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

[3littlemincemeatpies]

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?

The driving examiner I had my test with murdered his wife a couple of months after. He drove his car with her in off the motorway. Tried to make it look like an accident.

DH went on a day out to Skeggy with the ‘angel of death’, Beverly Allitt.

I taught someone years ago who is now serving a life sentence. He was apprehended after being featured on Crimewatch. He was a very vulnerable young teenager and i would never have imagined he'd go on to commit the offences he did.

I've worked in criminal justice with a couple of women involved in horrific murders and with one man who was the ringleader of a gang who committed a series of robberies with guns which involved using young children as hostages.

We lived opposite a woman who killed her boyfriend. She used to assault him on a regular basis, and the fathers of her children were a) in a persistent vegetative state b) doing 20 years for putting him in it. Her brother liked to wander round the local mall slashing random people with a breadknife.
On the night of the killing, we came home to find the square taped off. We knew at once that he was dead and she'd done it. I knew the son of the attending paramedic; she said he'd come back from the pub like that, and would he be all right? Not with a punctured aorta. Single wound, no defence marks, so she got manslaughter.

Yes. At a gallery opening. Not scary, he was long rehabilitated.

Not notorious as such but it made the national tv and newspapers at the time. My friend was murdered by her ex partner. They split up, her decision and like so many we read about, he became enraged, obtained a sawn off shotgun and blasted her in the chest, killing her instantly. I had known them as a couple for years and me and my then partner, who was a friend of his, used to socialise with them frequently. All these years later I still look back in disbelief at how I ate meals in restaurants with this man, went away for weekends with them and laid on beaches alongside him. It still angers me as he got a shockingly short sentence.

Joanna Dennehey, through work. What an absolutely horrendous life she had had, prior to murdering 3 men..(after I was dealing with her).

I went to school with a home grown terrorist. He is currently serving life, his poor mum, she is a lovely lady.

A very good friend of my mothers was a dog walking friend of Dennis Nielsen. The met on the common with their dogs and had a chat most mornings. She was most surprised seeing him in the news unmasked as a serial killer

Three.

When younger I house shared with a guy who when jilted went back to his home city and shot dead his ex-girlfriend and colleague at the end of their bar shift.

I wrestled a door firmly shut to prevent a knife attacker from gaining entry to my building. He went on to murder with guns and grenades and is serving a whole life tariff.

I sat in a business meeting with a client who was later arrested, tried and convicted for the murder of her millionaire husband. At the time of the meeting he was already dead.

I was best friends in my later school years with Idi Amin's stepdaughter. Had dinner with his last (?) wife (her mum) plenty times. Didn't know who they actually were until a few years after we lost touch.

@DahmerDarling are you not frightened? presumably someone very scary (and all his scary housemates) have your address. this would worry me. also what kind of thing do they talk about? do they ever speak of their crimes?

My Husband is related to one of the great train robbers

NC.

Not a notorious criminal but I did get romantically involved with a drug dealer (hash) many years ago which ended when I spent an evening staring down the wrong end of a shotgun!

He didn't shoot, I didn't call the police and a few weeks later I mentioned it at work to my manager as I wasn't having a good day and wanted to leave early. He called the police without my knowledge. The person was arrested and subsequently spent a few years in jail. I never testified as they raided the house and he got done for being in possession. I guess if I had gone to the police he may have gone down for longer. I was young and had nobody to help me through.

He still lives in the same small town as me and to this day has no idea how the information about the gun got out - several people know he had it!

Not notorious. When I was around 8-9 I was at a birthday party and there was a boy there who annoyed/teased me so much that I threw lemonade over him. Out of character for me- I was a timid child. Found out a few years ago that he ended up murdering someone. Always thought that was weird

My mum looked after a notorious person when they were is hospital, but I am buggered if I can remember who the fuck they are (and its too late to ring her) I know they were there because someone had tried to stab them with a pencil in the eye (I think) I was very young and remember her telling my dad but in that parent way where you are talking about adult stuff but know there is a small child in the room type way

20 years ago I lived in Soham so yes. Evil bastard.

Unfortunately yes. Where I used to work, one colleague hit his girlfriend over the head with a hammer and killed her. He committed suicide in prison.
My dh and I used to socialise with another colleague of mine and his wife. She was really lovely...he tbh was very intense and a bit creepy. He murdered her. It was in all the national papers because he used to force her to do awful things and you know how the media love salacious stories. That poor girl. Still makes my blood run cold.
My mentor at the same workplace is in prison for a huge amount of Cat A child pornography. I was very fond of him and my children have sat on his knee. Makes me want to vomit and I still can't get my head around it.

I can think of two off hand.
1, lad I used to pall around with and my mate dated committed murder.
2, a child relative (loosely) killed another child who was a friend of mine.

Had to name change to tell dahmerdarling to get a fucking grip.

This isn't some game, it's not exciting or glamorous. These are people's lives, the loss of them mainly in barbaric circumstances.

I've known loads of notorious criminals through my job as a prison officer (not "warden" as someone called us up thread).

Thanks to everyone telling me to get a grip! You’ve saved me and my damned soul! 🙄 just to be clear though, my username came to be because I was watching a Jeffrey Dahmer documentary at the time of changing it and not from some naive obsession. I used missironside at one point but I’m not obsessed with Vikings 🙄

Knockonthedoor - (sorry my tag isn’t working) - I’ve never really had reason to be frightened. I’ve always used a mail box to avoid using my address and the majority of states have a law stopping anyone who has served longer than 10 years leaving the country. One replied with a short story based loosely on one of his crimes and I found it to be a little unsettling but worth a read at the same time. I’ve written to five over the years and he’s been the only one to mention anything that could be linked to his crimes. A lot of the responses are chit chat about books, movies and other normal stuff but I was writing to one that would only speak about his wife. Reading between the lines, I believe he was genuinely surprised his wife left him after his arrest and as she later died, he was sad (or pretending to be) that he couldn’t put it right with her. I think a lot of them refuse to speak about their crimes as their letters are often sold and used to put books together and they don’t reap the benefits due to laws stopping any financial royalties. I have a drawing by a notorious British inmate and have been offered £2000 for it so I can see why they’re reluctant for people to gain from them. Murderbelia is a big thing these day’s and a lot of money can be made from their crimes.

@sobeyondthehills, that patient was Peter Sutcliffe. His attacker, Ian ?, lived near to me, was the boyfriend of a colleague, and was scary. Nobody was surprised when he murdered a shop worker for the most trivial reason. Some people do have an aura that tells you to stay away and he is one of them.

Yes

Work in forensic mh rehabilitation

Most do quite easily blend in society you wouldn’t know all have had awful lives and severe mh issues and some just got caught up with the wrong people from a young age.

When they are angry, feel their needs are not being met, feeling paranoid some can be very frightening to be around just by what they project and others their obvious hostility (that’s less frightening) and you being mh professional are the target

I think it’s time for me to work in another area it’s very draining at times

Not notorious or even a major criminal but I taught the son of a local, infamous criminal. My dad was one of his attempted victims (as I said, not a major crime). Spoke to him most days about his son’s behaviour and he was always perfectly polite to me. If the police were hanging around outside the school though (they do every now and again in our area), he would wave his child over through the fence and disappear as quickly as possible so there is no doubt in my mind that he was still involved in crime...

The bloke that murdered Sally Ann Bowman used to work for the same company as me, this was (obviously) before he did what he did but it was very clear something wasn't right with him even then.
My friend used to live on Cromwell Street. Fred West was always very friendly and would always say hello shudders