To ask if you’ve met an infamous criminal?

[Anon778833]

Did they seem ‘normal’? Or did you get a strange feeling about them?

I worked with this woman for a couple of years. We used to chat and she seemed nice, if somewhat distant and aloof. I never really got to know HER, if you know what I mean.

I only found out what she had done after thinking about that particular job and idly googled a few names. I was utterly shocked when her name came up.

Not infamous as it were, I sat opposite a fella who kept on at me to take my kids to a work do, we could go to his, go to the event, get the kids some sweets etc. Anyhow I couldn’t be bothered to go.

He left very suddenly, no one knew where he had gone to, he was a very loud gobby individual. Anyway several years later he appeared in a national paper as a paedophile. Been in prison for a long time and liked to prey on single mums for their kids.

I was this, lucky escape for us 🤮

I was negotiating with the representatives of an overseas client on a transaction. There was one of the group that had a really unpleasant and menacing air. He really didn't like that we weren't agreeing to what he wanted. I later found out that he was the enforcer and was implicated in murders in his home jurisdiction.

Not infamous but I went to school with a man now convicted of murdering his mother. He was an intelligent, pleasant character who seemed kind but did seem troubled. I distinctly recall him declining a date with a friend "because of the way [my] mother is." At the time I thought she was ill and he had caring responsibility but it later became known she was deeply deeply abusive. He also came out shortly after the date proposition so we thought his admirer just wasn't to his taste and it was an excuse. Very sad in the end.

Also was offered by a notorious local thug to "take care" of a man who was mistreating me in a bar. I politely declined

Don't want to say who but a few years ago I was waiting for my date at a bar. My date stood me up and a man who had been sat at the bar asked if he could buy me a drink. He bought me a few drinks and we had a good laugh. He gave me his number but I never contacted him because there were things going on in my life. About a year ago, he committed a hideous crime.

99.9% of these stories aren't about infamous criminals. Interesting to read though.

My ILs lived in the same town as Rolf Harris and they said he was a complete twat. Full of his own self importance, used to try to block any kinds of applications for anything, didn’t want to be part of the community, and all round unpleasant.

And this was before we knew what he’d done.

TBH I think that often after the event we can look back and thing “I always had a bad feeling/thought he was a bit off/that there was something not quite right,” when in actual fact it’s the crime that make us look back because no-one wants to think they didn’t know what a creep that person was.

And yet most of these criminals lead completely normal lives, with normal friends and families, holding down normal jobs, and are normal enough to their victims hence how it happens that they become their victims.

I saw a programme about Peter Wright recently, and one of the prostitutes they interviewed on there said that they had all been with him at some point, and that he was utterly lovely and very respectful even of the women, and that nobody ever felt in any kind of danger with him.

Yes. I worked in a women's prison and met just about the most infamous female serial killer in the world. It was surreal.

Yes
Through work obviously, and most of them are unremarkable people
Always a troubled childhood, some trauma in the past
I know the media image is you feel an icy chill or they’re a skilled manipulator who command a room. Really that’s not the case either. Most are inadequate in many ways. If you didn’t Know the index offence you’d not pick them out as a person of note.

I believe I had an encounter with John Cannan (vile murderer and rapist, suspected of murdering Suzy Lamplugh) in 1986/7. This was in a street in East Acton, London.

Nothing much happened, he just approached me, creeped me out and called me a whore as I walked away.

I met a friend who lived nearby shortly afterwards and remember saying to her that normally I would give a mouthful back, but there was something really sinister about this guy that chilled me to the bone.

I only made the connection years later when I read he has been in a hostel near the Scrubs Prison at around that time. I did think he looked familiar when pictures were in the press at the time of his trial. But I dismissed it as the crimes were committed outside London. He also had shorter hair than in the picture released at that time but there is a picture on the internet where he looks identical.

I am likely very distantly related to an infamous (and deceased) criminal. I never knew of him until he hit the news but the fairly uncommon name and area is a giveaway, there is a common ancestor 200 years ago.

I met Jimmy Saville when I was a girl of ten, he was appearing at the theatre where I was rehearsing to dance in the pantomime. He shook all the girls hands. Awful now to think of it but he just seemed like a nice man 😳
My first boyfriend grew up on the street where Peter Sutcliffe lived though he never spoke to him.

Yes! She was my boss and in a previous life had been involved in a lot of criminal/murderous activities. Never convicted, although widely believed to be a key player. The rest of her family spent time in prison; husband,Mum, Dad and sisters. She was a horrible person, an aggressive and shouty manager yet had 'friends' in the company who must have secretly been in awe of her as she was never taken to task for her behaviour.
Interestingly when the CEO retired last year she also took early retirement amid rumours of hundreds of complaints against her.

