why beauties like his wife find love behind bars. However, judging by Marina, something slightly different arises: in the photo on social networks, a brunette with pouting lips either flaunts in Navy officer's uniform and with a pistol, or portrays a forensic expert at an autopsy, and, moreover, marks the location of the address of a St. Petersburg mental hospital for criminals - not the most “normal” "woman, agree.
Richard "Ice Cream Man" Kuklinski – Barbara Kuklinskaya
One of America's most feared Mafia thugs earned the nickname Ice Cream Man for his experiments in freezing the corpses of victims in order to hide the time of death. His criminal colleagues said that he was “the devil himself” and “single-handedly could replace an entire army.” Kuklinski committed his first murder at the age of 13 - he beat to death a boy who was teasing him with a clothes bar. Years later, already behind bars, he repeatedly “bragged” in interviews that during his career as a killer he killed from 100 to 250 people.
The police did not believe many of his stories, but, on the other hand, they put forward a version (which they still adhere to) that Kuklinski was not just a killer, but a serial maniac and killed some of the victims on his own initiative. Moreover, as happens in such cases, neither relatives nor neighbors suspected this side of his life. He lived with his wife and children in a peaceful suburb of New Jersey, was known as a successful businessman and an exemplary family man with no bad habits.
Barbara, who knew him since she was 18, still recalls his “perfect courtship” and makes the excuse that she was “too naive” to notice the danger. Once, even before the wedding, in a fit of jealousy, he stabbed her in the neck with lightning speed with a hunting knife, and the next day he appeared with a bouquet and a plush toy, explaining that he was “mad with love.” In their life together, he more than once fell into anger and used chokeholds. He also always had wads of money with him, but Barbara was not interested in their origin.
Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences and, after serving 25 years, ended up in a prison hospital with a rare incurable vascular inflammation. He desperately clung to life - he asked the doctors to make every attempt to resuscitate him if something happened. However, the wife ordered nothing to be done, and that’s what they did at the hospital. Kuklinski died in March 2006 at the age of 70.
Aslan Dikaev – Diana Fedorova
The Chechen bandit started out in Russia with robbery, extortion and kidnappings for ransom, but caught the eye of local authorities and fled to Ukraine. There he formed his own gang and switched to contract killings. The “Odessa Terminator,” as he was soon nicknamed, left corpses all over the country, and in September 2011, together with his accomplices, he shot a police special group that was going to capture him right on the highway. Two employees were killed and four more were seriously injured.
All this time, his 25-year-old common-law wife Diana Fedorova was waiting for him at home - “soft”, “homely”, as her relatives speak of her, the owner of a gold medal and a diploma of honor. She met Dikaev while working in a Crimean bank, where he had an account.
He sought her for six months, could stand for hours under the windows, showered her with gorgeous roses and was unusually polite. Dikaev introduced himself to the girl and her family as a former GRU employee, a veteran of the Chechen wars and an employee of a construction company. They insisted that they did not suspect him of being a murderer. However, after Dikaev was shot during a special forces assault, Diana and her father were accused of possessing weapons. The girlfriend of the murdered killer spent almost a year in a pre-trial detention center and, as they say, lost her child due to stress.
Dmitry Genkel (Zhukov) – Tatyana Genkel
The Moscow killer of the “Volgov” organized crime group, a bloody gang from Tolyatti, which was in contact with the Solntsevo and Omsk gang, was married to Tatyana Genkel, a dancer of the “Imperial Russian Ballet” Maya Plisetskaya. He was so proud of his wife’s status that he took her “noble” surname instead of his “simple” one (Zhukov). However, this was even before his connection with crime.
Dmitry Genkel
Tatyana Genkel (she changed her “blackened” surname on social networks)
The Afghan veteran joined the bandits for the sake of big money, and he was “recruited” by the brother of that same ballerina. At first, Dmitry sold heroin, which was supplied to him by the Volgovskys, then he began to select shooters for them among his acquaintances from the Afghans. But in the end, he got hooked on the needle, started making mistakes, and was caught trying to sell a pistol in Moscow that was “exposed” in the unsuccessful Togliatti assassination attempt.
