1. Doris Payne
Doris Payne, famous thief
Orange County Register
As one of the most notorious jewel thieves in the world, Doris Payne is something of a cult figure; her six decades of criminal activity were immortalized in a 2013 documentary (in which she starred), including the story of her most notorious heist - a $500,000 10-carat diamond ring in Monte Carlo in the 1970s.
She had led a life of crime for over seven decades and has stolen from large businesses to small stores and anywhere she saw an opportunity. By often posing as a rich client, she managed to get shop clerks to let their guard down and slip items into her bag.
Payne has been convicted several times for her crimes but received minimal punishment. Now, in her 90s, she has shown little regret about her criminal life and is suspected of several other thefts, including the stealing of a $33,000 diamond ring in the great state of North Carolina.
2. Derek "Bertie" Smalls
Bertie Smalls, criminal
independent
If you know about the widespread armed robberies in Great Britain in the 60s and 70s then you will also recognize the name Derek "Bertie" Smalls.
Smalls' pièce de résistance was his robbery of the Ilford Barclay's Bank branch in 1970, pocketing a mammoth £237,000 - a record at the time. Fleeing the scene, the east London native escaped to Paris and later to the Costa Del Sol, where he followed the hunt for his capture through newspapers.
After surrendering to the police, Smalls was able to secure immunity by becoming an informant for law enforcement and offering names and evidence to prosecute members of the underworld. As a result, Bertie Smalls is most famous for being Britain's first snitch or, as they call it in the UK, supergrass. He died of natural causes in 2008 despite the numerous revenge bounties - including the alleged £1m that the Kray twins (above) - placed on his head.
3. Carl Gugasian
Carl Cugassian, criminal
followatch
An Ivy League-educated army officer with a PhD in statistics and probability, Carl Gugasian probably never intended to become a career criminal; after planning a series of mock robberies in his spare time, though, the Pennsylvania native - a convicted juvenile offender - began to develop a notorious reputation as the "Friday Night Bank Robber".
To this day, he is still the most notorious bank robber in the United States’ history. During his long reign of criminal activity, he robbed many banks, shot several people and managed to steal $2 million.
Experts contend that Gugasian was immensely dedicated to his craft, doing whatever it took to get better in his field. It is comparable to any law-abiding profession. Still, once he was caught by law enforcements, he was remorseful. His willingness to co-operate with the subsequent investigation saw his sentence reduced from 115 years to 17; Gugasian, meanwhile, now teaches calculus to other inmates.
4. Frank Abagnale Jr
Frank Abagnale Jr, famous thief
Fortune
Immortalized by Steven Spielberg and Leonardo Di Caprio in 2002's Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale Jr is one of the most celebrated con men in the world.
Indeed, Frank Abagnale was a cunning criminal, conman, impostor and check forger who later became an American security consultant. During his criminal era, he assumed many identities, including a doctor, airline pilot, lawyer and even a prison consultant – mind you, all this before he turned the age of 21. When arrested, he confessed to his crimes and assisted the government in improving its ability to detect fraudsters.
Today, he continues to work closely with the FBI and other security agencies through his Abagnale & Associates security firm.
5. Albert Spaggiari
Albert Spaggiari
AFP Photo
Photographer by day and thief by night.
While his first criminal act involved robbing a jewelry store because he wanted to give his girlfriend a diamond ring, Albert Spaggiari became famous after organizing a break-in at the Société Générale bank in Nice, France. He handpicked a gang of experienced thieves, including Gaby Anglade, to assist with his criminal plans and they made their way to the bank via the sewers to dug a tunnel under its vault. Then, during the Bastille Day festivities on July 16, 1976, they broke into the vault and stole 60 million francs. His team even had a picnic on the bank floors while emptying the safety deposit boxes.
After being caught, he devised a clever and dangerous escape plan during his trial that involved distracting the judge with a coded document, jumping out of a window, and escaping on a motorcycle. He lived out the remainder of his life on the run, probably in Argentina, after undergoing plastic surgery.
