Have you ever met a famous criminal?

[WomenHour]

I haven't just wondering how common it is

Not famous, but I was reading 'take a break' or something similar a few years ago. The story was about 2 men who had taken someone into the woods and murdered him. Can't remember why. I recognised one of the names and spent ages trying to work out why. Then remembered he had been the security guard when I had a Saturday job in retail. . My then bf and I used to socialise with him a lot.
He had been sacked for shoplifting

Ooh err, not that I'm aware of 👀
are they not infamous rather than famous🤭

No, but me and DH were walking along the street when Reggie Kray’s funeral processions went right passed us.

When I was a nurse we used to get a few in that were definitely of note but they were always chained to prison guards .

My old dentist murdered his wife and his girlfriend’s husband, staged it to look like suicide. He handed himself in about 15 years later. They made a tv show about it with Jimmy Nesbitt - The Secret.

I once worked with someone whose mother lived next door to Jeffrey Archer. Does that count?

🤭

Having been sat in a Class A prison visitors' hall I'm guessing that I have

Harold Shipman was my GP. He was a bit odd, but seemed very caring.

@Ruthietuthie tell us more!!

I used to work in a pub where the great train robbery was planned in the room upstairs.

My dentist was sent to prison for running a Ponzi scheme and conning people.

@IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls
He was the GP for my whole family. My grandma especially liked him, as he was always willing to do home visits, which was becoming less common then (which is rather ominous in hindsight). He was a bit gruff, but seemed to really care. I thought of him as grandfatherly.
We have another connection too. My father is a funeral director in the area. It was another funeral director who initially sounded the alarm about the number of cremations Shipman was signatory for. All the funeral directors were discussing it at the time, but the initial police investigation came to nothing. My Dad thought the other funeral director was making it all up and that Shipman was a good man... He did eventually change his mind!

I met Peter Tobin while working. He was a frail old man in a wheelchair and still managed to unsettle everyone in the room.

A former colleague of mine worked with Harold Shipman back when he was a junior doctor - she described him as quite serious and she disliked him because he never accepted the nurses offer of a cup of tea on nights 😂.

I used to work in a nightclub in Swindon called Eros.
I used to greet all the clubbers coming in and sort out membership, VIPS, promotions, taxis for guests and staff.
Christopher Halliwell used to come in all the time, he even done some shifts.
Becky Godden was a friend who often crashed on my couch.
I believe that there were more than Becky and Sian but the police don't have the resources or time to continue searching.
Also, the areas where he could have hidden more of his victims are heavily protected - white horse hill, the Ridgeway etc.
So we may never know.

Not really famous but was around youngsters.
A rapper named DVS
He is in prison for 30 odd years for the rape and torture of his girlfriend. He also had been in prison for murder.

Someone I knew from a mum's group murdered her son and hid his wee body then claimed he had left the house himself in the middle of the night.

My university lecturer who was also a curator at a museum and got caught cutting out illuminated pages (mostly Qurans) and selling them. I don't know if it made the international news but it was huge news in Ireland, the amount he stole would be equivalent to millions in today's money.

I was surprised, he was very academic and knowledgeable and seemed to be honourable and gentlemanly. He admitted it and helped the gardai to recover the sold items as much as he could, but a lot of them were sold to the middle east and there was no way to enforce a return of stolen items from there.

I met the war criminal Tony Blair. I believe he's quite well known.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar what are illuminated pages?

Oh, I'd forgotten about politicians, I met Jeffrey Archer.

I haven't but my Grandmother lived near Myra Hindley, she used to see her at the hairdressers. She said she was very attractive, the mugshot was nothing like her.

I have laid eyes on one when attending meetings at a High Secure Unit. I had no desire to get any closer or engage with them. They very clearly saw themselves as a celebrity and a number of the professionals who came to these meetings were so interested in them and so keen to have some interaction with them that I thought it was quite weird.

I have met and worked with many, many non famous criminals, some of whom have done things at least as atrocious as the notorious ones. That's not fun or exciting either.

[quote wizzywig]@BlackAmericanoNoSugar what are illuminated pages?[/quote]
They are ancient handwritten manuscripts, usually bibles, qurans or similar, there is elegant scripted writing and designs around the writing. The Book of Kells is a famous example. If you google 'illuminated bible' or 'illuminated koran' loads of examples pop up.