38 Random Bits of Trivia About Crime That Won’t Say Another Word Until Their Lawyer Gets Here

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38 Random Bits of Trivia About Crime That Won’t Say Another Word Until Their Lawyer Gets Here

We know that these low-down, no-good crime facts aren’t telling us everything, but we can’t prove it. It seems like they’re just giving us a little taste of the truth, but we need a lot more. 

If this is all we’re going to get right now, we’ll have to do some digging of our own. It’s a good thing we’re top-notch detectives.

Vanilla Theft

The region of Sava, Madagascar is a hotbed of vanilla thefts. After the global price for vanilla soared by more than 500%, so did the number of thefts. The crime aggravated the local farmers so much that caught thieves face the prospect of being beaten to death by them. CRACKED COM

Lisbon

In Lisbon, Portugal, authorities have not been able to stop people from stealing ceramic tiles known as azulejos, which have been part of the city's culture for decades. Thieves have been ripping them off the walls and selling them for hundreds of euros on the black market. CRACKED.COM

Stoner Avenue

The city of Bemidji, Minnesota has a little theft problem regarding the street signs for Stoner Avenue and in the span of 10 years, the city spent $20,000 just to replace all the stolen signs. STONER AVNE Their solution? Higher poles. CRACKED.COM

Tattoos

PROVE IT, COPPER! CRACKED.COM In 2011, a California gang member was arrested for driving with an expired license. While in custody, police noticed that his chest tattoos depicted an unsolved liquor store robbery and murder. After questioning, he confessed and was convicted.

Pinball Crime Bosses

PINBALL CRIME BOSSES RESCUE GRACKED.COM Pinball was made illegal across the U.S from the early 1940s until 1976. Underground pinball rings sprouted in NYC, Chicago, LA, and crime boss James В. Elkin became a noted organizer of Portland's illegal pinball machine industry.

The Godfather

AUTHENTIC CRACKED.COM In 'The Godfather' Don Corleone's hitman Luca Brasi was played by a real-life hitman Born Leonardo Passafaro, Lenny Montana had a successful pro wrestling career before becoming an enforcer in the Colombo crime family.

Gun Violence

CRACKED.COM MYTH: Mental illness and gun violence go hand in hand. REALITY: Incorrect. It's estimated that only 4% of all violent gun crimes involve mental illness. Yet the majority of Americans believe otherwise. Alcohol abuse and stress from getting a divorce or losing a job are way more likely to induce gun violence. Mental illness, however, is a great risk factor for gun suicides, and makes up the majority of gun-related deaths in the US.

Detroit-Side Story

DETROIT- SIDE STORY CRACKED COM In the 1970s, a murderous Detroit gang called the Errol Flynns (named after Hollywood actor, Errol Flynn) were known for their flamboyant clothing style and a special dance for their gang sign.

Al Capone’s Cop Brother

CAPONE'S COP BROTHER CRACKED.COM As Capone built a fortune from illegal alcohol during Prohibition, while his older brother, Richard James 'Two Gun' Hart (born Vincenzo Capone) was tracking down bootleggers from Nebraska to South Dakota, exhibiting a tireless dedication to the law.

El Chapo

IN THIS TOGETHER CRACKED.COM In 2005, Mexican drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán dined at a restaurant. His henchmen told the 30 diners to remain calm as they locked the doors, and collected their cell phones. After finishing his meal, he left and paid everyone's bill.

