Have you ever known a "serious" criminal?

AckwelFoley

I knew a guy that butchered his wife and 2 children with a knife and a hurl

Nice guy to deal with right up until that point.

I know a guy that was questioned about the murders in Yorkshire back in the 80s

Some lad called Peter Suthcliff was eventually convinced

Billy Mays

Same class as a major gangland criminal

Year behind a different major gangland criminal shot dead some years ago

oholly121

Used to play hurling when I was younger with this piece of ****


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thejournal.ie/manchester-dubliner-rape-2619160-Feb2016/%3Famp%3D1

Was a load mouth tosser even back then

joebloggs32

I wouldn't say i knew the man, but spent a few days in the company of a former loyalist paramilitary who done some serious porridge in the Maze at the time of the hunger strikes.

I was taking part in an educational trip.

I had dinner with him one night.
He had some fascinating stories about what life was like for him growing up. Its hard to comprehend the different upbringing he had compared to me coming from a quiet corner of rural Ireland.

The Inbetween is mine

Witchie wrote: »

Went on a date with a Malaysian guy a few years ago who told me he was on the FBI'S most wanted list for managing to smuggle oil out of Iran.

Told me his dad owned a fish canning factory in Thailand and one of his mates was in opium production. The friend had some problems with whistleblowers so chopped them up and my guy allowed him to can them in the factory.

He of course could have been making it all up, but either way I didn't want to go out with a dangerous guy or a fantacist.

Oh and my old hairdresser's husband recently went down for the death of his lorry load of Vietnamese people.

Ah they finally caught up to Mo....and what a wonderful building that lass has...wonder who financed it all?

Tzardine

One of my best mates dad went to prison a few years back. Totally respectful middle class family.

Turned out he raped his niece when she was a kid.

Complete shock.

Witchie

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

Ah they finally caught up to Mo....and what a wonderful building that lass has...wonder who financed it all?

Not Mo. Higher up the pecking order.

Munstersrebel

A lad i used to work with and who had some dodgy ways ntdealing with legal papers, went to jail for defrauding clients of a 7figure sum... I totally accidentally found out..

ACitizenErased

Yup, was involved in GAA with a guy who slit a woman's throat and left her bleed out after setting the house on fire.

The Inbetween is mine

Witchie wrote: »

Not Mo. Higher up the pecking order.

Interesting that more than 1 of them had a hairdressers... It's not just the hair that gets washed I'm guessing

Richard Hillman

A few

A murderer, who stabbed a guy 17 times

A guy who was running guns for the Ra and is now a big time drug dealer.

I drank a few times with the guy who set a homeless man on fire in Pheonix Park. He was a nice chap back then but fell into hard drugs. He went mental after having his throat slashed and survived it.

Those 2 brothers who beat up that Autistic guy in Bray. They lived in my estate. Never liked them tbh.

Used to play football with a guy who was caught with 1m of drugs. They were not his but he had to take the fall otherwise he was going for trip to the mountains.

I also chatted to Graham Dwyer in his local pub that I frequented. He is a Real Madrid fan and he watched the Barcelona 5-0 win on the table beside me.

freshpopcorn

Nothing serious my aunt knows a guy who committed a few armed post office robberies and cash in transit robberies back in the 1980's.
I met him once or twice. He's very homophonic and racist and doesn't seem to have much going on. He has good stories to tell tough. I think the thrill of it was nearly as good as the money for him.

A lady who lives near me stole over €400,000 from her work place. She was meant to have being okay but a bit snobby. She lived it up with her money. She got sentenced to a few years but got out very fast. She went on community service and told everybody she was doing work experience.

The Inbetween is mine

I didn't know him.... but my mother did a bunk to Israel with a bank robber after he pulled a job

smellyoldboot

Grew up in an inner city area in Waterford and it's actually shocking the amount of serious criminals I knew or at least well enough they'd approach and say hello etc in a shop/pub. At least 4 currently serving time for murder, plus one I lived next to (we didn't get on, Wonder why) one paedophile (committed suicide) and couldn't count how many have been in for serious drug charges. For a place relatively small it's seriously scummy tbh.