In 2000, Genkel was sent to prison for 18 years, and has since been denied parole twice. Tatyana said in an interview that she divorced her husband because of his problems with drugs, but she called the murder charges “bullshit.”
Alexander Solonik – Svetlana Kotova
There is an opinion that the legendary superkiller of the 90s, nicknamed Sasha the Makedonsky, is just a journalistic myth: they say, he never shot with both hands, was not distinguished by accuracy, did not knock down “authorities” right and left, and in general was a simple “six”, whom the bandits called him Sankom or Valera (he had passports in the names of Valeryan Popov and Valery Vereshchagin).
It is known for sure that Solonik killed the Tyumen crime boss Nikolai Prichinich and one of the leaders of the Bauman organized crime group Valery Dlugach, nicknamed Globus. However, formally, he still has dozens of contract killings under his belt, which he took upon himself while under investigation.
By and large, Solonik’s conscience would also be worth recording the terrible massacre of his last mistress, 20-year-old model and participant in the Miss Russia-96 contest, Svetlana Kotova. At the end of January 1997, he invited her to his villa in Greece, where he was hiding from both Russian law enforcement officers and the gang, which means he could expect that sooner or later someone would come for his soul. The Orekhovskys have arrived. The girl was strangled as an unnecessary witness, and the corpse was dismembered, put in a suitcase and buried in the forest in the hope that it would not be found soon.
They treated the murdered Solonik much more “humanely”: they hid the corpse untouched and even planted a plan on how to find it, so that already on the second day the Greek police had the body. Svetlana’s remains were found only three months later.
Jap and his women
The famous “authority” Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed Yaponchik, did without “wet” articles in his biography - they tried to accuse him of at least two murders, but the courts acquitted him. Nevertheless, his cruelty is legendary; he is credited with literally carrying out threats to be “rolled into asphalt” and “thrown out of a helicopter.” Having gained his first experience in the brutal gang of Mongol (Soviet thief in law Gennady Karkov), Yaponchik put together his own “combat brigade” of hardened criminals, which traveled around the country, extorting money through torture and leaving corpses in each region.
After the collapse of the USSR, Yaponchik fled to America and ruled the local “Russian mafia” throughout the 90s. For the sake of American citizenship, he fictitiously married the pianist of the popular emigrant chansonnier Willy Tokarev. But from then until the end of his life, his true love and companion remained the prominent blonde Faina Komissar (Roslina). She accompanied him equally faithfully to posh restaurants on Brighton Beach and to Moscow courts.
(c) RIA Novosti / Kirill Kalinnikov
And a few years after Yaponchik’s death (he never recovered from the assassination attempt in 2009), the yellow press suddenly began promoting his alleged “young widow” and “last Moscow love” Nicole (Nina) Kuznetsova.
(c) Nicole Kuznetsova / Instagram
Interviews with her were published, full of some wild fables; the false widow, among other things, claimed that Ivankov was the father of her eldest son.
Coronel is Guzman's third or fourth wife, they have five-year-old twin daughters, and Shorty has about 20 children in total. He is often accused of cruelty towards women, but Emma defends him here too: “He would never touch a woman with bad intentions, or force her to do something she doesn’t want.” She admits that all the years next to him she has lived as if “in the center of a hurricane,” but she swears that she will follow her husband wherever he is sent: “I love him. He is the father of my children."
However, it would be strange to hear other words addressed to the head of a powerful cartel, where betrayals are not forgiven.
Often, when it comes to the leaders of criminal gangs, what usually comes to mind is an unpleasant and even dangerous man in a suit, but who would have thought that quite often the organizers of the gangs are someone's mothers and wives? Today we will introduce you to ten women who have achieved considerable success in this field.
