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Original poster

Have you ever met or had any scary encounters with a notorious criminal...

165 replies

3littlemincemeatpies · 04/01/2020 13:10

I am fascinated by true crime, particularly the behaviours shown and also how the investigations unfold into catching them...

I’m also a big fan of NM’s WOO/scary/creepy threads and thought I’d tie the two together and ask for your scary/near miss encounters with any evil and notorious criminals.

I actually don’t have any of my own other than my dad being involved in the investigation/operation that led to the arrest a well known Scottish peadophile, it was all very dramatic with the raid team (dad included) gaining access to his property in the back of a RM van...

Does anyone have anymore?

OP posts:
Sallycinammonbangsthedruminthe · 04/01/2020 15:51

Met a few ...went to a particular persons funeral who was very well known..think london twins!
Most or them I met are/seem exactly as anyone else would be you would meet in the street..however a couple I met had a certain look in their eye when they were riled and it made me very wary,on those odd occassions that if they lost control they would be very dangerous.It wouldnt be right to name names as some are friends and regardless of their past they have a right to privacy. I did however many years ago work near a bail hostel and we had a chap come in often and he used to come in in a dress...I didnt know who he was but he was very polite despite the dress I thought he was a gentleman with his manners and behaviour..after asking one of the residents who he was discreetly I found out he had served 28 yrs in prison for really horrific crimes...the day before he had been playing pool with my son and teaching him how to play cards!!! You would never ever have known he was who he was and never ever remotely possible that he had committed such atrocious crimes...but he did and funnily enough never once was he ever anything but lovely to us.,,I get a christmas card every year from him and never ever have I felt threatened in any way,,,..you just never can tell OP! It is a very strange world we live in and all is not as it seems sometimes ..

Fudgecakes · 04/01/2020 16:07

DH met a notorious UK serial killer who was quite nervous about the possibility of having his garden dug up as part of some necessary construction works my DH was planning...suffice to say events that consequently unfolded made DH understand why he was effing and jeffing at the prospect 😮😮

Ex SIL had a cuppa with above mentioned murderer as he was a builder and she had him round to quote for a job! What a lucky escape she had 😮😮😮

iforgotthatyouexisted · 04/01/2020 16:12

Yep, I've met three murderers including one who murdered a child.

sarahjconnor · 04/01/2020 16:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SlayB · 04/01/2020 16:38

I met Mad Frankie Fraser who was very dapper and polite.

Also my family were very close to an Essex crime family the extended family were really lovely people and the wife was my mums best friend. They were a very ordinary family from my point of view.

Freid · 04/01/2020 16:45

When we were kids, my dad rented out our spare room to a German guy my aunt was dating who turned out to be a rapist and serial killer. There was a big spread in the telegraph about him recently.

I don't remember him at all but my mum said she used to have to go in his room as that's where the airing cupboard was and he would have a pair of shoes on a bit of paper behind the door that he'd place there before he went out, so he knew if anyone had been in there.

BearSoFair · 04/01/2020 16:54

Not notorious but DS1 from 11-14 was in class with a boy who is now in prison for murder (committed at 15). Gang related. DS says there was never any indication he was in a gang and if you had to guess who in the class might have been in that situation he would never have been anyone's choice.

lilmishap · 04/01/2020 16:55

In Hastings a dog attacked mine and in trying to stop it I kicked the dog as hard as I could, at this point a huge bloke appeared and started shouting at me for kicking his dog (which was still ragging mine about) he then noticed my dog was bleeding and dragged his off.
3 or 4 years later it emerged he was involved in killing a bloke and dismembering him, he'd been shot dead outside of his house for god knows what else before it came out.

IWishItWasSummer · 04/01/2020 16:58

Many. I was in the Prison Service for a number of years.

Soubriquet · 04/01/2020 17:01

I’ve met the twilight killers.

Well, only the female half of it. Normal if grumpy moody teenager

joystir59 · 04/01/2020 17:03

I knew a female prison warden who'd looked after Myra Hindley

Thedeadwood · 04/01/2020 17:06

I met Mary Bell- I went to school with her daughter.
I liked her daughter very much and they came over for tea a few times. Mary always seemed very quiet and nervous but sweet.
We realised who they were when the press found them and hounded them out of the village. I felt incredibly sorry for her daughter having to live like that.