The one thing most of these had in common: In a social setting you would peg them as a bit rough maybe but bar one or two you would have no idea of the level of violence they have proven themselves capable of.

Mad_maxx

Didn't even know who he was at the time but shook hands with and had a five minute chat with the guy who blew up Lord Henry Mountbatten

He was canvassing for the local SF candidate in a bye election, he spent most of the time telling me that Michael McDowell ( justice minister at the time) was a bollocks

Neighbour asked me the following day "had I Thomas McMahon around "

scudzilla

Yeah, i moved here 15yrs ago from Wales, back home i mixxed with a lot of 'bad people' from the North Wales area, most are or have done serious time now, also occasionally mixxed with some of the higher ups from Manchester/Liverpool.

Back then it was interesting, now i just look back on them with humour, some of those from Wales acting the big tough guys, wouldn't last 5 minutes over here and thats no exaggeration.

Hangdogroad

AckwelFoley wrote: »

I knew a guy that butchered his wife and 2 children with a knife and a hurl

Nice guy to deal with right up until that point.

I know a guy that was questioned about the murders in Yorkshire back in the 80s

Some lad called Peter Suthcliff was eventually convinced

In fairness nearly every male in ther 20s and 30s in the North Of England were questioned during the Yorkshire ripper investigation.

gary550

A friends father is currently doing life for murder (which was more of an assassination).

Sound guy who would do anything for you and just got mixed up with the wrong crowd.....

dhaughton99

I used to work for the accountant who controlled the Ansbacher accounts.

AckwelFoley

Hangdogroad wrote: »

In fairness nearly every male in ther 20s and 30s in the North Of England were questioned during the Yorkshire ripper investigation.

Yea. You're right. That's quite true.

joebloggs32

About 15 years ago i picked up a newspaper to see a picture of my housemate in it.
She was on trial for manslaughter. I never knew a thing.

It was a house share and I'd only moved in a few months before so i didn't know her.

I nearly **** myself until i read down into the article.

Turned out she killed some lad walking on the road one night while driving.
She didn't stop at the scene as she claimed to be unaware of the collision.

She did kill him as forensics proved it was her car, but she was not convicted.


A year later, another house and a complete weirdo moved in with us. (Me and one girl)
The girl in the house was totally creeped out by him. Walking around in boxers all day, up all night smoking etc.
We rang a mate in the Gardai and it turned out he had multiple convictions for violent offences.
He left meds in the batbroom and we looked them up...treatment for schizophrenia.
We told the landlord he had to go or we would leave.
He knew the we told the landlord. Threatened to burn us out. We let the cops know, and they called to his homeplace in another town to send him a message.
We slept in friends houses for a few nights until we knew he skipped town.

Gregor Samsa

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Someone I know very well was convicted of murder, later reduced to manslaughter on appeal (crime and case were a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it). They did an absolutely appalling thing, no question about it - and put the family of the victim and their own family though absolute hell - but in every other aspect of their lives they're one of the quietest, nicest, most helpful people you could meet. They pleaded guilty to manslaughter, served their time and are out of prison, but I still can't get my head around what they did, because knowing the person, it just doesn't seem possible.

Was that the Cork murder from the mid noughties?

El Gato De Negocios

Not a "serious criminal" but a blood relative of mine is currently serving a long sentence in the central mental hospital for killing his partner. Terribly sad case, he has/had mental health issues and got in trouble for assaulting a garda when a teenager, served some time for that, got out, did his leaving, went and got a University degree, extremely intelligent chap and to speak to him in person you'd say a really nice and gentle soul. Not for one second excusing his crime but he had a very tough upbringing, his mother is an absolute crackpot, proper headbanger, his dad had alcohol abuse issues and he witnessed his infant sibling die when he was 3 or 4. Was on medication for schizophrenia but tablets ran out, he started having episodes and hallucinations and ended up taking someone's life. Heartbreaking for all concerned, particularly his partners family.

weldoninhio

joebloggs32 wrote: »

About 15 years ago i picked up a newspaper to see a picture of my housemate in it.
She was on trial for manslaughter. I never knew a thing.