10. Sandra Ávila Beltrán
Sandra Avila Beltran was born on October 11, 1960. After becoming the head of a Mexican drug cartel, she took on the nickname "The Queen of the Pacific." She was married twice, and both of her husbands were police officers who left their jobs in order to get involved in the drug business. Both were killed by assassins. Beltran was smart and never left evidence implicating her. It wasn't until 2002, when her son was kidnapped for a $5 million ransom, that police began a separate investigation. In 2007, she was charged with involvement in organized crime and drug trafficking. And although many of the charges against her were dropped during the investigation, she is still accused of illegal possession of weapons and money laundering. During interrogation, she introduced herself as a housewife who makes a living by selling clothes. Sandra remains behind bars to this day.
9. Claudia Ochoa Felix
Claudia Ochoa Felix is widely known in certain circles as the "Kim Kardashian of organized crime." She received this nickname due to her image, which she follows on Instagram. In 2014, some media reported that she had become the new head of the Mexican gang Los Ántrax, involved in a mass of inhumane murders. Felix received this post after her boyfriend, the head of this company, was arrested. El Chino was charged in the deaths of three men who were found hanging from a Mexican bridge nearly four years ago.
8. Judy Moran
Judy Moran was born on December 18, 1944. She is the emeritus head of the Moran family, a group of notorious criminals from Melbourne, Australia. The Moran family gained their fame while still being drug dealers. Judy's first husband, Leslie "Johnny" Cole, was killed in a shooting in 1982, and her son Mark Cole was also killed in 2000. She later married Lewis Moran and had a son, Jason Moran, who was shot and killed in 2003. De Moran, her husband's brother, was killed in June 2009. Then Judy herself and three of her accomplices were arrested. While the trial was ongoing, Moran's house was set on fire by unknown assailants. Judy was eventually sentenced to 26 years in prison.
7. Thelma Wright
Thelma Wright's husband, Jackie Wright, was a big shot in the drug world in Philadelphia. He was killed in 1986 and his body was found wrapped in a rug with a gunshot wound to the head. After the murder, Thelma took over the family business and became the new head of the drug cartel, supplying drugs from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. In 1991, she was caught in a shootout, this moment turned out to be a turning point for her, and she decided to leave the world of drug trafficking.
6. Maria Leon
Maria Leon led a rather eventful criminal life, even as the mother of thirteen children. Maria was the leader of a gang involved in drug trafficking, contract killings and human trafficking. Among other things, she enlisted the support of the Mexican mafia, which immediately gave her the status of the most dangerous gangsters in Los Angeles. In 2008, her son Danny died in a shootout with police. Maria found out about this while on the run in Mexico and decided to come to her son’s funeral. Since she was barred from entering the United States, she arranged to be taken there via one of the illegal routes. At that time, members of her gang were already under police surveillance, so it was not difficult to arrest her and several other people.
5. Maria Licciardi
Maria Licciardi was born on March 24, 1951. Maria is the former head of the Licciardi clan, which settled north of Naples. Before her appearance, this family had never been associated with the sex services industry. Maria introduced a new source of income; members of her gang bought underage girls from the Albanian mafia at a price of $2,000. The girls were promised work in another country, which they happily agreed to, hoping to get rid of the poverty that surrounded them in their homeland. Upon arrival in Naples, the girls found themselves in real slavery, where they were forced to provide sex services. Anyone who was not suitable for this was simply killed. Maria Licciardi was arrested in 2001 and remains behind bars to this day.
4. Rosetta Cutolo
Rosetta Cutolo, born in 1937, is known as the sister of the famous criminal and former head of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata gang, Rafael Cutolo. Since her brother spent most of his time behind bars, she was the only person to whom he could give further instructions on how to run his business. After some time, she became the de facto boss of his gang. As her residence, Rosetta chose the 16th-century Castello Mediceo palace, which has 365 rooms, tennis courts and a swimming pool. In the early 80s, following an impulse, she ordered the police station to be blown up. This resulted in the subsequent destruction of her castle, and the woman herself spent the next 10 years on the run. In 1993, she surrendered to the police, citing the fact that she was tired of being on the run.