The True-Crime-Fan-Turned-Murderer

A true crime fan killed someone just to watch them die. A 23-year-old in South Korea who was obsessed with true crime was charged with murder. She confessed to killing someone she had met online, saying she wanted to experience what it was like to commit murder. CRACKED

True Crime

A BIG FAN OF TRUE CRIME? DON'T WORRY, YOU'RE NOT A WEIRDO (PROBABLY). YOU'RE JUST A CURIOUS PROBLEM SOLVER WITH A MORAL COMPASS. OR SO THE EXPERTS THEORIZE. Being into this dark genre can also indicate alert survival instincts, as we tend to pay closer attention to things that can harm us, in order to be better prepared. CRACKED.COM

The NYPD

The NYPD still used typewriters as of 2015 A few years ago, if you reported a crime in New York City, the report wasn't typed on a computer, but on an old- school typewriter. This was to be expected in, say, the 1970s-but certainly | 2 % LIQU حري 1/2 not in the 21st century. - Q W E R T Y - 1 A $ D F G H Z X с V В N CRACKED.COM

Elderly Japanese People

Elderly Japanese people are committing small crimes so they can live in prison for free. CRACKED COM An increasing number of people aged more than 65 now make up more than a quarter of the prison popula- tion in Japan.

Police Interrogations

Police interrogation techniques are tough, but they get the job done. Right? Maybe a little too well. Innocent people will confess to a crime they didn't commit 43% of the time. CRACKED.COM

Yamaguchi Gumi

Japan has the largest organized crime group in the world. CRACKED.COM Yamaguchi Gumi is worth $80 billion. By contrast, Sinaloa, Mexico's largest drug cartel, was worth $3 billion.

Good Looks

BRAIN HACKS GOOD LOOKS Good-looking people are less likely to be convicted of a crime and less likely to get a harsh sentence. In one study, the less attractive defendant was given an average sentence of 24.71 years, while the attractive defendant only received 15.11 years. CRACKED

Pope Stephen VI

A Pope was once put on trial, after his death. CRACKED.COM In 897, Pope Stephen VI had the corpse of a previous pope, Formosus, exhumed, perched on a throne, and questioned about his crimes. The event is known as the Cadaver Synod.

Frozen

Frozen helped solve a 62-year-old mystery. In 1959, nine hikers never came back from a trip to Russia's Ural mountains .. this became known as the Dyatlov Pass incident. So scientists used avalanche simulation models developed for Frozen to simulate what happened at Dyatlov Pass. That was a big help in developing a convincing argument that a freak delayed avalanche killed the hikers. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

Clement Vallandigham

A lawyer shot himself demonstrating how the victim might have accidentally shot himself. GRACKED.COM Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and Ohio politician defending a man accused of murder, had his client cleared in 1871 by his first-hand demonstration. Vallandigham died 12 hours later.

Snoop Dogg

CRACKED SNOOP DOGG'S MURDER TRIAL BOOSTED HIS STREET CRED In 1993, Snoop was on trial for first degree murder after his associate shot a rival gang member while in Snoop's car. Snoop was acquitted, but the publicity helped his 1993 debut album Doggystyle debut at #1 on Billboard, and sell over 11 million copies.

Juries

JURIES AREN'T JUST FOR CRIMINAL CASES. If you're summoned for jury duty, you might have to sit through a murder case-orit might be someone suing someone else. Most civil cases, however, have fewer jurors than criminal ones, and the verdict doesn't need to be unanimous. CRACKED.COM

The Unmasked Polish Murderer

WEIRD WORLD In Poland, they caught murderer because, uh, he wasn't wearing a mask. He'd been on the run for 20 years, and they finally nabbed him when he got stopped by police for not wearing a mask in a shop (which is mandatory in Poland). CRACKED.COM

John Bodkin Adams

CRACKED.COM John Bodkin Adams was a wealthy doctor (and maybe a serial killer). Doctor Adams' wealth had a dubious origin - he had his elderly female patients write him into their wills, and then he would (allegedly) alleviate their suffering with an injection. Не was never convicted for murder, but he was still found guilty of forging prescriptions and other such suspicious going-ons.

Serial Killers

CRACKED.COM MORE SERIAL KILLERS ARE BORN IN JANUARY THAN ANY OTHER MONTH A study of 293 serial killer spread across 29 countries all over the world revealed that 11.2% of those were born in January, even though the month of January has 7.9% of all births. Fun fact: Hannibal Lecter was born on January 20, 1933.

