The Crime Book

343

OSCAR PISTORIUS

14 February 2013

The South African paralympic

sprinter fired four shots through a

closed bathroom door at his house

in Pretoria, and killed his girlfriend,

Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius

claimed that he thought there was

an intruder and acted to defend

himself and Steenkamp. The

prosecution appealed a conviction

of “culpable homicide”, and he

was found guilty of murder in 2015.

The brevity of Pistorius’s six-year

sentence shocked both prosecutors

and women’s rights activists – the

minimum for murder is normally

15 years in South Africa. In August

2016, a plea to increase the length

of the sentence was rejected.

See also: Dr Crippen 216

■ O.J. Simpson 246–51

DEREK WHITE

2014–16

A Canadian driver on the NASCAR

• National Association for Stock
  Car Auto Racing – circuit, White
  was part of a £396 million tobacco
  smuggling ring. White, of Mohawk
  descent, lived in Kahnawake,
  Montreal, and much of the tobacco
  brought from North Carolina was
  sold on this and other Indian
  Reserves, to avoid the high taxes
  that the Canadian government
  placed on tobacco sales. White
  was also involved in transporting
  tobacco over the border. Several
  other members of the smuggling
  ring were arrested, and White gave
  himself up in March 2016. He was
  suspended by NASCAR that April.
  See also: The Theft of the World
  Cup 37 ■ “Freeway” Rick Ross
  168–71

BOKO HARAM

14 April 2014

This militant Islamist group

abducted 276 schoolgirls from a

secondary school in the town of

Chibok, northeast Nigeria. The girls

were taken to insurgent territory

farther north. Around 70 of the girls

escaped or were released, but more

than 200 remain captive as

negotiations continue. Twenty-one

girls were released in a deal

brokered by the Red Cross and the

Swiss government, but conflicting

reports – all denied by officials –

claim that girls were either

exchanged for the release of Boko

Haram commanders held by the

government, or a large ransom.

See also: The Kidnapping of Patty

Hearst 188–89 ■ The Chowchilla

Kidnapping 190–95

BANGLADESH CENTRAL

BANK HEIST

5 January 2016

Founded in 1973, SWIFT – the

Society for Worldwide Interbank

Financial Telecommunication –

runs a closed computer network for

many of the world’s major banks to

transfer funds. In 2016, a group of

unknown hackers used the

identities of employees from

Bangladesh Central Bank (a SWIFT

member) to send dozens of illegal

transfer requests – totalling almost

£673 million – to foreign banks.

Many of the transfers were blocked

or recovered, but £64 million

vanished. Whether it was an inside

job or the work of ingenious hackers

remains unknown.

See also: The Société Générale

Bank Heist 44 ■ The Hatton

Garden Heist 58–59

found locked inside her room in

Perugia, Italy. Amanda Knox, her

American roommate, called the

police when she returned home and

found the door locked. Knox was

soon implicated in the murder – as

was her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele

Sollecito, and local criminal Rudy

Guede, whose bloody handprint

was discovered at the scene. All

three were convicted, but there

was little evidence linking Knox or

Sollecito to the murder. Knox also

claimed that she was manipulated

and physically intimidated by the

Italian police when they questioned

her. Knox spent close to four years

in an Italian jail. After a media

circus that lasted several years,

both Knox and Sollectio were

cleared. Guede remains in prison.

See also: Kirk Bloodsworth

242–43 ■ The Dreyfus Affair

310 –11

DIANA, HUNTRESS OF

BUS DRIVERS

August 2013

Clad in black, and wearing a blonde

wig, a middle-aged woman shot

and killed two bus drivers on two

consecutive days in Mexico’s

Ciudad Juàrez. An E-mail to a local

news agency, purportedly from

“Diana, Huntress of Bus Drivers”,

claimed responsibility for the

attacks. More than 100 women had

been raped, murdered, and left in

car parks or the desert after

boarding the city’s buses. “Diana”,

herself a victim, held the drivers

responsible, and saw the shootings

as a way to bring the killers to

justice. Despite searches, police in

Juàrez were unable to discover the

vigilante’s true identity.

See also: Phoolan Devi 46–47

■ Lizzie Borden 208–11

DIRECTORY

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