These criminals are the worst of the worst. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most infamous criminals, crooks, and gangsters of all time.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I'm gonna tell you something
00:02Somebody messes with me. I'm gonna mess with him
00:06Welcome to watch mojo and today we're looking at the most infamous criminals crooks and gangsters of all time
00:12Pablo never had charm. He had power
00:16Samuel Bankman freed Sam Bankman freed the former CEO of
00:21FTX was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in seven counts of fraud a jury convicted him on all seven counts of
00:28Wirefraud as well as conspiracy when he founded the cryptocurrency exchange Samuel Bankman freed became a financial celebrity
00:36It's it sometimes feels like the world is just going sort of in slow motion
00:40Around us and that we're going at you know about an average speed by our standards as it turns out
00:46It was an image based on theft and fraud
00:49The charges included stealing customer funds and lying to investors and creditors totaling at least eight billion dollars
00:57It was basically a whole bullshit trading platform despite his apology in court
01:02The judge emphasized his lack of remorse. He also deemed Bankman freed a risk for future criminal activity
01:09Finally the judge denounced efforts by the erstwhile billionaire to influence witnesses and of committing perjury during his testimony
01:18Bernie Madoff Bernie Madoff
01:20Masterminded one of the largest and most infamous Ponzi schemes in history
01:24He defrauded investors of billions of dollars over several decades
01:28There are two pieces to a Ponzi scheme. You always have to attract new investment and you have to make sure
01:34They all you don't have a sudden outflow Madoff promised higher returns
01:39Instead he used new investors money to pay off existing investors
01:43He built a gilded Empire a fraudulent facade of success Madoff scheme collapsed in 2008 during the financial
01:51Crisis revealing the extent of his deception. The only reason that
01:56This ended was because at one given point in time
02:01the economy did so badly that people
02:05Wanted needed to get money out of Madoff's investments his crimes resulted in devastating financial losses for thousands of individuals
02:13Charities and institutions the scale of the fraud was unprecedented as were the decades in which he got away with it
02:20He confessed with pride like look what I did
02:23I mean, you're not gonna believe what I did when you get to the bottom of this
02:28He betrayed and ruined untold lives earning him a reputation as one of history's most infamous financial criminals
02:36freeway Rick Ross
02:38Freeway Rick Ross not to be confused with the rapper who took his name was an infamous drug dealer in the 1980s and 1990s
02:45I like put us on a whole different level of playing at that time. Nobody else was doing it like that
02:50Ross was a major figure in the crack epidemic operating out of Los Angeles
02:54His massive drug trafficking operations supplied crack to cities across the country at its peak
03:00Freeway Rick's Empire netted him millions of illicit dollars a day
03:04Ross was eventually arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 1996 Rick was really
03:10the first crack dealer to start at the bottom and
03:15Work his way up to a point where you'd say this guy was rich
03:19This guy was maybe at a point the biggest guy in LA
03:23The sentence was eventually reduced and he was released in 2009 Ross's story has been the subject of controversy and fascination
03:31As it highlights the devastating impact of the crack epidemic and the complexities of the war on drugs
03:38Today Ross is an author and a motivational speaker and just cause you in here that don't make you no bad person
03:45Because good people can make bad mistakes
03:49Leonid Minin originally born in Ukraine Leonid Minin made a name for himself in the underworld as an international arms dealer
03:57Selling dangerous weapons to dangerous people. Can you bring me the gun of Rambo?