Doctor Death

The most prolific serial killer in recorded human history was a doctor. CRACKED.COM British doctor Harold Shipman (also known as 'Doctor Death') was proven to have murdered at least 250 of his patients but may have killed as many as 459 people.

The Suicide Hotline

ANN RULE VOLUNTEERED AT A SUICIDE HOTLINE. SIEMENS PORS TUV WXYZ SHE AND A COLLEAGUE BECAME FAST FRIENDS. A few years later, she was working on a book about unsolved murders. One victim called the killer Ted, and his description matched her old colleague. She tipped off the police, who promptly arrested the man, Ted Bundy. CRACKED.COM

The Mad Pooper

HOLMEDEL HIGH SCHOOL HAD A MAD POOPER. THEY KEPT POOPING ON THE TRACK FIELD. Cops finally caught the culprit right before 6 AM, trousers down. It wasn't a student, but the superintendent of the school district. His choice to do this truly defies logic, especially since it cost him a $150,000 annual salary. CRACKED.COM

Quincy Green

QUINCY GREEN WORE AN ANKLE MONITOR. AIRNESS IT PUT HIM AT HOME AT THE TIME OF A MURDER. But he was the murderer. How'd he get there? Не just took off his prosthetic leg and replaced it with a backup. That's right, the police had attached the bracelet to a prosthetic, removable leg instead of his real one. CRACKED.COM

MoMA’s Missing Photos

IN 2017, MOMA FOUND TWO PHOTOS MISSING. 12 THEY HAD A COMBINED VALUE OF $105,000. There were no eyewitnesses, no security footage, not a single clue. It was the perfect crime ... for about four days. After that, the photographs were anonymously returned to the museum, completely unscathed. CRACKED.COM

The Airbnb Murder

Villa La Mas, Costa Rica The Airbnb murder Reviews of this Airbnb rental called it scary and a nightmare, but Carla Stefaniak decided to stay there for her 36th birthday. She texted her sister-in-law, It's pretty sketchy here, and went missing for a week before her body was found covered in plastic and half-buried. It is believed that a security guard killed her. CRACKED.COM

Prison Escapes

JACQUES MESRINE ESCAPED PRISON. THEN НЕ CAME BACK TO FREE ALL HIS FRIENDS. Не was finally captured, but this time they couldn't even hold on to him long enough to sentence him. Не escaped from the courtroom during trial by smuggling a gun into court and holding the judge hostage. CRACKED.COM

Stealing Numbers

A THIEF KEPT STEALING ADDRESS NUMBERS. 10 THEY ONLY EVER STOLE 1's AND O's. Around Christmas, one resident found a trash bag on their stoop, filled with metal ones and zeroes. There was no note and no reason why the numbers were returned, so the neighborhood was just left with more questions. CRACKED.COM

The Off-Duty Cop Killed During a Robbery

AN OFF-DUTY COP WAS KILLED AT A ROBBERY. QUESTIONED, A WITNESS WAS SHOCKED. You know what happened, he told the investigator. You were there! Yes, it turned out the officer, Antoinette Frank, had robbed the restaurant, killed the cop (working as a guard) and several others, then came right back while on duty. CRACKED.COM

Dr. Schneeberger

DR. SCHNEEBERGER ASSAULTED PATIENTS. BUT HIS DNA WASN'T A MATCH. Then police finally tested his hair instead and got a match. It turned out the doctor had inserted a tube of someone else's blood into his own arm, and he'd used this each time to fool the police with someone else's DNA. CRACKED.COM

Microscopes

The first crime solved by a microscope was in 1846. CRACKED.COM Joseph Leidy examined blood on the shirt of an ac- cused murderer and deter- mined that the blood was from a human and not the blood of a chicken, as the suspect had claimed.

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