OnGoldenPond · 04/01/2020 17:08

Met an old London hit man known as the Iceman in a pub when met a friend who was having drinks with workmates. An old guy was there with the group, was a client who had been invited by their boss.

He started chatting to me, then got a bit overfriendly and put his arm round me. I shoved his arm off and told him to piss off.

Only then did friend tell me who he was! Shock

Butterer · 04/01/2020 17:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bluntness100 · 04/01/2020 17:10

A close friend of mine is a senior police officer. He needed to speak to one of the Kray twins when said twin was inside. On their first meeting he greeted him with an overly familiar shortened version of his first name, think along the lines of "hello Johnie" in that famous London accent, instead of his more formal police title, said he was fine though.🤣

Aragog · 04/01/2020 17:11

I have met and talked with several criminals including murderers, rapists, etc. Some were in prison for very violent offences and some had done some truly horrific stuff. The ones I met in for the worst crimes were aged 18 to 21, or older and coming towards the end of their lengthy sentences. I also worked with other criminals of less serious crimes.

I used to do 1 to 1 guidance work with these men, so would be sat in a room on my own with them, somethings in their cells. For long sentences it was to do with managing their time inside and giving them a purpose, rather than them sat around doing nothing. For those towards the end of a sentence it was planning for release.

I did it for around 3 years. It was fascinating but day to day when working with them I trued to forget the reasons they were in for. If you did it meant some of those meetings felt too scary especially initially.

Due to other parts of my work there though I did get to know their full details including records of previous offences, childhood, background etc. It could make for some horrid reading.

pintofperrier · 04/01/2020 17:15

I've accidentally met more Albanian mobsters than I think is sensible. Also met someone who had been in prison for murder who told me all about it in graphic detail... I was about 10 and they were on day release from a local prison for community volunteering work where my mum volunteered. After he was released he would send my mum books through the post about the benefits of wheatgrass and it really scared her (as he obv found out our address).

I also went to a pantomime held in a prison when I was a child and had quite the falling out with the man handing out goodie bags at the end as mine didn't contain any Pogs. I argued my case and got the previous milk caps, but as an adult I'm seriously Shock when I think about it now. Grin

Aragog · 04/01/2020 17:15

I also remember going to an funeral of one of DH's uncles several years ago. He spent a lot of time in Malta in the past. There was a short, old man there. He just looked like someone's great grandad. Turned out he had been a well known 'gangster' back in Malta in the past. You'd have never known to look at him. Dh's uncle had been a solicitor int he past and it would appear had some dubious contacts in Malta.

pintofperrier · 04/01/2020 17:17

Also I have a lot of "uncles" who were "freedom fighters" in a specific European country back in the 70s.

CheeseNOnionPasty · 04/01/2020 17:18

In my teens I went out with the son of one member of a ‘notorious London crime family’.

Being a silly teenager, I thought it was all quite glamorous, as I was treated like a ‘princess’ by all the uncles and older gangsters, but looking back it was all quite sad and seedy. They weren’t the ‘gents’ they portrayed. They were violent, dangerous criminals. I’ve read things about them in the press in the many years since and I shudder to think I was so embroiled with these people.

lottiedelavega · 04/01/2020 17:18

I almost went on a date with a convicted peado the other day. Thank god I found his vile secret out before I went. Worrying.

Ferretyone · 04/01/2020 17:19

Long ago I worked with someone in a "Civil Service" job. He featured in a book of unsuccessful murderers! He ended up in Parkhurst.

He was arrested for attempted murder of his DW. He took her onto Beachey Head to take pictures "back a bit back a bit". He asked her to stand in front of the car while he tested the brakes. He set the flat on fire when she was ill in bed. When he was found out she said "I think I must be a bit naive as I thought we had a good relationship"

@3littlemincemeatpies

x2boys · 04/01/2020 17:19

My brother in law was in the same class at school with the man who committed a notorious and particularly horrific murder of a elderly lady in a bus station toilet in greater Manchester .

skiptheskip · 04/01/2020 17:19

I work in a high secure mental health hospital so yes I’ve met and work with lots.

BobLobLawLLB · 04/01/2020 17:22

I worked on a forensic unit. Some nasty bastards in there....