04:01part one two or three his more notorious clients included Charles Taylor the controversial ex-president of Liberia and
04:09Several revolutionary groups across West Africa while Minin's business fueled the fires of war
04:15The man was fueling himself with drugs alcohol and ladies of the night
04:26He was discovered among the company of all three of those things as well as around half a million dollars worth of blood diamonds
04:33When he was finally arrested in Italy in 2000 Dawood Ibrahim
04:38Dawood Ibrahim is a ruthless Indian crime boss and terrorist believed to be the kingpin of the Mumbai underworld
04:44His criminal syndicate the D company ran every racket in the city thoroughly organized crime
04:51I would say at any given time D company would had on its payroll more than 25,000 people
04:57Ibrahim is also suspected of having links to terrorist organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al-Qaeda. He was linked to the
05:051993 Mumbai bombings which killed over 250 people and injured hundreds more mean for us
05:10I think it was a 9-11
05:13Equivalent Ibrahim is also believed to have been behind violent attacks and retaliation for the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque
05:22Despite being one of India's most wanted criminals Ibrahim has evaded capture. He's believed to be hiding out in Pakistan
05:29Sources claim that in the last few years
05:32Dawood has emerged as the don of Karachi the Pakistani authorities deny the accusation
05:38Jesse James one of the most legendary figures in the American Old West
05:43Jesse James was also a notorious train robber and he and the other members of the James younger gang weren't above
05:49murdering anybody who got in their way
05:53Open that safe
06:00Do it! Over their career James and his gang were believed to have stolen approximately
06:06$200,000 but were nevertheless admired in their home state of Missouri
06:10Mostly because of their support for the Confederacy during the American Civil War
06:15Jesse in particular had a flair for showmanship and dramatic storytelling and he would use it to his advantage to sell himself as a folk
06:22Hero James's status as a folk hero was cemented when fellow gang member Robert Ford shot him in the back
06:29I guess the town wasn't big enough for the both of them
06:38Charles Ponzi you don't always need a gun to rob people blind and unlike most con man
06:44It appears that he may well have believed in his own scheme
06:48Styling himself as a businessman Charles Ponzi swindled millions of dollars from his investors with a plan that involved
06:55Redeeming postal reply coupons from other countries for postage stamps in the United States
07:00Which could then be sold to make a profit Ponzi realized that done in enough size
07:05This could make him rich beyond belief if it sounds too good to be true
07:10That's because it was and the only person who profited from the so-called business plan was Ponzi himself
07:16Who ended up pocketing most of the money at the core of what was going on here was a big lie
07:22Ponzi was a pioneer among white-collar criminals
07:25And his legacy lives on today in what is now called a Ponzi scheme
07:29Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde chestnut
07:33Champion Barrow Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were a celebrity criminal couple who traveled to the central United States during the Great Depression
07:40We robbed banks
07:42They roamed the countryside robbing banks gas stations and stores their intense combination of thrilling crime and deep romance
07:50fascinated the public
07:52You've heard the story of Jesse James of how he lived and died
07:57If you're still in need of something to read
08:00Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde
08:02They and their Barrow gang survived shootouts with law enforcement and committed multiple murders their crime spree came to an end on May
08:1123rd
08:121934 law enforcement officers ambushed and killed them in Bienville Parish, Louisiana
08:18Hey
08:20Their Grimm's fairy tale of a romance was sensationalized by the press
08:24Some Americans saw them as folk heroes during a time of deep economic hardship
08:29However, their actions were brutal and led to the deaths of several people including police
08:35Griselda Blanco
08:37Griselda Blanco also known as black widow was the godmother of Columbia wasn't for Griselda Blanco
08:43There would be no Pablo Escobar
08:45She was a drug lord with deep ties to Miami's cocaine market during the
08:501970s and 1980s
08:51Blanco was a major figure in the Medellin cartel known for her ruthlessness and violence and use of mules for smuggling illegal
08:59Substances. I'm gonna be here every
09:02night
09:03Do you tell me?
