20 Most Notorious Criminals of All Time
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.
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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
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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
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