One of the guys on America’s wanted list worked with us. It turned out he managed to escape to Scotland while on bail. He was caught due to a minor traffic infringement.

My dads best man was a well known gangland figure. But, my dad knew him via a different part of his life. I only vaguely remember him. By all accounts he was supposed to be a real gent.

Another guy I knew was the brother of a guy who murdered their sister. My sister always had an odd feeling about him. Turns out he was a peadophile who abused my friends cousins

Someone I met in a mum's group killed her son. Truly didn't know she had more children and never dreamed she could kill one of them. She was quite immature and all about her at times. But she was kind to all of us.

My dad's employee's daughter murdered her then boyfriend outside her house. My dad used to tell me about her as she was constantly running away, in trouble with the police. His comment when she was sentenced was she would never change and always manipulative.

My dh's friend's son murdered his ex after luring her to their old flat. When he was 6, I was appalled by his behaviour and told him off and Dh told me off for telling him off. I said that he had no discipline and would grow up to be a monster. It truly shook me up when it was confirmed he was who had been arrested.

My dad was Myra Hindley's prison chaplain!! I have Christmas cards & letters she sent him

@EspressoDoubleShot

Yes Through work obviously, and most of them are unremarkable people Always a troubled childhood, some trauma in the past I know the media image is you feel an icy chill or they’re a skilled manipulator who command a room. Really that’s not the case either. Most are inadequate in many ways. If you didn’t Know the index offence you’d not pick them out as a person of note.

I believe this. I've never met one myself but an ex colleague has spoken to several serial killers through his work. He said they are mostly not charming intelligent psychopaths. They are mostly averagely intelligent ordinary looking men with no particular charisma and a thoroughly bleak world view, and talking to them is mostly depressing.

Mad Frankie Fraser. He took us on a paid tour of his alleged crime scenes. Very friendly & charismatic although surprisingly short. Told my brother (who was driving) that he’d make a good getaway driver as he didn’t hang about!

@iloveeverykindofcat
Yes. Your friend is correct. The vast majority of individuals I’ve assessed who have been perpetrators of a henious crime have been thoroughly ordinary, wholly unremarkable and often with inadequate or maladaptive social skills. They were not charming or charismatic nor did they emit a chilly icy bad un an vibe.

I met Dean Lowe. He murdered a girl I went to school with, Kirby Noden, and wore a necklace made of her teeth.

My word, this is one of the most horrendous things I've read in this thread.

Sometimes, people do give off vibes, but I agree with PP's that some wrong 'uns do hide in plain sight. I never spotted anything "off" about Rolf Harris, for example. I used to attend a Keep Fit class which was held in a local primary school hall. His children had been pupils there, and he made much of community involvement, so as a gift to the school when his children left, he decorated the entire wall at one end of the hall with a beautiful mural. At the time, it was a great talking point, in a positive way. I'd moved away before the other side of his character became apparent, and sometimes vaguely wondered what the school did about it; it wasn't of a size which could simply be covered with a few posters. I remember his shows as being entertaining, if not really to my taste, and he projected positively in an educational TV programme on artists at work which I viewed with my class.
Jimmy Saville, on the other hand, always struck me as slightly off-kilter, but at the time, I just dismissed it as "different strokes for different folks".

@KingsleyShacklebolt

Yes, Rolf Harris. Didn't get any odd vibes from him at all, and spent most of the morning with him.

Same. He was awarded an honorary degree at my university and as I was the student rep on the board at that time I was responsible for taking him round (along with Ken Dodd!)

He seems absolutely lovely, and showed me how to play his wobble board (NOT a euphemism!)

Of all the celebs who turned out to have committed crimes, I have to say I found Rolf the most upsetting and difficult to believe.

My parents neighbour was once someone who was wrongly sentenced to life for murdering her babies. They actually died of SIDS. She had her conviction quashed so although not a criminal, she was thought of in that way for a long time.

Yep. Stewart Murray Wilson, NZ.

www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/114849400/beast-of-blenheim-stewart-murray-wilson-to-be-released-from-prison-back-to-whanganui

He gave me the utter creeps.

I've met two murderers. One is very charismatic. I don't trust him at all. The other was a perfectly pleasant, reserved, bookish woman who had a moment of insanity post-partum. I got the impression the world was safe around her but I always felt the man I knew was still dodgy dealing on the sly. Never trusted him even though he has lived well since.