09:05Yes
09:06Most of them were women with cocaine sewn into their bras
09:09She was eventually arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 15 years
09:14Catching subsequent murder charges while in prison after her release
09:18She was deported to Colombia where she was murdered in 2012 when you've done so much bad in your life
09:24that type of beef never goes away that type of
09:28Generational hatred revenge no way James Whitey Bulger
09:32You've got to be wicked smart to evade the authorities for as long as this Southie
09:37It's not what you do it's when and where you do it and who
09:42You do it to or with
09:45Born in Boston James Bulger quickly made a name for himself as a young ne'er-do-well known for stealing and getting into fights
09:52Nicknamed Whitey by the local constabulary because of his light blonde hair Bulger eventually moved up in the underworld
09:59Becoming the boss of Boston's Winter Hill gang where he was responsible for crimes that ranged from extortion to arms trafficking
10:06Bulger could wake up in the morning. He could look over across the water. Look at the Boston skyline and say I
10:14Own this place in
10:161994 Bulger went into hiding and wasn't apprehended until
10:202011 at the ripe old age of 81 for most of us
10:24This was our first glimpse of Whitey Bulger in 2018. He was killed in prison by two fellow inmates
10:31John Gotti John Gotti the Teflon Don was a world-famous American mobster. Gotti was a boss
10:38Who reflected the times it was always grabbing and reaching for more and more
10:43He led the Gambino crime family one of New York's most powerful mafia organizations
10:48He rose to power in the 1980s after orchestrating the murder of boss
10:52Paul Castellano Gotti then took over a vast network of drug trafficking extortion
10:58Loan sharking and gambling
11:00Ironically, the neighborhood thinks John Gotti's keeping the drug dealers out of here
11:05Yet John Gotti's a drug deal known for his flamboyant lifestyle and media presence
11:11Gotti initially avoided conviction eventually the law caught up with him in 1992 when he was convicted of murder and racketeering
11:18Tonight John Gotti stands convicted found guilty on every count against him the flip and testimony of his underboss
11:25Sammy the Bull Gravano sealed Gotti's fate. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2002
11:32Jean-Bernard Lesnod sometimes the biggest criminals can be hiding in plain sight
11:39Originally born in France
11:41Jean-Bernard Lesnod was a wanted man in several European countries during the
11:461980s and 90s due to his arms trafficking which broke several international trade embargoes
11:52Lesnod went on the run to avoid capture and eventually resurfaced in Florida where he brazenly
11:57Continued conducting his illegal business from the comforts of his extravagant condo. This is Paris
12:04He even had his own publicly accessible website where anyone could buy a fighter jet or a machine gun
12:10So long as they had the cash and the proper papers after disappearing in 2002
12:16Lesnod was finally arrested in Switzerland that same year
12:20Meyer Harris Mickey Cohen, you don't have to act in a movie to be a Hollywood star
12:25Just ask Mickey Cohen one of the most infamous mob bosses Los Angeles has ever seen. He was a celebrity gangster
12:34They all went out of their way to come to Mickey's table a scrappy fella who originally worked as muscle for the mafia during
12:42Prohibition Cohen worked his way up the organization's ladder until he reached the top
12:46Power is a vacuum you'll walk in and you take it
12:52Always a snappy dresser Cohen was as good a publicist as he was a gangster
12:56He knew how to play the media and give even his most heinous actions a positive spin
13:01People that thought they knew who and what he was
13:04They didn't it's no wonder then that Cohen was only ever arrested for tax evasion
13:10despite having been guilty of far worse crimes a
13:13Motto Carillo Fuentes for a while. There was no bringing down this Lord of the Skies during the 1970s and 80s
13:21As Carillo grew in confidence influence and power
13:24So did the cartel a motto Carillo Fuentes was the leader of Mexico's Juarez cartel a position he obtained by
13:31assassinating the group's previous boss
13:33Rafael Aguilar Guajardo Fuentes was known as el señor de los cielos
13:39Thanks to the giant fleet of planes he used to transport cocaine around the world
13:44He was also one of the wealthiest criminals in history with a net worth estimated at over 25 billion dollars
13:51The DOJ noted that Amado and the viceroy maintained their grip on the Juarez cartel by a chain of favors given and received
13:58Fuentes died in 1997 from complications during the plastic surgery. He was getting to hide from authorities
14:06Charles lucky Luciano Charles lucky Luciano was a pivotal figure in the American Mafia
14:12modernizing organized crime in the United States
14:14According to the FBI the moment when lucky Luciano rose the top was the watershed events in the history of organized crime in the 1930s
14:21He established the Commission a governing body for the mob
14:25He also restructured the New York crime families into the five families an oligarchy of crime
14:31He even gave his organization a fancy new name
14:35Nicosia Nostra Luciano had his fingers in every illicit pie in New York from bootlegging and drugs to extortion though