6. Jesse James
Jesse James, legendary criminal
Shutterstock
Over the years, many novels, movies and documentaries have attempted to retell the life of legendary Western gangster, Jesse James.
But who was this renegade, anyway?
Jesse James and his brother, Frank, were the kids of a preacher. They enrolled in the Confederate militia during the Civil War before they began their life in crime. They were only teenagers when they started to rob stores, banks, and trains throughout the southern states. The duo then formed the James Younger gang, causing mayhem in every town they visited. A reward was placed for Jesse James, but a criminal acquaintance, Robert Ford, killed him in 1882 at the age of 34.
While he has since been portrayed as a folk hero and a rebel, particularly in the American south, James was a coldhearted killer who robbed banks with zero remorse. As the old saying goes, sometimes the simplest explanation is the most correct. One more thing: He did not fake his own death. The outlaw's exhumed remains were verified by a team of scientists in 1995 to deduce that it was indeed James in his grave.
7. Bill Mason
Johnny Weissmuller thief
Johnny Weissmuller Official Website
If you can steal from Truman Capote, you have certainly made a name for yourself. And that’s what Bill Mason did.
During his life, he completed a string of high-profile jewelry heists across the US and like many of his peers, Mason started his long career in crime young. He made a living out of attending glamorous high society get-togethers, schmoozing with the assorted guests - and then robbing them blind. To put a dollar figure on how much he stole, Mason’s efforts amounted to the tune of $35 million. His victims included Phyllis Diller, Armand Hammer, Truman Capote and other high-profile individuals. Mason documented his story in a 2004 memoir, Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief, where he also explains how he returned the Olympic gold medal he stole from Johnny Weissmuller (above) out of guilt.
He also had a knack for planning robberies and remained a fugitive for nearly five years. Despite the huge number and value of items he stole, he only served a few years in prison.
8. Veerappan
Veerappan
Sri Lanka Mirror
Another divisive figure, Munisamy Veerappan Mallar - known more commonly as just Veerappan - was an Indian bandit who spent nearly 30 years evading police capture, before his death at the hands of a Special Task Force in 2004.
He carried out his criminal activities from the lush forests of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is estimated that he killed nearly ten dozen Indians, poached thousands of elephants and smuggled tons of ivory and sandalwood. He killed numerous police officers and anti-poachers, as well as local civilians he suspected of being police informants during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Veerappan also kidnapped and ransomed several high-profile political and cultural figures. Although thousands attended his funeral, he remains a highly controversial figure in India.
9. Vincenzo Perugia
Vincenzo Perugia, famous thief
PBS
Vincenzo Perugia was perhaps the greatest art thief of the 20th century. Many people will make this case, especially considering how simple his magnum opus was.
Perugia managed to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris. In fact, he worked at the Louvre and did not even have an elaborate plan. He hid in the museum one night and removed the Mona Lisa from the wall. That’s it! How ingenious, indeed.
Perugia hid it in his clothes and walked past an unguarded area quite easily. However, he did get caught when he tried to sell the painting two years later. Perugia spent just one year in prison, before serving in the Italian Army during the First World War; considered a hero in Italy, he died in 1925 of a heart attack at the age of 44.Of course, Perugia has been an inspiration for many other thieves as a total of four times the legendary artwork has been stolen or attempted to be taken by unscrupulous individuals.
10. Natwarlal
Natwarlal, most famous thief and forger
MensXP
An attorney by trade, Natwarlal was an Indian fraudster, forger, and con man who became famous for his prison escapes and high-profile crimes. He duped hundreds of businesses, banks, and small shops for millions of rupees using a variety of aliases.
A talented forger, his signature trick was posing as a government official and selling the Taj Mahal to gullible foreigners (as well as other Indian landmarks such as the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Parliament House of India). He had used 50 different names, forged documentation, and multiple impersonations to make this happen.
He escaped from jail numerous times during his distinguished career, including in 1996 when, aged 84 and wheelchair-bound, he somehow managed to evade his captors at a New Delhi railway station - the last time he was seen in public.
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