3. Jemeker Thompson
Jemeker Thompson, nicknamed "Queen Pin", came to the world of crime from an extremely poor background, which forced her to do anything to never be in need again. Together with her husband, Anthony Moseley, she began selling crack cocaine in huge quantities. The couple soon acquired one of the largest drug trafficking networks in all of Los Angeles in the 1980s. A few years later, Jemeker's husband was shot and killed, but she continued her business. The new dealer turned her over to the police, and then the woman had to go on the run. After five long years, she returned to Los Angeles, where she was arrested and sent to a maximum security prison for 15 years.
2. Raffaella D'Alterio
Godmother Raffaella D'alterio, also known as "Big Kitten", became the new boss of the Naples Camorra after her husband Nicola Pianese was killed. She was arrested in 2012 along with 65 other suspects during one of the raids carried out by the Italian military. More than $10 million in cash was found on her. Her gang is believed to have been responsible for more than 4,000 murders over the past 30 years. Her record included extortion, money laundering, counterfeiting, robbery, illegal possession of weapons and drug trafficking.
1. Anna Gristina
In September 2012, the headlines of almost all major media outlets were full of the name of Anna Gristina, when she was arrested as the head of an organized criminal group that was involved in human trafficking. During the trial, she tried to deny her guilt, saying that she only ran a dating service, and not a brothel at all, then, as part of the plea program, she nevertheless testified. She was sentenced to six months in prison and five years probation. As it turned out, she managed to earn more than 10 million dollars over the entire period.
When it comes to the underworld of the Victorian era, Jack the Ripper and Professor Moriarty immediately come to mind. But few people know that a century ago the Forty Elephants gang operated in London. It consisted exclusively of women who “took” prestigious stores and called each other “elephants.”
In the 1870s, a new gang appeared in London. This event could have gone unnoticed, since thousands of criminals prospered in the capital of the British Empire, if not for one “but.” London women have taken the crooked path of crime.
The Forty Elephants gang appeared in central London, where the Elephant and Castle tavern was located. Historians believe that this is where the criminals gathered. Their main occupation was theft. And the primary targets were expensive clothing and jewelry stores.
The thieves had many cunning tricks in their arsenal. In those days, no one watched women customers in stores; sellers relied on their decency. Therefore, it was easy for criminals to go into a fitting room and put on several dresses, hide small items in secret pockets, and then leave the establishment. Even if they were suspected of theft, searching women was prohibited.
Often a slender, thin girl would enter the store, and a real “elephant” would come out. Fortunately, the loose cut of Victorian dresses made it possible to hide a lot.
“Elephants” stole from stores both alone and in groups. While several girls distracted the sellers, the goods were discreetly hidden under a skirt or handed over to an accomplice. Both London shopkeepers and large stores suffered from the Forty Elephants gang. Sellers and security guards were powerless when several dozen girls destroyed shop windows and tore off dresses.
Police assistance did not always help shopkeepers. The bandits from “Forty Elephants” often knew how to fight well. Nails and improvised objects were used. Many girls learned to skillfully wield a sharp hairpin. Many policemen lost their eyes or were left crippled while trying to apprehend the thieves.
The "elephants" were very cunning and daring. For theft they faced a short prison sentence, but more frightening was the prospect of giving up their craft and becoming a prostitute or a housewife in order to bear children for a poor husband.
On the contrary, many girls led semi-high life. They held parties, bought expensive cars, and in general, often wasted money. Therefore, having joined the gang as 14-year-old girls, many of them remained bandits until old age. In addition to theft, they engaged in blackmail and kidnapping.
Historians do not know for sure when the “Forty Elephants” gang appeared, but in 1873 the “elephants” were already in full swing. In some periods, according to historians, there were up to 70 people. And the gang disappeared in the 1950s, during the widespread introduction of new security systems.
History knows many more examples of women becoming criminals. One of them - And many women do