14:42He was eventually imprisoned Luciano struck a deal with the government
14:46Yes, until Luciano saw a new opportunity for freedom provided to him by an unexpected source World War two
14:53He spent World War two working with his Sicilian mafia allies to facilitate the u.s. Invasion of Sicily
15:00He spent the rest of his life operating out of Italy dying of a heart attack in
15:051962 Kenichi Shinoda Kenichi Shinoda is the current Kumito or kingpin of the Yamaguchi Gumi
15:13Japan's most powerful Yakuza organization the US Treasury moved to block Shinoda and his deputy Kiyoshi Takayama
15:19From any US assets and transactions and an effort to freeze them out of the global financial market under his leadership
15:26The Yamaguchi Gumi expanded its operations globally becoming deeply enmeshed in the global drug trade
15:32The Yamaguchi Gumi also ran extortion money laundering and gambling operations all over Japan
15:39The Yakuza set up their own auditing firms. They set up their own investment houses
15:42They are Japan's largest private equity fund Shinoda is known for modernizing the Yakuza's operations
15:49Establishing a corporate like structure to their organizations
15:52He also drastically expanded their influence in legitimate businesses
15:57He is known for his strategic cunning and ruthlessness by corporatizing his criminal syndicate
16:03The Yamaguchi Gumi became a formidable force in the criminal underworld
16:07John Dillinger yet another bad guy with good publicity
16:11John Dillinger was a depression era bank robber whose pension for breaking the law was complimented by his love of the spotlight
16:18Play a game mr. President called spin the dial
16:21Dillinger was pretty fond of playing Robin Hood stealing from the rich banks and giving his spoils back to the people while these claims are
16:28still disputed today
16:30Dillinger was painted as a kind of folk hero an image that was only helped by his multiple daring escapes from jail
16:39When he was shot and killed outside a movie theater in
16:421934 a surprising amount of people appeared to mourn for the so-called public enemy number one
16:48Joaquin El Chapo Guzman his unique brand of viciousness and penchant for escape made Joaquin El Chapo Guzman
16:56leader of the Sinaloa cartel a household name
17:00Chapo Guzman Loera is puppet enemy number one in Los Angeles in New York
17:05Guzman's cartel was responsible for smuggling
17:07Staggering quantities of cocaine heroin meth and marijuana into the United States his viciousness bred fear in his enemies and friends
17:15alike having orchestrated innumerable murders kidnappings and bribes to maintain power. He was pretty much a psychopath
17:24He would kill individuals that you have lost loads to set an example
17:29His two dramatic prison breaks in 2001 and 2015 allowed him to evade law enforcement for years
17:36Chapo disappears at 8 52 p.m. Eventually he was captured and extradited to the US in
17:432017 two years later Guzman was convicted and sentenced to life in prison
17:48Al Capone, he's the man who put the organized in organized crimes. I want him dead. I want his family dead
17:56I want his house burnt to the ground. I want to go to the middle of the night I want to piss on his ass
17:59During the Prohibition era Al Capone seized the opportunity to make buttloads of cash off of the at the time illegal liquor business
18:08Capone's violent methods of expanding his bootlegging operation across the United States
18:13Including the bloody st. Valentine's Day massacre went mostly unchallenged
18:18Thanks to the unsurprising fact that people enjoy their booze people are gonna drink, you know that I know that we all know that
18:25And all I do is act on that
18:27Capone was a bit of a celebrity and was even known to donate his ill-gotten gains to charities too bad
18:33He forgot to donate some of his fortune to the federal government. However, as he was put away for tax evasion in
18:391932 before we continue be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos
18:45You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them
18:49If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications
18:56Pablo Escobar
18:57Formerly the main purveyor of Colombia's other addictive substance Pablo Escobar wore many hats during his tenure in the Colombian based Medellín
19:05cartel including drug lord and terrorist
19:15Escobar's massive drug empire allowed him to become not only one of the most powerful people in his native country
19:21But also one of the wealthiest men in the world according to Forbes magazine
19:26The money, you know just kept building and building it Escobar was able to keep his wealth
19:31Thanks to his ruthless pragmatism and he was always willing to bribe bump off or bomb
19:37Anyone that got in his way the violent man met a violent end in
19:421993 when he was shot during a rooftop chase
19:45It's the perfect
19:47Icon of evil. It's such a good drug that it's a machine to make money after you're dead
19:52Do any of our entries need to be locked up for life?
19:55Are there any other notorious gangsters that belong on this list? Let us know in the comments below
20:03Damn it feels good to be a gangster
20:06Did you enjoy this video?
20:07Check out these other clips from watchmojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos
20:15You