It was a house share and I'd only moved in a few months before so i didn't know her.

I nearly **** myself until i read down into the article.

Turned out she killed some lad walking on the road one night while driving.
She didn't stop at the scene as she claimed to be unaware of the collision.

She did kill him as forensics proved it was her car, but she was not convicted.


A year later, another house and a complete weirdo moved in with us. (Me and one girl)
The girl in the house was totally creeped out by him. Walking around in boxers all day, up all night smoking etc.
We rang a mate in the Gardai and it turned out he had multiple convictions for violent offences.
He left meds in the batbroom and we looked them up...treatment for schizophrenia.
We told the landlord he had to go or we would leave.
He knew the we told the landlord. Threatened to burn us out. We let the cops know, and they called to his homeplace in another town to send him a message.
We slept in friends houses for a few nights until we knew he skipped town.

So your housemate was ill, was taking medication for it, and you had him kicked out?

Wanderer78

smellyoldboot wrote:

The one thing most of these had in common: In a social setting you would peg them as a bit rough maybe but bar one or two you would have no idea of the level of violence they have proven themselves capable of.

You ll find most criminals would have experienced truma growing up, sprinkle in some complex psychological disorders, and you ve a ticking time bomb. Can't think of any serious criminals, but I meet petty criminals regularly, have met a chap that was shot, think during a burglary, he's lucky to be alive, and to be able to walk.

Gregor Samsa

weldoninhio wrote: »

So your housemate was ill, was taking medication for it, and you had him kicked out?

A close family member of mine has schizophrenia (different person to whom I posted about earlier).

It’s an awful disease for the poor sufferer, and you’d be right to have sympathy for them.

But from personal experience I would not judge this poster negatively for making such an ultimatum. There’s only so much anyone should have to put up with in the behaviour of others, and schizophrenia can blast right through that limit and keep in going (and I’m not even talking about violent behaviour here). Medication doesn’t necessarily “cure” it either, just takes the edges off some of the more extreme symptoms, but can cause behavioural issues of its own.

That said, this is a thread about knowing people who committed serious crimes, so the anecdote doesn’t really fit here. People suffering from schizophrenia are have a larger likelihood of being the victim of violent crime than those who don’t, but don’t necessarily have a higher instance of committing them.

circadian

weldoninhio wrote: »

So your housemate was ill, was taking medication for it, and you had him kicked out?

I don't agree with this. The housemate clearly had serious issues and the rest of the house was in no way equipped to handle it. There should be much better support services for people with severe mental illnesses allowing them to live as normally as possible. House shares with a variety of characters that comes with the territory of conflict over the most inane **** is not a stable or supportive environment.



The housemates, while it comes across as cold, done the right thing to protect themselves as anything could have happened in such a situation to set everything off without any supports whatsoever for the fella that needs it most.

Hangdogroad

gary550 wrote: »

A friends father is currently doing life for murder (which was more of an assassination).

Sound guy who would do anything for you and just got mixed up with the wrong crowd.....

"More of an assasination"

Is that different from the oul murder?

antodeco

Someone I know is being trialled for murdering his wife. Actually need to check up what's happening with that case. I've a few photos with him a week or 2 beforehand. Such a nice guy, you'd happily invite him around to your place.

Another old manager of mine did a few years for kidnapping and attempted murder. He always was a bit of an oddball so didn't surprise me.

Someone else I know did 15 years for something relating to freedom fighting group here in Ireland...

Mad_maxx

weldoninhio wrote: »

So your housemate was ill, was taking medication for it, and you had him kicked out?

thats right , mental illness gives someone licence to behave in an appropriate way which makes others deeply uncomfortable

:rolleyes: